Lonely Neglected Cyclocross bike looking for companionship

either turn your head or the digital device sideways - that's the ceiling on the right

This bike has been talking to me all winter, wanting to hit the road, hit the trails, go anywhere besides hanging from the garage ceiling like it's been doing for a couple months. I've been trying to ignore it.

You might notice in the picture above that the handlebars are pointing left a bit, while the tire is straight. I discovered it was crooked the last time I took the bike out for a ride sometime in December, but hung it up without fixing it.  During my only crash at the final cross race in November - with less than half a lap to go on a snow covered course - I landed pretty hard while trying to get out of the way of one of the guys about to lap me and must've bent it then. That's a lesson learned - from now on I'm going to make those guys work to get around me. Unless, of course, if I'm going really slow and should get out of their way. Which is normally the case.

Well I finally heard this bike's pleas, got the handlebar pointing straight ahead and took it out a week or two ago Sunday. (editor's note: had this post halfway written for the last week or more.) Started out as a little street ride with my wife. She's battling a torn ACL and had just received the Doc's ok to ride. After a short ride on the street together, I veered off at Albi and rode down the trail to Aubrey White Parkway to Downriver and back home. The off road portion of the trip was a little iffy, being a mixture of almost dry dirt, mud, puddles, snow and ice. But it felt good. Looking forward to some dry trails in the not too distant future. I hope.