I rolled out of bed real slowly this morning, but did manage to make it down to Bluemont Park for 'cross practice. Brad and Ryan showed up and we rode a few laps together. Mainly I tried to get rid of the stutter step that has been plaguing my getting back on the bike. Well, after about five minutes of work, it was gone! I can't say that I've mastered all the skills in the DVD, but I've improved quite a bit on the remount. The simple idea of trying to get back to pedaling ASAP and to bring your leg through with the intention of hitting the pedals got the point across to me. I did the drill AHM describes in the DVD and it did wonders.

Last night I hit the jackpot on the bikes section of Craig's List! I was able to get a workshop quality repair stand and truing stand along with an array of cone wrenches, spoke keys, and a set of cable cutters. Normally I'd never be able to or even try to buy such nice equipment, but I picked them up from a guy in Glen Echo Park for a great price. He was an older dude with a lot of experience building wheels and maintaining bikes. I found him just as he was cleaning out his workshop. Really, just a terrific deal. I got lucky on this one.


The Park Tool PRS-6. It's a discontinued version and the only real stike against this one is the shortness of the stand. This is easily rememdied once I get a garage to work in.




The Park Tool TS-2. It's a professional quality truing stand second only to the TS-3. It will get the job done for years to come. Hopefully I can learn to build wheels.