Can I play with sadness?

Mang, I remember a time when I used to worry about proper capitalization in my blerhg post titles...

Mebbe this has been a typical winter.  Perhaps my desire to get my new bike fever into the mountains and the uncooperative weather is just doing what it do.  Dunno.  It's killing me tho.  Every single week, staring at the forecast, asking locals on the ground what the trail conditions are like...

Only to find out that mebbe some trails facing a certain direction on the compass are okay on Thursday but rain and sads on the way, so...

To top it all off, I got other things to do that are eventually going to take precedence over getting the JaBronson to the big hills of WNC.

Firstly, I must emit a shout-out to Maxxis for being such a benevolent Dick supporter and for still seeing some value in being a part of what I do, regardless of how little I might be doing in 2018.  Mebbe they're playing the long game and thinking about what an incredible 50+ year I'm going to have in 2019.  Anyways, so much thank.  I'd still be running Maxxis if I was a normal person, but I'd probably be less apt to try new things.

But secondly, and about that last part, "new things."  Yeth, I already have a Rekon 29 X 2.6, and yeth, I've been riding it for a little while now.  It's the 120 TPI version with a 3C Maxx Terra rubber compound.  I chose it because higher TPI means it's more supple (higher TPI conforms better to the terrain, offering a smoother, more comfortable ride while reducing the weight of the tire) and 3C means "more traction."

BUT...

They also offer the Rekon 2.6 in a 60 TPI version (more durable) that has a dual compound (lower rolling resistance and increased cornering grip) AND (and that's a big AND) it's incredibly similar in many ways to the Ardent 2.4 I've been in love with for years and years now.  The Ardent also being a dual compound, 60 TPI tire that weighs within 10 grams of the 60 TPI Rekon.

I've never had a flat Ardent 2.4 front tire.

So, fever dreams of snakes in my bed trying to deal with the internal conflict of selecting the EXACT tire for my purposes... and trying to figure out just what my "purposes" are right now.  I mean, the racer boi in me thinks the light weight (80 gram difference) and superior traction should take precedence, but the paranoia-addled thinky part of me likes heavy tires and is comforted in the knowledge that a similarly designed tired has NEVER let me down.

And then add in the fact that while I feel like I need to be getting out on these two options to figure out which suits me best whilst also wanting to ride the JaBronson in the mountains and enjoying the break that the squish and gears were intended to provide and feeling as if the weekends are quickly passing by as I stare at the weather while also trying to take into consideration that I don't wanna contribute to destroying Pisgah trails by being a dumbass and rushing things...

And don't even get me started on the Forekaster that I'm gonna try on the rear because... options?

Dammit.

Getting caught out on a dry day with a tire designed for "loose or wet conditions" sounds ten times better than riding in Pisgah for eight hours in the rain on a tire designed with "hard pack, loose over hard" conditions in mind.

Watch this be the driest "season" in Pisgah ever.