Rode Linga Longa yesty in a private group booking, up late sorting out bike after making dinner for the tribe. The front wheel from my Primal had been leaking at the valve stem and my attempt to seal it didn't work. It occurred to me that it must be air leaking past the rim tape. It's a Sun Ringle Duroc 40mm and I can't recall if I put the supplied tape on or it came like that from cyclingdeal, anyhoo I noticed a little line in the tape over one of the spoke holes, the tape is dimpled in from pressure on all of them but this one had a hairline split. So the air was escaping through there and the external side of the valve hole. Cool, replaced it with Gorilla tape and still had 50psi in the morning. While I was at it i might as well turn the rear tyre around the right way.
Wanted to try the 2.5 Assegai on my Fuel EX, but the trail conditions were so different from previous times it wasn't a good comparison. The extra volume of the 2.5WT/40mm rim combo certainly didn't hurt. Nice having wheels on another bike that are 100% compatible.
Got to LL and the trails are pretty torn up after 500 WAGE riders shredded the joint last weekend. Hadn't ridden for about 8 weeks and not at LL since September '19 and found myself struggling at times with the front wheel hanging up on the many rocks that have 'grown' now the soil around them has been worn away. Didn't do any pedal strikes though. Except the one on the back of my calf when my foot slipped off the pedal landing from a 1m drop, didn't keep my heels down properly. Was a real OH SHIT moment, going pretty fast but managed to keep it all together and get back on the pedal and not eat dirt. Not much blood from the pedal pin punctures, but quite bruised today.
Not riding much lately really detracted from my ride yesterday, had to pedal a bit through several sections where I would normally carry much more speed and get some air. Got leg cramps around midday and decided to retire before I binned it properly, have to go back to work tomorrow.
During the COVID restrictions the LL crew has been busy putting in some new, bigger features - way out of my league but a couple of the blokes in the group of 11 had the skill and balls to send it, and the huuuge step up/gap jump just after (not yet built in the vid below)