Stumpjumper Marathon 29'er SS

Built this up tonight, just in time for a the Sixth Annual Thanksgiving morning ride at Tussey Mountain in Rothrock State Forest near State College, PA.  Decidedly better built than the Gary Fishers, On-Ones, and the Salsas that recently preceded it (note the use of plural form) - we'll have to see how she rides. 

The Specialized features some nice tube-shaping, detailing, and perfect welds.

One seatstay goes all the way from the drops to the seattube thereby completely eliminating a weld and therefore a heat stress point.

The chainstays are over an inch shorter than the Salsa frames and it came with a large diameter Thomson setback seatpost.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Scouting is Fun

Thomas was recognized for selling the most popcorn in his Pack.  The patch is cool but he really wanted the real bow and arrow set that he also earned. 

The next morning our Pack picked up food for the local food bank in the Whittier neighborhood.  We filled up a pick-up truck load and dropped it off at the food bank.  While unloading our truck there were over a dozen other pick-up trucks rolling in from other scouts - pretty amazing.

The annual Scouting for Food one-day collection provides the vast majority of the food bank's food for the entire YEAR.

Selma RIP

After some spectacular riding the Selma has succumbed to the Frederick Watershed.

She took a little of me with her.

Some fond memories remain.

We'll send it back to the boys at Salsa and see what they say.  Unlike before, this one was largely pilot error.

New Frederick Science Center

Tonight was the Grand Opening for the new Frederick elementary science center. There was a big turnout for the planetarium shows and a number of other cool things to see.

This 55 gallon oil drum offers a very lucid illustration of where the oil ends up going.

Thomas uses a microscope

There was even a display featuring cycling.