Bike camp & birthday wheels

Flying on her new Specialized Myka. 

Though already half over, July has been eventful, encapsulating bike camp in Waterton Canyon and a double digit birthday. For good or bad, bike camp happened during an especially rainy week in an abnormally rainy year, so big sister is now a seasoned veteran mud rider.

In the midst of bike camp, she made the jump from 24-inch to 26-inch wheels, via a slightly early birthday bike. The 13-inch frame of a 2012 Specialized Myka Sport is the perfect entry to the world of high quality, big people mountain bike parts. After I performed a quick rebuild, the Myka now features a 2x9 Deore drivetrain, Avid BB5 disc brakes, wide 26" tires, and a Rockshox Recon Gold 100mm suspension fork.

The girls each on new-to-them bikes. 

I decided after she toughed out the first few rain soaked days of bike camp without complaint, that she was due for the bigger bike. Her old bike, a Specialized Hotrock 24" has served us well, but its gearing was not ideal for conditions, and had begun to look a bit small in proportion to her rapidly growing limbs.

Soaked but smiling after the first epic ride of camp. 

She was particularly proud of how muddy her legs were. 

I sewed a tiny framepack to help with the load. 

The Myka will need a larger framepack. 

Friend to amphibians. 

Skipping rocks is an important skill to master. 

The Cateye logged 56 miles of trail over five days. She said she could have gone a lot farther. 

After she figured out that the bigger bike could do things that her old bike couldn't, it was an instant hit. It didn't hurt its popularity that Lael also rides a black Specialized bike. She was especially amazed at the ability of the Rockshox Recon to both smoothe the trail and improve control in a way the mostly ornamental RST fork on her Hotrock simply can't do. In all, she's faster and more confident on the Myka, though there is still much to learn.

Packing material shenanigans.