Bad Ellsworth!

I have two bikes that I’m really excited to own and ride; one is a Surly 1x1 and the other is an Ellsworth Truth. No two bikes could be more different from one another and as it turns out so different to ride. The 1x1 is like a happy lumbering drunk that just wants to get where he’s going with out a lot of trouble or complications and the Ellsworth is a schizophrenic meth head that wants to get where he’s going yesterday and could care less if he hurts someone (me) along the way. Also, as most things, if one gets more attention the other gets jealous and acts out in some way. Well as all 3 of you that read this blog know I had recently been on a very special trip with the 1x1 and leading up to that trip had been spending a good amount of my riding time on said bike so there would soon be a price to pay in the form of learning how to ride the Ellsworth all over. Again going against better judgment I decided to do the Down Town Trail yesterday and give the new guy, Mike, in town a tour of the system. Earlier in the day I had been to the eye doctor and had a retinal scan so for the better part of the day I was trying to avoid focusing on anything at all due to the drops in my eyes to dilate my pupils for the scan, a big reason to not do this ride along with the fact that I hadn’t been on this bike or the DTT in about 5 weeks. Short story long, the neglected Ellsworth misbehaved and acted out first by getting a pinch flat 10 minutes after I got going but no worries because I use Stanes sealant in my tubeless and it fixed itself, then on a fast technical climb I buried the front wheel and endoed but landed on my feet and recovered nicely, but later and near the end of my ride it threw a temper tantrum on a washed out decent by rolling the front tire and tossed me to the ground, down a hill, landing on top of me, beating me as it and I slid down the hill until it tried to lose me by grabbing onto a tree with it’s saddle and seat post but I was able to hold on to some part of the frame and pull myself back up the hill and on to the trail where I attempted to inflate the tire but to no avail leaving me with only one option, to walk 3 miles to the car pushing the bike while holding the front wheel off the ground as to not damage the rim. This gave me time to have a good talk to the Truth and explain why I’d been paying so much attention to the 1x1 and that I couldn’t let this behavior go unpunished and that I was going to put it in “time out” by locking it to my car over night until it calmed down and had time to think about it’s actions. I'll buy it some new tires and things will be back to normal in no time.