Sunday, April 26, 2009

Mountain Biking Silliness

Marin County; where it all began. Long ago on these fabled hills, bikers had had enough with skinny tires, skinny top tubes, and skinny roads. They craved the hills, wide trails, wide tires (wide quads?). They craved a progression.
And then there was Mike T. A guy who likes to tinker on bikes, doesn't have a ton of income to burn but wants to give this mountain biking thing a try. 
And then there was the Recyclery. A really sweet bicycle rescue operation in San Rafael that happens to have HUGE sales on some bikes that look like there next stop was here. Do you see where this story is going.... A few weeks back I bought a moderate heap. It's an old GT hardtail that is basically a rigid because of the terribleness of the front fork. Regardless of the late 90's styling, I was determined to make it roll. But how, you might be asking? With as few gears as possible!!! Sounds like a dumb idea, right? Well, about 2 hours ago I agreed. That was the 10th time I had to dismount my bike and walk up a hill that would have been totally ridable with a 21 speed bike. As I cursed my way up another hill, the views of the Bay, Larkspur and endless Redwoods siphoned all of the single-speed hatred out of my veins. It was still fun, and I think if I had gears, I'd still have been going REALLY slow (it was steep), so who cares?! At the top of the climb (hoo-koo-e-koo trail and blithedae ridge) I met another nice biker who, by coincidence, lives about 4 blocks from me. He helped me navigate my way down the trail (so I didn't have to look like a doof at every intersection with my map) and the ride was stellar. With sore muscles and my brain thinking of what random part to get on the bike next, I'm going to go stretch on my new crash pad (woot woot!) and eat a lot of food. I'll put some pic's up soon, but I need to have my camera to do that.... 


don't be a tool,


Mike