The Bike dilemma continues....
On Tuesday of last week I joined Dave and The Redstone Cyclery crew for their weekly ride. Unfortunately, it was rainy the day before and Hall Ranch was a mess. We were able to ride up the first portion to the bench but the rest of the trail was a muddy and slick. I realized on the way up Bitterbrush trail that I missed mountain biking and that this was a new start for me. The "Green Hornet" (my Bontrager) handled beautifully. We turned around and rode back to the trail head where several of the riders were discussing trail maintenance and etiquette. Dave looked at me and said, we can talk about this over beers at Oskar's. Agreed!
Four of us peeled off and rode back towards Lyons while the rest continued their conversation. On the way back, we ended up doing some hill climbing off of Red Gulch and Pyrite way. Two of the guys started doing interval training up the hill while Dave talked to me about the big trail plans for Heil Ranch and Lyons. I was just trying to breathe and keep up! We made it to the top to an overlook where we could see where the new Heil Ranch trail would lead to Lyons. This is a VERY big deal for Lyons!
A nice ride down the hill and some back rode riding lead us to Lyons High school. Dave recommended that we ride up to the "L" on the mountain before we headed over to Oskar's. OK. I made it halfway before my legs decided to quit working. The rest made it to the top and back down. We rode through the dark over to Oskar's for some beer and food. Mostly just beer. I'm excited to get to know more Lyons folks. It's very easy to turn into a hermit when you live in the hills. All in all, I think I did OK keeping up being that this was my second ride in three years.
I took a couple days off from the bike and decided I would ride again on Saturday after I replaced both tires. Dave set me up with new tires Saturday morning and I rode Hall that afternoon. It was good to go on a ride by myself. The sky was pretty dark with clouds so there were not a ton of people on the trail, which was really nice. It was easy for me to get frustrated with myself not being able to get up some of the rock obstacles without having to walk the bike up. I had to keep reminding myself that this was only my third ride of the season. The Green Hornet didn't disappoint again. I made the whole loop and then decided to ride down the Antelope trail into Lyons instead of the Bitterbrush. On the way, I stopped by a guy walking his bike down the trail. He had blown the bead on one of his tires. Not something you can fix easily on the trail. Three rolling turns later, I ran into a herd of 12+ mule deer on the trail. They looked mangy and unhealthy. There are definitely too many of them around.
A nice ride through Apple Valley concluded the loop to Lyons. Not a drop of rain had fallen on me and my head felt as clear as the air tasted. On the spin back to my truck at the trail head, I thought more about what I should do about a new bike. Turner 5 Spot or Flux or something completely else??... The Green Hornet started to ride a little strange. I looked down at my rear wheel and noticed that it was trailing a little off. Luckily I was within a mile of my truck. When I put the bike on the truck, I tested the spoke tension on the rear wheel. Lots of loose spokes.
Dave is going to true the wheel up for me, not a big deal but it gave me new mountain bike fever even more. While I was in the shop Dave mentioned that he was selling his flux and getting an Intense Spider 29. A bike with 29" wheels instead of the standard 26" wheels. I had heard about 29"ers but had not given them much thought until now. Bigger wheels = smoother ride. It's like comparing monster truck wheels to skateboard wheels. You definitely feel a lot more bumps with skateboard wheels!
What to do now?! A 29er could be much better for a tall bloke like me. It doesn't seem like its a fad. Maybe I should look at the Intense Spider or Turner Sultan. No matter what, I have a lot of riding to do on my Bontrager before I buy anything. It sounds like XL frames are hard to come by right now. I'm sure I'll be talking to Dave a lot more about this in the coming weeks. This week I'll be missing the shop ride on Tuesday as I will be out of town for work. That damn work thing always gets in the way!!!
