writing a response to solobreak's trolling and baiting i felt that i started to get a bit too deep for a comment...
so I'm moving it to a post alone... initial thread and stimulus for response is here.
I've seen fads in the mt bike. I have one failed step in the evolution (high pivot URT full suspension).
29" wheeled bikes are not a fad. This I decree.
It is a move to a consistent and ideal wheel size that the Roadies figured out many years before.
The fact that 20 years of 26" wheels chewing up the trails and making nice 26" wheel sized holes just makes riding around here that much less fun for me on a 26" bike.
If I had skills I could make excuses. I don't. I'm okay with not riding the mt bike at the moment. So precious little time to pedal that I'd rather not spend it in the car at the moment driving to ride. Driving to race is different it seems. Driving to race Cyclocross makes sense, strange as it may seem.
Do I miss mt biking? Yes. Honestly I do.
I miss seeing the seasons change along a familiar stretch of trail. I miss riding the same section and noting the progression of understory growth in the spring, and the transition through the sticky heat of summer into the night riding in Hunting season.
I identified first with mt biking. There is no denying it. I was never good in the rock gardens, but in the sand, on the climbs, when getting traction out of a marginal section was required I could do it. I could see the line in most things other than the rocks. I never felt comfortable with them. And that maybe explains my discovery and affinity for cyclocross.
It is what it is.
I will always remember the climb up the fireroad above Ashland OR in 1990. We did it a handful of times during my class down there at United Bicycle Institute. For the life of me I can't recall the single track downhill, other than, it was downhill and it went by way faster than the climb. But the climb. An hour on those 30 pound rigid mt bikes of ours. That's what sticks in my mind.
The bermy woops at Highland Rec area, the sand at Ft Custer and the rolling trails through the beaver fells.
Meeting Kentaro in Ithaca for some night riding on my way home from Central. We'd start in the light, work through the pine trails and turn the lights on for the rest of the ride.
I've tried connecting to the mt bike trails here in New England the way I have in other places of the country. But for naught. Sure part of it is the wheel size, but in reality, that is probably a smaller component than I allow it to be. And even with the perfect well fitting 29r dualie, I might not ride it much more than my Adroit or Mantra Carbon.
It is undeniable that I look like a freak on a bike with 700c wheels. Put me on something with smaller hoops is just insanely silly. Just looks wrong if nothing else.
I ride, and it is good. Where, on what? Does it matter?
maybe not
heddwch
G
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3 comments:
I didn't say 29'r were or would be a fad, I said they didn't change your old bike one bit. If it was nice before, then it is still nice. If you can't keep up, then find slower riding partners, or ride by yourself.
The trails suffer from overuse and people who insist on riding when it's too wet. The NE trails were not that bad 25 years ago. Same as the west coast. The trails in Malibu that were all smooth in the 80s are all heavy ruts now. I would not be surprised if you went back to Michigan or the PacNW that you would find the same situation.
It's not much different than motocross was in the 70s. Bikes used to be less costly and riding them was challenging because they were not as advanced. Then they grow more sophisticated and they get faster and faster and courses have to get rougher and rougher in order to make it challenging. If you're old and slow your best bet is to ride with like-minded people your own age, on trails you can handle. Or just ride the road, but it's nice to get away from cars once in a while.
Solo you didn't just say mtn bikes destroy the trails did you? Holy shit batman...that is f'n crazy talk.
29ers are nice for lots of reasons. I think they make a lot of sense for us cross racers who love that same feel as our cross bike while riding in the woods but need the control and suspension a mtn bike offers. Especially on the east coast.
The trails get those suspension ruts its true. But other than that the trails we ride are harder because we have bikes that we can actually ride the stuff like rocks, roots etc. Its not that the trails get chewed up and become harder to ride. They are already hard to ride. The trails on the east coast are insane. But you have to get used to them. Change your style and decide if you like it. I am almost at the point where I enjoy it. It has taken me 7 years.
And being smaller is helpful. I look at technical trail riding a lot like surfing. When I first learnt to surf looking down the face of a wave was terrifying. Then you adjust and realize its not that bad. But rocks and roots are different. There is no soft landing if you endo on a rock drop off.
Mtn biking is not for everyone. Part of it is finding the right place to ride. Not everyone likes riding 10 miles in 2 hours. That can royally suck ass if you are used to doing 10 miles in half an hour...
Elements of truth, all of it.
I would love to get back to Mt Biking. At some point when priorities change... Heck I actually thought 24HOGG wasn't that bad. Sure, I had to walk a bunch of the technical stuff but I wasn't alone in having to do that.
Tire pressures (chip's recent post about pressure drop) probably would change my riding experience dramatically.
For now, to get away from the cars I have the bike path (well at least when it is back in operation) and lots of riding around here is lightly traveled by cars, at least compared to metro boston.
Chip, I'm with Solo on the trails thing. Not so much wear but that's not a wrong description. Trails have changed. The 26 wheels have worn nice gaps in all the rocks and take me mountain biking on my high pressure tires and short travel fork and my name will be tomstone. Cause my wheel seems to find them spots with high regularity, my weight distribution and mass don't help much either.
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