~ merry making ~

~:~ ~:~ ~:~ ~:~

On Saturday, Elizabeth and I went on a big wonderful hike in the Owyhees in the Wilson Creek area. I was particularly proud of myself that I was able to successfully navigate us to the trailhead without too many wrong turns. About three weekends ago, Josh and I engaged in a big mountain bike adventure in the Owyhees, which included a bit of riding the Wilson Creek area. Due to the rugged and unorganized features of the trail that we rode, we assumed that we had failed to locate the actual Wilson Creek trail. As such, prior to embarking this weekend to the area, Josh recommended that I take Elizabeth to this other trailhead, which we were certain would be the real Wilson Creek trail. It was not. Elizabeth and I spent a few minutes hiking on some singletrack until it branched into an ATV road which ultimately took us to the main road in a very roundabout way. I tried to explain that this is all a part of the Owyhee experience...uncharted and unmarked, with different makeshift trails and ATV roads intersecting everywhere, and the constant probability of getting lost. During this part of the hike, we encounterd some horse riders who directed us to the "real" Wilson Creek trail, which was the trail that Josh and I had ridden bikes on. Apparently, it forms a great big loop. Elizabeth and I navigated ourselves to that proper trail and had this glorious hike through some amazing Owyhee scenery, which you may view in the photos above. During the hike, we saw a big lizzard and had a number of really gross and fascinating conversations about what she's been learning in her anatomy classes.

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In other news, on Friday, I spontaneously acquired a new mountain bike. To make a long and involved story "short," Josh was looking at this Stumpjumper hardtail last Thursday and felt that it would be a better bike for me than the HiFi that I've been riding. He had developed a theory that the HiFi was too much bike for me and that I should ride a bike that centered my weight lower to the ground to increase stability. What is more, this Stumpjumper has v-brakes and not disc brakes, which was particularly exciting for me. So, it was absolutely random that he called me on Thursday and planted the seed of this new bike in my head. I let the seed take root over night as I pondered and researched it. Initially, I wasn't enthusiastic about the idea, but on Friday, I took my lunch break and went to the bike shop to see this new bicycle and it became an agonizing decision for me. I was not at all concerned about the money, as the only reason that I work is so that I can afford those things that make up a lifestyle that brings me joy and happiness, however I was concerned about the prospect of buying yet another bike that wouldn't be perfect for me. There is an agonzing uncertainty when it comes to trying to find the right bike. And bikes aren't the sort of thing that one can purchase, ride around for a bit, decide it's not the right bike, and return for a different bike.

On Friday, as I was test-riding the Stumpjumper, it was apparent that I would not be afraid of the bike. I have written extensively about my strong disc brakes that lack proper modulation and how I exist in a constant state of fear with regards to these brakes. And this fear has been justified and reinforced by the simple and plain fact that I have crashed a number of times on this bike as a direct result of these brakes and the fear that they have caused. I understand the concept that one must have correct form and skill with regards to using one's mountain bike, but at the same time, I feel that the mountain bike should be a user-friendly tool to enable me to have fun on the trail rather than being an obstacle to overcome. And so, I decided to get the Stumpjumper. Even though it is a "downgrade" in terms of going from full suspension back to a hardtail, I decided to sacrifice cushy suspension in favor of not being afraid.

The pro-con list that developed during this decision-making process was rather extensive and complex. In the end, the decision became easy when I imagined riding my favorite trails and no longer being afraid. And I am confident that I made the right decision in getting the Stumpjumper. On Sunday, I had the opportunity to take her out on a ride. Josh and I did some old favorites, Sidewinder and Shane's Loop. The first point to make is that I haven't had so much fun on a mountain bike ride for months and months as I did on this ride. The difference was palpable. I also haven't ridden as fast, both uphill and downhill, for months. I felt so comfortable and relaxed on the bike, what with the sheer lack of fear, and I cannot begin to articulate how CONFIDENT I felt! For the first time in what seems like a LONG time, I felt in control. The ride on the downhill felt tight, controlled, smooth, seamless, nimble, stable, and incredible. I was able to let go of the brakes and just fly down the trail, knowing that I could slam on the brakes at any given moment if necessary. Whereas on the HiFi, I always made a concerted effort to keep my speed at a controlled pace because I was concerned that if I had to brake suddenly that I would fly over the handlebars. And this, I feel, is the primary advantage of weak v-brakes...being able to let loose yet still be in control. What is more, a primary difficulty that I had with the HiFi and downhill form was the concept of putting weight onto the front wheel. As I was afraid of flying over the handlebars, you know, because I flew over the handlebars and crashed several times, I would try to keep my weight as far off of the front wheel as I could. Proper downhill form requires weight on the front wheel to ensure stability and traction, which can feel very counter-intuitive if one is afraid of flying over the front of the bike. On the Stumpjumper, my lack of fear of crashing over the handlebars allowed me to comfortably put weight onto the front wheel during my downhill, which increased my feeling of stability and control. All in all, the experience was amazing and to further my feeling that this was the right decision is the generocity and understanding of the bike shop bosses who let me basically walk away with the new Stumpjumper in a quasi exchange for the HiFi.

Posted by jennifer at 8:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

~ brakes for the lightweight rider ~

I have experienced what can only be described as a moment of pure genius in the form of a great epiphany regarding bicycle brakes.

As you may recall, I purchased a new bicycle this spring and the strong disc brakes made me consistently feel on the verge of propelling myself over the handlebars. After a number of crashes that resulted from the front brake locking up, I did some research about the possibility of "adjusting" the brakes to make them weaker. The modulation on the brakes was minimal - - if I depressed the brake lever a milimeter, I would brake some, and if I depressed the brake lever two milimeters, I would come to a screetching halt. After not having any luck with finding information on how to adjust the modulation on the brakes, I entered an online mountain biking forum and posed the question to some seasoned mountain bikers. Despite my over-articulation of the problem, my lack of mechanical knowledge most likely made the online dudes assume that I didn't know what I was describing. They insinuated that I didn't know the first thing about riding a bicycle and said that I needed to learn to control how much power I was exerting onto my brakes.

Since then, I have been reverting to riding beginner trails in order to "get used" to my strong brakes with no modulation. This has had varying degrees of success and has taken a lot of the joy out of biking for me. Perhaps there is something wrong with me, but I tend to not have much fun when I am overwhelmed with terror. As I have been going through the process of "getting used to my effed up brakes," I have been wondering about the responses that I got from those online mountain bike dudes. At the moment, I am wondering if perhaps THEY have never actually ridden a bicycle, and I have half an inclination to send them a piece of my mind. And I'm not going to because I expect that they would just make fun of me again.

As I see mountain biking, it is an activity that involves a lot of multitasking. When one is successfully mountain biking, one is constantly engaging in a variety of activities. One is ensuring the proper form, positioning, and balance upon one's bicycle. One is adjusting that form, position, and balance depending upon the conditions of the trail. One is always looking to the future, ahead on the trail, anticipating upcoming moves and reactions. One is being aware of other lifeform entities on the trail that might provoke the necessity of ninja-like reponses. And behind all of this, one must have an intuitive sense of the physics involved in mountain biking. Mountain biking is not, as opposed to what those online mountain biking assholes were implying, merely an exercise in using one's brakes. Brake usage is one of many many facets to the mountain biking experience, and while it is true that one must have good control over one's brakes, one must have control over the entire operation of the bicycle. There is so much going on with mountain biking that it is ridiculous to have to exert so much of one's mental energy on one's brakes, making sure to depress the brake lever one milimeter instead of two - - such focus on the brakes not only requires one to take one's focus away from other aspects of the mountain biking experience, but it also makes mountain biking much less fun. And I ask you, what is the point of mountain biking if it is not fun?

The process of "getting used to my effed up brakes" has seemed like an exercise in futility, as I have continued to crash over and over and over. Slowly, I have been able to understand that the fault is not entirely my own. Granted, there has been plenty of rider errors involved, but I firmly believe that much of the rider error has been the ultimate result of me riding in a state of tense unease and fright, rather than calm and relaxed as is important in mountain biking. Nevertheless, I have been extremely frustrated that there is no "adjustment" to make on disc brakes. Part of the problem in this experience is my lack of alternatives. The market is saturated with disc brakes and it is near-to-impossible to find a full suspension bike with v-brakes anymore. Also, my particular bike has a specific geometry that is prohibitive to installing a v-brake compatible fork. So, while I have longed for the weaker v-brakes on my old hardtail bike, my options have been limited to simply getting different disc brakes. And I have had zero interest in that option.

In a sense, I understand why disc brakes might be popular with some people. However, the reasoning behind disc brakes does not apply to my situation. If disc brakes are ideal in wet locations, that rationale is voided for my riding in the parched desert. If disc brakes are ideal for people who have trouble getting enough braking power from v-brakes, that rationale is voided because I have never had too little braking power with my v-brakes. Disc brakes are heavy and expensive and they make all kinds of horrible squealing noises, yet if one mentions to 99% of the mountain biking population one's favor for v-brakes, one will face a barrage of ridicule.

Despite the total lack of adjustment properties to disc brakes, Josh took up the mission of fixing my brakes, and after consulting with some bike mechanics, carved some deep grooves into my brake pads. With my limited understanding of the way that disc brakes work, the flat and smooth surface of the brake pads grab onto the rotor, so the act of destroying the surface of the pads was aimed at reducing the pads' ability to grab onto the rotor, thereby reducing braking power. This worked well and has made a big difference in my feeling on the verge of flying over the handlebars, however, because this is apparently an unheard of procedure (trying to lessen one's braking power), Josh was fairly conservative in his destroying of the brake pads.

So then, about a month ago, I was riding along one of the easiest stretches of trail on the Boise front. For whatever reason, possibly the knowledge that I was riding on an easy section of trail, I wasn't paying complete attention to what I was doing. Randomly, as I was riding over a hump, I grabbed my brakes hard and flipped up and over. This was by far the more beautiful crashing experience, as I flew upside down farther than I ever have before. And it was absolutely and completely 100% my fault that I crashed. As I have been rehabilitating my knee, doing less dangerous activities like road biking, I have been pondering this crash quite a bit, reinforcing to myself over and over the importance of paying full attention to what one is doing when mountain biking. At the same time, I remember very distinctly how quickly and securely my front brake immediately locked up. And I know that I would have crashed if I had had weaker v-brakes, because I simply deployed my brakes when I absolutely should not have, but still.

Since all of this crashing started, I've begun to develop a relatively high level of anxiety with regards to more intermediate and advanced trails. For example, there is this one section of Trail Four that, as it turns to the left, is sandy and washed out, with ruts and a washboard effect, and is off-camber and slopes towards a cliff. And I have vehemently avoided riding on this trail at all costs because of how terrified I was feeling about it. Just by thinking about riding on that section of trail, with the fear of my brakes, I would develop such a high level of anxiety that I would feel sick to my stomach. Which is a good example of how fear can take the fun out of mountain biking, because I cannot tell you how many numerous times I have ridden down that section of trail with absolutely no problems.

The other day, while Josh and I were doing some maintenance on my bike, Josh removed the front brake pads and proceeded to further destroy their surface with the intent to weaken them a lot more. By the time that he was done, the front brake was so weak that the wheel could still move with the front brake fully engaged. And this was exactly the way that I wanted it to be. Yesterday, I went on a mountain bike ride with these new wonderfully crappy disc brakes, and there was not a single moment when I felt the possibility of flying over the bars. Even as I was riding down some moderately steep terrain, I was able to brake like it was normal and all was perfect! I cannot begin to articulate how amazingly relieved and happy I am about this! My front brake is weak and crappy and I feel that I can live again, finding the joy again in mountain biking!

It has taken me this long in this blog to get to the flash of pure genius that I experienced. As I was riding down the mountain, employing my brakes in a way that was comfortable to me, I was pondering how I simply don't need strong brakes. Period. Even with my weakened brakes, I was confident that I would be able to come to a full stop when needed. And as I was pondering this, I gave some thought to the size and weight of most mountain bikers in relation to myself. Now, even though there are quite a number of female mountain bikers, mountain biking remains a predominantely male sport. And males tend to be bigger and weigh more than females. And as I was considering this, I thought about how I weigh a little over 100 pounds. And since my bike weighs about 25 pounds, this means that I only weigh four times more than my bike. And if you add a few pounds for water and some gear, this means that there is only about 140ish pounds for my brakes to bring under control. Compare this to a male who weighs 160-180 (is that an averageish weight for a male???) with an average bike weight of 25-30 pounds, and suddenly the ratio of rider to bike weight is a lot greater, and there is a lot more total weight for the brakes. If you were to place Josh and I on equal weighted bikes and have us ride down a hill, there is absolutely no question that Josh would travel much faster than I. You know, gravity. In this way, it doesn't take a physics master to understand that the heavier a person is, the stronger braking power they will need. As far as I am aware, brakes are not modified based upon the weight of the rider. There are brakes, and they are installed onto bikes irregardless of rider weight. So, one can imagine that if one takes a pair of brakes that have been tested to stop a 200 pound rider, that they might be too strong for a rider who weighs half as much. Therefore, there ought to be brakes available for the lightweight rider. If I am any example of other lightweight riders, I am a female participating in a predominantly male sport, and I perhaps don't have the same kind of no-fear attitude as my male counterparts, and I can be prone to feeling more scared and discouraged (and, gasp!, might consider selling my bike and engaging in less dangerous recreational activities) if I suffer a series of crashes and terrifying moments. And I have to wonder, if there is so much activity involved in developing women's specific equipment for mountain biking, why is it that there appears to be no move for women's specific brakes designed for the lightweight rider?

Posted by jennifer at 10:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

~ back to the ol' drawing board ~

At present, I am working on a mental hump that I need to overcome. If memory serves you well, you should recall a mountain biking accident that I sustained a while ago. And how, since then, I've been a bit tense on the downhills. Well, if you comprehended what you read in my last post, you should have gathered that there are a few things about my new bike that need to be tweaked. The breaks, for one, and the pedals, for two. These two things, my tension on downhills and those items needing tweaking on my bike, were directly responsible for my having crashed, not once, not twice, but THREE times on my mountain bike ride yesterday. Unfortunately, the majority of my injury was mental, and not physical. Physical injury is relatively easy to heal, at least with proper treatment and whatever. Mental injury, not so much.

Anyway, I had resolved that I didn't want to discuss it at all, because I just feel so severely lamed out and disappointed in myself. But, these people around me seem to have noticed that I am not my normal sunshiny self, and have pressed to know what is the matter. Also, I think I just need to get it off my chest, as this might take some time to get over....and I know how important it is for all of you people out there to understand the minutia of my existence.

So, yesterday, I spent the whole day being excited about taking my bike out on her second ride. I rode one of my favorite routes, Shane's to Three Bears and down Central Ridge. The climb was great, I absolutely LOVE the bike.

FALL NUMBER ONE: I was riding down the trail that drops Shane's into Rocky Canyon Road. There's a sudden technical section of the trail that always gives me a hard time. I had to stop and walk my bike on this. When I got back on the bike, I couldn't get my right cleat clipped into the pedal. Shame on me, this was clearly taking up more of my concentration than was the trail. So, I tipped over and flew down the side of the mountain. This has always been one of my greatest fears. Amazingly, I sustained little damage. I scuffed up my right forearm and my right shin. I had landed in a sandy section with a lot of sage brush. I had sand everywhere, in my shoes, in my shorts, in my mouth. I was also wearing a lot of sunscreen and had been sweating, so the sand stuck to every inch of my person. Sand also got imbedded in my water bottles, which I found rather unpleasant. Also, the scratchy pokey sage brush...I am allergic to sage brush, and I've got tiny welts on my skin to demonstrate that fact. At the same time, for having fallen down the face of a mountain, I felt that I was pretty lucky to not be really hurt. I don't remember a thing from my physics classes, but based on my experience of mountain bike crashes, it seems that the steeper the grade is on which one crashes, the force of the impact is less. In this way, falling down the face of a mountain should not be among my greatest fears.

FALL NUMBER TWO: Despite my crash, I decided to continue with my planned ride. I stopped by a creek and attempted to wash away some of the dirt from my person, to no avail. So I proceeded to ride up Rocky Canyon Road, connect with Three Bears and come down. Now, there is a particularly gnarly, steep, and rocky section on the Three Bears trail coming down towards Boise. As I approached it, I felt my tension increasing, my body becoming more rigid and wary. I rode a bit of it and bailed. I stood there for several minutes, trying to get up the courage to try and ride it. I was thinking about how the only way for me to improve is for me to challenge myself and try to do things that are uncomfortable and scary. I took a deep breath and got back on the bike...and bailed. Except this time, my bike started leaning to the right instead of to the left, where my cleat was unclipped and ready to step to the ground. My right pedal is set up particularly tight. And I couldn't get my damn foot disattached from the pedal and I tipped over onto some big rocks. I sustained a small but deep cut on my leg and a deep bruise. When I stood back up, I was fuming with frustration. I walked the rest of the way down feeling like a pathetic lame-o.

FALL NUMBER THREE: I proceeded to ride down the trail. I've been telling myself over and over that it's all about attitude. I was trying desperately to convince myself that I was having a good time, that I wasn't afraid of falling, that even if I did fall that there was a good chance that I wouldn't get too hurt, that I was glad that I bought my new bike. And then I turned a corner to begin my final descent on the off-camber, sandy, washboardy, steep section of trail that marks the end of Three Bears. The next thing I know, I am flying over my handlebars. The sensation occurred for me in slow-motion - - I was thinking about how I better not get hurt three days before I leave for vacation. After I landed, I stood up, saw the blood squirting from my knee, saw my bicycle lying off the trail, its poor handlebars twisted around and the chain having fallen off, the derailleur scratched, looked around and saw that there was no one anywhere near to me, and I started crying. Like a big baby. I felt so frustrated. I had no idea what made me crash this last time...I thought that all was going well and then was flying over my handlebars. I looked around on the trail to try to figure out what had made me fall. As I indicated, it was an off-camber, sandy, washboardy, steep section, but I've ridden it plenty of times with no problems. As I went to wipe away the tears that were streaming down my face, I wiped the sand from my first crash into my eyes. I plopped down and felt myself becoming overwhelmed with discouragement. I decided that I was a crappy bike rider, and what was I thinking, that I was good enough to upgrade to a nice full suspension bicycle. As I started to calm down, I realized that the best explanation for what made me crash was my mal-adjusted disc breaks. I've never ridden on disc breaks before, and these ones...yikes. As I mentioned in my last post, the tension is not adjusted equally on both. It's not REALLY unequal, but the disparity becomes very noticeable on the downhills. Also, there is a great distance that one must pull the break levers before attaining any breaking effect. Once there is breaking effect, however, the breaks are extremely sensitive. All throughout the ride, I was paying close attention to my breaking, but I must have forgotten their sensitivity as I came around that corner and pulled the levers as I would have with my old bike. And over the handlebars I went.

Soon, I'll be off to take the bike to the shop to see if they can adjust it betterly. My wounds are healing. The knee is oozing wound goo, but is not painful or significantly swollen. My deep cut looks black (if it was longer, I'd say that I need stitches, but it's so small that it would only fit one stitch), and my allergic welts from the sage brush are coming down. It's the mental trauma that is bothering me the most. I've decided that I need to take the bike onto some super mild beginner trails to get my confidence back up...but even the thought of bunny trails makes me uneasy. Anyway, I'm sure I'll keep you posted.

Posted by jennifer at 9:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

~ behold the glory ~

It has finally arrived, my brand new Gary Fisher HiFi Deluxe GS women's specific full suspension mountain bike. I have been awaiting this day for months, and quite frankly, I thought it would not come for several more weeks, what with it apparently being unavailable in the country. But yesterday, Josh from The Bike Shop called to say that my "special order" had arrived. I had already scheduled to take the afternoon off of work to study for my stats exam, which is this evening, so I had something else to take my mind off of studying.

For months, I've been pouring over online reviews (such as this one from a female mountain biker) and mountain biking forums (such as this one) drooling over what I hoped would soon be mine. My skill in articulating overly verbose explanations of things fails me when it comes to the complexities of mechanical dealie-bobs, so for engineering design details I will refer you to the above linked review and forum where those sorts of things are expounded upon at length. I am still working on understanding them myself, so I read them regularly. See, people have different strengths, and wrapping my mind around mechanical dealie-bobs is not one of mine.

Yesterday, Josh and I spent some time in the back of the bike shop after he got off of work, tweaking the fit and whatever else on my new bike. It turned out to be more of a procedure than I anticipated. I've become much more mechanical-oriented in the past two years, so while Josh was switching out the handlebars, I successfully performed complex mechanical operations such as installing water bottle cages and removing the tires and tubes from the wheels. When I thanked the owner of the shop for the special deal on my bike, he said that now I'm charged with the responsiblity of teaching Josh how to ride a bike. I suspect that he was impressed with all of the grease on my fingers and the finess with which I handled the allen wrenches. Once the bicycle was set up to the fern-specific specifications, we set out to ride Hard Guy.

Interestingly, Josh and I rode Hard Guy the day before, on Sunday, when it was windy, windy, windy. There were times during the descent that the wind was blowing so hard against the side of my person, that I was concerned about being blown off the trail. Josh described what he saw as "the leaning tower of fern" while I was attempting to counteract the forces of the wind by leaning into it. There were times when it felt as though my helmet was acting like a parachute - - the wind was lifting it from my head and I had to make something of an effort to pull my head down.

Last night, the wind was a gentle breeze that just plain felt good. This past winter, I didn't stay in cycling shape, I hypothesize, because I performed my exercise on the elpitical rather than in spinning class, so my legs haven't felt up to par. I expect that this will change quickly and that I will be up to snuff, and exceeding my past snuff in no time. Also, I've had a bit of difficulty relaxing on the downhills ever since my crash...I've been a bit tense.

Anyway, I absolutely LOVE my new HiFi. It is wonderful having so much suspension under my person. My ascent and descent last night on Hard Guy was significantly smoother. Also, I've heard that there can be difficulties with full suspension bikes being heavy and squishy, thereby reducing power and speed on climbs. The HiFi is pretty light (27 lbs) and I didn't notice any squish. I found that the mid-level setting on the rear shock was quite nice - - the washboard sections were easy on my sit bones, but firm enough so that there was no bobbing. The front shock doesn't have a lockout, which I do think is a shame. While we were riding up Bogus Basin Road, I had the shock turned to the most-firm setting, and there was a significant amount of bobbing when I stood up. I am considering having the pressure increased to compensate for the lack of lockout...after all, there's a lot of room in five inches of suspension.

I'm not the biggest fan of the disc breaks. At the moment, they're not adjusted to my satisfaction. There is a great distance that one must first pull before experiencing any breaking effect, but once the breaking effect is achieved, they are ridiculously sensitive. Also, the front and the rear break seem to be adjusted slightly different, which was very noticable on the descent, as I periodically almost hurrled myself off the front of the bike. Luckily, these are all things that can be adjusted. And I'd also like to state for the record that I am not complaining, instead I am observing. As already articulated, I absolutely LOVE my new HiFi.

After the ride, Josh and I went to Lucky 13 for some beer and cheezy garlic bread. When we arrived, the establishment was filled with gads of other mountain bikers drinking beer. It was truly astonishing the number of bikes leaning against the outside benches and trees, unlocked and perfectly safe under the watchful eyes of all the enthusiastic cyclists. I perched my HiFi along the bench on which I rested, and attached joy to it being out in the world and having a great fun time. Here's a photo of the sweet HiFi in its new home.

Posted by jennifer at 8:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

~ Temped by the Fruit ~

I find this article about a cyclist being cited for being hit by a car rather interesting. On the one hand, I didn't realize that if one rides a bike on the sidewalk, that one is responsible for a different set of rules than when one rides a bike on the road...I wonder if this means that there are a whole slew of pedestrian rules that I am not familiar with. And the implications... It seems that perhaps one should need to have a pedestrian license just to walk or ride a bike along a sidewalk. How do we determine competency to travel via sidewalk? For some reason, I thought the law was that if you are a driver in a vehicle and you crash into something, that you are responsible, regardless of whether that which you crashed into was operating based on the laws of the road or the laws of the sidewalk. Does this seem fucked up to anyone else?

In other news, this weekend I had the opportunity to experience the fruit of satan and have been tempted beyond the point of return. If anyone is agonizing about what to get me for my birthday, I must mention that a gift certificate to Josh's bike shop would come in handy, as I have decided that I am going to purchase for myself, to celebrate the anniversary of my birth in June, the Gary Fisher HiFi Deluxe full suspension mountain bike.

Here is the full scoop...

Currently and for the past two years (which comprises the totality of my mountain biking experience), I have been riding a Gary Fisher Tassajara, a wonderful hard tail mountain bike that I have grown very fond of. During the past two years of blogging about my mountain biking experiences (which I am sure are very entertaining), you may have failed to learn about some of the pain and discomfort that I have felt. This pain has tended to occur while I have ridden down particularly choppy, rocky, gravelly, and did I mention choppy?, steep downhills. If you have never ridden a bicycle down an extremely choppy downhill section of a trail, I don't know how to describe it in such a way that you would fully understand.

Imagine, if you will, riding a bike down a mountain. It's pretty steep, so there's a good angle that you perceive from your handlebars, to the ground that your wheels are touching, from the distance that you will reach in a nanosecond of time because you are traveling fast. Your butt is pulled behind the saddle so that your bicycle doesn't begin to perform summersaults down the mountain. Add to this, a trail that is similar to a washboard, with thick deep ruts that you best avoid getting your tires in, loose rocks that threaten to disrupt your traction, and all sorts of other obstacles that you should avoid if you want to remain in one piece. Now, during such a mountain biking experence, if you were me riding my Tassajara, your body would be jerking violently at each bump, rut, rock, and washboard drop off, jerking uncomfortably so that it sometimes sends you into something of a panic because it is unpleasant. What is more, this jerking sensation stimulates an intuitive response that you are invovled in something dangerous, regardless of how under control you actually are. This sensation of danger causes you to feel afraid of what you perceive to be impending doom.

My Tassajara has a front shock. And while the bicycle is my size, the front shock appears to not be for someone of my weight, as I have never received more than an inch of travel from it. Other people have gotten more travel from it, but even if I slam all of my weight down upon it, it gives no more than a single inch. Which is not much if you're going down a steep and choppy trail. In fact, I have often thought that it wouldn't be much different if I had no front shock. At the end of last year, after giving this a lot of thought, I decided that this year I would invest in a better front shock. I've spent a month or so looking into this and doing some price checking. For those of you who have never considered upgrading your shocks, it's pretty expensive...like almost $1,000 expensive. If you think that it seems slighly unreasonable to put a $1,000 shock on a $700 bike, you would probably understand my hesitation about this. At the same time, I feel that having better suspension would greatly improve my enjoyment of mountain biking. I feel that, during the past two years, I have engaged in mountain biking enough that I could be thought of as a "recreational mountain biker." I feel that, because of my vested interest and enjoyment in mountain biking, that it is conceivable that I will continue to mountain bike well into the future. Additionally, mountain biking, for me, isn't just an outdoor recreational activity that provides an outlet for exercise. It has become an incredible source of joy and enthusiasm, as well as a wonderful social opportunity. Thus, it seems reasonable that I would invest some money to maximize my enjoyment in mountain biking.

During this process of trying to decide about the front shock, I have consulted my main bicycle information resource at length. This resource, whose name is Josh, has provided me with all kinds of things to think about. What is more, he has done a good job at complicating this decision. As he is somewhat familiar with my finances, he has not been overtly trying to persuade me to do one thing over another. Which is irritating because I am left to make up my own decisions. At some point, he planted the seed into my mind that perhaps I should think about upgrading the entire bicycle to a nice full suspension one. For some time, I was resistant to this idea because I did not fully grasp the benefits of full suspension. Josh articulated that a good full suspension bike would come with a much better front shock and that most of the components would be high quality as well. Nevertheless, I remained a disbeliever in full suspension.

On Saturday, Josh and I went on a three hour mountain bike ride which we entitled 'Tour de Foothills.' We rode up Bogus Basin Road to Corrals, up and up and down and up to Upper 8th Street, down Trail 4, down Freeway, across the Military Reserve to Buck's Trail, up Rocky Canyon Road, up Three Bears, and down Central Ridge. By Josh's estimates, it was a 20 mile ride that was pretty intense, and a lot of fun.

For this ride, I had "borrowed" a Gary Fisher HiFi Deluxe from Josh's Bike Shop in order to test ride the full suspension. There are no words from the language of English that adequately convey how amazing and wonderful it was riding this full suspension bicycle. For one, there was no pain or discomfort during the steep choppy downhills. Because of the lack of jerking discomfort, my person did not perceive the situation as dangerous, and so I did not experience a single moment in which I was afraid of plummeting to my death. Because of both the lack of pain and fear, there was nothing getting in the way of my fully enjoying the downhill. This means that during the sections of downhills that I have never before experienced joy, that I found joy, happiness, and had a lot of fun. What is more, the handling of the bicycle was simply amazing. The shifting was perfection, the turning was heaven, and the bike enabled me to experience moments of mountain biking zen in which I mountain biked with no effort, it was so natural. Another notable mention was that the bike enabled me to ride terrain that has been much too extreme for me to ever ride successfully before. There is a section of Three Bears, for example, that is very very steep with huge rocky drop offs, and I have never been able to ride hardly any of it and have actually fallen on it a few times. With the HiFi, I made it almost all of the way to the bottom and was not afraid in the least, which is worth mentioning because I frequently feel like the biggest scardie pants and I become paralyzed over steepnesses and heights that don't seem to bother others. The fact that I enjoyed riding what used to make me shit myself is impressive.

In sum, because of the loss of pain and fear, coupled with the drastic increase in fun and joy, I feel that the time is ripe for me to purchase the Gary Fisher HiFi Deluxe. June is not only my birthday month, but it is also a month in which I should receive a raise, along with a few extra dollars for various things, so a perfect time to award myself with a fantastic birthday present. Some of you may feel that this is foolhardy and not the best use of my dollars, but I place joy and fun above financial responsibility and I am confident in my ability to come up with the money because my desire is so great. If I must, I will even get a second job.

Posted by jennifer at 2:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

~ Two New Wheels ~

I had not expected to actually purchase my third bike yesterday. Indeed, my plan was to go to the bike shop TODAY. Nevertheless, yesterday when I got off of work, I engaged in communication with a local bike salesperson who indicated that it might be a good time to look at some bikes. I rode my mountain bike to the bike shop and parked it outside. Inside, I proceeded to investigate the selection of cruisers, and most especially the new Electra Amsterdams. As you may recall from my fantastic post of yesterday, I was interested in a red Electra Amsterdam sport, not the blue Amsterdam classic. However, as I stood in front of the row of cruisers, one ladies blue classic, one men's black classic, one men's red sport, and one men's black sport, I felt myself gravitating towards the blue classic. Firstly, the blue is really something. It's not your normal everyday ho-hum blue - - it's this fantastic blue that I would imagine being on some old-fashioned dental equipment. So awesome! Secondly, the classic is more distinctive than the sport. There is a rack on the back, and I LOVE it. I am ambivalent about the skirt (which I removed upon purchase), but the rack is so wonderful that I could just lick it. And the sport has no rack. Also, the classic has a neat light with a tire-rubbing-generator-dealie - the sport does not. Sure, the classic is heavier (being steel instead of aluminum), BUT the classic also came with a BELL!!! No bell on the sport, yo. Seriously, how's the sport gonna ring my bell if it has no bell? pfft!!!

Anyroad, before I had actually become all excited about the blue classic, I gave it and a red men's sport a trial ride (there weren't any women's sports in stock because apparently these bikes haven't even been officially released yet). I did notice that the sport was much zippier, but yea, no bell, no rack, no light w/ generator, all dealbreakers. And as I shifted my gaze from the red sport (truly, a beautiful red and a good looking bike - - such a hard decision!) and the blue classic, I couldn't shake the feeling that there was something really special about the blue classic.

Then, I started to consider the logistics. Of utmost importance to me in having a cruiser was to place a basket at the front of the bike. The light on the blue classic limited all basket capabilities. I couldn't even get the basket onto the bike because the light was right in the way. What a stupid place to put a light on a cruiser! Everyone knows that people like to put baskets onto their cruisers. Anyway, I then began a discussion with my local bicycle connosieur about the possibility of moving the light. He examined the way that it was installed and we wheeled it over to a mechanical area. I exercised my mechanical muscles by removing a mud flap attached to the front fender (stupid, ugly, and dumb) and Josh rewired the light. He was able to move it down to just above the front fender, below where a basket would go (so that light and basket would exist in harmony), and we worked together on fastening the extra wire with some zip-ties. Please see the detail on the light and basket area. Another modification that I made was to remove the skirt attached to the back fenders. In theory, a skirt would be a fantastic addition (helping to prevent things being caught in the spokes as well as looking awesome), but in reality I wasn't very impressed with their functionality. The cheapo latches for them didn't fasten tightly to the fender and they kept popping off. I think that if one made the latches a little longer that it would work better, but after I removed the skirts entirely, I decided that I actually liked the way that it looked without them anyway.

Josh suspects that someone recently tried to steal my mountain bike because on my lock there is a suspicious point of damage. While I was at the shop last night, I decided to invest in a super expensive mini kryptonite u-lock. Of course, because I'm sleeping with one of the bike shop employees, I get a discount so everything was much more affordable for me. I did spend some good time thinking about whether to get some side bags to attach to the back rack, but I did not at all fancy the reasonably priced ones (mainly because they were ugly, and a big part of why I got this bike was because it was so beautiful - - so why would I adorn it in ugly accessories???) and there were some nice looking ones, but I didn't feel justified in spending $114 for them. So, no bags for me just yet. But maybe later when I save up my pennies and nickles.

Now, the hard part is thinking of a name of my beautiful blue wonder. I am entertaining suggestions. Another bike shop employee suggested Blue Betty, but I quickly shot that down.

Posted by jennifer at 8:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)