It will be darker and wetter soon. The trails will be fresh with morning mud. The air will be crisp. I going to really miss the trails.
Now that I have been without my magic mojo ride, I have been shopping around in attempts to get over the fact that my bike was stolen and I’ll never get it back. I have gone to Sports Basement and Freewheel and that started a fiendish search on the web for what’s hot, affordable, and could somehow replace my beloved Ibis.
It turns out there is a wide range of choice out there for off-road pleasure. They can be divided into trail/climbing and downhill. That distinction is the starting point, and then there is an endless number of choices to make following that, which reminds me of the minute details and distinctions my wife agonizes over when applying make-up.
I thought I was set on finding another hard-tail ride so I get to enjoy it on the pavement leading to the trailhead or just taking it on short spins in the City. But as it turns out, the hard-tail market has split into two camps: the low-end barely trail-worthy entry-level bike and the high-end classic ride. There are also 29ers which have larger wheels and are meant for taller riders. The exciting part comes with the variety of full-suspension bikes out there. There is variety in frame designs and materials, shocks, and braking and shifting systems, etc.
I’m learning it’s a much more complicated world out there when it comes to mountain bikes. I will probably need to spend a lot more time researching before I start spending on a new bike. But it is so hard not to be riding now. I just hope I start taking to the road to keep in shape.