11 April 2008

The Joys Of Spring

I have come to a new appreciation of spring. This appreciation comes from the recent acquisition of my spiffy new mountain bike. John, from here on referred to as "the man", from the LSB, Local Bike Shop for any newbs, got me a sick, in my mind, hook up on an `07 Specialized Rockhopper Disc, and the wife "got it for me" for the birthday, read that as I acquired it and alerted her that it was going to be her present for me, if you are married you know what I mean.
Sorry, what I was getting to is having the opportunity to ride, virtually, every single day in the last week. There's something about bombing down a hill a foot away from sheer disaster, looking down into a river, or down a hill into the woods, switchbacks, its just beautiful. I'll start taking pictures and posting occasionally. We've had some rain lately, and I've enjoyed coming in covered in mud and hurting. I've already managed to clean one of the hills I set as a goal, not a horribly big one. It's fairly steep, very loose and rocky, and part of a ninety or so degree turn. It amounts to a really good learning about the difference between mountain and road. The difference between bearing down and taking of like a shot and bearing down and having your wheels lose their footing in the dirt, or having your back end jumping around when you hit a patch of rock. It's just a whole new exhilarating experience. I don't think I'm ready to sell the road bike, but I have a feeling she's gonna be a trifle pissed at me this summer. Well, it's supposed to be torrential storms all weekend, so I will likely wait for a break in the thunder and lightening and try to get at least one good ride in, in the next two days.

4 comments:

Judi said...

I hope you finally got some grass growing in! It feels good to be out and about and not have to wear all those layers!

Harp said...

Careful your on the verge of becoming a full fledged mountain biker. ;)

Bluenoser said...

That's only me left to defend the roads. If the rain doesn't let up today I'm jumping on the fat tired bike and do the mountain.

-B

Cycling Phun said...

Judi: How are you be doing? (Yes I meaneded the poor grammar) Oh yeah, the snow is long gone, that's just a stock photo. It is so nice now, I was out in a LS shirt and shorts! WOO HOO!

Harp: I know, it's bad, right? I'm actually a lot more likely to ride the MTB ,like, 5 days a week and pick up the road 1 or 2 I think. I have a feeling the road is going to seem far more simple than it did last year after this for about a month now.

Bluenoser: Thats been a big part of the problem. The roads have been wet, and salty and I don't want to clean my bike after a ride, lazy, no? I'll get back into the road for Wed night rides and lunch rides, I still like the unobstructed speed factor even though the mud factor is cool.