Hitting the dirt

Back in June, when I had little elbow and no wrist, I went with Matt to the Stoopid 50, a 50-mile mountain bike race outside of Happy Valley. As far as races go, it was pretty fun -- nearly as cool as a 'cross race, and much cooler than your average road race. Even not racing, and alternately getting rained on and swatting at flies, I had a great time.

It also got me thinking, "I could do this." Sure, I wasn't going to out ride the speedy guys who were challenging for the podium, but there were plenty of slower folks just out for a good time. Plus, there was beer and pulled pork at the finish line. I mean, come on! Who wouldn't want to do that? I resolved to get a bike to test and to start riding off road, as soon as I regained the use of my arm.

Then, when I did regain said mobility, I was so concerned with getting back into shape for road racing, that I soon forgot about my off road delusions. Fast forward a couple of months: Racing was done and I was looking for fun ways to maintain some modicum of fitness without resorting to rollers this early in the off season, or running. Seemed like a good enough time to get back on the mountain bike track.

Incidentally, this happened last year too, after Jamie took me for a ride in October. Only, that time it didn't stick -- I was in the midst of moving and lots of other things. So, I'm a year late to the party, but at least I got here.

A few weeks ago, we started calling in some mountain bikes for our "tall" testers to try out -- most of our mountain bike test riders fit best on medium bikes, so there haven't been any bikes for me to chose from, but now I've got a Cannondale Scalpel 29er to test -- a dual-suspension, 100mm travel bike that's more technically advanced than my car, and is lighter than my first two road bikes.

Matt suggested we ride dirt at lunch today, and we did, heading to South Mountain -- trails I last explored by foot. The verdict? It was fun. I surprised myself a little by riding more obstacles than I thought I would have been able too. Of course, I also walked quite a few sections. But, like I said, it was fun. It's an entirely different challenge than I'm used to, and I greatly enjoyed the chance to think about where my pedals would need to go, and how I needed to re-adjust my weight to get over or around rocks, roots and logs.

While the trails were challenging, they also provided several opportunities to open the throttle and push the bike -- at least to the greatest extent that I felt comfortable. I have to say, mountain bikes have come a long way since I bought my Trek 820 in 1996. Dual suspension, combined with 29-inch wheels makes everything a lot easier on the trail, to say nothing of a fork that actually works as intended, and grippy tires. It's really no wonder I didn't have fun riding that old hardtail -- after just an hour on the Scalpel today it was immediately apparent that modern bikes can work with you in a way that my old bike never did or could have. Instead of fighting the bike today, I felt that I was able to let it go. It was really quite a rush.

The complexity is also somewhat staggering -- I needed help to set the sag on the suspension, and then, upon realizing that I needed to ride with a shock pump, became nervous about the possibility of something going wrong. Of course, nothing broke on our short ride -- and, anyway, the off-the-grid aspect of mountain biking is part of what appeals to me. But, before our next ride I think I'll take some time to better familiarize myself with the bike. Also, I'm going to need to stop the seat post from slipping -- my knees were killing me by the time we got back to the office.

In the near-term, I definitely see myself riding more dirt. In the longer term, the 2012 Stoopid 50 is eight months away...