I always strongly consider observations from anyone willing to wave a 44 Magnum in people’s faces. As such, I’ve always appreciated Dirty Harry‘s recommendation that a man know his limitations. For example, I can appreciate that I am not an elegant creature and it is best if I avoid sports involving hand-eye coordination. I’ve also noted that things go more smoothly when I keep my feet affixed to the ground, to say nothing of keeping my wheels or skis out of the air. I’m also not great with imaginary numbers, like eleventeen or thirtytwelve.
I am, however, pretty good at riding bikes. That said, I am prone to overconfidence when it comes to cornering. My father, a devoted BMW motorcycle loyalist, bought a mid-Eighties BMW R100 RS to give to me for my 16th birthday. In the meantime, however, I picked up bike racing. He sold the R100 before I got a chance to ride it, citing my proclivity to overshoot turns on bicycles and observing that I didn’t also need a motor helping me crash at higher speeds and with greater consequence.
A self-professed Roadie, I do wander off-road occasionally, and generally do so aboard my beloved MB-Zip. I went for a ride on Saturday with some friends who were riding bikes built in this century, and was struck by the advances in technology involved. While my bike utilizes flexy stems and elastomers, they were aboard 29ers (which is Mountain Bike speak for “bike built on 700c wheels”) with full-suspension.
I could easily match the climbing portion of the ride, but as soon as we pointed downhill, I was left in their dust, to borrow their vernacular. Obviously, it wasn’t my descending skills – it had to be the gear. I promptly rented a top-end 29er full suspention rig and agreed to join my mates for a longer ride out east of the Cascades on Sunday.
I’ll let you in on a secret: the advances in Mountain Biking since 1992 have not been made in the name of climbing. That’s not to say the 29er didn’t feel great on all the other terrain, but climbing felt more akin to sitting on a balance ball than riding a bike. Descending, on the other hand, I felt like a different rider. I was rippin’ gnar with my bra’s (that’s Mountain Bike speak “descending quite well and managing to keep up with my friends”) and at a certain point made the observation that perhaps I was over-confident, given my unfamiliarity with the bike in particular and with the notion of riding a full suspension bike in general.
About halfway along the descent, I started noticing a peculiarity in the bike’s handling: while cornering, the front wheel was tending to wash out. All the washouts were controllable, and I continued on my way. A few turns from the bottom of the descent, however, I failed in righting a washout in a particularly nasty corner and found myself in a tangle on the ground, bike bopping me in the face, and scattering a variety of equipment in a blast-pattern around the ground-zero of my crash. The bike literally creaked with pain as it lay in the dust.
I was mostly unhurt, but I did taco the front wheel. Limitation noted: don’t attempt to keep up with more experienced riders on a highly technical descent aboard a bike you are not familiar with.
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Fuck me that MB-Zip is a minger. Good job The Rules don't apply to mountain bikes.
Full-suspension is merely a compensation for talent
Interesting point about 29ers. They only look good if you're tall. Unless they have stupidly long legs, anyone under 6ft and riding a 29er is only doing so because it's trendy*. They don't work very well in most of the UK because the UK tends not to have long flowing downhills that benefit the "good rolling capabilities of a 29er"
*Gary Fisher sponsored the UK's top female racer a couple of years ago and part-way through the season made her ride a 29er. She is about 5ft-nothing tall. She kept on crashing.
When you can keep up with those full suspension friends on a full rigid bike, then you know you can ride trail.
@Jarvis
Betsy Shogren (Cannondale Factory Racing) does fantastic on a 29'er (hardtail or FS), and she is no more than 153 cm.
http://cdn.media.cyclingnews.com/photos/2007/jun07/stoopid50_07/betsy_again_bob_pop_600.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilderness_101_Mountain_Bicycle_Race
http://www.wvmba.com/2010-standings.php?race_class=2
I have an '09 Gary Fisher Cobia, and I'm short for male standards, being 167cm. THe 29 inch wheels mean a hell of a lot of difference in terms of ground texture and comfort. the voluminous tires add nearly an inch of suspension when displaced fully. They also take fast terrain changes a bit easier, aka you can roll over things and think less about it.
I do think they are trendy. If I were to get a FS, I would go 26", no doubt, but I have seen others, and ridden both 26'ers and 29'ers on the same trails in my neck of the woods, and I wouldn't trade my 29'er hardtail for anything.
Wait, is MTB blasphemy here on Velominati?
@wvcycling re: mtb blasphemy - not if done with style
Now don't go thinking about buying a new mtb, Frank, before that cx bike you promised yourself.
If there were some decent places around me to mtb, I'd seriously consider buying one. I'll browse them in shops and have to admit, there are some 29er hardtails out there that are darn sexy. Just can't justify it though due to lack of riding areas.
Dirty Harry used a .44.
29ers: Just say no.
@Jarvis
Spot on, mate.
More along those lines, off road really gives you rockin' bike-handling skilz, provided you didn't break the bones necessary to ride your road bike. (Per Der Jens, it's OK to break ribs.) Plus, it's also great for your form since getting over technical bits of the trail really require full efforts, and then you have to figure out how to recover while still climbing pretty ferocious terrain - provided you're riding in the mountains.
I dunno. I liked bits of the 29er for sure; but I really can't get over how high the handlebars are on modern mountain bikes. It was nice going down, being able to get your weight back, but the bike is so hard to control going uphill. I'll have to think on this more, and maybe try to coax more than a "29ers: Just say no" out of Brett, who is a bit the master mountain biker.
One thing is for sure, those of you who don't think mountain biking is exercise, I just went for a road ride after taking yesterday off, and while I was glad to be back on the R3, the Guns were completely fried. I relied on the 3 Rules imprinted upon my thigh more than ever.
@Marko
I've been weighing that. Plus, I swore to the high heavens that I would never want another mountain bike if my Velomihottie let me by the Zip. We all know that was a lie, but on the other hand, it might be too soon to reveal it as such.
Plus, I really want to come out next year and do the Heck of the North.
@wvcycling
Excellent question, but as long as it's cycling, a Velominatus approves. Except recumbents, maybe. Although I saw one at the bike shop that had Zipp wheels, PowerTaps, and a full carbon frame complete with carbon lazyboy chair.
It's hard to disapprove of that much carbon.
@Edoz
I did for a while on the first part of the descent on Saturday. But then I hit something that put my face on the ground and I lost them.
The Bridgestone philosophy of "small, light, nimble bike" still makes a whole bunch of sense to me, though.
Thank you! If you can't get Clint right, we have bigger worries than falling off some over-built bike.
Full suspension's not my bag either. And I love descending, but was always puzzled with these guys who struggled to get up the hill first. It seemed to me that that was part of the ride. Frankly, though (and, yes, you can read that with a Dutch "a" if you like), I'll pit my Montague and my guns and my handling against any high-end 29er with a rider of my still-modest MTB experience. Wouldn't mind some disc brakes, but that's another kettle of fish.