Far Out Son of Lung...

A roadie goes mountain biking

as posted in the DORBA forum on 09/23/05


A few weeks ago I decided to buy a mountain bike. I've been riding road (120+ mi a week) for quite a while and figured it'd be fun to get back on the trails and mix up the long rides with the tree dodging.


Thanks to a DORBA member I bought a wonderful bike, used (thank you Lance), and have started riding some trails. Last night I went to LB Houston because it is close to work, an easy-ish ride and I more or less remember it from 10 years ago when I raced some DORBA events.


While riding road I have become quite accustomed to the mindless folks who do not understand the concept or organization of a paceline (pick a wheel!) and the random potholes and cracks encountered on the road are not all that difficult to bunny hop and avoid, but one of the strangest things I found I need to get used to when getting on a MTB from a roadie is the fact that there are trees and rocks.


These trees and rocks seem to pop up out of the ground, rather unannounced, right in my path of travel. Now, I'll be the first to admit that sometimes my path has nothing to do with the intended path, but that's beyond the point. I mean, here I am minding my own business and cranking down a trail, fully expecting the bramble of brush and foliage to turn gently and continue on a nice berth into the forest. However, upon reaching this festive ornamentation of nettles and ragweed, I find that the trail suddenly turns left or right. On sand. This sad fact leaves me with two choices: 1) get on the brakes or 2) plowing through it.


Take last night for example. I'm probably one of the only people that is capable of falling down at L.B. Houston because he forgets to unclip from his SPDs, even though I've been using Look pedals for years as a roadie. Everything started out great. The trail was fast and clean, the trees were just far enough apart to not make me panic, and the rocks were being quite nice by staying out of my way.


Then, I saw a sign for "The Dips". This sounded like a lot of fun and, thankfully, they were. What a great extension to a trail! I can't tell you how big the grin was on my face after flying up and down through the dips, whooping with joy! Not once did I remove my hands form the bars as though I were on a rollercoaster, but some sick bastard did install some rather tight corners on the exit side of the dips, and this caused me some problems when I realized I needed to change direction in mid-air to avoid hitting an oddly position root or tree stump. Still, a great addition and I applaud the person(s) with the creativity to add this to the trail.


After negotiating this section handily I decided that the sign for "Difficult New Section" would likely be just as much fun. This, sadly, is where I fulfilled my first and second appointments with the earth. Things were going great on the New section until I encounted... what was it? Oh yes, the first turn.


The first turn seemed to navigate a route that would leave squirrels thinking, "My god, how are we to navigate such a thing?" So I plow into a tree. Then I got to the second turn, and there's another tree in my way. Well, no. I missed the second tree and did stay upright until maybe the third or fourth corner when the trail wound tightly around some more trees and went uphill over a randomly placed mound of dirt. At this point I lost all of my momentum (the .5mph I was traveling), neglected to unclip and fell over. Yep, I just fell down. Panick set in, my foot fought furiously against the grip of the SPD and that was that. Tuck the shoulder, keep your hands and arms inside the car and turn your head so as not to see it coming. From this prone position I was then able to get my feet unclipped (yes, I was still attached to the bike) and right myself on the trail.


Not to be discouraged I decided to continue onward. While valiant, this was not in the best interests of my calves, since they now look like they were in a violent fight with a very angry cat. No bother, I finished the lap with another couple of near foliage encounters before reaching open land.


After a quick rest I was out for my second, third and fourth lap before calling it a day. Folks, I'm sure all of you know this already but what a load of fun! Now, I just need to work on the "unclip in a state of shear terror and panic" portion of riding and everything will be groovy.

posted by GreSam @ 11:41