What am I thinking

Warning: this post is gonna ramble.

--

When I was home in Vernon, BC, Canada, this summer, I took the chance to finally ride up the local big hill, Silver Star Mountain. It's a 1200m rise over 21 km--that's what, 4000 ft over 13 miles. A good long climb. At the top is the ski village, which in summertime transforms into a summer activity wonderland, including downhill courses and chair lifts for the MTBers. Those bikes start looking funny when you never have to worry about going uphill.

So there I am in tight roadie clothes, Lycra and jersey and swoopy helmet and skinny tires. And there are the MTBers, baggy shorts and T-shirts and crash helmets and fatty tires. And we're sorta looking at each other, mutually thinking "what the hell kind of biking is that?"

--

I ride a bike a heck of a lot more than the average person, though perhaps less than the average reader of this blog. Still, I find it off-putting that I can walk into a bike store these days and find large sections which are a complete cipher: that being the fatty tire section. After looking at the number of frame styles and suspension linkages available for MTBs, the road bikes start looking all alike in comparison. And the fine points of MTB categories: what, pray tell, is the difference between "all-mountain" and "cross-country"?

--

I have no idea what triggered the urge, exactly, beyond maybe just having too much free time. And probably unpacking my venerable 1998 Specialized Rockhopper, which has served mostly as a commuter/townie bike--it got my through a 24hr relay race in 2005, even with the pannier rack still on the back, even on the original 1998 tires. But Monday night I sat down and clicked over to Specialized to see what was up.

In 1998, I remember there being the Rockhopper, above which was the Stumpjumper, of which at the top end you could find the FSR full-suspension job. Now our good friends in Morgan Hill have the Rockhopper (still a hardtail) and Stumpjumper (hardtail and FSR) and Epic (FS) and Enduro (FS) and on and on...all of which seem to overlap in price and function. Again: difference between cross-country and all-mountain and marathon is...? Um, it's also seems even easier in the MTB world than in the road world to find a bicycle with a list price higher than the value of my car. Heck, the price of most after-market suspension forks is higher than the cost of my Rockhopper, comlete.

A look at mtbr.com revealed that there are umpteen million full suspension XC bikes, and everyone rates them at 4.5-5.0. Gee, that really narrows things down. Knowing little else, a Santa Cruz Superlight might be nice...in my size...if I ever rode it.

--

Further investigations led me to the website of Trail Head Cyclery, in San Jose, CA. I could've glanced and moved on, but for some reason I poked around. And found:

DIRT DEMO IN THE DEMO, NOV. 3rd & 4th
When: Nov. 3rd and 4th, 9 a.m. 'till 3 p.m.
What: Demo bikes from Specialized, Intense, Ibis and Yeti
Where: Soquel Demonstration Forest

Dammit, it's the middle of 'cross season, I own 4 bikes already, and I have no regular urge to ride on trails, but regardless I've rung up a friend and it looks like we're going to show up Saturday to try to get some test rides. The regrettably timid rational part of my brain is saying that it's a good chance to see what the big deal is about full suspension, and that a trip to the SDF is long overdue if it's half as good as its reviews. Hopefully Timid Brain also has the foresight to keep the Credit Card far, far away. Oh wait, must bring a credit card as a deposit for test riding...

This could be trouble.