Fat tire day

Things I learned:

1. It's a long, twisty road to Soquel Demonstration Forest--but worth it for the MTB riding. Great place for it, great trails.

2. My 9-yr-old Specialized Rockhopper is sorta crap. Still, with some patience, I hauled it around a circuit with some fairly difficult bits. As a hardtail, it climbs well, but its descending is not confidence-inspiring.

3. Sometimes old bike bits aren't that bad. For instance, when I went over a dropoff that I didn't intend to go over and at too low a speed regardless, my seat saved me from a self-inflicted proctological exam. Too bad for the seat, though.

Despite the...uh...drooping, it was really quite functional for riding back to the parking lot and I thanked providence for causing me no more damage than that. Still, it's done for; not even a handful of little blue pills are going to help this one.

4. After doing a test loop on old bike, I got a demo bike to try out. I had thought it would be nicely systematic to progress through a modern hardtail to a mid-range full-suspension to a glitzy whiz-bang machine, but (a) the loop was longer than I expected, so not enough time for all that, and (b) there was only one large bike left--this demo thing was quite popular! And so, enter the whiz-bang, high-end-componentry-laden, full-suspension 29er:
Better everything, shock-absorbing, and big, big tires. And probably no heavier if not lighter than my bike. Just as I had been getting back to camp, OV and VB came riding up, and they kindly waited for me to get checked out on Big Green before leading me yonder.

Oh what a difference it made. I was searching for potholes on the road to see if I could feel anything-no. Washed-out ruts? Climbed through them like a champ. Spinning, it could accelerate uphill without hesitation; standing, yeah, it flexed, but why stand when these things have such ridiculously low gears?

That was just the uphill climb. On the downhills, despite only having 4-inch travel in both shocks, this bike was point-and-shoot, except for some truly nasty rocky bike-killer stuff. This was my first time out mountain biking in about 2 years and I've probably never taken stuff on with such confidence--all because of the bike. In the end, I can't tell you how much was due to components, suspension, or 29er wheels, but the combination was supernatural compared to the Ol' Silver Hardtail.

5. Conclusion: I am a believer. If say a friend somehow convinces me to ride a 24h relay again, I'd definitely want to be on Big Green or something like it. But of course, the catch: there's a price to be paid. Big Green retails for a cool US$4100. Ol' Silver Hardtail was $600, 9 years ago. There'd better be a dramatic difference.

Ah well, maybe it's time to start another piggy bank...or not. I'm really not sure if I have time or inclination to use one of these bikes enough to justify that kind of investment. And now I'd better get some laundry done, otherwise I'll smell like a dead horse at tomorrow's 'cross races...