Yesterday was death. Buried head-down in the VeloNews.com barrel, which was full of fish heads, dead cats and used Pampers.
Today was another sort of day altogether, as in a day off, mostly. Banged out a ‘toon for VeloNews the magazine, then went for a rare mountain-bike ride, in Palmer Park. Rode a few sections that ordinarily baffle me, too. Maybe it was the allergy meds. Maybe it was the weather, mid-60s and sunny. Nah, probably the dope.
Upon returning home, I flung open the windows, took the cats out for an airing, watered the lawn, fired up the ’83 Toyota for a quick spin to charge the battery and otherwise loosen up its elderly joints, and then cracked a Mirror Pond Pale Ale in honor of the day the beer flowed again. Thanks and a hoist of the Mad Dog stein to The Gnome and DrunkCyclist for the link.
Mad Blog Media 
Now that’s my kind of mountain bike! Simple, elegant, and hardly ever used. My ride is similar, with similar usage, and from the “all that was once old you can still buy new” barrel: it’s a 2006 Gunnar Rockhound. I’m nearly laughed off the Kokopelli Loops when I show up on a hardtail, and a STEEL hardtail at that! (Yet not a single speed!) But it’s low maintenance, low cost (even with XT) and fun to ride. I’ll let all of those who have downed the “Gotta Have Full Suspension” Kool-Aid write the big checks. I just wanna ride my bike on the cheap.
Which is a good thing since I still have lots of non-paying time on my hands.
John, I hear you. As often as I ride the mountain bike (about twice a year), I can’t justify buying the latest and greatest. And the old beast being ti’, well, hell, it’ll be trail-worthy a whole lot longer than the carbon-based life form that currently owns it. I never had any mad skillz anyway, so an upgrade would be both expensive and embarrassing, like buying a Maserati to drive to the Safeway for Depends.
The full-susser turds who encountered me today either looked right through me or actually got in my way, which I found irksome. These young pups have no trail etiquette, and I’m not the only person who takes notice. When I yield trail to hikers, runners, dog-walkers and equestrians, they generally are surprised. Shouldn’t be like that, and since more of them than us vote, this state of affairs is likely to end about the time some dipshit in body armor T-bones a granny walking Pooky or a kid a-horseback.
I run a ’05 Rockhopper H/T w/ lots of clearance priced upgrades.It’ s better than I am and rides like a dream. F/S is overblown for most riders but has it’s place.I just can’t justify the expence these days.
As a professional mechanic who’s owned not one but two full-carbon full-suspension wunderbikes (neither of which I bought – a mix of luck and connections helped me out), I know what I’m talking about when it comes to the latest and greatest. But you know what? It got old, right about the time that I realized that both bikes gave diminishing returns for the extra maintenance and complexity. So, after selling both of the aforementioned wunderbikes – an S-Works Epic and a Giant Anthem Advanced – over a year ago, I’m now riding full-time on a steel hardtail singlespeed. It’s simple, it’s bulletproof (more so than I am, anyway), and it brings back the reasons I began riding in the first place. O’G, I like your bike, especially if that Hippie-Tech guy worked on the fork.
Trail etiquette? What’s that? But seriously, I hear you. Hope we don’t lose Palmer – I like it there, especially in the wintertime.
I started riding in San Diego where there are about four centimeters of trail for every user. Conflicts between the different trail users were common, especially on those trails located anywhere in the city. Given the political clout of the San Diego equestrian crowd (read: rich!), and the diametrically opposed clout of the cycling community, the mountain bike crowd usually came out on the losing end. Which, given all the bonehead riding I saw, may not have been entirely a bad thing.
We got it good here in the Grand Valley. Many of the mountain bike trails, such as the Kokopelli Loops and 18 Road, were made exclusively for mountain biking so to see a hiker or horsey-person on them is rare. There’s such an abundance of other trails around here for hiking and equestrians that we just don’t seem to have the conflicts that you see in more populated areas.
On the other hand, the mountain bike crowd that has been born and bred here probably doesn’t have any idea of what trail etiquette is, they’ve never had to exercise it. The only etiquette rule around here seems to involve trails that are directional (trails that are intended to be rode only going one way), and those guidelines are pretty much ignored. I hope none of them their way to your neighborhood and make things more complicated on your favorite trail.
Joey, I’m definitely not interested in complexity, not on the bike. The bike is my getaway, the vacation I can almost always take whenever I feel like it. Thinking about it too much would suck the fun out of it. Hence no double-boingers around the DogHaus.
John, sounds like the cycling is good, which is a’ight, since the job market is clearly a little less so. As regards trail etiquette, now, I’m surprised we don’t have at least one user conflict per day in Palmer Park, especially when the foliage springs to life and turns every bend into a blind corner.
The horse people are the smart ones — most of the ones I see employ a pilot dog, which you encounter before the giant hayburner; sort of like the “WIDE LOAD” pilot vehicles preceding 18-wheelers hauling modular houses.
Stupid is pretty much a tie between zoned-out iPodded hikers and the walkers of unleashed dogs. I just about T-boned one such yesterday, a bimbo stepping off a bit of brush-screened single-track onto a feeder trail with an unleashed mutt and a cell phone clamped to one ear. Darwin was wrong.