Mountain Bike Venting

I think you truly know when you are a mountain biker when you have hated mountain biking. You know what I mean- if you ride. We’ve all had those moments where you really hate your mother f#5%in’ bike and you would gladly leave the beast there in the woods or maybe you’ll throw it good and far over that cliff so you won’t be tempted into this madness again. This pedaling, muddy, bug infested sport.

I had one of those rides this weekend. You know the kind. The kind where nothing seems to fit quite right on your bike and nothing seems to work quite right, and you’re pretty sure some woodland troll just placed that wet root in front you when you weren’t looking and that’s why you can’t ride today.

Well that was me and my bike. Those great new Shimano SPD clipless pedals I started reviewing the other day. Well, turns out I should’ve made sure they loosened them a bit before I decided to go ride the rockiest, rootiest, gnarliest trail where I live, when it was wet. That would have been good to know about before I fell over, with the bike on top of me, still completely clipped in. Yup, second time in the past month I have fallen over still attached to my bike.

It sucks too and I am pretty sure my body is hating me for it. The past couple rides of mine have been really sucking and I’ve narrowed it down to these few reasons.

#1 You can only mountain bike in New England when it is one of these conditions: wet and slippery, buggy, hot and humid, or pouring rain
#2 Also, all this road riding to build endurance doesn’t help you in the technical sections
#3 Thirdly, my bike is built for a man. A man with a very short torso.