The Return of the MTB

On: Tuesday, July 22, 2008


For the last year, I have been riding my Trek 4300 on the road and not on the trails. I have put hundreds of miles on it commuting to downtown KC, yet the only off road it snacked on was the grassy slope shortcut at the Stadiums. I am now happy to report that I have replaced the slick tires with some sorely needed red walled Panaracer Fire XC Pro's and stripped the bike of all my commuting paraphenalia (and weight), leaving it in the sweet state of simplicity; a pic will be forth coming.
So, Sunday afternoon arrived and off I went with my osprey/camelbak hybrid into a 105° heat index and under the humid canopy of the trees at Landhal Park.
(Here is a view from the parking lot.)
The ride was a bit awkward at first as I was used to being on roads for so long, but my new tires are fantastic. I was sticking all the turns and rarely spun out on the slippery rock. I didn't press hard as much as I have in the past, but it was fun to just get out. All the skills and reflexes came back suprisingly fast and I didn't wreck once. I had to step off a couple times, but no injuries more severe than a couple of bruises. My only issue is this park is about 20-30 minutes away in Blue Springs so I am not sure how often I will be able to ride.


(Pic of the open single track back to the parking lot.)







(Dirtier than the roads too! I took this pic upside down and had to flip it.)
All in all, I love cycling and wish my Saturday morning rides could include some trails. Theres nothing like being on your bike in the middle of no where, surrounded by nature, and not having to worry about some jack hole trying to run over you in his vehicle.

7 comments on "The Return of the MTB"

Percussivity said...

Your feet have shrunken.

SQLFunkateer said...

MTB?

MTB?

What is this MTB of which you speak?

While I certainly don't blame you for its creation (it is listed on the Mountain Bike wikipedia entry), MTB represents a completely dishonest acronym, promising a "T" word but delivering none! Moun-Tain Bike? Good LORD man! Even if you did split the word mountain into two different words, from which to extract the two first letters of a three letter acronym, "T" makes little sense since the root of the word is "mount", with "T" finishing that word instead of starting another, and acronyms, outside of the somewhat seditious acronyms that use the second letter of a word starting in "ex-" as the acronym (as in TBBBXV, Thomsons' Book of British Birds, the eXpurgated Version), always use the first letter of the word, never the last.

MB! IT SHOULD BE MB!

There are pills for dealing with my liguimanic episodes, I've just misplaced them, it seems.

The Unabashed Blogger said...

How about ATB? I think that's more fitting since I've only ever ridden one down one mountain. And I say down because I had to walk up the mountain due to my lack of physical conditioning in 10k+ elevation. The downhill (or DH for us MTB'ers)was awesome with lots of jumps and sticky curves... *sigh*... I miss CO...er, Colorado...

The Unabashed Blogger said...

What a sec..Pensive, why do you say my feet have shrunken? Are you eluding to the fact that I've been cycling more and that my legs are tree trunks?

SQLFunkateer said...

To ATB, I shall grant legitimacy.

I prefer going downhill on skis. The nice thing about that, you don't have the climb the hill yourself.

Man, I miss skiing. I only ever went on high school church ski trips to Minnesota of all places, but I miss skiing.

Maddie's Mom said...

I've got to admit, honey...I do miss the MTB trails and showing off all of my scratches and bruises.

Percussivity said...

There is some perspective distortion and it makes your feet look too small... nothing personal.