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View Full Version : Adventures of a MTBike JONG Part 2



seldon
05-28-2004, 09:25 PM
So, second real trail ride today. Once again, I became to lazy to bike across the bridge to access these supposed "real goods" and found myself riding up and down washington in the presidio looking for sections of fun stuff.

The shit is found.

Biking past this little "oh lookey me, i can see the bay and I'm a gaper tourist wearing a SF fleece" parking area on my way back towards the golf course on washington, a trail is spotted.

You're mine, motherfucker.

Choosing not to ride down large wooden steps in a valiant nut-preservation attempt, I continue on to the corner of the presidio and turn down the trail.

The goods are secured.

It turns out to be a nice, easy by all y'alls standards, like 3'-5' wide gravel/light sand/hard dirt/mud trail that turns about to be about right for my skill level. Turns out that as I turn in, there's a "no bike" sign.

Fuck the police!

It turns out to link up to a trail that I have run for two years now as part of my xcountry home race course.

What I have learned today:
-When dropping off of a small drop (6"-1') under breaking going downhill, be sure to release the front brake as your front wheel hits the ground. Front wheel stand was performed on a relatively fast downhill (by my standards, I was moving at roughly 2" per minute) and I got my back wheel a full 3' off the ground.
-Release front break when trying to roll over a log, especially when there are two logs w/ about a 1' gap between them. Your front tire has like 10x the traction and front wheel stands can be performed (back tire 2' off the ground, only 5 points vs the perfect 6 achieved on the previous one)
-While peddaling uphill, jumping your front wheel 1' side to side is not good. Jumping the wheel can cause you to jump it right into a rut. I have no skills=> narrow ruts that are >1' deep=MUY MUY bad.
-When attempting to get back on asphalt from large fields (the big crescent shaped thingy on washington), look before getting on the road. I almost put my front wheel in this NASTY 1' deep, 1' across drain which would have captured the wheel and sent yours truly sprawling across asphalt- ghetto style of course.

This mtbike shit is alot of fun. I will definitely have to make the trip out to the Marin Headlands either this weekend (unlikely because of finals) or Thursday afternoon when I finish my last final. Thanks for all the advice! Keep it coming! :)

Oh, and if you see a dude on a red/silver trek 4500 with the reflectors (I have to make sure people understand I'm a jong, im not cool enough to bike w/o reflectors), a black rack on the back (this + reflectors speaks to the bikes other purpose: hauling my ass around the city including stuff at night and during the day), ask for change. I'd love to meet up with some of the SF maggots. I asked for change from this guy riding a FS bike and he looked at me strange and sped up. I must be taking after AKPM's face or something :( ;) .

bigsugar
05-28-2004, 09:48 PM
Thats a pretty funny story......glad you are enjoying the sport. Once you finetune the skillset, you'll like it even more

Try just leaning forward a little more on the climbs......and keep your upper body quiet. This should go a ways to prevent the 1' sise-to-side motion.

It's funny, I see people with those gaper SF fleeces here in Michigan all the time. I guess people get suprised when it's cold in CA and they didn't pack a jacket.