Solobreak - Mountain Biker?

Yes, it's true. It works a lot better if you sing it to the tune of "Jesus Christ Superstar":

Solo-break
Moun-tain biker
One little log and he became a hiker

I was going over my training logs yesterday, as in the cold wind that was a more appealing idea than going out and adding to them. Per usual, some comparisons with years past were included in my review. Noting that this year, with minimal running due to my foot injury, my YTD bike hours are way up, even though my ride count is down, I investigated why. You mathematicians have probably already calculated the average duration of my rides this year must have gone up. Correct, good for you, have a donut. It's around two hours. Less short spins on the trainer, and almost zero morning rides before work.

Several reasons account for this. You don't have to be Williard Scott to know that we've been having a cold winter. Then we have the right-wing conspiracy resetting the clocks and robbing us of an hour of daylight each March morning. And I've been staying up/waking up much later than ever before too. I don't really have an explanation for that. Last but not least, my beautiful state-of-the-art mountain bike, pictured above has been left in a mild state of dysfunction this winter.

As many of you know, ThomP is one of the few local cycling bloggers consistently pumping out entertaining content the past few months. What this two-wheeled renaissance man lacks in scientific knowledge regarding things like the solubility of peanut butter in soy milk, he makes up for with superb command of written English and an exceptional sense of humor. Thom's funnies combine the rare but much sought after blend of lateral stiffness and vertical compliance. In other words, he's young enough to be funny, but old enough that I still get most of his jokes.

Thom is a mountain biker at heart, and at lungs, and at legs, and at brain, often lamenting about being relegated to the pavement, for whatever reason. I've written many times in the past how to me bike riders are just bike riders. When I started, there were no "mountain bikers." There were just "bike riders" who bought mountain bikes. I don't think I knew anyone who owned a mountain bike who did not also ride a road bike, because there was no such thing as a "cheap mountain bike" in 1986. Four hundred bucks was about the lower limit then, and in those days the only people who spent $400 on a bicycle were, well, bike riders. I bought my Rockhopper in the fall of my first season of serious riding, in fact before I ever even got a USCF road license.

Borderland, like everywhere else, did not have a mountain bike policy then. There was no need. You would never, ever see another rider in the woods. Blue Hills was pretty much deserted then. You'd see hikers on Big Blue, and equestrians on the weekends over behind Houghton's, but that was it. Very little of the trail network that is there today was not grown over with brush. The primary surface was not the rocks and roots we know today, it was the black peat and disintegrated oak leaves that make up the natural woods floor around here. It was mountain biking au natural. Ironically, today these areas are so overused that 90% of the trails undergo some sort of construction/maintenance, almost like the road. Hell, I think many of the trails in Blue Hills see more roadwork per mile than the "roads" I ride.


More evidence of a mountain biking past

So now everything around here is pretty well worn and rocky. The lovely Yo Eddy above, sweet as it is, does not possess a ride quality anyone would call "plush." Stiffest fucking frame on the planet is more like it. The original fork suffered a stupidity related failure a few years back, and at least the cheap replacement makes up for the loss in steering control with a bit of give on the bumps. But the back end of this thing is pure boneshaker.

Not that I have a lot to compare it too. I've only owned four mountain bikes. The 'hopper was the first. This schoolbussed-wheelbase beast got upgraded to a Cannondale M400 a few years later. This was an employee buy of the lowest end model they made. Most of the shit components got trashed immediately, but all the frames were about the same then. Here it is, fitted with drop bars:



This is a cyclocross race at Wompatuck, but I rode it with drops in MTB races too, notably several editions of both Lynn Woods and the Freetown Fight for the Forest, Wrentham, Surf and Dirt, and even the Hillsborough Classic. Eventually the crimped aluminum chainstays failed and the rear triangle parted company with the front half of the bike. Cannondale warranteed the thing, replacing it with a newer frame sporting a 1.25" headset and aluminum "pepperoni" fork. This bike was just as stiff as the Yo Eddy. I raced it at Putney, Williston, Wompatuck and maybe a few other places. This one did not break, but eventually I was gifted the Yo Eddy and so I gave the Cannondale to a nephew in Medford and it was stolen soon after that.

Where was I? Oh yeah, how come I'm not riding my MTB in the morning anymore? Thom's recent posts got me thinking about that. I used to make a quick a.m. Town Forest - Borderland - Mountain Road loop before work a staple of my spring training. The topic of mud came up over there. I don't like mud, but you scientists may know that it becomes a solid when the temperature drops below 0 degrees C, like it does almost every night around here at this time of year. (but is it a solution or a dispersion, or both?). Heading out at dawn, it's still warmer to ride in the woods than on the road, not to mention safer, as you don't have solar-glare to make you invisible to the motorists. More accurately, you don't have the motorists in the woods. You also don't have to share the woods with too many other users at this hour. It's almost like back in 1986. Truth be told, I don't generally take on too much of the "technical" side of Borderland on these rides. Most of the time I just do tempo on the dirt roads, keeping up a good pace for an hour or so while trying not to kill any dog walkers or errant deer. On the best days the air above the ground gets up into the toasty 40s when the sun comes up, but the ground stays nice and firma-frozen until well after I'm done riding.

So how come I haven't been doing that this year? In Williespeak, I dunno. The Yo could use a bit of TLC. The cranks and BB have seen better days. The brakes suck. This machine was originally built for Magura hydraulics (not the disc kind) so it doesn't have the proper cable stops, and needs full length housing to the rear. Squishy. The bars are cut too short too, making my hands uncomfortable. And it's just not the same with this fork. Should I go all out and restore it, have Igleheart or somebody make me a new "big one inch" fork, do up cable stops, repaint, maybe even do disc mounts? Seems like a lot of work and money for a bike that will still be too stiff for my aging skeleton. I'd rather have some sweet new 29'er dualie, but even a middle of the road model would still run more $$$ than I've ever spent on a bike before, and weigh 28 pounds to boot. I don't know about that idea.

I'm just a bike rider. Thanks for reading.