Mountain Biking

Mike_H

Mike_H

autos are better - WRWD508
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Joined
Feb 28, 2017
Messages
11,691
Location
Grand Rapids, MI, United States
I've recently re-discovered a past passion for mountain biking. In my college days, I rode a BUNCH, like 4-5 times a week. I was living in an area with great trails and a culture that supported riding (bike shops, lots of places to park a bike, etc).

I bought ol' Blue in 1999 as my 2nd "real" mountain bike. This was my upgrade over my first bike, a Trek 830 that I quickly learned how to outride. Ol' blue is a GT Richocet, which shared frames with a Zaskar (GT's top line XC race bike). This was back when GT was still designed and manufactured in the US. Thru the years, I've upgraded components as they broke, added a nice Fox front fork, and continued to ride when the mood struck. Honestly, that wasn't very often. When I graduated and moved back to Grand Rapids, there were two trails...and they were BOTH over ridden. I was spoiled, didn't enjoy it and don't like riding on the road. So, the bike went into storage.

Fast forward a few (10'sih) years. Mountain biking is now becoming a "thing" in West Michigan. The trail network is growing, with about 3 new major trails becoming reality. I started paying attention and riding a couple times a year.
This is Ol' Blue at the trail nearest my house. Riding in MI is interesting. We have a lot of small creeks and rivers all over, so a lot of our trails follow them. They can be sticky and very vegetated. We also have hills and rocks, so you can get into some of that stuff too.

This year, I decided that I REALLY wanted to start riding again. I used to really enjoy it and now there are some really great trails to ride. So, I started a riding club at work and made sure my hockey buddies (I also play rec league ice hockey) that ride knew I wanted to ride again. All of a sudden, I was on my bike 2-3 times a week again! The same bike I bought in 1999! I was basically riding one night, fixing it the next, riding, fixing / adjusting, etc.

Decided it was time for a new bike. I rode a few different ones, including this guy which is 27.5+ that I didn't care for. I was FAST on it, but I also felt like I was working REALLY hard to ride it.
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All my friends said, "ride a fat bike...its all you need in Michigan...don't even bother with suspension forks." This is SO counter to everything I've heard and experienced, so I kinda brushed aside the advice and continued to ride different Plus bikes. I liked them, but didn't LOVE them (enough to spend $1k+ anyway).

I finally broke down and tried a Fat bike...and damn it, my friends were right. Ended up buying a Rocky Mountain Suzy Q. It was a 2018 Demo, so I got a REALLY good deal on it, and it just fits. Its slower for me, getting used to a new bike, but my speed will come back. Its got 27.5 x 3.8" tires and a narrower Q Factor (pedal width) than nearly every other Fatbike out there. It really feels like you're riding a "normal" mountain bike, just with insane amounts of traction. I'll probably add a dropper post, so I can lean the bike over more to make use of those giant tires, but that is about it.
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Just thought I'd share. I know there are other mnt bikers here... @JMT I'm looking at you..
 
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very nice. I used to do a lot of mountain biking, was into the whole freeride thing, rode trails with lots of stunts and drops. My favorite though was dual slalom, I used to race BMX as a teenager so it came naturally to me. Blowing my own horn here but in my 30's I would school the young punks :)

Everyone likes pics so here are a few.

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I'm almost the same height standing on the top of the table as the whipper snappers :)

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A good friend of mine was involved in the mtn bike industry, he landed a sweet deal with the city to build dirt jump parks.

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I would love to mtn bike again but my body will just no longer allow it.
 
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Nice Pics! We don't really do downhill freestyle here...no hills big enough. Lots of technical singletrack though. There are also some "flow parks" popping up. Those are kinda fun.
 
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I plan on putting in some miles and getting in better shape with my 2016 Specialized Pitch Expert 650b. I will be adding a Specialized Blacklite dropper seatpost soon.

Specialized Pitch Expert.jpg
 
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Hehe! I love it. I was into MTB back when I was a student at Texas Tech University. Now maybe you know why my Jeep is Flame Red. In those days I bought my first MTB from Paul’s Parts, a 1998 Gary Fisher Big Sur. I rode that dude all the time. Loved it. Fast forward to moving to the Hill Country with my wife. Had our first child, then four more (no sweat). Then they started growing up. No MTB for me, everything was privatized here and I didn’t have time anyway. But I couldn’t buy them cheap Wal-Mart brick bikes, because I knew what a bike should be, so I bought 3 Specialized 16” Hotrock for the first three, all on the same day. They were all practically the same size at 19 months apart, two of whom were twins. By and by they grew up and I’m still not MTB’ing. Then the day comes when they want an MTB so they can have gears. I’m like, hmm...So I start checking out the MTB scene. We’re in the backyard of arguably the greatest MTB train in TX, Flat Rock Ranch, a 40 minute drive from the house. So I pull out the Gary Fisher, they buy a Specialized Hardrock and a Trek 3500 and we spend teh Summer hammering out skills (they were 9 at the time). It wasn’t long before the Fisher front shock gave way. Fix or buy new. Buy new, right, it wasn’t worth fixing it, at the time. I bought a Kona Blast 27.5. I should’ve got a 29’er. Oh well, another day. We hit other trails too, as Austin and San Antonio and Johnson City and Boerne all have great singletrack. I’ll get some pics up soon. Now my boys are 12, they’re racing TMBRA. Two races so far. One of them is very fast. He’s hurting me on the trails. He finished 10th out of 50 in his second race, and he has another year in this division, and most of these kids are on teams, we’re just solo people. He’s riding a 2018 Chisel, it’s so sweet, the most awesome hardtail I’ve every ridden, and at 26.1lb and $1600+ it better be. He bought it with his own money, worked hard for it. Part of our Moab trip in 2019 is MTB in Durango, Ouray and, of course, Moab. Pics later. Have to go to bed, tomorrow’s a big day with the Jeep at Wolf Caves OHV.
 
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Scott B. said:
My Specialized is a tank compared to that. I bought the Specialized Pitch because I weigh 300 lbs and needed a brick of a bike that could handle drop offs with my big butt in the saddle. lol
Click to expand...

Specialized is a VERY respected company, have done a lot for the sport, I've owned several.
 
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I love mountain biking. I’ve gotten out of it over the last couple of years due to health issues, but plan on starting up again.
My current bike is the purple Kona that I wasn’t willing to give up easily. Several years ago I was a part of the national bike challenge I think it was called and biked and tracked my miles every day. I biked to and from work. One day when leaving work I walk out to no bike. I had it locked on the bike rack right outside my office building main entrance. My detective self immediately sprung into action knowing that our building had cameras. I also went across to the state building and the bank to see if they had cameras that could have seen something. After tracking down our human services director and security guy( it was after hours at this point), we were able to see on the camera the guy and girl that stole my bike . We were able to figure out who they were by tracking the time and who had appointments and questioning the receptionist if they recognized them. She did and we figured out they were returning the next day to finish their food share application.
We have fraud detectives in our building so first thing in the morning I met with them and we devised a plan for when they returned.
Everything went like clockwork and they were able to question the two suspects with video in hand. The woman caved and admitted they stole my bike and pawned it at the local pawn shop. The detectives went there and picked up my bike that very next day. The guy was arrested and put in jail and the woman was charged and released because she was quite pregnant.
Needless to say, I brought my bike into the building and parked it in my office or an empty office from then on.
I have lots of biking stories. I love it and need to get back Into soon. Thank you for reminding me :)
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Great to see those pics...Biking started when I was 12 and jumped 14 kids (Evel Knievel style) at my local park.haha
Now a lot older and slightly less stupid I love to mountain bike. We have a few tracks about an hours drive away from me took my daughter down hill mountain biking too..
This is me with my daughter on hired bikes as we were on holiday as the time....I ride a GT avalanche 2.0 does the job and very strong frame....probably need to upgrade to a lighter version though. lol
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Great Stories everyone! Glad to see this thread picking up some steam.

@Kathy That is an amazing story. So glad you got your bike back. There have been a rash of bike thefts around here lately. You've reminded me I need to go get a cable!
 
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