I think I just enjoy all kinds of riding off road. When I ride with cross tires and drop bars, I really enjoy myself, even if I get a bit beat up. I'm happy folks like Grant Petersen and Chris Kostman are trying to popularize this type of riding as it's a lot of fun and most bikes can do way more than we give them credit for.
On the other hand, when I ride rougher trails on my dual suspension 29er, I also have a blast, and it takes me to places in terms of distance and trail difficulty I could not get to on cross tires. At least not without hand neuropathy. So there is a place for both bikes and both kinds of riding. There are also lots of trails in between that are fun either way. I was joking the other day as we were doing some underbiking here in SoCal about the irony that some on the Riv/Bob lists seem to relish riding the fattest tires they can on the road (Hetres/Big Apples) and yet then want to ride things like skinny pasela 32s off road. Perhaps we all have a strong contrarian streak. Dustin "you can pry my disk brakes from my cold, dead hands" Sharp San Diego, Calif. On 3/30/10 5:20 AM, "Frederick, Steve" <[email protected]> wrote: > Good read and I enjoy underbiking once in a while, and love riding dirt roads > on one of my versatile Riv/Grant bikes. But I prefer a suspended bike for > riding "real," trails just because I can't take the pounding. > > I think Grant's preferences for roadish trail bikes stem in part from his > location--Marin County is opposed, even hostile toward biking on trails, going > all the way back to the birth of modern mountain biking. The less you look > like a "Mountain biker," the less likely you are to face the wrath of upset > hikers and ticket writing rangers. > > Steve "bouncy bikes on the trail, lugged steel on the road," Frederick, East > Lansing, MI > > > -----Original Message----- > From: [email protected] > [mailto:[email protected]]on Behalf Of Mike > Sent: Monday, March 29, 2010 4:39 PM > To: RBW Owners Bunch > Subject: [RBW] Grant's latest post. > > > http://www.rivbike.com/blogs/news_post/221 > > I really like his observations about riding off-road. I like this > piece a lot and it makes a nice companion piece to go with Tips for > Happy Riding. I don't mountain bike anymore but I used to do it a lot > when leaving in the Bay Area. Part of me always felt that I was > forcing myself to descend and climb faster than I really wanted which > took some of the fun out of it. I still miss the people I rode with > down there. As fast as they are they remain a great group of people. > But I'm much happier with the pace of my riding here. > > Oh, I should clarify that while I don't "mountain bike" I still ride > plenty of unpaved roads and even some singletrack now and then in > Forest Park and Powell Butte. The Hilsen does just fine on these > trails. > > --mike -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
