First before the ride report I want to elaborate on the previous post. I had a buddy email me and ask if everyone should be getting a full suspension and the answer is no. I don't believe that you should start on a full suspension. If you have never rode a mtb or have any other relevant bike experience like BMX I would say you need to start with a hard tail with rim brakes and flats and this is why.
If you jump right on a full suspension bike you will learn bad habits that can be compensated by the suspension with out even knowing. If you start with a hard tail you will learn to handle the bike properly and it will force you to read the trail better, look for the smoother lines. The reason you should start with flats is because it will force you actually learn how to ride your bike and not rely on the clips like a crutch. If you can't ride your bike with out clips you can't really ride your bike, for example if you can't bunny hop, manual or jump with out your clips you don't have skills! Plain and simple, the best riders in the world may use clips but they can ride at least 90-95% as well on flats as they can with clips. Lastly the reason I think you should ride rim brakes simply because you might hurt yourself if you don't know how to use your brakes properly. There is a big difference in stopping power between rim and disc brakes.
So bottom line if you haven't ridden a mtn bike or have bmx experience you should save your money buy a couple hundred dollar hard tail and ride that for the summer save up some extra money so you can buy a sweet full suspension next summer!
Alright the ride was stellar the trail was tacky to begin with and got better as the time went on. Unfortunately I was all stoked for ride and with in 5 mins I had hit the dirt hard! I launched off the table just out of the parking lot came off the lip a little weird but still went for the whip but ended up way too far forward and couldn't bring it back and hit dirt hard! After the dust settled I slowly moved all my body parts slowly and was like ok nothing is broken. I did hit my head but not hard, slightly knocked the wind out of myself, and I did end up with some serious raspberries on my left quad and calf and a small one on my shoulder. Unfortunately I was an idiot and decided not to were my leg protection and I paid for it. I did put them on before the second lap.
Other then that crash the ride was great. I hit my lines and railed most of the corners. The confidence is increasing with each ride.
I did meet some nice people there. I saw a guy on a 29er unicycle, he wasn't riding the trail but was on the bike path and there was this couple on a custom built 29er tandem mtb. It was pretty sweet! I talked to that guy for a bit about 29ers and he had some good incite, maybe changed my opinion a little but he still was one of those guys that really likes to ride ridged single speed 29ers I still don't really get it. Anyways it was a great ride and I can't wait to get back out there. It is getting a little boring riding by myself. Maybe I can find some group rides or something, who knows.
Keep it real!
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