Running Chick

Okay, I’ll admit it.  I’ve been secretly considering purchasing a mountain bike for a while now.  The whole riding off-road, bombing through the woods thing appeals to me.  Plus, I’m fortunate enough to live in an area with numerous trail systems so there’s pretty much endless options.  I’ve been to enough of my friend James’s races, watching people of all shapes and sizes come rolling across the finish line, to begin to think that maybe I’d like to do a race one day.

However, every time I start to think that maybe I should get serious about buying, James does something scary like almost crack his head open crashing into a tree.  Or almost impale himself on his handlebars after bouncing off several trees.  And that just reminds me of the thing that doesn’t appeal to me about mountain biking – crashing.  Seems like everybody does it, but the thought coming head to head with a tree, or going over the handlebars freaks me right the hell out.  I think that the only way I could actually ride without crashing is to go really, really, REALLY slow.  But I figure if I’m going to go that slow it certainly can’t be fun, and if I’m not going to have fun then why bother?  After that, nothing ever becomes of my mountain bike ownership thoughts.

Except that last week when mountain bikes floated to the top of my thoughts, I actually did something about it.  After work on Friday, Josh and I took a ride the The Bike Shop and I tried out two bikes.

The first one, a Jamis Durango Femme 1.0 (small), fit me pretty well after the stock stem was replaced by something longer.  The Durango has a locking front shock, which is something I’ve never ridden before.  It was a strange feeling on the road to have the front going up & down (frankly it seemed rather useless), but after smoothly going over some curbs I soon realized it’s purpose – to take away the impact of the bumps! (Quit rolling your eyes.  Yes, I know.  It’s a shock, that’s what it’s supposed to do.  I’m new to the MTB world and I’ve never ridden a bike with one, so give me a break.)

The second bike I tried was a Scott Contessa 50 (small).  This bike was a better fit at first (until the stock stem on the Jamis was replaced) but Josh said that it was an inferior bike and I wasn’t allowed to buy it.  No matter, it had goofy decals anyway so I wasn’t going to argue.

This week, I’m going to head to Cross Country Sports and see what they have.  I’m hoping to try out a Trek 6000 or a Trek Skye Disc, but for now the Jamis is the one to beat.  The nice thing about buying at the end of the season is that the prices are very reasonable.  I imagine the dealers don’t want a bunch of 2009s hanging around when the 2010s come out so they’re priced to sell.

Don’t worry, I know I owe a race report from the Appleton HM.  I’ll get to that eventually.