Mountain Bikes
Like most kids, I rode bicycles when I was younger. I learned early to destroy most of my equipment. Not from neglect or intent, but through pushing the limits of the technology at hand and myself. In short, I broke a lot of stuff when I was a kid. I destroyed my first bike. Off came the training wheels, then snap goes the frame. I learned to jump my trikes. I still have a scar on my chin from an 8’ ledge my mother talks about on occasion. I jumped it… on my trike… twice.
I snapped the frame on my second bike too. This one broke at the bottom bracket.
And the third. It had a mono-shock design. Heavy and bouncy! The shock really handled the saddle, instead of suspending the bike. Strange way of thinking looking back. But still. I kept breaking it. There was a weak link at the pivot mount. I’d snap it off and my neighbor would weld it back on for me. Then I’d snap it off again in another week or two.
Next came a 24” quasi-bike. The frame on that one broke where the top tube met the head tube. I got that one welded back together too.
Then I turned 16 and started driving. My cycling days were over. Or so I thought.
By the time I went to college, mountain bikes were available. On campus parking, was not. It was time to return to pedal power. Suspension systems were still a little bit off in the distance, so we rode bikes that bounced because of tire pressure and not spring rates. I had a Schwinn Cimerron back in those days.
My life changed direction and I was back in a car.
The next time I focused on going to college I bought a Cannondale M1000. It was my dream bike for a couple of years before I could actually afford one. I ended up selling off all of my drum gear to come up with the cash to buy it. I still have that bike. It has definitely seen better days but I try to take reasonably good care of it. All of the Sun Tour parts are long gone as at the old Cannondale brakes. I put a Fox fork on it a couple years ago. It’s mostly 2000ish XT parts with a wheelset I built back in the late 90s.
During college, I picked up a Cannondale F1000 as a frame upgrade. Obviously, I never had to send back my old M1000 frame. I rode the F1000 for a couple years, then migrated up to a Kestrel Rubicon.
The Rubicon was a project bike. I was working for a bicycle dealership in Kansas City, doing all of their web work in trade. Basically, I traded my time for parts. I bought the Rubicon frameset and built it up from scratch. Full-XTR. Rock Shox Judy XL. The Judy still hangs on my wall in the garage. This bike ended up getting stolen from my garage about 5 years ago. The replacement is my Specialized S-Works FSR.
The FSR is what I ride when I hit the trails. The M1000 is what I ride around town or on flat pavement stuff.
Then again, I’m usually twisting a throttle a lot more often than I am turning a crank.
