New Bike

Well I got the mountain bike.

I bought a Cannondale Carbon Rush 1. This bike was the demo bike that Ken from Bike Lane was riding.

The funny thing is I took my wife in to show her the Rush 6, the Aluminum frame bike I was thinking about getting. We have been riding road bikes which are much lighter, and she picked up the bike and said that it was heavy, then she went down the row and grabbed this bike and said this is the one you need. Who am I to argue with my wife when she says to upgrade to a better bike. Herb was happy to see that and said that they could make us a very good deal on that bike. The MSRP is $6000, but because Ken has ridden it, they sold it at cost.

Now that I have the bike, I am going to try my legs at a mtb bike race in a two weeks. I just registered for the BTU Power Peddle MTB race in Bryan, TX. It should be fun. I will get a chance to see how the bike handles and see what it is like to actually race.

Huntsville Classic Mountain Bike Race

Vanessa and I worked at our first mountain bike race the Huntsville Classic. The race was sponsored by Bike Lane. The first race started at 8:30, but Ken mentioned that things would get crazy, so we planned to arrive at 6:30. When we got there we were the second car in the lot. Ken was up and walking around.

It was still dark, so Vanessa slept in the car. I walked around to see what needed to be done. Ken decided that Vanessa and I could work the first road crossing to stop traffic while the race was going on. At this point on the course we got to see the riders right after the start and again just before the finish.

The race started off with the sport category and we knew a few people riding in that group. The sports did 2 laps around the course, so we got to see everyone 4 times. After most of the sports were done, the expert group started. They did 3 laps and we got to see the riders 6 times. Last for the day were the beginners which only did one lap. This group also had some very young kids racing as well. The last rider finished almost 2.5 hours after their start, which made for a very long, but fun, day for Vanessa and I. We finished up and headed back to the start area about 3:00.

After seeing what mountain bike racing is like. I think I may want to give it a go.

Tried Mountan Biking today

A couple guys from work were going to Huntsville State Park to ride the trails today. Luckily Matt had an extra bike and asked if I would like to join them. What a work out.

We got to the park about 8:00 am. Matt lead us through the route. Stopping every so often to allow me to catch up. The route was challenging for a first time trail rider. There were several places where I had to figure out how to climb a rut which required hopping the font wheel.

The entire trail was about 9.5 miles. We rode it twice. The second time Matt rode like he will for his race in two weeks. Chris also rode hard for the second loop. I just rode at the pace that I felt comfortable. I made sure that I could stay on the route, and tried to not stop or put my foot down unless I had to. I did pretty well, I only had to put my foot down 4 times. Once because I hit the soft sand, once because I turned right when I should have turned left. Another was because I could not get over the tree root that was about a foot off the ground. The last one was because I chose the wrong line and hit a small tree on the side of the route.

What fun. I don't know if I will buy a mountain bike or not, but it was fun.