Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Two for Tuesday - Bike Porn (A New Era Begins)

Who loves bike porn? Raise your hand. Okay, you can put your hand down now. You don't want your co-workers thinking you are any weirder than you really are.

Anyways, more pictures to enjoy.

After Aimee and I got married in '97, yeah I think that's right.....married '97, new job '98, new house '99.........yeah '97.....Aimee's dad bought us mountain bikes for our wedding present. We checked out a couple of different shops and test rode some bikes. We selected the ones pictured here (Aimee's bike below). Specialized Rockhopper FS. A great entry level bike for just getting started with mountain biking. We decided on bike because my co-workers were always talking about these 24 Hour relay mountain bike races they were doing. This was the early years of Granny Gear Productions and the 24 Hours of Canaan.

So I wanted to get in on the action and race with them at the 24 hour race in '98. So the new bike was my new racing machine. I trained with my friends and we raced. It was an awesome time and I knew I was hooked on the mountain biking scene. I've raced that bike on the local trails, 5 24 Hour races, adventure races, training rides, all sorts of places.

I pimped my ride (shown at left) a couple of years ago by upgrading all of my components....crank, shifters, brakes, derailleurs, wheels. It was a great way to learn how to take it apart and fine tune it. I haven't raced much on my mountain bike lately because I slowly switched to road racing and triathlon.

But that "first" bike is still an important part of my stable. It got me back into biking and competition after being out of it for too long.

Oh, those rocks in the driveway are for a gardening project in front of the house.

Game On.

5 comments:

Nancy Toby said...

I'm impressed by the load of rocks in the driveway just for displaying the bikes. Sort of like those fake rock hills at the Land Rover dealerships.

Jodi said...

It's so interesting to look back and see how everyone got started in the crazy sport we do. Mountain biking seems like a ton of fun!

Jodi

:) said...

I actually raised my hand...does that make me white AND nerdy?

Bolder said...

great opening to the post!

flatman, put your hand down you white and nerdy ridin' dirty kinda texan!!

Cliff said...

Do i hear xterra? :)