biking, burgers & bros

The rain has been crazy this past week. Originally I had planned to go mountain biking with some friends at Santa Cruz but those plans got shelved because of the rain. The weather forecast said it would be sunny, but we figured that after a week of rain the trails wouldn’t be in great condition.

What’s funny is that we ended up mountain biking anyways, just not in Santa Cruz. Geo suggested that we check out the Mike’s Bikes demo day at China Camp in San Rafael. They had some pretty sweet rides, mostly from Specialized. I’ve been wanting to try out a full suspension 29er, since that’s probably what I’d buy if I were in the market for a new mountain bike. It turned out pretty much all the bikes that they had were 29ers, from the lower end Camber, which I rode, all the way up to the S-Works Stumpjumper that LKC rode.

I think we only got in a couple of miles of actual riding, but it was still pretty fun. Towards the middle of the day I was kind of regretting not riding in Santa Cruz, since the trail conditions were actually pretty decent. But then on our descent we found the trail was pretty rutted out, so I was glad that I was on a pretty well spec’d bike. It probably would’ve been much worse on my bike in Santa Cruz.

Afterwards I tested out a road bike. As much as I like mountain biking, if I were to buy a new bike anytime soon, it would probably be a road bike, simply because I spend so much more time road biking. The Specialized Tricross bike that I bought last May already has over 1,500 miles on it. If I bought another road bike I’d keep the heavier Tricross as my training and touring bike, and then use the new bike (which would hopefully be a lot lighter and faster) as my century bike. Of course whatever bike I buy won’t be as nice as this ten thousand dollar super bike that I tested.

After we finished demoing bikes we went to a nearby burger joint. It was this place called Weezy’s that specializes in sliders made of grass fed beef. It was pretty decent, albeit a bit pricey. But it was good times just hanging out after a fun day of riding.

Things I’m thankful for:

• I’ve said it many times- I’m thankful for riding buddies, both road and mountain bikers
• Mike’s Bikes- both the bike shop and my own personal bikes
• sunny weekends