Six months with our new mountain bike

Miles and miles of smiles


Six months ago we gave up.

We couldn't live a day longer without a functional mountain bike.

We had disposed of our dysfunctional (since ten years) bike a few months prior, and we decided we were ready.

To go in to the store.

And buy a new mountain bike.

Long story short is we wanted another full suspension bike and the lowest cost specialised fsr fit the bill. It would be our third Specialised mountain bike.

First offroad bike was a Specialized Rockhopper, circa 1986 bought in 1988. (same year as the custom Bertrand road bike - woohoo!) It lives on as Old Blue, our urban assault bike.

In 1990 we got a high-performance off-road bike with a realy excellent Specialised Stumpjumper Team. Then it was stolen.

So then we got greedy and got a Mantis Pro-Floater, a total bleeding edge high end bike from Mantis. It soon became obsolete and unrideable... And sat and collected dust for more than a decade. (You cannot imagine the shame and emptiness in our soul from this sad state of affaires)

Which brings us to six months ago, in the store, ready to buy.

Ok, wrap it up and we'll take it home.

... six months later.

We love mountain biking. There is no finer way to spend a day than to ride a bike through forests and fields and open space and roads and trails and uphill and downhill and over rocks and trees and other things and challenges of every sort to overcome.

Our other bestest off-road thing this year has been discovering East Hereford in the Eastern Townships. The village sits at the foot of Mont Hereford, and this mountain has nine great trails to explore and enjoy. There are another half-dozen trails on the other side of the village too.

We strongly congratulate all the people who worked to make the trails here become a reality. Everyone who worked to build the trails, and also everyone who worked to build community support for the whole idea of mountain bike trails in this region. And a big thanks to the locals who host us. (Suggestion: a depanneur in the village would be a great thing)

The bike rides great, we love disk brakes, and we love the ride-anywhere aspect to the full suspension bike (and yes, the comfort). And so far the bike has been holding together pretty good. Considering we are Mister-Destructoman, that's a pretty good.

What a great year to be alive!