National Treasure

There are lots of thing our country does well.  Parks, education, wilderness. 
But maybe you don't know about the official National Treasure list. I have a few nominations.

Kids with enough guts to learn to ride a unicycle.

In flip flops...

The clown probably won't be on the list.

Strawberries are a treasure, especially when filling a cherub's hand.

A good full suspension mountain bike is not a national treasure.   But it is a segue into my main nomination.

My main nomination for national treasure today is the trail system near Tinker Creek.  I don't have a picture for it.  There is no way to convey via fiber optics and even the best inertnet (sic) connection the sense of awe, adrenaline, and beauty I experienced today, enhanced by the finest of camaraderie.  I spent nearly three hours on incredible singletrack, much of it new this year.  Sweeping curves, challenging terrain, bridges, landslips, walls of wild rhubarb, berms, off camber turns. 

Kudos to trailmaster Gord and his helpers for their fantastic contributions to trail riding in southern Manitoba.  You have an eye for the lines hidden in the landscape, the exhilaration embedded in the poison ivy, and you made my day.
And a grateful nod to the Trailhero, without whom, well, no dirt to play in, I guess.

I have to mention the riders.  Today we saw somewhere between 15 and 20 people converging on the treasure hidden in these Pembina Hills with bikes (two of them biked from their front step to the trailhead).  And the hardware?  Carbon hardtail 26", full rigid steel 29er, full suspension downhill bikes, and everything in between.  I was riding something new to me too.  But as the ride went on, my eyes opened to the fact that it's not, as Lance said, about the bike.

Today's ride was really about:  re-acquaintances, meeting new people, trying to catch someone, waiting for someone, focusing so hard on the trail that everything else vanished, and goldfinches.  They're really active right now, I noticed.

All of this using the precious, delicate, unyielding, yet ever changing treasure of the trail system.
Thank you!

Warning - bike geek stuff below.
Notice the bike pictured above?  That's not my usual ride.  After talking with Wayne B. (the coolest guy on two wheels) some time ago, I got to thinking.  Would I be faster with a dual suspension bike?  Not long after this, I noticed among Olli's collection of fancy carbon and other mysterious roadie stuff, a full suspension frame and fork (Anthem, 2008) for sale.  In my size. 

So I talked to the seller, it sounded good.  Then I talked to a friend in Winkler who rides the same frame in the same size, and convinced him to let me scientifically test drive his bike.  I took my Norco hardtail (may it rest in peace) and the squishy bike to a variety of terrains that I had predetermined in our coffee table flat city.  Then I timed myself doing short specific rides on each bike.

Comparing them side by side produced no significant differences in most situations when using short (30 - 60 second) interval type tests.  I tested: tight slalom style turns, two different hill climbs, one of which included some rough terrain, and a deeply rutted drainage ditch.  The rutty ride along the ditch was the only one that produced a noticeable discrepancy in the data.  Two seconds faster over a one minute interval.  That's about 3%.

Is 3% on one situational test enough to take the plunge and spend some cash?  I don't know, but it was the harder to measure components of my testing that helped me decide.  The bike felt great.  I felt fast.  There was great ground contact and sense of security.  The roughest parts of a race are where this bike would shine, and I want to go fast everywhere, including the unforgiving, hardtail seat breaking rocks of Falcon Lake.  I realized I had softened on my idealistic "29er single rigid" and was willing to part with some cash to do it.

Almost every single component on the Anthem was swapped directly from my Norco (R.I.P), excepting the seatpost (different dimension) and shifting (bought Gripshift x.9).

First trailride today results in a grade of A-.  Everything is great except for the shifting, which is jumpy at cog 1 and 2.  That's a mechanic problem though, not a bike problem.  It flies!

I'm thankful and having fun.  Thanks Olli and Wayne!