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I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to go mountain biking this past weekend. I was invited to ride a Trek Fuel ex8. Got fitted and had the suspension setup for my weight and put a set up old pedals I had that were of the MTB style and thought I was ready. I rode with 2 other guys that totally trashed me on my first ride!
My first impression of the MTB bike was....it felt like it had the wingspan of a B52 ( felt very open after a road bike), heavy as Abrams tank, and rolled very slow! The gearing felt very closed (or close) to me. Didn't take long to appreciate that close gearing
We rode a place here called Freedom Park near Williamsburg VA and was totally awesome, it's maintained by Eastern Virginia Mountain Bike Association and they do a very good job of maintaining this place, I was very impressed.
It all started good. We hit a few trials that were relatively flat and open and I could keep up with the other two. I noticed real quick, as some here stated ( Poolie) it was truly like a nonstop interval! It took a lot of concentration to figure out the shifting and the disc brakes. Glad I had those! Most of the fist 2 or three miles was just spent trying to figure all that kind of stuff out, kinda like that first very fast group ride you do on a road bike
Well anyway I rode just short of 8 miles and I can tell I have NEVER pushed a fully functioning bike before in my adult life....pushed a few broke one the last couple of years but never a fully functioning bike but I did this past weekend!! My legs were so pumped on the last trail it was incredible!
At one point we stopped and Fran said not bad for your first ride and it's not that far out from here bout a mile or so. At that point a mile sounded pretty dam^** far to me and the cruel joke was that 80% of that last mile was uphill!. I was honestly totally hammered after a measly 8 mile ride! Incredible is all I can say! It felt like a had ridden a century on a road bike and I was SO SLOW! The other 2 left me in the dust on the last few trails we did... embarrassing
Wish I had the money to get a nice 29er...don't see it in the near future tho. I would love to supplement my winter riding doing this, what a workout!!
Mountain Biking Activity 7.97 mi | RunKeeper
My first impression of the MTB bike was....it felt like it had the wingspan of a B52 ( felt very open after a road bike), heavy as Abrams tank, and rolled very slow! The gearing felt very closed (or close) to me. Didn't take long to appreciate that close gearing
We rode a place here called Freedom Park near Williamsburg VA and was totally awesome, it's maintained by Eastern Virginia Mountain Bike Association and they do a very good job of maintaining this place, I was very impressed.
It all started good. We hit a few trials that were relatively flat and open and I could keep up with the other two. I noticed real quick, as some here stated ( Poolie) it was truly like a nonstop interval! It took a lot of concentration to figure out the shifting and the disc brakes. Glad I had those! Most of the fist 2 or three miles was just spent trying to figure all that kind of stuff out, kinda like that first very fast group ride you do on a road bike
Well anyway I rode just short of 8 miles and I can tell I have NEVER pushed a fully functioning bike before in my adult life....pushed a few broke one the last couple of years but never a fully functioning bike but I did this past weekend!! My legs were so pumped on the last trail it was incredible!
At one point we stopped and Fran said not bad for your first ride and it's not that far out from here bout a mile or so. At that point a mile sounded pretty dam^** far to me and the cruel joke was that 80% of that last mile was uphill!. I was honestly totally hammered after a measly 8 mile ride! Incredible is all I can say! It felt like a had ridden a century on a road bike and I was SO SLOW! The other 2 left me in the dust on the last few trails we did... embarrassing
Wish I had the money to get a nice 29er...don't see it in the near future tho. I would love to supplement my winter riding doing this, what a workout!!
Mountain Biking Activity 7.97 mi | RunKeeper