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Post by seenvic on Mar 22, 2012 14:29:18 GMT -5
We have all had a right of passage moment as a rider. I have had many. The first race, first 24 hour race, first time back packing, first time.......I ever did the Connector is the one I am going to start this thread with.
It was about 1994 or 1995. I had been riding for about 3-4 years. My main riding group consisted of one person....Coop. Some of you know Coop, others just know of Coop. He was/is quite a character. Ole Coop talked me into riding this thing the locals called "The Connector". We started at Modoc, and rode to the end. Got to the powerlines, turned right and rode them toward Stevens Creek. As we were told, there would be a left just before/after the last power pole and the trail took you down to the best spot to wade the creek.
We waded across Stevens Creek, mainly hopping from rock to rock, trying to keep our shorts dry and our bikes out of the creek. On the other side, we pushed back to the Turkey Creek Trail thru a serious patch of nettles. We popped out on south side of the powerline crossing. We rode to Key Bridge and turned around.
On the way back, the fact that this was by far the longest ride I had ever done had hit me square in the forehead. I kept saying I needed to stop and rest. I will never forget Coop saying, "Man, we just stopped 30 seconds ago!".
We waded that creek back across to Modoc, and eventually made it to the car. I think the total distance for the day was around was about 26-28 miles. I probably waded that creek 10-15 times in various locations over the next few months/year. But eventually someone showed me the way to ride w/o wading the creek, and I haven't waded the creek since.
This ride was significant because it was the first time I ventured off the trail most traveled and found I liked it. I recall thinking these bikes "can take you places" and not just ride around in circles on a loop. I think it was the first time I got relatively far from the car with no way back except to pedal. This ride tested me. And that is a good thing to do from time to time.
You have MTB'g right of passage?
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Post by beckyl on Mar 22, 2012 15:29:57 GMT -5
What an awesome story BV! I've already got thoughts on what I want to write and I'll bet this is gonna be a busy thread. When it comes to bikes we ALL have one of these stories! Thanks! I'll be smiling the rest of the day.
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Post by dgaddis1 on Mar 22, 2012 15:54:38 GMT -5
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Post by money on Mar 22, 2012 17:59:11 GMT -5
I remember my first mountain bike ride. It was Horne Creek, and I was on a Walmart Mongoose POS tank. That thing had to weigh 40+lbs by itself. I felt like my lungs were going to pop out of my chest and leave my sorry a$@ about a mile in. I had one of my daughters plain school backpack full of bottled water and frozen ice packs. Talk about being heavy. I thought that I was going to die that day, but i made it out of the woods, and from there I was hooked.
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Post by wooglin on Mar 22, 2012 19:18:39 GMT -5
First (and only so far -- I ain't stupid) walk of shame.
Back when I lived in FL not many people rode MTBs, including me. We were mostly roadies. But I had one, and would occasionally drive down to the Ocala National Forest for the only trails that weren't short loops or out and backs. That's where I got my first taste of long trail rides, but that's not what this story is about.
Sometimes I'd also go out around Gainesville. No legal, sanctioned, or even maintained trails there back then, everything was sketchy and overgrown, and you sort of had to piece things together. So that's what I was doing. I'd left from my apartment near the university, and was putting little pieces of trail together along an old rail bed (now a rail trail). I had all afternoon, and was well on my way to using it.
I was a ways out of town, 10 miles or more I guess, but I really have no idea, and was riding in some flat, scrubby pine forest. There was a trail, but it wasn't much of a trail. More like a trail bed that didn't get much traffic. Pretty normal for there actually. So I'm riding along minding my own business when some innocuous little stick like the many many other innocuous little sticks I'd run over many many times before jumps up, gets picked up by my chain or my spokes or both, spins around, and tears my derailleur clean off. Damn. A stag head Deore derailleur too -- you can't even hardly find them any more and its the only part missing from an otherwise fully stock vintage ride.
Being a roadie of course I didn't have a chain tool, so there wasn't a thing I could do but start hoofing it. I don't remember how long I walked, no more than an hour I'm sure but it seemed like more, and that was just getting to the nearest road. Then I had to hitch back to town. No trouble getting a ride mind you, because apparently the typical north-central Florida redneck of the late 80s, while nice enough, reveled in the idea of poking fun at some lycra-clad schmuck schlepping his bike along the side of the road. That I turned out to be a yankee was just icing on the cake.
This story is also why I'm a single speeder. Though I didn't discover single speeding for many years, every time I ride sketchy crap and don't have to body english my derailleur around things, I think of that stupid stick, that walk, and most of all the ride back to town.
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Post by azdrawdy on Mar 22, 2012 20:15:47 GMT -5
1988. Germany. I was a smoker. I went to a LBS and bought a Bianchi mtb with Shimano Exage components. Three up front, six in the rear. Heavy steel frame. I was sent to the US for 13 weeks of training. Montgomery, AL. Took my bike. When I got there, I started running the track, and decided to quit smoking. Went to an LBS there and looked at "real" mountain bikes. Headed back to Germany and bought a Cannondale M700. Serious aluminum bike! My epiphany? Zipping through the woods one day in the snow and ice, dropping down a gully and realizing that MY CANNONDALE would get me back up the other side, without walking. DAYUM! MD
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Post by beckyl on Mar 22, 2012 20:55:59 GMT -5
This is more about my epiphany as opposed to a right of passage. I apologize if it's too long. I need to start with a little background on my cycling history. I grew up in a place the locals referred to as “hospital hill” in Southern Ohio. It was basically two blocks worth of project style houses encircled by a street and a hospital...all on top of a hill. Started off with the typical banana seat bike that my dad taught me how to ride in the hospital parking lot (thanks Dad). Crashed often, had to get stitches in my left knee when I crashed in gravel and finally ended up with this beauty….a Huffy 10 speed. My friends and I were always on the bikes. We would compete to see who could ride around the hill the longest with no hands and you could always tell whose house we were at by all the bikes in the yard. Ahhh, those were good times! I knew that bike like the back of my hand. Ended up moving to the country after 8th grade and this put the kibosh on my riding because the only paved road was a busy SR with no shoulders. Spent high school and a few years thereafter worrying about stupid stuff like hair, make-up, and boys then when I was in my mid 20s life changed and I somehow discovered mountain biking. Actually, I bought my first mtn bike before I even had anyone to ride with (a GT Timberline w/front suspension). Then miraculously, I was at work one day (at the atomic plant in Piketon for those of you from SRS) and I overheard a girl named Helen saying she just bought a used mtn bike, asking if there were any trails around. Well, I seized the opportunity and introduced myself…the next thing you know we’re riding the bikes on my brother’s 4 wheeler trails in the woods behind my mom’s house. I remember saying to her, “I cannot believe I am actually riding a bike through the woods”. The idea of combining my two most favorite things in the world was just mind boggling (woods&bikes). I honestly think that first ride through the woods with a friend was my “epiphany”. In nearly 20 years since getting back into cycling I have been blessed to have met the coolest people and have had some of the most awesome experiences… and Helen is still one of my best friends today.
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Post by kconner on Mar 22, 2012 21:54:33 GMT -5
My first trip on a trail was my freshman year of high school. I had a Huffy that came from Target, probably weighed close to 50 lbs, and had "dual suspension" (awesome right??), and met up with a friend. Rode from his house on Evans to Locks Road down the Towpath to Broad Street Burgers. On the way back, we hit the Canal Singletrack (I don't remember it well, but I remember the trail being very different then...it seems that it was more of a series of loops with a red and white route?) and then rode back. I kept that bike for several years and rode the Canal Singletrack a couple of times a year....never lost the bug, but never had time to ride. In 2008, my partner at work talked me into "investing" in a REAL bike so he would have someone to ride with, so I picked up a 2008 Gary Fisher Wahoo. I remember not seeing the benefit of dropping about $500 of my hard earned money for a bike that didn't even have a spring in the rear, when I had a dual suspension bike at the house. It quickly became clear when I went for my first ride at the canal and I climbed the first steep section that I was never able to climb before (it's a wonder what a lighter bike and gears that work will do for ya). From that day on I went from riding when I had time (almost never) to making time to ride
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Post by Angela on Mar 22, 2012 22:14:13 GMT -5
This won't go down as a favorite memory but it was the start - my first mountain bike ride was in 1998 on a hard tail from Sam's Club. The trail..........Baker Creek State Park Fortunately pretty quickly afterward, the discovery of the Canal MTB trail and Daniel winning a mountain bike that he gave to me - a Cannondale Super-V 400 - cemented the deal!
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Post by ted on Mar 23, 2012 8:28:14 GMT -5
Bicycle Related "Rights of Passage"
Age 6...learned to ride on my friends Schwinn Grey Ghost and obtained my first bike shortly thereafter
Age 9...got my first LBS bike (Diamond Back Viper) and began racing at Chaffee Park and exploring further and further from home in and around the woods of Belvedere.
Age 11... Made my first endurance ride from Belvedere to AJBW's and back (roughly 17 miles round trip)
Age 12...got my first of two Haro freestyle bikes. Began construction and riding of trick ramps, a quarter pipe, and a half pipe at a friends house. (He's now a professional skater)
Age 15...got my drivers license and quit riding until after graduating high school and after breaking up with my long term girlfriend. Man girls are expensive! (but that's an Epiphany more than a right of passage)
Age 19...Met Bill Victor, read one of his MTB Action magazines, proceeded to purchase my first mtb, ride, and become an employee of "The Friendliest Bike Shop in Augusta"
Age 20...Sold my first bike to a young kid when he was 6. I remember seeing the look of excitement on his face as he inhaled deeply, taking in the smell of rubber and bananas. At that moment, with that particular look on his face, I realized that I was where I wanted to be in life and still am....on a bike.
Since then I've had many many moments on a bike, but they were all just confirmations of what had already been realized.
"Cycling is like church...many people participate, yet few understand."
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