Meet Whitey

Meet Whitey, my first mountain bike, a Gary Fisher Rig.  He loves to climb and roll over rocks.  I rented a mountain bike in Crested Butte several weeks ago and had a great experience.  However I had lots of open questions about what I liked and didn’t like about the experience.   I was fortunate to meet a great guy named Eric Svendson in Gunnison on the way home at a restaurant where I stopped to buy a burger for the way home.  While I was waiting on my burger Eric, who is a new single speed mountain bike racer, answered everyone of my questions and pointed me to the joy of 29er single speeding.  He graciously left me an email and walked me through the whole purchase providing tons of links and useful information.  I made the choice on the Rig however.  

My Gary Fisher was bought from my local Trek Store and Eric gave me advice on what i should customize.  I kept it simple.  I bought a Titec J-bar which is a more ergonomic bar for climbing.  I love it!! I put ESI Chunky grips on the ends and no tape.  I haven’t found that I need any tape yet.   I love the position these bars put me in.  I stole my comfortable Selle Royal saddle from my road bike.  I have had zero problems with it and it works great as a mountain bike saddle.  My road bike needs to be upgraded/replaced so I don’t care about it stealing from it right now.  I also put on Crank Brothers Candy pedals, a bell, and water bottle rack, and last but not least, tubeless tires!

I have been practicing on Marshall Mesa a lot with my friend Alec but today I took it up a notch and rode the trails west of Mag road by Eldora.  My right calf has been tight so I thought I would try to run Mags a few miles and then ride.  I wasn’t able to run at all my calf was so sore so I hit the trails.  They are rated beginner but they have some very technical sections.  I rode for over 2 hours and learned a ton.  I had plenty of hills to try to clean, and I only cleaned about 1/3 of them.  But when I did, it was the best feeling.  This will be a great trail for me to improve on.

I really owe a lot to Eric for introducing me to 29er single speeding.  You won’t find any preaching on this blog about the purity of it or anything.  It works for me right now as a beginner to keep me engaged in learning the sport. I feel stable and fast on Whitey and I love the technical and fitness challenge.  There are also things about the position I am in on this bike that just feel right to me but I don’t know enough to go into much detail.  

For now on “A Tumbling Pace” is also about the joy of tumbling over rocky trails on 29 inch wheels and not just my feet.