Awesome 29er Ride
I had a pretty cool and unique oppurtunity today. In honor of my departure for a 3 week trip to Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Italy, some of my best friends sent me off with a memorable ride that ended up being pretty hairy, but successful. It’s cool enough to ride with the guys behind Willits Brand but to also get to ride with three other buddies on varying brands of 29ers was really cool. We headed out on a transitional pre-Fall evening about 2 hours before dark to what I would consider to be the most challenging trail in Austin. With over 2200 feet of climbing, an endless labryinth of roots and rocks, and stifling humidity, we had our work cut out for us. Then came the rain. Wes and I were both on our Monster Xs (his with drops, mine 1×9 with risers), Jared on his Trail King, Scotty on his Townie, Rob on a full suspension 29er and Dave on a fully-rigid steel 29er; we plowed through what could have been a deadly wet excursion and turned it into a pretty cool ride. It really seemed like the 29-inch wheel equalized our varying skill levels and made a treacherous ride manageable. I commented on how slick the rocks weren’t, Jared commented on how slick the ROOTS weren’t. I decided our 29ers took the traditional struggles of a wet ride and made them really minimal. The tacos and beer afterward didn’t hurt either. I’m going to check out the UCI World Championship Road Race in Austria and a huge cyclocross race in Switzerland, I’ll let you know how it goes and will take plenty of pictures. See you in a month!