Grays On Trays

One thing I like about learning a new activity (e.g., mountain biking) is that it helps me put an old one (e.g., snowboarding) into perspective. Here are some advantages of mountain biking:

1. You don’t have to pay anything to go riding. (Note: You may have to pay a fee if you go biking on a private land, or if you park your car in a public park.) Unless you practice back-country snowboarding, you’ll probably buy a lift ticket.
2. Unless you’re a hard-core biker who goes out in winter, you don’t have to worry about frostbite.
3. You can wear your normal shoes rather than get into specialized footwear. (Granted, some people do buy specialized biking shoes.)

And here are some advantages of snowboarding:

1. You don’t have to worry about ticks.
2. You have much more freedom of movement down a slope than you do on a single track.
3. You can go at your own pace, and not worry about keeping ahead of the people behind you.  (The need to keep pace is a challenge that I face in another summer activity, golf.)
4. In biking, a trail may be closed because it rained the day before–or the day before that. There is seldom a comparative event in snowboarding, unless it’s a really big storm that prevents you from driving to the mountain to begin with.

Here are some ways that they’re similar:

1. You can get hurt on even the easiest terrain.
2. They can both be a rush.
3. You can spend a lot of money–or not much.
4. The terrain (if you’re riding on  maintained bike trail) can be closed in both sports for maintenance.
5. You can progress from a novice to an expert by taking on more difficult terrain, attempting tricks, and so forth.
6. Equipment can make a big difference. For example, a snowboard can be too stiff or too soft for a given purpose. In biking, I noticed a huge difference in the performance of a street bike (which I took to the same trail about a month ago) and the mountain bike.

And here are some more differences:

1. Even on the novice trail that I rode, I was much closer to the trees than I usually get on a snowboard.
2. Another difference, I suspect, is that you can be much more of a gear-head–and perhaps need to be–in mountain biking.  Whether or not that’s a good thing depends on your interest in and aptitude for fiddling with stuff.

Earlier this year, I decided that my car needed a “death panel” of its own. When faced with the decision of whether to repair it again or get rid of it, the decision was easy: get rid of it.

Buy a car, get a bike

I ended up buying a new car, and with it, received a voucher for a mountain bike (or actually, anything) from a local cycle shop. Since I already have a street bike–and find that it provides a fairly jarring ride in the “paved” walking/ biking trails in my city, I opted for something different, the mountain bike. Oh yes, there’s also a well-acclaimed single-track system within a short distance of my house, which made the decision easier.

But what kind of bike? I was willing to throw in about $100 of my own money to upgrade the bike.  In theory, a “full suspension” model sounds great, but I didn’t want to pay $1,000 for a bike. Plus, as I have since found out, those types require more maintenance and more energy to ride. As it is, the wide tires (probably 3 times as wide as those on the street bike) already offer more rolling resistance, making it more demanding. No need to make cruising more difficult than it needs to be, especially since I don’t anticipate bombing down downhill trails.

So I ended up buying a 2009 model, never used ,that had an original MSRP of $900, but which had been discounted to $600. It has a front suspension and disc brakes. From what I can tell, it’s a bike for lower-level intermediates, which is certainly above my skill level at the moment.

With the voucher in hand (and having to pay sales tax on the whole price), I was out the door for about $140. Except that I then spent $25 for a pair of gloves and $25 for a lock, plus I’ll probably spend another $25 (or more) sometime soon for a new saddle (seat).

Similarities to snowboarding

I’ve taken the bike out for a few rides, both on pavement and in the woods, and I’m still getting used to how the gears work, figuring out how to ride over small obstacles, and seeing if I can live with the seat.

Before and after making the purchase, I’ve also been reading various websites about mountain biking, getting a feel for the types of mountain bikes, styles of mountain biking, techniques of biking, and for lack of a better word, culture of biking.

When I asked fans of the Grays on Trays site on Facebook an open-ended question about their summer recreational activities, the activity mentioned by people, by far, was biking of various forms. (I think it was 70/30 mountain biking versus road riding.)

There are certainly some similarities between snowboarding and mountain biking. Gravity is an important component of both. Wipeouts are possible.  Any given trail can combine cruising (easy) and technical (hard) elements, depending on its grade, the smoothness of the surface, whether or not it has sharp turns, and so forth. Oh yes, both activities can easily eat through your spending money.  In both sports, you can be a gearhead if you wish, though a mountain bike has many more parts than a snowboard. In the bike shop, I saw several models that cost $2,000 or more. The most expensive snowboard that you’ll see in most retail shops, by contrast, costs about $1,000, though you can certain spend more if you go to some split boards or alpine boards.

That’s about the extent of my knowledge of mountain biking to date. I’ll write more as I learn more.