Golden Memories

  In celebration of the twentieth year of this blog, I have a few tales to tell. This post is one of them. This series will occur off and on throughout this anniversary year, I hope to illuminate some behind-the-scenes stories and highlights from the blog during this time. Enjoy!

One of my favorite times of the year to ride has always been Fall. This started when I was mountain biking in the 1990's, probably due to the fact that during Summer a few things were happening that prevented good times on the trails, at least for myself. 

One of those things was that from about June through until the first frost, weeds would grow so high along all the trail network that one could not ride without a major hassle from Nature. Stinging nettles, branches, thorny plants, and just plain ol' weeds would always be blocking your path through the woodlands here. And back then, no one mowed trails. 

Secondly, probably a situation exacerbated by the weeds, we had mega-mosquito issues. One stop and you would become a pin cushion! Many times this was also accompanied by high-water/mud so it was a double whammy. 

But mostly it was because I worked at a bike shop and we were so busy I was too tuckered out at the end of an 8 - 10 hour shift to do much of anything else. When Fall came around the hours decreased and we would not be very busy at all. I had plenty of time and energy to go trail riding. So, it would make sense that when the weeds were brown, the bugs were mostly dead, and I had the time and energy that this would become my favorite time of year to ride bicycles.

Riding a Salsa Cycles Big Mama at Cedar Bend Park October 2009

At the height of my reviewing product for 29"ers, I often used a park North of Waverly, Iowa as a test track. It had a small network of single track trails that were originally put in as hiking/equestrian trails. There were a few spots where there were steps and wooden bridges, but I could make a reasonable loop through the park and not repeat any trails with about an hour or so of ride time. 

Old time blog readers might recall seeing a lot of images from this park from about 2008 - 2012 or so. The best times riding MTB's often were from this venue, at least locally. One of my chief memories of riding comes from this park in 2009 when the leaves throughout Cedar Bend were this fabulous hue of gold. 

Looking at old 29"ers now, it seems they were all run into brick walls! Look at that head angle!

The bikes from that time period all look so weird, and so wrong to me now. First generation 29"er geometry mistakenly sought to feel like 1990's 26"er bikes, just with bigger wheels. It would take another decade for this to get worked out of 29"ers as companies, and sponsored riders, started to push for the evolution toward slack and low geometry. Then the slacker head tube angles started to become more commonplace. 

Looking back now I wish 29"ers like the Big Mama had done a radical thing and had been produced with a slacker head tube angle. I mostly loved the way this bike climbed and rode on single track, but it was a handful on steep descents. In fact, this was the bike I went over the bars on in Texas, smacking my left knee cap into a rock, and having a really sketchy experience afterward in the desert all alone. 

I also LOVED this paint scheme. It is kind of a burnt orange with brownish graphics. VERY subtle but VERY cool. I still have the frame in the Lab downstairs. The last bit of kit to remind me of this fabulous day in Cedar Bend Park in October of 2009.