Mountain Biking!

When Charles and I moved to Boulder, Charles had a pretty immediate desire to learn mountain biking. It is definitely a highly popular activity here in Colorado, so we signed Charles up for a class at REI on mountain biking! We weren’t really sure how much mountaing biking differed from just riding a bike, but Charles found the class valuable and decided that he liked mountain biking! Of course, with an introductory view as good as that, how could you not?!

After the successful trial, Charles did a lot of reserach and talked to a lot of people about the best bike. Fortunately, it was the end of the biking season, so the bikes were on a nice sale. Unfortunately, that did mean that he would get in very little biking before the season ended. The bike got delivered in a massive box and mostly put together, thankfully.. Of course, Neko had to help as well.

Fast Forward

Fast forward to the beginning of summer 2023, and Charles convinced me to try mountain biking. I probably wouldn’t have tried if it weren’t for my friend, Sierra, whose husband convinced her to give it a try. After some research (on Charles’ part), Charles had decided on a few good bike options. There was a beginning of the season sale at a Epic that had 30% off all bikes, so Charles and I went and got myself a nice beginner mountain bike, with a great return policy. You know, just in case.

We started off the first weekend just biking around the foothills near our house. While I have had bikes in my life, I knew pretty much nothing about gears, so it was a big learning curve. There’s plenty of hills near us though, so it was a good way to learn without having to worry about rocks and cliffs. Ha, just kidding. Don’t worry, Mom, I don’t go anywhere near cliffs…

After our successful trial run, we did another trail near our house that was more on gravel and paths rather than roads. It was another great step on learning the nuiances of mountain biking (without the actual mountain…).

We decided the next step was to actually go mountain biking! We use an App called MTB Project to find the best trails. It’s really helpful to see the difficulty as well as the views! Charles found a nice mostly easy trail for us to try. We then drove over to Maryland Mountain, which was the perfect trail! It was a nice large path that was just slightly uphill. Now, let’s be real. I sucked. I was using muscles that I hadn’t used in forever and the uphill felt much steeper than it looked! But, with lots of breaks, we powered through and had some fun!

Outgrowing my Bike

The next trail we did was over in the mountains not too far from us, but it wasn’t quite as successful as everything else had been. My bike and I really struggled with the inclines, downhills, but mostly, with the rocks. I could feel every single rock that my bike was running over and it was just not fun. What we learned is that I had outgrown my bike! My bike was a good bike for beginner trails, but really didn’t stand up to any degree of rocks or inclines. Remember that return policy? Yeah, we used it. Thankfully we were within the time of being able to return the bike for a full refund!

Returning my bike meant that I needed a new one. Good mountain bikes are quite the investment, but we had done enough riding to know that I enjoyed it (most of the time…) and would be worth buying. So, we went back to the drawing board and did some research. We went to all the stores here in Boulder, but unfortunately, I’m just too tiny and they didn’t really have any bikes in stock that I could even try. Choosing a bike is pretty subjective. When you get on it, you either like it or you don’t. You can make some adjustments to make it more comfortable/easy to use, but generally you get a good idea just by getting on it. I just wasn’t loving anything I had tried yet.

So, we drove into the town next to us to try a few more stores and see if they had anything available. We found the cutest bike shop, Long Mont Velo, where the owner was INCREDIBLY helpful. He really answered all our questions, didn’t make me feel stupid, and was very patient. While they didn’t have the exact bike or size available, he was able to order it for us. If we didn’t love it when it came in, we didn’t have to keep it. It came in a week later, and we drove over to give it a test ride and I loved it!

A Perfect Fit

The first trail we went to was the one that I had outgrown with my previous bike. The difference was night and day. Charles kept telling me what it felt like when riding on his bike, and I suddenly understood. I couldn’t feel the rocks I was running over and the rocks weren’t pushing me off the trail. I felt like I was in charge of the trail! It was still difficult but overall, it was such a better experience with a ‘real’ mountain bike.

Since I felt like I was a bit more advanced, we could try a slightly more difficult trail. So we drove to a trail called Hobbit for a day of mountain biking, on a mountain! This is considered an intermediate trail! It was long and challenging, but overall it was fun and the views were beautiful! I only fell once (near the end)!

Keep Riding

The summer brought new, fun adventures as well as the heat! Throughout the summer, we’ve tried to bike when we get the chance. Charles completed a trail recently that had some black diamond areas, called Little Scraggy Trail (the BEST name)! We’re trying to squeeze in the last bit of summer before the snow comes here in Colorado. We’re very excited to have recently bought a Peleton to help keep us in shape for next season though! I’d say the first full season mountain biking in Colorado was a success, for both me and Charles!