say hello...

to the newest addition to the family; approximately 23lbs of carbon, rubber, aluminum, and plastic.



i went for my first ride on it yesterday (and my first real off-road ride ever), and it went ok; i was able to keep up and i didn't crash, but wow, mountain biking is DIFFERENT!

a lot of it is obvious; the gearing is very different, handling as well, and the suspension fork takes some getting used to (but i was very happy to have it).

but climbing and descending are just... it's going to take some getting used to.

for climbing, you're trying to find a balance between getting over the bottom bracket and keeping enough weight on the rear wheel to maintain traction. on the road you just get out of the saddle and hammer.

for descending, you're trying to keep your weight WAY back, over the rear hub (or even behind it) if possible, but then having to scoot forward to keep the tail of the bike from kicking up too much when the rear wheel goes over bumps. all that while working the brakes to try to keep the rear from skidding and the front from locking up.

it's a lot of work, ocassionally pretty scary, and lots and lots of fun!