Buy the F-ing Pugsley

This time he isn't the one who is hummming and hawwwing about a Pugsley. Thank goodness! Buy the Pugsley to ride on snow in the wintertime if you really are going to ride it. Don't buy it to show up at a ride in Ishpeming to look cool. Stop humming and hawwing. Geesh!

If you want one there was a pretty dark gray one right in the stinkin' shop. Just buy it and be done with it. Alright? Alright.

You think you're tough? Try this: http://www.arrowheadultra.com/blogger/blogger.html

Winter Riding

Places to ride:

• Plowed bike path around town
• Packed snow shoe trails
• Quiet roads
• Hiking trails
  

The Current Debate

Whether to sell the Niner R.I.P. 9 and ride the fully rigid S.I.R. 9 Niner or keep the Niner R.I.P. 9. I'll replace the borrowed images with actual pictures this weekend. The "Steel is Real" SIR is equiped with a Surly Karate Monkey fork. I'm pretty sure "we" have owned four or five Karate Monkey forks throughout the fully rigid ride debate.

Klein Attitude Race

When I met him (January, 2004) he had a Klein Attitude Race. It was similar to the bike pictured above, but the fork was RED. What he loved most about this bike (from what I heard over and over) was the paint job. This was his first "real mountain bike". He went on his first mountain bike rides wearing Montrail boots, Patagonia G-pants and capilene tops. Before his rides he would fuel up by eating an entire rising-crust pizza--usually Jack's. He would come home and talk about how Johnny could ride over everything and sometimes he would have to "hike-a-bike". I learned that this was due to his bike being a hardtail and that a "dual" suspension bike would fix this.

Trek Singletrack 920

The Trek 920 bike, is a non-suspension mountain bike. According to BikePedia.com, the year of the 920 was 1994. I think it was called a Trek Singletrack because the wheels that are on the bike, also made by Trek/Bontrager are called Single Track. Made of steel, the 920 will be relatively heavy compared to aluminum bikes that were made more recently. Steel has favorable reviews because of its smoother ride capability and it has "more soul". My husband swears by steel bike frames now, preferably Reynolds 853 steel.

The bike that I got for my high school graduation was a Trek Mountain Track. It was also TIG-welded steel. We got it from Marinette Cycle Center in Marinette, WI.

My husband had the Trek Singletrack before I met him. The story goes that he either gave or sold the bike to a friend of his in college--Matty Battjes. This is the bike that Bill rode when he initially got interested in mountain biking. I imagine the bike looked a lot like this one available on Craigslist. I just googled Matt Battjes, who now is on Facebook in Portland and has commented a few times out there on the internet about "spinning cranks"--seems to be riding bikes.