Back to biking - first ride

Guss-81

After 10 years I've decided to get back into biking. I've been riding to work for the last 2 weeks and I decided to make my first ride somewhere close to get some practice in (and I need it!). Didn't realise what I had on my door step.

These are a few photos I took before my battery went flat. All in the centre of Swindon and found when detouring around a closed cycle track on the way home from work.

My old faithfull M-Trax 1500 (well overdue replacement)

This is a hill I rode down.

Doesn't look like much but from the other side you can see how it just stops and drops of at the bottom

It went round to the right after that. Very bumpy and thin where the council had dug a irrigation ditch. There was also a bit of single track through the woods, very mild by normal std's but fun none the less.

Just wanted to share my first ride with you and wondered if anyone else had similar experiences?

I just wish I could have taken photos of the rest of it and that I had some way of taking a drink with me, it was very hot and I was thirsty!

xtreem

Nice. One more man back on the bike is always good.

So how do you cope with the rigid fork?
On the first picture it looks smoooth, on the second and third, not.

diamondbacker

Looks very nice. Discovering (rediscovering?) mtb'ing at this time of year is great. I know I'm enjoying it. How soon are you thinking of changing your bike? Mind you I'm quite happy with my old knacker for the time being aswell. I guess an upgrade is really only neccessary if you want to race.

Guss-81

I've never had suspension except for a Activator which was basically heavy ridged forks, they had no travel at all. The ridged forks are ok until you pick the speed up on the bumpy stuff. Then I get slightly less confident of the grip from the front tyre.

One things for sure there defiantly teaching me how I can control my bike rather than how my bike can control my in-experience. For instance I have to use my arms and legs to soak up bumps and I can't compress suspension to help with bunny hops, etc.. Not that I'm that good at them but I hope that the practice will give me more control when I upgrade.

I'm not sure when I will upgrade. I get married in a week Sat so I'm a little short on cash at the mo. I'm trying to convince my work to join a cycle to work scheme but there being difficult. Which is a pain in the ass. My fiancees' work run a cycle to work scheme but they only do it around November time but she needs a new bike too. Although she will only ride on smooth easy tracks at the moment I hope she can get into it and it's something we can do together.

My bike defiantly needs upgrading though. It's ok for the ride to work as it's light as hell but off road I'm just waiting for the next part to break. The wheel rims are worm out as are the brake blocks, the bearing in the left pedal has started to break up the tyre side walls are not looking to good (there more of a fabric material), I've already had to replace both brake cables and the cantilever pull brakes aren't up to the job, I thought I was going to snap the levers off at the bottom if the hill pictured

I might buy a Genesis Core 20 towards the end of the year if I can. Until then I will try to get the gear/ spares that I need.

The Rookie

Guss-81 wrote:

I'm trying to convince my work to join a cycle to work scheme but there being difficult. Which is a pain in the ass. My fiancees' work run a cycle to work scheme but they only do it around November time but she needs a new bike too.

The trouble is that the C2W scheme is part of the 'salary sacrifice' system (can also be used for pensions and nursery vouchers for example) and as such (gov't red tape time) costs the company about £10K to set up, they need a 'critical mass' of potential salary scrificees before its worth doing.

Simon