Mountain biking

I survived my commute home today. Although these are always good words to write, typically they're ones I take quite for granted. Today, though, that's not so.

The trouble started when the 700x45 Schwalbe Marathon Plus tires I ordered arrived at work today. This sentence may not make much since to non-bicyclists out there, so let me explain. I ordered some rugged, fat tires for my touring/commuter bike and they arrived at work. I had them shipped to my office because I learned the hard way—twice—that FedEx can't find my apartment.

The tires are as fat as you would find on many mountain bikes. It's a tribute to my touring bike that they fit; they increase the radius of the wheel by about three-quarters of an inch and would fit on few pure road bikes due to lack of clearance with the frame. Though the tires have a tread pattern and aren't slicks, they're not knobby either and so are suitable for easy trail riding. I, of course, took them straight out to Trail 100.

There's a lot about me riding Trail 100 that wasn't smart. Firstly, by the time I finished work, installed the tires, and began cycling home, there was maybe half an hour till sunset. Secondly, I'm nearly devoid of mountain biking experience, there being only that one time I went ``mountain'' biking in Memorial Park in Houston. Thirdly, my ride also counting as my commute home, I had my panniers with me, and one such pannier contained my laptop. These points all came to mind quite suddenly when I started on the trail and realized, as I could realize only when atop a two-wheeled machine fishtailing through fist-sized rocks, that the hard, jagged ground of Trail 100 is significantly more challenging and less forgiving than the spongy, even soil of my previous mountain biking experience. But I figured it was no time for brains; I was mountain biking.

I started at the beginning near Peoria and 7th Ave. and managed to exit south of Peoria near 17th St (after making a wrong turn after crossing under Cave Creek Rd.). By the map I see that this totaled a small handful of miles, but it was a long, harrowing experience. Several times I dismounted my bicycle and walked it up a hill, which is something I think I haven't done since I was five years old. And once I had the cliché fortune of falling off my bike into a cactus-like plant. There was a little bit of blood, but that I'm blogging this tonight means that my laptop is unscathed, and that's what's important. After all, when you're mountain biking, you can't afford to be concerned for your personal safety!

In truth, these tires probably aren't up to riding many of the trails of the Sonoran Desert. I'll have to try it again without the panniers loaded down with my fear of damaging my laptop. It would also be a good idea to try it in full daylight.

And to keep this in perspective, after I had exited the trail and had spent a few miles pondering the easy, smooth asphalt of quiet, residential roads, I was reminded of the true danger in my world when a motorist rolled right through a stop sign to make a left turn while I was quite nearly in his path going the other way. Cacti and thorny bushes aren't so bad after all. Now if you pardon me I'm going to go home and remove some splinters from my hand and leg.