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| Zacke82, Zaskar Pro. |
Louis Shalako
I may be hurting tomorrow, but right now I feel
pretty good.
After a long six or seven months of winter, I took my mountain bike for a ride.
It’s a Trek
3700.
The tires were very soft, and I rode it carefully to
the nearest gas station. It costs a dollar these days to put air in the tires.
I got the front up to about 65 psi and the rear a bit less, 62 psi. Those
gauges aren’t too accurate, but the max listed on the tire is 70 psi. I like
the front tire harder than the back. It gives precise control on the front end
and a bit of cushioning on the back end. This bike has front suspension but not
rear. I prefer this for putting power to the ground, although I love having
front suspension. It saves the wrists and elbows from a lot of jarring shocks,
shocks which are transmitted up to shoulders, neck and upper back.
The short ride to the gas station wasn’t bad at first.
I took it slow. There were some twinges in the knees. Riding on soft tires is
like riding in a couple of inches of glue or molasses. Having enough air in the
tires was a revelation. In spite of that, by the time I came home approximately
twelve or fourteen kilometres later, it felt like riding in glue again. After
being cooped up for months on end with nothing to do but write and smoke, that
was far enough for the first trip.
***
When I was about fifteen, my dad bought my brother and
I some English
racing bikes. They were 1973 Raleigh bikes,
gold with chrome fenders and white trim. The first thing we did was to take off
the fenders and of course the old man could have shot us. At the age of
fifteen, a non-smoker, I could get from central Sarnia to Canatara
Park in ten or twelve minutes. We would be zigzagging across the city grid
and knowing all the shortcuts.
The farthest we ever got was the Lambton Generating Station, where we cooked steak and beans, had a swim and then turned around and
went home.
***
When an older bike of mine wore out and I was looking
for a new one, I went to the bike
shop on Front St. and wandered the store.
They had a beauty of a road racing bike, (not the one pictured). It was about
$850.00. I wanted that bike. After looking at the half-inch rims, five-eighths
tires, wheels with about eleven skinny little spokes, it occurred to me that a
two-hundred pound guy on city streets is going to be bending a wheel about
twice a day on that thing—once coming and once going in other words.
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| Scott Speedster, Jesus Rodriguez. |
Like the reviewer in the linked article above, I fell
in love with my bike quickly enough.
This is my fourth or fifth year with it. I’ve bent the
rear axle shaft two or three times, and bent a wheel at least once. It was good
value for the money, about $400.00 CDN at that time.
END
