Story for "Gravel in my Sugar...loaf (or what bike do I ride?)"
For quite some time I've been a one trick pony, a road rider-Trek Madone-Carbon, you know, solo or group rides I'm on pavement.
No complaints, in fact just the opposite. I LOVE Maryland, and the surrounding states, quiet back roads.
Of course these mountains aren't as star scratching high as the Rockies (I lived in the CO mountains for over 12 years so I CAN speak from experience) but the roads and their climbs, views and vistas are stunning, epecially in early and late light.
BUT earlier in the summer a handful of road biking buddies decided to try, then buy, their first mountain bike. I couldn't resist and jumped in too, my first full suspension mountain bike, a Trek Remedy-9.0-1x11-27.5 (trying to act like I can speak "mtn bike").
For context, I rode mountain bikes in Colorado in the '80's and early '90's but when I moved to Maryland 24 years ago I brought along the mountain bike that I had, which had NO suspension. THIS was because the concept of adding shocks to montain bikes hadn't really become main stream yet (ah oh-gezzzer alert).
So back in the early '90's when I went mountain bike riding on the local Frederick, MD trails I either broke my bike or myself. Partly because, although the mountains here aren't called The Rockies, they are!
So I hung up THAT "no suspension" mountain bike for the next 20 years while the evolution of suspension occured, mostly, unbeknownest to me.
Which brings me to this week. Wednesday at dusk my road buddies and I, turned road/mountain bike buddies, rode in a area that was real "scary" for us intermediate mtn bikers. BUT we slayed that beast, finished in the dark, puffed up our chests, threw back a cold one to celebrate and went our seperate ways full of endorphines.
Then last night, after work, I was faced with a dilemma. Do I load up my mountain bike, drive to a trailhead and try to replicate last nights fun (not possible because I was solo) OR do I simply ride out my front door on my stiff carbon road bike and take on surrounding roads. Well, at the proverbial split in the road......I took it and my road bike....and found myself riding around Sugarloaf Mountain on pavement with two beautiful streches of gravel roads.
Now I'm confronted with the fact that I need a CX/Gravel Grinder but concerned with my ability to sneek another bike / drug delivery system into my house undetected by the financial overlords. Is Go Fund Me an option?
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