Friday, February 18, 2011

Too busy breaking bikes

Its a lousy excuse but to be fair my bike is pretty broken again.
Not sure what to do now, it looks like the lovely Litespeed needs new bearings in the linkages, Borneo is a pretty harsh place, well for American bikes anyway. Hey maybe thats why there are so few American humans here too, its just too tough for them. Mind you I have ridden in Colorado and its not that easy, well they did have marked trails, and it was all groomed but still....
Moooooooving on..... so what to do? I am now riding a Giant hardtail and enjoying it quite a lot, it is making me think that maybe, just maybe I should invest in a hardtail again, something light and twitchy, with smooth gears, hardcore brakes, flat bars and stripped down to race spec.
Am I turning my back on the full-susser? No, not really, its a great bike especially for long rides but there is an awful lot to go wrong with it and its pretty darned complicated for a simple guy like me.
Its been raining here for the last three months or so, proper rain, landslide-making rain. The kind of rain that falls in droplets as big as bowling balls and cuts visibility down to five feet. If you are out riding when it comes it inspires a rush of adrenaline and sodden, dripping laughter tinged with temporary madness. Disc brakes start to grind and you get a facefull of mud if you try to ride faster than 10 kmh but its proper fun, until you realise that your handphone is in your backpack and not waterproof, the experience loses its shine right about then.
I am headed off to the Kinabatangan river on monday and plan to hunt out some trails for riding over there, lots of snakes and crocs to keep it lively!

2 comments:

  1. I think you are on the right track.
    Look at other devices that managed to perform well in harsh conditions:
    The original Jeep and the AK-47.

    The one thing they have in common is simplicity and very loose tolerances.

    Too much technology in a rough environment can mean more things to break.

    Keep it simple. A steel tubed hardtail would be great.

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  2. Theres a thought, a jeep and an AK47 would give me a very similar outcome as my MT bike, out on the trails, wasting my friends....

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