After we bought road bikes last fall, and have been riding regularly for the last year I’ve really gotten the bug to try mountain biking again. I love mountain biking, but gave it up completely years ago becsuse my hands just couldn’t take it anymore.

Well, I talked my wife into letting me buy a mountain bike (Motobecane Fantom 29 from BikesDirect) and I’ve been out riding almost every night this week. 

Damn, I’ve missed this. Went and rode Crabtree earlier this week and it was about how I remembered it from 8 years ago, and then yesterday I hit Legend Park in Clayton for the first time ever, and it kicked my butt. 

I mean, it totally kicked my butt. Rode like 3 miles of the upper part of the trail and I was spent. 

Anyways, I’m glad to be back on the bike. Really impressed with how stiff the Maxle makes the cheap RockShox recon fork. I had issues in the past with wobbly 29er forks, but they seem to have that licked.

Really the only thing I need to change is figuring out what’s going on with my hands. I’m going to try some bigger grips, which will hopefully make me feel like I don’t need to death-grip the handlebars so much.