So I get this call from some dude who heard about our weekday rides. I tell him where and when. I
also tell him that our rides are "technical". He says the harder the better. Cool, I tell him,
just show up.
He shows up early, which is good!!!!! He sees us getting ready and makes a couple comments. "Geee,
you all have full suspensions." "Wow, whats with the arm/elbow and shin/knee padding." Hmmm, this
guy is not what I original thought.
Just as we start the ride, I tell him to use his own judgement since he's never been there before. 2
minutes into the ride we have to descend into this gulch that has the dark Yoda forrest look to it.
It's covered with dead leaves and has damp loamy dirt that doesn' make any noise when you lock up
the tires. It's a steep descent where the object is to stay on the trail because the there are
hidden rocks off the trail. On many occassion, I had to steer with my ass when the rear locks up.
He's the last one to descent and I hear this "Holy Sh!t".
It turns out he couldn't clear any of the technical sections. He did have a set of lungs as he
smoked my ass on the climbs. He also got a lesson of why we wear armor when one of our guys forgot
to bring his armor (funny guys alway get hurt this way) and dingged his shin falling off the edge of
a rooted cliff turn.
Turns out his definition of "technical" was single track. He admitted he thought he was hot sh!t
because he was the best at single track compared to all his friends. He did ride down a heavily
rutted downhill, but couldn't believe the speed with which we ride it. We like to ride those
sections at planing speed.
We invited him back because we all could relate to his experience with us. I still remember walking
same sections he ending up walking and learning how to clear them with patiences from my friends. Oh
but I did know the difference of single track and technical back then.