My Riding Self, by Rob

Hey.  Pedal Pusher-in-Chief here.  A brief history.  I've been riding ever since I bought my first GT Timberline back when I was making bagels in Long Island in the early '90s (that's a story for another time).   I did a little trail riding with that, but used it as transportation and did some long road rides on it.  Most memorably I remember riding 90 miles round trip from half way out the Island to the Hamptons and back.  Whew!

I bought my next bike, another GT Timberline, in '95.  I started riding off-road more seriously then and in '97 me and a buddy from work , Matt Botelho, met up in the woods with the Commerce group.  It's there that we learned that you could drink beer after mountain biking and I fell in love all over again.

I got a job with Commerce Insurance in '98 and a year or two afterward took over the emailing for the Wednesday night rides when my predecessor, the estimable Chris DiMartino, left the company.  I've been doing that for over a decade now.  The ride emails go out to probably 50 riders now and somewhere between eight and 20 riders show up.  I think there is a correlation coefficient of about 0.95 between attendance and favorable weather conditions. 

Since then I've been through a Schwinn Moab 1 and a Klein Mantra Comp.  I remember buying that Mantra and telling my very understanding wife that if I spent that much on a bike, I'd never need to buy another bike again.  Boy, did she hold me to that!  I rode that bike TEN seasons.  No exaggeration.  I watched some other guys buy two and three bikes in that time and I spent probably twice what it originally cost in rebuilding and repairing it.

This past year I finally bought a new Gary Fisher Hi-Fi Plus.  It's a super sweet full suspension 29er and has improved my riding exponentially.  I thank Kenny Ambach and the Trek Stop for making that happen.

I also began racing a little more seriously last year.  I think I did maybe 9 or 10 biking races.  I raced sport and placed fairly well in my age group (that's the *getting old* guy group) pretty consistently.  I also started time trialing.  The time trial season just started last Tuesday.  Tonight was the second of three weeks at the first venue.

I borrowed Mike Tonry's Fatback tonight.  It's this crazy bike made in Alaska that is a full rigid, geared bike with GINORMOUS tires.  I was told I was running the tires a little firm with 10 p.s.i.  Managed to shave about 2:15 off last week's time though.  Awesome!

I do have a road bike, a Klein Quantum Race, as well that I bought used a few seasons back to help me through the mud season.  I ride it here and there, but would prefer to be off-road.  Once the weather gets a little nicer, I'll probably start catching rides into work with Cori and riding home.  Just to get on some miles. 

I'm now gearing up for my first race of the season.  The Massasoit Lung Opener is 4/23/11.  I raced it last year and remember it being FASSSSST.  Super looking forward to it.

The other thing that I'm really excited for this year is an official kids mountain bike ride.  I've connected with the Thompson Rec and we have an eight week program planned over the summer for 9 - 12 year old kids.  Hopefully we get some sign ups.  We did some of this informally last year and it was loads of fun.  It did wonders for Harry.  Must be more fun to ride bikes with your chums than your old man, no matter how cool he is.

Anyhow, that's me.  Looking forward to sharing more in the near future.  Thanks!