Me + My Bike = Love

Hi!  I'm Meredith.  And this is my blog!

I love mountain biking.  I've loved it since my husband put me on his sister's old Trek Fuel and dragged me up a trail in Lyons, Colorado in the fall of 2007.  It was my first time on a real mountain bike, using clipless pedals, and riding a for-real mountain biking trail, with rocks and everything.  Of course I did the slow-motion fall during my first foray at the trailhead, and since I grew up at sea level my lungs only got me about a mile up the trail before I felt like I had to turn around or die.  My husband (then sort-of boyfriend) realizes that he is extremely lucky that instead of kicking him in the shins and chucking my borrowed helmet at him, I caught the bug and wanted to try again.
First I needed my own bike.  Back when I was a freshman in high school, I got a brand new Schwinn Mesa for my birthday.  It was orange, and a little too big for me, and it cost a whopping FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS, which was a mind-boggling sum to me at the time.  It was also a large enough investment in my parents' view that they preferred that I not take it to college with me, because of the possibility that it could be stolen.  I had no inkling at the time that really good mountain bikes could easily cost ten times that much; in fact, I did not realize that bike tires had tubes inside them that could be punctured or degrade, among many other details I now take for granted.  So it was something of a shock, when I began searching for a bike on Craigslist, that much better technology was available for not a great deal more than my Schwinn had cost.  I ended up with a 2005 Giant Anthem with 100mm of travel in the front and 80mm in the rear, and although it was a little reachy for me, it gave me a good start on the less challenging trails along the Front Range.  I put bar ends on it because I thought they looked cool, and I outfitted myself in stretchy roadie clothing because that's what everyone else was wearing.  I joined the Boulder Mountainbike Alliance's Thursday night women's rides, and in addition to befriending and learning from some badass lady shredders, I gained a connection to a local Specialized rep.  He let me test ride one of the Safires from his personal demo fleet and I ended up buying it from him at cost when he sold off his 2009 stock.
I loved that bike to bits.  It fit like a glove, climbed like a dream and descended like butter.  Here it is on Raider's Ridge in Durango:

My Safire ultimately took me to 4 podium finishes and the Big Mountain Enduro series win for Amateur Women in 2013.  At my first race, in Angel Fire, I hadn't actually planned to sign up, but a good friend talked me into giving it a shot, and to my great surprise, I ended up on the top of the podium!

"How did I get here?!"

As with my very first mountain bike ride, I was hooked.  Racing against the clock made me take chances and ride better than I did when on a regular ride, and the supportive and encouraging community of female racers made me feel like I had finally arrived to where I belonged.  The boys at the races just waited in line and dropped in without much fanfare from their fellow racers, but the girls swapped tips and cheered each other on.
The remainder of the 2013 season was a blast, but as spring rolled around it became apparent that I would need to upgrade my equipment to be able to compete in 2014.  For one thing, the poor Safire had been through an awful lot.  Scratched all over the frame and with a couple gouges on the stanchions, it was time to put it out to pasture, but it was still solid enough to be a great first bike for another lady just getting into riding.
For another thing, there had been a sudden surge in the number of women competing in enduro races from 2013 to 2014, and it seemed like everyone was jumping on the 650b bandwagon.  In my limited experience, 650b is the ideal wheel size for enduro formats: faster than 26" on the climbs, and more stable than 29"on the descents.
I had a few bikes in mind as possible contenders: the Pivot Mach 6, the Santa Cruz Bronson, and the Intense Carbine all seemed to have geometry that would fit my stature and style of riding.  The specs for all three were amazingly similar, in fact, and when I tried a Bronson and a Carbine on the same day I couldn't tell a significant difference between the two.  The Mach 6 proved more elusive; only one shop in a 300-mile radius of Denver had a frame in my size, and they had to built it up for me to try (I brought them beer as a thank-you).  The moment I planted my butt on the seat, I knew we were meant for each other.  Conveniently, the shop had a connection with a women's biking group in Denver, Dirt Divas, and I joined the club so that I could get a pretty decent discount.  I put in my order and was told it would be a week before it came in and could be assembled, which was unfortunate because I planned to go on a trip to Fruita with friends for biking and beer drinking in only a few days.  Perhaps the beer I had previously brought to the shop gave me good karma, however, because I got a call on Friday morning that the frame was in and would be ready by 5pm.  And sure enough, I arrived to see them putting on the finishing touches:

Thanks Golden Bike Shop!!
As for the new ride, I named her Machsie, and she is the best bike in the whole world!
Incidentally, the Fruita trip was documented by the founder of Enduro Mountainbike Magazine, Robin Schmitt, in online issue #010.  I'm the one in the orange shirt and bright blue POC helmet.

Anyway, this blog will chronicle our adventures together, hopefully in a way that will amuse and gratify.  Thanks for reading!