Winter Rants

By C.G.

Singletrack? Where? Under there?!

Associate Editor: Not a bad title to carry around right? It sounds fancy, looks good on resumes and best of all involves a little bit of behind the scenes action here at MBT. I get to do research and fact checking for the ever-increasingly popular ASK MBT column and on occasion I even get to partake in testing duties. I know, I know- you probably think I’m using this space to brag about the glamour, glitz, and glory but I’m here to rant darn it! I should fit right in around here. What you probably didn’t know is that I’m the dude busting his hump with the large boxes that test bikes come shipped in. I’m also the fool who builds, fine-tunes, and disassembles each bike that comes through the office. Now don’t get me wrong, that’s not a complaint. My objection comes in the form of Western NY weather which has been most uncooperative of late.

Don't laugh until you've tried them. Then laughing will be the least of your problems.

As of this very moment our Carver 96’er is awaiting disassembly for return shipping and while this is normal, the winter conditions are anything but. We’ve gotten pounded with 48 inches of snow in the past week and to accompany the seemingly endless whiteout are temperatures well below 0. Yes that’s Fahrenheit in case you were wondering. The guys were bitching and moaning about having to test in the cold but what are worse are those of us (me) who have to get the bikes prepped and pretty for photographing in said conditions.

Just today I had gone out to get a jump on the Carver’s disassembly when a few problemos popped up right away. The first of which was accessing the MBT workshop with four feet of snow blocking the outwardly swinging doors. Once shoveled out (complete with mandatory cussing) it was time to get the beast outdoors. After struggling through the snow drifts with my big yellow boots, I tumbled to the ground in a cloud of rolling white powder. To my surprise the bike, with the help of Mother Nature’s wrath, was standing upright on its own accord. Numb and certainly cranky, I decided to snap a picture of the phenomenon as evidence of the fact that I had no choice but to park the Carver and wait for a warmer day. This is one long, played out off-season if I do say so myself. What did I do with the rest of the afternoon? Not much but I am considering getting some warmer boots.

No kickstand on this bike and no trick photography either.