On the Pedals
The Daily Grind
Over The Bars
The staff of MBT typically finds themselves in a bit of an annual quandary as the bicycle model year is such that new bikes are being released and last year’s stuff is finally being freed up for testing just as the weather is at its least user-friendly. Most years we suck it up and take our test rigs out to the snow-covered trails for analysis by a bunch of moon-boot-wearing die-hards with upper-lip icicles and numb digits.
This year the sheer volume of snowfall accumulation had finally surpassed the point of allowing for bike testing (even if we could find individuals crazy enough to sign up). Pedaling through four feet of snow isn’t difficult, it’s impossible! Worse still, it was entirely too deep for even the local snowmobilers to tame which meant cruising along their well-packed paths was out of the question as well.
The path of least resistance would of course have been simply not to run a bike test this issue but wouldn’t it figure that a bike we’ve been waiting to sample since late summer/ early fall finally became available? The next most logical course of action would have been to jaunt on down to Akron, Ohio with bikes in tow to carve up Ray’s Indoor Bike Park for a few days of testing and photographing. As is so often the case with a bunch of contributors with full time jobs & lives, coming up with a common date to lasso up three or four individuals (during the holidays no less) simply wasn’t happening.
Still, determined not to give up, we finally managed to erect a suitable test course the likes of which could probably attract riders from around the globe (were it left standing for more than two consecutive days). It turns out that local school roadways and parking lots were still being plowed despite the fact that the buildings themselves were closed for holiday-inspired sabbatical. The plows, as having limited space to work with and all, amassed a virtual mountain of snow onto the basketball courts that grew exponentially with the steadily falling flakes.
The mountains of snow, with a little packing from our shovels, shot the rider through the dumpsters (at least where they used to be back when such things were visible), up along the concrete entrance ramp, around then down a set of slippery stairs, through the cleared lot and back toward the snow-mounds for one intense little climb. The abundance of packy molding material around and shovels in our grasp meant the addition of several moguls, rockers, hips, booters and berms along the way. By Saturday morning we had a full downhill racecourse erected throughout the public schoolyard and cold temps meant the neighborhood kids were too busy staying indoors for warmth to disrupt our playing, er I mean test sessions.
Mission accomplished with the only the modifications required being running less suspension compression than usual to compensate for the surely honey-thick fluid within and clothing in multiple layers to stave off frostbite.
It would have been great to have captured a few photos of the spectacle, as in the end, covered with knobby tire tracks; the loop really looked like something magnificent. Unfortunately, a mere two days after its inception, our makeshift mountain course was destroyed beyond all recognition come Monday morning when the county plow-operators, just earning their pay, came through with blades a sparking. The fact that the bike was due back to the demo fleet from which it had been plucked was enough to prevent us from attempting a reconstruction effort.
On the plus side, should Ray ever decide to add a refrigeration section to the Indoor Bike Park, I know where he can find some expert course builders.
