A young guy that works for me has decided he needs a mountain bike. We’ve been working a lot of overtime so he’s got money burning a hole in his pocket. I’ve graced him with my vast knowledge of mountian bikes (read: I’ve bored him with my rambling B.S.) and we went to the bike shops last night to have a look at a few.
The first shop we visited sells Gary Fisher bikes,amount others. My guy was very taken with the Fisher 29’er hard tail. While he was looking the bikes over and being given a high pressure sales pitch, I started talking to the guy that owns the shop about 29’ers.
I just happened to have my 29’er uni out in my truck so I brought it in for the bike shop guys to have a look at. I told them all about it. One guy rolled it up next to a Fisher bike to make sure it really is a 29’er since the Big Apple tire is so much bigger than the IRC Notos tires on the bikes.
After much discussion and ooo’s and ahhh’s the owner of the shop said “Well?”. I said “Huh?”. He said “Let’s see you ride it!”.
In the blink of an eye I thought about those razor sharp pins in the Wellgo pedals and how I would NEVER ride on pinned pedals again without leg protection. I looked at the only place in the store to ride - a narrow carpeted aisle between rows of bikes. I thought about how the 29’er isn’t really best suited for riding indoors in tight places. I thought about how bad it would be to wreck into the bikes causing a domino effect.
Then I quit thinking, mounted the 29’er just like I knew what I was doing, rode down the length of the aisle, stopped, hopped while turning 180 degrees and rode back.
Here’s what I’ve learned from this experience: The Gary Fisher 29’er seems to be a sweet ride (especially the red one), Bontrager makes a 29" x 1.5 slick tire, it’s fun when and old grey haired geezer is able to impress the kids, and NEVER show off your uni without being prepared to ride it too.
Steve Howard