Sunday MTB ride: Hubert goes headfirst...over the bars.

Leo picked me up at 7:15 this morning and we made our way out to Sycamore Canyon to do my third (ever) mountain bike ride. I've ridden Sycamore Canyon on a previous occasion but this time we rode through Martha's Grove and descended down some ridiculous rock garden, staircase of doom.

In lieu of the full-suspension Epic 29er that I rode last time, I rode a Stumpjumper Comp 29er hardtail. I wanted to get a personal, real-world take on the full suspension versus hardtail debate on a trail that I had ridden on previously.

The ride was going swingingly, until we got to the winding-rock-garden-staircase-of-doom descent and I made the unfortunate error of trying to ride down it on my front wheel which meant that I ended up on my head. The saving grace to my improptu ballet routine was that it was going all of 1 mph and so I mostly caught my fall.

After going through a rather long and lonely walk through what is truly beautiful countryside, I rejoined to group to find them all lounging around and waiting...

Leo and Nate were nearly catatonic by the time I rejoined the group:

Chris did manage to get his OG pose on for the camera:

Carlo, as always, was ready for his close-up:

The rest of the ride went off, mostly, without a hitch although Carlo had a minor spat with gravity and gravity won...however, he was thankfully unhurt.

We all made it back to the parking lot and proceeded to do what any rational person would do... indulge in an 11,000 calorie burrito lunch:

So what's my (naive) take on the full-suspension vs. hardtail debate? I need more seat time and I can't wait to go back!

The Sunday road ride resumes next week. 8AM from the shop. See you all then.

Thanks as always for reading.

Ride safe,

B+L Bikes