New to MTB, and a Thanks!

[Tigris99]

First thing, thanks for the trails!!! Though Im far from ready for alot of it, I have seen your guys hard work. It turned my riding to loose weight and for fun up here in Fulton/Clinton area into a freaking addiction!!! YOU GUYS ARE FREAKING AWESOME, jsut too bad cant get trails closer to home, but drive is well worth it.

Quick me: 31 married, 6yr old son from ex (shes crazy, but she lives in davenport so gives me even more times to hit the trails there)

At the risk of a " TL;DR" moment, Im going to cut out alot of the details of the last 5ish months. But basically I bought a used huffy for $20 cause I let myself get to 360lbs I learned in May. Im already built stout naturally. I saved money after buying wife a used schwinn trike for $200 (she cant ride a reg bike, never learned) just enough to hit walmart for something more than the $88 POS's. Got a Genesis 26" fs. Now upgraded with Ario R air shock and Suntour XCM V3 LO forks (plus other odds and ends, found driveline on it is same is on sport grade treks ranging around $500). Ride GRT around Fulton area mostly, ride to thompson and back regularly (16 miles) and plenty of 4-5 mile ride around the area on this bike. Found island in clinton that had some trails made by campers and ppl fishing, realized how much fun it is. Talked to trek shop here as I went in to check it out (was only using Thompson bike shop cause other one in clinton bugs me) ended up getting my forks there, gloves and.... well keep readin and youll find the last part out. Awesome guy, so much help on everything.

Hiked Longrove loop at Scocop for very first scout run to see what I was up against. CHose sylvan for my first ride to minimize any hills for first run. Hit Sunder last sunday...rode up the paved hill (I made it barely, **** my legs BURNED!!!) the went left instead of right on the green trail. Scared the hell outta me after the first switchback cause **** thats narrow, kinda steep and plenty of trees on the way down. Fingers hurt like hell from trying to crush bars and I could smell my brakes by the end. Only to realize my bike being wild was cause I was retarded, left forks locked and tires were at 60+ psi from my ride to thompson 2 days prior. Still dont feel ready for that hill just yet. And dont worry, my bike aint crap, its well maintianed and I went trough everything with proper grease etc (tore bike to bare frame day I bought it) so very sound and solid.

WHich is why Im here. Meet ppl that are addicted as me, cause Sylvan turned a little flame into a full blown, I have withdrawals, type addiction. Ppl I can ride with and LEARN how to ride. I have no desire for big jumps and drops, or anything crazy, just have fun and be healthy. Plus id be more than happy to help with trails as my time and resources allow next season (winter is crazy busy with work for me and wife both)

If you were nice enough to bother reading all that, then you deserve to here this hehe. First off as of a few hours before this post, weight is now 301 lbs since im making dietary changes and such gradually (ride like hell, but make sure im eating enough, got sick when i wasnt, took me off riding for over a week), but in 10X better shape than when I started. the 16mile round trip Thompson ride on that 26" FS Wal-bike is now seeing how fast I can ride it cause 3 fr and 5-6 rear is about normal pace gears for that ride now.

And the best part, cause of my conviction and success, my wife let me put a Trek Marlin 29er on lawaway at the Trek shop in Clinton (Ben's) this week. Trade off is quitting smoking but I was already well on my way with that too. Wont have it paid off before winter but gives me time to upgrade brakes and tires before next season.

Oh and wth, proof of my scare at sunder, i took a pic when I stopped to get feeling back in my hands. Jokes are cool, but dont dis the bike hehe, it holds my fat ass well, performed great IMO at sylvan :

[dru_b]

fyi, you hit that trail backwards.. it is meant to be directional up from the lower path but hey, great job. that hill winds vetrans at times.

[Gunchie]

Very cool! You found the addiction that has kept a lot us riding more and more each year. Glad you found a healthier way of life. Plenty of people in the club that I'm sure would be happy to ride with you. I'd offer myself, but I'm a bit of a out of town club member.

[badfish41]

That's an awesome story man. Glad you have found biking something you enjoy- it is an addiction, but the good kind. Just wait until you start getting better and faster, the addiction grows exponentially. It was a few short years ago I was over 200# and in pretty bad shape. Starting mountain biking the same as you have and am now 31, 170# and in the best shape of my life.

Keep it up. It only gets better.

Hope to see you around, glad you like the local trails.

[mcwrath]

Awesome dude! Stay with it and I guarantee you will see your weight drop. GUARANTEE! When my second child was born I was 225 lbs and growing, and I was just starting the addiction. Today I am sitting under 175 lbs, on my 4th bike, and just finished 2nd in the IL state race series. I lost 50 lbs by mountain biking. Its not only a sport, its my hobby, my passion...and my lifestyle! Welcome to the insanity.

These FORCers are a great bunch of folk. I recommend you hook up with some of them on a ride. They will not only show you around, but you may find some regular buddies to ride with that will help motivate you even more. These guys like to have fun on and off the trail!

[Bexter]

Great story! I bet it wouldn't be much of a leap to say that your story resonates with most of us in one way or another. Heck yea, post up when you want to ride and you'll have company. I have learned a ton from the FORCers and there's not a day that goes by that I don't think about riding. Next thing you know, you'be be riding a road bike when the dirt is too mushy to ride. I digress. Biking is a major passion, mtn biking even more so. You've been bit by the bug. AWESOME! The only cure is to ride ride ride! See you on the trails, brotha!

Think about coming to a FORC meeting to meet some of the folks -- first Monday of each month, 6:30 PM, at Sippi's in Davenport.

[Carve]

In my opinion there is no funner way to lose weight than MTBing. It shed me of 70 lbs in two years and I no longer have high blood pressure. Keep riding and good job!

[bz300]

Great story man! I am pretty sure I was the one who bumped into you as I was packing up at sunderbruch that day.
Glad you had fun , like others have said when you're in town throw a message up and I'm sure some one will be up for a ride.
Hope to see you out there again!

[Tigris99]

Bz300 if the person u talked to was in a yellow car with black stripe that was me LOL. All I knew is those guys I talked to that evening were awesome as hell, really helpful warning me about what to avoid and the bike i saw is the 26 I want when this one dies. Love the fuel series.

Oh and ya I figured out I went backwards when I got to the bottom oops LOL. Still figuring out the whole sign thing.

Thanks for the welcome and support nice to see so many that actually can relate. Will definitely hit a meeting as soon as I can, my work schedule is goofy as **** so real hit and miss I know my days off 2 weeks in advance that's it. I do know Sunday I'm going to hit scocop unless some of u got time for sunder on Sunday cause leery of riding out there on my own right now.

Look forward to seeing u guys on the trails. Thnx

[bz300]

Yep that was me with the fuel,
I would be up for riding on Sunday just let me know when and where.
Both sunderbruch and scott county are a lot of fun , it's completely up to you

[jJohnson]

I'll be at Sunderbruch about 8:30-ish AM until who knows when and I'd love to ride with you.

[Tigris99]

Ok so wife is going with, she wants to walk at Scott county, so scott county it is. Wont let me post in lets ride YET (not sure why) Ill be there between 10-11am cause I got an 45min drive. Sorry for the late response just got home from work a bit ago.

[Tigris99]

Well Scott county was a ton of fun, special thnx to I beleive on here his name is speedjunkie for coming out. Felt kinda bad cause I had already done a couple loops before he got there. Longrove with both offshoots (tarmac KICKED MY ASS, bad choice to warm up on for me), Parkview but just the Pine offshoot, so I was pretty tired, just got back about 5mins before from those when he pulled up.

Appreciate the patience being I couldnt keep up with you for **** and taking the time to work with me. Plus causing me to push with everything I could muster to do longrove with jumbo one more time while trying to not fall too far behind.

Hope to get a chance to ride with more of you guys before it gets too cold to enjoy it.

[dgw2jr]

Ok so wife is going with, she wants to walk at Scott county, so scott county it is. Wont let me post in lets ride YET (not sure why) Ill be there between 10-11am cause I got an 45min drive. Sorry for the late response just got home from work a bit ago.

Maybe if you ask her really nicely she'll let you post in the Let's Ride!

Addressing your point about riding before it gets too cold, some of us have "mastered" the art of cold-weather riding and it's not as bad you think. Matter of fact, the colder it is, the better, since the trails are frozen solid and FAF. The best is when there is about 3 inches of snow that has partially melted then quickly refrozen nice and crunchy like. Ices does suck though so gotta watch out for that. There's nothing like riding a bike through a winter wonderland...

But yea with the right clothing and enough gumption you can ride through the winter. I think the first mistake most n00bs make is that they wear far too much clothing. Riding a bike in the winter is hard work and you WILL heat up fast! Then you will be tempted to shed layers with nowhere to put it. So you'll sweat your arse off and then you'll cool down and feel very cold. The second mistake is wearing cotton, which stays wet and cold. Just say no to cotton! Another mistake is giving to much thought to covering your torso and not enough on the extremities. Your legs will be just fine since they are doing most of the work but the hands and feet will start to feel the chill immediately and if ignored they will become frostbitten. Good waterproof boots that still allow you to pedal efficiently and wool socks are enough to protect your toes. Wool is awesome stuff and worth the money. Hand protection is more difficult since you need to articulate with your fingers and what not. I wear tight fitting gloves then slightly larger gloves over them. There are glove liners available that I've heard good things about but haven't tried them yet.

So for the legs I wear cycling tights with a chamois pad. They fit tightly around the ankles over the wool socks so the heat stays in. I also wear simple not-too-baggy sweat pants over the tights. That's it for the legs. Nice and warm and most of all flexible. On the torso I wear UnderArmor ColdGear long sleeve shirts. The ColdGear stuff is unbelievably warm. So much so that I can not wear it above 35° and definitely not indoors. Over the ColdGear shirt I wear an UnderArmor hooded sweatshirt. Make sure the outer layer is breathable (usually means no windbreakers), or else moisture will accumulate on the inside and it will be like a sauna in there. Moisture is bad mmkay? I cover my ugly mug with an all-natural manly beard and throw a not-so-natural UnderArmor ColdGear hood over my head. It covers your entire head and neck while wicking away moisture from your mouth area. Some tinted anti-fog ski goggles are absolutely necessary since the cold air will force your eyes to tear up heavily to prevent them from freezing and drying out. They also help keep the upper half of your face warm.

A quick point about acclimation. This is most important I think. At first it might suck and you may be tempted to dismiss riding when it's cold, but the more you do it the easier it gets. After a couple weeks you won't even notice the cold and you'll be glad you stuck with it. It's a lot better to be out riding in the woods than sitting at home running the heater jacking up the utility bill and munching down Thanksgiving leftovers putting on pounds that you worked so hard to shed in the first place. Riding in the winter is hard work and you will shed weight fast! I went from 210 to 185 last winter and the weight loss has pretty much stagnated since then.

Check out the example below. Boots, pantkeepers (keeps the chainrings from snaggin' your pants!), UnderArmor sweatshirt, ColdGear hood, gloves, goggles, all in action.



Here's another example. The wife properly dressed for the cold and having a jolly good time as the snow flies.



Hope to see you out there this winter!

[Tigris99]

Well looks like it might actually be possible without being miserable. Problem is I come from So Cal, 2 things here that KICK MY ASS are the cold and humidity. After many years my body still doesnt like it lol. Though i have found that when it comes to the cold, a shot or 2 of Jack Daniels warms things up pretty well hehe. Glad to see I dont have to spend a rediculous amount of money on cold weather gear to be able to do it. So guess that means you guys might actually see me out there if i can get to where Im comfortable (tolerable) in the cold. Snow riding sounds like fun (not sure if either bike ill have this winter will fit the giant ass tires you run but hell, normal tires may work too

[dgw2jr]

SoCal original here too! Riverside, CA! Pretty sure I spent more time on the 91 than I did at home or work. :P

Like I said, acclimation. It can suck at first, but if you are really that hooked you can overcome it. Don't worry about the fat tires. Winter riding can be done regardless of tire size. There are even studded tires available if you think ice may be an issue.

Learning all this new stuff is part of the fun!

[Tigris99]

funny part about that, Im already fabbing up studded tires from some older ones I have here off a parts bike. The GRt up here is really good for icing over due to snow melt/refreeze.

Im planning on riding this winter, just not sure if im going to ride like I do now, cause no idea how much Im going to deal with the cold. By no means am I NOT going to ride this winter,lol, cant do that I go through withdrawals within a few days now as it is, hehe