Evil Bikes The Insurgent

Back on the Bike: Initial Reactions and Thoughts

It has been a month since I decided to get back out riding so I thought I would weigh in on how things are going. First off…thank you to Blue Mountain Bikes for letting me steal their Evil Bikes “The Insurgent” for awhile to get back out there. I really appreciate the support.

5 years off the bike is a long time. The good news is that I was able to keep somewhat fit through the physical therapy and hanging out with the dreaded treadmill in my basement. My blood pressure, heart rate and overall health didn’t get all that much effected outside of my weight. When I stopped riding I was around 178 pounds at 6’2″ tall. I am now at the 208 mark. It’s harder to keep the weight off when what you did do for fun was also your exercise.

The first couple of rides

While my heart was in good shape…my legs are not! It amazing how much your body changes when you start letting those muscle groups go. At the beginning of each ride, everything feels great. I didn’t lose a ton of technical ability and it literally feels like “just riding a bike”. When the muscle fatigue sets in everything goes to hell. The focus really is on the calves, quads and hip muscles as that muscle memory and strength is gone. Once that goes…everything starts to go downhill from there as I am having to work extra hard to get the pedals to turn over. My heart rate increases…fatigue in other areas like my arms and shoulders increases…it basically turns into a zipper effect.

There is one easy fix to all of this though. I just have to ride more and I can deal with that! It is a little weird to be so slow on trails that I used to just kill years ago.

Consistency has also been a little harder to achieve than before. Now I have a 5 year old running around that has baseball, karate and other activities and my travel schedule has also increased. The good news is that I can just throw the bike and gear in the back of the Jeep and get rides in when I can during the day. While I am riding by myself during those times…it is nice to have that flexibility.

The truth is that with age…the ability to bounce back quickly fades. It takes more effort to get back to where I used to be than it did 10 years ago. That is another adjustment I am having to get used to…

Stretching has also become a key part in keeping back pain away. While I do some before the ride, the after ride stretching has proved to be the most important in the long run. A couple of simple routines and everything has been fine so far. I have also been very careful to try to not over do it and jump back in as hard as I would have in the past. I really think – as much as I hate it – easing into things is going to be the best bet. I would hate it even more if I negated all of this time by rushing into things.

Nothing would be worse than going “hey! I’m back” to “No wait…I’m not.” just because I decided to act like an idiot. Patience is not exactly my strong suit so this has been a test of wills for sure. What I really want to do is head straight back to Pilot Rock and just rip that downhill. It’s a goal for the next 60 days at least…just not right now.

Today’s Mountain Bikes

One of the biggest improvements over the past 5 years has been the technology and style of the mountain bikes that are popular today. 5 years ago was probably the end of the “weight weenie” era. During that time riders were so focused on getting bikes as light as they could go…they didn’t stop to think if they should.

Now…all of the bikes are 5-6″ of travel with slacker angles, 1x setups, dropper posts, short stems, thru axles and light enough to pedal uphill without sacrificing the fun heading down. FINALLY!!! These are the bikes my friends and I have been trying to build since the early 2000’s. Back then we just had to sacrifice on weight to have 160mm travel forks.

I can remember my “trail bike” back then was a Ventana what weighed almost 36 pounds. When everyone else was trying to run noodle forks with 28mm stanchions just to save a couple of grams…we were trying anything we could do to lighten up a heavy bike to keep 35/36mm ones. It would get to the top of the mountain…but not very quickly. I can also vividly remember getting made fun of by other riders for running a Gravity Dropper seat post because it added too much weight and wasn’t needed anyway. Now it is hard to find a bike without a dropper post on it. We were also running 2.4 Big Betty’s when 1.8’s were still a big deal. Now we have plus sizes! All of this is awesome.

I am seriously like a kid at Christmas right now. I just want to ride everything that is released and I haven’t felt that way since the 90’s.

The support of family and friends

By far the best part about riding again is the support I have gotten from my family and friends. My wife really made this push for me to get back out there and now I get to share that with her and Daniel. I have really missed the friends I have gotten through riding and now I get to reconnect with them outside of the digital world all over again. Even after just a month of riding I am already sleeping better and my body feels like it is making progress.

Sometimes you don’t realize how much of an impact something has on your life and how much you miss it until you don’t have it anymore. I think I tried really hard to block it out and say I didn’t need it. The reality is that I do and I am really glad to be back even if it isn’t in the same form I left. It will come with time but even in the pain…it is better than not riding at all. These past 5 years have been the longest time I have ever spend off the bike for as long as I have memory. Hopefully that will be the last half decade I will have to worry about that. See you guys out there and thanks for everything.

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