This discussion on mountain bikes made me thing that surely Trek is still making a WSD 26 mountain bike that short women can ride. But they show so many different mountain bike lines on their website, I would have to spend a week reading about them all. Seems far too complicated to me. I still have the hardtail 26 that I bought back in 1998 or 1999. It's a men's frame, the reach is a bit longer than it should be for me, but overall it's a quality bike and I plan to keep it. It needs some attention which I've been putting off because I have to spend money on too many other things -- it's not shifting right, handlebars feel a little too wide, and for some reason my heels have started to hit the cranks when I pedal even though nothing has changed with the bike, pedals or shoes so something about the way I pedal must have changed. Anyway I'd like to get it ready to ride this fall or early winter. I got a good back fender for it last year so I can ride it on road in winter when there's lots of sand and salt from storm treatments. I'd rather ride the mountain bike in those conditions than get the road bike so dirty.
Anyway. I went out last Thursday after work for the regular hill ride -- my first since getting the new gearing for the road bike. It was hotter than I expected and I had eaten lunch too late so at first I felt sluggish. But once I got away from the highway and closer to the river it was less hot. I changed the route a bit at the end, adding a couple of flat miles, so in all I rode almost 21. The new gears don't magically make the hills feel flat but they do make it easier when things get very steep.
On Saturday I did a club ride that was very flat. I figured it would be a good chance to play with the new 46T chain ring. Unfortunately it turned out to be one of those rides where everyone else is way faster than me. I had a feeling that might happen, and sure enough it did. I decided that if I was dropped and out of sight of everyone else at mile 25 I would take advantage of a short cut and head back on my own. But at that point we were on a rail trail and everyone slowed down so I was able to keep up. But as soon as we were off the trail they all put the hammer down and I was well and truly dropped by everyone except the ride leader, who was clearly holding back, riding just a little ahead of me, so I wouldn't be alone. This actually kind of annoyed me, though in retrospect I realized I was annoyed because I was starting to bonk and that made me cranky. But it has made me think -- I do the same thing when I am leading a ride and one person is way behind everyone else. Do I annoy them by doing this? Honestly in most cases I'm not riding much slower than I would if they weren't behind me, but a few times I have had to really slow down for someone.
At any rate, we reached a rest stop after about 30 miles and at that point I did decide to take a shortcut back. So everyone including the ride leader went on without me. After that I was able to ride slower without feeling like I had to push harder than I wanted to. The short cut used a longer portion of the rail trail, and I stopped a couple of times to read some historical markers (I love historical markers) and to answer a text message from a relative that I thought might be urgent. So the fast riders ended up passing me near the end even though I was riding fewer miles. Oh well, I was having fun. Then at the end I learned that one of the fast riders was not back yet, after being separated from the group by a red light. He didn't answer his phone so the ride leader drove back to look for him. A couple of minutes later I also drove back to help look, and it was lucky I did because the missing rider was on the trail and not visible from the road when the ride leader drove by, but he was off the trail and on the road when I went by. He had stopped for a few minutes because of a leg cramp and then missed a turn, but did not want to be sagged back. So I drove back to the park where we started and waited for him while I called the ride leader to give him and update.
- Gray 2010 carbon WSD road bike, Rivet Independence saddle
- Red hardtail 26" aluminum mountain bike, Bontrager Evoke WSD saddle
- Royal blue 2018 aluminum gravel bike, Rivet Pearl saddle
Gone but not forgotten:
- Silver 2003 aluminum road bike
- Two awesome worn out Juliana saddles