Monster

My gracious host has been letting me ride his 'old' bike, a Santa Crus BlurLT.

It's a monster, in the best possible way.

The trails out here in Durango are... difficult, to say the least. They are rocky, off camber, have super tight switch backs, and they are steep. All in all, they are glorious.

To be frank, they would be too much for me if I were on my trusty 15 year old steed. It has shined on trails in Minnesota, Texas, North Carolina, and New York, but Colorado posses some what different demands on a bicycle.

Anyway, back to the Blur. It scared me a little and it is nearly the complete opposite of the kind of bike I like. It is packed with technology that I have only heard of, never actually ridden:

- long travel suspension
- disk brakes
- hydraulic brakes
- tubeless tires
- and it has more pivot points than I have fingers

The full suspension mountain bikes I remember certainly smoothed out the bumps, but they were heavy, clumsy, and flexed too much to inspire any real confidence. The Blur is a totally different animal. It's nimble, predictable, and really, it just hard to get into trouble on it.

The fork simply soaks up the whole trail, and then looks for more. The tight cockpit is great for climbing and lets me easily hang my butt back behind the seat without worrying about getting all jammed up on hairy drop-offs. And the rear wheal magically winds up exactly where I want it to be.

It's a fabulous bike and I could not image a better bike for me to ride here in Durango. I road through terrain I simply never thought possible.

But I'd still rather ride a hardtail.

Oh, and my host's new bike? A single speed hardtail. He took me riding the other day (in the hail). I had a hard time keeping up. I would not have believed it had I not seen it with my own eyes, he climbed up the mountain on a single speed with less effort than I did with my 27 speeds...

Maye he's the real monster.