Its been too long since you last surfed if...

(1) You elect not to rewax your board because its too dusty
(2) As you're leaving, you can't decide if you have all of your "gear"
(3) You can't remember which leg you leash belongs on

Haven't surfed since August. Caught every wave I went for. My rides weren't necessarily pretty, but it was fun!

And then there were 15

I few weeks ago, I took my lil' Kona (aka 24 inches of love) to a downhill race. The lil' Kona is a hardtail dirt jumper that rides down hills better than my XC bike, but its not a DH bike. I haven't raced my bike just down a hill in years. It was a little intimidating, especially since I knew I needed to keep my shoulder where it belonged. Despite my apprehensions, I had a great race and a really fun time. Mountain bikers way more awesome than triathletes. Then I got to thinking... maybe I need a downhill bike. I had recently been toying with the idea of a full suspension XC bike, but ruled that one out because I really like to stand when I climb, and my Orbea is the jamm. A DH bike seemed like a good idea for several reasons: (1) I actually live somewhere I can ride it on trails (2) I don't have one (3) Sideburnz has one that he doesn't ride much, but he should ride it more (4) Riding down hills is awesome.

Since we have a large quiver of bikes, I didn't see the sense in being hasty, so I made a strategic plan. I would have to ride my lil Kona on a regular basis to demonstrate that a DH bike would get used. I would also have to show that my lil Kona was inadequate for the terrain I wanted to ride (not sure how I was going to do that, but hopefully it wouldn't involve any ER trips). Then after several months of saving, I could buy a DH bike.

I was feeling quite logical for about 8 hours until Sideburnz starting looking on the internet for tiny DH bikes. Low and behold, someone was selling a DH bike in Honolulu, size small. The ad was about a month old, but I contacted the seller anyhow. He emailed back right away- yes the bike was still available, would I like to check it out. **Warning** Warning** This is a dangerous situation, there is a high probability of exchanging dollar bills for bicycles if you get to test ride a bike. So I went down to check it out, with the expectation that the bike would be huge like the Straight 8 and I"d never be able to ride it.

The seller was a guy not much bigger than me who had the suspension dialed for 140 lbs. This is the first time I've ever sat on a FS bike and had it sag! I took it for a test ride in downtown and rode off a bunch of cement planters. Sweet. This bike was going to be at my house in no time. Monday this week, it finally made it home and yesterday I took it to the trails next to my house. So now there are 15. The Orange was so much fun- I finally rode a few segments of trail that I can't ride on my XC bike. I thought the hike-a-bike would get old, but it didn't (note to self: bring water next time). I even launched off some rocks on my first outing. Here's number 15:



So now, all I want to do is ride downhill bikes.