Why I started Mountain Biking

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 I had owned a bike when I was a kid, I had ridden it around town, but like most, I got my license and abandoned my bike for what I assumed would be forever, but then...

My father-in-law owns a rental and tour company. He takes people hiking, canyoneering, jeeping, the works. He also rents mountain bikes. One day, while home for the summer, my father-in-law invited me to take one of the rental bikes and follow him down the side of a mountain. It was awesome. I wrecked, flying over my handle bars three times, and I've got the scar on my face to prove it. Oddly enough, that ride was enough to do me in, and I was hooked.

So I bought this bike. I needed something cheap to get myself up and going. I also needed to get in shape, and learn how to take care of a bike. It used, it is heavy, it is cheap, and it is awesome. It probably wouldn't hold up very well to serious riding, but it got me going. 

I wish I had taken pictures when I took apart the front forks and cleaned out all the crud and mess that was keeping them from working. It was ugly, but now they are shiny and clean again. Unfortunately, like I said, this bike isn't meant for anything extreme, and I've outgrown it.

That's when the Diamondback came in.

I picked this bike up at the bike shop in the Cedar Point bike shop on main street in Cedar City. I talked the guy down on the listed price.

The bike came with disc brake hubs, which are a little more costly than the rim brakes. However, it wasn't set up with the former, but the latter. I wrecked and bent my front rim, which I was able to mostly straighten out, but the small amount of bent left was enough to get me to buy what I needed to get the discs up and going. Rim brakes don't work very well with a bent rim, and I can't afford a new rim right now.

A little sentimental note, the bull horns, those things that stick up from the ends of the handlebars, are actually all that is left of the Diamondback my father rode about 10 years ago. It added to my already developing feeling that this bike and I were meant for each other.