Soul Ride

Im currently in La right now (where Caitlin, my girlfreind, lives) and yesterday I decided to invite her dad for a bike ride. He pulled out two dusty mountain bikes from the garage. Both from around 1987, no suspension and one of them (the one I was on) was a girls frame. We threw them in the car and headed up to the trail head (I had no clue what I was getting myself into). Im not quite sure exactly what the trail was called but it was off of angels crest highway (the 2 I think) near La Canada. IT WAS SO MUCH FREAKIN FUN. I had a blast! a bit slow and 'shakey' stating off. But we navigated the boulders and loose sould and shakey stearing and rabid dog packs and snarling moutain lions and made it up to where we said we were going to climb to. A saddle junction that took us about an hour fifteen to climb to. We then droped our seats and started the bumby ride home. Hadnt been on a trail in about 3 years and it made me miss my mtn bike dearly. Cycling has got to be the greatest sport In the history of man. Its certainly the one I derive the absolute most pleasure from.
I forgett who it was, but someone during an interview in the tour de france coverage was talking about his love of the sport and how its a neccesity becuase of the pain endured during racing.

Thank god for these guys who made it all possible for us.

" The earliest bicycle was a wooden scooter-like contraption called a celerifere; it was invented about 1790 by Comte Mede de Sivrac of France. In 1816, Baron Karl von Drais de Sauerbrun, of Germany, invented a model with a steering bar attached to the front wheel, which he called a Draisienne. It has two wheels (of the same size), and the rider sat between the two wheels, but there were no pedals; to move, you had to propel the bicycle forward using your feet (a bit like a scooter). He exhibited his bicycle in Paris on April 6, 1818.
Kirkpatrick MacMillan (1812-1878), a blacksmith from Dumfriesshire, Scotland, invented the first bicycle with foot pedals in the 1830 to 1840's, but he never patented it and his idea did not catch on locally.

A French father-and-son team of carriage-makers, Pierre and Ernest Michaux, invented an improved bicycle in the 1860's. Many early bicycles (called velocipedes, meaning "fast foot," or, more descriptively, "bone shakers") had huge front wheels - it was thought that the bigger the wheel, the faster you could go. Early tires were wooden - metal tires were an improvement, and solid rubber tires were added later. A chain with sprockets was added to the bicycle in the 1880's; this was called the "safety bicycle." Air-filled tires were also added in the 1880's. The derailleur gear system was added in the 1970's. "
-enchantedlearning.com

happy riding