First Ride

Saturday, May 6, I went for my first ride in 2006. Since I had not been riding for about 6 months, I wasn’t dare to go for an extreme riding. Together with 3 other friends, we were just having a light XC in our neighborhood. What I meant by “light” was 44 km distance, 12 km/hr average speed, 2.5 hours time. The trail was a combination of on and off road. I actually don’t like on road riding, but one of team members was new to (mountain) biking and he was not so ready for off road riding. Yes, we had to tolerate each other. That’s the spirit of mountain biking.


During the riding I noticed one common mistake that some bikers had made, i.e. changed gear once they were at uphill position or when they didn't have enough power to push the pedals. That’s not recommended! You may only change the gear BEFORE you enter uphill position, otherwise you’ll ruin your bike’s chain.