Bicycle

After playing around on my dirt bike and searching for a method of working out that I could do with my bad feet and semi bad knees, and that wouldn't bore me, I decided to try mountain biking.  First time on the trails I was hooked.

I looked long and hard trying to decide between buying a new bike or a used bike.  A used bike would have been a bit of a gamble on the age and condition of the components, but I could get more bike for my money with a used bike.  I ended up finding this 2000 Specialized Stumpjumper FSR XC on Ebay from a local seller who refused to ship.  This got me a good price and I won the auction.  Picked it up from him and it was in excellent condition and he only was getting rid of it because he'd just replaced it with a much more high end bike that had me drooling.

Here's a picture of the bike.

I had to pick up some gear.  I did buy some bicycle shorts, and I am sold on them, the padding is fantastic and really helps make the bike's seat tolerable for longer rides.  Additionally I purchased a Giro helmet, Specialized Goves and some Adidas bicycle shoes that allowed me to mount the cleats for my clipless pedals.  Clipless pedals are one more thing I'm sold on, as they've really helped me maximize my pedaling power and I can power up hills much easier now.

Here's a shot of the bike in it's natural element at the Arbor Hills Nature Preserve in Plano Tx.

And this is just a shot looking down the trail that I was riding that day.

Finally, this is the hill I did my first endo on.  I was coming down and taking it easy, hard on the brakes and accidentally got my front wheel into the rut and flipped over sending me over the handlebars landing on the rocks for a short tumble.  Hey, it wouldn't be a sport if you couldn't get hurt, right?  I ended up just a tad sore with only a small scuff on my right knee.  Thank goodness for the gloves as I came down head first and used my hands and arms to take the brunt of the fall.

Despite occasional injuries, this continues to be a ton of fun and one of the more fun forms of physical fitness I've tried.