This little Ibis Mojo is not my first bike, nor will it be my last....but it is definitely the first racing bike I have ever fallen in love with. I finally found my way back on the little thing last weekend and hit up some "new to me" dirt trails in a "new to me park" (with new friends down here in SoCal). On this day, I was reminded just how special this bike is to me.
We rode some pretty tough trails (and I think I may have been the only hardtailer on most of the tough ones we rode) however, funny thing is... even with the fact that the travel on my old fork was basically non-existent, my tire tread was minimal, one of my wheels in my wheel set has a nice dent in it to the point where I had to place a tube in the tubeless wheel, yaddi yaddi ya, you get the point, right? ...honestly, even with all of that I have to say, once I got going on her ("White Lightning" is my bike's name) I was in total and complete trust that I could handle the trails, regardless of how tough they were, and regardless of all the "issues" with my bike. I felt like I was hopping on a horse that had been my friend for life!
It was such an amazing day....I love that bike.
In all reality....it was from riding this bike (in Annadel State Park) that I developed the skills, the confidence, and the fitness that enabled me to go on to become a fearless little criterium racer in the pro peloton.
There are only two other bikes that have a place in my heart like that one. The first one being my little pink Stingray, that I taught myself to ride when I was about six-years old (I can still remember the first moment I made it around the corner in front of my house without having to put my foot down!...little did I know what love I would have for corners later on as a professional rider!!). And the other bike being this little 24" wheel Schwinn road bike my dad got for me when I said I didn't want to race BMX anymore, but I still wanted my own bike. I remember loving being in the big ring and loving being on the road, and loving going really, really fast (a feeling that you just couldn't get on a bmx bike!). I was far too young, and out of the loop to know that the bike I was riding was a style of bike that was actually being raced (by women!) but had I known....who knows what could have or would have happened! I think I was about twelve when I got that bike and I remember thinking how cool it was when my dad put a MotoFox sticker on it (a bmx thing). So that was my bike's name "The Green Fox" ....it would be over twenty years before I got back onto a road bike, and even a couple more before I ever raced one....but that little road bike and some of the moments I had riding it are forever embedded into my brain --the feeling of high speed, and the wind in my face, and the urge to race cars (lol), and the pressure in my legs from using big gears, and most notably, the pure freedom that I felt when on two wheels.....those are the things that make me realize, (like so many people) I have loved bikes practically my whole life, to the point where I almost feel bad when someone tells me they don't ride bikes, because I know, as many others do, the pure joy that can from riding at any age and in any fashion. Okay...sappy bike love story over :)
word to the world on two wheels
RIDE ON RIDE ON
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