Nose Hill CX

I have an addiction. There I have said it. It is not booze or drugs but bikes. Over the past 10 years I have accumulated a lot of bikes. I have bikes for cross country, bikes for down hill, the open road, commuting, cruising and track. The only bike I do not at this point own is a cyclocross bike. Due to this obsession with bicycles and the owning of them I have recently been scouring the interweb (that thing that is a series of tubes and spinning tops) trying to find my dream bike. For some reason I have a love of steel lugged frames and thus have been looking at a lot of custom bike builders, I might add none of which I can afford. It is because of this indecision and realization that if I don't get one I truly love, I will simply have to add another bike in the future to my ever growing collection that caused me to borrow my mom's Rocky Mountain Solo CXR. This bike is gorgeous. It is in my opinion the nicest looking bike rocky has ever made that can ride on the road and on the dirt. The more I have ridden it the more I have fallen in love. The love affair started this spring when at home in FSJ I didn't feel like loading my road bike in the van driving to pavement and then preceding to bike that I grabbed my moms bike and took it on a bunch of paved and not paved roads. It was a blast. I have contemplated buying a newer version but none of the new ones have quite the same beauty or the amazingly light Easton tubing that has caused me pause.

Now enough with my obsession and on to the fun of riding a rigid cyclocross bike on mountain biking trails. So I woke up this morning geared up and hoped on my bike. I cruised into a strong gusting head wind up to nose hill and as soon as possible veered uphill on to dirt and off the paved path. It took roughly an hour of riding before I became fluid and learned how to let the bike bounce and rock beneath me. At the half way point of my ride I stopped in at a little cafe called Friends that I looked up last night. I grabbed a coffee and a made fresh this morning muffin. I sat outside enjoying one of the few nice days we have had this summer and enjoyed the beauty around me. It is hard not to have fun on a nice day with so many amazing colours around me and a bright blue sky above.

If you are reading this and don't bike, buy one, borrow one, or find that one you forgot you had hop on it and go and enjoy the beauty of the fall. It is the smell of the leaves and crisp air that will revive you in ways you didn't know and if you have the a place with little or no traffic put on some music and let it be the sound track to your day.