The Ultimate Fun Bike!

Last October, when we left Michigan, we didn't have room for me to bring my cyclocross bike. I left it with our friend Mary, to use while we were on the road. A few months later, Laura convinced me to sell the bike to Mary. For the uninitiated, a cyclocross bike is a cross between a road bike and a mountain bike; And they are just a blast to ride because you can take them just about anywhere!

There are tons of fire roads, 4X4 track, horse trails and mountain bike trails within riding distance of our home, here in Tucson. Since we are in our "temporary" permanent location, I decided to start looking for a new cyclo bike. Plus, a cyclo bike will make a great commuter bike, with the addition of some fenders and a rack, for the 6 mile commute I will have to work when we move to Denver, next spring!

I found a great deal on a Schwinn DBX Sport cyclocross/commuter bike. Because it is a year end close out, I picked up for 30% off, plus an additional 10% (of the price) in credit towards parts and accessories! It has a cool "flat" paint job in gold and British racing green (looks black till you get it in the sunlight) It has some really great parts that you just don't see in this price range; It has disc brakes, which will be great to have if I ever run into rain on my work commutes (disc brakes are not affected by water and dust like traditional rim brakes!), it has a carbon fiber seat post and front fork to tame the jarring effect of those potholes.

Here it is, my new favorite bike:

After my long work week of travel to the east coast, I was anxious to get out for a ride! I ended up doing a 32 mile ride! I did 8 miles of dirt road and 4X4 trails, 6 miles of single track mountain bike trail (I got really funny looks from the full body armor "free rider" guys) and 18 miles on the road!

Here is a map of my route, the blue line is pavement, the red is dirt road and the green is the singletrack. There was a lot of elevation change in my ride. I started out at 2,900 ft and went to 3,500 ft by the time I reached the single track trail. I ended up at 2,400 ft down at the bottom of the blue line, on the map(top speed, 36 mph). I stopped for some lunch before making my way back home, back to the 2,900 ft mark (ya gotta love GPS systems!).


By the way, if you can make out the black box on the right, it says "Mt Lemmon, 9,157 ft"! My goal, before we leave here in March, is to be able to climb to the top on my bike! That would equate to about 5,700 ft elevation change in the 20 miles to the top :() Stay tuned to see how that goes!

-Rich-