Wednesday, June 23, 2004

Lose 4 inches . . .

With all those emails that clutter up my inbox encouraging me to buy a little pill that promises satisfaction due to added inches, it's easy to understand how my perspective got a little skewed. Not that I've ever purachased one, but the whole idea sticks in your head after a while. Gotta give those guys some credit. But after too many mtb races where I lost valuable time due to running into trees and other obstacles, it was impossible to ignore the fact that bigger is not necessarily better. So I switched the riser bars from the Kona with the Norc's much narrower flat bar. After a ride last night at Whittier and today's race at BHP, I'm happy to report that the results are good: no trees hit and the bike just handles that much better. Of course, I still lost to the same guys I usually lose to, but I'm hoping the gap was a bit smaller, since I finished four minutes faster than the last BHP race. So if you want a more satisfying experience go flatter and four inches shorter.

"It never gets easier, you just go faster" -- Greg Lemond.

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