Did you ever do an activity that made you feel like a kid again?  That's kind of like what mountain biking feels to me.  Mountain bikers don't ride a mountain bike in the dirt to get somewhere.  They ride a mountain bike to have fun.  Riding to reach a destination is what a person would do on a road bike.   While you are having fun in the dirt traversing challenging trails on mountain bikes, you get to see and experience the beauty of nature as you are having fun.  I would say most people ride a mountain bike simply to experience the thrill of guiding the rig through, over, and around obstacles found on trails and dirt roads, feeling exhilarated about the adventure and the challenge.  Naturally, if you ride a mountain bike in the places for which it was built to ride, you will almost always be on dirt.  Not all dirt is level.  In fact, mountain biking involves some pretty serious physical effort and conditioning because of the many steep climbs encountered on most trails.  Nonetheless, it is downright fun.  The side benefit is the physical fitness that comes along with being a mountain biker.

I started road biking before I started mountain biking.  That's because I started road biking a long time ago and mountain bikes are a relatively new invention.  My road biking began when I was stationed at the Salinas FSS in 1977.  I started biking to complement another sport that I took up at about the same time, running.  My interest in biking was minimal at the time but, I did putt around town on an early Schwinn road bike that weighed a ton.

When I moved to La Habra in 1978, I became more serious about road biking.  Approximately once a week I would ride my road bike from La Habra to the beach and back.  That was about 20 miles one way.

In 1980, I purchased a touring bike.  It was then that I got really serious about biking.  I managed to ride two or three times a week and started participating in group rides.  In 1981, in order to complete a dream, I rode from Portland, Oregon to Riverside.  My route traversed about 1100 miles and basically stayed along the coast for most all the ride.  It took fourteen days to complete the ride.  I did this solo and stayed in motels along the way.  It was a challenging and satisfying experience.  It was also beautiful along the Pacific.  On my longest day I covered 161 miles.  On my shortest day I covered 40 miles.

In 1985, and again in 1986, I completed two long distance rides with a large group of other bicyclists.  Those events were the "Grand Canyon to Mexico Almost Across Arizona" rides.  They were conducted by the Greater Arizona Bicycle Association.  It was well organized with guides and support vehicles.  I did not have to carry any of my gear with me.  They carried it all in trucks.  I only had to ride.  I stayed in motels but most participants camped.  Approximately 150 riders were on these rides and we covered approximately 600 miles through Arizona.  The routes differed each year but basically went from the South Rim of the Grand Canyon to Sunset Crater, Flagstaff, Camp Verde, up the Mogollan Rim, Florence, Tucson, Green Valley and crossed the border into Nogales.  In case you don't realize it, this is a very mountainous bike ride.  I believe it involved 20,000 feet or so of climb total.  It was certainly a physical challenge but offered spectacular scenery.

In 1986, while trail running in the Santa Monica mountains, I met two bicyclists riding bikes equipped with fat, knobby tires.  They told me these rigs were mountain bikes.  I had never seen one before.  I was intrigued by the bikes.  Two weeks later I bought one.  By 1990, I had converted several of my running friends into mountain bikers.  We were doing weekly rides on dirt trails all over Southern California.  About this time mountain biking was growing as a sport by leaps and bounds.  I saw an opportunity in mountain bikes.

As a sideline I opened up R.C.'s Cyclery.  This retail store was actually part of my garage that I had converted to a separate room for the bike shop.  At R.C.'s Cyclery, we specialized in after market light weight components, especially titanium.  We also laced and built numerous light weight wheels for mountain bikes.   I operated this bike shop as a sideline for approximately six years. We sold a lot of parts and repaired a lot of mountain bikes at R.C.'s Cyclery.  We were also having fun.  Because of the interest in mountain biking that the shop generated, we started holding several off-road rides each week that originated from the shop.  The number of riders joining in grew significantly.  We formed a mountain bike club and used the name Team Dirty Work.

I closed R.C.'s Cyclery in 1997 after growing tired of working my "real job" during the day and then repairing and overhauling bikes at night.  Although, the shop closed, the rides continued as did the club.

My wife and I ride mountain bikes at least two days a week with our club.  I use to go out with other club members for night rides but in the last couple of years I have decided I am getting to fragile to risk it.  Our particular city, Riverside, has numerous off-road routes that are challenging and fun.  Although housing tracts have taken about half of the area that we had ten years ago, there are still plenty of good routes left for us to ride.

In 1989 we, my wife and I, discovered mountain biking paradise in Crested Butte, Colorado when we attended a mountain bike festival held there.  Every year since then we again visit Crested Butte where we stay for approximately two weeks.   While there we get to ride some of the best mountain bike trails in the universe.   Many of our ride buddies join us there in Crested Butte.

Needless to say this sport has been the source of countless hours of fun with our friends.  We plan on mountain biking until we are no longer able to get our leg over our dirt rig.

 If you want to learn more about our ride group, Team Dirty Work, explore our web site www.teamdirtywork.org.

My first mountain bike was a Diamond Back Ridge Runner.  The next was a Mongoose, the third was a bike that I purchased from SuperGo (I don't remember the model), my next bike was a Klein Rascal followed by a Breezer.  Currently I ride a Santa Cruise Superlight and converted my old Klein into a single speed mountain bike.  I still  have all these mountain bikes in my possession except the Supergo.  It is owned by another riding friend who still rides this semi-antique.