Our Biking History: From Road to Mountain to Downhill to Singlespeed

I used to be a roadie. Every Sunday morning I would get up at 5:00 a.m., and drive to the West Island and then cycle about 100 to 120 km with my cycling club.

I did not foresee then that soon I would join the ranks of the lowly mountain biker!

I bought my first mountain bike in April of 2000. It was a glowing orange Schwinn Moab. Brian was there to help me choose it, and there for the inaugural ride. This was a small frame (15"), and is still the only bike that seemed to fit me right!



At that time, Brian was riding a heavy, full-suspension Specialized FSR.


Not too long after this, Brian switched to a handsome Cannondale (used but good!); much much lighter and more finesseful than the old blue FSR.


While still with the Cannondale, Brian also built up a GT Zaskar frame (no photo!).

And I added a sleek black Cannondale to my bike room as well. It was a 16" frame, and just a tad too big for me, but gave me years of great riding fun anyway before I sold it off and replaced it with my current rig, a GF Rig!



While we both loved our Cannondales, we also jumped on the full-suspension cross-country bandwagon and each bought a new Specialized FSR. I got the Rockhopper, and Brian got the Stumpjumper. These bikes were replacements for our other hard-tails - I shortly then sold my Schwinn, and Brian sold his Zaskar.


We used to ride these bikes on the downhill courses at Fujimi Panorama.


At this point, we each had two bicycles: a full-suspension cross-country, and a hard-tail Cannondale.

Brian then replaced his Stumpjumper with a Yeti AS-R, which was better suited to the trails overall:


We'd been enjoying the downhill trails at Fujimi Panorama so much, we decided to add a downhill bike to our collection. I got myself a Foes downhill bike (no photo!).

The Foes was good, but a little too heavy. After a broken dereilleur hanger left it rather un-ridable (it was a hard-to-replace part), I sold the frame and bought my Santa Cruz Bullit. This was an awesome bike and lasted the rest of my downhill days!


Brian swapped out his Yeti for a GT Dh-i, which he really loved:


During this time, we'd also converted our Cannondales to singlespeeds - removing the gears and shifters, etc, resulting in a cleaner, more simple set up. Finally, after riding converted singlespeeds, we each went ahead and got the real deal.

Brian bought his Gary Fisher Rig, a 29er singlespeed, first. I followed about six months later.





Being so happy with the Rig, we sold all our other bikes, and we've decided to go custom. Brian has had his custom frame (built by Joel Greenblatt at Clockwork Bikes) since 2007. I should have my own custom frame by this August.



Finally, we found our niche in the 29er singlespeed game. Simplicity has been achieved. We no longer have three or four bikes each. We no longer have gears.