A Brief History of Biking (according to me)

I like riding a bike. I always have. I've had many bikes over the years and still have several of them now.

I got my first bike from my grandmother and it was a no name, heavy, black BMX style bike. It had a coaster brake and it was what I had training wheels on to learn to ride. I graduated a year or so later at Christmas to a beautiful chrome GT BMX bike. It was so cool! The first thing I did was put my hands all over it. It was so shiny. The sprocket where the pedals met the chain was so awesome, I had to put my finger on it, which is the time my sister picked to rotate the pedal backwards. This meant my finger was stuck between the sprocket teeth and the chain. This was literally seconds after I opened the bike up. I rotated the pedal back further and got my finger out as quickly as I could. First blood, accomplished.

My sister loves to tell the story of our neighborhood talent contest where I rode around in circles in our cul-de-sac on my BMX bike accompanied by the talented Kenny Loggins singing Danger Zone. You know what I'm talking about. I was 8 then. I rode the bike to school, to my friends' houses, the park and anywhere else I could think of. Everywhere I wanted to go, I could ride this simple one speed wonder.

A few years later, mountain bikes became the new thing for kids to have and when I was 12, I got my first from Sears. It was a very heavy 18 speed mountain bike with no suspension. I rode that bike all over any trail I could find with my friends Adam and Brian. I ended up bending the handlebars in an attempt to go down a rocky hill at some point, but kept riding until I got to junior high. In junior high and high school, bikes gave way to girls, cars, and work.

In my last year of college I met Jay. Jay told me about all the mountain biking he did in the area. Mountain biking was cool again to me, especially after the first time I went to the Northshore trail on Grapevine Lake on my Trek 4900 disc. I had suspension to absorb the bumps, I had gears to help me out going faster and it was a ton of fun. I stopped riding a few years later for awhile when I got a desk job that literally sucked the life right out of me. I rode occasionally after that and eventually bought a road bike for myself and my wife. When I had time to ride, I would, but being out of town kept me from doing any regular riding. I tried bringing my Trek to places out of town, but it was usually more trouble than it was worth. I replaced cranks, cogs, cassettes, and paid about $200 in just labor to keep the bike rideable for a year.

Fast forward to 2010. My brother had just bought a Trek 6500 disc and wanted to go ride with me at Sansom Park in Fort Worth. It was great. I was severely winded, but I had a lot of fun. While riding, I talked to my brother and his friend from work about their bikes and I asked if either had tried out a 29er (see below) before they bought their bikes. My brother said he didn't like the way it rode. I was intrigued by this, mainly because I enjoy doing things opposite my brother. It's a sibling thing, what can I say?

Later that week, I was intelligent enough to go on a trail at a park in Arlington that had no signs. It was way overgrown and probably wasn't a trail to begin with. Did I mention it was raining? No, well it was hot, humid and wet! I rode home after falling off a few times and hurried to get to a party. A few days later, I found a nice surprise on my legs and my arms, poison ivy. It took three weeks to get over it and lots of meds. While sitting in my room itching like crazy, I knew I wanted to ride when I was away from home and I needed an inexpensive, but usable bike that didn't require much maintenance and would be happy with riding for several years. On a very late night in August, I was looking at mtbr.com (awesome resource for mountain biking) and found info on 29ers and singlespeeds. I was looking at each separately, but their references crossed paths a lot.

What's a 29er?

A 29er is a mountain bike having 29 inch tires. Most mountain bikes you see have 26 inch tires. So why would 3 inches matter? A 29er has an easier time rolling over things like roots, logs, rocks, etc. The bigger tires carry the rider over obstacles with more momentum than a 26 inch tire. I called bs on this at first. I mean, how could 3 more inches help that much? My interest was piqued.

Aren't more gears better?

Sounds pretty obvious, huh? The more gears you have, the easier it is to get past obstacles like hills and power down them with higher gears. The answer is that it all kinda depends. I mean, I was riding around with my brother and previously with Jay and remembered gearing down at the last minute hoping to make it up that hill that suddenly appeared in front of me on a trail. I experienced what's called chain suck. I stalled countless times. Come to think of it, I rode around most of the time in just one gear anyway on most of the trail. When I had my front chainring. Well, maybe single speed makes more sense then.

So, I started obsessively watching videos and researching 29ers and single speeds. Like I said, they crossed paths a lot, so I started looking at bikes that encompassed both. I saw some great bikes that ranged from $5k+ full suspension, geared bikes to Walmart specials. I wanted something that came from a bike shop instead of a big box store and was relatively inexpensive. One name that came up so many times, it was difficult to ignore.

The name was Monocog 29er. It was ugly, steel, single speed, no suspension, 29er and dead simple. Dead simple was important because I would keep it out of town and wouldn't have access to tools that I have at home. I was drawn to this bike because it was the right price and had the features I wanted. I wasn't sold on a rigid (no suspension) front end, but I was willing to give it a shot.

I pulled the trigger on the bike on August 7th. I ordered a 2010 Redline Monocog 29er. Over the weekend, I found out that Redline was about to roll out their 2011 bikes. Great, I'm getting last years model. It really wasn't a big deal, because the only thing that has changed from year to year was the paint job and the tires. I got a call on Tuesday that they were fresh out of 2010s and I would be getting a 2011. Woo-hoo! I also ordered a set of clipless pedals at this time and was able to pick up the bike on August 13th.

First Impressions

The bike is really simple. I mean really simple. No gears, no suspension. All I had to do was pedal. If I couldn't make it up a hill or past an obstacle, it was squarely on me, not the bike. I rode the bike for about 30 minutes and rode about 4 miles. I rode a little on Pinehurst Trail and a little on the road. It got dark on the trail early and was kinda hard to see, so I turned around and headed back.

For the next week, I rode the bike about everyday and put 60+miles on in a week on trails and bike paths at the local park (Okeeheelee Park). During this time, I purchased a chain cleaner to get all the Florida sand off of the chain. The bike chain was caked with sand and I was very happy with the purchase. In the next week, it rained a lot and I was able to adjust the chain a few times. The chain seems to get loose easier than my 26" bike, but not too bad overall. The headset also became loose and I was able to fix with a few turns of my bike tool.

I rode Oleta River State Park on August 28th with some of my friends and it was great, but very humid. There were not many hills or obstacles I was unable to overcome here. It was a lot of fun.

I've got only 73 miles on my bike and I couldn't be happier. The freedom of no choice in gears is quite liberating. I was able to focus on just riding the trail on my bike and not picking the right gear. I was a little worried about the fact that the bike had no suspension, but I am very happy with the rigid setup. I don't feel as I am missing out on having a suspended front fork. I have to lift the front end a bit and pick the lines I choose better than I did on my previous mountain bike, but in the end, it's completely worth it.

The Monocog 29er basically feels like I'm riding a big BMX bike. It's just plain fun. I really like this bike. It wasn't crazy expensive at less than $500 and the fact that I can't get riding out of my dreams means to me that I made the right choice with the Monocog 29er. I can't recommend this bike enough. If you are looking to see what the single speed or the 29er craze is all about, the Monocog will not let you down. Pedal onward friends.