For a long time I was a mountain biker. I only owned mountain bikes, I only read mountain bike magazines and I only rolled on dirt. I recall my GF getting a road bike and I thought …”…what a waste of money & time…” I did a lot of mountain biking - I hit the trails all weekend and went to Moab & Sedona for winter holidays. For an amateur I was pretty decent. I could clear most trail obstacles clean and I was fast enough on the climbs to put the hurt on all my friends. Life was good.

Except….

Every once in a while I would get totally schooled on a climb by someone who looked normal except for their extraterrestrial ability to defy gravity. I’m not talking Alison Sydor [who did crush me on a climb once] or Tinker Juarez. These were ordinary looking folks on ordinary bikes with some secret TURBO BOOST button. I even went so far as to “train” one summer and I hate training. By training I mean riding my mountain bike on the trails, but timing myself and doing laps on tough sections.

It sort of worked - I became a lot stronger. I could ride longer and harder while feeling better the next day and ready for more. But, I still couldn’t out climb the aliens - as I had started to call them. If this was the pros I’d suspect EPO, but it seemed unlikely that some recreational rider from Mindapore was going to dope. The mystery continued.

Then something odd happened. My riding buddies got road bikes and wouldn’t stop telling me how great they were and how much fun they were having. I’d been giving mountain biking my all for over a decade [ya I'm old!] and was a bit burnt out. So I went to the darkside. I picked up a Cannondale R800 at Bow Cycle and decided if you can’t beat ‘em join ‘em.

To my surprise I really enjoyed riding a road bike. I thought it would be painful and boring cranking out km after km with no off road challenges to deal with. Instead it was pretty comfortable [once I got the right saddle and dialed the bike in] and riding with my buddies was a lot more social than mountain biking because we could talk the whole ride since we stayed close together in a pace line. Even riding by myself wasn’t boring. I really liked having some time alone and just cranking along letting my thoughts drift like a moving meditation.

So that summer turned into the “summer of the road bike”. I didn’t take my mountain bike out once until near the end of the season. My one buddy who didn’t own a road bike convinced me we should head to the mountains and do a big ride before the crap-tastic weather settled in. It sounded like a good idea. I had missed trail riding.

Well I got the biggest surprise of the summer when I realized I was able to dominate the climbs like an Alien. I didn’t use the granny ring at all and mostly stayed in the big ring. Big gears = Big speed. I was flying uphill and it didn’t feel like hard work. A summer of pushing the big ring on my road bike had paid off and I finally understood the secret to extraterrestrial climbing abilities - ride a road bike.

When I started to pay more attention I noticed a lot of pro mountain bikers trained on the road and of course there were a lot of ex-roadie pros that switched to mountain biking and did really well.

So if you are ever checking out a road bike and trying to figure out why you’d want to ride one instead of your mountain bike the answer is simple - the power of the big ring will make you a much stronger off road rider.

Some nice things about road bikes:

• road bikes are way simpler than mountain bikes as a result they cost way less for a similar quality bike.
• life on the road is much kinder on components so they last longer and take less maintenance compared to a mountain bike.
• road bike technology changes a lot slower than mountain bike technology so an older road bike doesn’t get out dated the way a mountain bike would.
• most places in Calgary you can start a ride from your door on a road bike so you don’t need to drive for 90mins to get to some good trails.
• road bikes are way tougher than they look. I figured that my Cannondale would get trashed from the hard riding I was putting it through. It seemed so light and delicate compared to my mountain bikes, but after 3 years of constant use it was going strong.

I’m looking forward to checking out the new Surly ‘09 bikes.  I’m a big Long Haul Trucker fan and am stoked to see the new ‘09 colours as new dropouts on the LHT.  I’ve had my eye on a Surly Pugsley for a long time now.  It’s winter for long enough in Alberta it totally makes sense to have a fat tire winter bike - or at least that’s what I tell myself…=-)  Maybe I better leave the VISA at home Saturday!

For more info on the Bike Expo click here.

Hauling a C'dale Scalpel to Bow for service.

• Small shop vibe: Bow is probably the biggest bike shop in Calgary, but it’s always had great customer service and attention to detail like a much smaller shop. The staff will take the time to stop and chat. They know your name and what bikes you ride. That’s pretty impressive when you think about how many people walk through their doors.

• Big shop pricing & stock: size matters in the bike industry and Bow can afford to bring in all kinds of bikes in a complete range of sizes/specs as well as lots of parts to keep ‘em running. It really sucks to have to order something expensive you’ve never even seen in person. At Bow you have a high probability of being able to ride a bike you are interested in or look at a part you are thinking of upgrading your ride with - that’s sweet. Even better they just sell so much stuff they can afford to price it really competitively.

• Great service department: I do most of the work on my own bikes, but occasionally something is just too challenging for me or I screwed something up really bad! I take it to Bow and they sort it out for me fast, plus they don’t laugh at me when I do something totally amateur like…okay I’m not ready to share quite that much with you…=-)

• Special orders: I will admit I like weird bikes. I’ve almost never walked into Bow and wanted a Cannondale mountain bike or a Specialized road bike. I always seem to want some limited edition frame that is only sold in Bulgaria on a Wednesday during lent. The guys at Bow take the time and trouble to look into it for me and a lot of time they are able to pull it off for me. I know deep down that when they have to go to all that trouble there is no way they can make any money off the sale, but they do it anyway - partly ’cause they want to make a customer happy and partly ’cause they are bike geeks and want to see what that frame from Bulgaria is like!