We decided to hit Camp Aguinaldo yesterday, after finding out Timberland was closed to bikers due to a "fun run."
Instead of my usual narration of how the ride went, I'll try something different. I'll give you a list of some realizations that I had when we were there. Hey, who doesn't like lists?
Just a quick preface though. Alfred just built up a full sus 29er, a Niner Jet9, and this was to be her maiden voyage.
Now on with the list...
- Riding with friends is fun - MTBing is generally a solo sport (compare pro MTB racing to pro road racing), and there's no doubt being alone in the woods, enjoying nature in its raw-ness and tranquility is just way cool. But riding with friends has its benefits. Apart from being not tagged as anti-social, it allows one to ride at a more leisurely pace, with more frequent rest breaks. If I rode alone, I'd ride my ass off until I puked
. The end result would be me being out for the rest of the day. When I ride with friends, I find myself still quite fresh to take on the rest of the day with no ill effects.
- 29ers are cool - I tried out Al's Jet9 for one lap, and had a blast (caveats aside; see below). It wasn't as unwieldy or sluggish as I expected, and was actually quite pleasant carving around the tight and not-so-tight turns of the Aguinaldo track, probably because the transition from 650B to 29er isn't as pronounced as that of 26er to 29er. I definitely felt the extra height of the larger wheels but that could've been something else (see #3). I've actually just recently taken a fancy for 29ers. I'm particularly smitten by the Salsa Spearfish 2 and the Rocky Mountain Element 950.
- Bike fit is key - while I enjoyed riding the Jet9, it was waaay to big for me -- about 2 sizes too big. Plus, Al had an uncut wide-ass Easton Haven bar on it. Not only am I not used to "normal" bars anymore, wider bars tend to increase one's reach even more. For reference, my 685-mm Carnegie's have a 25-degree sweep versus the 711-mm Haven at 9-degrees. I also could've used at least a 1-cm lower seat, but the frame's linkage prevented the seatpost from dropping any further. Al had Ergon GR2 grips and those require a lot of fiddling to get the angle right. The set up was totally wrong for my hands.
- I don't need full suspension - I didn't adjust the Jet9's suspension settings for myself, so I'm not 100% sure if my experience could've been better. The ride was comfy, but I missed the efficiency of rigid riding. Despite what reviews have said, I could make the suspension bob with out-of-the saddle efforts (again, might be due to incorrect suspension set-up; I also didn't try any of the ProPedal settings). The wonderful SID fork did have a cool X-Loc remote lock out, but it still budged a bit when locked out and has absolutely no comparison to a rigid fork. I can imagine how the suspension would be amazing for trails like Timberland, and how it would definitely be beneficial on longer, rough rides. But for the riding I do and the trails I go to, I'd rather sacrifice plushness for efficiency. Modesty aside, I think I've reached a point in my riding skills where I can ride a rigid on most trails no problem. One instance though, where the suspension was just awesome, was on low gear climbs over rough ground. Phenomenal traction and smooth as buttah!
- Bike weight is relative - many of us obsess over the weight of our bikes, even if we aren't really weight weenies. Heck, bike weight reduction is important for SSers like me, since we aim for efficiency. The Jet9 is at least 3lbs/1.4kg heavier than my bike, but I never felt it while riding. The ability to shift to gears lower than my Ruth's 32x18 negated the weight penalty. That, plus the fact that I'm probably generally stronger now due to SS riding (see #6).
- I don't need gears - this is the fact that really stood out for me while riding Al's bike. I'd been contemplating going back to gears for a while now (albeit 1x10 to keep things as simple as possible), since I've been suffering a bit on the climbs on my recent rides. But after that single lap, my appreciation for the simplicity of SS riding has been renewed. Now it could be because I need to re-learn how to shift. But the mere fact that I had to THINK about shifting at all detracted from my riding experience. I saw how one can get so caught up in considering when and where to shift during the ride that you lose appreciating the ride itself. I love the fact that SS has me thinking of only 2 things: do I sit or do I stand?
Quite a number of bikers showed up that morning. We later found out that a lot of them came from Timberland. I even saw a friend from college, Agu. He might be considered one of the pioneers of singlespeeding and 29ers in the Philippines. He is the proprietor/co-owner of MyNextBike.com. He and his business partner, Pauly (not sure of the spelling), were there on Lenz Sport bikes, and he let me try out his Leviathan, set up as a 1x9. It pedaled surprisingly efficiently (it did only have 3 inches of rear wheel travel), but felt too small for me (see #3 above).
Let me end with a quick note about the trail. It's been a while since I was last there, so I was glad to be back. The soil conditions that day was perfect: a little moist, but not muddy. Talahib had grown abundant in sections, and the mini-DH run near the last third had the grass combed over the trail, instead of cut. This was bad two-fold. First it made the track a little slippery. Second, it ironed out the bumps which were what made that section fun 
Anyway, it was a good day for a ride. The realizations were just icing on the trail ride cake.
Al's "second darling" on the right
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