Time flys…& so does this Fisher 29er…
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OMG! - How time flys! It flies faster than this Fisher 29er rigid mtb. After an extended leave from this site to take care of matters relating to the big move, I have returned to share with ya’ll the activities of these Fisher 29er bikes that we are all so familiar with. I hope you’ll still welcome me back into the Fisher family!?
Six weeks into the big move all bike activity consisted only of eye-balling the fine lines & curves of my custom Fisher 29er rigid training bike hanging by its seat post from its bike stand in the foyer. When walking by it while performing tasks I would try to put out my hand to stroke the seat & knobbies. But the bike hung high off the ground, neither tire touching the floor, so momentum gain it could not… It’s not as if I wasn’t doing physical training though. Don’t think I was gettin fat & out of shape. To get through the work day I wore my running shoes, and would run & sprint between tasks, to get from point A to point B… One can do a lot of running on 10 acres of open land, if they so choose… And of course working on a ranch/farm is plenty physical unto itself… Along the way the 50-year birthday came & went…
Gradually bikes were re-incorporated into the daily life. For motivation & future planning I invested in the “ultimate ground scraping tool” at our local hardware store & started scraping out my private bike trails upon my 10 acres. The property is at the bottom end of an immense alluvial fan. In Spanish they call these geographic features a “bajada.” I like to call it my “therapeutic bajada”, as this land form seems capable of bestowing upon the person utilizing it for physical activity a therapeutic effect upon the mind & body. So my 10 acres is formed around the lower edge of this bajada & as such the land has some interesting inclines to utilize for biking purposes. The trails I scraped out on my land make the most use of the inclines that are offered. In between house & yard tasks, several times a week, I would indulge in a bit of trail work with the scraper tool, forming my trails. 15 minutes here, 15 minutes there…before long I had created a fun & useful network of desert ridin trails that have now come in handy for my friends & I… And of course these trails connect up to the multitude of fine desert riding trails emanating from all directions out to the horizon…
Six weeks of non-ridin was all I could take. Three weeks ago I resumed ridin, in spite of the multitudes of tasks that still beckon to be completed. What have I done? I keep asking myself this question. I’ve bought the ultimate high-maintenance property and it just might eat me alive physically. I could give up bikin & runnin forever & still keep my musculature in shape by performing ranch/farm tasks until the day I die. This place was once a goat & chicken ranch. Now I’ve turned it into a bike & desert tortoise ranch. Though can’t neglect the citrus orchard, & numerous fruit trees, including peach, fig, apricot, grape, dates, pecan, pomegranite, etc. And of course there is the eucalyptus forest & numerous exotic trees & shrubs, all kept well groomed & watered by previous owners. Thank heaven there is an automatic watering system for all of this foliage, otherwise I’d go nuts trying to water it all. Little wonder that the previous three owners of the property sold it because it was too much work. At least they worked the land as hard as they could until old age set in & retirement beckoned with easier, low-maintenance housing… Ridin a rake, raking these millions of fallen leaves, has become my new-found sport…
Three weeks ago I resumed ridin. It’s all been upon my 10 acres of land, on my own trails that I’ve created, with climbing forays up onto the therapeutic bajada to play with the incline given to these Fisher/Bontrager 29er wheels. And what therapy this lends out. So far, in these three weeks of riding, I have had NOT ONE car pass me by. That is my ideal preference, though sooner or later a car is going to pass me by. How many cars have passed you by in the last three weeks of your bike ridin?
