Mountain Biking in Santee

As readers of this blog know, I purchased a couple of mountain bikes recently. The Walmart bike did not last but the Schwinn bike is still going ok. I went out riding last week but tried to do a couple of things.

I had to adjust the seat becuase my family jewels were getting crushed. I’m not sure how other bike riders can do this but the narrow seats do not seem all that comfortable to me unless the nose is lowered as far as it can go.

The chain gear is out of adjustment as the gears where shifting under a load by themselves. This was especially maddening when going up a hill as I ended up having to walk the bike up. I’ll speak about adjusting the bike as well as some of the issue’s I’ve faces and dealt with and will take about the some of the rides I’ve been on at Mission Trails recently. Here is a video that explains how to adjust the rear gears (I’ll go this today).

The video seems fairly clear on how to adjust up the gears. I found some more detailed instructions if the job turns out bigger but I think I’ll get this ok.

My Schwin is a hard-tail, meaning there are no rear shocks. When I bought the bike the tires were filled with the right amount of air. Over the last few months I started to notice it getting harder to peddle (after I took a break from riding the bike). I assumed that I needed to pump up the tires.

Well I don’t have a gauge so I just pumped up the tires until they were firm. Let me tell you that was a mistake! I did not realize that I could not pump up the tires too much or the vibrations would really shake things up.

I rode up Spring Canyon last weekend and noticed the ride felt stiffer on the climb. When I rode down I ended up stopping and letting some air out the the tires. I don’t have a back pack that will hold a bicycle pump so when I let out too much air, I ended up having to ride really slow so I would not damage the rims and walking a lot of the way.

I’m going to chalk that trip up to a learning experience and adjust the gears as well as pump the tires to the optimum level! Tomorrow (Sunday) I’m going to head back out for another ride to check my adjustments.

I really enjoy Missions Trails park because there are tons of places to ride the bike as will as some close fun rides too! Another fun ride I like is Sycamore Canyon. This trail is initially along side of Santee Lakes, then veers off. I’ve not gone too far past the lakes because this is part of the military base training area but there are mostly planes flying over. There is also some bike jumps and such along side Santee Lakes.

I love the workout you get from riding a mountain bike. It does not feel like exercise so I’ll stick with this and learn how to maintain my mountain bike for my Santee, CA adventures.