Fun Ride with Rene's Silver Streak Bike

Silver Streak Parts
Rene Abesamis, a friend who had a bag-full of decent bike parts, told me he'll assemble a wet-season bike for the rainy days. When he finally showed me the bike, I was impressed with the way the Vision aluminum frame was paint-stripped and polished. If the Silver Surfer (Marvel galactic super hero to which I'm a die-hard fan of) would ride a bike instead of a surf board, he'll probably chose that kind of silver polish look. So, I call Rene's buffed bike, Silver Streak. It looked like a regular mountain bike except for its eccentric handle bar. Ah yes, the front fork has a classic Marzocchi Bomber - dual chamber oil bath, if my memory serves me right. They don't make 'em like this one anymore.

Wanna Try It?
Next, he invites me to take it for a spin on his short-but-sweet training loop that starts from sea level, goes up about 250 meters above sea level (MASL) then loops back into a fast and sweet downhill ride, some on technical single tracks. Normally, I'm reluctant to use anyone else's bike, but I had to try this one out.

Trail Manners
For a 15-inch frame, it had a roomier cockpit than I thought. I was told the handlebar made that possible. Normally, I go for an 18.5-inch cross-country frame. The ride and feel was dialed-in for me. It felt like I've known this bike from a different lifetime. In birds-and-the-bees parlance, if this bike were a lady, there was no courtship necessary for this date. We'd just have to decide what to have for breakfast. On the steep climbs, the tire provided traction but I was getting front tire lifts. It was screaming for bar-ends. Perhaps the shortcoming of the 15-inch frame was becoming apparent. However, on the downhill, the small frame provided nimble steering, allowing me to use minimal body-english to weave through trail challenges.

A Semi Endo
On this particular section though, the single track dipped steeply followed by a small drop, with a tree almost in front of it. I saw the drop and it was manageable. I went down at speed. But when steering out of the tree's way, I just found myself thrown clear...it was too fast I didn't know what actually happened. I felt my right leg scrape something hard from the bike. It was painful. Rene described it as a semi-endo. I'm still not sure what caused it. A short frame making me ride too forward on the bike specially after the drop? Going too fast to stay clear of the tree? Or maybe I was just plain rusty. Again, in my parlance, "me and my 'ol lady just had a fight". I was still able to finish the ride despite pinch-flatting on the rocky section.

Ending Thoughts
True, the trail loop was one sweet ride combining elevation, a white-knuckle section (depends really how fast you ride it), different trail textures (rocks, off camber sections, ruts, etc) and a river crossing - a fitting ride for a Silver Streak.

--- TheLoneRider

ps. - Rene, you da MAN!

Reader Comments:

"More trails on the horizon!" -- Rene Abesamis
TheLoneRider
(Jul 20, 20109) amen to that!

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