Back when I was in High School I ran cross-country and I did it for a year in college. After I was done with XC running I joined the rugby team at my school. I love rugby, it was the perfect sport for me. I managed to play a little rugby with a team out here in PA when I moved out here but it didn't feel like my college team so I had to search for a new sport. I had been doing a little XC biking (XC biking is just riding with a bike up and down trails. The bikes usually have a max of 3 inches of suspension travel in the front and back) but it seemed that I was always breaking the bike because I was riding it just a little too hard. So last summer I started looking at bikes online. I finaly came across this full suspension (full squish :) ) bike for 50% off on an online bike store. Even though it was 50% off it was still over $1000 (which in the bike world is chump change but for non bikers it is confusing why someone would spend that much money on two wheels). My first real bike was a 2006 Iron Horse Yakuza Kumicho (to the left) (IH). My baby has 7" of travel in the front and in the back. This makes it super fun and easy to ride really rough stuff that either scared me or broke my bike before. The front tire is 2.7 inches across (yeah like 4 times wider than your bikes tire). Over the past year or so I have gotten so much more than $1000 worth of enjoyment and happiness from it. One down side of my bike is that it weighs 46 lbs. This is to make it strong but it makes it hard to ride around, if you aren't bombing down a hill. So last Fall I went on a search for a more pedalable/jumpable/street ridablebike. I will introduce you to my hardtail in a future post...

peace