Life will soon return to the forest. The willows are already starting to bud. By way of preparation, I am turning the Diamondback into a forest-road cruiser. This is kind of half way between a mountain bike and a road bike, but a little stouter than your standard hybrid. I have a bad-ass indestructable rear wheel on there now, I have nice big cushy tires, and I just ordered a pair of moustache bars from Hiawatha. Moustache bars are basically what you’d get if you took a pair of drop bars and a pair of straight mountain bike bars and got them really drunk and showed them porn.I’m basically trying to build a poor-man’s version of the Rivendell Atlantis.

_{The Rivendell Atlantis – It’s like a Hummer for smart people}

I like riding the forest roads. It’s private. You almost never see a car, you can stop and pee anywhere you like, and you never want for scenery.

You generally don’t have to worry about jumping over logs and rocks and stuff like you do when mountain biking, and you don’t have to worry about traffic like you do when you’re on the street. It’s a very low-stress way to be in the woods.

_{Being in the woods}

And that’s the best part. You’re in the woods. You stop any time you like, pull a sandwich out of your bag, and poof! It’s a picnic in the woods! Brilliant! If you see an interesting looking tree, you can sit down, put Dark Side of the Moon in your headphones, and ponder your Buddah-nature. It’s oneness-with-nature in the woods. Brilliant!

It’s everything that’s cool about bikes, and everything that’s cool about being in the woods, at the same time!

Brilliant!