Gunnar Steel MTB (Anticarbonism Continues)

I am never sure how these things happen, but a nicely equipped (decked-out) steel Gunnar 29er mountain bike showed up in box on my back door-step a few days ago...the price was incredibly right I must say and I am weak when a good offer is "sent" to me. I have been chomping at the bit to get on it, but I of course had to work some this week (got to pay for these things somehow).

It went out for it's maiden voyage with me today and as usual my first "test" ride on a mtn bike is nothing short or easy. The Gunnar took me on an 87-mile backcountry tour with 9K of climbing over some serious pain inducing grades. The day was spectacular, the bike was flawless, and I found that this steel frame provided serious forgiving flex (as most steel does) which made todays torture test tolerable.

I'm sure there will be things I will change as I tinker with it over the next few weeks. First up I'm pretty sure the Avid Juicy-7 brakes will have to go...they are nice stoppers, but have a tendency to not retract the calipers consistently, which means brakes drag, which means they slow me down, which makes me angry, which makes me want to pull them off mid-ride and throw them in the ditch, which could later lead to a crash because I was going too fast down a hill and missed a corner, because earlier I ripped that brakes off my bike and threw them in the ditch, because I was in a raging mood, because the stupid things were just slowing me down for no reason....

Here are some pics I took with a red-orange landscape backgound courtesy of an arial slurry bomber that dropped fire retardant...

The reason for the fire retardant drop...the place was a blazin recently...








Nap time after snack time...