Biking

Growing up, I used to ride my bicycle everywhere. Even as young as 7 or 8, I would ride my bike to school. In High School, I put an odometer on my bike but after it passed 3,000 miles in about 9 months, it fell off. Even after I got my drivers license, I still rode my bike a lot, especially since my old Spitfire would often not be in running condition.

Windsurfing

When Suzanne and I started going out, she wanted to learn how to windsurf so I started going out with her again. I had windsurfed in Newport Beach quite a bit, but since the wind there is very light, it was a different style that concentrated mainly on tricks. I soon discovered that in the Bay Area, windsurfing consisted mainly of hanging on and going as fast as you could!

We really enjoyed windsurfing but it was time consuming. One summer, we drove up to Candlestick about 8 times, but only were able to go out about 3. Usually it was because there was no wind, but occasionally we had trouble because there was too much! So after we had our first child, we didn’t go windsurfing much because we just didn’t have the time.

10-Speed

So our next sport was mountain biking. Suzanne really wanted to get into it so she got herself a mountain bike. She wanted to get me one too, but I insisted that my Korean made, steel framed 10-speed was good enough. Suzanne still groans remembering the time we went to Wilder Ranch in Santa Cruz and there I was, riding my dorky 10-speed among all the cool mountain bikes. I finally relented to get a mountain bike when I discovered that my 10-speed got a little out of control going downhill fast over any bumpy or rocky trails.

Cannondale

The niece thing about mountain biking was that it was a very predictable sport. No worries about the wind or tides, you could just go when you wanted and knew how long it would take.

Our bikes have all been Cannondales, 4 of them now. We really like them for being lightweight, having good preformance and being reasonably priced. We have heard of some people having problems with breaking the frame, but we have never done that. (Maybe we just need to ride harder!)

Fremont Older

We have riden a lot of trails around here including Lexington, Saratoga Gap, Long Ridge, Monte Bello, Rancho San Antonio, Shoreline, and more. But the place we ride most consistently is Fremont Older. It is not the prettiest or most challenging trail, but it is the closest, and since we moved, we now can start from our house rather than loading the bikes and driving there. And there are some pretty areas, like the Seven Springs trail and challenging parts, like the steep uphill on the backside coming up from Stevens Creek reservoir.

Here are some pictures of Suzanne mountain biking at Fremont Older: