For many years I told myself that hiking would be enough but when I bought my first mountain bike, a Cannondale Trail 5, I got hooked.  I had my first trail ride going to Malasya with my riding buddy Jann. I really got excited specially when we were managing the descents on a single track. The Trail 5 did an awesome job despite some spills when I did the river crossings 😛

My Cannondale Trail 5 along Malasya River with my buddy’s Jamis TrailX

My addiction for mountain biking was starting to build up. Frequent rides in BGC, Army and Filinvest Trails with my brothers, sons and nephew fueled my addiction and I started to crave to buy a new mountain bike that could tackle aggressive mountain trails and also a good overall mountain bike. I started to plan to ride mountain trails and I did a lot of research, reading every blog I could find about mountain biking, the gears, the components and technical stuff. I started to disassemble and assemble bikes. O my!!!  I was really into it !

Because of the craving I had, I ended up buying a full suspension bike, the Rocky Mountain Altitude 730. I bought another two mountain bikes for my sons and I ended up doing DIY upgrades on all of them. The bug has infected me hahaha!!!!

So hard to clean and maintain but its fun!!!

I was invited by my brother-in-law to join CCT2007 (Calaca Cycling Team). I had a lot of great rides with them around Batangas. I found the joy of using a mountain bike on paved roads specially the roads that had a lot of rough pavement, pot holes and mud hahaha. I struggled to managed uphills so I did my best to train myself until I was comfortable to tackle even the most demanding climb without getting off my bike. In Calaca Batangas we have a lot of roads that are really great for riding a bike so I took the opportunity to ride during my free time. I could say that I was able to visit more places in Batangas, specially in Calaca, by riding a bike as compared to when I’m driving my pickup 🙂

I love climbing!!!

I did a lot of long rides using my full suspension bike…… Marikina-Infanta-Antipolo Loop, Calaca-San Luis-Agoncillo Loop, around Batangas just to mention some. I was also able to ride my Altitude in Mount Tapulao which I consider to be the most challenging downhill experience I ever did!!!

It has been more than a year since I started mountain biking and I continue to feel the rush. I plan to do a lot of long rides and mountain rides in the coming days 🙂 So what are you waiting for??? Go buy that dream bike and start riding. You will never regret it 🙂