As I mentioned in my first post about biking in Uruguay, to ride our road bikes, we must first pack them into the car and drive somewhere with paved roads. That small inconvenience aside, Uruguay presents many great biking opportunities, from coastal rides with fantastic sea views to rolling pasture on dirt roads with no cars in sight. My creamsicle-pearl-orange custom I.F. Factory Lightweight will always be my pride and joy – my main squeeze, I like to say – but since we have been here I have been jonesing for a mountain bike. So, for my birthday, I had a choice of motorcycle or horse as a present, but instead I confessed my desire for a mountain bike, and off to the Trek store we went.
Neither of us expected to find a quality bike shop here. But after noticing the many hard-core roadies hammering down the highways, we knew there had to be something. Trek’s store here, well located in an upscale area, is gleaming perfection inside. High end components are lacking, but they have a nice selection of Trek, Lemond and Gary Fisher bicycles. The service was top notch. I was pleasantly surprised by the thorough fitting I received by an extremely helpful Chilean racer named Claudio, fresh from his daily ride, still in bike shorts, jersey and bike shoes.
We came home later that day with a hard-tail Trek 4500 WSD, my first mountain bike. I had Cesar drop me off at the main road to our house so I could ride in. Riding a mountain bike is a different world from the road bike. For starters, I am not used to being so high up. Also, it is truly liberating to cruise over rough terrain or potholes without fear of damaging my bike. Bombing downhill on a gravel road is exhilarating. In all, a LOT of fun. For a while, I am going to be something of a sissy until I get used to this bike. I could use some pointers on just how to ride a mountain bike (comments, anyone?). Cesar’s only advice is “whatever happens, don’t stop”. Um, that helps…
Maybe we will still get a horse someday. I even have a name picked out for when we do. But for now it’s nice to have an aluminum horse that doesn’t eat and that I don’t have to saddle up before riding.
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