Conference 7.286::mtb

I'm Bruce May, and just took up mtb riding last March.  I live in 
Arizona, so I'm in the middle of the prime part of our season now.  I 
imagine this notesfile will heat up more in a few months.  

I bought a Trex 930 SHX when I started, and it's been fine for me so far. 
 We'll see how long that lasts.  My riding is probably a bit different 
than most in here, I know I'm the only guy who has to duck under the arm 
of a saguaro cactus on one of his favorite trails.  Most of the trails 
here are decomposed granite, with big DEEP sand washes (keeps you in 
shape), and boulders the size of houses.  I read about someone flushing 
pheasants, well we run into their cousins the quail here all the time, 
but the biggest scare I ever got was when I barely missed the back end of 
a 4-5 foot diamondback (the snake, not the bike).  Fortunately we had 
both decided to try to get out of the other guy's way.

I wish I has started earlier, as I lost out on some great singletrack.  
If you've ever seen the Cactus Cup (it's usually one of the 1st NORBA 
races of the year), it's held a couple miles from my house.  They had to 
move it last year, as they built a golf course on the oriinal site, which 
was about a mile away from where I live.

I'm still new at this, so hopefully I can learn from the folks in here.

Bruce

    I'm also new here. My name's Mike Fowler, and I'm currently contracting
    in Reading. I've been riding for a few years around here, and I own
    a Kona Kilauea. I've had it for about 6 months, but I'm still not
    sure of the spelling.
    
    Call me a fair-weather biker, but it's been a bit too parky (cold)
    here recently to do much riding so I've spent my time dreaming and
    cleaning my chain. I found a new cool (hopefully) downhill stretch
    just before the frost set in so I've been longing to try it ever 
    since. Maybe this will be the week. 8-)
    
    I'm currently saving up for some bouncy forks because they seem to
    be about twice the price in Blighty that they are over there. Any 
    advice would be welcome. Weight isn't a big issue, because I've eaten
    a few too many cakes over the festive season and there's little 
    point saving 20g on some forks if you're dragging round 20lbs of
    prime belly.
    
    Cheers,
    
    Mike