Niner EMD Update

Long-time readers may recall my prior mountain bike, a Niner EMD. I sold it to help fund the Gary Fisher Superfly purchase and it went to a new home in the Spring of this year. It was sold to a gentlemen who was a committed road rider but was looking for something durable to use on the island of Dominica, which is located north of Venezuela and east of Puerto Rico, where the rider was taking up a teaching position as a semi-retirement and grand adventure. That is all well and good, but here is where my tale takes an unexpected turn. My bike recently sent me an e-mail. No, really. If you don't believe me, please continue reading as my Niner EMD catches me up on its new life. Just don't believe everything you read in the update, however, as I assure you I always lifted off the seat at "appropriate" times. The BO, sure, but I always lifted.

To Rider Three;

Remember me? Your old Niner EMD? The one you dumped for that "sexy Gary Fischer Superfly" because it "handled" better? That was a hard time for me. I felt hurt, jilted, betrayed, and angry that you in effect sent me to the glue factory by selling me to some old fart who had never owned a mountain bike before, whose idea of "race conditions" was running a yellow light on his way to 7-11 for a slurpee.
But I've worked through all that and I'm really enjoying my new life.

Shortly after we parted, my new rider packed me into a crate and 5 weeks later after a transcontinental truck ride and an ocean crossing, I was unloaded at the port of Roseau on the island of Dominica.

The riding is challenging and technical here, and I haven't even been off road yet. There's virtually no flat. The coast road is a narrow, crumbling ribbon of relentless big rollers over ridges and into ravines with sharp hairpins, huge potholes, drop offs into ditches instead of shoulders, frequent sections with grades >20%, and fortunately only light traffic. Oh yeah, it's the rainy season here, which means that several times a day, one is subjected to drenching cloudbursts that come out of nowhere, turn the roads into muddy rivers, and then are gone all in the space of 5 minutes. The scenery is fantastic- seacoast, jungle, cliffs, mountains, rainbows and waterfalls.

Today we took a road across the island from Caribbean side to Atlantic side that went through a dormant volcano caldera after an extremely steep 5 mile climb- only encountering 1 car the whole way.

Due to the omnipresent high heat and humidity I am sweated upon profusely, but my new rider's BO is somewhat less offensive than yours, and unlike you, he has the courtesy to lift his butt off the seat when passing gas, which occurs often, in keeping with the adopted local diet consisting largely of breadfruit, yams, plantain, and other fiber rich starches.

So life is good. I'll probably retire here. You're welcome to visit.

Give my regards to riders 1, 2, and the AM ride group.

Yours truly,
Niner EMD

PS- Congrats on your fine performance at the Leadville 100. I only wish I had been there.