A long, very long, story, the length of which was defined by the pau-ses...

Sometime around 1987, I held the first edition of "Bike" magazine in my hand and promptly bought it, instead of reading it in the grocery store and then putting it back on the shelf, and that is a fact warranted by history. In 1989, also warranted, I parted with my electric guitar and amp, using the revenue to buy my first mountain bike, a Scott Boulder, for almost 1400DM. Up until then, I hadn't payed more than 120DM for a bicycle. Another 2 years later, I was infected with the triathlon virus and so, my MTB career (which, after all, included my participation in the first Bielefeld Mountain-Bike-Race) came to an end, initially. Until last week.

Scene change. Hahnenklee in the Harz. This is where we like to come, now and then, for a getaway. In the meantime Hahnenklee seems to have become a kind of ghost city. For example, the, no doubt, formerly grand house "Princess Ilse" has been on sale for years. As seen from the outside, it could definitely be rented to the undead. So, on this vacation, I was surprised to discover that a designated bike park exists on Hahnenklee's own Bocks Hill, as well as a place to rent bikes.
After 4 short days of hesitation, Lukas and I decided to check it out and test our capabilities.

At the store we were informed of all the important terminology. I knew that bikes have suspensions now, but e.g. distinguishing between "dirtbikes", "freeriders" and "who-knows-what-bikes" was hard for me.
I let the expert supply me with a bike appropriate to my age and our expectations, and the same went for Lukas. Apparently we were the only ones that had decided to ride up the hill, instead of taking the cablecar… I was surprised to discover that the "freeride" was not the break-neck route up at the bike park, but the one for the beginners. Clearly, it was the one for us.

Well, to cut it short: as I had expected, I did better uphill and lost sight of Lukas after the first turn... After going up and down the Bocks Hill twice, he had had enough too. The whole thing was a whole lot of fun and might have been the beginning of a wonderful new waste of money. By the way, does anyone have a used mountain bike for us?

Silverback Drabkov
Terror of the Hills