Learning curve pt. I

Having all of a solid 6 weeks of experience being a mountain bicyclist, I'm proud to announce that I've already learned several things:

• riding up hills is HARD (because hills in the woods tend to be steeper than hills on the road)
• riding down hills is harder (and scarier) than it looks like in several Youtube mountain biking videos
  
• watching a lot of Danny McAskill videos doesn't grant one excellent "bunny hop" capabilities (some practice is required also)
• most of the trails near my neighbourhood belong in the "technical" category (as opposed to the "fast" category), I believe
  
• it is possible to crush a crabon fribé seatpost by tightening the clamp too hard.

Another thing I've learned is that mountain bicyclists have magical, foldable tyres:


No, that's not what a bear coughed up after eating a snake, that is, unfolded, indeed a tyre for a mountain bike:


Even though I'm a complete novice when it comes to mountain biking, I figured that it is a good time to replace the tyre when the knobs begin to fall off:



Before:


And after:


I went for the knobbiest tyre my local bike shop had mostly because I like the intimidating sound the knobs make on pavement. Besides, I don't need good rolling qualities on the pavement because I'm way too fast for safety in the city as it is. Also, I need the traction for learning curve pt. II. To be continued...