Originally Posted by sjanzeir

Well, to be honest, MTBing and I did not get off to a good start. Way back in July 2016, the same brother-in-law lent me an X-caliber 9 and took me out to a group ride and a race across some hills to the east of Jeddah; only he neglected to tell me that the front brake was faulty, and I neglected to test ride the rig before starting out. On the first steep descent I came barreling down, I lost control of my speed, eventually ditching and crashing down onto my tush. For months, I had a third butt cheek to show for it.

But it was that incident that got me even more curious about MTBing, and the episode went a long way in getting me to shape up my regular riding. I had already figured at the time that I would've had a steep learning curve to grapple with, but it was on that day that I realized just how steep the curve was.

Would he lend me that X-caliber 9 again for a second chance to see if I'd fare better? I'll definitely ask him that the next time I see him! But there's no shortage of barely-used Marlin 7's (and lesser Marlins) in my size in the classifieds, along with a few older 3700s and the like!