"As far as location, the best place to ride, in my opinion, is Woody Hill in Westerly, RI. Owned by Westerly Municipal Trust and maintained by the New England Mountain Bike Association (NEMBA). Woody Hill offers miles of single track (actually some double track too) ranging from cruising green-rated trails to a brutal double black. The multifaceted terrain offers anything from punchy technical climbs to smoothly groomed flow you see at the lift access bike parks. The majority of my rides have taken place here, however, I have ventured out to different places as well. One particular ride comes to mind when I think of Rockland Preserve.
   
    Some of the crew here at MCC met up to ride there and a few of us left with battle wounds. Not even two minutes into the ride Jackson, another mechanic you might know here at MCC, and I fell off to the side of the trail due to a pile-up on a steep punchy climb. Unfortunatley, for us that is where some yellow jackets decided to make their home. I stood up and felt stabbing pain in my ankle, I look down and see yellow jackets covering my ankle and flying all around. I realize what happened and I run away yelling "BEES!". Now I guess crashing down on their nest must have angered these yellow jackets because they hung on and chased me stinging where they could. They were caught in my armpits, behind my knees (kneepit?), and elbows. I stopped, thinking they were off me but they kept stinging so I kept swatting. At this point I had run back to the parking lot and I had swatted them all off of me and they gave up chasing. I do not know the exact number of stings as some spots just kept getting sting after sting making a tally hard to come by. It is safe to say I was stung at least a dozen times. A little scraped, bruised, a lot swollen and rashy I decided to stay and finish the ride as I did not drive 60 minutes out there just to get stung. I am not a doctor and if you are stung many times please call your doctor at least. Ryann also hurt her wrist during this ride marking it the ride from hell. On strava I aptly named this ride "Should Have Rode Woody." These memories could not have been made without the bicycle which brought me along those trails.
   
    Upgrades to your bike can greatly improve ride quality and performance. The biggest change I made was a mullet setup. Some call it moto but all it means is the front wheel is larger than the rear. I swapped out the stock 27.5 fork for a 29 inch Rock Shox Recon, a Shimano Deore wheel and Continental Trail King tire. Much like the 80s, my bike was now mullet. Slightly changing my geometry with the big wheel up front meant making the bike more capable. Getting hung up on stone walls were, mostly, a thing of the past. This is definitely the biggest change I've made but the very first part I swapped out was the seat post. The Polygon Sisku D5 comes stock with a rigid post which I quickly replaced with a dropper seat post allowing me to lower my saddle height at the push of a lever. A lower saddle height means more clearance when things get "sendy" and on the climbs I can fully extend it for optimal efficiency. Another small upgrade I immediately did was converting the wheels to a tubeless setup meaning the flats I would regularly get from thorns were a thing of the past and I have never looked back. Tubeless wheels feel better than tubes, they're lighter, and the obvious flat resistance pretty much makes them a no-brainer in my book. The Shimano Alivio 2x9 that came stock on the bike was quickly replaced with Sram NX Eagle giving me a 1x set up that cleared up the cockpit by deleting the left shifter. I also upgraded my brakes from Shimano 201s to Shimano Deore. Not much of an upgrade but the improved lever feel and modulation should not be ignored. My bike looks quite a bit different than it did when I pulled it out of the box on New Bike Day. It's current iteration is not it's last as I am constantly thinking of components I can upgrade or things I can do to make my ride better. Some things on my current list include: wax my drivetrain, I want to dial in a better handlebar/grips, or maybe I'll go clipless. If you've read this far thanks for doing so and go ride your bike!"

- Nick