Gary Fisher Mendota Goes Ninja Camping

Mendota with rack

As we planned the cover illustration for our Gary Fisher story (Momentum #27, April/May 2007) we asked TREK/Gary Fisher what bike Gary would ride if he were travelling on an unpaved urban trail. We wanted a bike built for speed that would still handle well in our speculative "urban singletrack" environment.

We were imagining a utopian setting where people commute through town on greenways built for pleasant enjoyment of the landscape and wildlife as well as getting from point A to point B. The folks at TREK suggested the Mendota, so Terry Sunderland used that as the model for his cover illustration. The bike wasn't highly visible in the final artwork, but we wanted to be mindful of at least the rough details. A few weeks later TREK sent us a Mendota, and though we had no scheduled review, I decided to ride it for a month or so and try it out.

The Mendota is not a bike I would typically choose for myself. It has a mountain bike look and feel, straight handlebars, is sleek and a bit aggressive-looking. This new “fast city” style of bike is intended for commuting and city riding. It combines the lightness and thin tires of a road bike with the more upright handlebars familiar to mountain bike riders.

While this bike is edging toward the geometry of a hybrid with its downward-sloping top tube, it doesn’t have as upright a riding position of hybrid riser bars. The Mendota is very light and fast. It comes with disc brakes, which are desirable both for their increased stopping power for safety (especially in wet weather) and the fact that rather than wearing down the wheel rims through braking friction, they wear down the disc only – which is easily replaceable and less expensive than replacing worn-out rims. The other great thing about those disc brakes: when they were new I could coax a satisfying "shwing" sound out of them as I stopped then released the brake lever. It sounded just like a sword being unsheathed: "Schwing!" Yeah!

I decided that I would take 'Gary' (as I became accustomed to calling the bike) on a ride up BC's Sunshine Coast. I was heading to a camp-out dance party near Robert's Creek which involved some highway riding as well as several miles of rocky logging road. My city bike, 'Steve,' (aka Steve Bauer) with his 23cm road tires was too delicate to handle the rough spots, and my trusty old cruiser which had taken me bike camping in the past was a little too clunky for me now. 'Gary' was just the bike for the trip.

The Mendota was not designed for touring - but it does have eyelets which make it easy to attach a rack. Caveat emptor: apparently this is not the case with all bikes outfitted with disc brakes - but there are some racks specifically designed to accomodate them. I bought 'Gary' a matt silver Axiom rack for $30. There was barely enough clearance between the pedals and the panniers, and when I wasn't careful, my heels did rub slightly on the panniers. But that didn't bother me. I was a nimble camping ninja and I would train my feet to the task. I pared my gear down to the bare essentials that would fit in two panniers and we were ready to rock.

'Gary' did his part to make our journey swift. I kept up with my male companion, which pleased me. The Sunshine Coast Highway has a perilously tiny shoulder.* One of the features of riding on a highway with an inadequate shoulder if there is debris on the road, the shoulder may completely disappear. At several points on our ride, the shoulder was covered by the overflowing gravel from residents driveways. I pictured myself flying off and eating some road as I bounced over one of these gravel patches on a fast descent. 'Gary's lightweight frame had a tendency to prance and leap rather than bear down. On several occasions I had a similar impression that he wanted to gallop away from me on rocky descents. This is likely due in part to his entirely lightweight aluminum frame and partly to his carbon fibre fork. Men who saw the Mendota generally commented on the fork first. All I can say for certain is that 'Gary' had a jumpy front end, especially racing down hills that were at all bumpy. He was indeed an excitable little pony. I learned what he could handle and adjusted my speed accordingly.

After reaching our camp-out destination, 'Gary's rear wheel was hitched up to a pedal-powered sound system and put to work in service of the groove. Since he was my passage home, I was nervous when a rather large, sweaty man overzealously mashed 'Gary's pedals and drove his front tire into the soil, but I was also confident that the Mendota could stand up to a little rough treatment.

Sure enough we made it home and after sharing a trip together, Gary and I became much better friends. I was sad when the folks from TREK called for his return. I'm sure he has a loving new owner and I will cherish those special times we had and the things that 'Gary' had to teach me - particularly that disc brakes are exceptional equipment for urban commuters riding in the rain.

*Pedestrians and cyclists die needlessly every year on this inadequately appointed road. As car and truck traffic increases on the Sunshine Coast due to it's sought-after real estate, the local and provincial governments would do well to avert the inevitable tradgedies in the making and install a safe space for self-propelled travellers.

MENDOTA SPECS:

Gold Series butted aluminum hybrid frame

Bontrager Select Disc Road Wheelset

Bontrager Satellite Plus 700x32c tires

SRAM X.7 rear derailleur,

X.5 shifters

Shimano Deore front derailleur,

Shimano 48/38/28

Octalink crank

Avid BB5 mechanical disc brakes