Fairfax Rider
New Member
Hey All - After owning old Klein Mantra Comps for years (we rode them hard), my wife and I decided to upgrade our MTBs to something better, faster (but definitely not cheaper!) than our beloved Kleins. The advances in technology since we purchased the Kleins back in 1999 (!) were exciting and somewhat overwhelming. We live in Fairfax, CA where MTBs are EVERYWHERE and the choices in what to purchase from local shops are many. We decided to jump into the deep end of the eMTB pool and threw down for 2020 Turbo Levo Comps. (Side note: my wife has an aversion to being “matchy, matchy” so we got different colors). I’m still catching my breath from the size of expenditure, but it stings a little bit less every time we ride....which is OFTEN! With that, here’s my observation: we’re in our early 50s and REALLY love to ride...but we’re in our early 50s, so going on long rides had become more aspirational than not. Not anymore. I read another Newbie’s post in this forum where he stated that his eMTB effectively halved his age. I totally agree, but his sentiment is only half right: our eMTBs have not only halved our age, but they’ve doubled our enjoyment! My wife and I recently celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary by spending a full week (!) riding our Turbo Levo Comps on trails across Oregon. Unbelievably fun! A full week on our Kleins would have meant 2 full weeks recovering, but our eMTBs allowed us to go further, longer, harder, and better than we could have imagined. There’s another interesting (and important) benefit to riding these two-wheeled wonders: after a particularly long and grueling climb, we’re not bonked....which significantly reduces the risk that we’ll get hurt during the ride (our experience has been that most mistakes and falls occur when we’re tired). I have a fancy paying job, so I can’t ride every day....but we plot and plan our rides during the week, knowing that our choices in trails are now only limited by the number of hours during a weekend.
