Like, how many of us are really going to race downhill at breakneck speed down ski slopes?
Not many, Greg Rawuka suspected. Even though bike builders continued to build them as if we're all racers. Machines built for speed, best ridden by hard-bodies in the best shape of their lives.
Rawuka, owner of Big Bear Bikes, decided most people would be better off riding a Burro instead. No, we're not talking about a beast, at least, not a four-legged kind. This Burro is a two-wheeler that's aptly named: steady, reliable, will go any place and, most importantly, is a ton-of-fun to ride.
It's a mountain bike for people who really aren't mountain bikers. Certainly it looks different than any two-wheeler you've laid eyes on, starting with the wheels. Instead of narrow tread designed to go fast, Rawuka's Burro has 19" tires that are three-inches wide. They look like something straight off a mini-bike, but they're what make the Burro a bicycle ver-sion of an ATV. To accommodate such funky tires, Rawuka had to design his own aluminum frame with longer seat and fork posts. "I worked on the design for three years and went through four prototypes to come up with it," Rawuka said. The result is that instead of being bent over in a tuck position like they're racing, riders on the Burro sit more upright, an in-finitely more comfortable.
Yet their center of gravity is lower, making the Burro much more stable. Those wide tires do more than just plow through sand and over obstacles, too; while the machine uses typi-cal mountain bike gearing, smaller tires allow for a gear ratio that's 2O-3O% lower, making the Burro well-suited to climbing.
The trade-off to small tires is that the bike is inherently slower...but this is for exploring, not racing, anyway. "You'll get there a little slower, but you'll have a lot of fun along the way," Rawuka said. "I'd rather ride the Burro than my regular bike any day," concurred Adam Grubbs. "On most mountain bikes you avoid certain terrain, like sand. This bike seeks out the same terrain." Certainly that's what Big Bear Today's John Daskam and I discovered during recent demo rides aboard Burros. It rides just like a regular mountain bike, so there's no learning curve. Get on, start pedaling, and begin to explore. Within minutes the two of us, neither of who are avid bikers, were pedaling around like we were pros. Sand on the side of Skyline Rd. proved especially enticing; at one point I hit quicksand at high speed that would have sent me flying on my regu-lar bike. The Burro, on the other hand, rolled over it as if it were nothing. Same with fist-sized rocks or smaller-we didn't even know they were there!
Climbing was much easier for out-of-shape off-season skiers like us, though the gearing was low enough that I was of-ten able to climb milder hills still in the second chain ring. And the Burro is so stable, turns so tight, and rides so smooth that it turns any rider into Superman. Daskam at one point got carried away thinking he was a better rider than he re-ally is. A huge rut, of all things, caught his eye and he was running through its tight track at high speed when he managed to spill the Burro. On his own bike he'd never been anywhere near the rut, so the danger in this bike is that you'll find yourself try-ing stuff you might not be up to. The way the tires soak up impact- plus there's also a suspension stem with two inches of travel to absorb vibrations- riders don't take the pounding a normal bike dishes out.
Hydraulic brakes are an-other nice feature, helping the bike stop on a dime. It already turns on one! During our demo the Burro caught the eyes of everyone from the lift attendant at Snow Summit to other riders out on the trail. Some had already heard of this most unique ride, and all peppered us with ques-tions about it.
Frankly, I thought to my-self, virtually every biker we encountered, none of whom were obvious racers, would have been better off on a Burro. The Burro is just like a pair of powder skis (I own a pair of those too)...able to go anywhere, float through anything, over-come any obstacle. Like fat skis, the Burro prefers soft stuff, put it on pavement and you'll do some pedaling to get around. Because the bike is hand-built by Rawuka and features all the bells and whistles, it's not cheap-$1,399-but that's not a bad figure really for something as custom as this.
Demoing on the other hand, is inexpensive-just $20 a day to Burro all day! Rawuka figures once folks have ridden a Burro, they won't want any-thing else. "We had a guy in recently who took it for two rides and now we're selling him a bike," Rawuka said.
Big Bear Bikes is at 41810 Big Bear Blvd. Call 866-2224.