Diggers and Nipples

Bacon and Death Cookies. Diggers and Nipples.These terms and many more are explained in my December 2008 post on mountain biking vernacular. Following are some worthy additions uncovered during our recent D2M adventure:

• Catcher's mitt - anatomical undercarriage that has been toughened up from extended time in the saddle. It comes at great cost but if properly maintained is a source of great pride and enables the rider to perform superhuman feats of cycling endurance.
• Short Punchy Climb - the meaning has regional variances. In the Mid-Atlantic region it does not exceed 200 feet ("short") with occasional grades of 15% or more ("punchy"). In the Rocky Mountain states it at least two miles in length ("short") with similar grades. So "short" is a relative term. And on the heels of a 7 mile climb up 10% grade at altitudes approaching 11,000 feet, the "punchy" part feels more like a Jimmy Snooka pile driver.
• Wattage Cottage - Wattage of course is a commonly used measure of pedaling power output.  The cottage part refers to the gluteous muscles of a well developed (generally female) cyclist capable of producing high wattages.
• Six miles - Number of miles remaining in an extremely long endurance ride as reported by the ride leader. There is no correlation between this and the actual distance remaining to ride. This number is a universal constant. No matter how many additional miles are ridden, the distance remaining will still be exactly "six miles." It is a tremendous source of comfort to know you can always count on "six miles."

Some time I'll get around to merging into yet another compendium of useful mountain biking terms (like the Internet needs another one of those)...

Chris