iRide

We had a bit of a late start today and didn’t hit the trail until after lunch. It was all good though. All the bikes needed some TLC after yesterday’s ride.

Sovereign Trail was on the menu. We were all pretty stoked to see what it had in store. No one had ridden it before, so it was a new adventure for us all.

The first major climb:

Switchbacks:

Slick Rock Playground:

PeeJammin:

Singletrack, Sovereign style:

Tomorrow: Bartlett Wash & Baby Steps!!

We got up (sort of) early and set off for Fruita, CO. It’s one of my favorite places to ride, so I knew the guys would have a good time.

First things first–BJammin’s leg the morning after:

We hit up the 18 Road area trails first. We took Prime Cut up and picked up Zippity Do Da. We took the “short cut” up the road for round 2 and descended Kessel Run.

The SD Train on Prime Cut:

Zippity Do Da goodness:

Ben is King of the world (and glad to be able to ride after stitches):

Heading up the 18 Road for round 2:

Kessel Run:

We grabbed some lunch and the headed over to the Kokopelli area and hit up the Mary’s Loop/Horsethief Bench combo.

Reflecting on Birds:

Smallish roller:

The lizard checks out Spec Ed:

2 fingers?? Better make it 3!!

Mark/Sladnas can’t get no privacy:

Hiking out of Horsethief:

Chillin’:

Post ride beverage!!

Tomorrow: Sovereign Trail!!

First ride on the agenda was Amasa Back. It’s a 5 mile, 1,400′ climb up, then turn around and come back down.

At the trailhead–obligatory group shot:

The weather was PERFECT and the Jeeps were out in full force:

Climbing up:

Enjoying the singletrack

On trail, awesome scenery

BHuckin

Chillin’ at the top

At the bottom, I decided to roll some sketch. I hit a slightly difficult 3 rock transition that was harder than the pic makes it look:

Mark/Sladnas being who he is, he decided to really push it and roll even bigger sketch that made mine look positively ghey in comparison:

Yes, he made it:

BJammin decided to give it a go as well. When your body position is like this from the get-go, bad things usually happen:

He ended up cleaning it–at the expense of his leg. Mr. Seat post collar decided it wanted to see what the inside of Ben’s leg looked like and promptly inserted itself in his inner thigh. Ben’s leg after the seat post collar/clamp made entry:

It was even worse than it looks here in the pic. Some fatty tissue was literally squirting out of the hole when he lifted up the leg of his shorts. His immediate reaction was to push it back in and it got a bit dirty. I stepped up to help clean it out and apply some “butterfly” bandages to help close it up since it was a pretty deep puncture. Our friends being who they are, some photos were taken, not all of them flattering:

Helping out = Flattering:

What the heck is really going on there = Not so flattering:

He was a real trooper about it, finished the ride, even went shopping at the grocery store for provisions before heading off to the ER. The wuss only received 2 stitches!! Just kidding about the wuss part. He never complained once. Truly, the wind beneath the group’s wings!!

Tomorrow: Fruita, CO!!

In just 2 short days, the crew and I leave for Moab. Me and 4 of my best friends and a couple other friends will be spending all of next week riding some of the world’s best trails. I will be posting daily ride reports with pics.

I can’t wait!!!!!!!!!!

Until then, seek your bliss.

Ride lots…

By the end of The Ride, the body is very much ready to be off The Bike. Miles of trail have taken its toll. Another trail in the books. The Bike was inspiring. Sections were cleaned. Sections that would make a hiker worry about turning an ankle. Sections that would make an equestrian take a detour. The Bike was amazing. The Ride was good.

Back at the trailhead, the legs rejoice. The back sings. The body is tired. The excitement The Ride brought begins to simmer. Laughter is heard. Fresh memories are re-lived. Plans to do it all over again are made. The Bike is loaded up. Goodbyes to good friends are exchanged. The Ride was good.

The drive home is spent in a daze. Fresh memories of The Ride dominate. The corners railed. The jumps taken. The drops rolled. The climbs suffered. That one downhill that made you feel like a kid again. The feeling of complete freedom. The feeling of accomplishment. I pull into the driveway not remembering the drive home. Thoughts of The Ride own the soul. The Ride was good.

I wheel The Bike into the garage. I look at it. Looking at it makes me happy. I look at it like it was my child. I built it. I selected all the parts to work in harmony together. It belongs to me, and I to it. Flowing down the trail, my brain adapts to the bike and makes it an extension of the body. The Bike and I are one. I know this because during The Ride, I do not think about The Bike. It is part of me. This simple machine never ceases to amaze me with its complexity. Compared to those first bikes of long ago, it is a technological marvel. Looking at it makes me happy. Looking at it reminds me of The Ride. The Ride was good.

I go inside. I am hungry. The body desperately needs to refuel. Food is consumed. I do not taste it. I think of The Ride. I think of the miles of trail. I think of the long hours spent in the saddle. I think of that long climb that tested me. The climb that made it seem like The Ride would never end. I think of how quickly it was over. Before I know it, the food is gone. I don’t really remember eating it. I remember The Ride. The Ride was good.

I shower. I am immediately aware of many cuts and scratches and scrapes on the legs. Inflicted by many sharp and prickly things brushed past, they announce their presence viciously. The legs ache. The legs burn. The legs begin to relax. As silly as it sounds, I am proud of them. When I needed them, they were there. On that climb that made the lungs burn, they were there. When I asked them for just one more pedal stroke, they answered my call again and again. Over and over. Without complaint. The legs done good. The burning begins to ease. As it eases, I realize I miss it a little. The burn reminds me of The Ride. The Ride was good.

I get into bed. The skin is dry. The skin is burned. A long day in the Sun has taken its toll. The cool sheets feel like a gift. They soothe the skin. The skin is grateful. Once more I think of The Ride. I think of friends. I think of The Bike. I think of the trail. Today was a good day. Sleep comes like the flip of a switch. The Ride was good.

Seek your bliss.

Ride lots…

A photographic Ride Report from our ride at Los Penasquitos today.

Tunnels bliss:

Seek your bliss.

Ride lots…

The Yeti is back!!!!!!! WHOOOO-HOOOO!!!! I picked her up and brought her back home yesterday. It’s about time.

Since I got the new White hoops for the Haro, I decided to finally pull the trigger on some new handlebars to match. I’ve wanted some Deity handlebars ever since I saw them on Hack’s bike. They just look so SICK!! I ordered them quite awhile ago and they finally arrived today. I guess they were back-ordered or something. And without further delay:

SH’BANGIN!!!!!!

So Mark and I hit up Ted Williams today for a little bit of Huckage. We shot a bit of video. Nothing too fancy. Here’s a couple good screen captures (they are captures from video, so the quality isn’t too good):

Hucking the wall

Rolling a steep wall

I have a ride planned super early at LPQ tomorrow to re-visit the new Tunnel. I also have a ride at Daley planned for Sunday. I’m looking forward to it. It’s been quite awhile since I’ve ridden at Daley. Both rides will be aboard the new and improved Yeti!! I can’t wait. Until then, seek your bliss.

Ride lots…

So I last posted about my strange Friday moodiness and how I was glad for the weekend. Now that I’m on the other side of the weekend, it didn’t quite turn out like I had hoped–at least in terms of rides. As in, there weren’t any.

I don’t know what happened. I had planned on working on my car’s brakes on Saturday and working in a ride in the afternoon. I knew one of the rotors needed to be replaced. It would’ve been a bad idea to do the brake pad and rotor change out seperately, so the brakes had to wait on the rotor. I didn’t make any plans ahead of time to order/acquire a rotor–which was a stupid move. Needless to say, none of the local shops in Fallbrook had the one I needed. They all said it would be Tuesday or Wednesday before they could get one, so I ended up having to drive to Napa’s main warehouse in San Diego to get one. By the time I did that, it was too late to ride.

Today’s plan was to do the brakes after church. I was hoping it would go quickly and I’d be able to ride after. Dad and I had a bit of a problem and it took longer than I had hoped. By the time we fininshed, it was too late to ride. I am glad to have the brake job behind me though.

The day was not a total loss though. As I may have mentioned before, there’s tons of trails right out our front door here in Ramona. The equestrians/San Vicente Pony Club have built miles of trail, so we have it at our disposal. With this in mind, I decided to take Spencer out for a short bike ride around the ‘hood. I took out the Haro just in case I found something I could play around on. Turns out–I did. We came across a wood deck off to the side of the trail. I have ridden past it a few times and never knew it was there. It was built around a tree–the tree was growing through the middle–and was as low as 8 inches high on one side up to about 2 feet high on the other.

—-A little sidenote…I have mentioned before that I want to get better at hucking/taking drops/jumping. I tend to land very front heavy the majority of the time when I jump and take drops. Last year, I came across an instructional video by the guys at FluidRide.com. It shows the proper technique for taking drops and I found the video fascinating. At the time, I still didn’t have the necessary guts to try it, nor a place to practice. I lost the link to the video but fortunately, I was able to track it down recently and knew it would help me fix my nose-diving problem. http://www.declinemagazine.com/visuals/fluidride/fluidride_vol1.htm
Now back to my ride today with Spencer—-

So I come across this deck. I realize it isn’t that high, but it should be high enough to practice what I learned in the video. Also, the way the deck sat, I wouldn’t be able to get up much speed. When I have taken drops before, I needed a lot of speed to not nose-dive. The rider in the video floats his bike off a drop with ease at a very slow speed. I knew if my technique was right, I would land both wheels at the same time. The fact that I couldn’t get up much speed was actually a good thing.

I hucked off the deck probably 10-12 times. Each time, I worked on getting my weight back and “motivating” the bars forward with my hands like the video shows. I was landing pretty smoothly and was wishing I had a camera to film it. If I had used my old (lack of) technique, I would’ve been nose-diving like crazy at such a low speed. But using the tips in the video, I felt like I was doing it correctly. I decided to go back to my old form and not use the correct method a couple times just to see if I felt a difference. I knew that the 170mm of fork travel on the Haro would compensate for any mistakes since the deck was only 2 feet high. Sure enough, at that low speed, my front wheel dove like crazy. I went back to the proper technique from the video and the landings were much smoother.

The little bit I was able to do today was encouraging though. The fact that I was able to keep the HEAVY front end of the Haro from nose-diving was encouraging–the Haro’s 170mm Marzocchi 66RC fork weighs close to 7 pounds. I know I need lots more practice. I really need to take this techique off some higher drops to see just how good or bad I’m doing. I see a trip to TW in my near future. I will definitely be returning to the deck to practice as well–hard not to when it’s right down the street. Maybe I’ll take the camera and shoot some video too. That’d be a good way to see just how well I’m getting that front wheel up.

I’m planning on riding with Mark in Fallbrook tomorrow morning. Then the usual Hodges on Wednesday. I’d like to hit LPQ again soon–maybe Friday. I’ll probably have to work at the shop Saturday, so maybe I’ll hit TW after. And, here’s hoping I get the Yeti back this week. Until then, seek your bliss.

Ride lots…

So today was a weird day. Ups and downs and emotions all over the place. Definitely a weird one. It was a good day, but I’m glad to have it behind me now. It was Friday. It was pay day. I had a ride planned for after work and I don’t have to work at the shop this weekend. Still, for whatever reason, I was in a bad mood just about all day. I know I’m upset about the situation with the Yeti. I finally get the 36 TALAS I’ve been wanting for a long time put on it and the frame breaks on the fork’s maiden voyage. I know not getting to ride it is bugging me. I love the 29er and the SS, but I want to ride my Yeti and enjoy my new fork. Riding a hard tail so much over the last couple weeks is getting old. More on that later.

The day started with me over sleeping and not being able to hit the gym–which made me angry. I was angry because it honestly wasn’t my fault. I packed all the stuff I would need for today last night and was all ready. I set the alarm and got to sleep at a somewhat decent hour. Then the alarm decided it didn’t want to work. I woke up an hour late and didn’t get to go to the gym. The alarm was set, it just didn’t go off. I know this because Tonya is a light sleeper and she never heard it either. I was so aggravated I ripped the plug out of the wall and threw it in the trash. Time for a new alarm clock. I would have honestly felt better if I had overslept by accident instead of the damn alarm clock sabotaging things.

I got up and went to work. We had a breakfast field meeting and that went well. We were all laughing and joking and having a good meal. Still, I felt like I wanted to be in a bad mood. So I leave the restaurant and hit the Beat with not much work to do–a good thing. Papers went OK, but every little thing just set me off.

At about 11:30 AM, I thought I’d call the shop to see how the progress on the Yeti was going. I figured it would be done today–and I wanted to use that to crack my negative mood. I figured I’d swing by and pick it up on the way to LPQ and I’d be able to ride it. So the mechanic finally answers the phone after me calling 3-4 times. I ask him if they’ve received the new rear triangle yet. He says that it’s in and he’s actually in the process of reassembling the Yeti now. YEAH!! Then he tells me that when he took it apart to ship the cracked rear triangle, he stripped the lower pivot’s bearing housing. What’s worse, is he never ordered a new one from Yeti!! What the Hell??!! He said he thought it would be OK, so he never called Yeti to order another one. He said it wasn’t going to work though and he was going to call Yeti to order another one and then call me back to tell me what he found out.

I decided to go to lunch while I waited for him to call me back. Lunch went well. Food was good, it wasn’t too crowded. And still, I wanted to be in a bad mood. The situation with the fork wasn’t helping matters any. Lunch comes and goes. I head back to the office at end of shift and head out to LPQ. Still no call from the mechanic. It’s now 2:30 PM, so I decided to call him while I was driving to LPQ. He informs me that when he called Yeti, they were out to lunch. OK, well, that was 3 hours ago. I asked him if maybe he thought it’d be a good idea to try them again since it’s been 3 hours since he called so they are surely back from lunch. Plus, it’s getting later and it would be a good idea to talk to someone before they leave for the weekend. He told me he’d call them and then call me right back.

Well, guess what–he never called me back. SHOCKER!!!! I’m so incredibly aggravated by the whole mess. Now, I have to wait until Monday to even find out what’s going on. I mean, the level of incompetence and overall “not giving a crap” displayed here is driving me nuts. First off, he “ham fists” the job and ruins the bolt threads. Then doesn’t tell me about it or call Yeti and have them send new parts. Why?? I don’t know. If he’d just been up front about it, he could’ve had Yeti ship the new part with the new rear tringle. I don’t get it. I want to scream. I have 3 weeks until Moab and the way things are going, I’m honestly worried I might not have it back in time. Best case scenario is I’ll likely get the bike back next weekend and have all of 1 week to get used to the new fork and break it in. I say 1 week because I don’t plan on riding a whole lot the week before Moab. My bad luck with bikes strikes again. Friggin’ nuts.

I’m posting this pic of it just to make myself feel better.

On the plus side, the ride at LPQ was AWESOME!! A guy on STR posted that he found a new tunnel in the Tunnels area at LPQ. Mark, J and I decided to explore and find it. We did some good exploring and actually found 3 new Tunnels. The first new one we found was a short, but steep and technical drop-in. It was very fun. The second trail we found has had a lot of work put into it and has a few ladder jumps and was pretty neat.

The third Tunnel we found by accident. We were on our way back after discovering the second new trail. We were still in “explorer” mode, so we were taking any new singletrack we found off the main fireroad. We were cruising along on some pretty tame singletrack when it started to twist and turn and fork in several directions. One of the forks turned out to be a drop-in to the Tunnels network. As cool as the other Tunnels are, this one was just heads and tails above the rest. It was tight and twisty and way more technical than the other Tunnels. SO much fun. We were all laughing like little kids the whole time.

It is well hidden and we all decided we will be keeping this a secret. We are only going to share the info with 2 other people. I know others know about it, but I will not be revealing its location to anyone. If you want to find it, put in the leg work like we did. I will say though–without a doubt this is one of the most fun trails in all of SoCal. A bold statement I know, but this new Tunnel is just crazy fun. I can’t wait to go back.

I have to fix the brakes on my car tomorrow, but hope to ride after. I also plan on riding Sunday afternoon, I just don’t know where yet. As I type this, it is 11:59 PM and the day is done. Good riddance Friday. I hope the weekend brings better news and a better mood.

It is now officially Saturday–12:00 AM. Let’s make it a good one. Until then, seek your bliss.

Ride lots…

Wow. That was cheeseball!!

Anyhoot, if you know me at all, you know that I can be quite anal when it comes to big decisions. Not always, but I can be. Is this a bad thing? I don’t think it’s bad per say, though I’m sure it’s annoying as all get out to my friends. I frequently get that way when it comes to bikes.

So as I have mentioned before, I want to upgrade my current Zion 29er-heavy-I’m only using it because it was cheap-frame to a Niner Cycles JET9 full suspension frame.

Niner cycles is one of the leaders of the 29er movement and one of the hottest companies in all of mountain biking. I am looking to get a new frame in May after we get back from Moab. Sort of a birthday present too. I called Niner a couple weeks ago and spoke to Brett–one of the head guys at Niner. He was totally cool and gave me the info I needed (Pro Deal info since work is a Niner dealer) and we hung up.

There’s a big chance that my budget will get cut back in May, so I am making alternate plans and here’s where me being anal comes in. I’ve been looking at some of Niners hardtail frames that are cheaper in price. The AIR9 and the EMD9:

I was thinking of the AIR9 in the same color green as the JET9 (not in the silver shown) and the EMD9 in Black as shown. So, I called Niner again today to pester Brett with more questions and find out what the pricing was for the AIR9 and EMD9–since I’ve been going back and forth as to which frame to get. I called this morning and got his voicemail, so I left a short message.

When he called me back, I was amazed. We ended up talking for over 15 minutes about the 3 frames I’m considering, work, spouses, his kids and mine, how Niner is taking off, how I like working at the shop, the future of a certain Niner prototype frame, riding 29ers verses 26ers, the sad state of current long travel 29er forks and other things. Here’s a guy who is a higher up in one of the most popular bike companies going, taking time out of his busy day to shoot the breeze with a complete stranger–a future customer and shop employee–but a stranger nonetheless. I was so blown away with how cool he was about my being anal about my purchase and just everything in general.

Now don’t get me wrong–I’m not trying to act like he’s a celebrity or something. It’s just refrshing to talk to someone in the industry–at a HUGE company–and have them be totally cool and down to Earth. It really sheds a light on how bad Marzocchi treated me just a few weeks ago and how people should treat each other.

After hanging up with Brett, I am now back on board with the JET frame 100%. He assured me some of the worries I had would be non-issues and got me excited about the thought of the new frame again!!

I’m getting ready to go on a night ride–against my better judgment as I’m still sick. But it’s supposed to rain tomorrow, so I want to get a ride in before Friday. We are also thinking about hitting up TW for somemore Huck practice on Saturday. I sure need it. Until then, seek your bliss.

Ride lots…