Bike Forums - Daily ride reports

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When I hear D mentioning a step up, all I hear in my head is "I'm okay!".

Of course the cameras are rolling the one time I eat it on that thing :lol:

Debating buying some studs so I can hit the local ice rink/trails at night during the week...

Thoughts?

Weekly Thursday-nite ride in time to beat the 12" of snow that fell overnight.

Went for a short but super fun 8 mile ride yesterday in this magnificent 70* weather. Same weather today, so guess where I'm going after this? I got some decent footage with the gopro, which is especially cool because I had the chest mount on so tight that you can hear my heart beat on the video!:lol: It's kind of embarrassing because you can hear how disproportionally fast my heart is beating compared to the difficulty of the terrain:o

Quote:

Originally Posted by lubes17319 (Post 13812719)

PBRMe! this am
http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/1...ox02jtsnam.jpg

Doesn't look too bad. The news made it sound as if you guys got hammered.

Wilton Woods Friday afternoon, local default trials yesterday, Trumbull today with Djembe.

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f1...y/IMG_0003.jpg

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f1...y/IMG_0004.jpg

Not been taking as many pics lately. Blue Mtn. on tap for tomorrow. I'm free to ride the rest of the week, through Friday, as well. :)

Demoed a 2012 Kona Operator this morning. Pretty awesome bike. Super short chainstay and low bb makes it rail corners. Will post a full video review sometime in the next couple days.

Yesterday had to be the most fun I've had on a bike in years! I took my brand-new Trek Wahoo Disc 29 up to Auburn for some climbing and descending bliss. These are some of my favorite trails from the good old days back in the early 90s.

This was my first real mtb ride in 15 years.

All of these trails have technical sections to keep things interesting.

The first trail is Clementine. It starts at the bottom of the canyon by the American River and climbs up to the next trailhead (Fuel Break). Clementine starts out as doubletrack, narrows to singletrack for a while, then widens to doubletrack again as it climbs.

Fuel Break climbs for about 1/2 mile, descends for 1/4 mile, climbs again, then descends to the next trail, Culvert. Culvert drops down to Old Foresthill Road.

Confluence is the really fun downhill that starts at the OHV parking area. After I finished that one, the real suffering began. I started up the short steep part at the beginning of Stagecoach Trail, but instead of making the left turn at the first switchback, I accidentally overshot it and continued on to the next switchback. When the grade got steeper instead of leveling off somewhat like it's supposed to, I started to wonder if the trail got re-routed in the last 15 years.

I spun out a few times and had to restart. Great fun! Other times my front wheel lifted off the ground, forcing me to stop. I was starting to wonder if I was going to have to walk this one, but I eventually made it all the way up by pedal power.

Where I ended up was the top of the Ridgeview trailhead. I went back down and explored some trails off of the steep climb. Found another short steep climb, and after several tries I made it up that one. Picking the right line was absolutely essential with this one. It was technical and covered with pine needles.

I went back to my truck to get more water (gonna have to get a Camelbak, I guess), and started up Stagecoach again. This time I didn't miss the turn-off. After the steep part, the trail leveled off and there was very little suffering for the remainder of the climb. Near the top I saw a group of hikers heading down. One of the women said "Good job!" (you can hear it in the video), and I thanked her.

After that climb I continued climbing on the pavement on Russell Road, then turned around and enjoyed the descent back down Stagecoach.

I'm going to have to remove the spacers and slam the stem to cut down on the front wheel coming off the ground on steep climbs.

One of the technical turns on Culvert
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7015/6...dab0bc3130.jpg
technical turn on Culvert Trail by freighttraininguphill, on Flickr

Confluence trailhead
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7027/6...2800dc06e2.jpg
Confluence trailhead by freighttraininguphill, on Flickr

Middle fork of American River as seen from Confluence Trail
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7067/6...f1c33f0558.jpg
Middle Fork of American River seen from Confluence Trail by freighttraininguphill, on Flickr
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7203/6...1e1efba6a9.jpg
Middle Fork of American River and Confluence Trail by freighttraininguphill, on Flickr

American River and Clementine Trail
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7189/6...66a0d8293e.jpg
American River and Clementine Trail by freighttraininguphill, on Flickr

Start of Stagecoach Trail steep climb
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7027/6...e188d8e155.jpg
Start of Stagecoach Trail climb by freighttraininguphill, on Flickr

Ridgeview trailhead
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7018/6...7b119cb58d.jpg
Ridgeview trailhead by freighttraininguphill, on Flickr

Steep sufferfest climb I wound up on by accident
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7202/6...ef89a5419e.jpg
Steep climb above Stagecoach Trail by freighttraininguphill, on Flickr

Short steep climb it took several tries to clean
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7180/6...0270f6bc73.jpg
Short steep climb above Stagecoach Trail by freighttraininguphill, on Flickr

More pics here: freighttraininguphill | Flickr

Northern California is friggin beautiful. If you're not too far away the King Range has some excellent looking trails. I say looking because I saw them but didn't have a bike.

The mechanic at my lbs talked me out of studs so late in the year so I opted to head south for the winter, to Harold Parker forest reserve in Andover Massachusetts...

New trails for me and entirely free from ice, a stark contrast to sheets of ice on the northern sides of hills less than 20 miles north in Southern NH.

They were also awesome, rootey rocky stuff with lots of bedrock exposures and a ledges. I'll have to start taking a camera with me.

Got some footage edited down as much as I could get it. Cross back & forth between helmet & chest mounts...chest is definitely the way to go. Less shaky, less chatter, better perspective. In this one the chest mount is just a little too low, but you can still see down trail for most of the footage so it's not too bad. Maybe next time I can get it pointing up enough to do some anti-shake editing without sacrificing the entire view.

I put a new zip tie on the fork & forgot to cut it just for you, Ed ;)

Newsflash: tapered steer tubes are quite a bit stiffer than non-tapered.

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f1...y/IMG_0064.jpg

... and who doesn't like a real stiff one?

Trails were a bit bit ruff tonight after last week's blizzard.
Show-shoers need to get to it & pack it down better!

Decided to go for a ride today, I didn't have my cyclometer with me so I don't know how far I went; but I did a solid 3 hours in the woods on some snowmobile trails and fire access roads. Had a great time, found some very fun downhill sections and a lot of ice. Not ashamed to admit that I wiped out 3 times, all ice-related. I don't usually ride in the winter, so I don't have studded ice tires. I run IRC Trail Bear Kevlar's, 26x2.25". Great tire for everything else I've encountered thus far, just not ice. Did surprisingly well on loose and packed snow.

http://i741.photobucket.com/albums/x...2-12-20121.jpg

http://i741.photobucket.com/albums/x...2-12-20123.jpg

http://i741.photobucket.com/albums/x...2-12-20122.jpg

http://i741.photobucket.com/albums/x...2-12-20124.jpg

http://i741.photobucket.com/albums/x...2-12-20125.jpg

http://i741.photobucket.com/albums/x...2-12-20126.jpg

http://i741.photobucket.com/albums/x...2-12-20128.jpg

http://i741.photobucket.com/albums/x...2-12-20127.jpg

http://i741.photobucket.com/albums/x...-12-201210.jpg

http://i741.photobucket.com/albums/x...-12-201211.jpg

Surprisingly enough, the mesh goggles worked very well at cutting the cold air and sun glare, and didn't impede my vision at all. I've never ridden with them before, but I figured I should add whatever protection from the elements that I could - and I'm glad I had them. While taking a major digger, I rolled into some Mountain-Laurel, which would have gotten me right in the eyes without the goggles. Happy to report no injuries, and no damage to the bike, which is a good thing.

This is the first ride I've gone on in close to a year, and actually; the first winter ride I've ever done, despite living in New England. I'll definitely be going for more winter rides, I had a blast. Hope you enjoyed this post as much as I enjoyed my ride.

Quote:

Originally Posted by lubes17319 (Post 13819113)

http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/700/0206gm01.jpg
http://img714.imageshack.us/img714/6265/0206gm03.jpg

Green Mountain?

Nice action shots scrublover.

Quote:

Originally Posted by lubes17319 (Post 13847984)

^ Si

Nice. I think I know exactly where that first shot was taken.

Quote:

Originally Posted by lubes17319 (Post 13847984)

^ Si

Nice. I think I know exactly where that first shot was taken.

^ 1st switchback heading straight up from the FL lot.
Heading there @ 6:30 tonight.