scrublover

A new-to-me spot yesterday, with another western expat.

ed 

So I went on an "odd" one yesterday. I took a break from my NL spot to check out a place that my wife and I hiked on Saturday. It's about 1mi from my house and nothing to shout about. The odd thing is how many "little" trails there are around here that are basically "secret"...not on any maps.

This trail is about a 1-2mi trail, but the thing that makes it cool is that I can ride back-street pavement from my front door for 1mile...
...hook into this trail for 1-2miles
...pop out into a campground and take a left
...take a mowed path through the woods across another road
...hook into another 1.5mi trail that hugs a lake
...pop out in some camp grounds
...hook into a hilly paved ride
...hop on a gravel MUP that wraps another leg of a lake
...cross over the road
...hook into my local trails for another 8-11mi (depending on your route)
...pop out on the dam and take some forestry service road
...ride 2-3mi of pavement to my work.


I could have a heck'uv'a time OTW to or from work enjoying some trails.

digthemlows

Lots of puddles and standing water when you got to the bottom, but the trails were in great shape and I had fun around Granite Bay yesterday.........

Wolfvegas

Started in the trails in Reservoir Park, trailed through the forest with 3 friends (by the way biking with friends is soooooooo much more fun than by yourself) The path was muddy and gravel with lots of ups and downs. My friends were ahead of me the whole time but that's ok im just a noob. The only part I had trouble with was I was going down a steep hill too slow and almost went over my bars (how do I avoid this do I just need to man up and get off the brake more and go faster downhill) Then we went up the set of stairs, crossed the road and went back into the trails. Rocked down into a sidepath by some water and stopped for a smoke. After that we finished up with the trails and hit up the skatepark for quick few seconds then dipped onto the ****s for a bit. After that we rode down the train tracks into town. Did a little bike tour around town for around an hour or two just hitting jumps around town (still learning whats the best way to hop over something or (get air). At the end during nightfall I was pretty pooped but managed it get back up the trails and to my car for a nice sleep. (not my pics but they are of where I was)

scrublover

I love this spot.


Always tough getting the timing right on this shot. Either too early...


Or too late.

alexaschwanden

awesome pictures.

craigcraigcraig

Fun ride at Walker Ranch.

pablosnazzy

Today we decided to drive the hour and a half to moab and ride Amasa Back. The weather was perfect, we had the trail pretty much to ourselves the whole time, which is unusual. The climb is not a bad climb at all really, i would almost say it was fun (as fun as you can get going up a hill). We climbed up to the pothole arch, did some cool wall rides, then came down rockstacker, and finished on Jackson's trail. Drew fell and managed to mess up his front shifter, but it was on the (mostly) downhill part, so he finished the ride with a 1x9.

At first i was thinking "why the hell would anyone want to ride this crap, a huge doubletrack hill, i dont get it. Once we got up a few miles, it was amazingly beautiful, and i could sort of understand why. We did see people coming down Amasa back, which is sort of the old way. i don't know if they didn't know about Rockstacker and Jackson, even with the signs, or if they just didn't want to come down those trails.
Rockstacker and jackson is a fun, fast, techy, singletrack. a great way to end a ride.
sorry no pics, you just have to belive me when i say it was super freakin amazingly beautiful and fun. if you go to moab, i would say it's a must do, more so than slickrock.

scrublover

If it weren't for Rockstacker, I'd probably rarely ride Amassa when out there. It's, uh, value added for sure. Mucho fun.

Of the "in the book" rides though, my fav (other than Porc Rim variations) is still Blue Dot/Portal.

pablosnazzy

I think portal is still my favorite, but it's not for everyone

alexaschwanden

Today I rode my mountain bike 35.6 miles from my house up Page mill rd to skyline blvd then back down it, I hit over 38 mph on the downhill!!!. After i got to the bottom i rode out to the baylands and around the palo alto airport and back home. Riding up 2200+ ft up to skyline with my mountain bike was a lot easier than with a lightweight road bike. I now have 310.1 miles on my trek mountain bike. I also found a few things on the road that were interesting: a hubcap , a 15mm socket, and a mouse trap that was laying in the road half way up Page mill rd.

pablosnazzy

kick ass. i can't believe you didn't find that one shoe, or one sock. there is always one shoe or one sock on the side of the road.

alexaschwanden

^ I did find a workers glove half way buried in the dirt once.

dminor 

Last night we rode the first Wed. night shop trail ride of the season - - all three of us. Turnout will get better as things warm up/dry out more. Man did it feel good to put pedal strokes to dirt instead of a trainer.

Today took the downhill bike for its inaugural runs on Beacon since its transformation. Bike was stellar but boy am I rusty. Only hit about half the jumps and the one new hip step-down I decided to hit . . . hit back. Ouch. On a technical note: man, Hayes Primes are awesome.

lubes17319

Rained all around, but never directly where we rode.

craigcraigcraig

What do you think of the Honzo?

pablosnazzy

i like how the rainbow ends at the bike and not a pot of gold. i guess the bike *IS* the pot of gold. it looks tiny enough for a leprechaun, at least if you think of it as actual size.

lubes17319

^ That's what I was shooting for w/this pic....can just catch the end of it by the time I got to this point. That leprechaun better be about 6'3"+ to fit this monster.

"No pot o' gold, but this'll do just fine."

@craig: Loving this bike! Can't wait for the higher-up areas to melt off, and do some gravity-oriented trails with it (Monarch Crest, Jones Pass, Clear Creek County shuttles, WE) - that's where it'll shine. The laid-back HT/ST angles & its 30# weight make it a chore to get to the top, but once there, drop the seat, point downhill, and it's all good. The 16.2" CS make it easy to flick around at speed; catching air feels comfy; still dabbing on 1 or 2 of the tighter switchbacks (which I can easily clean on the KM w/its WB being 3" shorter).

ed 

alexaschwanden

^Nice Jamis, how many miles do you have on it so far?

ed 

Thanks. Dunno. Had it a little over a year. The 2:1 ratio of the Parker is really great for a guy my size. 4" that feels like 5-6. This is my second 6"Domain and I've loved them both. It's really a slopestyle bike, so I had to put longer crank arms and longer seatpost on it so it would pedal well. It's a fun bike. Nimble, but burly'ish.

samburger

Pardon my n00bishness, but when you talk about the 2:1 ratio, are you referring to the ratio of the front:rear travel or what?

dminor 

2:1 leverage ratio on the rear suspension: amount of rear wheel travel in relation to shock stroke. Low leverage ratio like that is hard to achieve, especially in longer-travel bikes - - Foes is most known for designing suspensions around that 'golden' number.

ed 

Spot on!

The piston will move a further distance as the suspension compresses (making it more responsive to damping changes) which could theoretically cause the oil to wear faster and the oil seals to need replacement quicker, but...the beauty is that I can use lower shock pressure...saving the air seals...never have to add air...the design of the Fox Float combined with the suspension design gives me a plush small bump setup with plenty of resistance at the end of travel to combat bottoming out.

It's beauty in a package I can afford.

samburger

Ohhhh that makes sense. So for 2" of stroke length, you get 4" of actual wheel travel, & so on...correct?

I wonder what ratio my bike has...