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Hey... that looks like fun!

I saw you went to the dayton airshow. I went both days (I love mooching off of friends). I'll be gone for the next two weeks. Off to Colorado, and I convinced my parents to take the mountain bikes. . . Going to the San Juans (Lake City, near Darango and Silverton). Lots O hiking and Lots O MTBing (I got my dad back into MTBing a few weeks ago).

A couple days ago. Drizzly rain yesterday and today. No interest in riding in that, but if it slows enough I may get a little dirt time in. Otherwise it's only to do a grocery store run for my ride today.

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f1...8/IMG_6241.jpg
The bugs were really, really bad. Discovering that Picaridin seems to work better for me as a repellent than DEET. Less stink, less nasty to clothing/environment.
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f1...8/IMG_6225.jpg
It's been such a wet spring and summer. The 'shroom life is crazy right now.
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f1...8/IMG_6260.jpg
Same old same old. Been riding here more lately, since it's so close. Much shorter drive time than anywhere else. About half the time I ride to the trails here anyhow.

Wednesday night ride hosted by our LBS last night had an extra treat: it was a demo ride put on by the area Felt rep. I got to take out a Redemption 1 and wring it out a bit. What a nice bike! Long-legged (6 & 6) aggro trailbike - - we took an instant liking to each other. It would have been even better if the terrain had been a bit more demanding; but I could easily see it as an all-day, epic-ride machine and do-it-all-anywhere bike.

Shucks, I'd probably XC race it: I played around a bit last night on some rougher sections of trail and where hardtails are doing the line-picking thing, I could stay seated, pick a straight point A to point B line and just plow it. And at 31.8 lbs, well, it felt light to me :D.

Everything was going just fine until the rear hub in the Easton wheelset blew up and it wouldn't coast any more. Spent the rest of the ride having to treat it like a fixie :notamused:

Ah well, it was a demo that had seen who-knows-what amount of abuse. Still fun anyway. Only drawback to the whole thing I could see is how on earth to come up with the $5K to own a rig like that; I've never come near spending money like that on a bike.

Pics from Silveroxx last weekend

I built the Redline d660 a couple days ago and got the first real dirt ride in on it today. Just some mild dirt road riding with enough rocky steep singletrack to give it the old once over. Also trying to get the Reba and brakes dialed in. I was pretty impressed with the frame quality when building it up. Nice welds, good paint, though they got a little sloppy around the headset and BB so I had one of the mechanics at the shop help me chase the BB threads and face the headset/BB.

So far I'm pretty impressed with the whole package. The 29er wheels aren't magical, but the bike seems to really rail corners even on loose stuff, which I'm sure can be at least partially attributed to the larger contact patch. Even with my skills, I had to TRY to get it to slide out on loose gravel downhills. Nice, balanced feel to the bike. Wheels are freaking pigs, but should be durable for everyday abuse. Next season I'll upgrade 'em if finances allow. The BB7s aren't hydros and don't feel like it, but they're pretty good nonetheless, and get better the more I get them dialed in.

The 29er wheels do require a little more attention in very tight switchbacks, as I expected. But the nice thing is they require you to pay less attention to roots and rocks that come up unexpectedly in said switchbacks, so in my mind that seems to be a wash. Time will tell.

Other than that a very solid package. The 1x9 should be great for everything but the most epic climbs. Nice thing about the big rear wheel is that I don't seem to lose traction when standing and mashing, which with a 32-32 low gear I'll be apt to do. The X-9 stuff is really nice. I think I like XT marginally better, but not enough to bother changing it out. The stylo crank seems really stiff, at least under my measly power output, and it's nice that Redline put Ritchey Pro stuff throughout instead of house brand components. Weight for a size large is 26.7 pounds. Not a feather, but not bad for 1400 dollars msrp. You could drop 2 pounds on wheels alone without spending too much.

Biggest complaint is the grips. They seriously suck. Trying to decide between good old Ourys (in black, the 29er is hipster enough as it is) or something different. Ergons, maybe?

Well, off to play with the fork.

dminor: the SD looks fun! I've not done any racing in a long time, but that looks like a format that I'd really dig. More like older weekend long race series stuff. Hill climb, DH, XC race over the weekend, and you have to use the same bike with only tire changes allowed.

Anyhow, a couple from today.

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f1...8/IMG_6316.jpg
This drops you down a nice tranny slope, to several other small and medium drop lines to choose from.

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f1...8/IMG_6288.jpg
Two fer one lost parts photo.

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f1...8/IMG_6290.jpg
Yes Virginia, there is a trail in there. Sandro's doesn't get ridden nearly so much as the other trails at this spot.
Mainly because much of the user base doesn't know it exists. :)

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f1...8/IMG_6295.jpg
Nice rock.

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f1...8/IMG_6308.jpg
In there is a bar end plug graveyard.

Quote:

Originally Posted by TechTrek (Post 7142585)

^^ Where is that?

Sprain Ridge. Yonkers, NY.

Day 2 of Colorado trip. Got to ride up on a mesa behind the Coors plant in Golden with my dad, mom, and uncle. Most of the ride was easy, but there were a bunch of rock gardens and jumps. Huge ego boost when you're the best rider in the group ( :) ), but then that boost was struck down due to the out of breath factor that my uncle, the local, didnt have (Sea level to ~6000 feet over the course of 24ish hours, as this ride was on the first day). Now we are heading to Lake City where we might ride parts of the Alpine Loop (google it). You westerners are damn lucky ;)

Had a Bday party with my team today at the local trail. ~18 miles of trail then bbq hot dogs and chicken and went on the lake. was Very fun.

Today, I rode late... I wasn't out until 7:30, and cut my ride short at 8:00 because the bolt holding my seat to my seatpost came loose... I did, however, take the ride all the way from the top of east branch to the bottom of Watkin's trail. Found a new rock garden, theres a log in it that needs moved... That or I need to learn the right way through the garden that i can still jump the log and not wreck...

I also took the berm that goes onto watkins trail at fast speed, thanks to Dminor for his demonstration of the proper technique. It's not easy, cause if you miss the hardpack part of the berm, you might slip up and end up on your face among numerous rocks and roots on the other side. It is also about a 45 degree turn...

Overall, it was a great ride. Wish it could have been longer... Thanks Dminor for showing us all how to take a berm properly!

-Crash

Did a rode ride today...a 4in nail went in one side of the tire and out the other side....kinda scary when that happens at ~45 mph

Found a new trail off of the top of east branch today... Followed it, and it comes out right next to my favorite ice cream place! Excellent!

I brought a camera, but no pictures.
nocondorfx and I did like 15 miles at two differnt courses; West Branch in Ravenna, OH and a Canal Way trail in Parma, OH.

I'm not a fan of slick trails or rock gardens, and West Branch included both. Some of the rock gardens were too much for anything less than a trials bike, IMO and just pissed me off.

Rode at Tilllamook State Park today. Lots of trail closures, unfortunately, but still tons of sweet buff singletrack and lmiles of climbing. Very pretty as well. Oregon mountain biking at its best, I'd forgotten how good it can be (that is if you can find a trail you're allowed on).

I'm getting the Redline dialed in and it feels great. The "gimmick" of the 29inch wheels aside, it just feels like a nice, solid XC hardtail. Quick but not twitchy handling, and fairly stable. A bike you can forget about while you're riding it, which is awesome.

Oh, and the Reba fork is great. I've heard some people complain about flex, but I'm not very heavy and haven't noticed any.

On my road ride today I came about 3ft away from having a Harley slam into me at ~45mph. He locked the brakes and kinda laid the bike on it's side. The guy asked me for my License?

This weekend was the 11th Annual Hi Ways Cup, ran by the good guys at Perth Mountain Bike Club and Hi Ways Cycles.

I was so freaking happy to get out and race again. Rolled in at 9 30 AM on practice day to already a few cars there. It was held at Golden Grove Orchards, a big Orange orchard in Chittering which is of course fully functioning and customers had a hard time parking through all the riders cars - whoops. There was a turnout of 120 riders, which wasn't bad considering the track's locale and lack of shuttles.

Practice day report:
I love this track. Can't be said enough. It really suits my riding style and I felt pretty fast and smooth. There are no shuttles, because it's too steep to drive anything up. Utes, LandCruisers, LandCruiser troopy's, the orchard tractors, the PMBC 6 wheeler, nothing can make it up with bikes, let alone riders. They had a ard time getting the marshalls around on the 6WD Polaris as it was! Does that give you and idea on how steep this track is? So it's push up only, which is brutal, which meant the order of the day for practice was to session it in thirds, or quarters depending on your legs, to save pushing up. I started with the top section.

The start section starts of really twisty and rocky - the whole course is very off camber, this part noticably - I lost a lot of time here. So the About a third of the way down, there is a feature called the Shark Tooth Drop. I think of this as the end to the top section. On the run up, you can see the plateau for this, and a big sharp rock pointing up, like a shark tooth. It looks like you're going to plow right into it, but it really is a trick of the mind as you miss it completely on all lines. It was my gremlin for the first 2 goes, and I stopped both times and chickened out. My 3rd time however, I pinned it, looked forward not down (Cheers dissa for that tip!) and flew over. Landed it really smooth to a big redneck woop on my part and a big grin - I conquered it! I celebrated with a dirty great drift around the next corner - something I've never been able to nail on my new bike either. A good weekend if I do say so myself. You could always guarantee a crowd of resting riders taking a break on their way to the top at the shark tooth (it was a good spot for watching crashes haha), so it was good to nail it so well in front of a crowd. What can I say, I'm a showboat?

The middle section is super rocky - moreso than the rest. Nice, I love rocks. There's a log jump which is good fun, though it lands in a tricky off camber (what else?) corner, so it's quite technical. You have to a fair brake check a bit before so you don't overshoot and clear off the track because you can't correct your line quick enough. There's a cool S Bend too - really drifty.

The bottom section starts with the rockgarden, a staple of downhill in my opinion. There is a small, rather weak rockgarden and then a dusty (not off camber!) corner in the lead up to the big gnarly rockgarden. It doesn't matter whether you took the inside or outside line, you always end up pointing directly at a tree that's rather large, over 1.5 metres (5 feet) in diamater - good for hugging in some riders' opinion. I managed to get out of the way in time though, maybe it's because I'm slow :lol: .

Then we have the Off the Wall drop. It's pretty much a drop built in to a stone wall through one of the paddocks. Good fun, I had it pretty well in practice. After that it's a few fast corners before you enter the orchard.

Yes, I just said you ride through the orchard. Diagonally, so you're crossing the roms of trees and trying to keep up speed, something I thought I did well. Then it's out onto a fireroad for a finih line sprint.

Sunday came about nice and quick and I was there for 8:30. I pushed up and did a bit of practice on the rockgarden, and then went up for a full run, which I felt good about, except for the fact that the dew, combined with lots of riding have shredded the corner before the wall drop right up, and i couldn't get my lines anywhere near right, ended up coming up parallel to the drop face if that makes sense, forcing me to take the slow B Line all day. Oh well, it happens.

I went down and rested down in the carpark for a while before my mum, sister and girflriend rocked up about an hour before racing got under way. I went and tried the wall drop a bit more, but to no avail. This was not pleasing.

My first run I thought I had going really well until I was a little too pinned at the log jump (I had a rad drift going before it though, around the corner. Lots of redneck woops from onlookers for that.) and overshot it, plowing off the track. Quick! Sprint back on and pedal to the bottom for a time of 2:51:something. I wasn't happy with that - oh well I should do better next time.

Pushed up for the second run - stopped at mum and co. for a drink and banana. Starting eventually got under way, only to discover a timing glitch just after the guy in front of me left. The race had to be stopped for 20 odd minutes while they sorted it out. This was bad news, i sat in the gate psyching myself out and getting anxious the whole time. Eventually I went down to an excitable crowd (Always good!). First down in over 20 minutes, I felt a bit pressured. I did the top section pretty well, hacked and plowed my way through the middle and braked my way through the bottom section, save for the orchard and sprint, which I pinned for once. Ended up with 2:47:something. I felt pretty good about that.

I had an absolute blast, hanging out with other guys, made a few new friends and rode well.

The best news? I DIDN'T COME LAST! This made me so damn happy. I came second last! That's in my class, overall I was smack bang in the middle of the pack, and I was pretty stoked for that. In reality, that's just a bonus, finishing times are kinda trivial to me. I'm out to have fun and get along with other riders, which I did for sure.

You couldn't wipe the smile off my face with an 18 wheeler right now. Pictures will come as soon as they start to trickle back from the numerous photographers.

Awesome, BFG. Sounds like you had a really great time. Any pics to share?

Sadly enough not yet. Sorry, I know I broke the number one rule of this stuff, but I was too busy having a blast to take pictures even if I had a camera with me. They should pop up on some of the local forums midweek though. Here are some photos of the track from the last race held there, note I am not in any of these:

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j2...0621--1230.jpg

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j2...0621--1214.jpg

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j2...80621--899.jpg

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j2...80621--598.jpg

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j2...80621--502.jpg

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j2...80621--271.jpg

That's the Shark Tooth, and you can see the pointy rock just below his tire. It's a crazy illusion riding at it. Also, that kid is about 13, and fast on his ReignX.

^^Good looking course and shots, BFG.

More cross stuntry.
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f1...8/IMG_0119.jpg
Up a bike length log, then slight corner onto another, then dropping off the end takes you back to singletrack. An option going into a downhill switchback. To the left (on the bike) is a nice little rock booter smack in the middle of the trail right as you enter into the corner - it's a nice one to get a little hip action off of.

Checking out another spot new to me, about two miles from my door. Mostly moto trails, but with plenty of bike play. The spot is some town land that they don't want to develop, but don't know what to do with otherwise. In the meantime, it gets ridden. :)

http://i186.photobucket.com/albums/x...-0327-HWDH.jpg

Look to the right of the rock it looks like I'm riding, and you'll see where I actually dropped off.

http://i186.photobucket.com/albums/x...-0667-HWDH.jpg

HOW MUCH FUN DO I LOOK LIKE I'M HAVING! Because I was.

We brought our bikes along on a trip to the St Lawrence River to make it a week of biking and diving. Yesterday we took a 60K ride and shot a couple of pics along the way.