Flak

Went for a pretty nice ride today. Nothing special, just a regular ride on one of my regular trails. Those of you who got the latest Dirt Rag, this is the place listed in thier Interstate 80 article for Ohio, West Branch State Park. I decided to bring the camera with me, something i've never done before. So gear up, check your tires, and fill your water bottle....lets go.

This fireroad runs for several miles with trail loops off it all the way up. It's not the offical trail head, but since everything runs off it, i think it is. Bugger riding up it though, we're turning left into the first loop.


Singletrack, lots of single track. That's all North East Ohio has to offer. No significant elevation, but the trail builders are pretty good at making do with what we have. This is a CAMBA trail (www.camba.us) who do a really good job in our area building and maintaining trails.


After winding our way around for a while and gaining what little height we can, we get to a fun little down. Kinda bummed the pic doesnt show the grade of this section, but its short and steep, fading down and away to the left. Bumps galore too.


I think they put this in to prevent erosion. Whatever the reason, its good fun.


After some climbing (which i hate hate hate), another little down and up. This trail isn't really all that hard, but roots are never in short supply.


Figured out the timer on the camera.


Just cleared a pretty tricky rock garden. Tired, but having a good time.


One of my favourite trail features.


After winding our way up and in, the trail spits us back out on that fire road i told you about....albeit at the other end. I wanted to get moving, but the bike insisted on a short rest....wuss


Ok so it wasn't the hardest, or most interesting ride you've ever been on. But this is what we have to work with in Ohio, and i still have fun everytime i get out. My ride isn't here yet (wife took the car), but if im lucky she'll bring me food when she picks me up (and wouldnt you know it, she did just that! Whadda woman!)


I had many more pics for this post, but the board limits me to 10. Shame, on the ones i had to cull i was pulling 20 pink feet to flat over lions tigers and bears oh my!

Flak

A few more pics from the same ride sans the freeride pics that we all know never happened

a2psyklnut

My buddy and me, took my stepsons riding for Labor Day. Nothing too interesting, but just introducing the boys to riding is a treat in itself. We rode up in Tampa at Trout Creek/Flatwoods park.

My sons are new to riding trails, so it was more of an exercise in teaching on my part. My 13.5 year old has pretty good skills for a beginner, but doesn't have the stamina (especially in his butt). He started complaining about the saddle at about the 7.5 mile mark.

My other stepson (now 8.5) is a tough kid, but you've got to push him. He was whining a bit and it was tough to motivate him. But at the end of the day, he had a huge smile on his face.

The riding was just some easy singletrack/doubletrack through the wood and Florida scrub. As long as we rode in the tree canopy, it wasn't too hot. Dare I say almost pleasant? However, in the open scrub areas, we cooked!

All in all we rode for about an hour and a half, then stopped for an early lunch and headed home.

I was asked, "When can we come back?".

Almost made me cry. Nothing like getting kids excited about the thing I love to do.

N2bikeN

Here is one from Wis.

mtnbiker66

Went out and rode tha 24 hour of Pisgah course. Its freakin hard! Steep up and down,rocky,rooty and nasty. I dread doing it a 3 in the morning.

errolprowse

i went out to fort ord for about 4 hours, first time out there by myself, its the place that they hold the sea otter classic every year, just some fun single track out there, started this morning at 10 o clock and came home at 5:45, the reason i was out that late is because i had to ride my bike to the trails, none of the buses i take out there were runing today because of sunday, so i just rode there, all in all it was some fun stuff

edkruzel

Flak,
Sweet pics; I'm from NE Pennsylvania and that's the kind of terrain I'm used to riding; unfortunately I'm in El Paso, Texas now and although there are some nice trails, they're in the desert with no shade and no water.

Your pics make me quite home sick...

Ed

karasu

Today my seat was trying to kill my possibilities of having children. I need to find a comfortable one ASAP.

Landspeed7

Im bummed, the small trail close to my house is being taken over by hunters now looks like i have to use the bike rack or just wait until sunday! Great riding weather out there now, I can really push it and not empty my camelback in an hour ride on!

a2psyklnut

Tried riding last night at my "in-town" trails. Nothing exciting, but I don't have to drive an hour to ride! Too much rain the last couple days. Was a boggy mess! My bike is heavy enough already without having to add 20 lbs of mud to it.

Went home after 45 mins.

Pink_Ninja

Fastest three runs this weekend, but on the last berm there's tonnes of roots (well, same with the rest of the track) and as it wasw raining slightly I slipped on some, feet off the pedals and I threw myself back to land on the seat, I hit the tip of it with my tailbone and felt like a total idiot. And to make it worse there were 20 or so other riders at the bottom, all of whom stared at me and no-one said anything......creepy....

Taerom

Just one picture from today's ride. Didn't turn out how I wanted it to, but it still does a good job of showing off the trail and the great fall colors. This was the first sunny day in a long time here, so riding was definitely fun...

a2psyklnut

Well, after Thurs. ride, I switched my tires to the new mud tires I got from RICO.

Como se dice rolling resistance???? Wow, those tires rolled slowly! I definitely got my workout for the weekend. I'm taking them off before my next ride.

After using them on the flat trails around here, I'm putting them in storage. Good tires for gravity assisted trails, but brutal on flats.

JR_Sith

Hey Flak, I don't know of if you new this, but there is at least 4 miles of single rack on the other side of Cable line rd./that fireroad. The stuff on the other side of cable line is nothing but rocks and is much, much more technical than the rolling stuff on the lakeside.

Alrocket

I was out in the Dublin mountains with some guys from the MTB club doing a "beginners" spin. We were way up in the mist with about 10 yards of visibility, earily quiet except for the whirls and clicks of the drivetrain. I sucked completely on the climbs (mainly cos I weigh 200lbs and I'm 5'7 ) but the descents were fantastic, I had a lot of fun.

My first over the bars was at fairly high speed, but luckily it was into a relatively soft gorse brush, damn spikes, but broke my fall nicely. Mainly due to a) rider skill, or lack thereof, b) speed being too high for a), c) rims being wet from the 42 puddles I just went through, d) brakes failing because of c), and finally, e) that rock that appeared out of nowhere to assault my front wheel!

My second over the bars was onto rocky trail, but I was wise enough to keep clearing the rims so managed to do it at lower speed so nothing more than a couple of scratches to show for it.

By the time I hit my 3rd and 4th crashes, I was really getting the hang of unclipping both of my (new! and tough to unclip from!) Egg Beaters, and the 5th was a triumphant launch off the bike as she was going down, ended up jogging away from the scene grinning manically

My mate managed to taco his front wheel on the very last leg of the ride, 5 yards from the carpark! And a trip to the car wash for the high powered jet spray was required to clean off a 2" coating of mud from the bikes.

Fun day!

mtnbiker66

Got out for an evening ride by myself. My bullit is getting a new BB so I took out the hardtail and just mashed the big ring the whole ride.Had my tunes pounding in my ears,my heart pounding in my chest and my legs pounding on the pedals........fun times.

Flak

Yeah i ride that techy side sometimes. Lakeside is a nice easy ride though when im not in the mood for it. Mashed my shin really good last time i did ride it though

Bar Mohican, West Branch is the furthest trail away for me. You got anything good down Akron way?

Taerom

A few more pictures of the fall colors from today's kinda wet, rainy ride.

The closest to an "action shot" I could get using the timer on my camera...

Taerom

Rock garden on the trails pictured above...

Oleanshoebox

hey everybody i'm the yahoo with the new hardrock. i don't have but one friend who rides so i hope youse guys don't mind if i type on yer page here. i went out this morning at five intending to hit some light packed trails near the riverbottom by my house, but alas, it was too dark and i have no lights. i thought about waiting by the trailhead until the sun came up a little, but after a while i headed home. broke in my bike a little, though. think i'll try six tomorrow instead.

Topher_Aus

I went for my first big ride during the week. It was awesome. I did 45 km in 3 hours, which I thought was pretty good, although it was more downhill than uphill.

I did this ride- the old beechy rail trail. https://www.railtrails.org.au/states/...trail&trail=30

It wasn't anything too extreme, but it was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed some of the fast downhill bits, and I'm starting to get more confident at downhills. The bike (a GT Avalanche 1.0), held up really well, as you'd expect. I only had to get off once going uphill, when I tried standing up on a really steep short gravelly bit instead of shifting down. I have to remember to do it that way on gravel. There were ony two substantial climbs, one relatively short and steep, and a 4km easy one.

Oleanshoebox

went at six today and there was plenty of light. my new bike was amazing in the dirt. i am so very satisfied with it. did some climbing, some fun downhill and saw the sun come up. A good morning.

Flak

Im pretty stoked right now. Found a good set of trails within 30 mins of my house! The next closest trail is 50 mins away and frankly, it sucks. This one however is surprisingly good. They made maximum use out of a small acerage and the terrain is interesting and fun. Finally a place to go for a quick ride in the evenings! Might be able to bust out of the weekday rut im usually in. Very happy

No pics, but it was a fun ride. Washed out at the bottom of a little downhill section trying to make a hard left at speed. It rained yesterday and i wouldnt call the trail muddy....but it was greasy and slippery if you know what i mean. My conti gravity's just didnt bite on the edges the way i wanted them to and weren't shedding the mud as well as i would have liked. Might invest in a set of winter tires that handle mud and wet clay type soil better.

Oleanshoebox

got out about 5:30 today and it was pretty dark. stuck to the streets around my house. I need to get some slick/semi slick tires. still a good way to start my day. supposed to hit some trails on saturday with my friend bob. i can't wait...

scrublover

I rode too.....well, yesterday.