rasheed

well, the islamic holy month of ramadaan ended this past friday and there was a planned don valley ride for sunday... i had been itching to get on the bike for quite some time, but being that i’d just fasted for the past month (along with the fact that i hadn’t really ridden in about the same amount of time), my conditioning was pretty much shot. but since i knew these guys would be hitting up trails i’ve never ridden before, let alone heard of or found, i figured i’d give it a go and see how well i could fair. and boy was i in for one heck of a hard – but fun – time...

the guys had planned to meet up at 12:30, but i didn’t get ready on time and so i left my place kind of late – around 12:30 – so i was kind of worried that i’d miss the group. i also had to ride down to the trailhead since i don’t have a car (that took about 20-30min) and since i didn’t have much of a breakfast to begin with, i didn’t have too much energy left in reserve by the time i got to the meeting spot (as i was soon to find out).

the bulk of the group had already set out, but i was lucky enough that one of the guys who had planned the ride was waiting behind for another rider who was running a bit late also. when the other rider got there, we set out in hopes of catching up to the lead group. we hit up the northern portion of the don valley trail system (in the north-central don) – a part of the valley i’ve rarely ridden. we started out on a trail i’ve ridden before but never went very far on – partially because i thought it ended with a dead end. anyhow, we got to a portion of the trail i’ve explored before but thought ended... but this time, because there weren’t any leaves to obsruct my view of the trail, i noticed a huge switchback heading up one heck of a steep hill... this was about 5-10mins into the ride.

needless to say, i died on the way up and ended up walking most of it, having to stop every now and then to catch my breath (note to self - next time, wait a while after fasting a whole month and have a good breakfast before attepting a 3 hour killer ride through the don). luckily for me, after that it was pretty much downhill until we caught up to the rest of the guys and i got a chance to rest my legs a bit on the way down. we caught up with the lead group shortly after and then the fun began. we were a good mix of guys, a couple of the guys in the lead group were freshies, having never really mountain biked before. one of the other more experienced riders brought his dad along. then there was me, another newb who had just finished fasting and wasn’t in much shape, a trial’s rider riding his rigid singlespeed norco moment trial’s bike and a couple other really good riders to round out the bunch – all together there was about 9 of us.

the guys leading the group took us through various different trails throughout the don – some horse trails, some foot trails... roots, rocks, steep decents, a couple of river crossings. they even took us through a trail not really well known to most riders here in t.o. with a few ladder bridges, some drops and teeters here and there. i didn’t ride any of the stunts being that it was my first time back on the bike in a while – added to the fact that i’m still not too confident in my riding skills to ride most of the stuff out there... but it was still fun. hopefully next time out i’ll get to hit up some of those bridges and stuff instead of walking them. before ramadaan, i made it a point to ride a new stunt everytime i go out riding the don, so my confidence should start going back up in that respect the more i get out.

anyhow, half way through the ride my legs started cramping up – which isn’t much fun. having my seat low didn’t help much either – but i didn’t want to keep having to raise it and lower it depending on the section of trail we were on... so, exhausted, cramping legs and all, i kept plugging along. i wanted to see more of the trail system that i haven’t seen and i wanted to see just how long i could keep going until my body just said “that’s enough”, heh. we stopped for breaks here and there, which helped a lot. in the end, all that pain and struggle was well worth it... one of the things that made it all worthwhile was at the end of the ride, instead of crossing the last bit of river, me and one of the guys decided to hop up onto the don valley parkway (a stretch of hiway running down the middle of toronto) to get across the river – being that the northbound side was shut down for construction, we didn’t have to worry about any cars... the trials rider mentioned a wall ride at one of the exits that he wanted to hit up, so we hopped onto the dvp and and rode to the wall ride. he sessioned it for a good 30 mins or so and i saw some really dope riding from the guy. they took pictures and even a small vid of the action – which i’m still waiting to see.

here’s one shot that one of the guys made into his avatar on another msgboard. it’s not too clear since it’s small... this shot was taken close to the very end of the ride before we head home.

pnj

you can't ride a bike durring ramadaan?

rasheed

it's do-able... but since fasting ramadaan entails no drink or food from dawn to sunset, going out for rides during the day would be really tough.

pnj

hmm. I would find a new religion myself....

good thing your not in alaska where the sun never sets....

-Stretch-

you went down to the valley trails rash? were they good and dry or what?

rasheed

yeah. i didn't get to ride the southern trails though, so i don't know how they're doing. the northern trails looked to be in good shape. there were a few sections though where we had to walk through about a foot of leaves... so obviously that's gotta be cleared up. there were also sections of the trails we rode that were pretty muddy and icy, but otherwise, everything looked pretty good.

depending on what's happening next weekend in terms of plans, i might go for another ride on saturday... if anything, i'll let you know.

edit: here's another picture of that wallride that was just posted not too long ago:


caption posted with the pic reads:

Quote:

normaly theres bumper to bumper traffic right where dan was standing to take this picture, but not yesterday.
Northbound lanes were closed all day, so after our Tour De Don we decided to go for a cruise down the dvp to this wallride ( which happens to be the nicest bank to wall I've found yet, it's near perfect. )

issues034

Thats a nice pic dude, and its a smart thing that you didnt ride durring ramadaan, youd 'proly get dehydrated really easy looks like is was hot out. Im learing about Islamic, and Muslim religions, and our teacher had us fast for a week (or try to)... I couldnt do it

rasheed

actually, it wasn't hot at all... in fact, there were times during the ride where i felt a bit chilly. i don't remember exactly what the temperature was that day, but i'm sure it would have been around the 10-15C range...

fasting's pretty easy... the first couple of days takes a bit of getting used to. but if you're up for the pre-dawn meal before you have to start fasting and have a good small meal (small cause you don't want to have too big a meal then get hungry again early in the day), you should be ok until sunset. it also helps that the days here in toronto around this time of year are really short, heh.

jeff williams

Thanks for posting the 243racing frames last month Rasheed, I might just get one.
Hadn't heard before..and they are nextdoor..(I'm Vancouver Isl.)
Nice wall shot.

peace>jef.

Maelstrom 

:O...you never heard of 243 :O...omg...

Try also Transition. The frame is killer, same price and still localish (I consider WA people like BC...they are so similar)

jeff williams

I'd heard the name, not seen the bikes. I was under a false impression that these types of frameworks were almost all Alu..(which I dislike.)

I don't follow the whole 'scene' just ride lots.
Wish I had bro's that rode, they all 'ocasionally' ride....and my only bike mentor can't do crazy riding anymore.

sucks..but not too bad, I still get out.

Maelstrom 

Nice..most of my buds are way over my skill lever or not around. I ride solitude mostly except for one chick that is equal to me.

Now that I am riding steel, for djing/urban and freeriding ht's...I won't ever ride anything else. You can really feel the difference.

issues034

I can barley get up in time for school, so I couldnt quite have a quick meal.