First Downhill experience, from a Kansas perspective
 

We have been in Frisco, CO for a week on a family vacation. Did a lot of hikes and bike rides on paths, pulling my son on a trail-a-bike. Hard, thankless work. :lol:

Got to spend a half day at Copper Mountain doing downhill lift service. They only have a few trails open because Colorado got several blizzards very late in the season, April and May. But it 4 hours of riding was plenty for newbies like us. There aren't any big air jumps on the trails we did. You can see that there's some pedaling involved and technical elements, but it was still downhill to me. :D

My two brothers-in-law went with me and rented Trek Fuel Ex 5s, which have 5" travel (120 front / 130 rear). I rode my Blur, which has 120 front / 115 rear travel, so it's basically a 4.5" bike. We had a blast. One brother in law rode all this stuff in the 90s (he's 41 now) but not since. The other BIL shot these two videos. He rides MTB a lot less than me and is mostly a kiteboarder. I had a gopro on as well but I foolishly used a chest mount and my footage totally sucks.

I'm the guy with the black & white jersey and sunglasses under a full face helmet. The last part of the first vid has some footage of me, but I was ripping it and got away from the cameraman a bit.

Everyone should do this at least once. If I lived closer, I'd be on the mountains every weekend!

You're not in Kansas anymore, eh Dorothy! er I mean Colin. What a blast. Nothing like the Rockies. Congrats on a good week.

That's totally awesome - - welcome to the gravity addiction :thumb:

I happen to be in Fernie, BC for four nights beginning tonight do some of that "good stuff" for a day myself.

Glad you're enjoying it.

You're right, D. , the Rockies ARE awesome - - 'specially them northern ones ;).

I think next trip out here we will do downhill two days. :) My dirtbike experience really helped a lot. Gravity is not a lot different, you lack the power but it's worth it IMHO to be able to maneuver 25-35 pounds instead of 212 pounds.

True that. . . but as much of a rush as it is, it's hard to match a well-tuned two-stroke coming up on the pipe :thumb:.

I'd love to bring either my '06 YZ 250 or my '04 XR650R out here. I would do totally different things on them... but, I'm a family man on family vacations. I'll take the DH MTBing. :)

Oh I hear you completely. My flat track and MX days are behind me, due to marriage, family...life in general. That's what drew me to DH.