First Tracks

So, when one of your buds is the cities trail builder (is that really a job?), and he happens to clue you in to a new technical "hiking" trail that has not yet been attempted on a bicycle. There can only be one real response.


Right?

Anyhoo, I got the bug to give it a go. First, I needed to get to work, and I could hit it on the way back since I had a short day today. This means moving the lights from the commuter to the big bike this time of year.

Opened the garage to this:


My flash sucks, but pretty cool to see a great horned owl first thing. This neighborhood is lousy with them and I love it.

Next, take and enjoy technical "short cut" to work and enjoy the freaky pleasure that is early am night riding. I'm always waiting for the axe murderer to jump out I guess. No axe murderers, but lots of beautiful "hoots" in the night.

Pose bike next to rocks. Try and fail to take cool night shot with lights and moon in the background.







Realize I know jack about photography and prepare to move on to work when I notice a pair of big catty eyes, well, eyeing me from about 50 yards away. I don't have enough light to make out the body. Only two options in this neighborhood. Bobcat or Lion. One makes me a little nervous, the other doesn't. I put both lights to "high", to try to make out the kitty which at that point decided it has had enough of looking into LEDs and turns away.

I go the opposite direction, enjoy the adrenaline rush, and try not to be too hasty and crash. Ride around the general area for another 15 minutes just to freak myself out more.

Get to work, work, leave work early afternoon.

The Beginning.



I've ridden/walked the first mile or so before. Definitely a one way trail, but now it connects all the way out via the new trail I told you about at the beginning of this post so I don't have to hike-a-bike it back up a big hill.



Pshaw. Trail builders always over estimate difficulty.




(except the builder of this trail happens to be an excellent technical rider).

Whatever, I ain't skeered.



I made it about 150 yds downhill and was stopped at this double drop with exposure behind the camera.



I pushed a little. Rode a bit as well.

Finally got to pay dirt at the bottom of the canyon.



Wait a minute. What the.....



Again?? I am miles from the am sighting.



And he's sitting right in the middle of the trail.

Not that a big Bobcat will usually give anyone trouble, it's just that we have had a bit of a rabies problem here locally.

Anyhoo, I made a bit of noise, and he was gone when I got down there as expected.



This new trail gives access to below a local dam. At this point we nearly have a trail around the entire lake, at least 2/3 of it is fun technical riding.





Who knew it was possible to concentrate just as hard on not falling while walking with your bike as it is when riding tech terrain?

Just heave it up.



Nothing like a 35 lb walking stick.



A little tight.



Aaaah.

Success and glory.



Bask in the glow of my awesomeness:)

Seriously though don't ride this trail, the "riding" sucks for the most part.

Great hike though.

Another Clip

I am digging the new camera angle. The mount is super steady off the chin of my helmet.

I got some good vid of my favorite descents in Granite Basin, but no time to edit, etc....

I love the Milk Money, now resplendent in King/Flows from Mr MC. The silence compared to the Hopes is deafening.

Still recovering from Swine Flu which sucked.

Little Granite Loop

I don't do this ride nearly enough.





Coming out of the hole we were in was a good gauge of my fitness which at this point is about as good as it ever gets for me. I cleaned some crazy stuff on that climb.

A great day. With a great friend.

Dan is on my loner Moth, and all he could keep saying is: "These bikes are amazing!"

Dan is a hard core hardtail/rigid guy most of the time.

A few more added:

Willow Dells Trails

Lakeshore Trail

Slow and chunky. One of my favorites.

Smith Ravine

Go Pro is fun.

56 hours of Interbike 2009

I arranged for a few days off to visit with friends at I-Bike this year. I had hoped to attend the dirt demo, but alas, was needed on the home front, so I have zero riding impressions of anything.

Personally, I find the indoor show a bit of a drag, but I was hanging with friends and thousands of other bike geeks, so it worked out.

What follows is a bit of a trip report with photos of anything that caught my eye along the way.

I drove across four hours of desert only to find myself lost in Vegas. Luckily Foshizzle called me just when I most needed directions. This is even more remarkable because I have never before spoken to him. He sounded suspiciously like a 12 year old girl, but he was able to guide me where I needed to be.

My buds were busy, so I spent a few hours wandering the convention hall.

Banshee Paradox:









Sick bike. Sick build. Make mine orange please, sorry Fred. Unfortunately, Keith did not make the trip from Scotland as I would have liked to talk with him.

Lenz PBJ was at the MRP booth, sporting a Groove 180mm unmodified fork:

















I ran into Devin Lenz here and he seemed pleased with how it turned out. This bike is different from the one Mikesee rode at Whistler, I believe the BB is 1/2" lower (13.75" IIRC), and slightly slacker. I thought the new shock mount worked out nice, but can't believe how much work it must be to fabricate this stuff.

White Bros is sporting a new forged crown on their products (but not the 150):



I then met up with my buds and we proceeded to wander around until show close.

Hincape seemed thrilled to be working the show:



Cavendish Tour Bike



Killer paint on that one.

One of my buds is shopping for a new XC race bike. He's 5'5", so I recommended various 26" options for him, believing him too short for the big wheels. Chris at Niner begged to differ...





Yes, that bike is as bitchin as it looks. The fork feels hella stiff as well at least to the fore/aft flex I could apply to it at the show.



I was sooo tempted to buy the above frame, but successfully resisted:)

We strolled over the the Turner booth and ended up talking with Dave Turner for about an hour.



He's super nice, knowledgeable and friendly. I don't think you could go wrong with any of his frames.

I liked this one at the Sram booth:



Not available to the general public unless your name is Tyler Moreland.

At this point the show closed. Both my buds are racing geeks, and they had tickets for us to the Cross-Vegas CX race. I had never been to a pro-type CX race, so I was looking forward to it.

The other two guys flew in, so I had brought up my bikes for some after show riding. This evening's after show ride consisted of getting lost on the mean streets of Vegas riding full suspension bikes on perfectly flat, traffic filled streets for an hour. Of course I forgot my lights, so we had two headlights and one rear blinky for the three of us. This was possibly one of the more terrifying rides of my life until I remembered that no one drives the streets of Vegas impaired :rolleyes:

Anyway, we got there safely and observed the races. The pro guys and gals simply haul on these cross bikes. Very impressive to watch. We ran into DT again and talked for probably another hour. We also ran into Devin Lenz again and I think he was please to see three of his frames rolling around the infield of the race.

I found it interesting that with thousands bike nuts, only a very small percentage bothered to ride their bikes out to this race. I believe many were too intoxicated to ride safely anyway:)

We rode home a little more safely and crashed into bed.

Stuff from indoor day two:





I liked the Pashleys








I like folders:



I could never in a million years ride this thing, but it looked cool:



Lots of Sportmobiles in attendance:











Rawland stuff looks good





Some sort of electric monstrosity



Love Calfee stuff



This Davinci had the coolest drive system to allow captain and stoker to pedal independently. Lots of White Industries stuff.







I'm not short and I have no clue how I would mount this without a ladder



Gravity Dropper is introducing a 30.9 post with 5" drop.



Photo does not do this bike any justice at all.



MMMMMMM Tasty Retrotec





Leaving the show that day, we observed a few hearty souls venturing out onto the strip.





That looks safe.

Walked home to the hotel, crashed for a bit, went out for a very long dinner, then crashed for the evening.

The next day we had to leave after two hours, but I noticed one of the highlights of the show walking past as we were hurrying down the hall, so I had to stop:



I just bounced around on it in the hall, but I liked it a lot. Probably this frame or the Paradox were the two highlights of the show for me. The Canfields seem like nice guys as well, and it was good to meet them.

After that, I drove the other folks to the airport and headed home.