This Saturday’s group ride let us to one of our favorite trails, Aliso Woods. We were joined by some of the regulars as well as some not so regular folks. One of the things that made this ride interesting for Priscilla was the fact that she was riding our newest demo bike the KHS XCT 535. We also mixed up our ride a bit by adding a second climb up Cholla. Joe Solancho suggested that we go up Cholla and then come right down Lynx which is right next to it. So after the fun downhill section of Lynx, we went up about 100 yards and started climbing again…ugh!
Priscilla had later told me that the second time up Cholla she was able to do better on the climb since her legs were already warmed up. But for me, aye, it was just as tough as the first time.
We had a decent sized group out there this weekend, its pretty rare that another female rider gets to come along with us, but our friend Christine was there keeping Priscilla company.
It’s always fun to go in a big group of folks. What we’ve always practiced is that there’s someone that leads the group, then a person that stays in the rear to make sure no one is left behind. We also stop at certain spots to regroup.
Here’s Jeremy flexing, jk! Actually this is a photo of him after going over the bars. We were waiting for him at one point of the trail, and when he showed up, he explained that he went over when his front wheel got caught on a rut on Rock-It.
Here’s a picture that I’m really proud of. This is a shot of Priscilla (on the left) and Christine riding down Rock-It. Even though Priscilla is one of the faster riders at MtnBikeRiders.com, she has a harder time handling down hill sections of a trail. But since she had the KHS XCT 535, and the help of Christine (who recently took a Bike Skills Class), she was able to confidently make it down Rock-It without stopping! Now that’ a big deal! If you’ve ridden Rock-It before, you’ll remember how difficult it could be for the first few times. But after seeing Priscilla take this section on, I would have thought that she’s done it a dozen times before.
Other than Jeremy falling, there were no casualties to report. It was also great to see Lance rocking the big wheels on his new built Vassago Bandersnatch.
This is our mandatory group photo. Jeremy, Lance, Priscilla, David, Joe S., “Preacher Man” and Christine. I was the one taking all the photos and videos.
Our friend Jay (trial n errors) wrote an article over at Evomo about his first xc race.
I’ve been able to talk with his wife Cheryl through our myspace accounts. Super great couple and and I was really encouraged to hear that she decided to enter her fist xc race along with Jay!
Here’s an excerpt:
We signed in, got out numbers and started getting ready for the beginner race at 9:00AM. Cheryl and I lined up and waited for our groups to go. This is where I made a huge rookie mistake! I was lined up with the wrong group. I started talking to the guys next to me and I overheard someone say that this was the 40+ group. I said, “Wait a minute! Where’s the 30-39 group?” That’s when I quickly found out that my group had already left the starting line and now I was way behind already! Everyone made a path for me to get through and I took off like a mad man. I was more embarrassed than mad. I didn’t think I had a chance to catch anyone at all, but to my surprise I was not only able top catch up, but also started passing people……
… ok, not my favorite favorite, but they’re up there: “OUT FOR DELIVERY”. I saw that this morning when I hopped online to check the status of my shipment. I expected to see these three words and I was not disappointed.
C’mon. You know you like seeing those words too
Of course the next couple of hours at work were spent vigilantly watching the front door (it’s a small office) from my cubby. When the UPS man walked in I was up out of my chair before he realized what had happened. As soon as he left, I got to open up a box with some nice stuff I had ordered yesterday from Pricepoint.com. I love that they’re based in So. Cal.
I have already applied the Clear Frame Patch to my 29er. The derailleur cables and brake lines have rubbed some of the paint off the frame. The carbon fiber fork’s clear coat is showing rub too so it needed some protection.
The pads are something I should have purchased a while ago as my legs and arms have lots of scars on them. The only problem is that I don’t normally fall when I’m doing the hard stuff (I’m too timid to really go for it). It’s when I disengage my brain on the easy stuff that I eat it good and get my scrapes/bruises. What to do? Wear the armor all the time? Maybe not.
This Saturday we’ll be riding Aliso Woods in South Orange County. I like Aliso because of the variety but I am not a fan of Rock-it, RL’s favorite trail. I am hoping the Sette “plastic courage” will get me through it in one piece. We’ll see.
It’s not quite summer yet on the calendar but the plants on the trail beg to differ. Just a few short weeks ago RL was playing peek-a-boo with the camera by hiding in the overgrown mustard weeds that had invaded our local trails.
Lance was riding off onto some hardpacked singletrack with his Vassago amidst a ton of overgrown green plants.
And our state parks/local rides had hills that looked like this.
When I went mountain biking before work this morning I was still expecting nice greenery. But instead, I was greeted with yellow and brown. Not that I’m complaining mind you, especially when parts of the US are still getting snow. But it seems that Spring is already gone for us in So. Cal.
The great thing about yellow & brown is that it can be ridden through all season long and it also makes for a long season. Although the weather has been a little weird this past week, after temps in the 90s last week, yellow and brown will probably be here to stay until at least the next Daylight Savings Time Change in October if not longer.
What happened to Spring? It’s been replaced by a long summer. Ride on.
Since I work about a mile from the Aliso Woods trail head, I went ahead and did my weekly after work ride through it. The first climb, Cholla is pretty tough that includes steep switch backs, and a rock garden. On my way up Cholla I tried to maneuver around a pot hole like thing on the trail. So I steer around it and then my front wheel washes out, goes into the hole, my front suspension dips down, my momentum goes forward, but the suspension acted like a pogo stick and bounced me back and then I couldn’t clip out in time so I end up with feet in the air, and tumble down…all this happens while another rider is behind me…aye so embarrassing!
Here’s where I fell….
I dust my self off, and I finally get to my destination, Rock-IT. I love this place! The picture doesn’t do it justice because the rock bed varies in height, angle and terrain. But I tried to flew threw this section and I had to stop a few times because all the vibration my hands were getting from the jarring rocks made them go numb.
I actually almost ate it going down Rock-IT. You know how you can only see as fast as you’re going? Well I wasn’t going so fast that everything was a blur, but because I was bouncing around from the rocks, my vision wasn’t as accurate. So I lose control on one section, I head towards a big boulder and hit it with my front wheel, luckily I was able to react quick by pushing my weight towards the back at the same time lifting the front wheel. I ended up rolling over this boulder and because of my cat like reflexes, I was mmmkay.
We’re actually heading back to this trail this Saturday, so I’m looking forward to riding Rock-IT again and seeing what other lines I can take down the trail. But while you’re waiting for our weekend Ride Report, watch this funny video that I found….
Certain terms in mountain biking could be considered as an innuendo by a person that might be walking by while you and your buddies are talking shop.
For example…
“Oh I like the 5 inches…”
“I thought it was going to be bigger, but when I say on it, it felt just right”
“I’ve got 7 inches in the rear…”
“I like them wider(tires)”
“Don’t forget to wear your knee pads”
“Don’t forget to wear your elbow pads”
“Make sure you wear protection…”
“Oooh I like how its black!”
“Wow, that’s nice!”
“I have 8 inches on the front”
“When you go down, make sure you get a good grip…”
“My butt hurts”
Ok get your mind out of the gutter you perv…if you look at all of those, they are all valid terms. Yes, even the “my butt hurts” because my butt does hurt if I don’t wear cycling shorts…But just a word of caution, if someone that doesn’t know anything about mountain biking hears your conversations, then they might give you the stink eye.
If you had the money you can easily convert over to a tubeless tire and wheel system with UST wheels and tires or you can use Stan’s. But if you’re p’oh and broke like me, you can do the following for about $10….
www.bikecommuters.com
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