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Yup, found my stolen Jet 9.

I jest, I jest.
On the left, Chris Sugai (owner of Niner Bikes) after a ride with a new Jet9 rider, former President George W. Bush.

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Dan, charging up the last climb out of Marshall Canyon

I joined Tim & Dan for a morning ride at Marshall Canyon this past Saturday. I am a huge fan of Marshall Canyon but today was not one of our best rides. As a multi-use trail we have seen many hikers, runners, other mountain bikers and horses but this past Saturday took the cake in terms of the number of runners we have seen on the trail.

The trail was filled with high school cross-country runners. We later found out that a few high school teams had the wonderful idea of running Marshall Canyon. Climbing uphill wasn’t too bad but the downhill flow was definitely stilted. I am the first to tell you that I was slightly annoyed by all the people but I have to remind myself to keep things in perspective: I am out mountain biking on my Voodoo Canzo at Marshall Canyon under some great conditions (slight chill in the air made the climbing easier) and with some good buddies. It doesn’t get much better than that other than to add that none of us had any mechanicals or spills. So, in hindsight, no complaints here.

Tim enjoying the tree canopy, away from the hot sun

OK, now that I am in the right frame of mind, a couple of the highlights:
- the singletrack return back to the trailhead, always the best part of Marshall Canyon. Riding through the canopy provided by the trees and splashing through the small stream crossings on a beautiful ribbon of fast singletrack always makes me smile. Even though some of that flow was spent politely dodging high school runners, Dan, Tim & I could not help but massively enjoy ourselves on this section of trail.

- watching Dan ride a nose wheelie and pull it out! I was following Dan down the trail when he veered off to the right to catch a jump. As he took the jump he realized the lip was a little higher than expected and he ended up landing on his front wheel. Amazingly, Dan was able to ride it out getting his back wheel to match his front wheel on the ground. Definitely a very funny sight.

At the top. About to drop in and enjoy all that is Marshall Canyon

- the climb out is about 20 yards and is loose, rutted and sort of steep. It makes for a nice last challenge on the way out of the canyon back to civilization. This time I got a great start and made it up and out which happens about 50% of the time. The rest of the time my rear tire loses traction and I end up having to walk the rest of the climb. It definitely felt good to end the morning with that coup.

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I was talking to Team Racer-Mark “The Polish Hammer” Tomas about his new bike. I was surprised to learn that the thing weighed less than left arm. Check out his build spec and you’ll understand why the HAMMER is always flying on the trails.-RL Policar

Now that I had the main parts for my build, I needed to get the components to complete my ride. I went with a Cane Creek headset, Avid brakes, and Shimano shifters and derailluers. Also I went with a flat bar and short stem on this bike. To finish it off I am using a FSA crank with their ceramic bottom bracket.
Here are the details.

Frame: Fisher Superfly Carbon Fiber Size M
Fork: Fox F29 G2 offset 100mm
Hubs: American Classic Disc six bolt
Rims: Stans ZTR 355 29er
Tires: Bontrager XR1 Team Issue 29×1.9
Cassette: Sram 990
Brakes: Avid Ultimate
Headset: Cane Creek ZS3
Shifters: XTR
Derailluers: XTR
Chain: XTR
Pedals: XTR
Crankset: FSA K Force Light Carbon
BB: FSA Ceramic
Stem: Bontrager Race X Lite
Bar: Niner Flat Top 7
Post: Token Carbon
Saddle: Prologo Verito Nack (very light and surprisingly comfy!)

Carbon FSA K-Force Light Crankset

Total build weighs in at 21.1 lbs.

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Looks to me like the Limestone Canyon train. All pictures courtesy of Dan Burdett

Dan & I got to ride another Open Access day this past weekend. This time it was Limestone Canyon. Limestone is also part of the Irvine Ranch Conservatory. It is best known for a beautiful canyon commonly referred to as the Grand Canyon of Orange County.

Front loading the climbs allowed us to take advantage of the marine layer that was starting to lift by this picture

Limestone Canyon was a shade under 12 miles and about 1750 feet in climbing. Most of the climbing is at the beginning of the ride which was nice this day as the marine layer was still around when we started. The marine layer kept things cool during our initial ascent but also made the views non-existent. We were lucky to see 20 yards beyond our front tire. The Voodoo Canzo did great. Since the previous ride report, I did a rear tire swap and removed one of the headset spacers. Still working on dialing in the fit, but its turning out to be a fun bike.

Dan on the singletrack Box Springs Trail

The ride was done at a comfortable pace considering Dan was under the weather and it was just a week ago that I was experiencing incredible quad cramps and two days ago when I got a bad calf cramp on a ride. I can be cramp prone.

Jeremy taking a quick breather before continuing on the singletrack ridge

Highlights included two great sections of singletrack. For the most part, Limestone canyon is a fireroad ride, but the two singletrack sections make up for it. The first section, Box Springs is pretty short, but very tight and fast. The second section of singletrack, name which I forget, is towards the end of the ride and is a singletrack ride along the ridgeline paralleling Santiago Canyon Blvd back to the main drag. This singletrack was wide open and rolling. It had a few short climbs and some fun descents. The best part of the 2nd set of singletrack was the speed with which you could ride it at. I was definitely able to big ring it through certain sections.

Yummy, King snake.

We also got to see the remains of someone’s meal, a half eaten King snake. I came upon this while I was climbing because my front tire almost ran over the remains. Scared the bejeezers out of me. After getting everything under control, I turned around and waited for Dan to get to the snake. A few feet away, we found another piece of the snake, but we never did find the head.

Pretty small snake, with missing head. We found another few inches of it a few feet further along the trail, but still no head.

Lastly, I got a glimpse of an owl. As I was waiting for Dan to come through a small tree covered area, I heard a brand breaking in the trees above me and saw an owl fly away. The distinct flat but round face and light brown coloring was beautiful to behold.

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Great views from our Bommer Canyon ride. All pictures courtesy of Dan Burdett

A small group of us (Weyland, Dan, Tim & I) headed out to Bommer Canyon in Irvine for this past Saturday’s Open Access day. In about 3 hours we rode about 16 miles and climbed over 3,000 feet. By the end of the ride, Tim & I were cramping, Dan (who was under the weather) was starting to slow and Weyland looked ready for another 16 miles.

Tim cruising down the singletrack after finishing off the descent from the hill behind him

Bommer Canyon is an open space preserve in the Irvine Ranch Land. Use is limited and reservations are required. In fact, you can only ride Bommer Canyon on open access days or on docent led rides. Yes, we even saw an Irvine Ranch Ranger as we were out riding. The land is an important preservation area for many local plants and wildlife. The open access days and docent led hikes/rides are ways for them to test the impact on the land before, hopefully, opening it up 7 days a week.

Because of the limited access, mountain biking in Bommer Canyon was a treat. Weyland was the only one familiar with Bommer Canyon so he led the way. We started off the route with a grueling climb ascending 600 feet in a little over a mile of singletrack. This comes out to be a 10% grade. The rest of the ride was a serious of rolling fireroad on the ridges and singletrack into the canyons with singletrack/fireroad climbs back out. Thankfully, we ended the ride with a blast down that initial climb.

Tim and a rare other rider

The views were very nice. We got to see some Pacific Ocean, some downtown Irvine and a lot of mansions in the neighboring housing developments. We also found that there were very few people out riding which is also a treat, especially when you’re suffering with cramps!

My replacment, a Voodoo Canzo.

I got to ride a new to me bike, a 2008 Voodoo Canzo. I was able to get a good deal on it through a local mountain biking forum but it does have some issues both cosmetically and functionally. After 16 miles, a couple of quick thoughts on the bike:
- not as efficient as the JET. The four bar suspension necessitated propedal on the climbs for me. This is probably the biggest reason why I like mini-link suspension designs: not having to turn on/off the propedal/lockout/platform. I definitely couldn’t stand and climb without the propedal engaged. However, the Canzo was very comfortable on the downhill although I still need to dial in the fork/shock pressures.
- As much as I like the idea of more travel (currently 120mm) I’m not sure if I have the huevos to justify it. I much prefer to walk sections that are at the edge of my riding ability. Hopefully, with time, I can grow into the fork.
- The first thing I did the day after the ride was swap out the end caps on the hub. It was using a standard QR but I had an extra 9mm DT Swiss Ratchet skewer (the JET’s hub was 9mm only). The 9mm is nearly double the diameter of a normal QR which in turns helps the wheels/fork track better through rough terrain.
- The Canzo felt heavy in the rear. I’m not sure why? Heavier bike (I had been riding a HT for the past month) or longer chainstays (18.3 inches). More time needed to diagnose.
- for the build, the bike came in at 29lbs 4oz. I’m shooting to get it down into the 28 lbs range and leave it there.

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