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On our ride tonight at Whiting this afternoon turned into an adventure just when we thought it was all downhill. In a way it was going downhill before we even started, let me explain.

Dan managed to pinch his rear tire on a rock at the furthest spot from the parking lot, so as a group we stayed on the crest of the trail until we were rolling. As the Sun was falling into the Pacific Ocean we as a group got to experience some rare failures and rare trail fixes.  This turned out to be a good training session for our friend Chaz who is a rookie SS’er. Dan has been putting a lot of miles down and apparently burned up his supply of tubes so out came the ol patch kit. The patch was installed then I noticed the guys trying to wrestle the tire back on the rim with levers, can you guess it, the tube wasn’t holding air ( always try to put a tire back on the rim without tools first to avoid pinching the tube). Between 6 riders tonight there was one tube left Old Eric hands it over to Dan, an ultra lite in my eyes very fragile I took over as it was getting dark. I have ruined tubes in so many different ways-we didn’t need another learning experience toda, so let’s get rollin and not destroy a new tube I thought to myself. I got the tire inflated and had it back to Dan, he feels the tire and it is too soft for him- he adds more air and pops a spoke. Weyland jumps in at this point and bends the broken spoke around another spoke while Dan is topping off the tire, good to go I thought.

Dan was muttering something as he was installing the wheel, I go in for a closer look its not good. The skewer will not tighten down, in the darkness we discover that skewer threads were gulled= trashed. The nut will not clamp down on the frame, about 3/16″ short. I try like crazy to run the nut down, not happening. Everyone was running light tonight so not much in the way of tools, but Dan and I both had our Keys with us. Idea; use the keys as washers to get the skewer’s nut to tighten down, it worked with two bare metal keys. Now it is dark with no lights not idea of fun, Summer is over and the Sun is falling fast carry a light and ample supplies.

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Team Racer, Art Aguilar was recently up in Big Bear, Ca. doing some riding. Everyone knows that when you’re in higher altitude, you need to make sure you hydrate often.

Here’s with his preferred beverage.

Miller High Life tastes way better in 7,000 feet elevation.

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Power = capability of doing or accomplishing something. When I think of Power, I think of the “Train”, “The Polish Hammer” or “Animal” – these dudes have Power.
Pak = Pakistan. When I think of Pakistan I think of a federal parliamentary republic consisting of four provinces and four federal territories including a federal capital territory established in 1947; they even had a Governor!, General Muhammad Ali Jinnah, see the Govenor in the Pic below, just looking at him you can tell this dudes got power!.

When you put the 2 words together you get: PowerPak = the ultimate universal charging solution. You might be asking yourself why it’s the ultimate??? And the answer is because it combines a home rapid charger with a backup rechargeable battery pak. You plug this thing into the wall and when it is fully charged you can toss it in your hydration pak along with your cell, it’s only slightly bigger than a deck of cards. With the Powerpak you can hit the trails knowing that if you eat it and are stranded by yourself for a few days with 2 broken legs that you will be able to re-charge your cell after it dies.

The Powerpak comes with a myriad of USB connectors and will connect to 95% of all handheld USB devices. I tried it with several phones including an old Motorola Razor and a Blackberry, no problem, connected without a hitch. I have taken this thing camping, riding and anywhere else that the possibility of a dead phone and survival go hand in hand. I used it to charge a mostly dead Blackberry and it charged to half battery in about 1 hour, saweeet !!! The design is minimal which I like; it’s unobtrusive, unsuspecting and completely useful.

Do I recommend having a backup power source for your cell when you ride? Yes I do. I’ve often thought about the possibility of having to survive on my own should I crash one day without a buddy. Let’s face it, we love MTB’n and we aren’t always gonna ride with someone else. When you are riding by yourself, you gotta go prepared and the Powerpak should be right there with your cell, matches, tube, granola bar and tire irons. This thing is going to be a necessity for every ride from now on.

Our review disclaimer
as required by the FTC.

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I was certainly blessed with a day off on Labor Day. Nothing is better than spending a holiday riding a bike. We assembled a crew of trail ninjas at Whiting Ranch on Monday morning. I was equipped with my 90′s Bianchi Nyala while the rest of the crew were sporting their modern bikes.

This right here is the FAST Group with Tim, Dan, Jeremy and Khoa.

Unfortunately, Priscilla pulled her back within the first mile of the ride. But she’s quite the trooper and kept riding.

Cousin Joe with Tim and Jeremy going up Mustard Hill.

Tim and Jeremy, the two biggest weight weenies I know (that’s a compliment). These guys are meticulous about how many grams end up on their bikes.

Surprisingly I made it up Mustard on my 1×7 Bianchi…man that was tough. On the way down was a different story. For some odd reason, my Cyclocross bike was more comfortable than the Bianchi. I felt so beat up by the time we were done.

Here we are at the end of the trail, Priscilla started feeling better which is the reason why she’s proudly representing the site with her schnazy 2011 jersey.

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This Labor Day Weekend, we busted out the new jerseys for 2011 during a few rides. The photos below are from a DH session in a super secret location.

Here’s the rear of the jersey.

A frontal view of the jersey (RL and Joe) with the KHS Lucky 7. By the way, you know that ghetto tubeless video I made, well it’s applicable to DH/FR bikes. The Lucky 7 has it currently set up and it worked just great on the trail.

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