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When I heard the final race in the Rock Shox Golden State series would be in Mammoth, I knew I just had to get there.  Fortunately, so did the rest of the Mtnbikeriders team!  Wednesday night I headed over to the Finch’s (Kim & Tony), loaded up the truck and took off at midnight. Plan was to be in Mammoth ready to ride by 8am to get in on the first official practice session.  I was supposed to nap before leaving and sleep in the truck when it wasn’t my turn to drive…yeah, that didn’t happen!  I was way too amped to get to Mammoth and ride some real downhill terrain.

We pulled into the Mammoth parking lot, full of a big breakfast, got registered and ready to ride.  It’s funny how far we traveled to this race only to find all the same usual suspects present!  Sometimes it’s hard to get out of the parking lot, there so many people to go say what’s up to.

Tony, Kim and I head up for our first practice with Tony in the lead.  What a course, steep chutes, gaps, berms, a wall-ride and a rock garden!  Tony and I estimate this is a 4 minute course and at altitude this is gonna hurt!  Thank goodness we got there early and are able to dial in our lines over 3 days before race day.  We rode all day, all weekend, 5 practice runs a day, followed by riding the rest of mountain!  no wonder my legs are beat and I’m beat up!  The KHS Lucky 7 is getting a work out on this trip!

Thanks to all the practice with the Wizard, I’m feeling pretty fast and confident come race day.  This is the first race where I actually start to discuss race strategy with Tony.  Before, I always just went for it. No brain, no headache! I watched the Pros practice and the number one thing I took away is PEDAL!  Everywhere you can, PEDAL that bike!  As we approach race day, I’m prepared and I’ve got my eyes set on one man, Ed Suarez!  This is my third DH race and Ed won the previous two (I went 10th place and 3rd).  I know I’ve practiced enough to ride as fast as I can, the question is, am I faster than Ed?

Race day, I’m chilling out, hanging with the team until about fifteen minutes before my race run.  Time to step into my office, I throw on my helmet and pedal around.  I’m supposed to be warming up, but my heart is already beating hard.  I try to calm down and visualize my run from top to bottom, what line to take, where to pedal, where to save energy and when to let it all hang out! I pull into the gate and hear “Rider, fifteen seconds”.

GO! Out of the gate I hammer, I pedal hard even though I already know (from watching the guys before me) I can only get in seven pedal strokes before braking for the first left!  The visualization technique worked, I’m not “thinking” about my lines, I’m on auto-pilot.  It’s almost as though I’m playing a video game.  My mind is free to think clearly at a higher level, I’m not thinking about where I am but rather where I will be in a few moments.  The next move after the 1st left is a sharp right into a steep chute that I roll into and start staring at the ground just a few feet ahead of me.  My internal monologue kicks in, “What are you doing David?, look up, look further ahead”.  I’m amazed as I raise my focus from ten to twenty five yards out, my whole world slows down and I have time to asses and plan my next moves.  I accelerate to top speed out of the chute.  I’m going so fast I float over two drainage ditches serving as gaps followed by a right turn, a few rocks and then into a loose pumice set of S-turns!  Have you ever ridden in sand?  Imagine that sensation, but downhill at speed!  After the pumice is a short steep hard pack section, speeding you into a huge table top jump.  I’d been airing this jump all weekend long, but the wind was kicking and I stay low on this run to land cleanly descending into first fast straight-away!  Fast as in eye-balls jumping around in your skull, blurred vision and sweaty palms.  “Just keep looking far ahead” the voice in my head chirps.  Into another series of pumice S-turns followed by the sweet wall-ride!  You’ve got to get the previous corner just right to use it, but the wall-ride turns out to be an E-ticket ride for me, I’m on it, high and PEDALING!  Steve the course marshal gives me a hoot as I’m spit out into the only major rock garden on the course.  I observed the fast guys and learned to use the left line out onto the spine of the last rock into a small drop followed by a banked turn.  PEDAL hard through the small straight into a tight turn and more loose-pack.  Now gasping for air pedal another straight, through a right turn onto a platform followed by a drop into a left turn, small jump, right turn and PEDAL!  I roll the first three tabletops, hammering the whole way to get enough speed to clear the last double into three tight banked turns in a row!  Hammer down another straight into a bermed left-turn that leads us into the 4X track!  4X on a bike over 40lbs is an experience, through the jumps, boulders and berms.  PEDAL and build speed.  In the triples, I manage to double then roll the last one. I’m pumped because I always rolled the triples in practice, damn! I must be haulin!  Over the last tabletop, “PEDAL!”, and I’m across the finish.

I get to meet up with Tony and watch the rest of the team come down.  I’m having a great time and I know I had a solid run.  I could only think of about two to three seconds I could have saved if I rode perfectly.  Anxiously I await the final results.  RL sees them before me and just walks by coyly “I’ll let you go see”,

I hustle over and see my name in first place!  I even put seven seconds between me and second!  Damn, I might be ready to move up to sport!  This is my first win and man, it felt great, especially beating a few guys who’ve beaten me in the past!  I really thought I would’ve won a XC race before a DH one, but I guess I was wrong!  Coming up will be the november race in Fontana.  The plan is for that to be my last beginner race with a move to sport in 2010!  I know Ed’s gonna bring it at the next race, I’m not going to sneak up on him again!  I gotta thank the team sponsors, Hoss, Evomo, Ice Toolz, Serfas and Ergon.  A huge thanks goes out to KHS bicycles and their Lucky 7.

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So I was perusing through the STR* forums and found a thread titled Tapered Head Tubes – Debate.

[*STR = So Cal Trail Riders, my handle, dwsand3r]

I went ahead and threw my two cents in and decided to share my response here, but I added a sketch for extra dork points!

“Most of the force from your fork (a really long lever arm*) is dispersed into the lower headset cup. That is why the lower is 1.5″.

Note: for all the engineering types, I did not show all forces, nor did I balance these forces.  This is not an accurate free body diagram, just a quick conceptual sketch.

Remember many years ago, just before the switch to the 1.125″ standard, how common it was for a frame and/or lower headset cups to fail. The remedy was to move onto thread-less oversize (1.125″) headsets & steerer tubes. This also was during the time frame when 100mm of fork travel was huge and a 2 foot drop was gnarly! Also the fork was a pretty weak, noodle like member.

Most bikes offering the 1.5″ or tapered head tubes are designed for 140mm+ travel forks (even longer lever arm, that is why you’ll void many warranties by running a fork longer than the manufacturer specifies*), the forks are incredibly stiff (35+mm stanchions), and a 6 foot drop won’t even get you a photo in your friend’s blog.

The 1.125″ standard is fine for XC and 90% of trail riders out there.

The 1.5″ and/or tapered is a great thing for the rest of us. That is why 1.5″ stems are only available in shorter lengths. It is assumed if you’re running 1.5″ you’re a free rider or D/H and you’re running a short stem.

*lever arm : imagine if you were to put a pipe in your bike’s head tube and then pulled on the pipe in an attempt to break the head tube off the frame. It be a lot easier to do with a longer pipe than a short one.

“Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world.” – Archimedes”

Comment with what you think, should the whole industry go to 1.5″?  Should 1.5″ be abolished?  Is taper the ultimate middle ground?

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Though Tony, Tim and I went to the U.S. Nationals in support of Kim Finch on her XC efforts, you didn’t think we weren’t gonna ride did you? Oh, also Johnny D was in attendance for a bit of work/play. Sol Vista is a lift accessed mountain bike park with several DH and XC routes available. They use the same Murray-Latta bike trays as found in Whistler, so you know they’re good! Though they only have a single-chair lift, the “Sheriff” does a good job of packing everybody on and keeping the line moving. If you take into account the fact we were there during the weekend of nationals and still got plenty of rides, so you know the line is not an issue.

The Trails: Sol Vista has a variety of terrain, from rocky descents to fast flowing DH with a couple drop descents thrown in. Unfortunately due to Nationals, Cougar was closed as was a section of Drifter. As far as difficulty is concerned, there was plenty to be enjoyed by a beginner and to push an average expert rider. Beyond that skill level, I figure you’re going/gone/ or at Whistler while reading this.  Check out videos of the Sol Vista Trails!

A clip of Tony, followed (filmed) by Tim

The Location: Granby CO (2 hours NE of Denver) is idyllic, with beautiful scenery around every turn.

It was actually a little difficult to sleep at night due to the quiet! Granby and the surrounding communities all have a small town feel and are a wonderful escape from city life. You’re surrounded by streams, lakes, ponds and trees. It really makes you feel at one with nature.

Things to do: Eat! Seriously though, being a small town, the night life is not strong. You don’t come here to go hit the clubs, that’s for sure. Instead this has more of a circle of friends around a camp fire, sharing stories and brews feel. Besides, you’ll have plenty to talk about. In addition to mountain biking, there is a plethora of fishing, camping and white water rafting nearby to fill your days. Don’t forget, Crankworx CO at Winterpark is also nearby, though I didn’t get to sample the trails there, Johnny D vouches for them being pretty good and worth the trip.

Gear: There are several full-service bike shops nearby ready to fulfill your needs. It’s funny going from So Cal to CO. In So Cal you’ll find huge Specialized, Giant and Intense presence in most shops. In the three shops I visited in CO, the strongly represented brands were Yeti and Rocky Mountain with a little of everything else sprinkled in. Sol Vista itself has a basic service bike shop with a large rental fleet. I took advantage of a Santa Cruz V-10 the first day and moved to the lighter Bullit the next. Tim tried the Yeti 303RDH and Tony rode a Commencal Racing Supreme DH. All the DH bikes run Fox 40 forks and a variety of quality builds, everyone with a bashguard/chain guide and crank bros 50/50 pedals. If you run clipless, bring your pedals!

A clip of me on the Bullit, I’m not mad!  I’m looking at the camera thinking “did the red light turn on or not?”

Would I do it again? Yes, but only if I was going to mix in more than just riding Sol Vista. If I go again (and I’m sure I will eventually), I’m going to make sure my trip includes an event like the U.S. Nationals or Crankworx. Perhaps some fishing or camping. If I lived within an eight hour drive of Sol Vista, I’d be there regularly; flying from LA makes this trip prohibitively expensive for a just for fun weekend getaway. But hey, your budget is your budget and if you want to check out a great bike park in a great place to visit, Sol Vista could be right for you.

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July 11-12th (2009) several members of the Mtnbikeriders.com team made it out to Southridge Park for the third installment of the California Golden State presented by Rock Shox.  The fourth and final round will be in Mammoth(!) Sep 4th-5th, hopefully we’ll see you there!

It was sweltering hot weekend, with temps in the nineties and shade a rare commodity at the top of the hill.  Thankfully Donny Jackson and the SRC crew provided free cold water at the top in addition to their usual excellent shuttle service.

In my short DH experience (3^rd race), this was the most fun race course I’ve come across.  Out of the gate were about 5 log stutter bumps into a tight right turn followed by off-chamber rollers that encouraged you to air it out a little, leading into left/right combination.  Then into the first rock garden, which hit just right let you jump the first batch of rocks into a hard left over a few more rocks and then downhill into the first g-out right turn into a very loose, off-chamber section that you had to maintain your speed and line or risk being sucked into the loose talcum-powder dirt.  This was followed by a right into another g-out, left into a small rock garden that led to an optional pro/beginner split.  The beginner line was a tight left/right turn combination that demanded slow speed.  The pro line was over a large boulder with about a three foot drop on the back side, this was the fast line but the consequences were definitely higher!  Interestingly enough I saw people attack this obstacle as a roller into some of the softest, loosest dirt I’ve ever experienced!  I actually was afraid to roll it for fear of digging into the soft dirt and going OTB!  Instead I just pulled up on the bars, leaned back and gritted my teeth until landing in an explosion of dust!  After the drop was more talcum-powder dirt shaped into an S-turn that I washed out in on my first race run (2:31), I didn’t feel too bad as I saw this section swallow people whole as it gobbled on front tires.  Then you dropped into a hard-packed right turn g-out followed by a pair of turns into a small rock garden, then another large boulder drop/roller into three fun rolling jumps.  It was here I was having way too much fun (speed) in my second run (2:19) and was about as out of control as one could be over the third jump, I even skimmed the rear tire with my butt as I fought to not get bucked off this E-ticket ride!  Luck was with me and I proceeded to drop the hammer across the fire road, access road and cut the corner by hopping over the drainage ditch leading into the lower rock garden.

The lower garden was smooth and fun with a couple tight turns and rollers, but with nowhere near the carnage that it presents in most of the races.  In fact most of the spectators found high spots in the upper half to watch the soft-dirt eat riders up left and right.

At the end of it all, I finally scored a podium finish, 3^rd place in Beginner Men 27-34 with a combined time of 4:51.40.  Hopefully I’ll continue to improve and make it into the Sport class in time for the next winter series.

I have to thank Tony (The Wizard) for making it out to practice on Saturday and leading me on my last practice run, until I passed him… until he (taught me a lesson and) passed me back, Arrgh!  The Wizard has probably forgotten more mountain biking than I’ve ever known!  Riding with him and Kim “The Champ” has improved my riding dramatically (and made me appreciate the shuttle!).  I have to thank Moe for the carpooling and comedy (“Dad, I think I’ve got the black lung”), Joe for the good times, Albert for being a stud, Wes for the course knowledge, Kim for being Team Mom in RL’s absence and KHS for the Lucky 7 to ride.  I’ve beaten this bike up pretty seriously, but don’t feel too bad, it has beaten me up too, fortunately we both keep coming back for more! Evomo and Hoss for helping me with the shirt on my back, the shorts on my legs and Ergon for the hydration pack when I’m training (okay I don’t train, but I do ride regularly!), Serfas Optics for the super cool sunglasses and Sportlegs for the help recovering!

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