Exposure also allows for some sweet views! In the middle of the valley, you can see the fireroad we climbed. The day before, we were on the other side of the mountain riding the slopes

Just a few lessons learned from this past weekend of riding, plus some more random pictures that didn’t make it into the previous posts. By the way, thank Khoa for all the sweet pictures. He lugged around his camera when I was too lazy to carry mine. Thanks Khoa.

Bikes parked in the kitchen

Guys who ride your style
It’s better to ride with guys who ride your style than ride with guys who don’t. It’s as simple as that. It takes a little while but if you’re honest with yourself, you’ll easily define what style it is that you like to ride. I, for instance, enjoy fast, continuous singletrack with technical sections that don’t require me to drop my seatpost. Exposure doesn’t bother me too much nor do jumps under one-foot tall. I would like to get better at riding fun stuff like teeter totters and logs, but that isn’t particularly important to me. I don’t like climbing but it’s a necessary evil in my book.

Redline Mono 9 taking the lift

I do not liking riding gnarly terrain that is optimized for bikes with more than 5 inches of suspension. I don’t mind occasionally doing the ”point and shoot” through small rock gardens or other ugly stuff but I want a bit of a run out afterwards to get things back under control. Riding with those that enjoy downhill stuff is not only frustrating to me but is also frustrating to the DH rider waiting for me to walk a ridiculously steep or traction-less slope. Riding with guys that have the same tastes in riding as you do makes it easy to have fun for everyone. Just find stuff that you like to ride and they’ll like it too.

Not busy on the slopes today. You can see Big Bear Lake too

Ask for Guidance
The riding on Saturday morning was not our style and since the trails were not marked, we knew the afternoon was probably going to be hit and miss to find trails we like. So we did what any desperate mountain biker does when their back is up against the wall. We asked for guidance. But you can’t just ask anybody. You have to watch for tell tale clues as to the rider’s ability and familiarity lever before asking for help.

Trek Fuel EX 9.0 resting on the porch

What made Tim ask Deb for help beats me, but what I gathered from some hindsight is that Deb exhibited characteristics of one able to help. She had a good bike (a Specialized Safire), proper riding attire (plain woman’s no sleeve jersey and lycra shorts), proper sunglasses (not aviators which we saw a lot of, but riding glasses with interchange-able lenses) and two strap riding shoes. She also, I noticed much later, did not have a hydration pack. Combine this with the other characteristics and this is obvious a knowledgeable rider who is familiar with local trails and her own riding limits. You don’t want to find the poseur or waste time asking the newb.

Not really a “river”… more of a Santa Ana Stream. Pretty though.

Hydration
If you don’t know what to do in regards to hydration, do as much as you can and then add another bottle. The long day of riding got me at the end when I started to cramp a little. The lesson here is to keep drinking. I decided not to fill up my water pack when we went out after lunch… a calculating decision that came back to haunt me at around 3:30pm. The cramping began in my legs and quickly spread, even hitting my triceps which have never cramped before. I ended up taking Khoa’s Accelerade filled bottle and drinking it all. Afterwards, I was ready for another run… maybe two if the lifts hadn’t stopped for the day. Drink, not just water, but stuff to replenish what your body loses and it’s always better to have a little extra than to not have enough. Thanks Khoa.

Jeremy cramping under a tree

HT vs. FS
If you can go with a full suspension bike, rock it. At the end of the first day, 7+ hours of riding mind you, my butt was feeling good. I was thinking “no problem” for tomorrow’s ride. But, I was wrong. My worst fear from the past two weeks sprang up and when I got on my saddle the next morning I could feel my sit bones aching. After riding up the fireroad I knew I’d appreciate a full suspension bike. For a guy not accustomed to spending so many hours on the saddle a little love from some full suspension would have gone a long way.

Tim at the SART trailhead

Not to say anything negative about my bike, though. The Redline Mono 9 with 29-inch wheels hung in there with the other full suspension bikes. The steel was great and I swapped back the White Brothers Magic 80mm 29er fork which worked excellently after I dialed it in. The Redline was never the limiting factor during the rides. The rider and his desire to live another day was.

A picture of the valley that the fireroad was in

SART Singletrack

Jeremy eavesdropping on Tim’s cell phone conversation

Khoa proudly finishes negotiating a switchback

Jeremy & Tim on SART

Thanks for all the comments & I hope you enjoyed our pictures and commentary.

Popularity: 12% [?]

I got a chance to take the Pivot 429 out on a quick haul through the Sea Otter Demo XC demo course. I was out there for less than an hour so this is definitely not a full on review of the Pivot 429 but more of a couple of impressions I got from the short ride.

When I hopped on the 429 and started pedaling, I instantly noticed that this bike has an almost hardtail-ish racy feel. I attribute this to a very solid/stiff rear that transfers power down without any wasted flex. There was no noodley feeling from the rear that I occasionally get with other fs 29ers. This suspension seems to be on the firm side rather than ultra plush. I personally prefer this setup as it suits my riding style to a “t”.

The demo trail at Sea Otter is not extremely technical but it does have a couple of short climbs one being particularly steep and a couple of uphill grinders. It also has some nice flowy singletrack with stutter bumps, small XC-ish jumps and, on this weekend, sand. On all the climbs around the demo course the 429 to performed very well. Standing and seated climbs were easy and the rear suspension never felt like it got in the way. I was particularly happy with the way the 429 climbed a steep section as the rear felt planted and the cockpit felt comfortable enough to change from a seated position to a standing position and back to a seated position without losing balance or being awkward.

The steering feel of the Pivot is neutral. Not fast like the Gary Fisher G2 geometry but not slow either. The bottom bracket height is almost a full inch taller than my Redline but this did not impede handling, nor did it make me feel like I had too high a center of gravity. I still felt comfortable carving the singletrack at SO although the tires did not give me confidence to rip any of the jumps. The stutter bumps were muted by the suspension but did not disappear entirely as the suspension is more firm than plush.

Overall the 429 is a very fun racy bike that fits my type of riding entirely. I would probably go with a tire with a bit more grip both front & rear if I were to ride this but I could see the Kenda Small Block 8 on the rear being used for races.

Click here for pictures of the Pivot 429 prototype seen at Sea Otter 2008.

Click here for the video of Chris Cocalis discussing the Pivot 429.

Click here for Pivot’s website.

Popularity: 16% [?]

RL finished editing the video of Chris Cocalis discussing the new Pivot 429 FS 29er. Here it is for you. Thanks RL.

For pictures of the 429, click here.

My ride impressions will be up soon as well. Keep checking back for that brief review.

Popularity: 9% [?]

Lance & I hit up the Consumer Bike Demo Days at Southridge in Fontana, CA this past Saturday. It rained pretty hard all night on Friday but I continually checked the weather.com and knew that there shouldn’t be anymore rain by 9am.

KHS tent

When we rolled into Southridge, the skies were cloudy but no rain. Thankfully Sourthridge race course dries up very quickly and, because of the rain, the trail was more ridable than normal.

I had two bikes on my mind and Lance was up for anything (thanks Lance).

KHS Flagstaff
We first headed over to KHS and I checked out their new Flagstaff, a full suspension horst link 29er.

Still dirty from Interbike

Enough clearance for WTB Exiwolf 2.3’s up front and in the rear

Horst link can be seen in the back

I don’t have much to report on this bike because it wasn’t my size (KHS doesn’t have a Large Flagstaff yet) but I am glad I put in some seat time on it. The Flagstaff give me more confidence as compared to riding my hardtail 29er on the Southridge course and the horst link was very plush. For the price ($2,000 complete) and what you get, there is no competition in the full suspension 29er category.

Turner Sultan
The 2nd bike I rode was the Turner Sultan. You can’t just glance at this bike as the blue really calls attention to itself. The Sultan uses the Turner Rocker suspension design.

Turner guys took a few minutes to dial in the bike for me

Cables fit under

Ready to rock & roll

This bike was my size and dialed in to me so I do have a couple of quick impressions. I thought this bike fit me really well. The geometry is just a good fit for my body’s dimensions. The frame was pretty stiff and the suspension was very nice. It definitely gave me confidence in some of the more technical parts of the trail. Lastly, I found that the front end of the bike did not pop up on me as much as my hardtails do.

If you get a chance to ride a demo day, I’d highly recommend it. The guys at the booths were very accommodating. Also, a suggestion I heard from more than one person: bring your own shoes & pedals. Other then that, leave the rest up to them.

Popularity: 6% [?]

One of my favorite bikes is the Woodstock 707. I love how this bike rides. As I’ve mentioned before, I don’t like to lean too far forward on my bike. Some would say that is how XC riders ride.

But for me, having short stubby arms, I require an All Mountain set up. You’ve seen it with long travel bikes where the rider sits at a more upright position. The 707 that we have is a small, but its rather perfect for Moe, Priscilla and myself. Priscilla is about 5′6″ and Moe and I, on a good day about 5′7″.

Going back to the All Mountain Set up. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m guessing the rear suspension travel is about 4 inches, and it’s stock Manitou Axel was at 100mm (4 inches). With the stock set up, the bike is considered a cross country bike. But with the aid of a new Marzocchi Bomber fork that has 5 inches, I’m able to get pretty close to that “All Mountain” feel that I’ve been looking for.

The Woodstock 707 really is a fun bike, if you lower the seat before going down hills, you’ve got yourself a bike that can not only take on the trails, but its easy to handle.

Popularity: 2% [?]