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As many of you know, we recently added the Sette Razzo frame to our lineup of bikes here at mtnbikeriders.com WCH. The Sette Razzo was built up as a SS. I have to admit, I was, and still am, very tentative about riding a single speed. I probably got that way due to all the Moe & RL puke stories. I, like many of you, are not a fan of puking.

SS can be quite a workout, especially if you go rigid

I decided to hit my local test loop, the Fully loop, for my first ride on the Razzo SS. The loop starts off for almost flat with just a twinge of an incline. I immediately felt the desire to shift gears and go faster, so much so that my right thumb twitched. Of course, there was no gear to change into so I ended up spinning really fast here and there. But I wasn’t used to all the spinning and my legs quickly got tired of it. I’m going to have to work on that part of SS riding.

What I was really afraid of were the climbs. None of the loop climbs are particularly long, about the only thing the loop is missing, but some are on the steeper side. The first short quick steep after crossing Euclid was conquered without any issues. Rolling along the street after the climb was a bit annoying because again I couldn’t get my legs to spin up fast enough. But ahead lay the climbs and as much as I was annoyed by all the spinning out I was cognizant that the lower gearing would be greatly beneficial on the climbs.

Redline Mono 9 has 9 gears. This helped get me ready for Single Speed riding

The climb that really got me antsy begins with a mild fireroad ascent. It then rolls along a little before hitting a short rooty section followed by a short steeper section. The end of this is a little past the halfway point of the loop. No puking on this climb. I was close… but I held it down. One more climb which is made difficult with railroad ties was up next and only my pride plus the presence of a couple of hikers stopped me from letting it flow.

What I came to realize over my SS ride was that my body had built up a bit of a familiarity to sustained standing climbs which is really your only other “gear” when you’re riding a SS. The familiarity was achieved when I began riding the Redline Mono 9, a 1×9 geared 29er. Before the 1×9, I would sit and spin my way up but when I rode the 1×9 consistently I realized that if I sat and spun all the hills, I’d quickly run out of gears.

So I adopted a different approach to climbing that included a mixture of spinning for a while then climbing while staying in the same gear. For example, if I was in gear 4 on a seated climb and I felt I wanted to change gears, instead of choosing to shift I’d stand up and climb for a bit. This essentially doubled the number of “gears” I had available to me from 9 to 18 and also eased my transition from 27 gears down to one.

Being comfortable with sustained standing climbs turned out to be a great help when I rode the single speed. I truly believe that if I went straight from 27 gears to just one, I probably would have joined RL & Moe with puke stories of my own.

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The Luge is finally back open after the fires from 2007. Whiting Ranch, which Joe rode in July the weekend of its Grand Opening, is across the street from the Luge and was also closed for months after the fire as well. I wasn’t able to get out for the initial reopening Luge ride, but a few of us did ride there a couple of weekends later.

The Luge is a great ride if a little short at just under 8 miles. It has a couple of grueling climbs but nothing too long and it ends with a fast singletrack descent from the flagpole.

Donnie, Mark, Tim “Scissors” & me. The Luge starts right behind us and descends along the faint singletrack down the mountain.

Donnie, Mark, Tim & I did something we normally don’t do and shuttled to the beginning of Santiago Truck Trail. This shortened our ride even more by allowing us to skip out on some road riding on Modjeska. Not normally a shuttler, I have definitely found the benefits to this type of riding! By the way, just an fyi, we found out afterwards that parking along the street before the dirt entrance is a big no, no. Some cops were giving out bright orange warnings, not tickets.

The Santiago Truck Trail part of the Luge ride is usually a bit on the boring side. It’s basically a fireroad climb to the flagpole which is the beginning of the “Luge” part of the Luge trail. But this time the STT was different. The trail was the same but the surrounding scenery was burnt making for very interesting views. The best part, though, was seeing how new growth was beginning to push its way through the burnt plants.

The weirdest thing was shooting down the Luge. The luge is fast, singletrack shaped in a sort of small “u” shape… hence the “Luge” name. It was weird riding down the Luge because on my previous trip here, the Redline Mono 9 handlebar got caught on a branch and I went OTB. This time though, the fires made sure that there were no branches to reach out and touch my bar. There were very few bushes at all which although a great relief to me, did take away from the Luge a bit.

The ride up STT didn’t have much vegetation to look at to begin with, but the fires didn’t help with the view either. I’m not complaining though as it’s definitely good to have the Luge back

Since we were strapped for time, the Luge was all we could schedule in for this morning ride. Next time though, with both Whiting Ranch & the Luge open, I’m definitely voting for a 2-fer.

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The moon was still out. After the shuttle, we rode a short fireroad climb to the drop in for the singletrack

While most of the mtnbikeriders.com crew was doing some pre-riding of the Fontana race course, a few of us decided to head out to the San Gabriel mountains for some wicked good riding. Even though I don’t know the name of the trail I rode I’m still going to put this trail up there as maybe the best trail I’ve ever ridden.

As seen by the bike trailer, the shuttle van was PACKED.

The morning started ridiculously early at 4am. After a long drive, we finally arrived at our destination and proceeded to shuttle to the top of the mountain. The shuttle to the top was a quick half hour affair handled quite ably by our experienced driver. We probably pushed off at around 7am. After a short fireroad climb we dropped into a ton of singletrack that went on and on.

Tim “Scissors” and his Trek at the ruins. Although not the midway point, the ruins did break up the ride into a top “half” and bottom “half”

The singletrack was an absolute blast. The trails we rode were broken into two sections in my mind: a top half and a bottom half. The top half was a bit more sketchy, loose with more rocks than the bottom half. I was beginning to understand why everybody else on the shuttle had full suspension bikes with at least 5+ inches of travel. I was on my Redline 29er hardtail and was getting a little beat up, as expected. It also didn’t help that I ate it twice… the bike is ok as am I, thank you for asking.

Posing at the ruins. Wayland, Jeremy & Tim Scissors

Although the top half was a bit more hairy it is definitely something I want to get better and faster at. I got a flat at the beginning of the ride and as I was swapping out the tube, I got to see some of the downhill bike guys speed by. They were carrying a LOT more speed than I was down the trail which was very cool to watch and aspire to. Wayland, being the nut that he is, kept saying that he wanted to do this on his rigid SS. Love the guy, but he is definitely certifiable.

Tim, coming to a halt as we regrouped during the sweet singletrack. Lots of tree coverage here which is something I don’t see a lot of on some of the trails I ride in Orange County.

The bottom section which included Millard & El Prieto (among others), were also fun, but in a different way. The bottom half was less technical but much more flowing with lots of switchbacks and even a stream or two to cross. There were some stretches where we were doing some fireroad climbs exposed to the sun, but even these were balanced by the amazing views the climbs gave us… provided you weren’t too tired sucking wind to look at anything beyond your front tire.

Wayland waiting for us. Our original ride leader, Calvin, wasn’t able to make it to the ride due to some fires so Wayland led the way. He did a great job since we never back tracked once. Thanks W.

The trail did claim some victims, namely me: 2 flats, two falls (one OTB and another slow roll through some sharp rocks) and a pivot screw falling out from my front brake lever should have dampened my enthusiasm for this trail but it didn’t. This is definitely one of the best trails I have ever ridden. Now if only I knew it’s name… Paging Calvin.

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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.

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Cabin sweet Cabin

This past weekend three of us went up to the local mountains for one day doing lift-assisted riding and the second day riding the Santa Ana River Trail (SART). We drove up on a Friday night and stayed at a cabin that had a front porch with full view of the lift we would be riding up on the next day. The bikes got a great spot in the kitchen. Every time I glanced at the bikes that first night I smiled. It’s just one of those things that bikes do to you.

The slopes & lift could be seen from our cabin porch!

Things had changed over the years in our local mountains. Just a few years ago the local mountain lift, Snow Summit, allowed you to bomb down the ski slopes with huge downhill/freeride bikes. But as the years have gone by, the local mountains have banned downhill/freeride bikes as well as riding down the slopes. In the meantime, great XC style & downhill trails developed as alternatives to the straight downhill slopes used by the winter skiers and snowboarders. The only difficulty? The XC and downhill trails are not marked, not on the trail and not on the map.

First ride up to the top: Khoa, Jeremy & JJ

We met up with two other friends when we got to the lifts. The other two guys decided to only join us for one day of riding… the wusses. j/k. 3 of us had never ridden the lifts before. 1 guy had but it was years ago and he spent most of that time on the now forbidden slopes. The last guy did the same lift-assisted riding last summer, so at least it wasn’t totally blind leading the blind. But still, we basically guessed wrong the whole morning.

A paragraph ago I mentioned that there were XC style & downhill trails? Well, all morning, except for maybe a short 1 mile section, we rode downhill style trails. “Rode” may be too generous a term here as you’ll see in the pictures below I did very little “riding” and lot more walking. And as always, the camera never makes the trails look as steep as they actually are.

Jeremy walking

Jeremy walking… some more

Jeremy walking… even more

OK, just so you know it wasn’t just me… Jeremy, Tim & JJ walking

Some random pictures:

Gotta love them lifts

The great thing about walking our bikes is that we get to see things we don’t normally see, like this caterpillar that Tim picked up. Tim nicknamed him the dinosaur caterpillar due to the horns and weird tail.

RL, you like the caterpillar?

Justin hitting the log jump

Justin, adding some flair to the jump

JJ, grinning like a mad man

Justin riding a log, no sweat

Redline Mono 9 & Trek 9.0 ready to hit the trails

Well utilized Honda Ridgeline

Part II, a HUGE lesson learned as things get much better.

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