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Our bikes atop Cocktail Rock

A few friends and I went out to San Juan this past weekend to hit the out and back trail. I was and am still nursing a cough and sore throat, but since I really enjoy riding San Juan, I decided to go against my body, mind and wife and ride anyway. This was a bad choice as my ride ended up being a sufferfest for me.

Needed lots of fluids during the hot morning ride

San Juan is basically a 6 + mile out and back. If you have the time/legs, you can throw in an extra 4 mile loop at the top, but we didn’t have the legs this time around. The 6 mile climb was pretty bad the first time I rode it, but this time it took nearly double the time mainly even with the Kona Hei Hei’s granny gear. The sickness left me gasping for air for most of the climb and there was a good 4 miles stretch where I was unable to focus …. even when I was telling myself to focus. I was lightheaded and ready to quit but thankfully my friends kept encouraging me and we made it to the turnaround point in one piece.

Narrow trail + exposed rocks = lots of fun

Too bad, nearly all of us left a little some skin on the trail on the way back down. What is normally a challenging but fun downhill became a myriad of falls for 3 of the 4 of us. It was on this extended downhill section that I decided to test my Sette Strike elbow and knee/shin pads by overshooting an exposed turn and falling off the edge of the trail. I went down a good 10 – 15 feet before friction stopped me and the bike. I decided that since I was performing a review on the pads, I might as well throw in a test of my camelbak’s durability as well. I did this by flipping over mid crash and landing on the camelbak (subsequently, my digital slr).

Any shade we could find, we hid under

The results of the test are that my digital slr is still ok… the padding I put around it did its job… I’ll post a picture of the padding to show you what I do. The Sette Strike pads are continuing to do a great job protecting me from damage. I am SO glad I brought them along. They are totally worth the small monetary investment. Click here for info on the elbow guards and here for info on the knee/shin guards.

Kona Hei Hei climbing the 6 mile switchback

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Going from one trail to another via fireroad. No leg pads, just the arms as they’re pretty comfortable.

I got to put my new Sette Strike pads I purchased last week to use when I rode at Aliso. As I was coming down Rock-it I slowed down way too much and my front wheel got stuck in a gargantuan hole. Over the bars I went but thankfully into some soft terrain. Some people know this soft terrain as rock. The pads did a great job keeping me from getting all beat up. The pads did get a little dirtied from the rock but none the worse for wear.

Some people might think that I intentionally ate it just to test the pads abilities. These people would be absolutely correct. I am not the type of rider that falls down ever unless it is purely intentional. In fact, I only fall down when I want to fall down, and never before or after that. That is why I know EXACTLY when to put on the pads and when to take them off.

Right before I donned the leg armor again

Taking the pads off and on had a bit of a learning curve. I only tried to put them on once before this ride, when I initially received them from UPS. The first time I really got to put it on was at the top of the first climb before the first descent down Lynx. No mishaps on Lynx, as I planned it. At the bottom of the Lynx, I stripped off the leg pads as they were not conducive to climbing.

At the top of the next descent on went the leg pads. I dropped in and chose about the midway point of the rockiest section to test out the pads. Off the bike I went landing with a primal yell or was it a girly scream? Which brings up the question: “If a mountain biker falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make sense to tell everyone you ate it?”… or something like that.

After a quick check of the faculties I got up, dusted off the pads and jumped back on the bike to meet up with everyone else. When I caught up, a quick check of the pads showed that they had done their job, just like I planned it.

Showing off where my elbow crushed the rock

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