Pre BC

 The last couple months the BC bike race has been clouding my mind on and off the bike. I've managed to get up to 4 and five rides a week. Here Gage met me at Lyons lake.

 Bobby and I took a couple of guy's on "the best ride I've ever been on". according to Terry, (left).

 Can't help taking pictures on the Castle Meadow trail. Unfortunately I spent 30 min tightening spokes on my rear wheel. I totally believe the wheels are the weak link on the Enduro.

 Lucas and I climbed Castle again. He wasn't interested in trail, just shrooms.

 There has to be more around here.

 It's hard to explain the scenery up here to anyone who hasn't experienced it already.

 My goal for this and the last ride on this loop were to spend some time dialing in my suspension before BC. Unfortunately the last ride had me playing with loose spokes. This ride ended not long after this shot with a striped hub body, and a lot of walking.

 I very carefully took my XC bike and got a few runs in with the family for Father's Day.

 Snakedance is one of my families favorite trails.

 Ashton = manly yet sweet

"Look there's more trail up there"

 Gage was so excited to be riding PCP for the first time in 3 years.

 The dirt was too lose to hit the drop.

 He had a blast. Everybody loves PCP.

 This is the Achilles heal of the Enduro. If you buy one plan on upgrading the wheels. If you look real close you can see DT Swiss on the hub. What it doesn't tell you is the DT Swiss internals are the lowest  end and are still way stronger than the Roval outer shell their threaded into. I striped all the threads out of the shell. Fifth hub I've done that to in 8 years of mountain biking.  

The real solution is new wheels with King hubs in the middle. That's not in my budget right now so luckily Dan at Victory Vello warrantied the wheel on the spot and I'm ready for BC. You can see I upgraded to Saint brakes. With only one ride on them so far I am finally happy with a set of mountain bike brakes. We'll see how they handle Whistler. I mounted up a set of Schwalbe Hans Damf's to make sure there were no excuses on the bike's part. Sean, Aarron, Dan and I start our trek to BC tomorrow. Should be one of the funner road trips I've been on. First stop Plains of Abraham, Mt. St. Helens.

May, out with a bang!

 Friday before last Sean and I went to Demo for a little suspension adjustment. We had so much fun the only picture I took was of this turkey tail mushroom on the first climb. We rode Brail trail on our first run and stopped about 6 times to adjust our suspension. By the time we got to the bottom our bikes were floating over everything. Our next loop we rode the whole Flow trail. They just finished the last section of this trail. It is so long and has so many G outs that we had to stop half way to the bottom and let our legs recover. Amazing trail!

 Then last Monday Dan shut down the shop for a shuttle day in Downieville. Probably the funnest thing you can do on two wheels.

 We ended up with 16 people freight training down the most awesome trails around. It was the tightest line I have ever ridden in. Every one hauled ass down hill. Most sections there was only a foot between riders.

 Finally we decide to race the Lost and Found 100 mile gravel grinder.

 Nothing like a couple hundred CX riders to let you know how out of shape you are. CX magazine rated this as a top 25 on every riders bucket list. 

 Sean and Jeanie were worried that I died. 

 I thought I did. That may have been the hardest race I have ever done.

 It was brutal but I can't think of any ride or drive that had more beautiful. We started here on the shore of lake Davis outside Portola.   

How many rides do you see this on? But really it was so F@#$%^g hard! The last 23 miles were like a constant kick in the nuts.  I can't wait until next year!