New mistress

My new frame is on its way. The owner of Solstice couldn't have been nicer to deal with. He must have answered 50 questions for me. He was very patient and concerned that I got the right frame and the right parts. It's amazing how different it is to deal with the owner/designer. Thanks Chuck.

One track mind

My wife says I have a one track mind. She might be right. I'm not sure what the problem is. My Jack o lantern has more teeth than anyone else's.

Variety

I love bombing downhill on a big bike. Thats all I have been doing lately. My Uzzi benifited from a little canabalization of the Firebird parts tub. It has full Shimano XTR shadow drive train now and shifts flawlessly. The weather is perfect and the dirt is tacky. Best time of year for mountain bikers. For some reason my single speed has started calling to me though. Every non mountain biker I know can't understand why I have multiple bikes. I rode 42 miles on Friday morning with Bobby and my dog Katie on the SS. About 90% was on fire road. That kind of ride on my Uzzi would have been miserable, but the Lynskey just made me want to go farther. I have tried the one bike to rule them all thing and it just doesn't work for me. Every bike has different capabilitys, they all ride in the dirt but the having the right bike on the right trail is awesome.

Katie and I played around on the shore of Lyons while we waited for Bobby. The view reminds me why I live out here.

2 days of downhilling

The last two days I have been getting out some aggression on some of Pinecrest's finest downhill. I didn't think I would ever enjoy Hemlock. After a second run and with the addition of the lower trail Juniper, I have to admit I had a blast. It is without a doubt the hardest stuff I have ever ridden. After those two extremely demanding trials Lucas and I finished off with Dome and lower PCP. I was so tired I could barely hold on. Katie got to try out her new Intense on the lower stuff with us. After freezing her ass off for an hour waiting for us to stop sliding down granite. She worked that bike on Dome's worst and cleared some new sections. Its amazing what the right bike will do to your confidence.

Today I took Sean and Bobby down Sunrise and PCP. I found out that Sean had only ridden PCP once and never Sunrise. Unfortunately I was still pretty worked from the day before. No speed records today. Killer ride none the less.

I don't think Bobby's wife is going to let him ride with me anymore. He seems to come back bleeding a lot. A simple crash in the sand and he's off to the hospital for 8 stitches. Never slowed him down though.

Lucas and I posing in front of the trails name sake on Juniper.

Lucas is going to be mad at me for this but its not often I get to see him make a mistake, especially on camera. We filled that whole in so maybe next time it wont eat his wheel.

This blog was originally started to track the use and destruction of bike parts, so I have to spew a little about Avid Code disk brakes. I put these brakes on my Uzzi not long after I bought it. When they work they are incredible. Unfortunately it seems like they demand constant attention and bleeding. Now I can't even bleed the front one. There must be something stuck internally. I searched online and I am not the only one having this problem. The rebuild kit retails for $55, Lame. Both levers are now touching the bars so I am out of options.

New Trails

Stoker, Bobby and I set out to find a trail that few have ridden yet. We were told it was built at the very end of last season and only know of one group of guys that have been down it. Unfortunately we had little to go on in the way of finding it. After walking all over the mountain for a good two hours we gave up and headed back to a known trail. As soon as we started getting ready to ride Bobby found "Hemlock". I can't really say this was a good thing because once we were on this new trail we discovered why nobody else has been down it. I'm sure there are people out there that enjoy trails with no flow and zero speed rock fields, but not us. It was cool just to find it and ride something new though. After that we climbed up to Avalanche and took that to Dome and lower PCP. Avalanche was new to Bobby and I. It was also a slow rocky downhill, but it had a certain flow to it and transitioned nicely into Dome. Brutal day for a shuttle. Avalanche was extremely demanding on our depleted energy stores. It is the hardest I've had to work at that low of a heart rate. 1271 calories, 13miles, 4.24hrs, 1408ft gain, 4059ft descent.

It took Stoker longer to get his camera set up than it did for Bobby to eat his lunch and find our trail.

Avalanche wasn't very nice to Bobby. I guess it safe to say Trek's have red blood.

Found the creak

My Firebird has been making a creaking sound that I couldn't find for a while. I greased the headset, pivot linkage, seat post, and every other part I could think of. The only thing I hadn't checked yet was the bottom bracket, so I assumed it had to be there. Fortunately Lucas was riding my bike around the parking lot yesterday. He found 4 frame cracks. If it wasn't for his discovery who knows when I would have "found" them. We were about to ride some serous rock trails. I don't want to imagine what it would have been like if it let go mid drop.

It is a little hard to see in the photo but there are 4 cracks. 2 across the I beam and 2 following the weld.

One in the fore ground one in the back. I guess I should have washed my bike more often, then maybe I would have found them myself. Pivot's web site says all there frames have a 3 year warranty, I guess it's time to test it.

New back yard

Its strange how you can ride in an area all the time and still not know it all. I have been hearing about Moraine trail for a while now but I never got around to it. Riding this trail is a humbling experience. Lucas was right when he said it makes all the other trails look easier. There really isn't anything scary but the effort and concentration it takes to clean a section is intense.

Lucas showing me the line. You can't tell from the photo but that rock is so steep I could barely walk down it to get the shot. I then had to climb back up for my attempt at staying on line. This is one trail that I think would actually be harder on the Uzzi. You need a bike that is very responsive, no slacked out DH sleds here.

We had a little bit of a Stoker moment while we sessioned this super fun baby rock drop for the camera.

If I could only get the other wheel in the air it would look way cooler

Lucas is the master of the slow technical rock trails. I did my best to follow his lines but he didn't make very many mistakes. Every time I botched a line he was gone. I am going to have to ride this trail a lot more. I think it will definitely improve my balance and timing.