Mountain Biking 2018

[Rod9301]

Got my haibike nduro 10.0 e bike and rode it on Tuesday.
My 3 hour loop took 2 1/2 hours, a third less calories and the downhill was much better because i wasn't tired on top

The bike has 180 mm travel front and rear and 65 degrees head angle.

It's heavy, but it seems just as maneuverable as my discussed l specialized Enduro.

Great bike.

 

[Tom K.]

Posting a road biking pic here, since I'm an mtb guy at heart, and the road biking forum seems a little "cold" since the end of August.

Having only a fat-ish tired gravel bike along on our annual fall mtb trip to Bend, I still said yes to an offer to chase some friends around Crater Lake in Southern Oregon.

I believe this is the most scenic road bike ride I've ever done in my home state. I cannot recommend it highly enough, and at ~ 25 miles and 4,000 feet of climbing, it's pretty attainable.

 

[4ster]

Still pretty colorful around here…

With wind and rain forecast later in the week I am not sure how long it will last.

 

[Crank]

I survived the JORBA Fest intact! JORBA stands for Jersey Off Road Bike Association. The event was in NJ's Ringwood State Park; 38 miles from home according to Waze. Rode about 12 miles and maybe 1k of elevation + or - a bit. They were good about limiting group size and grouping riders of similar abilities together. Riding was a lot o climbing on carriage roads mixed with fun techy downhills weaving and switchbacking down steepish ridges.

I demoed a Canondale Jekyl 29". Perfect geometry for my kind of riding; I felt perfectly balanced and in control. I liked the enduro suspension which was a bit cushier and longer travel than my steed. Wasn't allowed take it on the group ride but did a 2- mile demo loop and then the 10-mile intermediate ride on my good old Kona Hei Hei.

Fun. Tired. Kicked back watching Jets v. Jags.



Edit: Watching Jets lose to the Jags.

 

[Doug Briggs]

Some nice color here. As @4ster points out, it may not be here tomorrow.

I don't know what kind of a tree this is, but we don't get much other than golden Aspen leaves. This was in a median to a posh neighborhood.

 

[Tom K.]

Oops, too late to edit, so:

CRATER LAKE LOOP = 35 MILES, not the 25 I posted above.

Thanks!

 

[Joel]

After being off my bike for a few weeks because of a couple injuries ( not biking related ), I was having a hard time getting back into it. Seeing some of these pics has me more motivated. I'll give it a go tomorrow.

 

[Brian Likes Pow]

 

[firebanex]

Finally bought a new fat bike.. I drooled enough on it over the last year in the shop that they had to sell it to me before it started rusting. Not really, I had seen the paint of the new 2019 models and they sucked, so I had to buy one of the last 2018 bikes my LBS had with the absolutely gorgeous teal paint on it. They had two left in my size and both bikes had kinda become parts bikes so the shop had to canabalize one to get the other back up to spec and I ended up getting a few minor upgrades out of the deal simply cause the original parts had gone missing.

Anyways, I had to drop my car off at the local dealer for replacement of an airbag under recall this morning and took advantage of the wonderful morning to bring my bike take a detour through a local wildlife preserve conveniently on my way to work. I'm looking forward to when it starts snowing and I can get this magnificent bike out into its proper environment. Short ride with lots of promise for the months to come!

 

[Erik Timmerman]

That looks like a pretty good environment for it.

 

[nay]

I needed just a bit of a stretch the legs ride yesterday, so I headed over to the Greenland Open Space, which has a lot of double track on the outer edges interspersed with limited single track connectors. So just cadence flowyish stuff.

It’s been probably 3-4 years since I’ve ridden there, and cattle have been introduced for grassland restoration purposes. I wasn’t sure how far I wanted to ride, and so near the top of the ride I see a new track alongside some electric fence (various pasture barriers for the restoring bit), and my mind thinks “singletrack!” to shorten the loop.

So I turn around and head along this singletrack, starting to think it’s probably more hoof track, but I really detest turning around so time to see where the cows go.

Turns out the cows go alongside electric fences, down into washes, and across open field until they encounter other fences. This is my bike on the other side once I’ve hopped the fence and avoided getting shocked.

My grandparents had a farm when I was a kid, so I’ve been shocked enough to not be shocked about getting shocked, but I was happy enough to not find out if the shocking standards have changed for the worse.

I’m not sure why I like stupid things like this, but it left a grin on my face so I went home and had a beer.

 

[nay]

The Boy had his morning free from tire mounting so we decided to ride Falcon Trail on the Air Force Academy.

12.5 miles of varied climbs, flow, and some ripping downhills, a bit techy here and there in washout spots, but reliable enough to send it on the first ride through.

Took about 1:30 - 15 mins from home, LTE service, and that’s a ride I can incorporate into the routine. Pretty sweet.

 

[ZionPow]

The Boy had his morning free from tire mounting so we decided to ride Falcon Trail on the Air Force Academy.

12.5 miles of varied climbs, flow, and some ripping downhills, a bit techy here and there in washout spots, but reliable enough to send it on the first ride through.

View attachment 54818

Took about 1:30 - 15 mins from home, LTE service, and that’s a ride I can incorporate into the routine. Pretty sweet.

I rode Falcon trail a few times 4 years ago. I found it a fun and interesting trail with some awesome views. Hope to ride it again next Fall when back in the Springs!

 

[4ster]

View attachment 54762

Angora lookout is high on my list of happy places. I’ve been going up there since I was a kid & probably posted more than a few pictures from one of my favorite spots

This week
@AmyPJ crossing that confounded Bridge

Me chasing some random guy through the colorful woods

Bryce up in Strawberry

Heading up into the approaching storm on Tuesday

On Last Chance as the first drops begin

We got an inch of rain yesterday with more on the way tomorrow. Even a dusting of snow on the High peaks this morning. With sticky clay nature of the soil around here, it may be awhile before the local trails are rideable again.

 

[Ron]

I don't know what kind of a tree this is, but we don't get much other than golden Aspen leaves. This was in a median to a posh neighborhood.

its a form of Crab apple. I have a few in my yard, they aren't expensive. nice blossoms in spring super sweet smell. they are very hardy and grow well in CO.

 

[Ron]

Finally bought a new fat bike.. I drooled enough on it over the last year in the shop that they had to sell it to me before it started rusting. Not really, I had seen the paint of the new 2019 models and they sucked, so I had to buy one of the last 2018 bikes my LBS had with the absolutely gorgeous teal paint on it. They had two left in my size and both bikes had kinda become parts bikes so the shop had to canabalize one to get the other back up to spec and I ended up getting a few minor upgrades out of the deal simply cause the original parts had gone missing.

Anyways, I had to drop my car off at the local dealer for replacement of an airbag under recall this morning and took advantage of the wonderful morning to bring my bike take a detour through a local wildlife preserve conveniently on my way to work. I'm looking forward to when it starts snowing and I can get this magnificent bike out into its proper environment. Short ride with lots of promise for the months to come! View attachment 54774

NICE! Is that a 9-Zero-7? interesting bikes, they are close to the folks from Why Cycles. What wheels and tires are you running? Impressions so far?

 

[firebanex]

NICE! Is that a 9-Zero-7? interesting bikes, they are close to the folks from Why Cycles. What wheels and tires are you running? Impressions so far?

Indeed it is! 907 is pretty huge in Fairbanks, Alaska for obvious reasons. 907, Trek, Salsa, and Specialized are pretty much your only choices here for a good fat bike and you will see mostly 907s and Trek fatties out on the trails. My local shop actually has one of the 9:ZERO:7 Ambassadors working at it, so I get to see him riding the stuff that they are working on for the next year Like the new Lynx frame, got to see and ride it around the parking lot last year. I don't like the colors of this years Tundra's so that's why I snapped up the last complete teal frame from last year in the shop.

Right now it's the stock 80mm Mulefat rims and Schwalbe Jumbo Jim 4" tires. Winter rubber will most likely be tubeless Dillinger 5 studded, but we shall see once the LBS gets more winter tires in stock and it actually starts snowing here. I don't plan to change the rims anytime soon (budget reasons, I keep buying skis instead) but if I do, the local preferred rim choice are HED carbon rims and that's prolly what my LBS would set me up with. Stock it's set up to be a good summer spec fat bike but all you would really need to do for winter spec is swap tires and grips, it already has carbon bar and seat post for better isolation from the cold, I am using the composite race face chester pedals to slow down the heat loss from my feet too. So far I don't have many miles on it, but its 29 lbs with a Large frame and tubes in the tires, it handles well, doesn't have a ton of self steer, and rolls over bumps, roots, and curbs like they arn't there. Bonus is the top tube dip thing, the stand over clearance is amazing and will be so much easier to remount in the winter in snow. As with most fat bikes, it's a plush ride and you can just roll over anything, brakes are good, GX eagle is smooooth, stock grips are a bit thin but grippy.

 

[nay]

Pretty out there just before the weather turns.

 

[nay]

Was going to ride Falcon again today, but they weren’t letting visitors on AFA until 9 so we headed to the Red Rock Open Space just south of Manitou Springs.

Interestingly MTB Project doesn’t have much to say about this area and we couldn’t easily follow the best rated ride, so we decided to just ride up and in and then come back down.

Along a hogback ridge...

...and we ended up dropping out of the park on a long series of railroad tie steps hitting Gold Camp Road and then I (gasp) asked two women hikers if there was a way into Cheyenne Mountain that connected to the back side of the open space.

Directions in hand, with talk of a technical descent, we headed up and back in for a three mile climb.

And then the descent. A long, steep, nearly continous washout of root drops, rock berms, rock gardens, and gullies full of loose Pikes Peak pea gravel.

An easier spot to play...

And then transition back to some slick rock drops and climbs mixed with flow.

12 miles total without much JRA. Super sweet - will be riding this again.

 

[Bruuuce]

Great to get back out after what seemed like 100 days of rain. We could only ride the bottom 1/2 of the mountain (too wet at the top), but still fun! Keeping the season going...