Rydezilla - you are what you ride

rollercoaster

Fri, 18 Jan 2008 23:51:12 -0700

I have lived here in CA for about four years now and to my surprise I have not found a consistant riding crew in the area I live in. I have my ups and downs with my riding abilties because of my inconsistancy. I have been patient and before moving her I didn't imagine that I would degress in my riding I thought I would progress. Very sad to have invested so much time initially in learning and thinking CA was the place to be to ride. Well for spandex riding it's definitely epic. But I could hook up with a group of freeriders in Central Park (NY) any weekend and have fun. I will not give up and l will continue looking for riders and keep learning. Live to ride!

rollercoaster

Fri, 18 Jan 2008 23:50:10 -0700

I have lived here in CA for about four years now and to my surprise I have not found a consist riding crew in the area I live in. I have my ups and downs with my riding abilties because of my inconsistancy. I have been patient and before moving her I didn't imagine that I would degress in my riding I thought I would progress. Very sad to have invested so much time initially in learning and thinking CA was the place to be to ride. Well for spandex riding it's definitely epic. But I could hook up with a group of freeriders in Central Park (NY) any weekend and have fun. I will not give up and l will continue looking for riders and keep learning. Live to ride!

Rob's bachelor party ride

Tue, 05 Jun 2007 10:34:36 -0600

As one of the creator's of this site, it was great to actually go out and hit the trail for the first time. Best of all, it was on the day of Rob's bachelor party. Thanks to 5-SpotEd for loaning me your bike. The ride up was quite the workout. Jude and Yakushi went ahead of 5-spot, rubba and I.... showoffs! We took a leasurely pace up the fire road. The scenery up there is quite amazing. At some point hopefully rubba will post the pictures. Also on the way up, alfretorres quickly caught up to us (had a late start) and passed us up. Was great to finally meet the guy that cleared that 10' wall on the YouTube video. When we finally got to the saddle, alfetorres was on his way down from the brown peak. We were able to rest while waiting for Jude and Yakushi. It was cool seeing all the other bikers passing by and stopping to chat... there is quite a feel of community on those trails. When Jude and Yakushi finally hit the saddle, we started our decent down. I'll have to admit, going fast down the fire road was quite fun, but when we hit the El Prieto single track, the ride got even better. I'll have to admit, I did slow the group up since I am a newbie, but I was able to get down the single track with only one fall. Unfortunately that fall was into some poison oak, so I had to deal with that over the next two weeks, but all in all I felt great hitting the bottom of the mountain. Thanks to all that went for slowing down for me and I hope you all had a good time with the entertainment later on that night.... All I can say now is "MORGAN BABY!"

The boot

Thu, 28 Dec 2006 11:40:19 -0700

WOW, that's all you can say about bootleg canyon... It was a real joy to watch ED, Kona, Scorns and Rubba take on obstacles they thought they could never ride... Not only did they ride them, they made it look easy...good job guys. I was lucky to have Alfretorres leading the way and showing me good lines..he's a beast on the mountain. All in all it was a great day of riding, but there are still a few obstacles on the Ginger trail that I will need to get through next time. GREAT RIDING GUYS

Fun in the snow

Sat, 23 Dec 2006 19:33:55 -0700

Had a great ride today. deltaSplus rode up from the JPL parking lot while 5-spotEd, yakushi and I rode from the top of Chaney Trail. The pavement road up to Sunset Trailhead is a grind. According to deltaSplus, the average percent grade is 12%. Had to take many stops. After the pavement, the dirt fireroad was a moderate climb, leading all the way to Inspiration point. We took a break, ate snacks and refueled, after which we took the Sam Merrill trail down to Echo mountain and rode back up to Sunset Trailhead. 5-spotEd was getting bad leg cramps, so he and yakushi decided to take the pavement back down to the trucks, while deltaSplus and I hit Sunset. What a great singletrack. A little tougher on a hardtail, but a lot of fun. I bottomed out the fork after taking a drop then started hearing funny noises coming from it. Might have to switch to the Sherman.

It's that time

Fri, 22 Dec 2006 18:39:31 -0700

I only get a few weeks a year off for Vacation....well one starts today..Dec 22nd..... Last year on vactaion I broke my hand riding, lets make this year smoother. I have rides scheduled, now lets see how they go..... I will be writing again on the 2nd of January.... I hope some of you reading this will be riding with me this week.... Merry Christmas

One big, big lap

Sun, 17 Dec 2006 17:27:52 -0700

My junior high school gym teacher used to yell �One big, big lap� when he wanted to punish kids for misbehaving. I felt like this ride was reminiscent of those days. The day started out already freezing cold at 7 am. We were supposed to meet deltaSplus at the ranger station but he had already gone up to Josephine Peak that the guys and I didn�t plan on doing. The fireroad climb was a grind. What made it somewhat enjoyable was foesnasty and I where shooting the shit on the way up. Even while we were climbing, it was so cold that I could barely feel my fingers. We took several stops on the fireroad just because I wasn�t used to the climb as I�ve been ridding DH lately. We got to the saddle where Colby canyon trailhead begins, and we stopped and had some lunch, snacks, and refueled, while we waited for deltaSplus to show up. We found shelter against the side of the mountain over some trees away from the wind, which I�d say was in the thirties. After the lunch break and no deltaSplus, we decided to keep moving.

This is where the fun singletrack began. The terrain was mostly rolling for the first 1-1.5 miles, which then descended. The singletrack I�d say is treacherous, but from what I�ve heard from those who�ve ridden this trail, I guess Strawberry Peak has been maintained. A big thanks to the trail maintenance crew. There were wood planks on the side to help keep the trail from erosion, but still, the view below is knee-shaking. At this point, the rain hit and it hit hard. The forecast said PM showers but weather can hardly be predicted successfully. We all took rain gear, except for UGAVMECRABS, who was wearing ED�s flannel and looked like a lumberjack. MTBRACER looked like he was going to rob a bank, and foesnasty had shoe wraps to keep his pretty toes warm. Then the weather worsened. It started to hail, albeit mildly. The trail/weather/view below was all rideable. The descent into the flats and onto the junction was really nice, a few short technical parts, but again all rideable. I recognized some of the landmarks that I�ve seen from photos posted by riders from other websites, which was reassuring. We couldn�t really see the face of Strawberry Peak as clouds covered it.

The uphill grind began again here. This time, we all had to do a hike-a-bike. It was really steep coming out of the canyon for the next mile. On one of the sections, foesnasty tried to climb, but as he cranked down, he broke his hub. He broke his hub. He was out of commission. He had to do hike-a-bike the rest of the way. Poor guy. It didn�t help that at this point, the weather was raining/hailing in one minute, while the next was a light drizzle. We finally got to the semi-saddle where the last sign is posted, right before the descent into Red Box, and took a small break. My legs had started to cramp up at this point. Luckily for me, it wasn�t my calves this time, but rather my quads. I could still pedal, but I couldn�t put much force into it. The descent was nice, still treacherous, but the scenery was amazing. The clouds were rolling over the valley at speeds which, out of the corner of my eye, were a little disorienting as I was riding the trail. About halfway down, I had to stop as my legs gave out. I had to immediately fall the ground to stretch my quads out, which fortunately didn�t knot. The guys waited a bit, then I was good to go. I then found out that MTBRACER�s air shock blew out. No bueno. The ride down into Red Box was great, except for the weather. The size of the hail was less than a quarter of an inch, but when you�re doing 20-25 mi/hr, it hurts. At least foesnasty got to enjoy this part. There were small jumps that were fun to ride and there were a couple of burms. ED took one of them but on the return down, he took a hard fall. I almost did as well as I followed his line. We both had forgotten that the trail is wet.

We finally made it Red Box, and it was pouring. MTBRACER, UGAVMECRABS and foesnasty decided to ride on the road while ED and I road the singletrack to Switzer�s Camp as we couldn�t pass it up after all this way. This trail was a lot of fun (as always), except when your legs are done. My quads kept cramping the whole way, but I was able to sit in some sections, as they were pretty flat. ED and I got to the technical rock bed, which was really cool to be able to make it on my hardtail. The fun ended quickly when the rain really began to pour down hard. We finally got to the truck, to complete this �One big, big lap�. Thankfully, foesnasty drove down into Switzer�s Camp so we didn�t have to do that pavement climb out. We could barely get the bikes loaded into the truck because we were so tired. There was so much water that was falling from the sky that I was able to semi-rinse my gear before I got into the truck. What a crazy ride.

11/09/06 Mt. Wilson downhill

Thu, 09 Nov 2006 22:43:56 -0700

What a ride, or shall I say hike...... have you ever been lost, or shall I say running out of daylight very fast and not sure whats the quickest way out. Well that's what happened today. We (Rubba, Fredo, MTBracer and myself Foesnasty) were not technicallly lost just running low on sunshine. If I ever get suck in the mountians again after dark and with no lights, there's not a better group of guys to be suck with. Although I was about 1 hour away from canibalism..... I'm just glad we stuck together to got the hell out of there..... Let me sum it up for you... we tried to go from the Mt. Wilson trail down to the Winter creek trail, then to Sturtavent canyon.....the wilson and winter trail where great....then as we attempted to go to sturtavent we quickly realized that it was about a 3 mile, super steep climb....after about 2.5 miles of hiking.....we decided to turn around... this was somewhere around Mt. Zion.....N-E-WAZ....we turned around and it got dark really fast......the last 3 miles was completly in the dark.....i used my cell phone light to get us out..... wow, what a ride guys...

Clip in and fall over!

Mon, 23 Oct 2006 23:30:16 -0600

There I was; new badass bike; new badass Specialized Buzzsaw boots, and new Shimano SPD clipless pedals. So I start my epic ride high on a 4 shot Starbucks Vente 'whatever' and up the Skiline fireroad I go. The ODE is clicking over 6 miles and I'm lookin JAKE and feeling Flush. I snap my Stumpy Triad shock into full motion and I hit the first sigle track. Coming down a bit fast and I blaze into some loose sand. I feel the bike starting to tip +5 degrees and I sense the immediate need to "Un-Clip" and put boot to ground! Shit, Shit, Shit-no un-clipping today.........WHAM! There goes MADMIKE ass over elbows, handlebar into solarsystem (plexes) and air out of lungs-gasp......... I don't know if I like this clip-in thing. After careful adjustment of the clips, I set out again to test my awsome skills (not). Within 10 mikes, Shit, Shit, Shit..........Wham, dirt sammich! Which is quickly followed up with..."Dude, are you ok? That was awsome, you were completely in the air!" I must say, I'm getting good at eating s@*!, but that's half the fun right? I've heard the saying, "If you're not bleeding, you're not riding." I am; however, getting too old for this......but then again I could try golfing. Four crashes later, I think I have mastered the un-clipping delema. Question: How many of you out there ride clipless?

The Ride Through the Mt. Wilson Trail

Wed, 18 Oct 2006 10:34:41 -0600

The ride today (Ride# 258) is only the second time I've ridden this trail. The first time was with foesnasty and he and I basically didn't know what to expect. Today was definitely an awesome ride, especially that there were four of us.

The first part of the trail starts from the top of Mt. Wilson, which is really technical. In fact, when I saw Kona fall on the very first switch back, I knew it was going to be a great ride. The funny thing was I endoed immediately after that. Again, the first part of this trail is technical and you really have to maneuver your bike. This trail leads you back to the Mt. Wilson Toll Road, which you have to take for less than a mile until you see on the left the trail sign for the singletrack towards Sierra Madre. This part leads to a bench and a sign that says Winter Creek trail. We guessed that this singletrack leads to Sturtevant Canyon. Anyhow, the trail doesn't let up and is still technical with some hairy, hike-a-bike sections. Around this area is where my rear derailleur cable came out of the screw, which I had to fix on the spot. The giant boulder is still there, from well over a year ago, and is memorable as from the first time I saw it.

The elevation loss is considerable on this section, and I could tell that the six inch disc in the rear that I had to use to replace my broken eight inch caliper from the last ride was barely enough stopping power. Kona was trying to walk his bike in one of the sections and ended up slipping off of one of the rocks that had moss on it, and literally landed on his butt. We even got to see a small waterfall, which MTBRACER and I took some photos of. Foot traffic was very light on a Tuesday, so if you want to ride this trail, do it during the weekday. There are some sections that we had to pedal just a little bit. I remember seeing the fellas in front of me across the canyon riding the trail. I knew they were having a great ride. The last part of this trail is really smooth and flowy, but there is rock garden that was really fun to ride. It was during this section that I remember thinking that this trail seemed a lot shorter than the first time I rode it. By comparison, I think Sturtevant Canyon is a little bit faster and smoother than this trail. Our next ride in this area will try to connect the upper section of this trail to Sturtevant via the Winter Creek Trail.