nachomc

iTrader: (7)

I am thinking of heading up either Tuesday or Wednesday next week after work. Any takers?

pozzi

iTrader: (4)

wed maybe. need to find someone to watch teh kid after work. hmm...

nachomc

iTrader: (7)

The wife?

Just turn on the TV and quietly leave, she'll never know you're gone!@

pozzi

iTrader: (4)

wife took on tutoring in the evenings, so i have no backup until 7:30.

TV trick.
i wish it was that easy.

leechungsr

I have a new cheap azz Ironhorse Maverick XC on order from Performance Bike.

Yay...or not yay... My singlespeed full squishy weighs in at under 25lbs..I think the new bike is more than 30lbs...

pozzi

iTrader: (4)

anything you can pedal is gonna work for you. mine is a sub $400 REI Novara hardtail and its been an EXCELLENT bike! i'm looking at getting into a fullsuspension bike, but i won't go for anything less than a air sprung frame with adjustment, which puts me in a higher price bracket.

i looked at those IronHorse entry level f/s bikes. they look like they have some decent components on them. for a first trail bike, you should have no problem with those.

i like the IronHorse Azure Comp or the MkIII Sport/Comp but i may end up just getting a new frame (05 Jamis Dakar) and swapping everything over to that one. guess it depends on if i sell a kidney or not.

come out to a ride once it comes in...everyone is always welcome!


BTW: anyone down to ride tomorrow? i know you're all going Sunday am but didn't know if anyone was down to ride tomorrow.
i'm gonna hit SOME trail tomorrow.

nachomc

iTrader: (7)

You can bring your SS too. One of the other guys who rides with us (sublime) is going to be rolling an SS in the near future (maybe this weekend?)

sublime1

iTrader: (4)

Olmstead was fun today. Definitely want to hit that one up again in the future. Nice to meet you Aaron. I didn't bring my singlespeed today for I am still waiting for it to ship.

nachomc

iTrader: (7)

Olmstead was fun but the trail was TRASHED. The rain + bike race + horse traffic have really ruined Olmstead for now. Climbs are considerably harder because they're all rutted and full of divots. Downhills are scary as **** due to all of the newly exposed rock and other exciting debris. I got bombing down the first major downhill section (that Ponderosa is FAST) but had to really get on the brakes to avoid dying as the course got REAL bumpy. One section has a new and improved blind 18" drop, watch out for that.

Once I got home from the bbq today (about 3:30) my allergies or something (gonaherpasyphalAIDS) kicked in and owned me like crazy. I went through about half a box of kleenex, blowing my nose every 5 minutes, in about an hour and a half. Claritin is kind of helping, but I passed out at 5:30 or so and woke up at like 10 . I'm not going to make it tomorrow, I'm exhausted from sneezing so much, my back is sore, my chest is sore and my bike needs to be cleaned up BAD before I can get going on it again. My rear caliper is absolutely caked in mud. If I'm feeling ok I'll take some pics.

Egan - I've left you a vm on your cell and will PM you now. Sorry to flake, dude, I'm hurtin

nachomc

iTrader: (7)

Here's some pics of what I am talking about.

Here's the really rocky/rutted section on the first downhill. In the foreground you can see how trashed the trail is. It's like this most of the way through. In the background, the arrow is pointing out the nasty 18" drop off on to the exposed rock. The sidetrail to the left is what people are using to get around this obstacle.



This is taken from the same spot as the above picture, it's just looking down the trail. You can see the side trail to the left. That's there because the main trail is flooded pretty massively just ahead. It's like that all over the loop. If you see a sidetrail, it's recommended that you take it. In only one case did a sidetrail end up being a worse option than staying on the main trail. In some instances, such as just near the end of the loop (past the school), main trails AND side trails are completely flooded. In fact at one point we had to ride through this flooded grassy area (others had been doing the same) and it was so slick/muddy/wet that as I reached the end there is a small crest. I gave about 5 full revolution pedals with my tire slipping completely before I finally found some grip and pulled forward.



Here's pozzi trying to navigate some pretty bad muck:



A shot of just the muck. This site was not uncommon. The trail was either dry, like this or under water.



That big water crossing that used to exist just after the road crossing at about 5 miles in? No longer a problem. I guess there's a 24 hr race on the Olmstead loop this coming weekend (I hope they fix the trail afterwords) and a crew went around building bridges at some of the major crossings, including the small lake at the end of the loop just before the parking lot. We saw the crew driving up the hill just after completing this bridge and they let us know that the SRIC MTB crew was the first to cross it we rock.



A pic of my caliper just after the above water crossing:



Wagon mafia mtb style:



Rich and my wagon:

Egan

iTrader: (14)

God damn it. I just got up at 6AM so I could get all of the stuff off my workbench before I left for the trail so Deede could pick it up at 10AM. I guess I'll go get another hour of sleep.

BTW, I shovelled for 3 hours yesterday on top of a bunch of other work and my allergies were killing me too, so I'm hurtin as much as anyone, but I am itching to ride. American River Pkwy anyone?

Lowball

iTrader: (8)

I'd be down for next Saturday if anyone wants to go. Only thing is I suck at climbing. So if you pick a trail with climbing I'll be left in the dust...main reason for sucking:

1. out of shape (cardio wise)
2. 20lb. over weight
3. bike 40lbs.
4. suck at climbing
5. did I say out of shape yet...

Anyway, let me know.

T-Will

iTrader: (3)

Ha, I'm in the same boat as you...but I won't be going biking until I can get a bike rack...and at the moment saving for a house down payment is on my priority list...

Egan

iTrader: (14)

I guess that rules out FDLT again.

I'd ride Saturday, but we'll be going out Friday night and drinking which means unless we ride in the afternoon, I'll be in no condition to ride. Sunday would definitely work.

nachomc

iTrader: (7)

I'm down for next Sunday in addition to some after work rides this week. I'll be doing Olmstead again Tuesday or Wednesday for sure. There's a park in Rocklin (Rupert?) with trails I think. Probably pretty flat?