Vegas Baby, Vegas!

SLR and I Went to Lost Wages to visit my parents over Christmas weekend and I decided to take the Truth along to enjoy some desert (read, dry!) singletrack. I did some research on MTBR and learned that one of the prime Vegas trail networks, Cottonwood Valley, is only a short 10 miles from my parents house. Absolutely stunning desert terrain, a significant amount of climbing, and some technically challenging riding. The trails were so money.

This is on the ominously-named Dead Horse trail. It doesn't get much better.

An overlook on the Bonnie and Clyde loop. If you click on the image to expand it to full-size, you can see the Vegas that most people know in the background.

Lots of trail users to keep me company out there. There must have been something going on in town, like a special at Excalibur's Round Table buffet, that kept everyone inside. ;-)

No rain + Epic Desert Riding = A happy camper

Thanks to the p's for tolerating my disappearing for a few hours in the afternoons.

Now, the big question is whether I can get some decent riding weather back in the Emerald City. I've got a huge 18 hour training block scheduled. Maybe, just maybe, mother nature will be so kind to give me a few hours of sun over the long New Year's weekend.

Blue Star

Fox Racing Shox

Awesome news on the sponsorship front, Fox Racing Shox has renewed for my '07 race campaign. I have been running Fox Shox for several years now (even before I was sponsored) and feel they are the most technologically advanced suspension products on the market.

The 32-F series forks are buttery, efficient, and, unlike the competitors, an accurate stearer. Again, I'll be running the F100x with the inertia valve, which automatically locks out the fork preventing rider induced bobbing during out of the saddle efforts. Hopefully, the white paint job grows on me.



I'm also going to upgrade the Truth to a Float RP23 rear shock with adjustable propedal. The Truth utilizes such an efficient suspension design that a propedal shock to eliminate bobbing actually makes the suspension feel harsh early in the stroke on sharp edge bumps. The Truth comes stock with a Float R shock that is tuned to a light propedal setting, but cannot be adjusted. Given my light weight, I feel the light propedal tune is still initially harsh on rocky and rooty terrain. The RP23 will allow me to customize the propedal settings depending on terrain and turn it off altogether when the going is rough.



I'll have a post up this evening on my training rides in Lost Wages.

Blue Star

Desert Sun

I'm looking forward to riding in the sun just outside the neon glow of the Strip. A well-deserved vacation from the wind and rain. I will report back whether the trails are as good as this picture makes them look.



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Riding Dirty and XTR Christmas

The weekend before last, I put in 8.5 ours of riding in the rain. Saturday was on the MTB out at Griffen Creek near Carnation, WA and Sunday was on the roads through the Snohomish River Valley. The fireroads on Saturday were slop, but the singletrack in the woods was in decent shape. THayes and I did some laps on the singletrack, but had to suffer on the fireroads to get the scheduled 4+ hours of ride time in. The rig took a beat down in the process. I was cleaning it this evening and realized I cooked the rear hub's bearings. Catch me riding dirty:



Like last year, it's an XTR Christmakah. A keen eye can spot the other bike-related gifts under the tree too.

Happy Holidays!

Blue Star

The Urban Epic

THayes and I rolled the Urban Epic last weekend, because snow precluded riding at our usual MTB winter training locations. The Urban Epic is a mixed route of road and as much dirt as can be found. It started off in West Seattle with some tasty French Toast and java to encourage us to get out into the cold winds buffeting our fair City. We worked our way through downtown with a stop at the Collonade to check out the progress. Some dirt rideable, but definitely still a work in progress. Next, up was a fun little singletrack descent off Capitol Hill down to Montlake. The Birk-G to St. Eds Park on Juanita Hill. The trails at St. Eds were actually quite good, not too muddy, considering the weather as of late. Spin back home up the beast of a climb out of Lake Forest Park. Ride Stats: 3:09 ride time, 37.74 miles, 2760 elevation gain.

I've got a new training tool for the mountain bike. The Garmin Edge 305 is a bike computer and GPS wrapped up in one little unit. It allows you to export your rides to topos, street maps, and Google earth. The picture below is an overlay of the Urban Epic route on an aerial photo. Too much fun!