The official Random MTB stoke thread

 I have no pictures, but I am randomly stoked tonight. Went out with Whiteroom and rode until it was dark. Somehow my Mojo was on tonight and I rode everything and it all felt easy.

 You rode with Whiteroom? 

Nah, can't be, he doesn't really exist. 

 

Glad you had fun, eh?

 

I have no pictures so I can't prove it, but yes.

Here are some pics from a morning solo ride at Perry Hill - Waterbury, VT.

 

Through the tunnel to the trails.

 

Then it's up a stupidly steep sandy climb. Didn't want to stop and take pictures. The climb levels out but gets rooty. Maestro takes care of that though.

Halfway up the trail comes out of the fallline and onto a new singletrack. The climbing gets much easier. This turn is nice, see how flat the turn part is before the trail pinches back together. You know it's a good trail when the climbing feels fast and easy.

The trail takes advantage of some ledge to make these nice wall-ridesque turns.

The top of the trail has what I think of as the defining features of the trail. Lots of ledge. It was soooo slippery today. As I entered the first one today, it felt like some joker had tied a rope to the bottom of my bike and pulled it out from under me. I wasn't braking, pedaling or turning, it was just that slick. I landed on my feet, but did a split on the slick as ice rock and went down anyway. Bad ACL did not like that. I then carefully rode these sections.

The trail then gets faster and flowier. Some new sections were just built this year including this bridge that goes over the ginormous tree's roots.

Shortly after this I stacked it on a rooty off-camber downhill. Sent my bike across a sharp piece of granite that turned my 32-spoke front wheel into a 31-spoke. I wouldn't have noticed except for the noise.

Even in the truing stand it as OK. I went ahead and replaced three spokes though.

 

After this ride I picked up Alsacia from ballet and went for a ride on the Stowe Rec Path.

With a little singletrack on the side.

Sweet, that looks like a beautiful lush area.  Us westerners don't actually believe there are jungles like that in the east.  We just assume everything is paved over.  It reminds me of the excellent riding in the Santa Cruz mountains in California

Thanks,

JF

 

With the ferns getting big now, it's like Jurassic Friggin' Park.

Love that bridge over the ginormous roots....

Nice pimpin on the spokes!  You replace the spoke with something flourescent?

 

Lil A looks like she's going to be a force to be reconed with in no time at all.

 

epic SICK trail man. wish i was there.

 

also A on single track, shreding in the summer as well! =)

Same trail today but with people and a pack of dogs.

 

 

Whiteroom is real.

This is just before his dog knocked him down. D'oh!

 

 

I love the dog pic.....

The log looks like something that would intimidate me.....maybe......probably......nah, I could do it......can I?

Okay, I'd end up on my butt.....but it looks cool. 

Looks like a log - but it's a big slippery piece of ledge. 

 Whiteroom!   ^^^^

not mine but pretty cool video off the park within the City.....Frick.

Bradema

 Whiteroom Bromont today

Hmm ride cool singletrack in the morning, watch Stillers (oops, World Champion Stillers) in afternoon.

Here's a nice thread of the jumps and features the freeriders in Bend are decorating the trails with.  I keep my wheels on the ground, but I did hire them to carve a tree into a bench.

http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=519877

That's pretty cool. That stuff is hard to make (even the simple ones). 

I've been in Tahoe for a few days now.  Got out on a ride with Brad & my niece Shannon this morning.  This ride is a cool loop up through Big Meadow & down the long, sometimes technical, Christmas Valley downhill along the Upper Truckee river.


Big Meadow.


Shannon approaching the top of the climb.


Brad negotiating a sticky situation.


JF, rolling down some of the Sierras great granite.



Thanks,
JF

Nice Stoke all, thanks for sharin'...
epic, I'm not sure that you actually ride.  It looks like all you do is go along to take pics of whiteroom.

My stoke pic(s) at the moment lacks in comparison to all of yours but its been great to get out there even on short rides after work

Me on the new fuel -small down hill (photo cred Volklgirl)
 


Me entering some twisties





Volklgirl embracing her 29'er



Generally its been a good mt bike season but not an amazing one.....but that is about to change!

TC,
I've been riding a Fuel EX for 4 or 5 years now.  It's been a great ride.  Had a Fuel 100 previously.
JF

4Ster, each of my bike purchases has taken me to a different level of biking.
My 4900 HT got me excited about biking, my Liquid helped me get more aggressive with down hills and stand up a lot more, my SS inspired me to bunny hop, and now... I'm really enjoying the FuelEX8, bringing all of those skillz together.
 

Today,
JF

 Today was a play date at Shearer Road and Edwards Creek, two mt bike parks that are just 3 miles from each other...
I started out with a plan to be aggressive and make that trail my bitch, but the trail(s) put the smack down on me and said, "who's the bitch now baby!"
I crashed more today than I have in all the time I've been riding. I  seriously lost count, but the good news is, only bruises and scrapes with no trips to ER 

The only picture I got today was of Volklgirl over some logs, but it came out a bit fuzzy, 

Thanks for the stoke. Yesterday was my first time back in the saddle, off-road on my old Scott, after 8 yrs...
GF had finally "given in" this spring and bought her own (a Cube CC hartdail, very nice bike) so we could bike around our local hills trails....
Shes' been out four times already and she's fallen only twice yesterday..damages are quite extensive to her "exposed parts", she's still got some trouble un-clipping her spd's (which I don't have....)...
No action photos, just a some stills and a scenery


Great fun, 25some km in some 2.5 hrs made for a nice Sunday morning
I should really buy a new bike, but I guess I'll have to "upgrade" my old one...first thing..a new saddle...then, we shall see


Edited by Nobody - 7/20/2009 at 01:47 pm GMT

Glad you're getting out there with your sweetie!
Enjoy!

 just picked up a new whip for myself which has recharged my mtb stoke.  i'm all about the hardtail - and for the east coast of the US, its a rare one - a brodie. 

no riding pics yet, but its been great so far.  trails have been too wet to ride, but the surf has been good, so this summer has been good to me so far.

the new whip:


how the surf has been.  recent dawn patrol:

sick bike man. If you ever find yourself in Price, Utah meet up with this guy



his name is fuzzy and he loves brodies. Let me spin around his all mountian hardtail alittle bit and they seem like really fun bikes.

I started mountain biking a bit last summer and more this summer.  I've done about a dozen rides on singletrack, I think.  I don't like getting hurt, although falling is part of the sport.

My solution: armor.  I know I probably look silly in knee/shin guards on XC trails, but I don't care.  It means I can crash hard and get up and walk away.  And I can run flat pedals with pins and not worry about shinburger.  I also wind up taking more chances, which is how you learn. 

Thanks Acro, I think that armour is certainly to be considered, at least for elbows and knee/shins, also on my part.
Alas, without entering too much into details, let's say that not all of her "exposed parts" were of the "armour-able" sort...