Sunday, May 31, 2009

Noble Canyon video

Check it out, Taylor and me ripping (or gently massaging) some desert singletrack...

Monday, May 25, 2009

Kentucky Camp, Arizona

On my life-long quest to cross off all the IMBA epics on my to-ride list, I took advantage of being in southern California (it's not a tumor!) to head over to southern Arizona to seek out the Kentucky Camp epic ride. Nestled among old mining camps just next to the Mexican border, it included part of the state-long Arizona Trail. Arizona. Home of some of the best mountain biking on the planet, from the mountains of Flagstaff to the red rock of Sedona, and the desert trails of Tuscon.


I recommend Belgians to post this sign along their dutch border:


Stupid me had a slow breakfast and even slower preparation, so that by the time I started it was almost 40 degrees (over 100). I had the camelback full of ice cubes and plenty of food to keep me going.


But food and water was not going to be my biggest obstacle. Being in a network of trails and roads meant that following any directions or maps would be nearly impossible. I had to stop about 10 times in the first hour, and just barely missed getting hopelessly lost. Not appealing in a country full of rattler snakes, scorpions, and tarantulas. Ok, call me a softie. But a GPS and even better yet a ride leader is the way to go out here.


The riding was, of course, fantastic. Rocky jeep trails mixed with high desert singletrack. Loose soil and rocks to keep you honest. Big climbs, big descents...it was awesome. At one point the trail came out into a area hit by wildfires within the last couple years. The vegetation was just starting to recover.


The singletrack (tasty as it was) made a pretty clean trail through the damaged area.


And the cacti proved to be stronger than the flames.


The area wound through some old mining areas, there were flume trails, old houses, and old mining machinery here and there. Kinda cool.


With time limitations, heat, and map issues, I had to cut my ride short. Which means, I'll be back.

Life's major decisions

Breakfast in Arizona, before a big ride. Torn between two classics:

The Donut:


Or the Waffle:


In the end I opted for waffles. The breakfast of champignons.

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Early morning on Ivan's trail

Spent a Sunday at Ivan's, he got me up bright and early at 6 (who gets up at 6 on a Sunday??) to go and ride. After a cup of coffee we threw the bikes in the truck and headed to the trailhead.


In the end, it was the best time to be out, clear and beautiful skies, perfect weather, nice and quiet on the trails. It was the first time to take the belgian 29er and I must say it performed admirably, going up and going down.


We made it back in time to cook up some breakfast burritos. Perfect morning.

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Noble Canyon, SD

In my quest to ride all the IMBA epics, a trip to nearby Noble Canyon came to be long overdue. Just 45 minutes from downtown San Diego, it's supposed to be one of the best rides in California, or possibly the US.


It was also my first ride south of LA, and too much road biking was bringing me down. So my colleage Taylor and I headed out early one saturday morning to tame the beast.


Any epic ride worth its weight in salt will feature lots of climbing, in my opinion. Noble didn't let us down. 5km of steep climbing was a good warm-up, thank goodness it was paved...


This led to a long single track climb that was technical and challenging. Loooong singletrack.


But this led of course to sweet desserts. After a short descent that led to another climb, we were welcomed to some sublime forested singletrack, Smooth, buttery sections were broken up by technical rock gardens.


After a while the trail cam out into some open, rocky desert single track. Super fun, this rolled up and down for almost 30 minutes, keeping you on your toes with tricky bedrock sections and some short little climbs. The last section back to the car was a roller coster of fast, buffed out singletrack, broken up by big rocks that could throw you from your bike. I must say the belgian 29er did admirably on this ride, where normally I would want to have 5" of front and rear travel.


Of course, we're in the US, so it should come as no surprise when a man comes walking down the trail with a big gun...


But usually he doesn't bring his family with him. Ah, the US...

Sunday, May 3, 2009

The 29er gets a face-lift

Bringing the belgian 29er to the US was a big risk.  Would it be able to survive the tough desert trails of southern california?  Would it be too racy for the laid back west coast?  I decided if I was going to ride this thing, I needed to give it a bit of a visual update.  So take a look...

Yes that's right, a white bar and stem, and white grips.  That's right you gram-counters, it weighs a bit more, but you know what?  It looks soooo good.  And what's really more important here?

Let's see how it looks outside.  Even better.  Now it's fit for california.