Tubeless Tinkering

My good friend and riding compadre, Jason Spangles has been busying himself making all kinds of useful bike kit out of spare bits of metal. In preparation for our upcoming races he's gone all tubeless using an antique extinguisher to pump his rubber. Check it out....

... Here!

Annadel - 71810

Bike Monkey Magazine recently announced they’re organising a XC race to be held at Annadel in September. Another race on home turf! We decided to prepare by hitting Annadel State Park this past weekend. We, being myself, Jase, Aaron and Scott. We also bumped into our old riding compadre Jaime in the car park who joined in for a while. Our last ride here was a complete wash out – literally. We hit the top of Marsh and the heaven’s opened. Our riding gear was totally inappropriate so we cut the ride short. Skip forward a few months into the baking heat and the whole place is dried to dust. Perfect!

We started out climbing Canyon towards the base of the Marsh trail. A relatively gentle climb made tough by the blistering heat. We continued up Marsh and made our way to Lawndale. A varied trail with a good mix of technical, rocky sections but always fast and sweeping. We had to spread out from each other to stop the dust clouds masking jeopardy. As Jason put it “at one point all I was doing was chasing dust and a shadow.”

After the grin inducing Lawndale we hit some more technical climbing towards Ridge. It’s been long enough since I’d ridden here to notice I was hitting these sections with far more confidence and skill than before. I put that down to time well spent climbing Tamarancho’s technical sections. Ridge trail was, once again, epic and sweeping. Very rocky in sections but the Nomad, as always, ploughed through where a delicate line couldn’t be threaded.

We finished the ride with a spirited blast back down Marsh and Canyon towards the carpark. Always a great way to end a day’s shredding at Annadel. One of the many things I love about the trails here is the descents. They’re long, fast and rocky with plenty of up-ahead visibility. You can hit the cranks and leave off the anchors with full abandon. The climbs are satisfying too – blistering heat aside. They never get that steep and the payoff seems to go on for miles. I’m coming to really appreciate the all-mountain geometry and set up of the Nomad too. It’s made for trails like this and eats them up when I have the confidence to let it.

The day’s riding was satisfying and fun, but not without its casualties. Scott’s front tyre was near to disintegrating the whole time. Haemorrhaging tubeless goo we slipped a tube in there, but he still had to ride with caution. Which pretty much meant the Trail Genie rode at a pace closer to us mere mortals. Aaron’s bike switched to single speed halfway through as his derailleur cable broke. I too had gear issues, but a quick lesson in bike maintenance from Spangles and they were good as new. I did get heat stroke though. A wicked combination of not quite enough water in the camel sack and the Santa Rosa sun cooked my brain to a medium rare. Still, good conditioning for the upcoming So No Mas ride….. 35 miles and 8000ft on shadeless trails in 100 degree + heat!??!? In a sick way, I can’t wait!

Thurs Night Ride 71510

Another cracking night ride in the bag. This time it was me and Aaron catching the dying rays of the evening sun whilst shredding around 'rancho. Aubrey had been riding in a dirt crit the evening before, and I was still somewhat Downieville fatigued. But tired legs were soon forgotten as we put rubber to dirt. Great fun. And a fine prelude to this coming weekend's Annadel ride!

Catchin' the Zeitgeist

Check out Eric's Downieville race report over on the Zeitgeist blog. I've ridden with these fine fellas on occasion. They're always knocking around the race scene in their fetching bunny outfits:

Zeitgeist Downvieville Race Report

Up in Downieville

This could be a very short blog post. I could summarise my Downieville XC race experience with one word - Incredible. And that would be almost enough. I'd pop a few black and whites on here and that'd be that. But I feel compelled to expand. If only to serve as a reminder to myself of how amazing this past weekend's adventure really was. PS.... I didn't get many pictures during the race. Normally I grab a few shots whilst hanging onto a tree, trying not to faint and/or vomit whilst forcing more electrolytes down my gullet to satiate the cramps. However, during this race, I simply didn't have the time :o)

So, on the Friday me and Spangles hit the road with various choices of cycle wear, scooby snacks and painstakingly detailed rides. We arrived in Downieville, grabbed some carbage and watched the town get set for the next day's event whilst we ate. The town had been transformed into a race village with banners and sponsor tents covering the streets. The atmosphere was near electric. We all knew we were in for a treat the next day.

Saturday, we got up early and took the short ride to Sierra City for the race start. After a bit of warming up and chatting to like minded folks, it was time to saddle up and jostle with the other sport category dudes. 9:35 arrives - and we start the epic 29 mile Downieville Classic Cross Country Race! Now, I'd been looking forward to this race for quite a while. More importantly I'd trained for it. Up to now, I've enjoyed the racing as an extension to my regular riding activities. They've been a good opportunity to ride harder and longer on trails I wouldn't normally hit. But I've been resigned to the fact that my skills and fitness would always mean the rides were extremely hard and that I'd never really be competitive. And that's been fine. Perfectly enjoyable and satisfying. But for some reason I wanted this one to be different. I wanted to see if I could get over the self imposed plateau and actually do well. So we've been doing rides specifically targeted at weaknesses and riding harder to build up some racing grit. Did it pay off? As we started the 3000ft, 8 mile ascent, I was about to find out.

Mile 1 is paved road. Mile 2 - you hit dirt. By mile 3 you're pushing your steed uphill with everyone else. Fortunately the pushing was shortlived. Back in the saddle and spinning the granny gear we snaked our way through the beautiful Sierras. But something was different. My pace was no longer being set by my fitness. It was being set by the throng in front. When opportunity presented I tapped into my plentiful reserves and overtook. Mile 4 came and went with water and goodies - I declined and kept on. Before I knew it, we were being offered bacon and margheritas (?!?!?) at the 8 mile aid station. This wasn't an exhaustion induced sight either. I was fine. The climb had taken place mainly in the shade - which helped. But putting mileage into climbs over the last few weeks clearly helped more.

The first section of singletrack is a rolling, bermed track through felled trees. Some neat technicals, switchbacks and jumps warm the kung fu up a treat. Next, its onto the famous baby head rocks. Now, this section is almost a blur. Partly because the vibration renders you senseless, but also because it was so... much... fun! I exclaimed - out loud - on more than one occasion "this bike is awesome!" And the first time those words escaped me was here. The baby head section is so freakin' fast. Big boulders, drops, ruts, loose shale.... What the Nomad didn't plough through aggressively it would skip over with amazing grace. A raking head angle, 6 inches front and back + loooong fast rocky sections of trail = ENORMOUS FUN!

Once you hit Gold Valley and cross the creek its onto the Pauley Creek trail. 17 miles of blissfull singletrack. Fast, at times sketchy and full of huge drops and hurdles that come out of nowhere. But you don't have time to plan a route or strategise. You're going way too fast and having too good a time. So I let the Nomad do its thing and employed some confidence to hammer the cranks and push on. I really only stopped a couple of times. The first one, a steep drop, I could've easily taken but for the two dismounted dudes picking their way down on foot. The second, a blunt wall that appears immediately after a blind bend. Doable if you're prepared but impossible for those of us without Jedi reflexes. But everything else I tackled with ever growing confidence. Looking ahead of the sketchy stuff, trusting that my brain had done the maths and my rig would fill in the blanks. Getting giddy everytime I skipped by some other dude who'd balked and decided to dismount. This was awesome!

After this epic trail, it was time for some more climbing. Up to the Third Divide trailhead. A full on downhill section covered in magic carpet to help with the sketchier sections. By now my brain was overloaded with riding joy. Blissed out at what had been - by far, my best ride ever. After this final descent, we hit the road into downtown Downieville to be greeted by a cheering crowd and a well earned beer!

The rest of the weekend was spent enjoying the festival, sun and spectacle. My time? Based on past performance I was expecting anything up to 5 hours. Definitely over 4 hours. I pulled into Downieville just shy of 3 hours 38 minutes. The longest race I've done and the quickest time I've ridden by quite a margin. It's added fuel to my already burning passion for the sport. I still have a ways to go. Next year I want to finish in less than 3 and a half hours for a start. But I'm feeling the rewards from hard work - and a few hard falls. I can't wait to keep hitting the trails, working hard, and seeing what next year's race brings.

July 4th Weekender

I did think about calling this post “Return of the Shredi” but I need to nip these lame film puns in the bud right now. However, I would’ve had good reason. As we approached a particularly Endor-esque trail Jason turned to me and exclaimed “if I don’t see any Ewoks on this trail I’m gonna be pissed!” Yep, it was a three day weekend and whilst our American hosts were off celebrating their independence, we decided to escape foggy SF and hit the trails!

I'd taken my Nomad down to Santa Cruz on the Saturday to get a pre-Downieville tune up sorted out. On Sunday me and Spangles decided to hit Skeggs to get some pre-race training in. In fact this was my first time riding there with the new bike so I was excited to hit the technical trails and fast descents with 6 inches of plush suspension at my disposal. Also, Skeggs has some brutal climbing so we knew a good training session would be achieved. We weren't wrong.

We took our, now usual, route of Fir, Resolution, North Leaf and South Leaf. We also looped back to hit Giant Salamander. A great mixture of challenging technical descents, ascents, singletrack and some epic fast double track. South Leaf is becoming my preferred trail of choice. Its full of jumps and whoop de doo's and nice railed corners but its reasonably wide and has grassy banks either side of the trail so you can safely allow the mental mist to cloud you and haul ass! ..... Great fun.

The price for all this fun? The climb back out. We took Timberview to Salamander. Man, Timberview is a cruel beast. It's steep, almost too steep to keep pedaling, but then it will level out just enough to pull the heart rate back from the redline and allow for a little recovery before the next assault. Yep, this trail is nature's own Divisadero Street. However, we were once again rewarded at the top with the Giant Salamander. I'd ridden this trail before, but the other way - ie climbing it. This time we were taking the fun route. Salamander has some really nice big, rolling jumps. But it also has an equally big abyss to one side of the trail. So caution, or at least the brake, has to be applied every now and again.

The fun was short lived however. We still had the climb out. For some reason we ignored the relatively forgiving Methusela and took the Fir route out. This trail is a fun descent, but a brutal climb. Steep and rutted it tests both cadence and patience. Once out, we took the short, fun Sierra Morena section back to the car. A lasting reminder of how great and varied this place is - and why it won't be the last time I'll be taking the Nomad south for some dirt.

Monday I met up with Aaron and Scott for a late afternoon session at Tamarancho. The weather was beautiful. Sunny, but not stifling. The light was great. Trail - bone dry. An epic ride was forecast and we were not let down. Well, Scott's tyre was. It flatted halfway round. Other than that we had a great ride. We took 'Rancho counter clockwise. This is fast becoming my new favourite way to ride the place. I'll always love hitting the B-17 trail descent, but climbing it means you get to descend Serpentine. Also, the Wagon Wheel rock garden is a goood challenge on the climb. I also had the pleasure of Scott riding my tail - making dog/mountain lion noises to inspire me to ride harder. All in all, a great way to spend the penultimate weekend's riding before traveling North to Downieville. Stay tuned!

Night of the Living Shred

Went for a ride to Tamarancho with Rosson and his buddies last night. Jase, Sam and Rich are all Cat 1 demons so I knew it would be a tough ride. It didn't help that I had mechanicals to deal with either. So for the most part I didn't see them - except for the sections where they'd graciously wait for me to catch up. Or I'd catch a glimpse of twinkling helmet light off in the distance. These boys ride hard and fast. But it was a great training ride. We started up Alchemist and straight up the B17 extension, took a left up the fireroad and climbed a little way to a great lookout point to briefly catch the dying embers of the day's sun. Then it was time to fire up the nightlights and tear back through Tamarancho.

Night riding is such a great experience. Its a totally different way of riding. You can't help but be wide-eyed and super sensitive to the terrain, the movement of the bike, bats flying at your full tilt.... everything. Its great for skills training. Especially at Tamarancho which is such a technical track. And riding with these fellas is a hard lesson in bike fitness too. Hopefully we'll get another nocturnal session in before Downieville.

Tam' Slam...

....Well, not quite a slam. But we did get slammed by the heat. As Scott so eloquently put it "I feel like a bug in a jar right now..." Yep, it was the weekend and time for more dirt riding. I met up with Aaron and Scott in Mill Valley, mid Sunday morning. Our plan was to replicate a ride we'd done a few weeks before and climb Mount Tamalpais. Its been a while since I've ridden with these lads. Aaron took a school trip tumble a while ago and popped his shoulder so has only just started riding again.

We ended up taking a different route to last time. The heat was killer so we needed to find fun without so much of the climb. The vertical itself isn't so brutal, but when you're breathing from an open oven door it tends to deplete the energy and spirit. En route we passed one poor soul "calling to dinosaurs" - (copyright A.Aubrey 2010.) Still, we hit the very top of Mount Tam and headed on our giddy way back down to the railroad grade trail.

don't recall what trails we took. But I do recall the speed we took them at! Scott is like a genie on the trails - all you see is a puff of smoke (or at least trail dust) and he's gone! The trail started out full of baby head rocks - made me appreciate the plushness of 6inch travel - and eventually evened out to steep rutted fireroad. Great fun. Made more so by my recent addition to the MTB arsenal - eyesight! Yep, I wore my contacts for the first time and it made a big difference. No longer was I focused 3 feet in front of the front tire. Now I could confidently look down the trail and let the bike and body instinct do it's thing.

We finished our ride with a spirited run back to Mill Valley and then onto the Marin Brewco for burgers and beers. Perfect. I'm already looking forward to the next Lemurian Brother's reunion ride!

Over the Bridge

Its the countdown to Downieville, so in anticipation me and Spangles decided to get some mileage and footage under our wheels this weekend. Downieville starts with a brutal climb. I'd been googletubing videos in the week and simply watching was enough to make my legs tremble. Fun shredding would have to wait. We needed to feel some pain!

With this in mind we decided we should hit the Marin headland trails. I'd heard good things about this area and, on paper, it looked like a good, long ride with some nice steep climbing. Its also very close to home so we could roadie style it from my place. After a quick fuel up at the Chestnut Bakery (great coffee) we were ready. Riding over the GG Bridge is made a little more technical by dodging all the tourists and road bikers. But its a good way to warm up. By the time we hit dirt we'd already covered 8 miles.

We took the coastal road down to Bunker road and hit the Rodeo trail before bearing right onto the Bobcat trail. The first of several long climbs taking us back up to 1000ft or so above sea level. From there we rode to the Tennessee Valley Trailhead and picked up the Coastal Trail. The flavour of the day was to be climb, descend, climb, descend - and repeat. This was perfect.

The Coastal Trail is closed to bikes on certain sections which is a shame - but understandable given the number of pensioners and toddlers en route. That kinda technical I don't want to deal with. So we took the coastal fireroad to bypass (and add some more climbing) and then re-connected near Muir Beach. This short section of the Coastal Trail gave a cruel taste of how fun it COULD be.... lots of ruts and whoop de doo's .... but lots of families and rogue dogs. So we had to exercise restraint. Maybe a mid-week or early morning session is in order to really take advantage of this place...

Once we hit the trail to Muir Beach, we peeled off to the Green Gulch trail. Through the Zen centre and then onto a nice, steep technical climb. This one caused my all too familiar cramping and burnout to kick in. But a couple of minutes rest and some Sharkies later I was good to go. Before it gets really brutal, the terrain levels out and the heart rate goes back to normal. Once we cleared Green Gulch, we stopped to sort some mechanical issues and scoff scooby snacks before the climb up Coyote and on to the Miwok trail. Now, Miwok is fuuuun! Deep ruts, lots of jumps and - thankfully - few hikers. It even throws a few tight switchbacks at you to keep things interesting. My technique was a little less than fluid on a few of the jumps and I hit a few smack on the front side. But it was no bother to the Nomad's stride. 6 inches of travel will do a lot to smooth out shabby trail riding. Speaking of which, with all the climbing we were doing I really noticed how great the pro-pedal is. Its only once you unhinge the Nomad's plush suspension do you realise just how firmed up the arse end is by the pro-pedal. Impressive stuff. But I digress.

So, we'd had our fun. Back to the meat of this ride ; climbing. Our descent had taken us to the Tennessee Valley trail head. Now we needed to head back up to the Bobcat trail. A quick before and after Garmin check verified my guestimate - we had a good 1000ft of straight climbing ahead. No worries. By now, we were 25 odd miles in and feeling pretty good. I'd been playing with a new pedaling technique all day which seemed to be reaping rewards. I normally just huff and puff and stab my feet south to get through the climbs. But the Nomad is an unforgiving beast when it comes to climbing. She's no slouch, but she aint no mountain goat either. So better technique was called for. I focused on using my upper legs to "kick and scrape" through the pedal cycle. It feels a little strange, but works a treat. Every time I nailed it, my cadence got faster, smoother and less strenuous. But its not quite hardwired yet. I need to work on making it my default stroke - especially when the going gets tough and steep.

Anyway, all these thoughts of technique and analysis are going through my head as I spin the granny gear up the climb. Like all the ascents that day, the grade wasn't steep enough to warrant resting - "no one got stronger from stopping" I kept chanting to myself. But it was long enough and intense enough to lay down some solid foundations for Downieville and beyond - I hope.

We hit Bobcat and rode back to Rodeo and onto Bunker road for the climb out, back to the bridge. Just in time too as my camel sack was run dry and we'd finished the last of the scooby snacks. Riding past the tourists gathered at the look outs, I took stock of all the epic views we'd seen that day - A fringe benefit of enjoying our sport and something I'd otherwise miss out on. Another good reason to get out and ride :o)

After five and half hours, 36 miles and 5500ft of climbing, we arrived back in the city. Confident we'd reap the rewards of our graft later. But also aware that we'll need to get a couple more sessions like that under out belts to make Downieville as pain free and fun as possible.

Orange

No "real" riding this weekend. Just a treck around San Fran on my trusty Orange hardtail. The P7 really is the perfect city bike. Yeah, its a bit heavy but it climbs the hills of this place no problem. And those lovely big, flat DMR V10's are a great platform for urban riding. I finished up riding on the trails near the Golden gate Bridge. Gentle single track, but great views. I did briefly consider kitting the P7 out with some panniers or a rack to add some practicality to these city jaunts. But then I remembered the countless trail miles I'd ridden on this bike, including a few races, and decided she wasn't ready to be put out to pasture just yet. ;o)

6610 : Tamarancho Dirt Classic

The weekend of the 6th June saw me, Spangles and Rosson head to familiar territory for the Tamarancho Dirt Classic race. Car mechanicals and sunburn conspired to halt me and Spangles in our pursuit of dirt but thanks to Rosson giving us the keys to his truck, and aloe vera, the day was on! Now, I've said this (to myself) time and time again ; always, always carry a spare pair of gloves in your camelsack. Always. That was a lesson well learned at Napa. Not going to make the same mistake again. Nope, this time I won't bring ANY gloves with me instead. What a fool. I left all FOUR PAIRS of my gloves in the truck. Something I realised 20 minutes before the start and after 2 miles of climbing from the carpark....... My lizard skins were already dripping with sweat. This was not a good start. Luckily, lady MTB luck decided to step in, or at least Jason's mate did, and handed me a pair of fingerless gloves for the duration. Sorted.

After limbering up in the gorgeous sunshine and chatting to a few locals (including a fellow Sheffielder who, at 49, didn't look a day over his mid 30's - a great advert for riding and Cali' weather) we were all set! The race was to take in most of the regular Tamarancho loop with a few additions. The direction of travel was oppposite to what I'm used to riding which threw up a few pleasant suprises. The tough, tight switchbacks normally tackled on the climb are great fun on the way down. And the infamous Rock is far more manageable when riding down it's imposing face. It shone new light on an old friend, but I still had enough local knowledge to know when to keep my kung fu wits about me.

The main difference between the race and the regular Tamarancho loop was the inclusion of the Dead Heffer climb. I'm not entirely sure were it got it's name. But, it feels strangely appropriate. Your, once nimble feeling, bike soon feels like a hellish dead cow when you're at the pushing stage which - for me, was not long into the race. I did have a decent ride though. Really had my wits about me and enjoyed the flow of Tamarancho's perfectly groomed single track. The switchbacks were especially satisfying... keep off the front brake, let the bike track through, use momentum, point the bike and it'll go, use the back brake to skid out the rear a little - nice!

But the climbing killed me. Especially as we had to do the Dead Heffer climb 3 times. Three!?!?! There's a special place in hell for the person who thought that would be a fun addition to the race. The first climb was a "warm up!" After that we proceeded, heads bowed and panting, to push our steeds up it's unforgiving fireroad. Well no amount of sugary goodness in my camelsack could save my legs from fading fast. And then the cramps kicked in...... So any chance of a decent time was screwed. But this didn't stop me enjoying the course and the general atmosphere. There really is no better way to spend a sunny Sunday than riding hard in the company of fellow MTB enthusiasts. Although the day wasn't without its casualties. Navigating tight switchbacks and baby head rocks with the flutter of a rescue helicopter's blades in your ear is a visceral reminder of the dangers of this sport.

Still, we finished the race, a little more sunkissed, tired and happy. Spangles did a great job. The times haven't been posted as I write this, but he finished a good half hour ahead of me. A cracking job for his first race. We're doing Downieville next month. I think we (ok, I) need to get some conditioning in to cope with the climbing. Maybe a Mt Diablo ride is on the cards....

May's End 2010

During the memorial day weekend me and Spangles took a trip to Mikes Bikes in San Rafael for a snoop around. Whilst there, idly perusing the magazines and energy beans I spotted a poster for the Tamarancho Dirt Classic MTB race. In my head, I thought the race was at least a few weeks away..... but on closer inspection (ie, reading the details properly) I realised it takes place during the first weekend of June. Ie, next weekend. So, instead of spending this particularly leisurely long weekend taking pictures like this :

I decided I really ought to be out on the trails getting some mileage in. So me and Spangles decided to tool up and head to China Camp for some much needed shredding. China Camp gets several mentions on this blog. And with good reason. Its such a great place to ride. Swooping, fast trails and some fun stuff to session when you feel like it -ie, the Nike drops at the top of the dyno' climb*

I had hoped to get a cheeky Tamarancho session in before the weekend was out, but a creaky hub put paid to that idea. The Nomad is currently in the shop having this seen to. They're also dialing in my suspension for me. I wonder if they can dial in these (still) bruised ribs while they're at it.

* Dyno climb ..... strangely pleasant.

Quantum of Solstice

I've been MTB riding for exactly two years now. For the most part I've enjoyed leisurely weekend rides with good mates on my Orange hard tail - no dramas, just good fun and fitness to boot. Moving to Cali' has inspired me to be a better rider. The trails out here really deserve no less. I apsire to ride with more finesse, definitely more speed and with enough skill to elevate me above the weekend rambler level that I feel stuck at right now. I've been riding with highly skilled people, signing up for races and devouring MTB literature in the hopes that my abilities would improve. So, I'm at a point now where I know where I want to be and I know where I deffinitely am at. The problem is there's an aching chasm between the two. Each weekend spent trying to bridge it inevitably leads to swapping some DNA with the trail and nursing another harsh lesson through to the next ride. (For the record, this week's injury is nice set of bruised ribs.) Still, all I can do is learn from the mistakes and take it to the trail the next time. Oh, and keep buying new bits of body armour.

The penultimate weekend before my 33rd birthday. The weather in Marin is beautiful. Perfect conditions to hit Tamarancho for a quick spin before being introduced to pastures new - the Solstice trail. Me, Jason Spangles and my good friend Jason Rosson met up at a teeming Fairfax java hut on the sunday. Us and dozens of roadies and dirties all getting limbered up for a solid day's riding. Solstice was heavily anticipated. Jason usually rides it at night with his hardcore downhill buddies, so we knew it was going to be tough. But I looked forward to the challenge on my (still) new Nomad.

Tamarancho was its usual mix of fun and technical challenges. It was Spangles' first time riding there. He's also doing the Dirt Classic so it was good for him to get a taster for the terrain. Once we'd ridden most of the loop, we headed out along B-17 and Porcupine towards the start of the Solstice climb. Porcupine really is a great way to end a Tamarancho session. A good way to give the legs one final stretch and to warm down the bike kung fu on the lovely sweeping singletrack.

The climb to the Solstice trail head is borderline brutal. Borderline in that its very long.... veeery long, but its a constant grade. So once you find a good cadence you really have no excuses but to push on and enjoy the view. Rosson - with his single speed legs - soon left me and Spangles behind. We eventually caught him at the top. Whilst we took in the stunning Bay Area panorama, Jason - a veteran of this climb, tinkered with pixel pets on his iphone.

We'd climbed for a reason. We were about to meet that reason. Rosson is an excellent rider. And he's a good guy too. Always happy to offer advice and tips to help your skills. His best advice of the day (appart from his post ride pub suggestion) was to use speed for stability. This is advice I knew well. Coupled with confidence, speed will get you through many a sketchy moment. But its hard to apply it 100% of the time. My problem was, I decided to disregard it at the exact moment that we crossed a ditch. Target fixation, not enough momentum, thinking about what might happen instead of where I wanted to put the bike - all school boy errors which led to me falling, ribs first, into said ditch (at a -40% grade - thanks for that handy piece of info my Garmin friend.)

All this was before we'd hit the scary stuff. By now, my mettle was well and truly shaken. But we cracked on. A few stumbles and a nosebleed were had, but nothing major. The waterfall section of Solstice is where Jason's friends strap on armour. That gave me and Spangles some idea of what was to come. In truth, I wasn't really feeling it. I rode part of the steep, rutted stuff, but played it safe and walked down the really sketchy sections. It left me frustrated at myself, but keen to come back and tackle it with fresh confidence.

Its not hard to be taken out of your comfort zone in this sport. That's a big part of the appeal for me. But I need to get some confidence sessions in to up my game. Momentum and confidence. Sounds simple when you write it down, but its amazing how fragile those words become when you're poised at the top of a trail that will either lead to a huge grin or a night in A&E. For now, I'm checking out body armour online and hoping my ribs heal before the next weekend's ride.

Spangles Knows His Onions.....

Leafing through my iPhone pictures I came across these little beauties. Taken on a fairly un-blog worthy ride a couple of weeks ago up in Santa Rosa We were all set for a day's riding in the sun, but mother Annadel had other ideas and decided to turn our sunny climb into a quagmire descent. We were completely ill prepared against the cold and wet but, Jason just happened to have his onion goggles with him. After my experience at Napa a few weeks before, I'd always fancied a pair of onion goggles. I was convinced they were the perfect solution to MTB mud and rain riding ; clear eye protection with absorbant matte black sponge creating a seal against the fizzog. So we made the best of a bad ride and let Jase guinea pig them for us. Result? They don't work. Still,that shouldn't stop us from enjoying the sight of Spangles styling them out on the trail.

Henry W Coe State Park

So, I bought this book here and started ear marking trails that I want to hit over the summer. Three routes are suggested for Henry Coe state park. I picked the hardest looking one and hit the road out towards San Jose way with Jason Spangles and our rides. We didn't know exactly what to expect but felt well prepared with our guide book and route maps. The terrain was 70% single track stretching for 16.8 miles with about 3000 feet of climbing. All figures I hoped to verify on my new Garmin Edge 500. A nifty piece of kit that I paired with a heart rate monitor. The Garmin appeals to the inner Knight Rider fan who wants their bike to tell them how fast, far and high they're going - as well as giving a friendly beep when approaching cardiac arrest. After a couple of mechanical issues (notably a burst camel sack) and equipment/gadget checking, we headed out into the wilderness.

Now, I'll start this record by stating that the book has the whole route arse backwards. I'm relatively new to mountain biking Norcal style, so I'm by no means an expert, but I always thought single track was fun to ride DOWN and fire road was bearable to ride UP...... Not according to our trusty route master book. Unfortunately, for all its sophisticated GPS intel, my Garmin couldn't warn us of this. Our fate was set. And so it was, in the baking Californian heat - with compromised water supply - we rode into Henry Coe to tackle its 70% worth of uphill single track.

Now, don't get me wrong, Henry Coe is a great place to spend the weekend. It has beautiful lakes and epic vista views..... But these days I only care about "epic" when it's in the same sentence as "trail". The single track climb was relentless and frustrating. We both found it hard to keep a steady cadence and kept getting outwitted by soul sapping steep ascents and devilish switchbacks. Once you finally reach the top (after several false summits) you have a few reasonable downhill sections, but its mainly just fire road. A good place to practice some bike skills, and for me to allow my new avids to break in, but not enough grin factor to make you forget about the heavy slogg getting there.

Still, it was good training for Downieville (our route was slightly longer than the book's 16.8 miles - we were closer to 22 miles.) AND we managed to avoid the parks famous inhabitants - Tarantulas! ...... Glad I knew about those fellas AFTER I sprawled about in the long grass trying to get cool pictures for this feckin' blog!

I rounded the weekend off with a short loop around Tamarancho. We have the dirt classic coming up very soon so I wanted to work on my switchback and technical skills. Tamarancho has some outstanding terrain. The single track really is quite amazing and its very easy to be whisked along and forget how demanding it is. Well, on this day I was reminded with a bump. Towards the end of the ride I lost concentration - and a lot of elbow skin - to another lesson learned : keep your weight balanced and centred and focus on the trail. Oh, and if you have elbow pads - they're really no use sitting in the car......

Weapon of Choice

So, May started off the way any birthday month should start - the purchase of a new ride! I've spent the past year researching what full suss' bike to get. I looked at the Yeti 575, a couple of Treks, the Blur.... all sensible XC bikes that would serve my purposes adequately. However I'd always get drawn back to the Santa Cruz Nomad. Something about it made me want to ride it. The raking head angle, burly frame and graceful geometry arcs just look great. I've tried to justify the choice to myself and others by saying things like "the 6 inch travel will give me confidence to ride harder and faster.. blah de blah" but the simple truth is, I think it's one hell of a sexy looking piece of hardware. And I wanted it.

I picked it up from the Family Cycle Centre in Santa Cruz. A very nice, and knowledgeable bunch of folks. I chose the X9 build kit with a couple of upgrades. I flirted with the idea of the new carbon frame, but decided to rein in my spending. The SRAM X9 build on the aluminium frame isn't exactly featherweight, but I'm used to heaving my cromo steel Orange up slopes so I figured it'd be ok. I went for a Chris King headset and the Fox DHX 5.0 air shock. I also chose the Lyric solo air fork option. Powdercoat black. Crank Brothers Acid pedals and, to top it all off, a Gravity Dropper Classic seatpost.

The Nomad's maiden ride was to be at China Camp state park in Marin. A favourite playground of mine full of nice, sweeping single track and some decent, rutted downhill. There's also a cheeky selection of near vertical drops next to the rocket launch pad to test your mettle kung fu (which we did - all of them - with the Nomad barely hitting the full 6 inches of it's silky smooth compression.)

It's going to take me a while to dial the Nomad in. I need to get used to the feel of full suspension and longer travel before I can tune it to perfection. But I'm totally smitten. Racing down twisty-turny singletrack, is a dream like waltz. Every subtle shift is transmitted through the geometry allowing for tiny balance corrections to be dialed back in. However, when things get sketchy, you can use the Nomad's as a brutal, blunt instrument to carve through and sort it itself out to safety. Both these qualities instill an enormous sense of confidence both in the bike and the trail. I've never ridden as well or with as much enjoyment as I did the first time I took this elegant brute out. Roll on the weekend!