Bike Peddler » Corner Canyon http://bikepeddlerutah.com American Fork's favorite bike shop Thu, 09 Sep 2010 06:23:45 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 Psycho-Cross http://bikepeddlerutah.com/2009/08/psycho-cross/ http://bikepeddlerutah.com/2009/08/psycho-cross/#comments Thu, 20 Aug 2009 03:02:00 +0000 Joshua tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1846558422594797389.post-9198681542513759735 No, I have never ridden a cross bike on anything other than a cross race. Thank you for asking. Also, I have been riding a five inch travel bike all summer, with a Camelbak, and 2.4" tires. And baggy shorts, and hairy legs. Okay, I still have hairy legs, but I did get all decked out in spandex for the occasion. Mostly out of fear that I would have to dismount suddenly, and I didn't want to catch my baggies on the seat and die.
From the end of Hog Hollow Road, we set out. Nate, Sally, Retro Bill, and Riley. Oh, did I mention that I talked Riley into riding his cross bike too? More on that later.
The first few hundred yards were a little disconcerting. Much rougher than a five-inch full-suspension bike in case your wondering. But I settled in and grabbed the low gears to climb Hog's. No granny gear on this bike, but I do have a compact crankset(36T). How'd it climb.
Here is a photo of me at the top of Hog's..............It was frickin' awesome. The taller gears forced me to go faster to keep up my momentum, and the rigid frame was efficient as hell so it all went to the wheels. It just felt.....fast. This is the best I have felt for weeks on a bike. Maybe it's just because I was on a new bike, or maybe it's because that bike is seven pounds lighter than the one I've been riding, or maybe it's because I was in spandex(Crossdressing?), or maybe it's because I finally got to the top of a hill in the front of the pack for once. Either way, it's a blast to climb dirt on. Interestingly, the skinny little tires grab like crazy on off camber stuff. Much better than any fatties I've ever ridden. I found myself looking for sketchy ruts to try it on.
In fact, it climbed so well, I just kept going up to the top of Jacob's Ladder. Looking back, that wasn't a very wise choice. Because by going up Jacob's I would most likely have to come down Jacob's.
Riley's climb was not so glorious. You see, he caught a really bad case of IBoughtASingleSpeedCrossBikeItis from Ryan, which in and of itself isn't so bad. But, he is so burly, that when he puts a lot of torque on that single gear, the rear of his bike flexes, and the chain comes off. Not a convenient thing to have happen. He is currently re-thinking his life choices. So he turned around and went back the way we came. He does win coolest bar-tape award though. Twenty year old green and purple Vetta tape. It's the dope show.
And Sally had taken a different route so she wouldn't have to see me in Spandex anymore.
I figured, "how bad could it be?". It was pretty bad. 35mm tires at 90 or so psi aren't meant to take rocky ledge drops. Oh, but at least there are cantilever brakes being operated by road bike levers. Upper Jacob's Ladder was pretty damn scary. But, I made it, without putting a foot down. Okay, I made it with only one over-the-bars tumble. But it was into soft sand, so not a biggy.
Lower Jacob's was better, though the tight switchbacks were a little tough with those big ol' 700c wheels(read 29er). And I did discover another thing about the larger diameter wheels. At least with narrow drop bars, if you hit anything sideways, you are on the losing end of the leverage battle. Throwing you either off your bike, or down an unplanned line. So the rest of the downhill was an exercise in line-picking.
Ghost Falls was nice, again with the stupid switchbacks though. And with the weak brakes, I was a little timid about how fast I dared go. But I made it to Not Brock's and climbed up. I even made up the time I lost on the downhill to Bill and Nate.
Eventually, I picked my way back down Hog's. Which was also interesting, but with the road being so wide, it was a little easier to pick a cleaner line. I didn't win any downhill races, but I made it.
All in all, it was a hoot. I don't think I'll be taking it down Tibble or Mud Springs anytime soon, but you just might see it on some of the smoother rides.
]]> http://bikepeddlerutah.com/2009/08/psycho-cross/feed/ 0 Ride Leader/Follower http://bikepeddlerutah.com/2009/07/ride-leaderfollower/ http://bikepeddlerutah.com/2009/07/ride-leaderfollower/#comments Thu, 30 Jul 2009 23:46:00 +0000 Joshua tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1846558422594797389.post-5095922431571715932 Last night, we rode up Hog's Hollow and over to Corner Canyon. At the saddle/overlook we decided to head up Jacob's Ladder. Delightfully, I was the only one who had ever ridden it. I like taking people on a new trail and having them unanimously agree that it's a good one.
This photo proves my point about the fitness. The reason I am filming the majority of the riders reaching the top of Jacob's Ladder,...is because I was one of the last one's to reach it.
Sally felt bad for me and hung back.
This was after she had hung with Jake and Riley(leaders of the pack) on the majority of the climb.
Proving that my trail knowlege is lacking, we took at least one major, and several minor wrong turns on the way to the top of Jacob's.
But Jacob's Ladder is it's own reward. Fast,swoopy, tech sections, tight corners. Killer trail.
Continuing on to Ghost falls, we kept up the tradition of somebody overcooking the corners and heading into the rhubarb. This time it was Nathan.
At the bottom we took the North Fork and did a little out and back down BST.
Here is the result of Riley's launch off one of the sandy rollers on the double track leading to BST.

Before we turned around at the closed sign on BST, Sally headed back as she was low on water. Once the rest of us headed back, I was proven ignorant and slow again by falling off the back of the pack and when we returned to Ghost Falls, I couldn't tell which way they had gone. Noticing a cloud of dust heading down towards the silica pit, I headed that way wondering if they knew something I didn't. Once I reached the bottom, I realized I was alone. The smart thing would have been to just head up Clark's and meet up with everybody else at the top. Instead I tried to pick my way up to the "Not" Brock's Point trail.

Ever climbed the south fork of Ghost Fall's? It's a bitch. And not knowing if I was even going the right way, I had my bottom lip out in a full on pout. Just as I was about to cry, I heard somebody yell my name. Luckily I was just about 50 yards from the intersection with "Not" Brock's Point. And that's where they had waited. Jake asked if I needed a rest before we started and my pride said no. The result was a huffing,puffing painful climb up to the road.

But, I made it. Those whose computers had not been recently torn off by excessive trail overgrowth said that we covered about fifteen miles which was pretty good for a Wednesday evening ride.

At least these rides keep me humble.

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