Devil Mountain Expeditions

Ja Mon – this looks like something you would be interested in.  You should sign up for one of these races – I’m sure CK and I will go out to cheer you on..and drink beer.

http://www.sickpromotions.net/Site/John_Fisher_DH_Races.html

I’m guessing there isn’t any climbing involved either.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=140320044333

Tentative plan is to leave at 7am from Pleasanton?  Let me know if you guys are both in – there were rumors of Downieville this weekend.  I’m going to save the Downieville trip for June.  We will be riding Bacon->Ridge->Sawpit->Suffer Springs->Braille->beers in the parking lot enjoying the perfect weather.  We can even bring food if that works or swing by the market for a sandwich.

Looks like Ja Mon might try and get some stealth training in this week while the rest of us work?  I’m bringing the camera my friend – that rock garden has your name written all over it.  Show us the new bike skills.

I wish I had taken this class earlier…

The class was put on by www.bikeskills.com and the lead instructor was Jiro, an experienced enduro, and World Cup DH racer. There were also two other instructors, Jackie a National level DH racer from Utah and Rob, who also teaches for surf skills and ski skills. There were six other students in attendance, a pretty good teacher to student ratio. I had the opportunity to ask all the questions that I had, including “flats or clipless?…do I need a bash guard or chain guide?…one finger braking?”. I decided that I’m going to run flats on the 6.6 as soon as I receive the five tens, I’m ditching the large ring on the 6.6, and I definitely need to adjust the brake levers on the 6.6.

So what “bike skills” did I learn? First, the trackstand, it helps a bunch when your body weight is over the front axle. Then we spent some time in the rock garden right above the lake, learning about technical climbing and how important it is to choose a line from the start, commit, and really transfer weight to maintain traction. One of the best tips I learned about weight transfer on step ups and step downs was to push the bars forward to clear the rear wheel on step ups and to transfer weight back on the step downs. After climbing, we practiced a technical descent a little ways up the trail. Again, line selection was emphasized, as well as looking ahead, staying loose, and keeping the elbows up in “attack position”.

Finally, we did a small drop section, modulating the rear break to remain under control and also again shifting the weight towards the back of the bike. Jiro finished the class on a gnarly drop, to demonstrate weight transfer and body positioning.

A very informative 2 hour class…I will definitely take another www.bikeskills.com class, maybe the Fresno DJ session next Saturday.

until the Downieville Classic.  Yup – 8 weeks from tomorrow.

Tried something new this morning – rode from the house to the trail on the 29er single speed.  There’s about 1.5 miles of fireroad that start right behind my house, then about 4.5 miles of road (which was not fun).  So it was about 6 miles to the trailhead.

Gorgeous morning today – good layer of fog in the valley.  Rode up from Finley Rd up to the inner single track loop.  About 9 miles of dirt.  Then the 6 miles or so home for a total of 21 miles.  It was fun – not sure if I would do it again though.  We’ll see…

on my new bike.  Yep – I had to see what the buzz was about with this whole 29er movement.  Turns out, it’s pretty f-ing sweet.  Picked up this baby blue machine this week – pictures are from it’s maiden voyage up to Pleasanton Ridge.  Personally, I think that hill sucks, but whatever.  Check out the awesome gates they put up – I guess this is EBRPD’s version of trail “maintenance.”  Just close down the trails…unreal.

So yeah – picked up the fully rigid Raleigh XXIX single speed this week.  So far it’s a fun, simple, no frills bike – great climber once you get it going, although I think I lost a filling today.  It fits me really well (which is something the Inbred did not), and the components are decent for the price I paid.  WTB tires/wheels, Avid BB5 disc brakes, Easton bars, WTB saddle, and Oury grips (after market).  I will post an update once I ride it for a few months.

Great ride today Ja Mon.  Sorry you won’t be allowed in Patio World anytime soon.  I’m not sorry for the kidney punch – nice attempt on the take down.  Too bad that didn’t work out either.  Just remember I kicked your a$$ in Tahoe, and I’ll do it again.

I’ve got the room reserved at the Northstar Village from June 12th through the 14th- opening weekend. So, Stone and Craig, if you guys want to see the debut of the M6, just show up and ride, and crash (figuratively). The latest report from Northstar is that the trail maintenance team will be a skeleton crew, so the best time to ride will be opening weekend.