Los Tres Amigos - United again to ride in the hills.
Dean - Rob - Tim
Rob was down from Kamloops on his way to the Sunshine coast for a race, so he stopped at The Woodlot and hooked up with Tim and I for a bonzai run of The Woodlot.
We rode Cabin trail, Snakes and Ladders, Bloggy Style and Shotgun. We managed to film ourselves on a few trails to capture the madness and laughter.
After our Friday evening ride we went back to my place for burgers and beer and watched ourselves on video for a few more laughs.
Today I decided to give my big bike a ride and dusted off the cob webs it had collected to take her for a rip.
Recently I'd had the rear shock worked on and today was the first ride on it since it had been serviced. I had also just torn down the whole suspension, inspected and lubed all the pivots and basically rebuilt the bike. It felt better than ever.
The shakedown run I do on all my bikes is Cabin Trail (Goldmine) as it is fast, rough in spots and generally a good yardstick to use as a indicator of the condition of a bike. This bike is in great shape and is feeling really fast.
I stopped a couple times to dial in the rebound and compression setting on the shock but overall the bike was flawless.
No snow at The Woodlot anymore.
At the power lines I paused to take in the fabulous views offered today.
Mount Baker in all it's glory.
I then hit Snakes and ladders at warp 2 and then made my way over to Bloggy Style and finally Shotgun. The bike felt good and should be able to handle the riding I have planned for it this summer.......but you never know, I may see if I can get my hands one something a little newer this summer....something Legendary!!
The day started early at Rob's with a hearty breakfast and then off to the race course we went. To say it was hot was an understatement with even the locals even complaining about the heat. I took it easy for warm-up and did just two pre-runs and relaxed for my race run. The course had changed very little since the day before and I had all the turns down in my head.
Nothing was out of my reach on the course so I just gave it a good effort and in the end I came 3rd place in my class. There was a ton of drama with some glitches in the timing system, but in the end all the placings and peoples times were sorted.
I can't argue with 3rd place
Dave's riace run was cut short on a nasty rock section. His nice new rims had a nasty race ending dent in them.
And finally Rob chilling in the back of his truck after the race.
It was a great race that was well run and I am fortunate enough to have a good friend in Rob who hosted my family and I for this long weekend of racing.
This long weekend my wife and I packed up the kids, my biking gear and related belongings and headed up to Kamloops to visit Rob and his family and participate in a DH race.
The race was the first BC cup of the year. Race the Race DH at the Kamloops bike park. Rob and his lovely wife were ever so gracious hosts and took in our family for the weekend as well as two other grubby DH racers from the coast (kidding): Dave and Darryl.
It was a full house for sure but we all had a clean place to stay and great food was served up each night we were there. My two kids were also happily occupied by Rob's kids so it all worked out well. The only missing participant in the weekend was Bruiser, Rob's fun loving Black Labrador Retriever. He sadly passed away earlier in the day that we arrived so we were met with somber faces when we first invaded their house. I fondly remember riding with Rob and Bruiser at The Woodlot. He was a great dog that I've know since he was puppy.
So on Friday night Rob, Dave and Darryl went out to pre-ride the DH course. I stayed at Rob's to unpack the kids and get set up. That night 'the boys' talked about the course and our bikes and we even had a garage weight weenie session where we weighed our race bikes. I had brought 2 bikes to race. My Rune and my Ollie. On the way up to Rob's my Ollie had a bit of an incident with a tire which contributed to my choice of riding my Rune in the race. You see, my bike rack places the rear tire of the bike really close to the exhaust of the car. A 350km trip is a long time for a tire to get heated up. By the time we arrived I had ruined a brand new tire and burnt a hole through the sidewall.
In the end went with my Rune because the course suited a good pedaling bike that handles tighter corners and off camber sections well (some of the Rune's fortes).
Saturday being Day 1 of the race consisted of Race package pick up and pre-runs of the course. We had a pretty sweet set-up shuttling ourselves up the hill and managed to get in 5 or so runs of the course.
After our runs of the course which included a few spills by almost everyone, we headed to Rob's for a great BBQ and a few beers.
Dave's dirty face after a spill in Kamloops dust.
Even the Freetards showed up for Race the Ranch
Darryl's pre-run of the DH course
During one run I attached my helmet camera to Darryl (the fastest and most experienced racer amongst our group). After capturing the course on film the four of us watched the course section by section at least a dozen times later that night memorizing the turns and taking the recommended lines suggested by Darryl.
I arrived reasonably early. I had only a few hours for a quick ride, but I managed to get in a really good ride. The weather today was really nice. Not hot, not cold, just overcast and moist in the air.
I was on my Rune with a single ring on the front with a chain guide. I did however tough out most of the climbs today in this ring to get a really good workout.
Lap numero un.
Upper Toadstool, Lower Toadstool, Bloggy Style. I had a nice smooth ride on these trails and had a mellow groove going that put a smile on my face. Lots of nice flowing turns, roots and dirt to rail.
Upper Toad Stool
Lower Toad Stool
Bloggy Style
Lap numero deux.
Krazy Karpenter, Blood Donor, Giant Killer, Hoots. I was good and warm by now and everything flowed. Karpenter was fun, especially the first log that is getting greener and gnarlier by the day.
Blood Donor was sweet. I hit a few drops and gaps and flowed the trail with a grin from ear to ear. At Giant Killer I paused to put on my helmet cam and filmed this gem once again. Lots of fun as always. And finally Hoots. This short but sweet trail had seen some work on the trail day and was in terrific shape. Only one ladder is in need of fixing on this classic.
Giant Killer
Hoots
Lap numero trois.
Snakes and Ladders and Shotgun. I was on fire today. A few trails under my belt and the bike was working really well. Snakes and Ladders was in tip top shape. Tim had even been up there to finish the roughed in connector to the new line at the end of Snakes. The trail has really taken shape well.
Finally I rode Shotgun which was riding really well. At the car I packed up and drove home. I was done all this by 10:30am.
The Rune was riding perfectly with a properly tuned shock, chain guide and new tires run tubeless. Such a good ride today.
So today I popped into my local bike shop and my shock happened to be sitting there freshly rebuilt from the factory. I was pretty happy as I was not expecting it back for at least another day. I made my way home, had dinner and told the wife and kids that Daddy needs to ride. I gave myself 2 hours.......shoulda been longer.
When I arrived at The Woodlot, I had a flat. Not fun. I had cut the side of my tire and air and sealant from my tubeless set-up was puking out the side. Not a huge rip, but too big for sealant to hold. So I threw in a tube and headed up for a ride.
I had planned on going a lot higher, but because of the tire delay, I decided to hit Snakes and Ladders, Bloggy Style and then Shotgun. I had set my shock at home, but in my rush to get out of the house, I forgot my shock pump so tuning the shock was not really an option tonight. My ride from the beginning sucked with the flat and from then on, it didn't really get any better. I was all over the place and lacked flow. Any ride is better than no ride at all, but this one really lacked the fun I normally have.
Over to Bloggy Style it was to get my groove on. It was okay for the most part, but again I lacked flow and had trouble getting my shock tuned well. Shotgun was okay, but it was sad to see a lot of the dirt work done on the trail day all mushy from the rain. In time some sections will get better as they harden up and dry out.
Down at the car I breathed a sigh of relief as I felt like I was just surviving this ride, rather than tearing up the trails. One good thing though was my newly DW tuned chain guide worked flawlessly.
Dean - Rob - Tim
