Today I rode with Tom Thornton for the first time. He and I were introduced through Keith of Banshee Bikes so we hit The Woodlot for a ride and a building session.
Tom rides a Banshee Scythe and is a very solid rider, in fact I'd say he is damn fast. Most times I bring someone out for their first ride at The Woodlot I wait on the trails for them to make sure they are okay or don't get lost. Not with Tom. He was on my wheel no matter what we were riding.
We rode Upper and Lower Toadstool (covered in snow), Snakes and Ladders, Bloggy Style x2 and then Shotgun (covered in snow).
On Snakes and Ladders, we roughed in the new line around the washed away section of trail. A really good start was made on this section and it should be complete within no time at all.
I had a really good ride and it was nice meeting someone new to ride with on the trails.
Dave, a buddy of mine called me up the other day and asked if I'd like to do a photo shoot with me riding the Legend. I've done one other photo shoot before on my Rune and got a few banger shots so I was really looking forward this.
I had just got new forks for my Legend (Boxxer World Cups to replace Fox 40s) so sessioning sections was alright with me for dialing in my fork during the shoot.
We shot on Lower Toadstool and Bloggy Style for a few hours. 40 or so shots were taken which means 40 or so times up and down a section. In the end there were a few very nice shots taken by Dave. He had to leave a little early so once he was gone, I went up to Snakes and Ladders for a quick ride and then down Shotgun.
Overall it was a great day of shooting and I had a good ride as well.
Well this week saw me riding with the same guys as last week, but this week they decided we would do some filming.
So with that in mind we made our way to The Woodlot again and rode Snakes and ladders and Shotgun. When filming for people you tend to do a lot of repeats for different angles and additional footage. In other words you really get a workout and do a lot of riding when filming.
Brody made up a 'webisode' and it was featured as a PinkBike video of the day. Most of the riding was shot over two days where I attended for one. Overall the end product turned out pretty good.
During the day we were shooting, we saw LOTS of people on the trails because of the decent weather and the fact that the Woodlot is the only place locally where there isn't a ton of snow anymore.
Overall a great day of riding and good time filming and once again the Legend Mk1 showed me just how much fun and easy it is to go really, really fast on a bike.
This morning I was joined by Brody and James for a rip at The Woodlot. The snow further receded up the hill and more trails were clear so we decided to get up to Blood Donor.
Now the Legend is a pure DH bike and I have the seat set at a height for me to ride it down hill only so the ascent today was purely a push and at times I was carrying the bike as well.
The ride today started at 7:30am so it was cold and icy which made riding the woodwork on the upper trails rather dangerous. Bets were made as to how many times each of us would go down and at the end of the day, James won with 4 bails in the snow with a swollen ankle and a sacking to the nuts...OUCH!
Even with the slack head angle of the Legend, the bike handles tight turns on wet rooty trails quite well. One attribute of the bike that shined through was the laterally stiff rear end that gave me confidence on the wet and icy roots. Knowing that I only had my tires influencing the lateral movement of the bike and not flex makes negotiating the roots that much easier.
Giant Killer was the next trail on the menu and it was simply awesome. There is an amazing amount of flow on this trail and ripping it on a big bike is loads of fun. Fortunately there were no mishaps on Giant Killer and we then rode over to Snakes and Ladders.
This was the Legends maiden run down Snakes (my trail) and I felt at home on this bike. James and Brody paused to snap a few shots of me riding a couple turns and the photos are below.
So with Snakes now under our belt and we made our way over to Bloggy Style. One thing about the Legend that I have really noticed is how quite the bike is while riding. There is no pinging of the chain or vibration through the frame at all, the only thing you can hear are your tires drifting in the corners and the giggles in your head from having so much fun.
We decided to ride Bloggy twice and on the 2nd run, we put my helmet camera on Brody so that he could record James and I rippging Bloggy Style and straight into Shotgun.
The ride today was a load of fun with two guys I have not seen in a while. The Legend is proving to be a very impressive bike. The bike tracks very well over roots and is extremely predictable. It eats up the rough sections and rails tight corners with confidence. I cannot wait to get this bike on some longer rougher pure DH type trails.
I had a really good ride and it was nice meeting someone new to ride with on the trails.
