Black Star Ugly Sweater - Annual Holiday Ride & Food Donation. Please join us!

Poofighter said:
but brownie deserved it as he was the only one that I remember that turned back. It was real cold though and I think it even hailed, but someone brought patron to warm up. Good times!

Found the ride report on that other site (lotsa dead links, but some good pics). Mikie. you can delete the link if you wish.
http://www.socaltrailriders.org/ind...gangs-all-here-neils-turtle-ride.55916/page-2
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Yeah... And the first set of dead links I see belong to some guy named @Grego ! I think he needs to update his STR ride report. :p
 
singlespeedrider said:
I think I was there too
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+ 2
Yes it's a large group of peeps celebrating the holiday (whatever holiday you want) and enjoying bikes. Everyone is spread out even on the descent. Come out and encourage those who have not experienced B* or are having a tough time getting to the top. I think we have participated in almost every B* holiday ride - it's pretty much the ONLY holiday social activity we do.
 
I'm going to try to get my son to ride, but it will be tough. He flies in from Penn on Saturday night... and then we have a Polish Christmas Party to go to... which has been known to devolve into rounds of shots of kirsch :confused: And we're not even Polish :)

Note to self - make sure to get my Lithuanian flag ready!
 
I made it out today. It was a good ride, but the wind was challenging in spots. There were a couple of times I had to dismount and wait for the gusts to calm down before starting to climb again.

The wind was much stronger at Beeks, so I passed on the Doppler ball. Met Grego and saw the new retro-direct bike, so that was pretty cool. I saw a couple other IMTB jerseys, but I didn't get a chance to say hi. It was a good time.
 
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singlespeedrider said:
I got knocked off by the wind coming around one of the corners. One of the windiest days I can remember. I contemplated heading to motorway but my mind changed really fast.
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Think I heard your strangely exuberant voice right at the beginning before we started climbing at the bottom before the falls. I was having trouble with my front derailleur so I got to "single speed" it today on the climb because I couldn't drop out of the big chain ring.

The wind was definitely a factor, but if I just kept my head down I was able to muscle through it. Interestingly, several people turned back at Hidden Valley... but the wind dropped substantially from that point forward. It was still strong at Beek's but I didn't find it much of a factor on the second half of the climb.

Coming down though, it was really easy to carry too much speed. I came around a corner and caught the wind sideways and it almost pushed me off the trail!
 
Ah yes, the wind... Never before did I have to pedal to keep going downhill towards Hidden Ranch. Great turnout. I heard around 200 people. Nice to meet Earn Your View and see some STR friends including Bike the Planet, some of the hike a bike crew, Indy, JSD, Von Petrol, Hey it's Dave. We had a B* virgin with us. Vince took him down all the singletracks. They missed the sharp left at the begging of the last one and bushwhacked down a mountainside. Now there's an 8th singletrack lol. Tripped people out with the retro direct. Fun day on the bike.
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I had hoped to go, but back when it was initially posted didn't plan on Sunday MTB practice with my kids. Of course my kids were too lazy (It's vacation, Dad!!!) so ended up not doing that either... errrrr. But sounded like all that wind would have made it a lot of driving for a challenging day, so I am 100% okay with staying home today!
 
Yes it was strange. You had to pedal to go downhill :) The only redeeming quality was that it was pretty mild temps - I think it was in the mid 50's at the start.

Next year it will be better and a nice comparison. People will talk about the "Christmas Ride of 2017" for a while :)

I thought the little speech they gave at the beginning of the ride was touching. Made it feel special :)
 
Funny ... I also remarked to another rider about having to pedal downhill into Hidden Ranch. But wind was better afterward, at least until you got to Main Divide. I skipped going to the ball...

It was a miserable, yet fun ride. Pretty sure its my slowest trip up Blackstar ever. Sorry I didn't see Grego - I would love to see that bike in person!
 
Ha hah! Picture Slot Machine!
I moved the thread and then moved on. never saw this or the remainder. I'm getting this tattoo!
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Poofighter said:
but brownie deserved it as he was the only one that I remember that turned back. It was real cold though and I think it even hailed, but someone brought patron to warm up. Good times!

Found the ride report on that other site (lotsa dead links, but some good pics). Mikie. you can delete the link if you wish.
http://www.socaltrailriders.org/ind...gangs-all-here-neils-turtle-ride.55916/page-2
Click to expand...
No flippin way Noel! This is awesome!
Regardless of what anyone says, STR had it going on. Sure some will disagree but I look at it this way. It filled the perfect OC niche. It had participation and they had a blast! How can anyone dis that?
 
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