I Rode My Bike Today...

Again... Up and back to Henninger. A little chillier and wetter than yesterday.

9/1700

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Did the 1st section of 007 this morning to start my suspension tuning.
The fireroad climb was boring, but beeeutiful. It must have rained the night before, so the dirt was going to be great.
4.5/1,332' clinbing / 1hr.

Got to the trailhead of section 1 and geared up with my pads and full face brain bucket.
Felt like the suspension adjustments were better than last time. Was I faster than last week? I don't know, but it was more controlled.
1.9 / 851' decending/ 10 minutes.

Waterfall
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Fireroad
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Rear suspension
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Front suspension
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The results. 2 of the settinds didn't have enough miles to give a reading and my high speed compression needs an adjustment.
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Yep... Snake Man and I did the patented Lower Sam Merrill to Sunset loop. I haven't been down Sunset since March 2. :eek: According to the Doc, I shouldn't have gone down it today. :laugh::whistling:

The bottom half of Lower Sam has seen a lot of work since I last rode it with @evdog . The brush has been knocked back, and the tread seemed twice as wide as usual. That's a good thing on Lower Sam... :laugh: The top half is still a little overgrown, but not too bad...

Sunset was really chunky in spots... :inlove: I cleaned everything except the staircase at the bottom. The supports are separating and it looked sketchy AF...

10.4/2300

Find the Snake...
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It's either 92 or 60.
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Love this little section... It's a lot narrower than it looks in the photo...
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Yeah... Not today.
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Faust29 said:
Yep... Snake Man and I did the patented Lower Sam Merrill to Sunset loop. I haven't been down Sunset since March 2. :eek: According to the Doc, I shouldn't have gone down it today. :laugh::whistling:

The bottom half of Lower Sam has seen a lot of work since I last rode it with @evdog . The brush has been knocked back, and the tread seemed twice as wide as usual. That's a good thing on Lower Sam... :laugh: The top half is still a little overgrown, but not too bad...

Sunset was really chunky in spots... :inlove: I cleaned everything except the staircase at the bottom. The supports are separating and it looked sketchy AF...

10.4/2300

Find the Snake...
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It's either 92 or 60.
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Love this little section... It's a lot narrower than it looks in the photo...
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Yeah... Not today.
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Click to expand...
Those steps look weird from the other direction.
 
I rode up Black Star today. I rode to the second Mariposa sign and decided to turn around to get to work sooner. There were very few people out to be seen. I was surprised at how many flowers are still out. With all the growth on the sides of the trail I couldn't go as fast as I wanted to back down the mountain- blind corners and all. 14 mi/ 1,500 climbing.

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Rode in daylight and was passed by a 28mph FS, came face to face with him two more times. The old patriarch of the single track up against the newest generation on electric powered wheels. Our age is coming to an end boys. Basically a electronic motor cycle with pegs that rotate.
Happy trails at the end of the age
 
I finally got to ride Noble canyon on Monday. Fun trails with a lot of optional features. I was rolling with some pretty talented dudes and that kind of got me in the zone to hit most of the features without really psych-ing myself out.
Beers, hot dogs and camping afterwards.
We had a nice @Tom the Bomb sighting as we left the lower lot to shuttle. His truck was still there when we finished the ride.
Stopped at Pedro’s tacos in San Clemente on the way home for a quick burrito.
Super fun start to the week!

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My riding buddy sent me a text last night wanting to ride Hensley Lake/ Buck Ridge at 7:30 am.
Who was I to say no...
He's working off a few lbs. for his MX race at Glen Helen next weekend.
Loaded up The Beast, usually not the choice for this trail, and gear.
The plan was a loop and a half, which I didn't want to do, but we came to ride.
With all the adjustments to the suspension, I thought is was going to be a terrible ride with all the short steep climbs here. Suprisingly the climbs wern't as bad as I thought, as I scooted up 2 that I didn' plan on trying today. The bike stuck to the dirt and the rear tire didn't spin out like it usually does. . . . Hmmm maybe the suspension adjustments did the trick.
The downhill sections were like driving a new Corvette. It had fantastic control and I didn't feel any of the usual rocks, sticks, or frogs.
About 2 miles from the parking lot I decided to put my race pace on to see what will happen to this old man. It is all single track with a few rock sections, short climbs, short downhills. This is probably the most technical part of the ride.
I actually left my friend behind, which doesn't happen. Got to the parking lot 3 minutes ahead of him and wasn't worked.
Hmmm maybe the suspension adjustments did the trick.

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@redwoods drove up to meet for a "play in the rocks" in Joshua Tree. Neither if us were riding at 100% and both of our bikes were creaking and groaning all ride long. We started off spending some time playing in the slab rock section and we discovered some new lines and routes today in that area. Then we hit the trails. We looped around a few spots to enjoy multiple options. Lizards galore out there today. Great ride and we were tired afterward. A stop at the local Mexican Food spot hit the spot.

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Whiting & The Luge this afternoon. All was good until about halfway down the Luge and I rode right into a downpour. Instant soakage and the trail was super slippery. It kept raining until Cooks and then stopped there. Oh well, I had fun up until the rain. :p

I decided to climb Dreaded for some reason, although I stopped four times for pictures. :whistling:

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2 day Flagstaff quickie…day 1 up
Elden to Lower Brookbank (in last years fire zone) to Big Bang (new trail lady season I believe). Both are blue of Trailforks but solid blacks. We then went over and did the Schultz Creek loop to check out the er-route after the fire. The road up to the Sunset TH is still being worked on. 20.75 and 2480

Today we did an easier route over in the Campbell Mesa area which I have never ridden. Lots of flowy XC type stuff thru a beautiful forest. Similar to Big Laguna down in San Diego if you’ve ever ridden that. The difference being we had the place to ourself and there were no e-bikes. 15 and 820 today.

Cruising down the backside of Lower Brookbank after the climb
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On the way up Brookbank, we’re headed to the upper left of the photo. A couple 20% grade short bursts here
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Easy stuff on the AZT today
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Still working some stuff out... But I managed the patented Lower Sam to Sunset and Horsey Trail today... Even added on a couple miles of road spinning at the end. Felt great to be up in the soup. :thumbsup: Speaking of soup... Visibility was about 50 feet at the ruins. Coming back from the far end, I couldn't see the leftover railroad parts until I was right on top of them. :laugh:

Sunset is running insanely chunky right now... Not quite as chunky as before they worked on it, but it's getting close. A couple of the drops/steps are approaching the 2.5 - 3 foot mark... :eek: The dirt was nice and tacky, while the rocks and roots were slippery AF. :laugh: I thought I was crawling, but my moving time was 16 seconds faster than that guy who always wants to compare Strava times. :Roflmao I pulled over 1/2 way through the first half to pull the sleeves down. The PO branches were on the trail in a few spots.

I walked the bottom staircase again... the bottom two steps are in pretty bad shape, and it looks like the last one is about to give way.

Fun ride... 12.5/2400

Headed up Lower Sam in the Soup
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Faust29 said:
Still working some stuff out... But I managed the patented Lower Sam to Sunset and Horsey Trail today... Even added on a couple miles of road spinning at the end. Felt great to be up in the soup. :thumbsup: Speaking of soup... Visibility was about 50 feet at the ruins. Coming back from the far end, I couldn't see the leftover railroad parts until I was right on top of them. :laugh:

Sunset is running insanely chunky right now... Not quite as chunky as before they worked on it, but it's getting close. A couple of the drops/steps are approaching the 2.5 - 3 foot mark... :eek: The dirt was nice and tacky, while the rocks and roots were slippery AF. :laugh: I thought I was crawling, but my moving time was 16 seconds faster than that guy who always wants to compare Strava times. :Roflmao I pulled over 1/2 way through the first half to pull the sleeves down. The PO branches were on the trail in a few spots.

I walked the bottom staircase again... the bottom two steps are in pretty bad shape, and it looks like the last one is about to give way.

Fun ride... 12.5/2400

Headed up Lower Sam in the Soup
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Nice project, Faustie! :Roflmao
 
I cleaned all the mud off my bike today from my unexpectedly rainy & muddy Luge ride last weekend.
I also did a lower link service, which essentially means I took the link and the cranks off, cleaned & greased all the bits and reinstalled.
I might have gone overboard with the grease, but I have been getting a horrible creak when I am in the fast gears .... hoping I fixed that.

I noticed my chain was at .5 stretch, so ordered one from Amazon just now. Overnight delivery tomorrow between 4 and 8 AM. :Roflmao Amazon is the Sh!t.
 
Fueledbyex8 said:
Back riding @ Tapia after two years, checked my Strava. Me and @Sasquatch9billion took our buddy Ulysses out for his first Tapia outing.
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@UPSed I'm surprised we didn't run in to each other, ran into @MrGreedom on a singletrack he was to busy having fun don't think he heard me call his name.
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Whoa, photoroulette! I miss that bike, I really should have kept it as a loaner. Also, I don't remember Uly being there with us. I just had a beer with him the other night, he hasn't been on his bike in years. But, we'll change that.
 
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An evening ride up San Juan to Cocktail Rock and back with the Professor yesterday. He does his annual pilgrimage to Whistler on Monday so it was my last chance to ride with him for a few months. I managed to sneak away from work early courtesy of some alternative facts :whistling: but we still hit a heap of traffic on the drive out to the trail head. Oddly the sky was blue, didn't realize it could be that colour anymore, the truck said it was 82 just before we turned onto hot springs road. Pulled into a completely empty carpark, we had the place to ourselves.
We geared up and hit the trail, or more correctly the trail hit us. Both us looked like we and our bikes were suffering from a case of jaundice. We were coated in pollen by the top of the first set of switchbacks, this trail is overgrown! The prof reckons he was up there a couple of weeks ago trimming back in spots. I mean there is evidence of dead branches on the ground but most of his handiwork has been wiped out already. I put a long sleeved top on in the end, my arms were getting battered. The heat would just keep rising as we climbed higher. The second lot of switchback were brutal, neither of us were talking much at that point. The suffering was real, Josh rode inches beside a snake chilling on the side of the trail and did not even notice it. I don't know what it was, I think it was most likely a racer of some type, but it didn't rattle so I waited till he was past it before telling him.
Finally a welcome breeze at about the 8 mile marker, both of us were gassed though and decided the rock would be it for this evenings ride. We trundled on and enjoyed the solitude. At one point we had to stop and clear a baby snake of the trail, it had its head stuck down a hole so it took some time to get the wee fella to move, again no idea what it was, had a red band at the back of its head (where's @SnakeCharmer when you need him!). We finally made it to the rock and took a break before turning and heading back to the truck. Due to the encroaching foliage it was a leisurely cruise back down. Just well as we had to slam the brakes on at one point to avoid a tarantula right in the middle of the trail just moseying along minding his own business. We did get rattled at from the bushes on one of the switchbacks above the carpark but never saw the culprit. The professor reckons they are out there in abundance at the moment, I was glad to only hear one and not see it.
We loaded the bikes up and headed back to his place for well earned sodas. In true do anything with the Professor fashion you come to expect something quite bizarre is going to happen at some point and on this particular occasion the best would be saved till last. We had to clear this guy of the road on our way back to the 74.
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We got onto the 74 and are heading back to his when we round a corner to quite reasonable sized rocks in the middle of the road at intervals (think a bit bigger than baby head size). A bit further down the road is a guy walking down the side of the highway casually lobbing more of them out onto the road. We both look at each other and go wtf, the professor hits the brakes and the horn. The guy :poop:'s himself does the classic put something behind the back and feign the who me look you'd see from a recalcitrant schoolkid. We think about winding the window down and having a word but this guys clearly off his chops and tweaking hard. Deciding we don't want a rock through the window we drive on and call the Sheriff to report whats going on. Hopefully they got it all sorted out.
 
Lost Kiwi said:
An evening ride up San Juan to Cocktail Rock and back with the Professor yesterday. He does his annual pilgrimage to Whistler on Monday so it was my last chance to ride with him for a few months. I managed to sneak away from work early courtesy of some alternative facts :whistling: but we still hit a heap of traffic on the drive out to the trail head. Oddly the sky was blue, didn't realize it could be that colour anymore, the truck said it was 82 just before we turned onto hot springs road. Pulled into a completely empty carpark, we had the place to ourselves.
We geared up and hit the trail, or more correctly the trail hit us. Both us looked like we and our bikes were suffering from a case of jaundice. We were coated in pollen by the top of the first set of switchbacks, this trail is overgrown! The prof reckons he was up there a couple of weeks ago trimming back in spots. I mean there is evidence of dead branches on the ground but most of his handiwork has been wiped out already. I put a long sleeved top on in the end, my arms were getting battered. The heat would just keep rising as we climbed higher. The second lot of switchback were brutal, neither of us were talking much at that point. The suffering was real, Josh rode inches beside a snake chilling on the side of the trail and did not even notice it. I don't know what it was, I think it was most likely a racer of some type, but it didn't rattle so I waited till he was past it before telling him.
Finally a welcome breeze at about the 8 mile marker, both of us were gassed though and decided the rock would be it for this evenings ride. We trundled on and enjoyed the solitude. At one point we had to stop and clear a baby snake of the trail, it had its head stuck down a hole so it took some time to get the wee fella to move, again no idea what it was, had a red band at the back of its head (where's @SnakeCharmer when you need him!). We finally made it to the rock and took a break before turning and heading back to the truck. Due to the encroaching foliage it was a leisurely cruise back down. Just well as we had to slam the brakes on at one point to avoid a tarantula right in the middle of the trail just moseying along minding his own business. We did get rattled at from the bushes on one of the switchbacks above the carpark but never saw the culprit. The professor reckons they are out there in abundance at the moment, I was glad to only hear one and not see it.
We loaded the bikes up and headed back to his place for well earned sodas. In true do anything with the Professor fashion you come to expect something quite bizarre is going to happen at some point and on this particular occasion the best would be saved till last. We had to clear this guy of the road on our way back to the 74.
View attachment 89117
We got onto the 74 and are heading back to his when we round a corner to quite reasonable sized rocks in the middle of the road at intervals (think a bit bigger than baby head size). A bit further down the road is a guy walking down the side of the highway casually lobbing more of them out onto the road. We both look at each other and go wtf, the professor hits the brakes and the horn. The guy :poop:'s himself does the classic put something behind the back and feign the who me look you'd see from a recalcitrant schoolkid. We think about winding the window down and having a word but this guys clearly off his chops and tweaking hard. Deciding we don't want a rock through the window we drive on and call the Sheriff to report whats going on. Hopefully they got it all sorted out.
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Kiwi, your red-banded necked small snake was a Ring-necked snake. It's a small species that doesn't get much bigger than 15" and it is mildly venomous. Not dangerous to humans but small animals may be affected. Nice find. They are generally nocturnal. Also, Nice San Diego Gopher snake stretched out across the FR. :cool:
 
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