I Rode My Bike Today...

Today was an afternoon stroll through Santiago Oaks & Weir Canyon loop. Nice and warm with a good breeze. Up chutes, down cactus, up coachwhip, down deer over to and through the Weir Canyon loop. Took my time, checked out a couple off menu lines. Next time. Looped around and back out deer loop up to top of barham, down yucca. Up bumblebee and over to Hawk. Took hawk down and mountain goat all the way back up to Barham ridge. Down chutes ridge line and out the park back to Santiago Hills Patk. Most all of the trails are cut back now. Came across two other riders on the whole ride and zero snakes! 17 miles all smiles.

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Friday night a longtime friend of mine asked if I was riding the MTB on Saturday. (He went to the darkside years ago but still rides dirt). I said I was hoping to as I have had a cold all week. Woke up feeling okay so I decided to go for it. I met him at his place in Thousand Oaks and we rode road over to the Western Plateau section of Wildwood Park. It was mostly pavement and fire road with a few miles of singletrack thrown in. I think he's wanting to ride the MTB more these days. Ended up with 15.4 miles and 1888'.

Today I woke up and my cold was even worse. I drank my coffee and ate a little breakfast and felt a little better so decided to do a quick ride. I didn't get started until 9 and it was already a little warm. Did the usual Albertson climb, part of China Flat, down Palo and Bones, some pavement over to and down Falling Star, Lang Ranch, up Green Beret, down Oak Canyon to the truck. As I rode I was feeling better so I rode a little farther than originally planned. Of course after I finished I felt like crap. Ended up with 19.3 miles and 3146'.
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I rode my bike today with my wife.

Today was different.

Today was a ride that was about 180* from my normal way of things. Today...I rode a bike with 26" wheels. A bike with 180mm fork and 100mm rear suspension. A bike with gears....including a FD. :geek::gag: Gotta say though, to go along with all that.....today's ride also included a bike with 2 chains, 2 stems, 2 sets of bars and 2 saddles.

We did a quick ride to the Oaks this afternoon. Park was pretty quiet.

More info in a few days on the rig.

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Danimal said:
Tunnels is one of my favorite trail areas, but haven't ride it in some time.
Is it now "open" or still officially "closed"?
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@Danimal It is officially open! But not all of it. They let us keep Tunnel 1 and Tunnel 4 plus some other trails up on the mesa. And some other trails. But Tunnel 3/Rocking Horse, Tunnel 2, Tunnel 5 and the main mesa-top loop from top of Tunnel 4 to Rocking Horse were closed.
 
knucklebuster said:
@StrandLeper @Luis @Cornholio Just curious, since you all had no rear brake, was that from the pads wearing down to metal so not enough friction, or a defect in the brake hydraulics, no lever, or external leak, or ? Seems like that's some serious bad chite when a brake doesn't work, if it's a defect I'd think the manufacturer would be all over it to find out why.

A few years ago I had rear pads wear to nothing on a steep downhill (RIP lower Joplin), but I still had some braking force, even though it ate my rotor. I started carrying spare pads in my pack after that.
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@knucklebuster On the Pivot it was the rear pad wore away to nothing - I lent my bike to a friend so he could ride with an out of town guest. They did Maple to Motorway, and the out of town guest must have fingered the back brake all of the way down motorway. When I started my Sunday ride with the bike, the rear brake was screaming, and I knew that I would need to change pads at the end of the day, but in the middle of stairs, it went metal to metal, grabbed and I skidded and had a bit of a tumble.

On the Bronson, it was a fluid issue and the brakes were fading the deeper that I got into a downhill.

Total user error in both instances.

T
 
I tried TNA for the first time this weekend. Some of the stuff near the end was just too much for me, I'm not too proud to say. Line choice being dictated by heavy brush and visibility, and the cost of failure looked like a pretty good tumble down a rock chute. Was riding solo, so doubly cautious. Beautiful trail though, especially the ridge out to it. I may graduate to it someday. Maybe not :)

So in somewhat the same vein I tried Hawk last night at Oaks and cleared it in one go. There are definitely places things could go wrong, but in general that's right at the top of my technical level. Really fun and I look forward to dropping it again soon!

Unfortunately the helicopter came in for a lift off Chutes. A solo rider (49 yr old male running a nice looking Giant hard tail) went down with a compound leg fracture on one of the drops. Answer to 'how bad is it?' was 'Recoverable' from the OC fire guys keeping us off the trail at the top. Healing vibes to that guy. I tell you the lift out seems pretty damn scary on top of it all. Whew. Be safe everyone.
 
no worries said:
I tried TNA for the first time this weekend. Some of the stuff near the end was just too much for me, I'm not too proud to say. Line choice being dictated by heavy brush and visibility, and the cost of failure looked like a pretty good tumble down a rock chute. Was riding solo, so doubly cautious. Beautiful trail though, especially the ridge out to it. I may graduate to it someday. Maybe not :)

So in somewhat the same vein I tried Hawk last night at Oaks and cleared it in one go. There are definitely places things could go wrong, but in general that's right at the top of my technical level. Really fun and I look forward to dropping it again soon!

Unfortunately the helicopter came in for a lift off Chutes. A solo rider (49 yr old male running a nice looking Giant hard tail) went down with a compound leg fracture on one of the drops. Answer to 'how bad is it?' was 'Recoverable' from the OC fire guys keeping us off the trail at the top. Healing vibes to that guy. I tell you the lift out seems pretty damn scary on top of it all. Whew. Be safe everyone.
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My wife was just asking me this morning what the deal is with all the air lifts out of the Oaks lately, especially on Chutes. Told her it was riders taking the trail for granted.
 
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