Little Bike Shuttle

The other day a bunch of us got together for a bike ride. 3 of us were on Nomads while Chris Brown borrowed a Demo Giant Reign SX. We were all equipped with the same style bike that could climb up the whole mountain if we wanted to but, just because we had little bikes didn't mean we couldn't shuttle. So we drove up to the mushroom parking lot on Seymour for a shred down the hill. The little bikes were a great time shuttling down some of the trails that we might normally ride big bikes, but on the smaller bikes were could thrown them around more easily, and climb up any steeper points we might be too lazy to ride on the big bikes.
Whether shuttling or earning our turns these mid-travel all-mountain bikes are a great time! I think I'll do some climbing tomorrow though, I still need to work on my fitness.

-Scott

Relax and ride

I used to be a fairly "intense" cyclist; not in the sense that I rode hard all the time, but rather that I obsessed over details. On one hand it led to some racing success, but it was also tiresome and occasionally drove me nuts. I'd plan rides based on my training schedule, and never deviate from the plan for fear of loosing valuable time or intensity. I'd never explore new trails on the mountain bike because they might cut time off my ride or lead to endless wandering. Things were no different regarding my bikes: I was particular about every part, not so much in a weight saving effort, but rather because I thought I knew what would work best: certain wheels and tires for certain courses, what pedals were best and why, what cogset for what course, even how my bars were wrapped (two layers of cork tape, preferably without adhesive, thank you). Every so often this effort would backfire. If I forgot to charge my SRM head and it died 10 minutes into my training ride (or god forbid, race) I was ()#*&$)(@#-ed. My brain would break and the rest of the ride was bad. It happened on occasion that I'd be standing in the starting corral of a race and realize I'd never gotten around to swapping a certain part for this race... (sound of brain breaking).

Throwing off the shackles 0f "anything timed or judged" has led to a new approach to riding: relax and just ride! From my previous post about my Nomad, you may think old Jono was coming through: changing a bunch of things on a totally ridable, new bike. Ok, maybe a little, but I haven't changed anything since. I felt waves of the old anxiety returning last week when I'd torn off my Maxxis Minion 3C tires in favour of lighter Kenda Nevegals (because Kimbo was going to be on his new Blur XC) and he rolled out on his Nomad instead. You know what? Both sets of tires are awesome and my ride was still great; the Minions are suuuuuuper sticky but weigh a ton whereas what the Kenda's lack in grip they make up for by climbing better and making the bike easier to toss around on the descent.

Today I decided to try a trail I'd ridden past countless times on the climb to one of my Burke favorites. I LOVE the trail I was heading to, but who knows, I could have been cruising right past some hidden gem this whole time. Well, not so much. It was OK, but hadn't been ridden much or maintained and was just a series of eroded chutes. It was still a great ride though: how can you beat being outside on your bike on a sunny Christmas Eve???

The weather looks great this week so relax, pump up your tires and just ride.

Jonathan

The Leatt-Brace

You've seen the Leatt-brace around, on the world-cup circuit, up at Whistler and here on The Shore. Most people I ride with have been meaning to get one, but for some reason haven't gotten around to it. Maybe it's because they're expensive, or because they're hard to get. The reality is that they are readily available, and have the best safety to dollar ratio this side of full face helmets.

After my last year of racing I had an accident (unrelated to cycling) that dislocated my C6 from the C7 vertebrae, shocked my spinal cord and left me paralysed on the asphalt for about 10-15 minutes. I've fully recovered now, but it was a hugely traumatic experience. I'm happy to be back riding again and the Leatt-Brace has played a big part in making me feel comfortable on the bike.

Riding with the brace takes quite a bit of getting used to. After about 6 days of fiddling with the shims & spacers and adjusting to having a piece of plastic around my neck I was totally sold. Not only am I reducing the risk of spinal injury, I feel like I'm riding better. The brace makes you aware of where your head is at and helps you develop better posture on the bike.

The brace comes in three versions. The ADVenture is the stripped down version that I use, with foam padding and basic adjustability. The GPX Club is the next level up, with nylon padding and more adjustments. The primo version, the GPX Sport, has exactly the same functionality as the Club but with a carbon instead of a plastic frame.

Regardless of whether you are racing pro DH on the World Cup or climbing Fromme on the weekends, if you go over the bars you will be better off wearing one of these. It could be the difference between finishing your run on a stretcher, or getting up and enjoying the rest of the ride.

More Kamloops wintertime fun!

Probably the most effective cross training tool for racing downhill is moto riding. The speeds can easily triple what you can normally reach on a mountain bike. Mostly all the fastest people in the world ride and race off road motorcycles or motocross (or both). I would highly suggest to anyone racing DH to try and get your hands on a dirtbike and hit the trails. The speed is very addicting!

Well, its December 19th today in Kamloops, so that means if you want to get out and ride moto, you do it in the snow. Time to stud the tires with some good ol' self tapping screws from the local hardware store.

Home Depot specials

Don't get your legs caught on these.

I headed out today with my old friend Brian Holly, certified Kamloops redneck (I'm just an aspiring one). Brian is also on our Bike Ranch park board as the VP of BMX operations.

Brian Holly, carving in an open field

4th gear pinned

This is wheelie fun

Me throwing some snow roost


Trying to 'er sideways but those studs are working too well

So we played around in the field a little then hit some single track trails where the snow wasn't so deep, making the traction unreal. I managed 4th gear in some sections on one of the local race courses. Imagine 70kms/hr with trees whizzing by your bars! Like I said, this is a great tool for downhill racing because you are having to deal with trail features coming up on you so much faster. Along with 12" of travel you can hit some very gnarly obstacles at speed. I find it really helps with my visuals because if you don't look far ahead you're getting hurt.

At the end of the hour long ride, Brian's carb had frozen meaning he had to nurse the bike back to the truck.

There's an engine in there somewhere.

Blur XC Carbon- Light, Light, Light

Earlier this year when the Blur XC carbon was released I read all the reviews and wanted one! I rode the aluminum version back in 2006/2007 and really liked it. At the time it was one of the lightest XC bikes out there and I was able to get it down to 23.5 pounds with some less than strong, and noodly parts. This time I wanted a stiffer more shore worthy XC bike and I wanted to go with a carbon frame for the stiffness when climbing...a few hills around here. Once I am done with a few chages I hope to get this bike under 22 pounds. Stock it is 22.5 pounds.
I picked the XTR XC Build Kit and Sid Team to complete the machine. I was building it up last night and layed out all the parts as I was assembling. It is sooooo nice to build up a high end bike. Everything is so precise and the attention to detail is stunning. The frame has the smoothest lines and with the glossy finish you'll have a hard time not being impressed by the high caliber craftsmanship.
Ohhhh, the Elixir CR Mag Brakes are the perfect compliment to the weight weenies light XC package. I have the Elixir CR's on my other mountain bikes and love the modulation and consistancy. The CR Mag is 45 grams lighter per brake and boasts the "Mag" title for the magnesium body weight reduction.
XTR Cranks- I have never had XTR Cranks before, and I have wanted them since about 1993, so I guess it's time. At only 770grams including bb, they are incredibly light for how strong and stiff they are noted to be.
These are the DT wheels that come with the kit. The rims are DT4.2d, hubs 240s and Competions spokes. Fairly light at a little over 1500 grams and with a set of Stan's rim strips, can be made tubeless quite easily. For races, I have a set of Stan's XC rims built onto DT240 hubs with Competition spokes that are under 1300 grams. I rode these in BC Bike Race last year, and for several months leading up to the race and it's astounding how strong they were. Anyone who rides XC with me knows I don't let the fact that I am on an XC bike rule what trails I choose. Strong wheels are a must!
The Thomson Masterpiece in 40 grams lighter than the Elite post from Thomson, which doesn't sound like much but is actually quite impressive given the fact the post only weighs 192 grams total.
Ok, Time to saddle up and get this bike muddy. It's raining hard right now, so the maiden voyage of this bike is going to be a wet one!

-Kimbo

All Goggles 25% OFF

Goggles 25% Off!! (another Steed Stocking Stuffer) from David O'Dowd on Vimeo.

Getting Tech

Classy not trashy. These Hope Tech V2 brakes have style and features without looking cheap. The Hope brand of disc brakes have always been a quality product, hand made in England. They show the hand made details, and in my eyes have always stood out from the crowd. They were one of the first brand to enter the disc brake market. You might have seen them on the old Giant ATX-DH bikes.
Hope brakes have always been known for their looks, excellent modulation of power, as well as durability.
These new Tech V2 brakes sure are easy on the eyes. There is no end to the detail in these hand made brakes. The Hope Products are all machined in house, in the UK. The machining brings a great degree of detail.
As you can see here, the details begin with drilled holes in the brake lever to bring added traction to the glove. Also there are detented knobs for lever reach, and bite point contact that are nicely machined and easily adjustable with gloves on.
The lever blades are stout, and of course machined aluminum, and feature a solid pivot point that is easily serviceable and free of play. One great detail is that the lever is not connected to the internals of the brake, so that in the case of a crash, if the lever is pulled outward it doesn't pull any of the important internals of the brake with it. The lever simply compresses a push rod to actuate the brake.
The caliper features two large pistons putting great amounts of power into their very durable brake pads. The caliper also has a handy centering-line etched into it to help when centering the rotor. With these brakes you have the choice of a nice and light floating rotor, or a vented rotor which is meant to keep the brakes up to 15% cooler for long descents. The floating rotors are much lighter and less costly and are still designed to keep the brakes cool, and prevent rotor warping. You can see the same technology on a high-end motorcycle brake.
Stainless steel braided lines, attached to stainless steel (reusable) fittings are a stock option. As I said, no detail is left untouched. The Hope Tech V2's offer huge power, with the excellent ability to modulate the brakes. They have all the adjustments that you can make use of on a brake, and they make them durable and easy to operate. To cap it all off they are fitted with all the finest hoses and fittings.
They are not a cheap brake, but they don't skimp on detail or quality. It's top of the line at its finest.

-Scott

Deck The Trails

As the song goes, " 'tis the season to be jolly..." well I agree. What's not to be jolly about? Ok so its cold out, but the riding is great at the moment. XC riding in peticular is great, because the trails are frozen firm and you can really rip along. Even the trails up the 7th switchback on Fromme are rideable, with little snow to run into. Exams that I have coming up next week are the only thing holding me back from riding my bike every day.

I went for a great ride with my friend Mike Tryon, and Kimbo. Mike and Kim both look to be running in next year's Knee Knacker 50km trail run. Both of them have knackered their knees in years past. You can count me out of this crazy idea.

Mike had built up his Santa Cruz Nomad that he has recently bought off of Branden at the shop, and is loving it. I think he's really impressed with how little it moves under pedalling loads, and how easily it rips down trail. Kim has been riding his Santa Cruz Blur LT Carbon for a while now. I thought he would have chosen to ride his Nomad on Fromme, which he still punishes us on the climbs with, but no, he chose the even lighter bike. I rode my Nomad as well, stuggling to muscle the new DH grip, DH rolling tires up the hill. Training, right? Yeah, training.

Not that the photo shows it, but besides the lovely decorations that someone decided to dress the trails with at this vantage point, the view is awesome! You can see all the way to the airport from here on a clear day, like it was.

Mike is taking a moment here to take in the view, and decorations. I don't know who would have dressed these small trees up? I doubt it was bears or elves, maybe some crazy trail runners. But, it was kind of a cool thing to have in the the middle of the woods. Great ride guys.

we'll do it again soon. Snow or no snow.

-Scott

Winter: a perfect time for bmx training!

Well its already a couple of weeks into December, so I figure its time to start getting off the couch and get my legs loosened up before downhill racing next year. I loathe riding a resistance trainer so I'd much rather go outside and 'earn' it.

What better way than to head down the road from my house, literally 2 minutes away, to the Bike Ranch and our own UCI BMX track here in Kamloops. Oh wait, did I mention its -6 degrees with a fresh layer of snow on the ground? Perfect!

My old '98 Free Agent Cruiser sitting atop the starting ramp, along with a broom just in case.

Since moving here in 2005, I never really trained for downhill. But having a huge BMX track here so close to my house, what a great way for working on my sprinting ability.

Fresh tracks! This section is very flat with an uphill at the end.

As long as its not -20 and icy, I'll be coming down here once a week to burn off a few laps. I will eventually have to shovel a path through the snow in order to ride, but if that's what it takes then so be it.

Here's a short clip. Yes, I really am going that slow.

It was at the end of my session and my legs are nicely toasted.

Next post of my winter training Kamloops style will be dirtbike riding in the snow. Stay tuned.

Christmas Stocking Stuffers at Steed

Steed Cycles Christmas Stocking Stuffers from David O'Dowd on Vimeo.

First Ride on the Trance X1

Now does that look like a nice day to ride your bike or what! The sun was out yesterday, although it didn't seem to add much warmth, it was nice to be in it.

Tristan and I rode up the Seymour Mountain road to access the trails. All along the sides of the road there were icicles formed, and where there was running water, there were pools of ice and frozen waterfalls.

Tristan pins it down a long fireroad to get to the next trail. The cold really picked up with speed, but we were having too much fun to notice.

This is one of my favorite photos that I took of Tristan through a hole in the root nest of a fallen tree. The trails were so good to ride! They were as dry are in the summer, but with the firmer ground rode faster, and had lots of grip, great for railing corners.

Stopping to take a shot of Tristan taking advantage of this unsuspecting corner, I saw these cool looking mushroom clusters growing out of trees. I don't know what kind they were, but they looked really cool sitting on their bed of moss. Maybe I did eat some of them and that's why I think they looked so cool? down the rabbit hole we go!

Tristan did his best job not to fall into the patch of ice crystals below him. He did this by tearing into this corner. Tristan is getting ready for the next downhill race season, where he has stepped it up a category, to pro. Good work Tristan!

No this wasn't Superman's fortress of solitude, although maybe if I had eaten those mushrooms on that tree... But you can now see why the ground is so dry, all the moisture is sucked out into these ice crystals. Its pretty amazing the things you see when you just stop and look around when you're on a ride.

The Trance X1 made it through its first ride with flying colours. It took a bit of getting used to from the Nomad, and I'll still have to set it up a bit, (change the stem length, maybe put my Thomson post on it, play with the shock pressures). The climb was nice and easy. I set up the Shimano XT tubeless wheels with some Maxxis Larsen TT, and Monorail Tubeless tires which rolled fast and hooked up on the wicked trail conditions. The shifting was smooth, and once the brakes broke in, I could stop. At 26.93 lbs. it sure makes going up a joy. Thanks to Scott McGregor for the hand-me-down time pedals, they work great.

The cold got its hands on my new frame, freezing all the dirt to the light aluminum tubes. It makes for easy clean up though.

So one ride down, many to go, on the 2010 Giant Trance X1. Hopefully I'll get it to the Chilcotins this summer.

-Scott

Winter Riding

Here's John looking very happy to have finished climbing up the old buck, and to look forward to a trail back down to coffee. Lets see how this goes...

Since I had my camera with me John had an idea to have me take a picture of him rolling up this side hill, and lofting off this rock. This is the photo of John doing what he said he was going to do, but just afterwards, upon landing, John landed on the loose rocks you see below. The landing was not as he expected. Inconveniently a pocket on his hydration pack, with tools in it, jabbed into John's side. Ouch!

John made it up, by carving his Nomad through the woods. The rest of the ride was good, until the adrenaline started to wear off.

So where better to go, than the coffee shop. We posed our nice new Nomad's outside Bean Around the World at parkgate for a refill. I ended up haveing 3 coffees that day, going on a DH on the Revolt later, and then washing it down with beers and ceasars, and prime rib at our staff Christmas party that night. What a day!

-Scott

Getting Back in the Game!

The riding has been great this past week, and with the sun out, but cold temps, you can throw on an extra layer or two and have a great ride. My buddy Kyle and I have known each other forever, and have been riding with each other for as long as I've been riding mountain bikes. But, he's been pretty busy with work, and had a broken collar-bone last year and hasn't ridden must this year. Well, with a bit more time on his hands and nice weather, we had a chance to hit the trails!

The trails have been in mint shape lately without the rain, and with cold weather sucking the moisture out of the ground the trails have been dry. When you stop and take a look every once in a while there are some amazing sights in the woods. Like this creek on the trail side.

The sun cracked through the trees to make for a great sight, and warmed things up a bit. We rode a pretty straight forward set of trails: Corkscrew, Pingu, and Pangor. Kyle started to get a feel for trails more and more after each trail.

Some cool, old trees on the side of the trail show burn marks from lightning, and lichen.

With the cold weather there was the typical North Shore mist. Pangor still had a bit or water running down the trail, and you crossed back and forth between water flow, and dry trail until the bottom.

Some rocks and wood looked wet and slick, but were still grippy. The ride was great. Kyle got out on his bike more, and I got out on my Evil, which has been taking a back seat to the Nomad since the bike park closed. Good times had by all. With the sun still shining the weather has gotten colder, but the bold are still out hitting the trails. I'll keep riding until the snow stops me. Don the wool and winter gloves, lets pin it!

-Scott