Mike's 2010 Bike Ride Log Blog

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Mike's 2010 Bike Ride Log Blog
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flag mikelevy
Mod
Posted: Jul 4, 2010 at 13:51 Quote
98th ride

Sumas Mtn, Time Killer
Dry and fast trail.


Cori and I did the long hike up to Time Killer on Sumas Mtn. yesterday, it takes longer than hiking vedder, but the grade is much mellower so it's not a pain in the ass. Time Killer is a rocky and rooty (but mostly just rocky) trail that is a lot of fun on a full-on DH race bike. There are a lot of cool line choices and it seems like every corner has multiple routes to choose from. Since we hiked up we decided that we'd session the trail and get some video and pictures instead of just bombing down.

Myself riding the Revolt on Time Killer. The next time through I nearly went straight over the corner and into the rhubarb!
Time Killer Blog Video

by mikelevy
Views: 328    Faves: 0    Comments: 0



The trail starts with a gnarly rocky stepped section that we played on for a bit. Lots of fun, but it quickly clear to me now that I was on a serious trail that I was certainly a lot more hesitant than I wanted to be. I came through three times and was feeling better by the last, but should have/could have spent the entire day on just this 100 foot section.

Cori coming down the first rock section on Time Killer
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Half of the trail is in the trees and the other half is out in a clear cut which feels damn cool to ride through. It always feels like everyone is watching you during a race when you're pining through a clear cut. Lots of rocks and tricky corners through here, but tons of fun! Gary and the crew have been doing great work in here and it shows - still tricky and challenging, but lots of flow to be had.

Myself on the Evil Revolt as I come through this section at about 3 kph...
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Awesome run today, had a shit ton of fun sessioning like back in the day... need to do that more often, even when I'm on my XC bike. I felt a bit overwhelmed today though as I was trying to keep pace with Cori and I'm probably not quite ready for that yet. I toned it down on the second half of the ride so that I wouldn't wad it up into a big tree. Always fun to push yourself though! I'm out to go play on Vedder!
flag mikelevy
Mod
Posted: Jul 4, 2010 at 17:47 Quote
99th ride

Vedder Mtn. Mongloyd into Delemia

Just a quick solo push up to Mongloyd and then down the skidder road into Delemia. Stopped to a few times to session the new and incredible berms at the top of Mongloyd - so sick! I suck at berms and would choose a nice flat and fast corner any day, but these new berms are soooo much fun. There is the usual outside line, but all I ever want to do is cut inside and slide into the corner.. sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't, it's hardly ever faster, but it's a hell of a lot more fun than just riding through them. I'm not sure why a lot of riders have such big hard-on's for the Maxxis Minnon DHF tires. I just can't seem to get them to work for me no matter what pressure I try. Super pumped on the Evil, but if it was mine I would throw on a set of 2.5" Kenda Excavator's (tubelessed, obviously).

Ride Blog video

by mikelevy
Views: 234    Faves: 0    Comments: 0
flag barnz0rz
Posted: Jul 4, 2010 at 18:12 Quote
Mongoloyd berms..... yumm....
I took my buddy Mike from Kelowna down there and he thought we were at Silverstar.
flag mikelevy
Mod
Posted: Jul 11, 2010 at 23:55 Quote
100th ride

Vedder Mtn. Two Cents down on the first run, Den down on the second.

Holy shit son, I've been falling behind!

Good day on the bike though.. from what I remember! We actually had Paulie out for a ride, that means that he has used up his entire ride quota for the year that he is allowed to do. I was nice though, Paul!

Mongloyd quickie

by mikelevy
Views: 215    Faves: 0    Comments: 0
flag mikelevy
Mod
Posted: Jul 11, 2010 at 23:58 Quote
101st ride

Vedder Mtn. Duck Farm!
f*cking hot and dusty - but fun!

Was out filming with Jordan for the Commencal Meta 6 VIP review that should be done by 2013. Had lots of fun today, despite the heat. I get a kick out of seeing myself on film so I'm more than happy to hike all day for Jordan's camera. The trail was super dry and pretty grown is as well, which was a bit scary as I was waiting for a stray log or stump to get me!

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flag mikelevy
Mod
Posted: Jul 12, 2010 at 0:00 Quote
102st ride

Little Mountain!
Still mega hot!

After 3 or 4 hours filming up on Vedder we realized that we still needed to get some footy on Morland's Evil Revolt for an upcoming Vivid Air bit. After I spent nearly $20 at Booster Juice we headed up for some more pushing and bug swatting. I don't get up Little that often, but I used to basically live up there. It was good to get back up.

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flag mikelevy
Mod
Posted: Jul 12, 2010 at 0:03 Quote
103rd ride

Vedder Mtn. Hidden Pleasures ect...

SUMMERTIME NIGHT RIDE!

So sick, shorts and a jersey at 11:30 pm, so nice and warm. Very cool feeling to be doing a night ride in the summer, I need to do it more. We just coasted down, barely taking a pedal stroke at all. Below is a quick vid of us on Femur. My light is insane, but it looks dim on the vid.

Femur Night Lap

by mikelevy
Views: 311    Faves: 2    Comments: 2
flag petemac
O+
Posted: Jul 12, 2010 at 16:45 Quote
Hey Mike; what kind of light do you run?
flag mikelevy
Mod
Posted: Jul 13, 2010 at 7:29 Quote
petemac wrote:
Hey Mike; what kind of light do you run?

I use a NiteRider Digital Pro 1200... it should be classified as cheating.
flag mikelevy
Mod
Posted: Jul 14, 2010 at 2:22 Quote
104th ride

Sumas Mtn. Knob Gobler, Holiday and Extra Sauce, Emma Peel
Hot as tits, but awesome fast trails.


Out for what was going to be a solo XC loop on Sumas, but ended up running into Gary, Kerry, and Mike, who graciously let me tag along for most of the ride. It was pretty warm today, but once you were moving it didn't feel that hot. I had planned to get up and out early, but that was not to be due to me being a lazy bum.

Sumas Singletrack - Blog Video

by mikelevy
Views: 339    Faves: 0    Comments: 0



The trails were a good time today, a bit grown in, but they were all rolling quite fast. About 2/3's of the way down my bike started shifting a bit funky and I was worried that my 10 speed XO was acting up... it turned out that I had a massive amount of fishing net caught up in my cassette and derailleur - very weird considering I was 2000 feet up a mountain. I always have a knife with me so it wasn't a big deal to cut out, but it would have been interesting if I had had to leave it in there.

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flag mikelevy
Mod
Posted: Jul 14, 2010 at 2:44 Quote
105th ride

Chatel, France. A shit ton of trails in both France and Switzerland.
Warm weather, but lots of puddles and some slick spots due to the gnarly storm that came through last night


I'm back in Chatel, France, this time for the '11 Trek bike launch. Expect to see some new Remedy and Scratch info coming your way pretty quick! Yesterdays ride was a 5 hour loop that was a cool mix of lift assisted riding and some more XC type trails. I was on the '11 carbon Remedy which was sick. It ended up being both a very good day on the bike and a terrible day on the bike...

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The trails that were rode were pretty cool, very different from home. They have a much more raw and untamed feeling to them, probably due to the fact that they are hundreds of years old and have plenty of wear. In fact, a lot of the trails were actually sunk down into the ground which is kinda neat.

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Most of the singletrack is actually quite wide, it could be called doubletrack, but it had plenty of flow in spots. One thing that it all was was super fast. Anytime the trail pointed down it felt like we hit warp speed. Lots of fun corners as well. Although the ride was fairly long at over 5 hours, there was lots of time spent sitting on lifts so it really didn't drain me like a long ride like that might. Great views from the chair! We passed through a cool mountain village that had a ton of goats standing about as well.

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Unfortunately for me the ride went from great to bad near the end. After 4 hours of having a blast following the guide at mach chicken down unfamiliar terrain, lots of two wheel drifts and lots of getting lucky, my luck ran out on a flat and wide piece of trail about an hour from Chatel on our return trip. I had just blown my load climbing up some steep bits and I was relaxing on a flat going about 4 kph when my front tire buzzed the side of the trail and I tumbled over slowly. I was laughing as I fell as it was funny and a bunch of people saw me being an idiot, but I straight armed my right arm into the ground and all of a sudden it wasn't funny! I was a crap load of pain, but didn't want to ruin anyones ride so I was quiet about it for a bit, I even rode a hard bit of steep trail (and crashed..) right after it, but I had to give in and tell the guides I was f*cked. I ended up splitting off from the group and being guided back to the chalet by John and Jose by following the fire roads with one hand on the bar for about 45 minutes. Won't be riding for the remaining time here and I'm betting that I'll be out for a week or two.

Oh well, shit happens! It'll give me an excuse to do some proper hikes that I've been meaning to do and I'll come back stoked on bikes.
flag mikelevy
Mod
Posted: Jul 28, 2010 at 10:02 Quote
106th ride

Vedder Mtn. Two Cents ect..
Hot as shit.

So it turns out I was still a bit too sore to ride... Back was doing some funky spasm things during the climb and I could barely hold on, let alone shred, with my right hand. Climb sucked and the downhill sucked even more, BUT it was good to get out at least. I'd just be sitting at home on my ass anyways!

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Bit of a bruise coming out from my swellbo


The mountain is drying very quickly and it's beginning to roll fast as hell. Time to put on the smooth rear tire and have some fun!
flag mikelevy
Mod
Posted: Jul 28, 2010 at 10:20 Quote
107th ride

Vedder Mtn. Two Cents ect..
Hot as shit (492 degrees)

Much better ride today than yesterday! What a difference a day can make - I had way more strength, my back felt better, and I had a lot more confidence. I've put on a Kenda Small Block Eight on the back and the bike is rolling too fast for it's own good, I'm going to get in trouble! The mountain is starting to get very dusty, which is ok in my books as it makes for fast AND loose trails. Basically from now until September I'll be making motorbike noises during every ride.

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One of our local builders (one of two) is busy building this sweet new hip jump. Should be good!
flag mikelevy
Mod
Posted: Jul 29, 2010 at 9:04 Quote
108th ride

Sumas Mtn., Chadsey Lake trail


I've been meaning to get out and do this loop forever, especially because every time I run into Gary he tells me how rad it is. It sounds like this is the oldest trail on the mountain, built long before any of the bike specific trails, and it remains a multi-use route. Hikers climb this trail to get up to the lake and the valley view point that you've seen in a lot of my blog posts. I had been warned by more than one person that Chadsey can be a bit of a route finding mission if you don't know where you're going so I was sure to get some proper directions before I headed to the mountain.

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Tyler looking pretty at the viewpoint that overlooks the Fraser Valley. Lots of smog when it gets warm for a long time, but it makes for pretty sunsets at least.


The ride starts with an extended climb up a gravel road... which was made more interesting due to the fact that it was recently graded and had new crush put down on it. Lots of lose rock and dust, but it's not like the climb would have felt good if it didn't have new crush on it so it didn't really matter. Once at the top we break'd for a short time, double checked my directions, and started down.

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Beautiful old school singletrack had me and Tyler (pictured) creaming our pants the entire ride


The trail turned out to be amazing. The top was a mix of neat corners that were asking to be slid through, and rock steps that demanded just the right line choice in order to thread the needle to the bottom. I kept my momentum up and rolled through the majority of the gnarly sections without scoping out lines and certainly got lucky once or twice. I almost always look before rolling as I really don't like riding blind, but I was searching for flow and Chadsey was delivering!

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Chadsey lake is hidden in a pocket near the top of Sumas Mtn. Small and a bit mucky, but it does boast a tiny island


After the lake the trail mellowed out dramatically and consisted of classic old school singletrack that wound its way through the forest. A good mix of up's and down' kept me working instead of relaxing, which is always a blast because so many of the trails I ride are all climbing and then all descending - its good it ix it up!

All in all it was a sick ride that I wish I had done a long time ago. I actually fee a bit silly for not having done this route long ago, especially because it has been there before the dawn of time I've been told. I was also expecting a bit of a death march, but the Chadsey look can certainly be ridden in less time than the usual XC trails on Sumas. Another great option on what is may favourite mountain.
flag brule
O+
Posted: Jul 29, 2010 at 9:28 Quote
Nice ride for sure, now get back to work!

 


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