Mike's 2010 Bike Ride Log Blog

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Mike's 2010 Bike Ride Log Blog
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flag scott54
Posted: Feb 24, 2010 at 14:55 Quote
I didn't realize my ass was so hot in that light. Sure didn't smell as good as it looks!
flag mikelevy
Mod
Posted: Feb 27, 2010 at 21:58 Quote
23rd ride

Sumas Mtn. Holiday Sauce, Extra Sauce, Emma Peel, ect
9c and light rain on the climb up. Trails were pretty slick in some spots.
Forgot my damn camera today so all these below are poached from Tyler!



I really didn't feel like riding today. Not one bit. A light drizzle outside and a belly full of pancakes and bacon was pretty much anchoring me onto the couch in the morning. Despite not being sure if I was going to ride or not, one thing I NEEDED to do was give my bike a little love. I spent a good 2.5 hours at my local shop doing some things that needed to be done a long time ago. Rebuilt the RC2 cartridge in my trusty 36, I had been meaning to do that for the last month or so. I had used some weak sauce oil last time that turned out to be super temperature sensitive. Replaced that junk w/ some quality Bel-Ray that I should have used the first time! Also did some brake and shift work, as well as repacked the lower sealed bearing in my headset... desperately waiting for a new one from Cane Creek.

So after all that I was feeling pretty lazy, but thats why we all have friends to drag us out. Tyler wanted to go and I had said "maybe" so that meant "yes" and we hit the road. The rain was actually nice as it was pretty warm today so we pedaled along and enjoyed it. Much rather have warm and rain than cold as tits and dry! Tyler was not feeling the climb today so we took our time and talked about feelings and such, it was nice to not be close to vomiting due to trying to beat my last time.

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I'm a big fan of riding on days like this when its rainy and foggy (yes, I realize I that I said above I didn't feel like riding today) because it really feels like "mountain biking" to me. Once at the top the fog/clouds rolled in and we were engulfed in this rad white and grey mist, so cool! The trails were vivid green with color from the rain but the mist made you feel like you were in some sort of horror movie. It was evident pretty quick that the trails were slick and I was thankful to still be rocking my Kenda KOT out back as it's made for this sort of thing. I was riding pretty hesitant and careful and only had trouble on one corner during the entire ride, and that was purely rider error due to me letting it run out a bit fast on a fun bit. The tricky parts today were the short little climbs as a lot of them have small rooty bits that don't want to let you past without a dab.

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My newly rebuilt fork was about a thousand times better than before which no doubt played a part in me feeling the stoke today. A lot more forgiving on top and it just felt so much more controlled. I usually have a lot of fun on days like today, I've always been comfortable in the mud and on wet roots and really enjoy riding quick in shitty conditions. It seems so much more satisfying than in the dry!

Below is a quick B & W video that shows how dark it was near the end of our ride.

Dark XC Clip

by brule
Views: 193    Faves: 0    Comments: 0


We actually brought our lights today as we didn't start riding until well after 3 pm and the light looked quite low due to the cloud cover. It was pretty damn dark and flat in the bush during most of the ride but just before we ducked into the bush for the last section of trail it started to fade fast. I decided to stop and mount up my light but quickly realized that that was the wrong move. Because it was super foggy and not quite pitch black most of the light was useless and I ended up being able to see much more w/o it on.

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Over all it was a pretty damn good ride, especially since I didn't even want to go in the first place!
flag mikelevy
Mod
Posted: Feb 28, 2010 at 18:00 Quote
24th ride

Vedder Mtn. Den, Two Cents, Hidden Pleasures and Terd Ferg, Ditch Chicken, Luge and Femur
10c? Nice and warm today, no rain but wet trails... although they were not slippery


Great ride today! And not just because I didn't flat, although that is nice as well. Yesterdays ride set me up to feel pretty strong today so I decided to push a bigger gear up the climb than I have so far this season. I was a bit worried but I actually felt damn good and ended up stopping the clock with a 32:30 showing, a full minute and a half quicker than my last go. I think I had a little more in me but regardless it's nice to see some progress. Also weighed in at my lowest weight of the year so far as well, I'd love to see 30 flat by the end of March and with the time change coming up (as well as Steak and BJ Day) on the 14th it could be doable.

After stopping the timer I kept on climbing up to the Den, which also went nice. I decided to muck about today with my camera, a Cannon G10, and shoot some self filmed clips with the intent of putting them together at home in iMovie... two things I never really messed with! Bit a bitch with having to press record and then running down the hill to get my bike, riding past the camera, and then jumping off to press stop. I don't think I'll be doing it to often but it's nice to know I am able to put a short and shitty clip together. Messed up a bit while editing and ended up with a few funny moments where the frame changes but I know what I did wrong for next time.

Self filmed and edited, don't expect much!
The Den - Self Edit

by mikelevy
Views: 593    Faves: 1    Comments: 2



The mountain was gorgeous today. The recent rains have made everything very very green, almost neon, and the mist/fog really set it off. Run down was great, had one amazing corner in particular that made me holler to no one in particular but myself. Had a bit of an off when I came up on some small deadfall while not paying attention but I rode out mostly unscathed. The trails were certainly wet and mucky but they didn't really feel slick to me at all, had a blast taking some weird lines that I usually wouldn't have.

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This photo is of an old section of trail called Mango Mango that isn't ridden anymore, although the new singletrack trail parallels it. That wood work is so slimy and green that one can see their reflection in it even on a dry day!


Another great ride. I think that puts me 23 out of 24 for good rides this year, not bad! When I got back down to the van I nearly did a 2nd half lap because I felt so great still but decided against it for no good reason.

Also: CANADA HOCKEY GOLD - HELL YEAH!
flag mikelevy
Mod
Posted: Mar 2, 2010 at 20:53 Quote
25th ride.

Vedder Mtn. Two Cents, Hidden Pleasures, Terd Ferg, Ditch Chicken, Electric Lettuce, Femur
10c, super fine rain, mostly dry trails.


Short and sweet today. Just a quick loop from Two Cents down, around an hour or so I think. Today was my first ride the new test bike that you'll see a preview for, and waaaaaaay down the road a review as well. We managed to get our grubby paws onto a Turner 5.Spot frame and throw some nice parts at it with the idea of having something a little less aggressive all-mountain than my personal Trek Remedy or the Enduro that is on the front page right now.

I yet again forgot my camera at home so I was forced to use a camera phone to snap a mandatory ride blog picture, sorry for the shitty quality! Funny how the last blog post had a self filmed and edited movie, as well as a rad super green shot of the forest, and now all you get is a crap cellie pic. Like I said on page one folks, keep those expectations low!

photo


The ride itself was a nice laid back short one. It was just Steve, Scott, and I that showed up... I'm starting to think we smell bad or something. We took our time going up although we made a point of pushing the middle ring for the entire climb. We just pushed it slowly! Run down was uneventful. I felt pretty comfortable on the Turner right away despite it being quite a bit steeper than my last test bike and a touch steeper than my own steed. Did a few little gappers but none of the drops I'd usually roll off of without thinking about, within the next few rides for sure though.

That jackass Tyler gave away some tires on his blog a few days ago specifically to try and get more subscribers than me so I'll be coming up with some sort of random competition for you guys to win something as well. I just have to figure out what it's going to be and what old crap I have to give away Smile Stay tuned....
flag mikelevy
Mod
Posted: Mar 4, 2010 at 18:04 Quote
26th ride.

Vedder Mtn. One trail, Ditch Chicken only.
Sunny and 11c. Hero dirt.


Today me and Jordan went out to film and shoot for the upcoming Turner 5.Spot preview and review so we spent a long time on only one trail, which was fine as the trail in question is a load of fun. Ditch Chicken traverses the mountain as much as it looses altitude so it's especially fun on lighter pedal-friendly bikes like the 5.Spot or my Remedy. The trail was sick today and basically every corner was made of hero dirt, traction when you want and none when you don't!

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Jordan is a task master and I'm sure by the time we were done I must have ridden the trail about three times in total, lots of hiking today. I've seen some of the unfinished video though and it looks like it's going to be worth it. The light was on and everything was bright bright green, very cool. The trail is in pretty good shape and was rolling quite fast today as the moisture dries out of it. Near the bottom there was one gentle left that nearly tossed me hard though as I was a bit wide and in the soft crumbling outside edge. Just as I took put a hard pedal at mid-corner my front end decided that it wanted to get loose, followed shortly by my rear end. In the video you can actually see dirt clods flying above my head! I kept it upright, although I certainly don't know how...

photo

I only have two rides on the Turner so far but I have a good feeling about it. I feel comfortable on it, despite the shorter axle-crown fork and resulting much steeper h/a than I'm used to. The rear end feels very planted and solid (stiff) and although the 140 mm feels quite stiff at first, it really opens up when you get moving. At some point I'm going to try the bike with my 36 RC2 instead of the Talas 150 RLC thats on it now just to see if it adds or detracts from the bikes fun factor.
flag mikelevy
Mod
Posted: Mar 4, 2010 at 23:37 Quote
27th ride.

Sumas Mtn. Noah Fear into World Cup and then Time Out
Clear and dry, 5c?

I had so much fun in the morning filming with Jordan that it seemed like it only wetted my appetite for more shredding! So after all the boring office work was done for the day me and Tyler drove out to Sumas for a nice lower/shorter XC loop. I did learn something today (doesn't happen often) though that made me feel a bit better. Climbing on the new test bike has felt like more work than I'm used to, sort of like I was a gear higher...... because I was a gear higher, damn it! I was sure that the Tango colored PG991 cassette was an 11-34. It is actually an 11-32. On one had I'm embarrassed because I wasn't paying attention, but on the other I'm stoked that I know why I felt a wee bit weaker. Regardless, happy that I'm not having trouble pushing the middle ring/32t cog combo up some steep hills right now.

photo
Tyler getting his XC on

While the ride itself was fun the highlight for me was hearing some rad wildlife at the top before we dropped in. As we were getting ready to start heading down we heard some hooting and hollering, or so we thought at first, off a few hundred feet into the bush. I assumed it was some other riders as there is some cool XC trails on that side so I was going to holler back when I think we both realized that it certainly wasn't people! I'm not up on my wolf or coyote calls but it was a bunch of them making loads of noise in the bush, so cool! I don't even know if wolves live here (and I don't feel like looking it up right now) but I'm hoping it was some of them because thats a lot cooler than a bunch of skinny ragged coyotes.

photo
Look at that concentration!
flag mikelevy
Mod
Posted: Mar 6, 2010 at 19:17 Quote
28th ride.

Red Mtn., Crazy 8's and a bunch of rad trails that I can't remember..
14c, dry trails


Holy shit, it's days like today that convince me that I live in one of the raddest places ever. Woke up to sunny skies and a pile of pancakes and bacon that my female companion made for me, it doesn't get much better than that! Todays plan was to meet Steve and Tom out in Mission and have them give me a guided tour of Red mtn, a place I'd never been before. Red is only about 30 mins out of town so I have no excuse for not having been there before.

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The climb up was awesome! It's not often that I get to do a lot of climbing on singletrack as most trail access is off of fire roads, but Red has a goodly amount of singletrack climbing that was a lot of fun. The terrain is a mix of smooth and flowy dirt with some rock and roots thrown in for good measure.

photo

There was a fair bit of climbing on fresh singletrack through clearcuts, some of it was steep! The above picture doesn't do it justice...

We rode a number of different trails on Red today but I can't really remember the names except for the first one, Crazy 8's. The ride was about 2 and a half hours long (I think) and nearly two of that was on singletrack!!! The top trails were tight and tricky but have seen next to no use so there are mint. In a number of spots there trail was framed in by the greenest moss I've ever seen.

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I managed to climb one section in particular on Crazy 8's that I had no business even attempting. Steep with roots and rocks, it was about 50 ft long and I was sure that I was going to stall on every foot but I managed to muscle up it... no finesse, thats for sure!

photo

Tom brought his dog, Sacha, which is a mix of Collie and Blue Heeler (he thinks!) and Steve brought along his dog, Daisy. Two very well behaved trail dogs who were a lot of fun to ride with. I have been wanted my own Heeler for ages now and seeing how good Sacha was on the trail was great.

It was a great start to the day! Sick new trails and I got the full guided tour, which was nice because I never would have been able to find any of it on my own. Thanks Tom and Steve!
flag mikelevy
Mod
Posted: Mar 6, 2010 at 19:26 Quote
29th ride.

Vedder mtn. Hidden Pleasures, Terd Ferg, Ditch Chicken, Luge, Femur
10c, dry trails

After a great start to the day with a guided tour on Red mtn, I met up with Cori (of Cori's mom fame) at Vedder to do a run from the mid point. Cori only has his big 'ol DH bike but to his credit he is always stoked to push it up the hill and not rely on shuttles. Don't get me wrong, I love shuttles, but it's cool to see a young gay man like Cori happily push his big bike to the top when shuttles are available. The road is fairly steep so if I soft pedal while he pushes we end up climbing it together.

We were running out of daylight so we just went to the halfway point and dropped in on Hidden Pleasures. Always fun riding with Cori because we mostly just goof off and make a lot of trail work for the locals.

Short clip on Ditch Chicken

by mikelevy
Views: 407    Faves: 0    Comments: 0

Here is Cori hitting up some jumps on Hidden Pleasures.

Ditch Chicken is my favorite trail in Vedder right now because it's so fast on a AM type bike. Lots of cool corners and a few up hills to keep me honest.

Short clip on Ditch Chicken

by mikelevy
Views: 407    Faves: 4    Comments: 2

A quick clip of me on Ditch Chicken. Pay no attention to Cori's commentary.

Another double mountain day today!
flag Chornbeak
O+
Posted: Mar 6, 2010 at 23:55 Quote
lol "your impressive...your impressive"
flag crazygeorge
Posted: Mar 7, 2010 at 4:58 Quote
That commentary is hilarious. What about this giveaway then mike?
flag mikelevy
Mod
Posted: Mar 7, 2010 at 18:07 Quote
30th ride.

Vedder Mtn. Driveway climb, climbed to radio tower, climbed Ridge trail up and over to North side of Vedder and then climbed up to the Den. Usual trails down: Den, Two Cents, Hidden Pleasures, Terd Ferg, Ditch Chicken, Luge and Femur. Parked at Vedder bridge.
6c? light rain most of the ride. Trails were mint!


I honestly felt bad about that whole smorgasbord of singletrack debacle yesterday. I mean, it's really not that fair for one man to be on so many amazing trails all in the same day. I woke up this morning feeling a bit guilty and ashamed about it so I decided to head off with the intent of exploring some old logging roads that I was curious about, and if I happen to shred some singletrack as well it's no fault of mine! Actually, todays plan was to ride with Tyler and his friend that is a girl who happens to ride bikes on the South side of Vedder, but it didn't happen so I decided to go with my backup plan and do some exploring.

I parked at the bridge and started my day with a couple of km's of paved climbing until the turn off onto the driveway climb. The driveway is pretty mellow until it hits the new deactivation bits which have loads of fallen trees (to keep the moto guys out) that require dismounting and climbing over. Not difficult but a massive pain in the ass. After 40 minutes or so I hit the fire road the wraps around Vedder and leads my to the first real hard bit of the day.

photo
The start of the Ridge road (left side) on the South side of Vedder. It's about 730 times as steep as it looks. To put it in perspective, the fire road on the right has got a good grade to it, but the road on the left looks loads steeper... Because it is! It's about 3 times as long as you can see here as it makes a left just out of view and keeps going up.

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Pictures do not do this climb justice. It's steep as tits, but if it wasn't so loose then it would be a lot easier. It's loose as tits, but if it wasn't so steep then it would be a lot easier. You get the idea. I managed to get 3/4 of the way up it until I spun on some gravel and then couldn't get started again. Pissed that I had to walk this part as I was hoping to clean it today. This leads to the radio tower that I first found last season. From there I joined the Ridge Trail, which is actually a hairy 4x4 road, and climbed up and over Vedder to the opposite side. Again, I couldn't ride it all because some of it was waaaay too loose/steep, but I think I managed a good 2/3's of it in total.

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The forrest up here is very cool and a lot different from what we see on our bike trails. Tons of rock ledges and cliffs, lots of loose boulders in the bush, and very very green and mossy. It was cool to be up there for the first time and by myself. A lot of moto trails crossed the road, although I couldn't imagine why one would want to just be brapping along not seeing a the cool shit and making a ton of noise. There was also loads of the weirdest piles of shit I've ever seen, most likely unicorn droppings I think. Also came across a random bird house way off in the bush while I was investigating something else. Strange.

photo
Random bird house in the middle of nowhere.

After all that climbing I decided to punish myself a bit more and climb up to the Den. Wasn't sure if I was going to be able to pedal it all as I was pretty tired but I managed to drag my ass up there without dismounting. Run down was decent, nothing special as I was pretty beat. Something funny did happen near the bottom though... I ran into some riders I knew and one had a flat but nobody had tools/tubes/pump so I lent him some stuff. As we were sitting around waiting a moto came flying by and did a big U-turn in front of us while pinned, spraying us with dirt on purpose. It gets better though as he then tries to climb up a steep bit of trail in front of us, f*cks up and stalls and has to back down. He backs down to within 5 feet of me and then pins it, spraying mud and dirt at all of us. Douche bag! This clown was the first moto guy I've had trouble with in 12 years I think, all it takes is one I guess...


Great ride though. Finally followed that 4x4 road up and over the mountain, just as I thought it went. Saw and rode some new stuff on my local hill which is always good. Didn't bring the GPS today as I'm over it, but todays ride was 4 and a half hours long and most likely a bit over 4000 feet of climbing. I just ate all of tomorrows lunch food and then some.
flag mikelevy
Mod
Posted: Mar 7, 2010 at 18:10 Quote
crazygeorge wrote:
That commentary is hilarious. What about this giveaway then mike?

Giveaway? What giveaway?
flag shorerider16
O+
Posted: Mar 8, 2010 at 17:12 Quote
mikelevy wrote:
A lot of moto trails crossed the road, although I couldn't imagine why one would want to just be brapping along not seeing a the cool shit and making a ton of noise.


Cause I can get up, over, around and back to the truck in the time it takes you to get to the top Razz

And he's not kidding people when he says the 4by road is long and steep!
flag mikelevy
Mod
Posted: Mar 8, 2010 at 21:49 Quote
Anyone else out there pumped?! 6 days!!!!
flag admarshall
O+
Posted: Mar 9, 2010 at 3:46 Quote
yeah!! it's gonna be insane!! can't wait till sunday.

 


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