RR sort of (long)

[Michelle]

Even though I've been out on the bikes almost every weekend, I haven't been riding much and it's been getting me down a bit (i.e. do I sell the bike, do I still enjoy riding, what's going on). We've been running events, or helping others with theirs and it's really left not much time for fun riding.

Because the KDX has been on loan to friends without bikes (in between times), I've been riding my trials bike and enjoying that. Last weekend I had a fantastic ride in the morning, but after lunch it all turned to cheese. I just couldn't get a pace going, and then when I eventually started getting it together, I'd have to stop (I was riding behind Henk putting up arrows). Whenever I'd get ahead of him, I'd lose track of where the heck I was or where we were going, so not worth that hassle either. Anyway, I dumped the bike a couple of times, hurt my arm, stuffed things up so decided to give up.

Today (our Sunday) we were going riding again, as we couldn't help with our own event yesterday, due to an inconsiderate friend deciding to get married and asking me to do photos (I hope they work out). The wedding went well, the weather didn't help, but the drinks did <g>

Once we got up the forest this morning, I decided I didn't want to ride after all, so Julie & I went to clear a trail. We sort of looked at each other - do we want to ride or not? Heck, we'd better or we'll be in trouble with the guys.

We gear up, the kids decide they want to come, the guys were arrowing ahead of us - but we thought they'd be back by then. Talk about a slow ride, I ignored my usual hand cramps and they passed. We caught up with the guys who were clearing some trail, so decided stuff it, we'll finish off, have a break. Got back to the cars, made sure everyone was okay, yip, time to go.

Okay, we're sick of this trail, let's try the other one the guys have arrowed, but ignore the bit they haven't finished off (a side trail). There was one snotty downhill, just really soft sandy corner going into it and if you got it wrong, it would hurt, due to the clearfell next to it. Okay, I'm down, so's the first kid. I decide to walk back to make sure the two younger ones are okay. Yip, first one's frozen there, so just give her the thumb's up, Julie encouraging her at the back. Cool, she's down, hmm, now the youngest who was petrified of rolling her quad. Okay, got her over the top, I just stand there watching, ready to jump in her way if anything starts going wrong. Ah, all good. We've all made it.

A couple more incidents like this, and we make it back. Julie & I decided to go paint a couple of stumps, so we head out again. Stop a couple of times to paint things, finally make it to the stumps. I park my bike, thinking it looks a bit shaky, but okay. As I was painting the second one, we hear thud. Damn, my bike's down. Pick it up & notice a bit of fluorescent paint on the bike, not a biggie (why
don't I ever check properly?) Everything else went fine.

At some stage later in the day I went for a ride by myself, and as I hopped on the bike, noticed my radiator cover is loose. Go to shove it back in the holes, no wonder it's loose, guess whose shroud got pushed in hard, damaging the radiator? Nothing broken, but where the bolts go in, it got pushed in. Ah well, keep that in mind & have fun. When I showed Henk what I'd done, he just ripped the cover off so I
wouldn't lose it (why didn't I think of that, except I just wanted to ride).

After I got back, Julie asked what that trail had been like near the end, so I told her to gear up & I'd show her. Well, the guys decided to go ride it again too, so they took off. We chased. They went into the trees then cut out in front of us, but we were moving faster than they thought, almost taking me out. I watch them go around a corner & up the sandy hill (huge fun factor), but waited for the sand to
settle a bit before taking off after them (goggles back at the car). Get to the top, slow down to wait for Julie and off we go again. Hmm, what are the guys doing here? Okay, a bit of armpump, nothing serious, let's go. So the two of us take off letting them eat our dust (hey it's usually the other way around, fair's fair). As soon as I stuffed up a corner, they turn up - typical. We lost the trail a
little bit, nothing major, get back to the waiting kids and start loading/organising.

The guys got back from wherever they'd been and start going "what the heck happened? We looked, saw you were ages away, so cut back only to discover you there. Then after the hill, we sit for a couple of seconds, to find, oh, the girls are here already? Then it took ages to catch up to you again, did you cheat?"

On the drive home, Henk turns round to me, saying "I flew up that hill, thinking, wahoo, finally got him (J's husband), to find him not long behind me, then you were half that distance behind him & J about the same distance as he was to me".
It was an easy trail, but even still, it was great for the self confidence and I think it may have the guys thinking a bit too. I found that having ridden the trials bike, things are transferring over automatically, I'm standing most of the time, I'm steering more with the pegs, I'm not so paranoid about tree roots & stumps, I
really am enjoying riding more. Even if I never enter a trial in my lifetime, the bike has paid for herself for these reasons.

I'd been burning out without realising, and having no one to ride with hasn't helped (J's husband's bike keeps blowing up, so he nicks hers to ride all the time).
But I've had a huge day, just sad we didn't get to ride yesterday, but some things have to be done. Now I've just got one more wedding to survive next week, and hopefully that's the last one for my lifetime hehehe

Well, I'll shut up now (hey it's not the beer talking either, I've been good today, this is more a natural high/contentment). Hope all you others had a great weekend too
Michelle

 

[bbbom]

Way to go Michelle!

Glad to hear that the ride went well and that the trial's bike is helping your riding. I know my mountain biking has helped mine, except I'm so used to the lightweight mountain bike that I forgot just how much work it is to keep my bike under control.

Karl and I decided that since it has cooled off a bit we would brave the dust and take a little Mica ride yesterday afternoon. We have both been a bit grouchy since we haven't ridden for over 2 months. My neck felt pretty good so we decided to give it a go.

Karl decided to change my bike's oil as I was getting the kids situated for our absence. He commented that I should wash off the bit of oil that he accidentally spilled on it before we leave. So, I pushed it up to the faucet and washed it off, went back to the shop to get the rest of my gear and on my way back to the bike a gust of wind came up and blew the bike over! Great start I figured. Picked it up and secured it so I could go up to the house to get my cell phone for my pack. Karl came up to the house on his bike patiently asking :rolleyes: if I was FINALLY ready. Yayayayay, I'm ready.

Got back to my bike, grabbed the clutch lever and it spun around the bars. Oops. Pulled off my pack, found my 8mm and reset the clutch perch. Karl was patiently waiting for me again. ;)

Off we went with me in the lead up the trail behind the house, always a good warm up dodging trees and stumps. Then up the STEEP Karl trail that I usually either stall or dump it on. Made it without any problems, hmmmm feeling good.

We hit the Paper Company road and there were 3 women on horses. Slowly passed them and noticed one horse was riderless. Saw that the Paper Company had destroyed one of our favorite skidder trails with several great kelley hump jumps by dragging brush and trees across it (they tend to do this off and on to prevent 4x4's from tearing it up anymore - they have told me that trails for bikes, horses, hiking.... are okay as long as they aren't wide enough for 4 wheel vehicles but it does make it challenging when they close the old skidder trails off).

As Karl tried to pioneer a new way through, I saw one of the horseriders walking on the road. Asked if everything was okay and she said they were looking for the trail to Mica Peak since the area looked nothing like it did last time she was up there 6 years ago. I directed her to the easy horse route (didn't think they'd like the way we were going because it would mean they'd have to bring the horses down The Hill and I don't really like The Hill on my bike even).

Karl had turned around by then and decided that we would pioneer the new trail from the top on the way back. So, off we went on the logging road until we hit another trail that connected us back to the original trail. Came down The Hill much easier than I usually do (thanks to my mountain biking), headed on up the ridge to the Powerline.

We cruised down the Poweline hill and made our normal little loop through Hangover Hill Gulley. I popped over the roots on Hangover Hill easily, even though they seem to get uglier and uglier each time I see them. Made it to the bottom of Oops I Crapped My Pants Hill and stopped for a brief rest.

OICMP Hill is a very long, steep hill with a narrow rut that you really need to just stay in. I tend to have trouble with this one because according to Karl, I don't keep enough speed up and I try to hard to avoid the rut. As I have explained to him many many times during my many many attempts on this hill, if I could keep my feet on the pegs when I slam my front tire into the side of the rut I would be happy to keep my speed up BUT it just don't seem to work that way for ME and when I do manage to keep the bike moving forward, my arms get tired from trying to keep my butt from sliding completely off the rear fender!!! :p

So, I took off with full intention of just blazing up this stinking hill. I told it I was gonna kick it's butt and I was NOT going to slow down for ANY little ruts or roots or rocks. Off I went, doing good, uhoh, RUTTTTTTTT bobble bobble bop! As Karl passed me and my downed bike, I was already laughing. I picked my bike up (really miss my mountain bike) and fortunately it rolled backwards a couple feet before hitting a huge log which was a good thing because I really needed to catch my breath and the log was holding my bike from rolling (in gear) back down the hill. Caught my breath, drug the bike around and rolled back down the hill. Karl had made it to the top (of course) so I yelled that I would be up in a minute - didn't want him to meet me halfway and crash.

He coasted back down to me and said his bike was overheating so he needed to add some water. He again instructed me and I again told him I completely understood the THEORY but it was the EXECUTION that was lacking. He was nice enough to tell me that I didn't have to go up the hill, as usual I HAD to at least try one more time. Fired the bike up, and hit it hard. It was NOT pretty but, I made it all the way up OICMP Hill. Karl popped out at the top and was having a difficult time because he was laughing - guess he heard me yelling at the trees and roots and rocks as I passed them. Hey, it works for me!

We explored a couple offshoots that we have noticed while riding with the kids. Discovered some more nice singletrack tie ins to the normal trails. Finally, headed back towards home.

Arrived at the bottom of The Hill and Karl pulled over and motioned me on. FINE, I conquered OICMP Hill so I was NOT going to let The Hill intimidate me.

I hit the bottom of the hill just to the right of the first big rut in second gear, determined to keep my speed up. Made it to the midsection where the big rock usually forces the bike to wheelie and freaks me out, stabbed for 1st and stalled. Karl as usual was observing from the bottom - so glad I can keep him entertained. I spent 10 minutes trying to slide/drag my bike around in the trail so I could coast back to the bottom. The Hill is a gnarly section that really is just one big trough of a trail about 2 feet wide full of loose sand, rocks, ruts, roots and some very solid rocks that love to take me out. It takes quite a bit of effort to get a bike turned around on The Hill.

I coasted to the bottom and just said "Yayayayayya I KNOW, MORE SPEED!"

Karl stayed quiet (smart man). I took off again in second, more speed, got to the rock grabbed the clutch stabbed for 1st, made it past the rock, around the rut swung to the right side of the BIG upper rut, got to the top of the next rock and stalled. Karl came past me yelling something about second gear. Hmmm. Put the bike in neutral, oops I was still in second! Fired it up and headed on up the rest of The Hill to the ridge trail catching up to him as he was charting a new route around the road closure. He said something about poor little bike did pretty good for me being in second - I told him I DID shift into first, and he told me "No, you didn't because you DIDN'T let off on the throttle when you TRIED to hit first." Yet another detail I have to work on.

We cleared a new little trail around the old one (singletrack only) and hit the big logging road. The only challenge from this point is the 6' tall bank that we have to go up to get off the Paper Co. road and hit the trail on my property. It is almost straight up except for the outcropping of rock that sticks out of the bank at about midway. I've cleared it several times but usually just barely because once again, I don't carry enough speed. So, I decided since speed has been helpful in the other areas that give me trouble, I'll use it here again. Karl bopped up and over. I hit the bank and gunned it!!! Fortunately, the landing is pretty clear because my bike and I SHOT straight up (my first successful wheelie!!!) in the air as I cleared the top of the bank. I landed it, stopped, looked at Karl (who was in shere amazement that I didn't completely loop it) and headed past him down the trail to home.

It was a nice little ride and a great confidence booster ride. Best part is it is RAINING finally and I didn't break ANYTHING!!!!

Woohoo, we can start riding more now!!!!:cool: