4EverOrange
~SPONSOR~
- Mar 9, 2003
- 291
- 0
Not sure if I shared this here, but I had some work done to my suspension. They put spacers in the shocks, and forks, which took 2inches off my bike. This is the first ride out!
After waiting for 2 weeks to finally test my ‘new’ lowered bike out, I was started to get antsy! Finally, the weather, and our schedules, cooridinated, so Friday night we loaded the bikes, and our camping gear, and off we were to sunny central Oregon, to ride at China Hat.
We got to camp at about 9:30pm, pitched the tent, bs’d around the campfire for an hour, then headed to bed. The temperature dropped below 20degrees, compared to that last 2 times camping out there when it was 8degrees, it seemed kinda warm. J
Saturday morning, we were up and ready to ride by10:30 am. I am racing in the China Hat ISDE next week, so my big goal was to do at least one non-stop 40-mile trip. Onto the ride!
We started out at a nice easy pace, I was trying to get a feel for my bike. Testing the suspension, and my balance with the new height. Through the whoops, I felt little or no difference in the suspension. Through the rocks, the suspension actually felt a bit better. Typically, I bounce off rocks, not so on Saturday. I sailed right through them. As far as my center of balance goes, OMG how wonderful, is really all I can say. I lost count of the number of times I know I would have ate it before the lowering, that the new height had ZERO effect. Before whenever I would put my foot down to balance myself, over I would go. Not a single one of those falls!!!! Not to mention, how nice it is to not have to plan where you are going to stop for fear of not being able to touch, therefore not being able to kickstart the bike without pushing the damn thing.
After getting a good feel for the bike, I talked my husband into letting me lead. In the corners, the new height gave me the most confidence. I was riding faster, and stronger than I ever had. Not letting the tight corners intimidate me, and pushing myself to the limit of my ability. I was defenantly riding like I never have.
Like all new riders, especially ones that don’t lead, I have a tendency of not looking far enough ahead on the trail. So was the case on this ride. I was flying through the corners (lol at least flying for me), and out of nowhere I see this big blue bike in the middle of the corner, that I am 2 seconds from going into. Luckily, he saw me before I saw him, and rode off the trail. I heard him yell something at my husband. My first thought was he was telling me off, but he was just warning us that there were 6 more behind him. The first was a Honda, and the final 5 were all KTM’s, anyone riding in Bend on Saturday? After that, it was another couple miles before Mark(my husband) felt safe letting me lead again. However this time, he gave me very clear instructions ‘look ahead as far as you can, always be on the look out for riders on the trail’. Guess I learned my lesson!
I am still keeping a pretty quick pace, and we hit a rocky patch. Normally my first instinct is to shift down, and go over the rocks as slow as possible while still keeping enough moment to keep myself from falling over. After listening to Mark badger me about moment on the rocks, and with my new confidence from my lowered bike, I attacked the rocks. I barely even slowed down. I kept the bike in 3rd gear, and was sailing over the rocks! Again, I am amazed at how right my husband was. The key to rocks, is momentum. J Here I am, again going faster than I have before through the rocks, hit a stair step type rock piling, come over the top a little off balance, hit a huge rock on the side of the trail, completely loose my balance, and whammo down I go. Twisted my back pretty good on the way down, but worse yet I heard something on my bike snap as I went down. It took me a couple of minutes to shake that fall off, and as I was getting my composure back, Mark was checking out the damage done on my bike. At first glance everything looked fine, and in place.
We continue on our ride, much to my surprise the spill didn’t slow me down. I was having too much fun, and enjoying my ride to let it get me down. We go another fun, completely uneventful several miles, and I see a group of quads in on the trail. I slow down to get through them. Just as I head past, one of the guys gets this look of shock on his face, and points behind me, at my husband. I turn around to see the aftermath of what looked like a painful crash. Mark was struggling to get up. I was trying to get my bike into a place that I could put it onto the kickstand, but the darn thing wouldn’t go into neutral. So here I am standing in the middle of a bunch of strangers, holding my bike like an idiot, while my husband is trying to get up, and is very obviously trying to pretend like he isn’t really hurt. K I finally figure out that my bike IS in neutral, but it isn’t moving like it should be. I am apologizing to Mark about not running to his side, while trying to explain that my bike is stuck, and I can’t put the kick stand down. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity Mark gets on his bike and rides up to me.
First thing Mark does is pull the front brake, abosuletly no resistance, it’s like the front brake is gone. Mark looks at me and asks how long have I been riding with no front brake. I honestly haven’t got a clue. He then tries to put it in neutral and push it forward. Same thing happens, it goes into neutral but then when you push it, it does move easily. He starts examining the front tire, thinking maybe I bent the tire, upon further inspection realizes it’s not the tire it was the front brake disc. Apparently, when I hit the rock, I hit it with my front brake disc, not the front tire. The rock bent the disc so badly that the disc was hitting the forks during the wheel rotation, hence the goofy front brake. Luckily the quad riders were still there, and helped Mark tweak it back into shape so we could make it back to camp.
Through this all, I totally forgot about Mark’s crash, until we hit the trail. Mark was noticeably slower. He said he got his leg pretty good when he came down. I didn’t see the crash, but apparently he came off a jump, hit a rock(damn them rocks), which knocked him off the trail, and straight into a downed tree. He hit the tree with his left thigh. There is no bruise on his leg, but I can tell by the way he has been limping around that it got him pretty good. Here it is 2 days later, and he still can’t walk right.
Even with the crashes, the trip was a blast. We put on 42 miles in a couple of hours. Mark’s leg was hurting him too bad to go out for a 2nd ride, so we just relaxed around the campfire and got things loaded up and ready to head out early Sunday morning.
After waiting for 2 weeks to finally test my ‘new’ lowered bike out, I was started to get antsy! Finally, the weather, and our schedules, cooridinated, so Friday night we loaded the bikes, and our camping gear, and off we were to sunny central Oregon, to ride at China Hat.
We got to camp at about 9:30pm, pitched the tent, bs’d around the campfire for an hour, then headed to bed. The temperature dropped below 20degrees, compared to that last 2 times camping out there when it was 8degrees, it seemed kinda warm. J
Saturday morning, we were up and ready to ride by10:30 am. I am racing in the China Hat ISDE next week, so my big goal was to do at least one non-stop 40-mile trip. Onto the ride!
We started out at a nice easy pace, I was trying to get a feel for my bike. Testing the suspension, and my balance with the new height. Through the whoops, I felt little or no difference in the suspension. Through the rocks, the suspension actually felt a bit better. Typically, I bounce off rocks, not so on Saturday. I sailed right through them. As far as my center of balance goes, OMG how wonderful, is really all I can say. I lost count of the number of times I know I would have ate it before the lowering, that the new height had ZERO effect. Before whenever I would put my foot down to balance myself, over I would go. Not a single one of those falls!!!! Not to mention, how nice it is to not have to plan where you are going to stop for fear of not being able to touch, therefore not being able to kickstart the bike without pushing the damn thing.
After getting a good feel for the bike, I talked my husband into letting me lead. In the corners, the new height gave me the most confidence. I was riding faster, and stronger than I ever had. Not letting the tight corners intimidate me, and pushing myself to the limit of my ability. I was defenantly riding like I never have.
Like all new riders, especially ones that don’t lead, I have a tendency of not looking far enough ahead on the trail. So was the case on this ride. I was flying through the corners (lol at least flying for me), and out of nowhere I see this big blue bike in the middle of the corner, that I am 2 seconds from going into. Luckily, he saw me before I saw him, and rode off the trail. I heard him yell something at my husband. My first thought was he was telling me off, but he was just warning us that there were 6 more behind him. The first was a Honda, and the final 5 were all KTM’s, anyone riding in Bend on Saturday? After that, it was another couple miles before Mark(my husband) felt safe letting me lead again. However this time, he gave me very clear instructions ‘look ahead as far as you can, always be on the look out for riders on the trail’. Guess I learned my lesson!
I am still keeping a pretty quick pace, and we hit a rocky patch. Normally my first instinct is to shift down, and go over the rocks as slow as possible while still keeping enough moment to keep myself from falling over. After listening to Mark badger me about moment on the rocks, and with my new confidence from my lowered bike, I attacked the rocks. I barely even slowed down. I kept the bike in 3rd gear, and was sailing over the rocks! Again, I am amazed at how right my husband was. The key to rocks, is momentum. J Here I am, again going faster than I have before through the rocks, hit a stair step type rock piling, come over the top a little off balance, hit a huge rock on the side of the trail, completely loose my balance, and whammo down I go. Twisted my back pretty good on the way down, but worse yet I heard something on my bike snap as I went down. It took me a couple of minutes to shake that fall off, and as I was getting my composure back, Mark was checking out the damage done on my bike. At first glance everything looked fine, and in place.
We continue on our ride, much to my surprise the spill didn’t slow me down. I was having too much fun, and enjoying my ride to let it get me down. We go another fun, completely uneventful several miles, and I see a group of quads in on the trail. I slow down to get through them. Just as I head past, one of the guys gets this look of shock on his face, and points behind me, at my husband. I turn around to see the aftermath of what looked like a painful crash. Mark was struggling to get up. I was trying to get my bike into a place that I could put it onto the kickstand, but the darn thing wouldn’t go into neutral. So here I am standing in the middle of a bunch of strangers, holding my bike like an idiot, while my husband is trying to get up, and is very obviously trying to pretend like he isn’t really hurt. K I finally figure out that my bike IS in neutral, but it isn’t moving like it should be. I am apologizing to Mark about not running to his side, while trying to explain that my bike is stuck, and I can’t put the kick stand down. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity Mark gets on his bike and rides up to me.
First thing Mark does is pull the front brake, abosuletly no resistance, it’s like the front brake is gone. Mark looks at me and asks how long have I been riding with no front brake. I honestly haven’t got a clue. He then tries to put it in neutral and push it forward. Same thing happens, it goes into neutral but then when you push it, it does move easily. He starts examining the front tire, thinking maybe I bent the tire, upon further inspection realizes it’s not the tire it was the front brake disc. Apparently, when I hit the rock, I hit it with my front brake disc, not the front tire. The rock bent the disc so badly that the disc was hitting the forks during the wheel rotation, hence the goofy front brake. Luckily the quad riders were still there, and helped Mark tweak it back into shape so we could make it back to camp.
Through this all, I totally forgot about Mark’s crash, until we hit the trail. Mark was noticeably slower. He said he got his leg pretty good when he came down. I didn’t see the crash, but apparently he came off a jump, hit a rock(damn them rocks), which knocked him off the trail, and straight into a downed tree. He hit the tree with his left thigh. There is no bruise on his leg, but I can tell by the way he has been limping around that it got him pretty good. Here it is 2 days later, and he still can’t walk right.
Even with the crashes, the trip was a blast. We put on 42 miles in a couple of hours. Mark’s leg was hurting him too bad to go out for a 2nd ride, so we just relaxed around the campfire and got things loaded up and ready to head out early Sunday morning.
