- Location
- Stinkwater
^ Dangit, I'm working or I'd be there. My 13 y/o needs some riding buddies.
Any Mtn Bikers on RME?
- Thread starter glockman
- Start date
Corban_White
Well-Known Member
- Location
- Payson, AZ
Working!? I'm pretty sure taking a kid on a mountain biking trip is what sick days were invented for. 
I had Ogden bike park to myself this morning. Which was good so I could explore more of it without getting in anybody else's way. I found a blue trail that had some table jumps and rode that for a few hours. I got comfortable enough to jump most of them, then I got thrown weird on one jump. I rode out of it, but I decided to call it a morning. It was a beautiful morning for a ride.
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rholbrook
Well-Known Member
- Location
- Kaysville, Ut
You you have your 13 yr old on the local Highschool Jr Devo team? Its amazing what the HS Mtn Bike teams are doing. Look into it if not.
My son had so much fun racing on the High School team and sadly he is a senior so he is done but he signed up to help coach until he goes up to Utah State in the fall. If any of you want to ride Fruit Loops above Kaysville or anywhere around here, let me know and you can chase my son around, he would love to ride with anyone.
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- Location
- Stinkwater
Yup, he raced NICA last year with West Valley Composite and he's in again this year. He loves it.
We need to get your son together with @frieed's friend Ashton. He's a couple years out of high school and just started riding last year, but he's gotten really good really fast and could use somebody faster than Eric and I to ride with.
We need to get your son together with @frieed's friend Ashton. He's a couple years out of high school and just started riding last year, but he's gotten really good really fast and could use somebody faster than Eric and I to ride with
.rholbrook
Well-Known Member
- Location
- Kaysville, Ut
I know Harrison would be down with it. He can take him to Bob Sled or some of those other places in SLC area.Yup, he raced NICA last year with West Valley Composite and he's in again this year. He loves it.
We need to get your son together with @frieed's friend Ashton. He's a couple years out of high school and just started riding last year, but he's gotten really good really fast and could use somebody faster than Eric and I to ride with
- Location
- Draper, UT
wait, I need him to pull me up the hills.Yup, he raced NICA last year with West Valley Composite and he's in again this year. He loves it.
We need to get your son together with @frieed's friend Ashton. He's a couple years out of high school and just started riding last year, but he's gotten really good really fast and could use somebody faster than Eric and I to ride with
- Location
- Stinkwater
Corban_White
Well-Known Member
- Location
- Payson, AZ
@jsudar (Jon), @rmpipe (Chandler) and I , along with Jon's son Calvin (13) and my son Maxton (9) had a great time in Moab on Friday and Saturday. We wanted to take the best advantage of our time so we left at 6am Friday morning. We got to Willow Springs Road where we had planned on camping but after driving about a mile down the road and passing 9,000 campers, we turned around and went in search of more open space. We ended up on the Klondike Bluffs road where it was much more peaceful. As we were setting up camp and riding the bikes around, Chandlers Transition (Sram brakes) decided to do the dreaded master cylinder no return problem. We had some tools but not the brake bleed kit so we headed into town to see what could be done. The first shop told us it was a warranty item and parts would be swapped but he was out of that master so we headed to another shop. They said that they had the parts but lots of rentals to service so they wouldn't be able to get to it until Saturday around 1pm. Feeling desperate at this point we headed north to Poison Spider Bicycles. HUGE shout out to them, we went in and the mechanic dropped what he was doing, rummaged through the shed until he found the parts and told us it would be 2 hours tops! The trip was saved! Since it wasn't yet lunch time we decided to head to the bike park to kill a couple hours.
After about 45 min I broke a spoke on my rear wheel. We had the tools to fix it back at camp so we decided to grab some lunch before trying to find a spoke in the right length. Just as we were loading up, Poison Spider called and told us Chandlers bike was finished. It had been an hour. We headed over there, picked his up and got a spoke. They offered to change it and rather than drive way back to camp I was happy to pay them the measly $10 to change the spoke AND true the rim! Seriously, I can't say enough good about these guys. Best customer service I've experienced in a long time. Anyway, after all the bikes were working again we grabbed some lunch and headed out riding!
After much deliberation, we decided to go ride Hy Masa and Captain Ahab. Jon had ridden it several times before and the rest of us never. Jon was on his home-built hardtail with a 150 fork, Calvin on a Scott Scale hardtail with a 100 fork, Chandler was on a Transition Patrol with 160mm F&R, I was on my 2010 Frankenstein Stumpjumper with 130 rear and 160 front, and Maxton was riding his Scott Spark Jr with 24 inch wheels and 100mm all around. What a crew!
About a mile into the trail a large thunderstorm rolled through. We took shelter under a rock outcrop for a while and eventually decided to press on. Boy are we glad we did! The rain and wind cleared up and the dirt was tacky, the slickrock had traction for days and the temps had dropped a little, making for some amazing riding! All my pics are from the uphill because the downhill is fast and, well, downhill. The GPS said we did 9.5 miles, gained 2,300 feet in elevation and took a little over 4 hours! We may not be fast but we had a ton of fun.
After a great ride we headed to the brewery for some delicious Moab eats. (or in Maxton's case, a Root Beer float and french fries!)
Then back to camp to crash. The next morning (Saturday) we work up and got moving slowly (what's the point of a vacation if you have to be in a hurry!?!) and decided we wanted to reenact Maxton's first ride with Steve, Mag7 - bypassing Gold Bar Rim and Portal and coming out at the bottom of Gemini Bridges Road. The only problem was we only had one vehicle and it was too late to reserve a shuttle. So we decided we could probably hitchhike at least one guy back up to the top to get the truck (it's Moab right??) so we went for it. Partway down the trail we found some girls with a pinch flat and no tools or know how so, hoping to put some Karma in the bank for later, we took care of it for them. After a great ride involving 2,800' of decent and 1,400' of climbing over 16.5 miles, Jon got a ride with the first group he talked to at the bottom! I said it last time but this time I'm serious, the next time we do Mag7 we are parking a car where the trail hits Gemini Bridges Road. The 5 miles out on the (mostly uphill) dirt road were brutal. Then it was Lunch/Dinner at the Blue Pig, some oogling of sweet cars (it was car show weekend) and home! Awesome trip with some great guys. Next time hopefully we can get a few more to come along!
More pics below:
Feeling desperate at this point we headed north to Poison Spider Bicycles. HUGE shout out to them, we went in and the mechanic dropped what he was doing, rummaged through the shed until he found the parts and told us it would be 2 hours tops! The trip was saved! Since it wasn't yet lunch time we decided to head to the bike park to kill a couple hours.After about 45 min I broke a spoke on my rear wheel. We had the tools to fix it back at camp so we decided to grab some lunch before trying to find a spoke in the right length. Just as we were loading up, Poison Spider called and told us Chandlers bike was finished. It had been an hour.
We headed over there, picked his up and got a spoke. They offered to change it and rather than drive way back to camp I was happy to pay them the measly $10 to change the spoke AND true the rim! Seriously, I can't say enough good about these guys. Best customer service I've experienced in a long time. Anyway, after all the bikes were working again we grabbed some lunch and headed out riding! After much deliberation, we decided to go ride Hy Masa and Captain Ahab. Jon had ridden it several times before and the rest of us never. Jon was on his home-built hardtail with a 150 fork, Calvin on a Scott Scale hardtail with a 100 fork, Chandler was on a Transition Patrol with 160mm F&R, I was on my 2010 Frankenstein Stumpjumper with 130 rear and 160 front, and Maxton was riding his Scott Spark Jr with 24 inch wheels and 100mm all around. What a crew!
About a mile into the trail a large thunderstorm rolled through. We took shelter under a rock outcrop for a while and eventually decided to press on. Boy are we glad we did! The rain and wind cleared up and the dirt was tacky, the slickrock had traction for days and the temps had dropped a little, making for some amazing riding! All my pics are from the uphill because the downhill is fast and, well, downhill.
The GPS said we did 9.5 miles, gained 2,300 feet in elevation and took a little over 4 hours! We may not be fast but we had a ton of fun.After a great ride we headed to the brewery for some delicious Moab eats. (or in Maxton's case, a Root Beer float and french fries!)
Then back to camp to crash. The next morning (Saturday) we work up and got moving slowly (what's the point of a vacation if you have to be in a hurry!?!) and decided we wanted to reenact Maxton's first ride with Steve, Mag7 - bypassing Gold Bar Rim and Portal and coming out at the bottom of Gemini Bridges Road. The only problem was we only had one vehicle and it was too late to reserve a shuttle. So we decided we could probably hitchhike at least one guy back up to the top to get the truck (it's Moab right??) so we went for it. Partway down the trail we found some girls with a pinch flat and no tools or know how so, hoping to put some Karma in the bank for later, we took care of it for them. After a great ride involving 2,800' of decent and 1,400' of climbing over 16.5 miles, Jon got a ride with the first group he talked to at the bottom!
I said it last time but this time I'm serious, the next time we do Mag7 we are parking a car where the trail hits Gemini Bridges Road. The 5 miles out on the (mostly uphill) dirt road were brutal. Then it was Lunch/Dinner at the Blue Pig, some oogling of sweet cars (it was car show weekend) and home! Awesome trip with some great guys. Next time hopefully we can get a few more to come along!More pics below:
Attachments
Last edited:
Corban_White
Well-Known Member
- Location
- Payson, AZ
More pics:
jsudar
Well-Known Member
- Location
- Cedar Hills
It was an amazing trip. I rode Slickrock for the first time in 1994 when I was 13. I barely survived the practice loop. Now my 13 year old is smashing through double black trails on his hardtail 29er. Crazy. And Maxton can pretty much hang with me on the downhills. When it gets super chunky his little 24 inch wheels hold him back, but when he gets tall enough to ride bigger wheels we're in trouble.
jsudar
Well-Known Member
- Location
- Cedar Hills
And now a plug for oval chainrings....
I had oval chainrings on my first mountain bike back in 1993 and I don't remember anything except I didn't want them on my bike because they looked weird because my friends had round chainrings. Twenty six years later I decided to give them another shot... and they are sooooo good.
Last week I installed a 30t Absolute Black oval chainring on my hardtail. I had to dimple my chainstay to make it fit, but that's another story. My first ride was at the Valley Vista trails in Pleasant Grove. Honestly, I didn't even notice any difference. Until I switched bikes with my son, who still has a round chainring. His bike felt like it was surging under me with every pedal stroke. Jumped back on my bike and things felt smooth.
I will say that on pavement, at extremely high cadence, pedaling felt a bit choppy. However my pedaling is usually choppy when I'm pedaling so fast I'm struggling to keep my feet on the pedals. It just felt more exaggerated with the oval. This did not bother me on the trail though.
Riding in Moab on super technical climbs and ledges is where the oval really shines. Power delivery is so smooth. I rode everything a gear higher than I usually would have. This really helped me to have the speed I needed as I pedaled into ledges to get a good hop, but if I stalled out on the climb I could still have enough torque to get started again. That short video clip Corban posted illustrates this quite well, especially since I was a hair too slow pulling the rear wheel up and got stalled.
Even if I stalled on purpose to do some hopping, I always felt like I had the right gearing because the oval ring changes the gear ratio as the cranks move. Having an Onyx rear hub with instant engagement was also a key element in making this work.
I was very impressed with the climbs I was able to make. Many of which were climbs I had never made before. It was almost magical. Either I was having the best ride of my life or the oval chainring was doing some great things for me. I think I've got my bike pretty dialed in now.
I also felt like I had less soreness and knee pain the next day considering how hard I was going, but I need to get a bunch more riding done to really comment on that.
I had oval chainrings on my first mountain bike back in 1993 and I don't remember anything except I didn't want them on my bike because they looked weird because my friends had round chainrings. Twenty six years later I decided to give them another shot... and they are sooooo good.
Last week I installed a 30t Absolute Black oval chainring on my hardtail. I had to dimple my chainstay to make it fit, but that's another story. My first ride was at the Valley Vista trails in Pleasant Grove. Honestly, I didn't even notice any difference. Until I switched bikes with my son, who still has a round chainring. His bike felt like it was surging under me with every pedal stroke. Jumped back on my bike and things felt smooth.
I will say that on pavement, at extremely high cadence, pedaling felt a bit choppy. However my pedaling is usually choppy when I'm pedaling so fast I'm struggling to keep my feet on the pedals. It just felt more exaggerated with the oval. This did not bother me on the trail though.
Riding in Moab on super technical climbs and ledges is where the oval really shines. Power delivery is so smooth. I rode everything a gear higher than I usually would have. This really helped me to have the speed I needed as I pedaled into ledges to get a good hop, but if I stalled out on the climb I could still have enough torque to get started again. That short video clip Corban posted illustrates this quite well, especially since I was a hair too slow pulling the rear wheel up and got stalled.
Even if I stalled on purpose to do some hopping, I always felt like I had the right gearing because the oval ring changes the gear ratio as the cranks move. Having an Onyx rear hub with instant engagement was also a key element in making this work.
I was very impressed with the climbs I was able to make. Many of which were climbs I had never made before. It was almost magical. Either I was having the best ride of my life or the oval chainring was doing some great things for me. I think I've got my bike pretty dialed in now.
I also felt like I had less soreness and knee pain the next day considering how hard I was going, but I need to get a bunch more riding done to really comment on that.
glockman
I hate Jeep trucks
- Location
- Pleasant Grove
Looks like a great trip. I still need to ride Mag 7. Ahab is a blast.
- Location
- Stinkwater
I'm sold on ovals. I put one on my last bike on a whim, couldn't really tell if it made a difference so I left it on. But I could definitely tell when I started riding my current bike with it's round ring, and I'll be switching this one to oval again as soon as I can.
- Location
- Stinkwater
I have an oval chainring, on my steel '86 Panasonic roadie
Are you a spinner or a masher? Seems like guys that already spin at a good cadence don't notice a difference, but we neanderthals that like to grind the big gear do.
jsudar
Well-Known Member
- Location
- Cedar Hills
I'm definitely more a of a masher, especially on the mountain bike. Still, I really would like to try them on my road bike just to see... Too bad it's close to $200 to outfit my road bike with ovals. That's a lot of money to spend on a bike I only choose to use when the trails are too muddy to ride.
benjy- keep in mind that those old oval chainrings were designed to reduce knee pain by trying to minimize variations in the rate of knee angle change; they were not designed to smooth out power delivery. Because of this they are more or less ovalized in the wrong direction compared to modern oval chainrings. Also the Shimano Biopace rings were not a symetrical oval. I think they were also trying to compensate for left to right leg strength disparity. Suntour made oval rings back then too, but I can't remember what theirs looked like.
If you do decide to give the old rings a serious try, it might be worth unbolting them from the crank spider and "reclocking" the rings so the they are taller during the power stroke and shorter during the dead zone when the cranks are vertical. Hope that made sense.
benjy- keep in mind that those old oval chainrings were designed to reduce knee pain by trying to minimize variations in the rate of knee angle change; they were not designed to smooth out power delivery. Because of this they are more or less ovalized in the wrong direction compared to modern oval chainrings. Also the Shimano Biopace rings were not a symetrical oval. I think they were also trying to compensate for left to right leg strength disparity. Suntour made oval rings back then too, but I can't remember what theirs looked like.
If you do decide to give the old rings a serious try, it might be worth unbolting them from the crank spider and "reclocking" the rings so the they are taller during the power stroke and shorter during the dead zone when the cranks are vertical. Hope that made sense.
- Location
- Stinkwater
Dunno about Vita Course, Fruit Loops is up above Fruit Heights (Kaysville, not the one north of Ogden). Couple short little loops, good for ripping off laps.
Been thinking lately about picking up another hardtail. I had a nice one, spec carve from like 14/15 but it got stolen out of my garage one night I forgot to close the door. I had been riding to work on skinnys but struggled with cleaning up after the ride. Apparently the building is putting in a gym though with showers that should be done soon-ish.
Looking at this thread isn't helping me to not want a bike...
I had been riding to work on skinnys but struggled with cleaning up after the ride. Apparently the building is putting in a gym though with showers that should be done soon-ish.Looking at this thread isn't helping me to not want a bike...