Reach and Stack of a Santa Cruz V-10

It's impossible to judge precise bike fit using measurements only. You'll never know how the bike fits until you get on it. This is especially true for downhill bikes. These bikes are intended to have a very small fit so you can let the bike react to the rough terrain while you float over the bike. Recently, a new measurement pair has come along that promises to help this problem - Reach and Stack.

In essence, these new measurements draw a right triangle using only the center of the bottom bracket and the center of the top of the head tube. The idea is a wonderfully simple one. Your feet are attached to the pedals and your hands are attached to the handlebars. Regardless of whether you are standing up bombing down a downhill run or seated grinding out gears in a cross country race, you're always attached to the handlebars and pedals.

2010 has seen a significant increase in the number of manufacturers publishing Reach and Stack data for their bikes. Santa Cruz is not one of them, though. I own a Large Santa Cruz V-10 and thought I'd measure and publish the Reach and Stack for my bike.

The bike is running 26" wheels front and rear, Maxxis Minion tires front and rear. The front fork is a Fox 40 with a Fox drop upper crown (because the head tube length + FSA PIG DH Pro headset stack height is too tall for the stock flat upper crown).



To start with, I used a four foot level to ensure that the tires' contact points on the ground were perfectly level.



Then I setup a self-leveling, cross-hair laser level aligned to the center of the bottom bracket and center of the upper head tube openning.

I measured the Reach to be a little under 16 inches and the Stack to be a little under 24 inches.

For a bike that touted to be one of the largest downhill bikes on the market, I was very surprised at how small the bike measured. It does confirm how cramped I feel on this bike. It also gives me a useful measurement with which to compare different bike frames.

Cleaning Anodized Frames

Both my downhill and cross country bikes are black anodized aluminum frames. When it comes to cleaning them, I long for a clear coated painted bike. Nothing shines when clean like paint. The process of anodizing aluminum is dipping the bare metal frame in acid and letting the acid etch the top layer of metal. During that process, the color of the acid is impregnated in a very thin, very hard upper layer of the metal. It's resistant to scratches and holds up very well over time. However, there's never a "showroom shine" thanks to all those little pits etched into the metal.

Since the top layer of metal isn't smooth, when oily, slick, wet clay coats the frame, the pores in the metal are filled. Washing the bike off with a soft brush, rag or sponge doesn't dig deep and pull out that crud. The bike looks great when wet, but once dry, you can see the mud splatter design in the anodized aluminium.


I did some research and tried some new products this weekend to help spruce up the apperance of my bikes. The first product is Tutle Wax ICE Car Wash - a new "2-n-1" pH balanced car wash. Having a pH balanced wash is important because if the wash is too acidic, it can fade the anodized paint over time. This wash foams up very well and cut through the grime on my bikes without a problem.


However, once dry, the bikes still looked splotchy. So after drying the frame, I tried Tutle Wax ICE Liquid Polish. This is a new, gentler, silicone-based wax. It comes with a foam applicator and a microfiber towel. I made sure the frame was dry before applying the wax. It went on very easy - it's a clear liquid that's maybe a hair thicker than water. I wiped it on generously making sure to catch any runs or drips. I waited 5-10 minutes and used the supplied microfiber towel to wipe down the whole frame. It looks great! I've had the bike for over nine months and now the bike finally looks clean.


Not only does it look clean, but it should be easier to wash the bike next time since the frame is covered in a wax. Oh, the wax is a UV protectant, so that will help keep the anodized color from fading.



Two thumbs up!

New Kid In Town: V-10

As I mentioned in a previous post, I have a new downhill bike. I wanted a bike that fit a bit better (longer reach) than the Big Hit. As is usually the case, there wasn't a bike available to me to test ride, so I had to surf the forums and compare manufacturer's stats to pick the new bike. The winner is...a Santa Cruz V-10.

Those are very expensive so I had to browse the used market until I found one that was a few years old but didn't look abused. I found a 2007 V-10 that appeared to fit the bill. After some lengthy email exchanges, I was the proud owner of my very own V-10. Here's what it looked like when I built it up after it arrived from its previous owner in New York.


There were a few problems with the bike that needed to be addressed right away. It needed new cranks, a new rear derailleur, new wheels, a new rear shock and the fork was leaking oil. Some of that was known at purchase time, others were surprises after the fact. Oh well, that's to be expected when you can't test ride it before buying.

I called Fox and got some new seals and an extra firm spring for the Fox 40. I completely dismantled the fork and installed the new spring and seals. Here's an exploded view of the fork just before reassembly.


After consulting PUSH Industries, I called Go-Ride and ordered a new 2010 Fox Van R shock. I had Go-Ride send it directly to PUSH for custom tuning. I also picked up a new SRAM X.9 rear derailleur, Mavic 823 UST rims, and Maxxis Minion 26x2.5 UST tires.

On the used market, I grabbed a Truvativ Howitzer XR bottom bracket, Truvativ Holzfeller-OCT Crankset, Crank Brothers 50/50 XX pedals, and a Hadley 150x12 rear hub to match the Hadley front hub I already owned.

Today I picked up the rebuilt wheels from my trusted local mechanic/wheel builder and got the bike put together in its final state. Here are some beauty shots.

With the addition of the rebuilt wheels, I've now completed all upgrades planned for this bike. It took a couple of months to get to this point and I've taken it to Snowshoe twice already this year. The next trip is coming up in a few weeks.

With the bike fully built and running smoothly, the question remains, does it fit better than its predecessor? Well, it's about the same reach as before - maybe slightly less. However, there are some benefits to the new bike. Most significantly is the weight. The Big Hit was about 55-56 lbs. The V-10 is about 46 lbs. For the most part, weight isn't a big deal with a downhill bike. A heavier bike is more burly and, like me, has more mass for gravity to pull it down the mountain. Where I do notice the weight loss is when jumping the bike. This bike gets scary high. Way more air than I can handle right now. I'm still learning how to deal with that.

So, had I known then what I know now, would I have purchased the V-10? Probably not. It's an excellent bike, but I don't think I gained any reach with this purchase. I might have been better off had I held on to the Big Hit a little longer and purchased either an extra large 2010 EVIL Revolt or an extra large 2010 Turner DHR. However, since those frames alone cost almost as much as I have invested in the V-10, I'm not sure when I would have been able to afford one of those. I'm sure I'll post again when one of those frames arrives on my doorstep. Stay tuned. ;)

Snowshoe Videos

At this point, I have been on three trips to Snowshoe this year. I bought a new helmet camera, the ContourHD, and have some footage of this year's trips compiled into a few videos I thought I'd share. All of these are available in full HD. Enjoy.

August 2009 - Highlights Video



June 2009 - Basin Trail Montage



June 2009 - Ball-n-Jack Trail



June 2009 - Chainsmoke Trail



June 2009 - Pro DH Trail

Big Hit Make Over

I built up my Downhill bike last June. It has been to Snowshoe three times and worked great each time. At 6'5", I'm a tall rider and have a hard time finding bikes that fit me well. Although the Big Hit rode really well (and I just love the Monster T fork on that thing), I decided I'd see if I can get a better fitting bike; but more about the new bike later.

On my last trip to Snowshoe (June 2009), I damaged the rear derailleur and bottom bracket. So it was time to give the Big Hit some new parts. Today was the big day for the Big Hit. All of the parts arrived this week and it was time to strip it down and built it from the ground up.

Here it is broken down to just the frame, shock, and headset cups.


The Monster T had started leaking oil recently, so I broke it down, too. Completely dismantled it, replaced the oil seals and dust seals plus I replaced all the oil - nearly a liter (960 ml to be exact).


After a day's work getting everything just right, here's how she looks.


Here's a rundown of the build specs:

• 2003 Specialized Big Hit, Size Large
• 2003 Marzocchi Monster T with integrated headset
• Avid Juicy 3 brakes
• NEW SRAM X.9 rear derailleur
• SRAM X.7 shifter
• Truvativ Hussefelt DH Riser Bar
• Bontrager Big Earl pedals
• NEW Panaracer Fire FR rear tire
• Maxxis Holly Roller front tire
• Nearly new Truvativ Howitzer XR bottom bracket
• NEW Truvativ Hussefelt DH cranks with 38t chainring
• MRP Chainguide (ISCG mounted)
• Stock Fox Vanilla R rear shock
• NEW chain
• NEW 12-23 cassette

My trusted local mechanic has the bike now giving it one last blessing before its off to a new home for the Big Hit. Without a doubt, I'm going to miss that bike.

Niner RIP 9 Update

I've had the 2009 Niner RIP 9 for about 4 months now. I thought I'd post a preliminary review.

I've taken time to play around with shock pressures now and think I have it where I like it. I'm 220 lbs, 6'5" and ride an XL RIP 9. I have 160 psi in the RP23 and about 90-95 in the Fox fork.

I only have one complaint about the RIP 9: the bottom bracket height is too low. I'm constantly hitting rocks and roots with my pedals, feet and big chainring. I've already destroyed my outer chainring thanks to a collision with a rock. Bummer. I had the same low-bottom bracket problems when I test rode the Gary Fisher Hi-Fi Deluxe 29er, although the Fisher was quite a bit worse.



I've had to warranty my rear triangle already because the press-fit bearings on the top of the non-drive side seat stay loosened. (see image above) I guess the frame around the press-fit bearing enlarged allowing the bearing to move freely within the frame. This caused a few scary moments when g-ing out on big whoop-de-dos. Basically, the rear triangle moved out of plane from the front triangle during the heaviest g-forces at the bottom of the whoop-de sending me shooting a few feet off trail in a hurry.

I checked Niner's website and found the closest Niner dealer - Back Alley Bikes in Chapel Hill. Rob at Back Alley promptly called Niner and got everything taken care of for me. To Niner's credit, they wasted no time in replacing the rear triangle.

Today was my first ride since the bike was repaired and it's back to its original rock-solid platform.

Overall, I love this bike. The ride is wonderful, stable and plush. There's no noticable frame flex when riding. The 29 inch wheels just eat up the roots and rocks, which makes climbing loads easier for me.

Two Big Thumbs Up for the redesigned Niner RIP 9!

Sanford Trails

Some biking buddies and I drove an hour south to Sanford today. We rode San Lee Park and Governors Creek trails. The most surprising thing about riding these trails was how groomed they were. Over-groomed, in my opinion. Not one log crossing in 2 hours of riding. Don't get me wrong, we had a blast. There were plenty of creek crossings, climbs and all-out fun descents - but no logs.

At the end of the day, we all agreed that the trails were really fun, but not quite enough to warrant coming back too soon. With three kids, I don't have the luxury to drive 2 hours in addition to my biking time. It was precisely this problem that caused me to shift from primarily mountain biking over to road biking ten years ago. There are three decent trails in the immediate area. Otherwise, I have to drive 45 minutes or more to find some trails to ride.

But I digress. Back to Sanford.

The 29er loved the fast, flowy Sanford-area trails. I was especially pleased with the RIP9's performance in the rock gardens in San Lee Park. I dabbed only once in The Gauntlet, and saw many preferred lines in Free Fall. Although I dabbed many times in Free Fall and tried more than a few sections over again, I was really pleased with how well the RIP9 lead me through these technical sections on my first attempt. Having ridden those sections now, I'm certain I can get through The Gauntlet with no dabs and Free Fall with only a couple.

Back at the San Lee trailhead, we met some guys from 29eronline.com. They were really nice and were shocked to see a 2009 Niner RIP 9 on the trail. The frame isn't supposed to be shipping to customers for another month. After tooling around the parking lot on a Turner Sultan while he test rode my RIP9, I realized that my rear shock is setup too stiff. I'll lower the air pressure in the RP23 and see if I can find the buttery smooth plushness I felt on the Sultan. Wow, the DW-Link on that bike was plush! It felt way too soft - like it would bottom out on a small 2-foot drop, though. I think it was under-sprung for my weight. Regardless, it did feel really nice.

Considering I have never bottomed out the fork or rear shock on the RIP9, it's time to lower the pressure a little. I'll do that and report back. Current pressure is 100 lbs up front (25% sag) and 180 lbs. in the RP23 (27% sag). The weather this week looks phenomenal. I'll have plenty of trail time to play with sag in the next few days.

Yeti For Sale

It's a bitter sweet moment for me. As I put the finishing touches on building the Yeti, it's time to offer it for sale. A comment was added to my last posting asking about the bike build. Here you go:

* PUSH'd Fox RP3 rear shock
* Cane Creek S2 headset
* SRAM X-9 shifters
* Shimano XT front derailleur
* SRAM X-0 rear derailleur
* Race Face Evolve XC stem, seatpost and cranks
* Avid Juicy Five brakes with 185mm rotors
* Yeti grips
* Mavic 317 Disc rims, Shimano Deore rear hub, ARC front hub
* WTB saddle

All pivot and rocker (dogbone) bearings are brand new.
All cables and cable housing are brand new.

She weighs 30 lbs. as shown in photos with heavy Maxxis Minion DH Downhill Specific tires. You can get a sub 28 lbs build really easy with the 575's.

Classified Ad over at MTBR.

29'er Revealed

I recently wrote about my first exposure to the 29er craze. After test riding that bike, I knew my next bike would be a 29er. I assumed I'd ride my beloved Yeti 575 for another season and then upgrade to the big-wheeled bike in the Fall of 2009.

When I destroyed the Yeti, my timeline for going big-wheeled moved up. Since test riding the HiFi, I have been researching 29-inch-wheeled bikes and had already decided on the bike that I wanted to get - 2009 Niner R.I.P 9.

With the help of Brett at Niner Bikes, I tracked down a demo 2009 R.I.P 9 in XL at Colorado Cyclist. At 2:00 this afternoon, UPS delivered some boxes to my front door.

Here's the puzzle that was in the bigger of the two boxes.



And here it is less than an hour later.

Death of a Yeti

One of the newest trails in the area recently had some new sections added to it. The new sections include a few small kickers, or small jumps, for added fun. Of course, they are optional features since you can easily pedal around them. However, I like them. After going to Snowshoe, I crave air time now.

Being the Winter season on the East coast, the weather forecast is wet and chilly. Not too cold to ride, but usually too wet. After a small dry spell, we hit the trails again. Sure they were soupy in a few spots here and there, and the wet leaves and roots made cornering tricky, but we were finally riding again!

During the ride, we approached one of the new kickers. It's a small thing, really. Only about a foot or so high. The approach is a slight downhill and the landing slopes off a bit more. It's a great way to catch some air - albeit small.

As I approached, I sprinted for the kicker. I sailed into the air and cleared about 15 feet. The Yeti soaked up the landing with no problems at all, but the trail had a slight right-hand turn ahead. Unfortunately, I now had too much speed to get traction on the wet roots and leaves and missed the turn. I crashed into a small tree. I walked away with nothing more than a slight abrasion. Neither the tree nor the Yeti were as lucky.



Andrew, who was the rider following me, later described the crash like this:

"I only heard two things when this happened. A slap/snap sound which I am guessing was the tree protesting the blow. And what sounded like a 6 year old girl wailing because their favorite dolly lost her hair.

I saw the tree and it won’t be long for the world. But I never saw the girl or her damaged doll."

Ouch!

26er or 29er...

I'm 6'5" (36" inseam) and weigh about 210 (minus bike gear). I've always ridden a 26-inch-wheeled mountain bike. Over the last few years, I've brushed off the 29er craze. Most of it was centered around light, fast hardtails. I'm never going back to hardtails again, so I just ignored the ridiculous 29er fad.

Within the span of about 2 weeks this past November, the guys I ride with have expressed how "weird" and "odd" I look riding a 26er. They said it's like watching one of them ride their bikes with 24" wheels on it instead of 26" wheels. One guy compared it to watching a clown ride one of those tiny clown bikes at the circus.

So that got me thinking about the 29 inch wheel "fad." Maybe it was a good idea after all. It certainly makes sense for the vertically gifted; but has anyone decided to put a decent amount of suspension on those bikes, yet? Time to fire up Google...

As it turns out, there are a few decent fully suspended 29ers out there now. They've cropped up within the last three years, and a couple of them get very good reviews.

As a coincidence, about this time, a local rider posted his 2008 Gary Fisher HiFi Deluxe 29er for sale. What a great opportunity to test ride one and see if it lives up to the hype. I met the seller at a local trail and we rode for about an hour together. The HiFi weighs 3.75 lbs. less than my Yeti (with the big Marzocchi 66 ATA SL1). I noticed the weight loss right away as the HiFi climbed very well. I found it very responsive to accelerations and just a little bit sluggish when cornering - most likely due to the larger wheels size and greater centrifugal force to overcome when steering. However, I seemed to hit a lot of roots with the pedals. I found that quite unsettling.



The seller suggested I take it home for a few days and really get to know it. How could I refuse? As I drove home grinning from ear to ear about the graciousness of the seller to let me drive off with his bike, I realized that I had a very big problem ahead of me. Two problems, actually. First, I had no idea how to tell my wife about yet another bike in our garage. Second, I'll either have to spend more money that I don't have on bikes or I'll have to give the bike back. I didn't like either of those choices very much.

I rode the bike for four days on my home turf. To my surprise, I was able to clear technical climbs that I had previously not been able to do on the Yeti. That's no fault of the Yeti. I believe it's the bigger wheel that makes the difference. The 29 inch wheels want to go over all the small rocks and roots in the trail instead of bang into them and stop. I didn't have to wrestle the bike up-and-over all those small momentum-stealers anymore. +1 for the 29er.

While killing some time in a parking lot before a ride one day, I noticed a set of concrete stairs that I normally ride down on the Yeti. I thought it would be a good test to see how they feel on the HiFi, but I wasn't keen on the idea of circumnavigating the parking lot just to ride down about 14 stairs. Hmmmm... How about riding up the stairs instead? I gave it a shot. To my surprise, I made it up every one of those 14 stairs with ease. That's crazy! I could never do that on a 26er (which I proved a few days later). Ok, so that proved it to me - the 29er "attack angle" on obstacles is far superior to that of the puny 26 inch wheeled bike.

After four days with the HiFi my initial impressions of the HiFi hadn't changed much, but my prejudice of the 29er "fad" certainly did. The deal breaker for the HiFi was the low bottom bracket height. It also felt a bit delicate under my 210+ rider weight. After some research, I found that the HiFi has one of the lowest bottom bracket heights of the full suspension 29ers out there.

Reluctantly, I gave the HiFi back and thanked him for his generosity. This test ride has me convinced that my next bike will be a 29er (just not a Gary Fisher HiFi 29er). Out of curiosity, I asked the seller why he was selling his bike. He admitted that he's selling the HiFi so he can build up a 2009 Niner RIP 9, which has a higher bottom bracket and are built much burlier.

Out for a Spin

With the BigHit built up (and weighing in at 49.5 lbs), it was time to take it for a spin. There's nothing close by that would test this DH machine, so I decided to try the Morrisville creek jump again. It's easy to get to and will let me know how the bike will handle when it gets some air.

It's a very short pedal to get to the jump. During the little ride, I was overjoyed with how the suspension felt. The Monster T was incredibly plush - just stunning! I hit a couple of 2' drops-to-flat and it was like they weren't even there.

Here's some video of a few of the jumps:

I hit the same jump when I built up the Morewood. Note that I had a hard time keeping the nose down on the Morewood. No problem at all on the BigHit, thanks to the 12+ lbs. Monster T hanging off the front.

Only 6 weeks until Snowshoe!

Ready for Snowshoe!

I called Snowshoe on opening day and asked what make/model bikes they'd rent a 6'5" guy. I went online and got the geometry of that bike and realized that I wanted something bigger than that. So I found a couple of Specialized BigHit's for sale locally. Bought them both and took the best parts of each to build a Snowshoe bike for me.

I started with thse two bikes:

2003 Large BigHit DH	2004 Medium BigHit

and created this:

Here are the specs:

• 2003 Specialized BigHit - Large
• Frame has four-position adjustable shock mount offering 6.8 or 8.1 inches of plush FSR travel
• Stock Fox Vanilla rear shock (8.75x2.75)
• 2003 Marzocchi Monster T (mint condition)
• SRAM X0 rear derailleur
• SRAM X7 rear shifter
• Stock Hayes Nine brakes and 203 rotors front and rear
• Custom wheelset - Hadley hubs and Sun Intense Mag30 rims
• Truvativ ISIS Gigapipe 4 bearing DH, 73mm shell, 118mm spindle, E-Type bottom bracket
• Truvativ Holzfeller 7050, ISIS spline, 7050 alloy, 170mm cranks
• e.13 SRS chainguide with 38t chainring and bashguard

Now I'm ready for Snowshoe in July!

Yeti Spotting

A Yeti has been spotted in my neighborhood. Here's a photo of it:



It's a 2006 Yeti 575 that now replaces the Morewood Shova LT. The Yeti has 5.75" of rear travel and currently has 130mm up front. Once built up, it weighed in at 30.5 lbs. The Shova ran around 37.5 lbs. That'll be a noticable difference on the trails!

FedEx delivered it today. Here's what it looked like right out of the box:



I noticed some frame and wheel damage. The wheel damage and downtube damage was almost certainly caused during shipping. The headtube was likely there before I bought it.



I hope to take it out for it's first ride tomorrow!

Goodbye Dear Friend

After six months of bonding, it is with much regret that I part with the 2007 Morewood Shova LT. I'm 6'5" and it's just too small to use as an all-mountain (AM) bike for me.

Here's the last photo of it before it was dismantled:



And here's the last photo of it in my possession:



It has already moved on to a new home and I've cast my eyes to researching two used bikes to replace this one.

Moab - Day 5

After last night's disaster, Andrew and I proclaim that we are finished with Moab. We want this trip behind us. Drew is a bit disappointed, but that's because he has a never ending supply of energy and would be perfectly happy to bike back to North Carolina from Utah.

We return the rental bikes and drive back to Denver. It was another drive with stunning views. We make it back to Denver, grab a hotel for the night and catch our flight the next day.

All in all, we were none too impressed with Moab. For me, my expectations of Moab were way off. I was expecting long, fast downhills of single track and jeep trails. We never once rode anything that resembled that. Slickrock was impressive, but being 6'5" tall and renting a bike proved to suck the fun out of the trail. The bike was too small for me and I had a really hard time making the ultra-steep climbs without falling over backwards.

If I were to go again, I would spend more time researching bike rentals or maybe even take my own bike out there. The best thing for me would probably be to get a 29er full suspension bike. Oh, and I'd make sure to lower the saddle this time. For sure, my saddle was way too high for that type of steep riding - and I wasn't able to crouch low to lower my center of gravity.

Moab - Day 4 (part 2)

So we're stranded in the Utah desert and the local Sherriff has arrived to help. The Sherriff decides that he should take two of us back in his truck, and we'll drive the truck back to the cave and get the other guys and the bikes. Andrew and I volunteer to head back with the Sherriff. We quickly discern two things: 1) the Sherriff doesn't pay for his own vehicle, and 2) he knows these back roads very well. As we speed back to the parking area at 45 mph on very rough roads, I notice that Andrew still has his helmet on and is making no moves to take it off. Smart move.

We finally make it back to the truck and the Sherriff starts to guide us back to the cave. He takes a "shortcut" and we promptly get our (much larger) truck stuck in the sand. The Sherriff decides to go around us and pull us out the way we came in. In doing so, he gets his truck stuck. So there we are - two panicking North Carolina boys stuck in the sand around 10:00 at night in the Utah desert next to the local Sherriff, who is also stuck. The Sherriff is very calm about all of this, grabs a shovel out of his truck and starts to dig himself out. We take turns digging, but before long, we hear another truck in the distance. As it gets closer, the Sherriff recognizes the sound of the truck as a local high school kid.

The kid, driving his huge F350, finds us, and he and the Sherriff exchange some friendly jabs about the Sherriff getting stuck. The kid and his truckload of friends pile out of their F350 and help the Sherriff dig out of the sand. It is at this moment that I become very aware that I'm standing their in full biking spandex.

After some discussion, they decide that the best measure is to have the F350 pull out the Sherriff's truck. Then they'll worry about our truck. At this time, the Sherriff is stuck in front of our truck, and the F350 is behind us. As the F350 backs up to attempt to pull around us, they too get stuck. Surprisingly, Andrew and I aren't too worried about this. By this time, we've come to understand that this is a normal Friday night out for these guys.

While they wrestle getting the F350 out of the sand, Andrew and I work on our truck. We manage to get our truck out and park it out of the way. After getting the F350 freed, stuck again and freed again; they finally got the Sherriff out, too.

Now we're all on our merry way back to the cave (the F350 is headed to their original destination, which I'm sure includes drinking and getting stuck in the sand). We make it to the cave, pick up the other guys and our bikes and head out. Thankfully, the Sherriff takes it much slower on the way out this time. We make it to the highway, bid our thanks to the Sherriff and head back to Moab in search of dinner. Of course, it's after 11:00pm and everything is closed except a gas station.

After a dinner of ho-ho's and honey buns we finally find our beds and crash for the night.

Moab - Day 4 (part 1)

Before bed last night, we called a half dozen shuttle companies looking for a shuttle for Porcupine Rim for today. It took a while, but we finally arranged pick up for Porcupine Rim at 10:00am today.

We had a leisurely morning and arrived early to hang out waiting for the shuttle to show up. We waited, and waited, and waited. While waiting, we found a plaque that told about two bikers that were killed while biking Porcupine Rim. Ok, so it took us a long time to find a shuttle company, the shuttle never arrived, and now we have the negative juju from reading this plaque. This is when we bag Porcupine Rim and decide to salvage the rest of the day.

[We rode a small trail at lunch time, which I can't recall now. I'll edit this later when I remember.]

After that trail, it was back to Moab for some grub. We pulled out the Rider Mel book and chose Behind the Rocks trail. This it the 24 hours of Moab course. The description said it was a challenging but fun course. Plus, they ride it day and night for the race, so how hard could it be?

We hit the trail around 3:00 and follow the books instructions and the "Behind the Rocks" trail markers. The trail is a wide jeep trail that goes through the desert. The jeep road is part bare rock, hard packed soil, and 3 inches deep sand, which made it nearly impossible to bike through. We passed grass fields, and rock formations. We bike for a while and compare the trail markers with the book's instructions. After the first hour, we determine that the book's instructions were too vague to follow, so we rely on the trail markers - assuming that as long as we're on the trail, we'll be fine.

As we continue on, the most notable land feature was Picture Frame Arch. As we passed by that arch, we noticed a shallow cave on the back side. We also noticed that the trail markers are continuing to direct us farther and farther away from the trailhead. Shouldn't the trail turn back toward the parking area soon??? We pull out the book gain, and determine it as useless as before. Let's stay on trail - that's the safe thing to do.

We kept going for another hour or so and stopped again. This time we were on a ledge with a 100 ft. drop below us. We could make out the trail as it winds down the ledge and continues on as far out in the distance as we can see. We certainly can't keep going on. We have about an hour of daylight left and we're a good 3 hours into the trail.

We clearly can't make it out before sunset, so we decide to head for the shallow cave near Picture Frame Arch. As we head back there, we periodically stop and check for a cell phone signal. Never getting a signal, we finally make it to the cave with about 30 minutes of twilight left. We each break into survival mode. We gather firewood, continue to search for a cell phone signal, and try to start a fire with no matches or lighter.

After 45 minutes of MacGyver-like ingenuity, Drew gets a fire started with a video camera battery pack, and some brake cable strands (no lie - it was very impressive to watch). Around that same time, Andrew gets through to 911 and is eventually connected to the Sherriff who says he'll come get us in about an hour.

Sure enough, and hour later, we see headlights bouncing down a dirt road getting closer to us. The Sherriff decides to take two of us back to our rental truck and we can drive in to get the rest of the crew and all our bikes.

Moab - Day 3

Today we rode Slickrock! [Check out the photos and description on this site.]

But first, it's time to find a bike that fits. After three hours of phone calls, test riding, and waiting for tune-ups, I finally find a bike that fits (well, close enough). This time, it's a Specialized Stumpjumper FSR (in FloRed).

While waiting for the new rental bike to be readied, I drop off the other guys at the Slickrock trailhead so they can start their ride. The plan is for me to secure a new bike and start riding the trail in the opposite direction. So, that's exactly what I did. They had a 90 minute head start on me by the time I got the bike and drove back to the trailhead. I caught them about 90 minutes into my ride (counter-clockwise) at Shrimp Rock.

This bike feels a lot better than the first. It's still not a perfect fit and I don't feel confident biking up the really steep climbs, which most of the climbs are really steep. But I'm having fun again, and the ankle is slowly starting to feel better. Oh, and I bought elbow/arm pads while waiting around for the rental bike, so I feel more secure as well. I did a lot of hike-a-bike while watching the other guys ride off into the distance, but I know it's better to be safe than injured.

We finished Slickrock - hi-5's all around - and head for lunch. As we sat there eating our lunch, I realized that I wasn't very satisfied with the Slickrock trail. I had envisioned the Moab biking to be longer climbs with longer descents. Slickrock was the exact opposite. There were steep, 10-20 ft. climbs; 20-50 ft. of flat/gentle rollers; and then steep, 10-20 ft. drops. Rarely was there a significant downhill where one could let go of the brakes and get some good speed.

Oh well, I shook it off and started looking forward to the next ride - the one that'll meet my expectations (I hoped). We chose Baby Steps.

Baby Steps is a 7.5 mile out-and-back ride. It's listed as almost all uphill on the way out, so the way back should be the sweet downhill I was waiting for. As it turned out, I really didn't like this trail. It was 70% single-track, 10% slickrock and 20% dirt road.

A lot of the dirt road was covered in sand making it exhausting to bike through. Going out, the slickrock was all uphill (as promised) but was a very rough surface and proved to be hard to follow the trail (marked by 12 inch tall cairns). That meant when going at speed on the way back, it was easy to miss the trail markers; thus forcing you to ride slower than you would otherwise prefer.

The single-track I found to be unforgiving. There was a 10 inch wide "sweet spot" that, if you kept your tires there, would prove to be compacted and easy to ride. Just two inches off that sweet spot in either direction and you find yourself in very soft "soil." Well, soil isn't quite the right word. It's a bed of sand that has been baked over many years to have a hard-ish crust layer on top. The bike tires easily penetrate the crust layer to find the sand below. This depletes all momentum you had while trying to climb a hill and makes it easy to lose control when trying to descend on the way back.

For the record, Drew and Andrew loved this trail (Pete sat this one out to rest his legs). As you can tell from my description above, I was not fond of it.

With the first full day of riding behind us, we have safely and successfully navigated two Moab trails. I'm still in search of the long, fun, exhilarating downhill rides that I had imagined would await me at Moab. Maybe we'll find it tomorrow.