North Shore/Whistler

Went out to Vancouver/Whistler this weekend to initiate my new bike. Had a blast and took some pretty solid hits.

Here is my ride report...

Friday:
Went to the Deep Cove bike shop for their midnight madness sale. Bought some tubes and tried on some helmets. Things were still pretty expensive over there even after discounts.

Saturday:
Woke up and went to the North Shore to hook up with 3 local riders. We shuttled up to the top of CBC and my bike finally touched a real trail: 20 mins later I had my first flat tire J Luckily I got tubes at the cove the night before. Anyhow, I took most of the skinnies and also took the drop where my friend broke her thumb this past week. I found out that I can easily bottom out my shock on a 5 or 6 foot drop if the landing isn’t perfect. I think I’ll need to put in a stiffer spring. Dropped down Neds and rode back to my friend’s place at the bottom of Seymour.

The girls were nice enough to give us a second shuttle ride, so we went back to the top. Unfortunately there weren’t enough seats in the truck, so there weren’t enough seat belts for all of us. A police officer pulled us over and gave us a $140 ticket on our way up Seymour… Expensive shuttle ride. Anyhow, after wasting 40 mins with the police we went up and rode CBC and then down pangor. I made most of the skinnies and stunts this time around which was pretty good.

Sunday:
Went to whistler, hooked up with my Vancouver friends and rode the lights out. The top of garbanzo was way too muddy, so after one run up there we stuck to the bottom trails. Yo Dan, I met Dave and Deb there, but didn’t get to ride with them as they were starting to eat food just as we were heading out… Ah well, next time.

I had an almost injury free day… Almost. I took a table top jump and started to float sideways… Because I only had arm and leg pads I scratched my hip, side and back of my arms and sent my bike flying (first frame scratches). Anyhow, I’m going to find some pads fast. Luckily I rented a full face helmet because I smashed my head on the ground on that wipeout… I have a video of the wipeout, but WMP 10 doesn’t play the AVI file that comes out of the camera, so it only plays on WMP 9.

Anyhow, I was having a pretty good day, so I figured I’d see how much air I could get off the drop jumps they had set up...

Luckily I landed that one…

Everything is together

The bike is finally together. Took a few stairs at work to try it out. Whistler this weekend should be good if the weather cooperates.

Got the frame!

Ok, I finally got the frame for my new Demo 9. It was quite an ordeal because the frame was MIA for a day. Anyhow, the frame is in amazing condition: Not a scratch on it.

This weekend I hope to head out to Whistler to give the bike its first real test. Hopefully the weather co-operates.

DH biking near Seattle

While waiting for my bike to come in a friend invited me out to ride his demo 9: Wow that bike rocks. To warm up I took a few 6' drops, and the bike basically was insulted by such small obstacles. I didn't have any padding, so I kept it low for a start.

We were riding in a place which I could not get back to if my life depended on it.

Where is my bike? Well, half of it came in today: I have the forks, and the wheels. Now I need the second package which contains the frame and drivetrain. Hopefully that second package comes in tomorrow.

Specialized Demo 9

Wow. I just spent $2500 on a bike I saw on PinkBike.com. Here's hoping it is exactly as advertised and that it does not get damaged in shipping.

Buying something used on an auction site, or on something like PinkBike is pretty scary. Escrow services cost 3-4% of the purchase price, so for something like this purchase you have to add like $70 or $80 to the price. For this purchase I think I did a reasonable amount of information gathering to help make the determination the bike was not stolen and was actually in the condition specified. I asked for photos of the serial number, and the bike shop address and phone number. I asked for a photo of the original receipt and warranty card as well. I also called the seller at his place of employment (Intuit), and asked a fair amount of questions intended to determine if the motive for selling the bike was reasonable.

In the end I'll know if I didn't do enough info gathering next week when I get the bike in the mail.

Here are some other links for the bike I just bought:
Specialized specifications
Specialized Demo 9 Intro Page
MTBR reviews

So here's hoping.

Tiger, Seymour, Squamish

Lots of riding last weekend. Friday was the usual: Tiger.

Saturday I had a sweet XC ride on Mt Seymour. A bunch of vancouverites went out to the CBC Ripper race up on the north shore. Glade didn't place well, but got some sweet style points. I went to the after party and won some degreaser which is better than a kick in the pants I suppose.

Sunday I went to Squamish, bought a map and thought I'd do a quick loop... Turns out that after 5 miles of climbing and a bunch of looping back I was lost. Well, not completely lost. I could have turned around and went back down a 5 mile gravel road, but that would have been quite a waste of vertical... Anyhow long story short I found a couple of locals and rode some sweet terrain. One of the guys I rode with was actually a lead trail designer at the whistler bike park. Turns out I did the loop on the bottom right on this pic.

I'm thinking about buying a DH bike. Those things are so expensive though...