I've been pretty busy the past week riding my sweet new bike. Last Saurday was the Rockhopper's first trail ride. I rode at Klondike Park. The bike climbed a lot better on the hills, and the shifting was great. However, the 29er's longer wheelbase took a little getting used to on the Strip Mine Trail. The Strip Mine Trail is a short loop, but packs in a ton of rocky technical spots that can be challenging. The long wheelbase made a lot of the sharp turns harder and I was having trouble clipping in and out of my new Crank Brother Candy Pedals.
The next days ride at Castlewood was much better. My mom and I rode about 12 miles. The bike was a lot better today. Castlewood's long climbs were easily devoured by the big wheels and smooth shifting gears of the next bike. The Reba SL fork is amazing. The air fork is a lot smoother than my old coil fork. The fork may look smaller, a little less than my old 80 mm fork, but it eats up all the rocks, roots, and waterbars just fine. The wheels just kept rolling on the Rollercoaster, I felt like I barely needed to pedal. Cardiac Hill was way easier on a 29er, but it way still plenty challenging. After Cardiac, you go down a pretty big hill and then climb up to Ries Road. There used to be a little section that I always had to walk, but not anymore. Its right at the bottom of the hill, where there is a big root about 5 inches high right before a steep section with some rocks near the top. I used to not be able to get my rear wheel over the root, let alone go up the rocks near the top. The 29er breezed right up and over the root and the rocks. Below is a map of the route I took, I rode many sections twice.
The next days ride at Castlewood was much better. My mom and I rode about 12 miles. The bike was a lot better today. Castlewood's long climbs were easily devoured by the big wheels and smooth shifting gears of the next bike. The Reba SL fork is amazing. The air fork is a lot smoother than my old coil fork. The fork may look smaller, a little less than my old 80 mm fork, but it eats up all the rocks, roots, and waterbars just fine. The wheels just kept rolling on the Rollercoaster, I felt like I barely needed to pedal. Cardiac Hill was way easier on a 29er, but it way still plenty challenging. After Cardiac, you go down a pretty big hill and then climb up to Ries Road. There used to be a little section that I always had to walk, but not anymore. Its right at the bottom of the hill, where there is a big root about 5 inches high right before a steep section with some rocks near the top. I used to not be able to get my rear wheel over the root, let alone go up the rocks near the top. The 29er breezed right up and over the root and the rocks. Below is a map of the route I took, I rode many sections twice.
On Friday, my dad and I wen to Castlewood after school. The trails were great and rode much of last Sunday's ride. The biggest difference is that we did Lone Wolf. The steep hill going up to the bluff wasn't easy, but was easier on my 29er than my old bike. Midway up the hill, a hiker started taking our picture because we were biking up a big hill. The sun was just setting over the distant hills and had illuminated the clouds with some shades of red. After admiring the view for a little while, we continued on Lone Wolf. The switchbacks that I had to walk earlier this year, I could easily ride down. Here is the map of our route.
Yesterday, my mom and I went to Creve Couer Park to check out the new trail that had recently been built there. We parked by the baseball diamond and biked down the spur trail to access the trail. We rode to the south end first, and rode the loop down by the road. We turned around and rode the whole trail up to the new section. Right after crossing the road the first time, we met Glen, a nice guy from GORC and we talked about my Eagle Project. I am supposed to be one of the very prepared Eagle Scouts who actually did a project. After chatting for a while, we rode off to check out the newest section. This section was a really nice part up on the hillside. Through the trees, the view of Creve Couer Lake was pretty impressive. After riding all the section, we rode all the way back on the trail and did the loop at the south end one more time before returning to the car. The total ride was about seven miles of tight, twisty singletrack fun.