MTBikeAZ.com

I never tire watching this descent from the from the 2003 Tour.

Hawes DRAGON Loop at EveryTrail

It’s 4 am. As I reach over to snooze the alarm I am already thinking of excuses not to ride today. I went to bed late last night…it’s going to be hot again today…I blew off yesterday’s ride, why not make it two days in a row??? As I struggle for what feels like an eternity I check the snooze button and I have two minutes left to decide…

How about if I just get up and walk outside to see how hot it is…yeah, that’s what I’ll do. If it feels too hot I’ll just come back to bed and chalk this up to another Arizona summer blow my ride off day.

The door creeps open and I am welcomed to a surprising beautiful morning. Temps must be in the low 80s! I look across the street and see that my roadie friend’s garage light is on…he must be up and getting ready to leave for his ride.

At this point, it doesn’t matter what the temps are, if he’s up and riding so am I. Back inside I grab a banana and some raisin bran and I’m off.

Today I felt like climbing, so I hit the road through Las Sendas to get to the Tower Trail. No roadies even in the vicinity to chase down. Tower was a good climb. It will be better after the next rains though.

Dropping from tower down Hawes is always fun and always fast. The trail was a blur until I came to the lookout point. I got off the bike, opened up a package of Shot Bloks and watched a rider make his way up the climb below. He rode steady and climbed without dabbing. As he approached I could see he was riding a Lenz. Watching this magnificent steed climb sent me into serious bike envy.

He rested at the saddle while I saddled up for the descent down cardiac hill. We exchanged greetings and I was off. My next encounter was a couple of seasoned riders at the top of the ridge climb. Most conversations with riders on the trail are either about the weather, bikes or both. The weather was so fantastic it was hard not to talk about it. The clouds kept the rising sun at bay while we enjoyed amazing first of July riding conditions.

Choices, choices. Keep climbing, or roll through the hills back to the car? It was still early at this point, just past 6:30. I opted to climb the Mine trail. I met two more riders coming down the Mine, I pulled off to the side to let them rip. And rip they did…

As I started down the backside of Mine I saw the Lenz rider again. This time he asked me “are you TheBarqsMan” to which I replied “I sure am.” He said he reads my blog. Cool. It’s fun to get recognized out on the trail. That plus the magnificent cloudcover and the post ride chocolate milk from Walgreens, made my day.

My roadie friend rode a loop around Hawes at the same time. Though I never saw him we came within a few hundred feet of each other at precicely 6:25 AM (as shown in red). I named this loop Dragon Loop because as you can see, the MTB dragon is going to breath fire and consume the skinny roadie…

View MTB vs Road in a larger map

Lance chats with an eight year old climbing the Col du Columbiere. Very cool video, very cool of Lance.

South Mountain Medley at EveryTrail

Map created by EveryTrail: Geotagging Community

Pima fireroad to Ridgeline >> East Loop >> Javelina >> Mormon Loop >> National >> junction with Old Man >>back down National proper.

This morning I went on a little stroll through South Mountain. Temps moderate with the sweet cloud coverage. I started out with the goal of riding the Ridgeline Trail to the East Loop around to Javelina. After climbing Javalina, I’d see how I felt. By the time I got to the top of Javelina I was feeling the need to climb so I set out up Mormon Loop. Legs kept going and I ended up at the top of National.

On the way up, I took a nasty spill off the back of my bike. A reverse endo that slammed my lower back right into a rock. I’m glad no one saw it, cuz I was crying like a baby as I tried to walk it off. I ended up riding it off and finished the climb up National. Weakened, beat and sketching I made it down Natty safely.

It was my first time on a hardtail down National in about 4 years. What a difference suspension makes. While it was refreshing to get intimate with the mountain again, my back is telling me the intimacy is overrated.

Team Fatty Seattle has raised a boatload of money for the LAF. Above is Team Fatty Captain, Elden Nelson’s, video that he made for the awards ceremony tonight. Watch it. It is awesome.

I’ve raised a measly 5 dollars so far. I feel this small. –>|.|<-- Help me raise my share for Team Fatty Austin by visiting my donation page and making a donation to the Lance Armstrong Foundation.

Fight Cancer! Win Susan!

Road to Sacaton at EveryTrail

Road is not as hearty as dirt but it was a nice change of pace. I borrowed my good friend Dave’s Motobecane Immortal Force for a nice cool road ride with my biking buddy Chris. Sweet bike. Good pace and good conversation. Isn’t that want biking is all about?

Chris is training for a big ride in Utah, so I helped him beef up his training regime by letting him pull me the whole way. I’m such a good friend aren’t I?

Hawes Trail at EveryTrail

I went on a super fun ride out at Hawes this morning. My first day on singletrack in 15 days… I took it easy this morning - rehabbing a rolled ankle. I will never play football again… I will never play football again…

This morning’s ride was all about loving the ride. I didn’t plan on any specific route, I left it up to whims at each junction. I ended up riding the exact loop I did my first time riding Hawes years ago “plus a wee bit more that be nay thar aft then” (read in your best pirate voice).

Riding Hawes always puts my love of the bike into perspective. Today I could see myself still on the bike at 70 years old. I want to be an old man that still shreds.

I picked up a bottle of Slime Pro Tubeless Sealant at Interbike last year while it was still in testing. They called it the Pro-series and endurance racer Jay Petervary was one of the first pro users. The folks at the slime booth were awesome for giving me a bottle to test out in the rugged cactus spine infested Arizona desert.

Slime Pro just hit the market this spring. I’ve got two stories to tell about the Pro Sealant. Two tires, two different stories.

Front Tire: Brand New Captain Control 2Bliss
Installation was a snap. Quick, clean and easy. After six months I’m still riding strong with no front flats. I cracked the bead last week and added another 3 oz. I did have one instance where I picked something up and it took just a few seconds to seal, the green slime oozing out (see pic below), but it did seal and I rode on without adding air. The tire maintains good air pressure from ride to ride, though I do add just a little pressure every couple of weeks. On a new tire installation I’m fully satisfied. Rivals Stan’s and Super Juice for performance.

Rear Tire: Previously filled with Stan’s Larsen TT
The rear tire was a little more problematic. The bead took a bit longer to seal and I lost about a half ounce of the green stuff in the process. Good thing I started with three ounces. Out on the trail I ran into one burp issue and one “took way too long to seal” issue.

The burp was the result of extra low pressure set for a technical climb. The sealing issue knocked me out of the second spot in a sweet climb on Goat Camp. I wasn’t happy about that. I had to stop and add pressure holding the tire just right so slime could fill it. In addition to those two instances, I have a cosmetic beef with the sealant. The slime never completely sealed all the previous spine punctures. Just the smallest bit of slime oozed out giving my tire slime spots. No measurable amount of pressure was ever lost, but it just looked really bad. Even my wife commented, “That’s not going to get on the carpet is it?” I’m at a loss to know why it leaked out the old punctures. Despite the issues I always finished my ride with air.

Bottom line
Slime Pro does its job. No flats six months and rolling. Only a couple of sealing issues in six months is fantastic. It works better on the Captain than on my previously Stanned Larsen TT. I like it… but…I prefer the confidence I have when using Stan’s. And ultimately, I stick with the products that I have full confidence in. If you are a fan of Slime, you’ll love Slime Pro . If Stan’s has already won you over, it’s my opinion that Slime Pro doesn’t offer anything above and beyond what Stan’s delivers (except the different smell) and it’s more expensive - Slime Pro is advertised at 19 dollars for 16 ounces. Stan’s is advertised at 22 dollars for 32 ounces.

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Two last words about Slime
Slime tubes. I’ve got nothing but great things to say about Slime Smart Tubes. I’m running one Smart Tube shrader valve and one self-slimed presta tube on my converted singlespeed. Both have held air for over a year each. I carry a spare presta Smart Tube in my CamelBak on every ride. Thank you Slime for keeping me rolling.

After 50 plus miles of riding on a pair of WTB Wolverines, I’m happy to say that they are very good tires for most of the dry desert conditions. I’ve been riding my converted singlespeed with the Wolverines since December last year, courtesy of Justin at WTB, who sent me a pair to demo. (Yes, I deserve a slap on the hand for only riding 50 miles on my singlespeed in the last 5 months, but that’s beside the point.)

I rode classic Arizona trail conditions: dry, hardpack, loose over hardpack, and rock gardens. They are a fast roller for sure and their performance is superb in everything but loose over hardpack - arguably one of the toughest condition to excel in. I’ve heard from a fellow AZ rider that the Weirwolf excels in that department.

On the front, the Wolverine tended to wash out cornering on loose over hard trail conditions such as those at the San Tans and Hawes. Other riders I talked to said the same of their experience with a Wolverine on the front. I found that lowering the tire pressure to about 26 really helped with cornering (I only weigh 150 so I can do that). Plus a conscious effort to keep more weight on the tire as I turned helped too. Where the Wolverines really rock up front is on the rocks. Tech descents on South Mountain filled me with confidence, the tires stayed glued to the stones. I give the Wolverine a solid B up front overall, bumped to a B+ if you ride just the dry desert rocks.

I give the Wolverine an A for climbing on the rear. Hammering up steep pitches on the singlespeed, I have yet to slip. Over rocks and tech the grip is just right. I’m not a weight watching gram freak, but these tires are light. They compare pretty tightly with Maxxis Crossmarks, which I had on before the Wolverines.

So if you like to spend your time in XC tech, the Wolverine will take you where you want to go.

MTBR user reviews give the Wolverine 4.5 out of 5. A thread on the MTBR discussion forum also gives some positives and negatives of the tire.

Here’s a short promo clip from Interbike

Bikemag.com review

Yesterday morning I met up with Harry and Kevin to burn through a little DC. It’s still cool enough in the wee hours of the day to get a couple hours in without it feeling like summer. This was my only shot at a ride this week so when Harry invited me I took it (even though it meant I had to get up at 3:58 to get there).

Harry is the owner of the Mountain Bike Phoenix Facebook group where he organizes rides for all skill levels. He’s also blogging at Active Spide.

It was a great to ride with these two from “Team 29er” Kevin on a Hei Hei and Harry on a Sultan. We were all about the same endurance level, Harry a bit more fit than I. Kevin was taking it easy (20 miles in from a Sunday ride at BCT plus recovering from a spill down National). His “taking it easy” was the same as my hammering.

It’s great to ride at pace, especially following someone who doesn’t stop to take breaks. Riding solo, I find myself drifting, losing focus on the push and just letting the flow take control of the ride. Not yesterday. If I didn’t keep pushing the pedals hard, Harry got too far ahead…

Needless to say I didn’t get many pictures from the trail, but at least I got a solid workout. Thanks for the ride guys.

Since I’ve used my free 10 rides on motionbased I’m looking for another web based mapping tool that’s free and offers unlimited ride uploads. Not sure if I like MapMyRide. Too much going on in there…