MTBikeAZ.com

Day one at the Outdoor Demo was amazing. Here’s a few of the photos of the day. I’ll be posting reviews of the bikes we rode later. For now, I can’t decide which bike I fell in love with more today, the Pivot Mach 5 or the redesigned Santa Cruz Nomad. I got the most saddle time on the Pivot, I couldn’t let it go. It was fast, responsive, plush but not gushy. The geometry fit me perfect.

The Nomad was pure fun on a bike. We also rode the Cannondale Moto Carbon 2, Turner 5 Spot, Marin Trail, Ellsworth Evolve, Kona Dawg Delux. We hit the XC trails from the top, Skyline, Boy Scout, Girl Scout and East Leg. We ventured in to a DH trail down the face and saw some amazing riders. We walked a couple tech spots over our heads, but had a blast riding burly singletrack.

More to come tomorrow. Fatty will be at the Outdoor Demo, maybe I can score a shirt.

I love September. The temps actually start dropping in the evenings making for very nice late-morning rides. And that means that 5AM ride times are long gone… enter lunch rides and after work rides all winter long…

This morning I hit up Wild Horse, it’s been nearly a year since I spun through Wild Horse territory. This time I rode the trail on the singlespeed. It was my tenth singlespeed ride since I converted. I definitely see a singlespeed 29er in my future.

Out in the Goldfield Mountains this morning for my second exploratory ride. I had a decent camera this time and managed to get a few teasers.

I am very impressed with this remote trail system. There’s a little bit of everything…If you can manage the maze of jeep roads out there you’ll find some doubletrack and virtually virgin singletrack tucked away. I heard the motos and quads out there but didn’t see a soul on the singletrack. If you like adventure and have a hankering for some fresh new trail, the Goldfields await you.

I’ve got enough gps track to make a mountain bikers’ map of one section of the area. I’ll be posting that soon…or maybe not… holiday weekend and not a soul on the trail with me? Might be fun to keep it that way for a while :)

So little riding time with all the rain….I’ve made a few notable updates. First, I’ve added an interactive Google Map to the Phoenix Trail Index.

The map shows the locations for most of the riding areas in Phoenix. Click on the green biker and you’ll get a link to my trail page or blog entry about the trail. It’s a work in progress, and I expect to add more to in the future.

View Larger Map

I also updated the Lost Goldmine trail page with new maps of the East and West sections of the trail plus a complete map of the MTB loop portion just south of Lost Goldmine East.

All the rain this week inspired me to update the Weather page with new radar graphics. Check them out, they are so cool. You can follow the Monsoons in “near” real-time.

And lastly, I added the add this button on all individual posts. It’s at the top of the post and the bottom for your convenience in bookmarking.

Happy Labor Day weekend. Get out and ride!

I can’t believe that it’s Interbike time again… My badge came in the mail this week. Less than a month away and I’m counting the days. The Outdoor Demo is the best place in the world to be. Thousands of bikes, power bars and gels, along with endless trail, turn Bootleg Canyon into a mountain biker’s dream world.

As working media I get to go ride and review all the gear I want. Which is awesome to say the least. As an independent blogger, I have no agenda, no sponsors to please, no one paying me to say anything. I ride whatever I feel like and write about the gear that I enjoy most. I’ll be there with my long time riding buddy and fellow blogger Rico Suave. Between the two of us we should be able to give plenty of the 2009 models a shake.

Last year we rode, Trek, Titus, Santa Cruz, Specialized, Rocky Mountain, and Ellsworth. This year I’ve got my sights set on riding singlespeeds and 29ers.

Here’s our video from Interbike 2007.

A gorgeous morning on the Lost Goldmine MTB Loop.

If you like bugs for breakfast!

The first few weren’t bad, but the last few dozen or so were a bit much. The Monsoons last night pushed out the heat, but brought in humidity and bugs. They hit my body like a hail storm, a constant peppering throughout the trail. Sticking to my wet skin then squirming as they struggle to fly free.

Aside from the bug action, the trails were just a few hours away from perfect. Just a bit soft in only a few spots. Tomorrow will be bwetter.

There is singletrack up in them there Goldfield Mountains…

And it’s all mine!

(well, at least it was on Saturday morning)

I’ll be sure to share the wealth, after I’ve mined a few loops for myself…

The Leadville 100 is tomorrow. I like to kid myself and think that I could do this race if I tried. But then I think I’d better have more than one 56 mile ride under my wheels before I even think about racing 100.

That said, I really admire all the racers who do enter the Leadville. For whatever reasons they have, one thing is the same: 100 miles of high altitude mountain biking with a chance to be passed by Lance Armstrong.

This year Lance is actually in the Leadville. He’s number 7 and he’s riding a Trek Top Fuel 9.8. UltraRob has some video footage of Lance’s Leadville recon.

Last year Floyd Landis took second to Dave Wiens by less than 2 minutes. Dave has won the overall every year since 2003. If Landis got within two minutes of Wiens, Armstrong can surely do better than that even if he’s not in Tour de France shape. I wish I could get live updates…

UPDATE: Wiens beats Armstrong by 2 minutes.

Superhumanmag.com: Video of the race between Lance and Dave

Good luck to all 40 Arizonans headed to Colorado this weekend to compete. I wish for you oxygen in your lungs. Also good luck to Fatty, who’s riding this year on his WaltWorks singlespeed.

Leadville Course Maps

I rode Hawes this week for my early morning ride. I set out on a loop I’ve never ridden before…I thought I’d ridden Hawes every which way but loose, but come to find out, there’s more to Hawes than meets the eye… There’s a section of singletrack east of Hawes proper that cuts south and traverses along the east mountains. It’s cut pretty high on the mountain and is loaded with steep pitches and switchbacks.

They call it Upper Hawes. I found it while searching Motion Based and came across whitefish’s tracks from 2006.

Upper Hawes has been around for more than 3 years now. There was an MTBR thread about the new trail back then…What I’m asking myself is where have I been the past three years?

I started at Walgreens (which I’ve never done before either) and rode the cool trail that runs parallel Power just to the East (I’m sure it has a name, I just don’t know it). It makes for a nice warm up and even has one short steep climb to spice it up. I opted for a climb fest and rode the Ridge trail to Granite, up the Mine Trail to Saddleback to Hawes. East up Hawes is a nice climb in itself, then tack on this “new” upper section and you’ve got a workout, Total of 4000 feet of climbing.

Next time I’ll ride it CCW from the new TH or loop into it from the Diamond Point access. This addition to the system is a gem. There may be 50 ways to leave your lover, but now there are 101 ways to ride Hawes.

A local rider and reader of my blog named Dave sent me his hand drawn map of the trails inside the Sonoran Preserve. Maps like this are cool. They represent someone with passion, who creates a work of art. That’s what maps are to me. Art meets adventure. It’s so much more than just how to get from here to there. It’s all the visualization - imagination or memories that go through my mind as I picture riding the lines…

He sent it to me because I don’t have much info on my site about these trails. Which is sadly all too true. All I’ve ridden in the Sonoran Preserve are Sunrise, Lost Dog, and Ringtail. And I only rode those because I was already in Scottsdale for something else… Living in the Southeast Valley I’m closer to Casa Grande than the preserve. I bet I’m even closer to Tucson than Cave Creek.

I love to read on the MTBR forum of all the studs who ride the quadruple bypass epic… this winter I declare that I will finish the the quadruple bypass or bonk trying. So next time u2metoo chollaball and waltaz get together with the rest of the gang to ride the infamous quad, invite me to feast on your dust. I’d love to give it a go.