Black Canyon Trail - Black Canyon City, AZ

I need a longish ride, so I ended up rolling with some peeps over on MTBR on the Black Canyon Trail.

It was a perfect day to ride, as we met up on at 7:00 at the Black Canyon City Trailhead, and we were on the trail before 7:30. The temps were down right comfy, and pretty much stayed that way. The clouds shaded us when we needed it, and when they weren't there, a gentle breezed offered a helping hand

The pace was excellent, not to punishing neither to fast, nor not to much waiting. Pretty nice for the group of 10 or so riders that did the full meal deal.

Here's vid of the ride:

Night ride at McDowell's Pemberton 09/12/09 - McDowell Mountain Regional Park

Last night Tim, Tom and I did the final night ride of the season, out on Pemberton last night at the McDowell Mountain Regional Park. They usually host these rides about once a month, and this was the first on I participated in.

We rolled into the Trailhead Staging Area around 7:30; it had just gotten dark. The lost was about 3/4 full of eager riders. We hit the trail about 8:15 and the 15 mile loop took us about 2 hours.

My new Princeton Tec Switchback 3 headlamp worked really well. I've been using it in the morning for the rides, but this was the first group ride with it, and it was reassuring it had the stamina to keep bright for an extended period of time. It is kinda heavy, and not quite as bright as an HID, it flooded the trail with tons of light. Not bad for $182 shipped to my door (via chainlove).

I've only riden Pemberton twice, and was never really thrilled with the trail, due to the lack of fun hills and sand, but it is pretty neat trail to ride at night. The creatures were out, as I spotted four tarantulas, a little toad, and big phat diamondback rattlesnake.

Here's a thread on MTBR that talks about the ride: Last Night ride at McDowell's Pemberton 09/12/09.

Here's a couple of short vids of the creatures crawling about:

Ebike (electric bike)

Okay, so I imagine I will be shunned by some in the biking community for getting into my latest venture; an electric bike.

What? an electric bike? Well, I took an ordinary commuter bike, threw a big battery on the back and brushless motor hub up front. It has a solid state (electronic) controller that goes between the battery and the motor, and Cycle Analyst to meter my usage (speed, amp hours used, watts, voltage, etc).

Why in the world would I do this??? Well, I've been taking the bus into work everyday for the past three years, and I usually spend about two hours a day going back and forth. My goal was to get my on way commute on this bike down to under a half hour, and my best time yet is 27 minutes. By going back and for on this bike I just and hour of my life back everyday. Not bad. I'm a rather strong biker, but I don't have shower facilities at work and I'd rather save my legs for the trail instead of the road.

What's it like? It isn't super torqueeee, but it is pretty dang powerful. When I take off from an intersection, I usually start of pedaling (not necessary)and I blow the cars away. On flat ground I've topped out at 34 mph, and the range is around 25 miles.

I spent several weeks researching what I wanted out of a bike on www.endless-sphere.com, and purchased my kit from www.comcycle-usa.com.

What do I have wrapped up in this beast? I spent $450 for the bike (REI - Novara Buzz - with chromoly fork and disk brakes), $900 for the 600W BMC electric motor hub and controller w/ thumb throttle, $900 for the 48v 15 ah LiFePO4 battery, and $145 for the Cycle Analyst (stand alone). Sure I coulda got a motorcycle/scooter, but I at the traffic signals I got to the head of the class because I cruise down the bike lane.

Here's video of my project:

NRA Jumping: Mesa, AZ

Went up with the crew out at NRA to see how jumping is done.

My skilz are very impressive, in fact I actually ate it on my first drop. Baby steps, but everybody else were flying. Super spectacular was put on by Kenny B. and C&L.

Anycow, here's a vid of the day:

Chongoman's Annual Ride: Geronimo - SoMo (Phoenix, AZ)

The bikers started showing up this morning at 5:30 Chongoman's Annual ride, and what a ride it was. I think our crew totaled about 15, as we suffered up Javelina, Mormon Loop, National to ride down Geronimo.

The heat was on, and on it was, but perhaps a tad bit cooler than last year. No owies and the only mechanicals were simultaneous flats. And I was one of 'em.

Thank you Mr. and Mrs. Chongoman for hosting us.

Here's a vid of the day:

Click to play

And a Hi-res Quicktime version can be found here: Chongoman's Annual Ride

Javelina on Desert Classic (South Mountain) - Phoenix, AZ

I ran into a couple of Javelina on my Desert Classic pedal this morning. It had been a while since I seen 'em, but I they were spotted in the usual spot. They come up from sipping water from the yards near by, and were ready to bed down for the day.

I had just rolled off the water tank, and slipped by the trees when I smelled this horrible stench. And at that moment, I knew it was a javelina. I stopped in my track and turned around, and there was a one sitting in the bushes about 15 feet away.

Here are a few clips of the porkers:

Click to play

Sunrise Park Resort: Greer, AZ

Today, Kort and I went up to Sunrise Park Resort . We split from my house at little after 5:30 am blasted through Globe, AZ and hour and half later, and a little after 9:00 we arrived at the Sunrise’s parking lot.

We ended up jumping on at about 9:45. I don’t know what the true temperature was, but it must have been in the low 70’s and pretty stayed that was as some clouds moved in after our first run. Pretty comfy, compared to Phoenix.

What a screaming deal for only 20 bucks. This was my first time up here, so for our first run, Kort took me Fungi, to Upper Chutes and Ladders to Children’s Trail to Bonito. Which was a perfect match for my skill set and ambition. The trail flowed pretty well through the trees, and the upper portion didn’t have many drops, but the other sections had a handful. It was so nice to be rolling through trees again. We did pretty variations of this run a couple of more time before grabbing a bite to eat at the car around 12:00.
Our first run after our brake took us down Chutes and Ladders. Oh man, the drops near the top were a handful for me due to the size and not setting up for them properly. I walked down couple of of ‘em, knowing I’d hit them up later. Once we came to the first cat track crossing, we continued down Sticks, and probably about 15 feet down the trail I hit a patch of gravel that acted like ball bearings. My front wheel shifted out from under me, then it feel off a drop with such force that I catapulted me down the trail about 15 feet. It was like I hit the ejector seat button, the way it launched me. I had a hard helmet to rock collision, as I flew like Superman. That really rung my bell, and luckily I had purchased a full faced helmet the day before. The scratches showed me what a benefit the full face protection added. I had rocks burrowed under my shin and elbow guards, that left me bleeding. But probably the most painful thing was my upper left bicep/shoulder was aching. I didn’t bash anything with it, but I think I just strained it while landing.

With my head spinning and the wind knocked out of me, I took my time rolling again. My shoulder was in pain, but I continued to ride. I just took it pretty easy by riding our first run of the day over and over. Kort and I knocked out 8 or 9 runs in before knocking off at 2:45.

We hit the road a little after 3:00, but we decided to head towards Payson instead of Globe for our return route. I think this was an easier drive, because I believe there are few more miles of multi lane highway. Even with all the traffic we managed to get home at 7:00.

Here's a vid of the day:

Click to play

A high res QuickTime version can be found here: Sunrise Park Resort 8/2/09