Case - 9/21/08

Pretty good ride today at case, but totally not what I was expecting. I started to get worried when I realized that I was the only one out of 6 guys without shin/knee pads as we were getting ready in the lot. The ride started out with a climb up a washed out fire road, it wasn't too steep, but was pretty consistent. I thought it was a fun way to start the ride as there was just enough roots and rocks too make it interesting in spots. When we got to the top of the climbing the guides explained that was about the end of the climbing and that the real fun stuff was about to start. What I didn't realize then was that our two guides were basically trials guys and to them fun was climbing or hopping up the sides of big rocks and then rolling and/or dropping off the steep faces on the other side, often involving track standing and hopping around on the top of the rock to line themselves up. Many of the features had ways up that mere mortals could handle and some were even possible for me to handle. Ultimately this ended up being more of a stunt session than a ride IMHO, which was cool because it opened my eyes to a whole other style of riding I hadn't experienced before. Most of the stuff they were riding I never would have looked at and thought that people should ride bikes over it. The ride mostly consisted of riding short distances between obstacles with a few short portions of actual riding and ended up with a pretty fun DH mix of fire road and ST.

I did take some video with my point and shoot, if I can figure a way to convert the .mov files into something that WMM can recognize I'll put them together into a short video, if not I'll pick some of the best clips and post them up.

The GPS shut itself off mid-way through the ride, but here's the track and map of what I got .

I guess I should probably mention who went, which may be hard since I'm terrible with names. Mr.Evil is the one who talked me into this ride with his buddy Red, who I had ridden with once earlier in the season for a short time before he injured himself. The original plan was to ride Nass, but Mr.Evil's other friends bailed so we took the opportunity to hit up Case with some of Red's buddies (I think they were anyway). Neither Red or I had been before so it seemed like a good idea. Aside from the 3 of us there was 3 other guys, who's names are completely escaping me right now. I'll just call them Super Trials Guy, Hawaiian Shirt Trials Guy (both of whom were on hard tails), and Mike.

The ride wasn't what I expexted either. After the Nass ride feel through with the other group of guys we made a lst minute call to ride Case. At first the plan was that I would lead a ride on the trails I hit when I was there several weeks ago. I got a call from Red last night letting me know that one of his friends Eric (Hawaiian shirt trials guy) and his buddies were going to Case also, and they would show us around. Now Red has only ridden with Eric before on typical XC stuff and didn't really know the extent of his bike skills. Red and I assumed this would be a gnarly XC ride with some sweet DH action. Boy were we wrong! I should have realized at the trail head when Jamie (super trails guys, and 45 years old to boot) was doing bunny hoops spinning 180 degrees in the air that we were in for something different. You really cannot describe just how good these guys are, you will just have to wait for Brians vid. Eric was also taking a bunch of high res vid and said he will have something on YouTube in a couple of days to share.

Now image a 45 year old guy on a HT riding up a 80 to 90 degree rock face atleast 6 feet high like it was nothing. I mean He would stop before the rock face, hold a track stand, then ride up it with no momentum :blink: Once on top he would go to town.

Riding down 80 degree rollers

Maybe take a 6 foot drop to flat, landing on his back tire and holding a wheely

Or Popping a wheely on top of the rock, hopping around on his back tire and jumping from rock to rock to rock to rock to rock sometimes clearing gaps up to 4 feet

It was insane to watch! But Jamie (super trails guy) gave me a bunch of great pointers on how to get up steep faces. His advice took a while to set in and make sence. But by the end of the ride I was making it up pretty steep rock face with little speed. I just couldn't bring myself to take any of the drops or rollers they were hitting. I had two OTB's onto pretty soft landings.....man do I love platform pedals. Jamie also gave me some great pointers on wheely drops that I will be working on at home

Hmm. Sounds interesting...

Holy crap, do I wish I was there. I freakin' love trial style mountain biking, even though I suck. These guys definitively would have destroyed, but it still would have been good fun. I can't wait for the video. Trials riding blows my mind.

awf170 said:

Holy crap, do I wish I was there. I freakin' love trial style mountain biking, even though I suck. These guys definitively would have destroyed, but it still would have been good fun. I can't wait for the video. Trials riding blows my mind.

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You would have been like a kid in a candy store. Had I known what they had planned I would have let you know about the ride.

bvibert said:

I'm not beating myself up, I'm just in awe of their abilities. I don't feel like I should be riding like them at this point, hell I don't know if I ever will (or want to, I tend to like a faster pace). I'm happy with my progression thus far.

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Same here. I really don't ever want to do some / most of the things these guys were doing. But I can see how learning some of the basic skills they do can make you a much better overall rider. Just with what I learned today I was getting up some really gnarly rock faces and riding through some extremly technical rock gardens & rock features. I can also see how a ride like todays every once in a ehile where you session on stuff can really help your bike skills for the trail. Look out Devils Kitchen!

Here's the video. Sorry for the crappy quality, it was shot with my point and shoot.

http://www.bvibert.com/img/MTB/Case_080921_sm_2.wmv
(Right-click and "Save As" to save it to your computer.)

That's awesome!! I love watching trails guys doing their thing. I don't think I'd get into it hardcore (first I'd need to get an HT anyway), but all that stuff is real good to know.

MR. evil said:

It was insane to watch! But Jamie (super trails guy) gave me a bunch of great pointers on how to get up steep faces. His advice took a while to set in and make sence. But by the end of the ride I was making it up pretty steep rock face with little speed. I just couldn't bring myself to take any of the drops or rollers they were hitting. I had two OTB's onto pretty soft landings.....man do I love platform pedals. Jamie also gave me some great pointers on wheely drops that I will be working on at home

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So, ya gonna let us in on those pointers?


...and big ouch to the guy who OTB'd on the big drop!!

Nice stuff. I've been working on that pedal kick thing for a while. It's really committing to hang that front wheel out over a drop...I like it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmLnJESoKt8
A great blend of Street, Trials, and flow.

Thanks for putting that vid together Brian.

The sad thing about this vid is that is not even some of the coolest stuff these guy did. Cannot wait to see Eric's footage

Pretty cool stuff! I think I'm a LONG way off from trying anything like that... but I bet it's interesting to watch others attack it with grace.

I would like to say that I would do everything up to the turn and drop at about 40 seconds in (I could do the turn, but I really doubt I could drop after that) but I would guess that my opinions might change when I see this stuff in person. Anyway, that was rad.

MR. evil said:

Thanks for putting that vid together Brian.

The sad thing about this vid is that is not even some of the coolest stuff these guy did. Cannot wait to see Eric's footage

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I realized as I was putting it together that I still didn't really capture the day all that well, despite nearly filling the memory card on my camera. I should also note that I didn't seem to get any footage of Mr.Evil completing any stunts. There was plenty of stuff that he made and even more that he attempted, I just didn't have the camera out then I guess.

I'll be interested to see Eric's footage as well.

bvibert said:

Here's the video. Sorry for the crappy quality, it was shot with my point and shoot.

http://www.bvibert.com/img/MTB/Case_080921_sm_2.wmv
(Right-click and "Save As" to save it to your computer.)

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Great video. Amazing how much more interesting it is the watch one with talented riders like that. Cool stuff and I'm sure all those boulders are much bigger in person.

JD said:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmLnJESoKt8
A great blend of Street, Trials, and flow.

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Sick!! Love the ending... very sexy

I probably posted this vid somewhere, but I can't get enough of Ryan Leech... also in Prague, for some reason:

Heh, all that on hard tails. You haters, HEHE! HT Forever!

MRGisevil said:

Heh, all that on hard tails. You haters, HEHE! HT Forever!

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Puh-lease. :roll: I'm still not sure you even mountain bike.... :razz:

man thats straight out of street freestyle. effin sick. i have hours of vid of my brother on his haro doing crazy ass street tricks off of stuff in downtown hartford. its like the concrete jungle but natural instead of man-made obstacles. awesome.