MR. evil
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- Nov 29, 2007
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Thursday’s RAW at the Rez was a work event, a bunch of guys from the office hanging out sort of thing. There were 5 of us in all with varying degrees of experience. For my buddy Nelson that some of you have met skiing, this was his first real MTB ride and he did great! He was a little slow on the climbs and some of the technical obstacles were hard for him but he was really hauling on the DH’s. I wasn’t riding the DH’s as fast I a usually do so I wouldn’t get to far ahead of the group, but I would say I was at 85% to 90% of my full speed. Every time I looked back on a DH section Nelson was right on my ass, even when things got tight and technical. He was also riding a HT
Jim was the 2nd guy that rode with us, and he used to ride many years ago. He is still in good shape, but his MTB past was his un-doing. He though he could jump right in and ride the technical stuff like he used to and he had 4 hard falls on rocky terrain in about a 20 minute span on the top of the ridge. He took the first 3 in stride and suffered some nasty scrapes and bruises. On the 4th he suffered a good size puncture wound on his arm and decided to turn around once we made it to the top.
My long time co-worker Ted was the 3rd guy in the group. Years ago Ted and I used to ride after work together once a week at the Rez or Case Mt. But he had some serious back surgery and hasn’t been on a bike on almost 6 years. I have been trying to get him back on the bike for some time now and was really happy he joined us. When we use to ride together I could barley keep up with the guy and not much has changed. He was pretty slow on the initial climb (but then again I could always climb better than he could) but once in the single track at the top he was back to his old form and none of us could keep up with him. The further into the ride we got the more comfortable he was getting on the techy stuff. He had a great time and more importantly his back felt good the next morning. Now he just needs to ditch that old HT for a FS to keep his back happy.
The MVP of the ride goes to my boss Dale. He is about 55 years old and rarely rides off road. He was riding a first generation Spesh Stump Jumper fully rigid bike circa 1984 that he bough brand new all those years ago. His bike weighed more than my FS and only had 4 working gear combos when we started the ride. About 1/2 of the way up the initial climb his bike was a rigid single speed stuck in a pretty big gear combo. Yet he fought his ass off and made all of the non-technical climbs and quite a few of the techy ones. I could tell he was in some serious pain on the 2 longer climbs but he wouldn’t give up. It was really cool to watch. He also had a couple of hard falls on some rocky technical sections, but he would just get back on his bike like nothing happened. We would get to the next technical spot and he would just go for it like his previous fall never happened. Sometimes he made it, sometimes he fell again. In the office Dale is this really nice gentle guy that everyone loves, turns out he is one tough MoFo. I would love to see what the guy could do on a working bike with gears and suspension
Overall it was a fun time, kind of boring for me as rides go. But it was just fun to hang out with these guys. We had a few flats and a broken chain or two that ate up a decent amount of time so we were not able to finish the entire loop. We had to bail and ride the road back with about one mile of single track remaining. Everyone seemed to have a real good time…….except maybe for Jim.
Jim was the 2nd guy that rode with us, and he used to ride many years ago. He is still in good shape, but his MTB past was his un-doing. He though he could jump right in and ride the technical stuff like he used to and he had 4 hard falls on rocky terrain in about a 20 minute span on the top of the ridge. He took the first 3 in stride and suffered some nasty scrapes and bruises. On the 4th he suffered a good size puncture wound on his arm and decided to turn around once we made it to the top.
My long time co-worker Ted was the 3rd guy in the group. Years ago Ted and I used to ride after work together once a week at the Rez or Case Mt. But he had some serious back surgery and hasn’t been on a bike on almost 6 years. I have been trying to get him back on the bike for some time now and was really happy he joined us. When we use to ride together I could barley keep up with the guy and not much has changed. He was pretty slow on the initial climb (but then again I could always climb better than he could) but once in the single track at the top he was back to his old form and none of us could keep up with him. The further into the ride we got the more comfortable he was getting on the techy stuff. He had a great time and more importantly his back felt good the next morning. Now he just needs to ditch that old HT for a FS to keep his back happy.
The MVP of the ride goes to my boss Dale. He is about 55 years old and rarely rides off road. He was riding a first generation Spesh Stump Jumper fully rigid bike circa 1984 that he bough brand new all those years ago. His bike weighed more than my FS and only had 4 working gear combos when we started the ride. About 1/2 of the way up the initial climb his bike was a rigid single speed stuck in a pretty big gear combo. Yet he fought his ass off and made all of the non-technical climbs and quite a few of the techy ones. I could tell he was in some serious pain on the 2 longer climbs but he wouldn’t give up. It was really cool to watch. He also had a couple of hard falls on some rocky technical sections, but he would just get back on his bike like nothing happened. We would get to the next technical spot and he would just go for it like his previous fall never happened. Sometimes he made it, sometimes he fell again. In the office Dale is this really nice gentle guy that everyone loves, turns out he is one tough MoFo. I would love to see what the guy could do on a working bike with gears and suspension
Overall it was a fun time, kind of boring for me as rides go. But it was just fun to hang out with these guys. We had a few flats and a broken chain or two that ate up a decent amount of time so we were not able to finish the entire loop. We had to bail and ride the road back with about one mile of single track remaining. Everyone seemed to have a real good time…….except maybe for Jim.
