My rocker brother

His band got 2nd place in The Battle of the Bands at his high school, Troy High, last night. He's the 2nd from the right, plays bass guitar....

Congrats Jimmy!

Upper Loop - Sovereign Trail

We headed out to this trail on Sunday morning and were treated to a nice flowy, Fruita like trail. The climbs were short, the terrain wasn't all that technical and it was all singletrack!





An awesome way to end the weekend!


More pics here

Slickrock

We headed up to the Slickrock trail from town today, man was it crowded. We had just gotten off the practice loop when I followed the boys off this small 3' drop but for some stupid reason, I decided to roll it instead of dropping it. Well, it wasn't rollable and I landed on my head and left shoulder and took the nose of my seat hard in my hamstring. I had the worse charley horse and it just didn't get any better. I tried to ride it out but it keep getting tighter and the spasms were so bad my leg was shaking out of control. I swallowed my pride and decided to head back to the hotel. Big bummer. I was so pissed....

A beer, some Aleve and a nice long sit in the jacuzzi, the charley horse worked itself out and I was able to walk on it without is hurting.

After lunch we got on the bikes again and rode up to the Moab Rim trail but didn't get very far. It was straight up rocks and I just wasn't into climbing straight up.

Oh well, at least I was able to pedal again.

Tomorrow we're going to head up to either Amasa Back or the Sovereign trail before heading home.

-Kim

Porcupine Rim

What's a trip out to Moab without doing Porcupine Rim. We opted to take the cars to the top this time since we had enough people and cars to leave them there and come back later.

It was a blast as usual. 'nough said.









Nice bike!


More pics here

Moab

We're headed out to Moab after work today! Yeeehaaaw! I can't wait! We're headed out with another couple that are from Michigan (living here now) and they've never been to Moab yet. We're doing the Porcupine Rim shuttle tomorrow, bummer is that the van can't go all the way to the top because there's still snow....they said it's only 3 less miles from the top though...no biggee. Our friend Aaron is coming out Friday night and he'll be out guide since he's been there a gazillion times.

And I've got a new camera so hopefully I'll be able to get all the good shots. I am amazed at how fast this camera can take a picture. I thought I wanted a high end SLR but I'm not a techy camera person and probably would have never learned how to use the camera properly so the sales guy at Wolf Camera showed me the Olympus and I'm so happy with it. It's small, light, takes amazing pictures and most importantly it takes shots instantly....no standing around waiting for the damn thing to focus or whatever. My old digital camera was about 8 years old and I'd have to wait so long for the thing to take a picture...I missed so many shots because of it.

-Kim

HiFi Pro 29er it is!

With the Intense 5.5 29er not really available until a longer travel fork is available...the only fork for that bike right now is a White Bros. I've decided to get the HiFi Pro 29er and wait until the 5.5 29ers is out in full force, this way I can keep my 5.5 and get the HiFi.

I think I FINALLY made the right choice, the only sucky thing is that the bike only comes in one color. The HiFi Pro should be available in 2 weeks and I was able to EP it from Dan's shop so I'm saving a ton! I just hope it's here by the time we go to Fruita in May.

-Kim

Intense 5.5 29er

I really hope one of these is on the demo truck tonight. Dan's shop is having an Intense demo this afternoon and I really really really want to see what this bike is all about. I still haven't made my decision yet of what bike to get....I'm just too interested in this one. I LOVE my 5.5 and don't want to give it up for something that I won't love riding as much.

-Kim

I've made my decision

I got to ride the HiFi on Saturday and really enjoyed it. We couldn't get the suspension dialed in the way I like, I like a really soft setup, but we got it pretty close....although I was only going through half the travel. The bike wasn't as plush as the 5.5 but it still road really well and responded really quick. The 29er climbed great and in a couple sections that I usually have to stand and grind through the rocks, I was able to sit and pedal through them with no problem. I took horrible lines over rocks and I was still able to get through the sections without any issues. On the DH, I let the bike go and it handled the fast rock sections with no problems at all....although it was more rough than my 5.5 the bike was still able to hold it's line and not bounce me around the trail.

I thought I may still want to try the Intense 6.6 and maybe even their new 5.5 29er but then I'd have to get rid of my 5.5 for sure to cover the cost of either Intense. If I got the HiFi, I could keep my 5.5 and ride it on the more "freeride" type trails and ride the HiFi on the more "XC" type trails.....I think that's the way to go.

Dan's going to see what the wait time is going to be on the HiFi Pro's and if it's short I'll order one...if it's a 6 month wait or longer, I'll just get the Deluxe and upgrade the front shifter and put it on a major diet.

Sunday, Dan had to work and decided to ride in so we didn't get an early XC ride in. I'm glad we didn't ride because I have the biggest blisters on my hands from the crappy grips that were on the HiFi and I can't have huge painful blisters on my hand for Moab this weekend. Instead, I ran for about 1hr and 15min, washed both cars, washed the dog and did a bunch of errands. I now have the worst sunburn on my back from spending so much time outside in a tank top without sunscreen.....I am a lobster. Luckily the burn will be gone for this weekend.

Now all we have to do is get through Thursday! We're dropping to dog off at his brother's house Thursday night and then heading out to Moab! Hope the weather through summit isn't too bad, the weather for the weekend looks absolutely perfect....in the mid 70's with no wind!

-Kim

HiFi Deluxe is in!

My demo bike came in yesterday! Unfortunately, they didn't have any HiFi Pro's in a 15 1/2" in stock but I can change out some of the components on the HiFi Deluxe if I'm not happy with them. Hopefully I'll be able to ride it this weekend and make a decision before we head out to Moab next weekend. I'll still bring the 5.5 out there since we'll most likely shuttle Porcupine Rim but for the rest of the trails, the 29er should be perfect.

This weekend, I'm buying a new camera and a bigger camelback and along with the possible new bike...I feel like a princess!

We just booked a condo for the first MSC DH race of the year at Angel Fire, NM, MSC #3. I'm not racing but it's Memorial Day weekend and the event and venue are so much fun. The DH course is pretty killer....hopefully they'll let non-racers ride the course when practice is over but I really doubt it. Either way, it's still an awesome weekend. I don't think Dan's decided if he's racing DH or just racing Super D or just hanging out for the weekend. He raced Super D at Keystone last year and said it's probably the most fun he's had racing on a bike. I think he'd do awesome in Super D since he excels in both XC and DH.

We got snow last night but it only stuck to the grassy areas, the ride home sucked big time. I brought my goggles in and had enough clothes but the snow was wet and the goggles just became useless after a while, wiping the snow away from them just made then streaked with moisture so I had to ride without them and I could barely keep my eyes open. Riding in the snow with nothing over your eyes is probably one of the worst things besides riding into a headwind.

It's supposed to be in the 50's today and 60's all weekend, hopefully the trails will dry out by Saturday so we can play on some dirt and I can demo the 29er....I'm so excited!

-Kim

Early Sunday Rise

Dan had to work at noon today (Sunday) so we set the alarm for 7am, got up at 7:15am and were out the door stuffing our faces with breakfast at 8am, still not knowing where we were going. We didn't have time to ride Dakota Ridge, etc in Golden and Dan didn't want to ride Heil so Hall it was. There were only a handful of cars in the parking lot and the majority of the people on the trail were runners. I don't think my body knew what I wanted it to do since my climbing sucked big time. I was light headed and I couldn't concentrate to save my life....I blamed it on my bike and the strong margarita I made for myself the night before. When I finally got to the bench and we headed out to the upper loop, I started to feel better, I wasn't having anymore issues with being light headed and the bike was flowing pretty well. We rode the loop clockwise because we like the climbs in that direction better and once we got to the backside and started the awesome flowey, twisty descent back to the bench....the bike mojo was grooving again. The descent through the rock garden was super fun and I didn't have any issues whatsoever. A couple of the sections that usually make me sweat a little harder didn't faze me at all. I love it when things just click...I think this summer is going to be an awesome riding summer. We're planning on riding more XC this year but still getting on the DH bikes every weekend. Last year the majority of the summer was spent on the DH bikes and my XC suffered big time.



Got home and made some awesome breakfast burritos with eggs, cheese and the some leftover jalapeno turkey burgers that we grilled last night. Dan had to rush off to work and I had to kill a little time before my massage appointment....now I'm super sore.

Unfortunately, Sunday was the only day we were able to get on the bikes. We were shopping for a new audio system for the Volvo and a new camera for me and by the time we got home we didn't feel like driving anywhere to ride so we got the running shoes out and ran for about an hour. Grilled some burgers and chilled out.

The next couple days are supposed to be in the 70's and I'm super stoked to ride in!

-Kim

Snow snow go away!

Yuck 2-4" of snow predicted today,snowing and really wet out right now but it's supposed to be 40 out. Now way it's sticking to the ground!

Next week, 70's! Yeeehaw!

-Kim

Maybe it's time for a change

So I'm thinking about getting a 29er....the Gary Fisher HiFi 29er, 4" of travel plus the benefit of the 29" wheels. I was thinking about getting an Intense 6.6 since I love my 5.5 so much but since Dan's been riding his 29er....the Superfly



He can't stop raving about it and his 6.6 has been collecting dust in the basement.

We were riding this past weekend out in Loveland and there's a lot of ledges and step ups scattered along the trail, while I was struggling to get up and over most of the step ups (and having to alot of "do overs") he was cruising over them, no problem at all. Everytime I yelled out "how'd you do that so easily", his response simply was "bigger wheels". He is so impressed with the way his 29er rides and how easy it is to get over big rocks and ledges and step ups, he's convinced me to give it a try. Not only does it handle getting up and over rocks effortlessly, it handles the descents like a full on full suspension bike. I'm thinking the HiFi will be the most amazing bike with the travel it has and the 29" wheels.

And people coming in his shop are buying up 29ers like crazy. Guess all the rave isn't just hype....there's really something to these things.

When they have a demo in my size, I'll take it out and see if the heavens part and angels start singing.

-Kim

Happy Birthday Mom!

From me



And Dan



And Patch



Wish we could be there!

-Kim

Today's Ride

We decided to head out to Loveland again...just can't get enough of the trails out there. We parked at the Coyote Ridge trailhead and rode that to Horsetooth Reservoir. Fun trail with nothing too technical, except for the top of Coyote Ridge. I think I can see the line here....



It's really not that bad but I'd prefer my full face and some body armor to try it, it's pretty steep.

We got to the reservoir, took a break and had some snacks



And looked at Dan's new 29er



And I raved about my new Shebeest knickers



And Dan tried to took cool



We stopped and looked at some houses....can you see them?



And on our way back to the trailhead we saw a ranger handing out tickets to a group of people hiking with their dogs, guess they didn't see the sign at the beginning of the trailhead that said NO DOGS. Bummer for them. And we found a gas station in Loveland that was selling gas for $3.04 per gallon....it's about $3.29 down by us.

Topped the evening off with burgers and beers, what a wonderful Saturday.

New DH Frame

Dan and his brother are importing Zumbi frames from Poland. Dan rode his last year and loved it, hopefully I'll love mine. I love the color, sparkly grey. Dan got a flat black one, unfortunately it didn't ship with the first batch so hopefully he'll have it next month.

Now, with gas prices rising to $3.29 at some stations and our Whistler trip coming up, it's time to start saving money and time to start commuting again. Hopefully we can save enough to have all our expenses paid for and all we have to do is buy the plane tickets. And with the upcoming summer repair season at the shop, Dan will be getting more tips (I hope) but since his promo to General Manager, I don't know if that will happen as much.

Something to look forward to

We've decided to head out to Moab with our friends Chuck & Niina at the end of April. I was sad and jealous looking at all the pics of RimRide and the pics of all the people that went out there the last weekend of March. Dan's shop had it's grand opening that weekend so we were stuck home. But alas, we're going! And I'm soooo excited to have something to look forward to!

And, it's time to start commuting again. I'm going to buy a rack and some panniers to get my gear off my back, make sure the commuter is good to go and hop on the saddle again. Weird how sometimes you just need a break from things and when it's time to start again, you know it.

Gawd, I can't wait for Moab and then a couple weeks later we'll be in Fruita for a 4 day weekend. And then.....we're going to Whistler at the end of August! I'm so excited and glad that we decided to go. It'll be fun. A bunch of CO folks are going as well as a bunch of Michiganders....actually I think all the people going are all Michiganders, just some of us are transplants.

-Kim