|   Successful Thursday Night Ride | 006_007
Nov 8, 2002 8:38 AM | | A group of 6 dedicated riders decided to make an appearance last night on Fromme. The weather forcast was for rain, rain, more rain and high winds (normal for Vancouver at this time of year) At the trailhead myself, Craig, Jim, Jen, Mark, and Art arrive. There were only one three things missing. The rain, the wind, and later I would discover my armour was absent.
We start the climb, and I instinctively hit my lights. I am informed by Craig that "lights are not needed for climbing, you can work on your balance without them" I choose to ignore this advice for the first 1/2 of the climb, but at a rest stop I discover that the lights from the city are reflecting off the low cloud cover and true to Craigs word, one does not need lights for climbing.
Once we get to the top, (we decided to do lower oilcan/digger I believe) everyone starts armouring up. This is when I notice I have left my leg armour in the back of my truck. Oh well. Craig starts off with showing us how his "practice balance in the dark" routine works by dropping into the first part of the descent, only to flop over into the surrounding forest within the 1st 50 feet! "perhaps you should turn off your lights" is my smart a$$ comment. It turns out that the roots are finaly slippery in the Vancouver area (we just went through the driest October in years)
Other events that require notable mention would be Jim playing superman over the bars once, myself getting knocked flat on my a$$ when I was walking a section and found some very slippery mud (dont worry, the bike is fine from landing on top of me) and several people mentioning how the roots were slippery and their bikes just "shifted" 2 feet laterally in either direction on a semi regular basis.
I am sure there was a few other items, but I was too far behind the group to witness these, perhaps others will mention!
I can honestly say that night riding is a blast, it is such a nice, erie feeling watching lights and reflective jackets winding through the forest, disappearing below.
Thanks again everyone for the great ride. |
| sorta successful | JimC.
Nov 8, 2002 11:05 AM | | less slippery than I expected. Had a blast, large smile, renewed Passion, doesn't get much better! And everyone except Jenny biffed. Hmn. And she rode way better than ALL the men. Hmn. Jim |
| Roots are fun | Bonee
Nov 8, 2002 11:15 AM | | Especially when wet. My favorite root experience was one time, back in band camp, I was cruising along some singletrack in Mansfield Connecticut, and this singletrack went right along the side of a slow moving river. It had rained a little bit, just enough to make things damp.
Passing some trees, flying along without a care in the world. Without any warning, my rear tire flys out and up from underneath me and I'm sitting in the river with my bike. I caught root at the perfect angle to toss me into the river.
As I'm sitting there laughing at myself, a dad rides by with his daughter who is maybe 10-12 years old. I just waved and laughed. They did neither. I think they thought I jumped in on purpose. |
| So I'm following 006-007 | JimC.
Nov 8, 2002 11:42 AM | | and his back end kept moving over to wherever the root thinks is correct placement. Kept hearing remarks of mild surprise. I'm sure mine was the same , but I'm used to the back end "rerooting" my direction.
The front? Heck, we almost all fell victim to front end *rerooting*. Usually with a biff included to encourage more repect for the terrain.
D@mn, it was fun. Jim |
| would have joined you but | Brodiegrrl
Nov 8, 2002 1:16 PM | | my thumb isn't liking braking right now and I rode during the day :-)
Did go on a 50km road ride this morning before the rain hit though! |
| I'm jealous. | AlanB
Nov 8, 2002 5:01 PM | | Everyone is going to be practiced-up on the roots by the time I can join you. Be sure to save something nice and slick for me. |
| re: Successful Thursday Night Ride | Gromit
Nov 9, 2002 12:29 AM | | Thanks for the great write-up Trevor. Actually, it was the driest Octobers on record: http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2002/11/01/van_rain021101
Someone (maybe Craig??) was mentioning that we got more rain in the first 2 days of November than we did in all of October! Ooops, was I supposed to talk about this in public? Errr... Everyone, it rains here in Vancouver. A lot. Stay away. The riding is horrible. |
| Thanks for the ride write up! | CraigH
Nov 12, 2002 11:21 AM | | Didn't see it till now.
Glad everyone had a good time!
I'd forgotten how slippery everything is with high pressure XC tires... |
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