You my recall that Fahzure has predicted that mountain bike parks are the future of cycling. Their ability to make fun for a wide variety of ages and abilities make them much like ski areas, complete with the lodge scene, though often relocated to the parking lot. Well, the Wasatch front has been missing out on the bike park innovation for a few years with resorts slow to hop on board with served mountain biking and even slower to develop freeride trails. This year, despite a late start, the Canyons has stepped it up and open real bike park style trails ($15 Lift Tickets!...next weekend is end of season).
Good rides often start with friends in the parking lot:
Although, there were long lines, I was fortunate to drop right in behind some Posse members and right next to Stacy. You remember Stacy, who smoked Dirty in a throwdown DH race at Deer Valley in front of the Backcountry.com crew, don't you?:
The long lines made the trail that much more tasty, once rolling:
The crue (as we've been named) rolling the intermediate line:
Tice, first day back, pretty much, satellite out:
Classic Fahzure style off the big step down:
Tice big stepdown:
Little and big stepdown options. Look ma, no hands:
No footer with partial crue watching:
Dishing it:
For some reason, almost nobody noticed the skills park, complete with wood chip stepup/ghetto foam pit. Fahzure tried spinning threes and nailed crank flips:
Flo airing through the skills park on his way to the woodchip stepup:
Pavel has put together a nice vid of the day:
On the way down, through cellular magic, I spoke to Dirty, letting him know that I was sure to see his arch-nemesis, and what message should I deliver. He claimed to have just podiumed at a race in CA (SS 29er) and is heading to St. George next weekend to ride, all-comers invited. So, down in the parking lot, I let Stacy know this and she was doubly surprised: 1. they have a class for those kind of bikes (no 26ers allowed?); 2. she also will be in St. George next weekend, for a wedding, and will be bringing her all-mountain bike. So Dirty, here you go:
The Interbike Demo days of years past have usually been a fight to stay hydrated and skin cancer free, without a single tree at the Boulder City venue. This year, with its earlier scheduling, appeared likely to be an even greater scorcher. The Surly folks kept everyone cool:
While the first day was a little cooler than anticipated, the dusty patina on us all suggested a trip to Lake Mead. Unfortunately, Dirty Biker the Right Reverend and Craig took off in their hotrod Cadillac so Dirty and I missed their prime (?) spot, locating an even more prime spot, ourselves. Cloudy night, lightening in the distance, and blood sugar debt made the whole experience surreal and bewildering.
Day two started out cloudy and became rainy. For a bit, it looked as though it would be a washout. One local said that the Las Vegas area gets only 2 inches of precip per year; we saw most of that. Then unbelievably, as several vendors were packing up, the rain stopped. Lets go riding! Don't forget your helmet:
The Rt. Reverend was on some sort of bent wanting to race "Strider" bikes, as he put them. After ascertaining that he was NOT talking about the balance bike gizmos...and refusing to race those, we ended up at the Rev's "Strider" bike booth:
I think he liked the adjustable length cranks:
These Eliptigo skooters were expensive, slow, a bit dangerous and noisy, a feature (?) which the rep. was happy to "explain the science" of. I was angry at these wastes of time, taking out my (deserved) frustration on the Rev. He went and found love from some other big galoot:
This fine Alaskan camper was the site of many a danky and Dirty moment...thanks Alaskan!:
The Greatest Bus Driver Ever got us back to LV efficiently, giving us enough time to eat Ethiopian, race go-karts and visit Larry's girls. Now, we were fully prepared for a day indoors.
