I’d like to make sure I am clear on this. None of this ever happened. There was no crazy plan, there were 0 hours behind the wheel of an old VW Bus tramping down hundreds of miles of “primitive road“, no trails scouted or poached. Especially not on the Appalachian trail. The absurdity is smothering. The possibility of pulling this type of ride off would be up there with knocking of 3 Vegas casinos in one night-just you and a buddy with a plan. Impossible. Never happened. Just so you know.

Another fun ride tonight. Lots going on inside the ol' attic...good to get out and get a bit beat up. hit the eject button once, rather abruptly, but all seems well...new lowers on the Lyrik did the trick. A+

Well folks, it's been an EPIC weekend already and it's only Saturday night!

As the week drew to a close I was worried the forecasts of rain and general nastiness were going to come down on Highland Mountain Bike Park Friday Night and through Saturday during the Claymore Challenge. The weather down here on the Coast was great as I headed out, but by the time I hit Exit 19 off of 93, it was raining in sheets. As soon as I rolled in, Bruce and Sasha loaded up into the Van and Pags followed us in his truck to the local 99 for beers and burgers...Not a bad way to start the weekend!

After finishing up at the 99 we headed back to highland where things were moving along nicely now...The band was still playing and there was a pretty serous Beer Pong tourney going on. Bruce passed out from exhaustion (he thinks he has bronchitis, I'm fairly sure it's a succubus draining his life away) and Sasha and I headed out to see what was good. Long story short, Shaums march was no match for Demo Dave from Trek. Shortly after my eleven-teenth beer I headed back to the vanagon for sleeeeeeep. Of course that didn't happen. The Vermont hill billies next to us (That is a term of endearment when coming from me...) were up and having fun. So I had another beer and then went to bed. The Van was great. Dozing off in the queen sized bed while listening to some Frampton Comes Alive was nice.

HUGE deluge around 1 AM kept me up with the rain thrumming on the Van's roof for an hour or so. I counted sheep and tried to figure out how to go pee without getting rained on (turns out with a Vanagon it's easy!).

Up at 6am. Feeling a bit banged up. Feed self one Redbull, one Water and one Beer. All is well by 9:30 AM. Spent the early morning chasing down some Dunks and then back at the Sinister tent wrenching on my bike and then helping Sasha get his bike set for the Claymore. the day started grey, muggy and foggy....but by 11 it was clearing up and we ended up with a phenomenal day.

We had three of our riders entered in the Claymore for the qualifiers on Friday...by Sat AM, it was Sasha left. Dane and Dan both gaffled themselves up pretty well and bowed out (Dane with a hurt foot and Dan with an ankle injury). Sasha had destroyed his third rear wheel of the week so we were getting him set of for the comp.

With Sasha's bike good to go and him sleeping in the van, Bruce, Frank Diesel and I headed out to get a few runs in.

Managed a bunch of runs, met tons of cool folks and really pushed my riding up a notch...like to 11. (Well, it's one louder, isn't it? It's not ten. You see, most blokes, you know, will be playing at ten. You're on ten here, all the way up, all the way up, all the way up, you're on ten on your guitar. Where can you go from there? Where?)

had a ball and am home now and bed SOON! Have to get up early with the kids and get them ready for the Clayton Assault on Mt A!!!!!

Abusing 26" wheels....

So all the Folks behind Sinister converged upon Highland Mountain Bike park today. While not a violent man, I beat the piss out of that Gruitr. Not because I'm awesome, but because I'm not. That bike saved my arse so many times. I ab-so-fucking-lut-ly womped on that fork. It loves me. I set the monarch at 250psi and never clanked it. I rode, dragged and modulated the ever fucking christ out of those brakes. I could feel the heat coming off the rear 160mm. It looks titanium now LOL. I'll likely upgrade to a 203 up front and move the 185 to the rear. The brakes NEVER got soft and if they ever would it would have been today, on my first day at the bike park.

That said, for big stuff like that, at the speeds we were runningt them at, I need more travel. Going to have to bump the bike to 6.5"

SO...my review of the following...

Avid Elixir Cs...HUGE thumbs up.
Rock Shox Pike...marry me? I'll move to Utah...
Rock Shox monarch 4.2...braaaaaaaap


And keeping with the title of the blog...a 29er has no business at Highland. I'm hoping we can prove this wrong, but as of now, no way.

 

Yo folks...what does a 29er guy do all winter?   Sit and stew on a trainer in front of Seasons?   Well yeah...but I also ride lots of park down at Rye Airfield.  This On One Gimp has been on a cool journey...first to a friend, Drew, then to Darrell, then me, then away and now back!  I snagged it back because I always regretted selling it.   I was stoked to get my mitts back on it for some Rye sessioning but the day it showed up in the post,   I got a call from the boys in Gloucester informing me I'm the new owner of a DNA...I guess it makes sense.  Sooooooooooo the Gimp frame is now up for sale again.  It would make a smashing park/dj/trail SS.  In fact Drew used it on a trip to Fruitia as his sole rig.  

Anyhow, the frame is raw Cro-Mo and it pretty dang cool.  You can see the heat remnants at the joints from wleding and some cool veining under the clear coat from the normal corrosion (stuff you wouldn't see with a painted frame).  The clear coat is nicked and scratched here and there for sure, but it's a solid frame.  One ding in the top tube.

Here's a shot of it when Darrell had it built up as a snow rig...that he rode twice LOL.

I was going to run my blessed Pike on it while the Gruitr is down at the Dirt Rag HQ for testing, but the new DNA is just too sexy to not build....the Gimp is on my office wall!   If someone wants to save it from this fate, hit me up and it can be yours for an unreasonable cheap rate!