So, with 2011 coming to an end, what did you scratch off your bucket list? And what's left over for 2012?
2011 in review
zorg
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Chuck Testa?![Image]()
Humboldt has dinos.
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Quality over quantity
Probably my slowest / lowest mileage year of the previous five years, but along with a fair amount of local riding with the usual suspects, I managed to squeeze in a few special trips.
Tahoe:
Rim Trail building collaboration with members of several Nor Cal and NV trail advocacy groups. This included a real gem of a ride: Up Armstrong & the TRT to +9,000 elevation, and down again with Sidewinder for desert (group photo below). Big thanks to Dave G. for leading this one.
Also hit up the newly completed Upper Cold Creek Trail while there with my wife -- by far, the hardest ride she's ever done. Super proud of her.
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Spain:
Snuck in a weekday afternoon ride with a Spanish friend in Madrid. He rode his new SIR 9 and loaned me his "old" Mach 4, and we rolled out of his complex and into the local trail network. Some decent single track around there, but he kept saying, "You really have to appreciate where you live in California." I can't say the riding itself was spectacular, but it certainly kept my attention, and provided a great break between a long flight and long train ride later that evening.
My friend and Spanish trail guide, Alvaro
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View from the trail above Barcelona
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Park City/Thunder Mountain/Rainbow Rim road trip:
Was gone for a full 12 days, and rode 9 of them. By far, the best cycling related trip I've done in my life. Huge thanks to Cyril for pushing and planning this one, and for employing his new 4-door truck. Funny how just 2 guys can fill a good sized truck with camping and cycling gear. Thanks to "Stoy" of Park City too for the Thunder Mountain recommendation.
Park City Aspens
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Cyril at Thunder Mountain
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BTCEB at Rainbow Rim Trail
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Like others, I made an extra effort to get some possibly once in a lifetime rides in this year. And like a few others, I expect my opportunities to do so might be drastically reduced in the year(s) to come. Here's to living large, MTBR.
Probably my slowest / lowest mileage year of the previous five years, but along with a fair amount of local riding with the usual suspects, I managed to squeeze in a few special trips.
Tahoe:
Rim Trail building collaboration with members of several Nor Cal and NV trail advocacy groups. This included a real gem of a ride: Up Armstrong & the TRT to +9,000 elevation, and down again with Sidewinder for desert (group photo below). Big thanks to Dave G. for leading this one.
Also hit up the newly completed Upper Cold Creek Trail while there with my wife -- by far, the hardest ride she's ever done. Super proud of her.
Spain:
Snuck in a weekday afternoon ride with a Spanish friend in Madrid. He rode his new SIR 9 and loaned me his "old" Mach 4, and we rolled out of his complex and into the local trail network. Some decent single track around there, but he kept saying, "You really have to appreciate where you live in California." I can't say the riding itself was spectacular, but it certainly kept my attention, and provided a great break between a long flight and long train ride later that evening.
My friend and Spanish trail guide, Alvaro
View from the trail above Barcelona
Park City/Thunder Mountain/Rainbow Rim road trip:
Was gone for a full 12 days, and rode 9 of them. By far, the best cycling related trip I've done in my life. Huge thanks to Cyril for pushing and planning this one, and for employing his new 4-door truck. Funny how just 2 guys can fill a good sized truck with camping and cycling gear. Thanks to "Stoy" of Park City too for the Thunder Mountain recommendation.
Park City Aspens
Cyril at Thunder Mountain
BTCEB at Rainbow Rim Trail
Like others, I made an extra effort to get some possibly once in a lifetime rides in this year. And like a few others, I expect my opportunities to do so might be drastically reduced in the year(s) to come. Here's to living large, MTBR.
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2011 has been a great riding year so far.....
- Went to Sea Otter for the first time, and won a new 2012 Fox Float 36 160 fork, which I put on my new ride, a 2012 Banshee Rune.
-Hit my first gap jumps (approx 10-12feet)
-Rode the double blk diamonds at Northstar
-Went on a second 4 day trip to Tahoe and rode Mr Toads, Corral, the Flume, Chinese Downhill, and many others
-Hit every feature at Demo Forest.
-Rode Downieville for the first time, so much fun!
And to top it off met some great new riding friends. Heres to 2012 being just as amazing:thumbsup:
- Went to Sea Otter for the first time, and won a new 2012 Fox Float 36 160 fork, which I put on my new ride, a 2012 Banshee Rune.
-Hit my first gap jumps (approx 10-12feet)
-Rode the double blk diamonds at Northstar
-Went on a second 4 day trip to Tahoe and rode Mr Toads, Corral, the Flume, Chinese Downhill, and many others
-Hit every feature at Demo Forest.
-Rode Downieville for the first time, so much fun!
And to top it off met some great new riding friends. Heres to 2012 being just as amazing:thumbsup:
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Rode over 3k miles
No major mechanicals and no major crashes (could also be because this was my first year without a downhill bike)
QOM on all of the trails that matter to me: Mr Toads, Corral, Cedar, Sidewinder, Connector, Cold Creek etc...
And got really involved with TAMBA. Organized some fun rides and trail days.
The 2011 riding season got off to a very late start, but once it did it was fantastic. Every year I feel very blessed to be able to live and play in Tahoe.
No major mechanicals and no major crashes (could also be because this was my first year without a downhill bike)
QOM on all of the trails that matter to me: Mr Toads, Corral, Cedar, Sidewinder, Connector, Cold Creek etc...
And got really involved with TAMBA. Organized some fun rides and trail days.
The 2011 riding season got off to a very late start, but once it did it was fantastic. Every year I feel very blessed to be able to live and play in Tahoe.
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Interesting year. I switched up from 3 times a week long rides, to 5-6 days a week shorter rides, usually only an hour, but with a good 40 mins. of steep climbing. Rarely was farther than a couple of miles from home.
Had my first nasty crash in several years. 2 weeks before the Turkey ride, I went down hard, shattered my carbon fiber bar ends, a dime sized piece of which imbedded in my ulna bone in my arm. At least I've got a decent scar to show.
Serious thanks to everyone for posting the pics. Maybe I'll actually get a camera this year!
Had my first nasty crash in several years. 2 weeks before the Turkey ride, I went down hard, shattered my carbon fiber bar ends, a dime sized piece of which imbedded in my ulna bone in my arm. At least I've got a decent scar to show.
Serious thanks to everyone for posting the pics. Maybe I'll actually get a camera this year!
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Your carbon bars shattered and impaled you?!? Guuwww!
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....Note to Self! Scratch carbon bars from Xmas list!
Hey Mr. piffle,
I hope the injury wasn't too bad and you're back riding!
Take care,
Michael:thumbsup:
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Appreciate the words:thumbsup: Was riding the next day. However the day after that I went to the hospital. After some x rays, Dr. told me I had a piece of wood in there. After much dousing with saline, she extracted a sizeable chunk of black plastic that had stuck in the bone. More cleaning, and some sort of bone specific antibiotics, sent me home. About a week after the Turkey ride, another smaller piece worked its way up. I took care of that with a sharp blade. Finally completely closed up this week.....Note to Self! Scratch carbon bars from Xmas list!
Hey Mr. piffle,
I hope the injury wasn't too bad and you're back riding!
Take care,
Michael:thumbsup:
Yeah, I've got the original chunk they took out! Size of a dog's tooth. They were a pair of Forte hollow carbon bar extensions. Went over the bars with the bike and snapped both bar ends completely off the bike. Somewhere in all that it came down on my wrist and broke off.
I'll get bored later and post pix. Of course, it was the only ride that week I didn't have the GoPro running on the handlebars. Prolly just as well!
Cheers
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It's all good! I went to the range the next week and took the offending right hand bar extension with me.
At the 50 foot pistol range, it gave its all under a hail of 5.7mm from my FN. :thumbsup:
Nothing spectacular here. Met some new riding partners, hit Demo and Skeggs for the first time, picked up a used Mojo and built a rigid Bander for commuting over the trails, learned to bunnyhop. 2012: Coe, manuals/wheelies, jumps... I should work on technical uphill and carrying less junk.
G
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·Tore my rotator cuff in a crash at Skeggs; moderate whiplash and a sweet arm scar from a crash at Gap; still waiting on my Steelman frame that was supposed to be finished before August and purchased one of these this week: ArrogantBastard.com All in all, can't complain. 2012 will be better though!
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What a year.
I am from NorCal but have lived in NC (I call it New California) for the last seven years.
Why is someone from NC posting in this thread? Keep reading.
Started mtb'ing here in 2008 and got hooked.
Rode 4000+ miles this year (2900 on the SSmtb, the rest commuting on my SS roadbike) and hit the Podium (2nd place) in my first 24 hr solo event (Burn24, 40+, on my SS).
This year I brought my 26" single-speed to CA for my summer vacation and rode many of the Tahoe trails and the Auburn trails (thanks to Wherewolf for the info.)...took many of the same pictures seen above.
In the fall I built my first 29er and last week I put a "For Sale" sign in front of the house.
If all goes well, in the Summer of 2012 I will be living in Auburn and running into many of y'all on trails and at at events.
So looking forward to it.
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I am from NorCal but have lived in NC (I call it New California) for the last seven years.
Why is someone from NC posting in this thread? Keep reading.
Started mtb'ing here in 2008 and got hooked.
Rode 4000+ miles this year (2900 on the SSmtb, the rest commuting on my SS roadbike) and hit the Podium (2nd place) in my first 24 hr solo event (Burn24, 40+, on my SS).
This year I brought my 26" single-speed to CA for my summer vacation and rode many of the Tahoe trails and the Auburn trails (thanks to Wherewolf for the info.)...took many of the same pictures seen above.
In the fall I built my first 29er and last week I put a "For Sale" sign in front of the house.
If all goes well, in the Summer of 2012 I will be living in Auburn and running into many of y'all on trails and at at events.
So looking forward to it.
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2,128 Posts
The last 2.5 weeks have been good! This year was a great year, even if I started almost all rides within about 10 miles of home,
Highlights for me were
- some new trails "in the area"
- a couple trips to Tahoe including my first day of lift riding at Northstar and Armstrong/Corral/Sidewinder
- big mtbr rides at Annadel and "my backyard"
- a ride in Santa Cruz (today)
- a couple of epic 8 hour night ride/parties, one of which goes down in the all time epic adventure log
- making my goal of climbing 250K this year ( 268K now, maybe a couple hundred more with the groms)
- riding regularly with some really fast riders who inspire me to ride faster
My only regret of the year was the one week I didn't ride - the day of the big snow storm on Tam which coincided with the first day of ski-week at my kid's school.
Goals for next year:
- HTFU and push it more on climbs
- ride with my 6 year old girl more
-slide
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So.. no more riding this year.
This was amazing year. I started the year overweight, depressed and not riding. I finished the year with amazing downhill in Mediterranean desert, which followed some great AM riding, two competitive events, a century, going up to the Licks and generally kicking ass.
This was amazing year. I started the year overweight, depressed and not riding. I finished the year with amazing downhill in Mediterranean desert, which followed some great AM riding, two competitive events, a century, going up to the Licks and generally kicking ass.
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