Philadelphia Mountain Biking Association - Forums

Anyone interested in a ride this Saturday, 10/6 @11AM?

Maybe. It may be too early to tell what the weekend has in store. Ride at Wiss at 11 is a good possibility. Stay tuned.

i'm gonna be in town for my first ride here on saturday.....where do you start?  I have the trail map printed out.  Really excited to ride this trail. ;D

Awesome! You will love it, but try to get out early or late to miss the heavy traffic on the trails. Nice weekends like this one will be crowded. Also the trails are SUPER DUSTY, so riding in groups is not so fun, unless you are in front  ;D

that's true, the trails will definitely get crowded on a nice weekend- how about 9:30 at valley green?

(VG will be crowded, so I'd say Livesey lane- I know where the road is, but I'm not sure where folks meet)

think i'm gonna take advantage of this nice weekend and go a little farther from home. judge morris/white clay/middlerun for me on sat morning. i posted a thread in the 'other locations' forum so if anyone is interested post in that thread.

If you go to Livezy there is a baseball field and a pavillion. We meet at the pavillion. I won't be there cause it's too early for me.

Hopfully some of this moisture will settle the dust on the trails...need more rain.  The wiss will be sand traps for golfers soon, and you know how hard it is to get rid of those varmits!

so what time are we looking at here 11 at VG or 930 at Livezy Lane?  I'd be partial to the later time, but would go either way.

I threw out the earlier time to see if there'd be a few more takers, but I'm partial to the later time also, crowds be damned.

11:00AM, Valley Green.  I'm on a black litespeed.

I have some things I need to take care of but I will try to make it at 11. I will be riding down from home on a black Nomad if I can get out.

Looks like black is the new black.  :-\

 I'm in for 11am on a black Rush.

a black litespeed? thought they only came in naked Ti goodness

mine's the fully clothed litespeed for poor folk.  ;D  it's a niota AL- the ti version cost more than my car.

litespeed makes aluminum bikes as well.  I didn't actually know this until I ran into a dude on the trail on a yellow one (he also didnt have a working chain at the moment either).

Just to confirm I cannot make it tomorrow at 11. Enjoy.

got on the trail saturday around 12:30.  What a blast.  I blindly made my way through 15 miles of some sweet trails.  Got lost a bit and ended up retracing  my path back.  which i think had more uphills . Found a sweet little gully with progressivly larger berms.  Super fun!  Wanted to hit it again but was too tired by this time to hike back up the hill.  Well done trail.  Might be back next weekend to ride "the indian trail"

Nice! Glad you liked it. Sorry no one could give you a tour... :-(

dz

Good ride. The indian side of the park is good. We worked on a Demo trail near the indian duing the summer. It was great. You can't miss the work, a bunch of rock terraces that serve as small drop offs one right after another. Very challenging on the way up.

looks pretty firm out there and has been dry for the past 24 hours. It's still very cold. any thoughts? anyone want to ride around 3:30 at the pavilion pre party?  I'll just hit forbidden and bail early if the trails are soupy

http://www.weather.com/weather/hourbyhour/USPA1276?from=tenDay_topnav_undeclared

267 934 1676

It's not bad at all, A little sloppy in a few sections, but in general the trails fairly firm. Just finished a ride and realized my lack of riding latlely really hurts :'( !!!! Enjoy the party tonight, I have another shin dig to attend!!!

I'm a newbie to this forum...  hence, not sure how to post to inquire about rides...  Question:  Anyone planning to ride Wissahickon, Saturday, December 22nd...  preferably no earlier than noon?  Provided weather permitting...  Dennis

Welcome!
You just did figure it out!  ;)

Just to make your question stand out a little more, you might want to start a new thread with the date in the subjec tline next time, but I'm sure there will be many people who will notice your post by checking their "unread posts"

I'm out for this week, but hopefully someone will come out to ride!

Once again, welcome and keep posting and riding!

dz

Welcome Dennis. Weekends can be tough for some of us. Our weekly rides however have a pretty solid showing, weather permitting, just show up and ride. I can't make it tomorrow.

Any rides happening today?

-pete

Rode Belmont today. It was sweet.

I guess I will use this Sat ride thread for this Sat 1/26/08. I am up for a short ride also after the TMD. I will bring my shit and be ready to hit the trails, hopefully around 2 at the latest.

I will bring my stuff too.   8)

I have to work tomorrow morning  >:(  But will try to make it out to help after lunch so long as everything goes well.   Ride would be good.

Hey, that was a fun ride. Crank arm came loose after we all split off and then again by the time I made it to my house. Time for new cranks.

Heres my MotionBased link:
http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/4854017

MotionBased shows i hit 206HR at the top of the gravel bastard hill.  Garmin Training Center says 208. Weird.

I think I need to go try out the Bowl some more. That shit looks awesome.

I feel so much better after that ride. Thanks knuckles

Yea good ride fellas. I am hurting. I'm taking tomorrow off. Great trail work today as well.

Wah, Wah, I am hurting  :'(  Just kiddin! I am sore as well. Rode 4 days this week, and trail work... Awesome week. Great ride today!

Yeah, you guys should be sore after chopping and moving frozen dirt all day.  :o  I only got in on the tail end of that...
 
Good ride today for sure. http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/4853918 - my map nerd info from today.   

2 beers after that ride and i couldn't get up....   Killer riding dudes....! 

Thanks for lettin' me join in on part of the ride and thanks for waiting for my ass too....sorry about that.  I guess I'm finally seeing what all those years of smoking really does to your lungs.  That was the main reason I had to keep stopping, I couldn't breathe (my legs did feel like cold spaghetti though, but not as bad as my shortness of breath).  It's been three and a half weeks since I stopped and hopefully in a couple more months my lungs will be a lot better and I'll be able to keep up with you guys better.

I wasn't a heavy smoker, more of a weekend smoker.  I just smoked when I drank.  After doing a little research, hopefully I won't be as winded in another month or two.

Sounds good Rico. Smoking will kill your ability to ride fast, so we understand. You'll start to feel better soon, and we don't mind waiting one bit. Come again anytime. BTW nice ride off that log jump. That is definetely not the beginner line and you took it well. Good times.

Did anyone ride the new log ride at the Saturday's work site?

dz

I think we are calling that a log sculpture, and not a log ride for stupid reasons like liability or other users sensativity. Whatever, but yes I rode it and so did Paul, Coyle and Chris B that I am aware of. Chris B was actually the first lucky rider to hit it when we were finished making it this saturday. It is real fun, but you have to slow way down before you hit it because it's about 24" high to get up on it. Here's how I do it: In one fluid motion, I get my front wheel up high by manualing (pulling up on the bars while leaning back, no pedaling) and when my front wheel gets up on the log, I simutaneously move all my weight forward while pulling up on both feet (I am clipped in...) Hold the wheel straight and steady while you roll down that baby. The drop is about 3 feet so you better pull up on the bars and let your rear end hit first...

The slowing down thing was a big selling point on this feature, since it's a blind turn and we all go pretty fast around that turn and that can make for a user conflict for sure. FYI: That gully will be closed in the future so get up on that log before it's gone!  ;D

Rico, great to finally ride with you man. Don't forget we all started where you are. If you ride frequently (and don't smoke cigarettes) you will be up to good speed in no time. You have the skills! Lungs are next. 

Well, Lou, saying "riding log sculpture" just sound plain dirty!!!  :o

Sounds like a great accomplishment, everyone is happy, speeds are down in the tight spot for safety, fun factor is up for skilled, and for the rest of us, just one more spot in the park to look at with respect and think "if only i could"  ;)

Great job everyone on Saturday!

dz

Thanks guys!  Hopefully with more riding and cardio (bike and at the gym) my lungs will be better and my riding pace faster soon! 

I really loved that trail, I just got to get more comfortable with the speed and jumps.  Still a ton of fun.

Speaking of log rides and liabilities, I'm confused about the stance that the powers-that-be have on this as there seems to be some contradiction in the park. There's a great log ride at the First Demo Site for instance, not to mention a few fun jumps that were installed/improved at the time of that trail demo project. Yet, that *mondo* log that sits near the top of the VG Inn climb that used to be ramped and at some point the ramps were removed, and now the entire log has been rotated recently (obviously with heavy equipment, and clearly to keep people from riding on it).

I don't know, my opinion is that it's *much* easier to sustain *much* worse injuries from bombing down a hill than to fall off a freaking log, it just seems extremely silly to me, and odd that the effort was made to bring machinery up the hill just to move a log very few people would/could log ride anyway. Or was there another reason for moving it? Just curious if anyone has heard any direct information about this...


-pete (TTF fan!)

That was a great log ride. Perfect really. Wide, not to high off the ground and a great fall zone meaning nothing around to hurt you should you fall. Two exits points. One for experts (ride the skinny part all the way to the end and drop off) and the other you could just roll down. It was right on the trail which meant no reason to make a rogue trail to get to it. I even saw guys on rigid ss riding it.

Lot's of planning and sweat went into making it. Someone made a poor decision and destroyed it. Win some you lose some.

Regarding that log above the Inn, I was riding the morning that a small work crew was there and I could be wrong, but it seemed like they moved that log solely to get their vehicles past. They had a pickup truck full of wood for that bridge below the log and were in the process of driving it down to the bridge.

Again, I could be wrong, but I got the impression that they were tasked solely with dealing with the bridge and the log movement was an unfortunate necessity.

As for the ramps, I'm guessing their mysterious removal was a "don't do this" from someone. That reminds me, way back when the logs were still there at the Kitchen's Lane section, I stopped one day to readjust one of the ramps that had fallen apart. Another rider came up and proceeded to tear down the ramp I had just repaired. He flung the wood and rocks into the woods. When I asked "um, what are you doing?" he replied that the ramps were making the logs an attractive nuisance and that someone could get hurt. I started to argue, but then just got on my bike and left (riding up and over the remaining ramps of course) before my rising blood pressure got the better of me. Later he caught up to me when I was sitting at the inn and apologized because "it seemed like I was pissed off." You could say that.

AHA! That's exactly it then, in retrospect I now remember seeing some repair work around that bridge over there. Well that's good.

-pete

Yeah that kind of "extreme" riding is so foreign to most people that to them its obviously unsafe.  A lot of people are not willing to take any risk of injury for a momentary thrill (their loss, because to me those are the moments that make life interesting for me).  But anyways, as PMBA gains more and more exposure and momentum we'll be able to designate areas for that kind of thing and make it clearly marked and obvious that these are Obstacles and the destruction and/or disruption of them will be frowned upon the same way people frown on riders creating unsanctioned jumps at this point.  We just need to get to where we're in the clear on these things. 

I wouldn't let that stuff get the best of you though, honestly think about how many great obstacles are out there now (with more being built all the time).  Its ebb and flow, we're winning the battle though.

well said CHris. Yea I take it all in stride. We win some and we lose some. Many people (even some riders) just don't understand that a TTF is there to challenge people. But the TTF's do need to be made correctly, like Tom said with good sight lines, fall areas, etc. Some are made difficult to get onto on purpose (Demo 1) and ramps make them too easy (to get on) and a less experienced rider could get in over their head. But that is how you learn right?!?!? Anyway, I like the difficulty of getting up on them while keeping your balance... As far as a policy, you can forget about that for a while. No one at the FPC will make a decision on that for fear of liability or losing their job. It's pretty much up to us to make these things correctly, safe and unassuming so they blend into the trails and woods. Done like that, no one should mess with them. It's funny how most people (riders, hikers, etc.) are like "wow, you can ride that? Awesome!" when they watch us hit them, so the exposure is spreading on these things, whether that's bad or good we'll have to wait and see... But we (the Board) are working on getting a "sanctioned" skills trail or park area built in the Wiss which will have all kinds of cool stuff, for all levels of riders and be progressive in design.

Or break a couple fingers like I did when my front tire slipped and I had no exit strategy on this one (http://www.snottybeer.com/josh/bike/vid/2007/9-Josh%20Hard%20Fall.avi).  ;D

Another positive note for those who like obstacles is that nature is pretty reliable in providing fallen trees. Some may stay for years (like Kitchens), some might be gone in a week. But whatever their lifespan, they can and do provide good times.

Wow, you broke fingers from that fall?  It didn't look that bad, although you couldn't really see the landing of the fall.  Sorry to hear about that.

Nice get-off! I love how your buddy chuckles when you hit the ground. My crew does the same. That's a real fun log ride. I tried it Sat and fell off also, but barely saved it. The turn half way through is tuff. Nice Cannondale. They rock! 

Nice. Yea were riding it perfect up until that turn. It's easier than it looks. Many times as I turn onto it my rear wheel will slide off to the ground with no consiquence. Just keep your front wheel moving and look where you want to go. You must redeem yourself on that one. You almost had it.

Yea, it was just one of those stupid falls where you land just right (or wrong) and end up hurting yourself. They weren't bad breaks, though, and it didn't cut the ride short or affect any future rides, so no worries.


Reminds me of The Simpsons...
[Bart breaks arm]
Nelson: HA-ha.
Milhouse: I think he's really hurt!
Nelson: I said "ha-ha".

...and thanks, that bike has brought countless hours of enjoyment!


One of these days...  ;D