All Things Bikes and Tacos! (...and every vehicle imaginable)

Did Revolution Enduro in Glorietta on Sunday. Got a pre-ride for the first 3 stages the day before, Saturday. Ended up riding stage 4 blind.

Holy heckin wow. Those trails down there are gnarly af. I rode chips and salsa over thanksgiving and thought that was nuts.

Took me 6 hours to do the full course. I had to wait like an hour and a half at the top of stage 1 before dropping in. They were dropping by category and am men, 30-39 were like the 3rd to last group to go. These climbs were long too. I walked up portions of every climb. A ton of elevation had me beat.

Stage 1, broken arrow, wasn't bad. Just real loose and chunky spots. a lot more pedaling than I would expect from an enduro race. Super long too, like 3 miles or something. Got passed once and passed one person.

Stage 2, janker, was pretty steep and loose. Got passed by some kid near the bottom but I wasn't upset. Just glad I made it down. Took a spill on this stage for the pre-ride and immediately went to buy some knee pads, lol.

Stage 3, jagged axe, took the biggest toll on me. Took me awhile on the pre-ride since I had to stop and scope out all the features before hitting them. I still skipped 2 of "A" lines. I'm honestly not sure If I would ever get to the point where I would blast through those and hit all the features in a timed run. Guess I just gotta ride tons of gnarly stuff this summer to get my confidence up?

Stage 4, chili dog, was a ton of fun, even riding blind. I took the b line halfway down since someone at the top recommended it. I should have just gone for it, it didnt look that bad.

i only had 2 bottles for my pre-ride and felt terrible after the 3 stages. maybe 1 granola bar the entire day too. i felt wrecked after. drank a nuun rest that night and felt great the next day. i gopro'd the first 3 stages on my pre ride. the camera angle got messed up on stage 3 from steep features and my seat hitting the camera. it was super helpful to rewatch those trails that night to help me remember what was coming up.

probably drank 10 bottles of water/skratch/nuun throughout race day. tons of snacks; fruit snacks, granola bars, twisted spokes cbd things, energy blocks, etc. i felt great during race day even after i was done. nutrition goes a long way for sure. preriding helped a ton too so i knew what i was getting into. some of the gnarliest trails ive done that wasn't a bike park.

macky from syd and macky raced too. i saw him from afar and his results. dude got 4th overall in the pro mens. really put into perspective how fast he is. he was rocking a half shell and like no pads either when everyone else had full faces and knee pads and chest protectors and stuff.

im seriously considering doing it again next year. it makes it easy since my dad has family down in santa fe and is always looking for an excuse to go.

heres a few vids i took of other racers as i was passing by
https://imgur.com/a/0Cuu1cD

 

do it again! Idk about you but I just want to do more enduro races. I've done 2 so far this year and they have been a good mix of challenging endurance with regular fun trail riding. long XC and gravel races bring their own type of fun, usually type 2 but enduro is just a great time.

 

The DHF is an excellent tire but you really gotta lean past that big transition channel on to the side knob before it really hooks up. If you find you're washing out on it regularly you might have better luck on an Assegai or a DHRII. I'd always take those in a Maxx grip compound for the front as well.

 

They do feel a bit funny and take getting used to, but I'm so much happier to be pack-less overall. I get the roadie thought, and I'm also pretty anti-roadie, but you wear your regular shorts and shirts over top so no one can really tell the difference.

It's all about the bike and set up, not air vs coil. I climb much faster on my Offering with a coil than I did on my Rallon with a dpx2.

 

Glad you had fun! Ive yet to ride Glorieta - think it may be a bit above my level still - but the fact you rode one portion blind! Heck yea!!!!

And yes….Mackey flies down mountains and as he says - “eating win’s races!”

 

Rode Richfield over the weekend; man those trails are fun! Here's my wife dropping a little feature on Telegraph.



I know this means "it didn't happen," since no one got any shots of it, but I hit all the big features on telegraph, including the "claimed" 10 foot drop (I'd call it maybe 6 feet). We didn't get to ride the middle/upper part of Spinal Tap but I very much look forward to going back and riding that whole thing.

 

Besides the cost, the other thing stopping me are my riding buddies. They're not that serious about biking, its more just exercising & getting out the house for them. No way they're forking out the dough for ebikes. Yesterday was a solo run for me since both of them were busy, and I promised myself I'd ride more this year, w/ or w/o company. If they hang up their bikes, I'm ebiking it, and will get me analog fix on the dirt jumper.

Besides the wrong gearing, what did you like about going Mullet?

Man, props to you on continuing riding with that bad of a gash.

 

The mullet seems to handle quicker and is easier to manage over drops - no fear of buzzing a rear tire on your bum. My ebike is a mullet, so im somewhat used to the handling - but the gearing doesnt have as much of a difference on the rider.

 

My half assed solution for a lot of gashes is butterfly bandages. 3 or 4 times I likely should've gotten stitches and I've got scars on my shins from 3+ years later. But im a cheap bastard so there's that

 

I was originally going to try butterfly bandages, but once I saw how deep this one was, stitches seemed like the only option. Kind of impressed how deep it went - if there was a way to blur images and not immediately show them, I'd post a couple

 

This bike shopping thing is hard. So many desirable bikes. Then I’ll see a good deal on a bike I hadn’t considered yet and I’m like hmmmm. Reality is as long as I find a bike with geometry that fits how I want to ride and want the bike to feel, I’ll be happy

 

Glad you had a good time. Looks like a cool race.
We sponsor Syd and Macky a little and follow them closely. They started out in Enduro and he is pretty darn fast. Syd is no slouch either, she had gotten stronger after her injury.

 

Rode with my wife up by Bolder on a glorious day over the weekend.
Tonight, diving into the chain wax fray to see how it goes.

 

In the past 6 months….I’ve gone from MTB shopping to Road bike shopping. I’ve come to grips that my Stumpy is perfectly fine for me. My road bike, on the other hand. It’s super fast…a great aero bike! But it’s 12 years old. All this new tech has me…..and yes, I see a bike and say…”oh, i haven’t thought of that bike”

Squirrel!!!!!!!

 

Hope you heal quickly

 

I assume that is my issue with the DHF - really have to get the bike leaning to get those sidewall knobs to bite. With how many people run the DHF and how popular it is, I know its a me issue and not a tire problem, but I can't ever seem to play nicely with it. Again, the Specialized Butcher always has grip for days - figured I'd try out a different tire on the full suspension and wasn't used to it.

 

Dude, good on ya for tackling the race. Tons of climbing, gnarly descents.

You've got me STOKED to get my ass over to those trails... honestly their rowdy reputation has kept me scared off. Coming from CO, the NM riding has been rocky, loose and rough- I feel like I'm a way more confident rider getting comfortable with the general sketchiness... not at all what I expected.

Hoping all riders post up when they're coming down to NM- maybe an Angel Fire meetup?

 

Yea give that trail system a shot. I'm not sure how to ride Chili Dog and Broken Arrow on normal days that aren't races. Those are closer to Glorietta Camps which is gated off. Janker, Jagged Axe, and Chips and Salsa are all pretty accessible from a parking lot right off I25. You can definitely ride to chili dog and broken arrow, I'm just not sure about private and public land around there. No gates on the trails, just into the parking lot/actual camp area.

Angel Fire is high up on my list for places to ride this summer. Even if it's just a weekend trip. Google maps shows it takes about the same amount of time to drive there as Trestles when you factor in I70 and Denver traffic. It's also pretty sweet they let you camp in the parking lot.

 

['spoiler] *insert content* ['/spoiler]

then take out the apostrophes inside the brackets.

Spoiler

You're welcome

 

Went and rode Bellingham on Monday. What a great day to be out side and ride off the stress of moving 900 miles to a new state and starting a new job.

While there, they were having a hell of a deal on old parts. Got a set of ANVL pedals for $60 and a stem for $30. Spent $90 on like $215 worth of stuff at retail.

@ginseng27 you need to come visit man, I found some fun trails that you'd love