Old and new…
It was time for some new brakes pads in my Santa Cruz Nomad. I pulled all 4 old pads and selected the thickest 2 pads to keep. The worst two old pads went into the spares bin as a back up in case I have a problem with the pads in use and can’t get a spare set. I put the new pads up front where my brakes matter most and the two used pads I’m keeping went into the rear of the bike.
Aaron happened to be over as this was going down and graciously tuned up my front brake to perfection.
Sharon ready to roll…
Sharon’s been getting better at mountain biking and that’s resulted in more stoke to get out on the trails. We’ve had a number of dirt sessions lately where it’s just the two of us in the woods, which is ideal for working on riding skills with no pressure to keep moving with a group. Mountain biking is a very physically demanding sport with a lot of technical complexity when you ride trails like we have here on the South Shore of Vancouver Island. It’s hard to coordinate things like body position, gearing, seat height, speed/momentum and pedal stroke when you are crazy tired and breathing like you are in a porn film….=-) The catch 22 is that once you get the technical elements of MTBing sorted out you use less energy to get around the woods. So newbies get hammered hard!
Enjoying some sunshine…
Trying the other way…
I’ve got no aspirations of being a superstar mountain biker so cruising around the forest at Sharon’s pace is fine by me. It gives me time to take some photos and to enjoy being outside without people around. Interestingly I’ve found that going at a slow pace and playing around on all the trail features we encounter has resulted in a noticeable improvement in my own riding. I’ve cleaned sections at Hartland and Partridge Hills recently that have stopped me for the last two years.
I guess there is some karmic payback for helping a new rider…=-)
Practice makes perfect…
One last drop for good measure…
Incredibly dry trails!
Lovely views…
I’m hoping to get Sharon down to Sedona this fall for some riding in a location that’s different than home. Our trails are really hard and most of them are deep in the forest [you see lots of open terrain photos on this blog just because the light is better]. Sedona would offer some easier riding for her to flex her skills as well as serving up incredible scenery to fire the stoke.
Thank you summer sunshine…
The green room….
Not that I am complaining. Our local trails may be hard and they may be mostly tucked away in the gloomy BC costal rainforest, but they are fun and I rarely run into other mountain bikers when I am riding. Combine that with a 12 month/yr mountain bike season and we have to admit we are pretty lucky.
Made in the shade…
Cranking up a rocky step…
Sharon on the same rocky section…
Around the corner…
Lazy on the move…
I was hanging from a tree to get this shot…
Whoa!
Sharon grinds the slab…
Another fun drop…
Creek crossing…
Lazy…
Hunting for gnar…
Using the Dark Side of the Force…
Cruising…
Log ride…
A-Man at the start of Shock Treatment…
Man and dog…
Scott leading the pack…
Lazy up and over…
A-Man tackles the infamous HUMP of doom…
Scott HUMPing…
Grooving in the woods…
Geeking out…
Got Jones?
The Nomad…
Snacking…
Fun times in the trees…
Wall to…
….Wall
Sharon in the forest…
Practicing the roll in…
Getting wet…
Looks steeper from the saddle…
Using the 24″ gear…
Trail architecture…
Proof I was along on the ride…
Rooty!
A well earned rest…
Heading for the car…
One last grind…
Dave @ Sedon Fat Tire Bike Shop setting up my bike tubeless…
Both my Santa Cruz Nomad and my On One Scandal mountain bikes are running tubeless setups now. So far so good. Both are working well and I like the feel of the tires at lower pressures without fear of pinch flats. Tubeless tires are supposed to roll faster and provide better “feel” than the same time with a tube inside. I can’t confirm or deny that aspect. They certainly don’t roll any slower!
Tubless Racing Ralph on my Scandal…
Installation on both bikes was simple and there have been no hassles keeping them rolling along. For my mountain bikes I can’t see any reason to go back to tubes. I want to run tubeless on my Pugsley as it would save a lot of weight per wheel given the heavy tubes it uses. I’m even thinking of converting Sharon’s commuter bike to tubeless when the tires wear out next.
Porcelain Rocket Edition Nomad...
My Santa Cruz headbadge fell off in Sedona so I replaced it with a new Porcelain Rocket badge…=-)
Sharon and Laura excited about a Dirt Girlz MTB Club ride...
Since a vehicle was heading to Hartland I figured I might as well go for a ride...
This strange guy on a rigid bike started following me.
I tried to shake him, but he was too fast!
He was getting close to my bike at stops. Was he thinking of stealing it?!
I would have had to chase him on this bike. It doesn't even have pedals!
He called his bike a Jeff Jones Spaceframe Truss Fork.
He called himself Porcelain Rocket....must be his Burning Man playa name?
He could ride that strange bike pretty well...
I tried his bike and got distracted by that crazy huge front tire! Doh!
He didn't let me ride his bike after that...something about liability and bad PR...
That's cool. I kept rolling on my Santa Cruz Nomad...
As soon as he saw I had the camera out he went all crazy like...
I just did my best not to make him angry at that point...
Finally he stopped to pee so I blasted out of there...
If anyone asks you my name is Jesus-Eduardo and I'm from Guadalajara Mexico!
Is it much further?
I thought we were headed to Hartland Mountain Bike Park for a quick 2hr fun blast around our favourite trails on a sunny Friday the 13th. Little did I know we were on a 4hrs+ bike-xpedition to the summit of Mount Work.
Going tubeless?
We were talking about tubeless tires on the drive to Hartland and Kurt stated that he was going tubeless on his Santa Curz Nomad after this ride. So naturally the Puncture Fairy gave him a snake bite less than 5mins into the ride and while she was at it she ripped his valve stem nearly clean off. Plus she stole Kurt’s spare tube. Yikes! Bad Fairy! Luckily I had a spare tube stashed in my bike’s Porcelain Rocket frame bag. We also realized his front tire was either defective or not properly seated on the rim. After 10mins of futzing with it we gave up and he just kept going. It’s not like a front blowout could be a problem mountain biking right?…;-)
No bikes? - No shit!
We wanted to head to the top of the bike park and ride Dave’s Line to Fun Trail and then back to the parking lot. Sadly we took a couple short cuts that we thought would let us ride more singletrack on the way up rather than just grinding up the easy to navigate double track. We should have know things had gone horribly wrong when we ended up on a hiking trail that was signed “no bikes”. As we were to learn this was because 1) the trail didn’t lead anywhere bikey and 2) it wasn’t rideable! Being the eternal optimists we figured that once we were at the top we could drop down the other side of Mount Work and connect with the trails we were after. This of course was totally incorrect.
That's not a smile...
So we slogged uphill for over an hour on a nice warm sunny day. I didn’t realize my bike was in the All Mountain category because it was so much fun to push all 35lbs of it up a steep hiking trail.
Kurt is happy because he thinks this is the summit and he'll be riding down now - not!
A couple false summits later we thought we were finally at the top, but it was lies all lies.
The summit - for real!
Eventually we did get to the top. Ironically the one person who would have enjoyed this experience, Scott “Hike A Bike” Felter, was at home slaving away on some Tour Divide bike bags.
Don't get too excited Kurt...
Kurt was stoked to start riding down the other side of the summit to the bike trails we wanted to shred. He got about another 100m further than shown in the picture above before he realized we were not even close to being in the right spot and that the only way to the bike trails was back the way we came. In the photo below the pen is lined up with the trails at the top of the bike park we wanted to ride and the electrical tape is the summit of Mount Work. Doh!
WTF?
So we turned around and spent 25minutes or so hiking down a steep mostly unrideable hiking trail back to the point where we left the bike park. We had started from my house in the middle of a sunny afternoon and were starting the real riding as the sun was going down and the forest was getting gloomy! We got to ride a bunch of great trails though:
Cleaning up the mess...
On the plus side we got a great workout. Hahahaha! We did get to do all the riding we had set out to do. It just took a bit longer than we had anticipated. Mountain bike foreplay?…=-)
Picture this Nomad with white rims!
I’ve got a crazy day today with business meetings, friends in town and unpacking from the trip south. So no time for much of a blog post. I figured I’d share this orange CCCP Nomad which would probably be my 2nd choice after purple. I’d use white rims, cable housing, bars/grips and saddle for a Creamsicle flavoured all mountain bike…=-)
Thanks to whomever came up with the first online bike builder. It’s a cheap and easy way to get your new bike fix without having to pull out your credit card!
Loving the purple...
For some of its aluminum bikes Santa Cruz is now offering 12 custom colour options as well as 4 decals in 4 different colours and two finish choices. That rocks! I really like the purple and white Nomad combo shown above…with some white rims it would be killer…=-) There are two downsides to this program: cost [$300 for a FS bike] and extra time. There is often a long wait for a SC bike if you don’t want the colours in stock…having them paint a frame a custom colour will of course add more time to that process.
So many choices!
The white powder-coat on my Nomad is holding up well, but if I was starting over I’d be tempted to get a purple frame for some bling! These bikes last a long time so they are worth a little extra initial investment if a custom colour would make you smile.
When you are on the Santa Cruz site looking at a bike builder and see a CCCP box, like the one above next to the purple Nomad, just click on it to get choose a custom colour for your bike.
Taking in an awesome view of Sedona from Hog Heaven Trail...
Our 2nd last day or riding in Sedona arrived Sunday and we wanted to continue to explore some of the best trails of the area.
A-Man climbs away from Chicken Point...
We saddled up at the Courthouse Vista Parking Lot and cranked north to Little Horse Trail. Riding up Little Horse Trail to Checken Point isn’t as much fun as going the other way, but sometimes you have to pay to play!
Handy Hogs Trail map we got at the Bike and Bean...
Once at Chicken Point we started north on Broken Arrow Trail just for a bit until we hit the hard left we needed to get onto the start of Hog Heaven Trail.
We have slick rocks at home, but no slickrock!
Hog Heaven was a ton of fun and was filled with lots of exposure which seems to a trait of most of the newly developed unofficial trails here in Sedona.
Riding on a ledge...
I managed to launch myself off the bike to the right into space. Luckily a tree caught me and I didn’t tumble down a cliff to my death!
A-Man takes in the views at a rest stop...
The benefit of riding on the edge of a rock face high above the ground is that there are spectacular views whenever you have time to look around!
A-Man coming into a hard right drop on Hog Heaven Trail...
Hog Heaven fed us onto Hog Wash Trail which took us toward Broken Arrow Trail.
A-Man enjoying the hog wild experience...
The ride ended with Mystic Trail south to the Bell Rock Pathway and Little Horse to Llama Trails to the truck.
Some handy trees to catch a falling mountain biker...
There are more Hogs Trails we didn’t get to on this ride: Hogtail, Pig Tail and Hogalicious. So many trails so little time!
A-Man climbs up Hog Heaven Trail...
Getting down to business!
A-Man and I had unfinished business with the Teacup Trail. Having recovered from his Red Rock Body Slam the previous day we went back to Coffee Pot Rock and pushed our exploration of Tea Cup Trail further than ever before!
Staying on the high ground...
Teacup Trail was even more fun now that we knew its twists and turns.
A-Man carves up the switchbacks...
At the end of Teacup Trail we rolled north up to the seven sacred pools and Soldier’s Pass.
Why I don't let A-Man navigate...
Uncharacteristically we didn’t get lost.
I love slickrock!
The trails were all top notch Sedona singletrack. Lots of flow with and ear to ear grins.
A-Man dips his wheels in a sacred pool...
The sacred pools had some water from the snow earlier in the week.
Cranking left...
Eventually we reached the end of the bike legal section of the Soldier’s Pass Trail.
A-Man rolls into the shade...
Being good MTBers we didn’t ride any further.
Thumbs up for Sedona...
Rolling back southwards we were aiming for the giant sink hole.
A-Man on the edge...
The sink hole was pretty hard to miss. You definitely don’t want to ride over the edge here.
A-Man rolls some chunk...
From the sink hole we headed east on Jordan Trail.
I've got a secret...
We turned south onto one of the secret trail network. We’d tell you which one and how to find it, but we’d have to kill you…=-)
A-Man on fire...
To be honest we don’t know which trail we were on. We just followed the blue markers and had an awesome time.
Heading for home...
Our mystery trail dumped us off on Highway 89A and we took the paved trail back to the truck at Coffee Pot Rock. Another great ride in Sedona. You gotta love it!
Follow the A-Man...
Feeling excited for some coffee at Coffee Pot Rock...
I wanted to check out my suspension and bike fit adjustments on a faster trail than our slow march around the uber techy Airport Loop Trail. So we headed to the Coffee Pot Rock area of West Sedona and rumbled down Teacup Trail.
Several fun loops in this area...
There are a few trails in this area that offer a lot of options and loop possibilities.
Follow the cairns to stay on track...
Teacup Trail was the fast flowy Sedona trail we know and love – with just enough rocky technical challenge to make it interesting without getting silly.
Where to now?
I was pretty happy with the suspension setup that Dave from the Fat Tire Bike Shop dialed in for me. My bike carved nicely around the tight twisty corners like it was glued to the ground. I rotated my bars forward to get my weight slightly more over the front wheel so I had a more aggressive climbing position. In the long run I’ll get a 10mm longer stem and rotate the bars back towards me a bit. I’ll probably also move the saddle 10mm forward to see how I like that.
The fine art of bike fit! – fun, fun, fun…=-)
A-Man rolls back towards the trailhead...
Heading back to the parking lot we unintentionally explored a whole network of smaller trails that are in this area, but aren’t marked on any map we have. When navigating in Sedona just look up to orientate yourself using the local landmarks and retrace your tire tracks back to the last time you were sure you were on the right trail.
Wait for me!
Riding in dangerous territory...
I had a lot of work that needed my attention in the AM on Thursday so we got a late start on the trail and decided to ride the Airport Loop Trail because it was near our hotel and had spectacular views.
A quick derailleur tune...
The start of this ride is a popular viewpoint and a fair number of hikers complete the circuit around Airport Mesa. My derailleur needed some love right at the start, but happily I was travelling with a professional bike mechanic so Aaron tweaked it for me.
Don't fall to the left!
Airport Loop Trail is definitely the most technically demanding trail we have ridden so far. Not only is it narrow and rough, but there is a serious drop off if you screw up. We ended up walking quite a few sections and I had one nearly deadly bail where I thought I was going for a long fall! The exposure on Highline Trail is tame by comparison.
A-Man climbing like an angry squirrel...
We rode around the mesa clockwise and I would probably recommend that direction for the best flow – although it will be hard either way.
The straight and narrow...
The second half of the trail was slightly downhill which meant that if I was able to pick a decent line and finesse the bike I could ride most of it. I definitely smiled more as I got closer to the end of the trail.
Top down view...
To be honest I wouldn’t suggest you take your mountain bike on this ride. I think it makes a better hike than a ride. You’ll get the same killer views and you won’t complete the trail much slower on foot!
Black tie riding...
Even though it wasn’t my favourite trail in Sedona so far it’s hard to complain too much about being out in the sunshine riding your mountain bike in such pretty country.
The eye of the cactus!
We are not big into video, but here is a little A-Man action sequence.
Jumping for joy...
The locals here in Sedona all seem to be talking about Highline Trail so we figured it was time to check it out ourselves.
A-Man getting a leg up...
We started out with a couple espressos at the Bike and Bean bike/coffee shop.
Trying to stay lost...
Climbing aboard our fine mountain bikes we rolled up Slim Shady Trail.
Staying grounded...
We took a couple exploratory missions down side trails, but eventually we found the start of Highline Trail.
There was some hike a bike...
We had to climb & push our bikes up some steep slopes at first.
A-Man rumbles down the trail...
The quality of the trail was high and justified all the buzz we had heard.
Up, up and away...
Highline features a lot of narrow exposed trail.
Desert flora...
It’s hard enough and exposed enough I wouldn’t recommend it for riders with an over active sense of self-preservation.
Getting high...
For the most part Highline was solidly intermediate in difficulty without getting too gnarly.
A-Man channels the Thunder Chicken...
The most dangerous parts of the ride were the amazingly beautiful views that were seriously distracting.
Consulting the map...
Although we got confused a few times we managed not to get lost.
Prepared for take off...
The ride just went on and on until our faces hurt from all the smiling.
A-Man rolling down some tasty slickrock...
Eventually we dropped down towards Baldwin Trail, but the fun wasn’t over.
Living on the edge...
Due to the rain/snow earlier this week the trail was uber tacky making us feel like heros.
Good to the last drop...
Once we got onto Baldwin Trail we let our guard down a bit as we assumed it would be an easy cruise back to the start.
About to carve some bermy singletrack...
The ride back started off easy and curvy, but then the rocky tech came back.
A-Man went ahead to scout out the route...
Aaron volunteered to go ahead and conduct some ninja styles recon.
Waiting patiently...
I eventually got bored and found A-Man doing some horizontal scouting.
Switchback...
Our easy pedal home got rough and then turned vertical for a good long way towards the start of Templeton Trail.
A-Man, Deb and Brenda our helpful guides...
We had passed two nice ladies on Highline and Baldwin Trails then ran into them again at the start of Templeton Trail. They suggest we try Easy Breezy headed south rather that Templeton and offered to guide us. How could we refuse? It was really fun to ride in a small posse for a change. We cruised down the very enjoyable Easy Breezy Trail then took Slim Shady back to the truck.
A-Man giving 'er...
All in all Highline Trail was a great day in the saddle. It lived up to our considerable expectations. We’ll definitely be back and would highly recommend it to any intermediate mountain bikers without a fear of heights!
Here are a couple videos of Highline Trail from Mountain Bike USA to give you a sense of the action.
Can you dig it?
Monday was our first full day in town so we wanted to get in a longer ride. The Submarine Rock Loop is a classic Sedona ride that was just enough gnar with a lot of fun curves to carve plus some slickrock to play on.
Taking the high road...
It was a cool and windy day. So windy my bike fell over twice!
A-Man sampling some slickrock...
Starting out on Broken Arrow Trail we enjoyed some amazing singletrack that led to a small area of slickrock.
Testing out my brakes...
I felt a lot stronger than Sunday and didn’t have to gasp for air quite as pathetically.
Deep in the trees...
The quality of the trail started high and just kept getting better.
A-Man dropping off the Submarine...
Hard to believe, but we didn’t see any other mountain bikers until the we ran across a solo Ibis pilot at the end of the ride.
There were some pedestrians to contend with though...
The slickrock parts of the trail were popular with the Pink Jeep and 4×4 crowd.
Pink Jeep...
The Pink Jeep tourists seemed amazed anyone could ride a bike off road for more than a mile or two.
Icy cold beer hits the spot in the middle of a long desert ride...
Some friendly 4×4 guys gave us a couple icy cold beers – which were most appreciated.
Rolling down some chunk....
We spent a lot of time exploring all the side trails and variations we could find.
Are we lost?
We even managed to get a tiny bit lost on a closed trail until we realized the level of difficulty seemed over the top for a popular Sedona Trail. At least we got a taste of the riding back at home for a few minutes.
Wheel's eye view...
With a map and a look around at the many striking landmarks it’s pretty hard to stay lost biking around Sedona.
I don't need no stinking rear suspension...
A-Man showed off his skills muscling his Kona hardtail over all manner big chunky rocks.
Okay I don't fly like a butterfly...
My hand is still sore from the bikepacking crash 2 weeks ago so I kept my ego in check and rode conservatively.
Rock and roll....
No point taking any chances.
I could do this all day...
I figure a few days of easy riding and I should be able to rip it up at the end of the trip.
A-Man is enjoying his first full day of Sedona riding...
After Broken Arrow Trail [including a few detours] we hit Little Horse Trail and then rode Llama Trail again for good measure.
A-Man feeling all panoramic...
By the time we were on Llama Trail we were pretty tired, but when the singletrack unfolds in such a fun way around every curve there is no way to stop pedalling.
Where is Lazy?
After Llama we spun north on the Bell Rock Pathway to Mystic Trail.
Where did we park the truck?
By the 4hr mark we were hungry, tired and ready to see the truck…sadly there were a few more miles left.
Keeping my spirits high...
All good things must end and so did our ride. After Mystic Trail we still had another mile or two of pavement, but that was fast and painless. We were definitely happy to load up our bikes and head into town in search of food.
Done like dinner...
This trail loop is just amazing. So many miles of consistently awesome singletrack with stunning scenery in every direction and virtually zero mountain bike traffic to share the trails with. It really doesn’t get much better than this…or does it?….=-)~
My Nomad waiting to be blown over by the wind...
Photo: Pink Bike - click on image to jump to original page...
Click on the image above to read a cool Pink Bike article about testing AL & carbon Santa Cruz Nomad frames to failure. I think it’s neat to see some of the tests they run. However, I would caution that these tests don’t tell the whole story. What they say is that carbon can be very strong in the face of some specific forces. What they don’t tell you is how happy you’ll be with your carbon MTB frame 3yrs into your expensive relationship.
For example what happens when you crash 4 or 10 times onto some sharp rocks cracking the surface of your carbon frame and then you ride it hard for another year? Will the crash impact combine with the repeated stress cycles to cause a frame failure?
We have a pretty good handle on how steel or AL MTB frames respond to typical use and abuse. I don’t feel the same level of confidence with carbon. That’s not to say you’ll never see me on a carbon bike, but it does mean I’ll be hesitant to throw down the big $$$ to run my own torture tests!
Don’t take this to mean I am anti-carbon. To me it’s just another potential frame material that deserves due consideration.
What would really be interesting is if Santa Cruz would release their warranty/crash replacement stats for the AL and carbon Nomads. That would clearly demonstrate how each frame material performs in the real world.
The fact that it's paid for!
Anytime I start to go down the road of thinking my Santa Cruz Nomad Mk2 might be getting long in the tooth and need replacing I go online and build up some comparable replacement bikes.
Over $7K for this beauty!
It doesn’t take too long for me to feel very satisfied with my trusty steed and for the idea of getting the existing suspension rebuilt when it needs it rather than buying a new bike.
I love the Mojo HD, but not the price!
Luckily Santa Cruz and Fox built this bike so it can be fully rebuilt at a reasonable cost. When my suspension is truly dead I’ll get Suspensionwerx in Vancouver to bring it back to life with custom internals so that the bike will not just be rolling again, but it should be better than ever!…=-)
I do give myself a pat on the back for buying a quality bike with a build that has stood the test of time. 3yrs after throwing a leg over my Nomad the same bike is still being sold by Santa Cruz as a state of the art all mountain gnar shredding machine. I like that. Big props to SC for not following the annual model year upgrade trend most of the bike industry is focused on. They change things when there is a worthwhile change to be made and when there isn’t their designs stand the test of time. This lets them focus 100% of their energies on new projects and priorities rather than feeling like they gotta tweak every bike every year.
Sharon ready to roll...
Learning to MTB on Vancouver Island is like...
...learning to climb on K2 - crazy talk!!
Sharon has taken it all in stride and given it her best...
Playing on the slickrock...
Learning to trust that the bike will roll down safely...
Enjoying the singletrack...
A rock with a view...
Demonstrating a bigger a roll in...
Getting the front when up and on an obstacle is more than half the battle...
Going over bigger stuff...
Time to crush...
Approaching the next obstacle...
Classic BC trail conditions...
Heading out of Hartland...
Good to the last drop...
Back at the car...tired, but smiling!
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