This year's Happening was a joint venture by The Connecticut and Fairfield County Chapters of New England Mountain Bike Association. I am really glad to see this event doing so well now, for the seventh year in a row. Of course, the big attraction are the bike demos and this year again, two demo trucks were present, one from Giant and another from Pivot. I was tempted to try something light with full squish and big boy wheels but I love riding my Spot so much I couldn't give it up.
As far as the ride goes, since I had to leave early so I led a small ride and took them on some stuff that wasn't part of the marked courses for the event and some that was. I also took them on the new South Park Trail that I am building because I wanted to see what it was like and get a good GPS track. I can tell you that there are quite a few sections that still need a lot of work! However, it was nice to lay some knobbies down on some parts of the trail that were still virginal. I got some good helmet cam vids of the trails and this guy Kevin hitting some pretty big drops. Check it out!
My second demo ride at The Happening at Huntington last Sunday was on a Carbon Fiber, Gary Fisher Superfly. If you think a Ti bike is light, carbon fiber is much lighter! This bike had to have weighed 21 to 22 lbs and it felt like a race horse that just wanted to Giddy up! Since I had an hour and a half to kill till the festivities began I opted to lead a small group, just one other person, Daren Casey, a Trail Ambassador from West Hartford, to see what this bike could do.
The mistake I made was taking it on CT NEMBA's Rock and Roll Trail which is a very technical trail to ride and I just slogged through it but then Daren and I hit the Big Burn that's when I saw what this bike could do. First thing I noticed was the 80mm fork, it was a little stiffer and to me the right amount of travel for an XC race bike. Big Boy wheels combined with a more competitive fork meant it really ripped through the trails. Add the 51mm offset on the fork crown and the G2 geometry makes this bike extremely maneuverable.
Cornering on the Superfly was superb compared to the diSSent and the Lynskey. It just felt like I had way more control and of course the lack of weight meant it was hungry to climb. The only thing that I had trouble with was getting used to the SRAM shifters. Being so light, I never needed Granny's help to climb anything.
This bike is a pure racing machine and it would be something to ride it on some of the courses in the Root66 series, but then it would seem like I was cheating riding with gears.
The bike had a different feel to it that I quite couldn't pin point initially. Makes me wonder if I should be on a bike with an 80mm fork rather 100mm.
Routes on Sunday's ride
Blue - Lynskey
Orange - second demo ride with another bike
I did a lot of riding at CT NEMBA's Happening at Huntington this past Sunday and most of it was not on any of my bikes. In fact, I brought two bikes to the Happening because I knew Dr Mike (which recently merged with the Ridgefield Bicycle Company) would be there and I wanted him to look at the X-9 Derailleur that I put on the Dillinger Saturday that looked weird and seemed to be bent. Turns out that is the case so the question is whether I get another one or order a replacement cage.
Whether or not I got the Dillinger working what I really wanted to do was ride some demos because there were two bike shops and two manufacturers, Shimano and Trek, offering Demos this year! What a difference over last year because Cannondale, who was supposed to have a demo truck at the Happening, blew us off. Out of principle I would be more likely to buy a Trek over a Cannondale any day, now. The Trek guys weren't set up yet but the Shimano truck was and they had a varied selection of 29ers including the new Yeti but I am sucker for Ti bikes so I went for the Lynskey rigged with a Shimano 3x10! Thirty gears? Thirty gears! Thirty gears, man! Thirty gears!
Holy crap, this bike was unbelievable. Sub 25 lbs, very nimble and responsive. I stayed out of the Granny and climbed just about everything. At first it was hard getting used to the gears but then I found it more comfortable to stay in just one or two gears depending on the need for speed or no need. The twisted tubing provided the stiffness in all the right places while still feeling as soft as steel.
For once I could really tell the difference a lighter bike make both in handling and climbing. The bike just wanted to climb and being able to drop into lower gearing made it really attainable in the most difficult riding situations. In fact, I climbed some of the carriage road hills in higher gears and just flew up them.
I felt higher in the cockpit and more stretched out, which is one of the reasons I like riding larger bikes. In fact it seems I have a lot more control over the bike this way or I finally gotten better in my riding skills. Still, I could definitely feel the difference in this bike over other bikes that I have ridden over the years. Later in the day I hopped on the diSSent to help with taking down the route markers and I noticed two things right off the bat, the geometry that I get the with FUBars is kind of whack, I am not stretched out as much and therefore I think I need to go back to flat bars, and the 6061 Aluminum tubing is not that bad, really. It felt a lot like the Lynskey - call it poor man's titanium.
Of course the purpose of the demo from Shimano was not the bike, rather the drive train and 30 gears is something to think about. The wide range of gearing gave me options to tackle every obstacle and I felt how the lower gearing makes it much easier to climb in really technical situations. Never been a fan of the 3rd Ring but I did open it up on some of the carriage roads and boy did I get moving.
While I experienced SRAM shifting for the first time later that day, nothing beats the trigger shifting of Shimano. Shifting was smooth but a little noisy, I guess that is the price you pay compared to a single speed.
I could really feel the lateral stiffness provided by the twisted tubing but still enjoyed the softness and lightweight of the frame. Combined with exceptional gearing and brakes - all I needed was one finger on the brakes to stop! I definitely need to go back to hydros on the diSSent and I think I am going to get Shimano.
Chris King that is. Finally gave up on the headset last weekend and took the Dillinger in to Brookfield Bike to have them tell me what is wrong. Turns out the CC S-3 was shot and I needed a new headset. Shawn happen to have this Chris King laying around that he had gotten for another customer but didn't end up using it so he offered it to me at an attractive price that I couldn't say no to.
Rode Huntington Saturday morning and did some Trail Marking for the Happening At Huntington that will be taking place tomorrow. It's a charity event for Collis P Huntington State Park for building more trails, replacing broken boardwalks, and other trail improvement projects throughout the park. And there was no more noise! Oh, what joy.
And this is my other friend Chris, who I met on the trail and rode with me while I was redoing some of trail markers that I laid incorrectly earlier this morning. Then I showed him some singletrack that he had never seen before and then we headed over to the Big Burn. This is his first roller.
CT NEMBA's Happening at Huntington happened today, believe it or not, because it has been raining on the East Coast so much you would think we moved to the land of liquid sunshine, the Pacific Northwest.
As you have probably noticed, the Snack has been a little thin this past week. The weather and my injury have been largely responsible. Despite the muscle strain/pull in the forearm I decided to ride anyway. I did spin class earlier this week and had no trouble with it so I figured what the heck, as long as I stick to the carriage roads mostly and try to get a 5+ mile ride in I should be find. In fact I really didn't have any pain at all, except from time to time while shifting.
I started off riding with this guy Steve but he took a header on a slippery rock while we were bombing down a carriage road and he decided to head home after a quick loop on the single track that comes off the the blue trail.
I rode the blue until it splits off (turns into Big Vomit) and headed up the white to the green and took a shot at Little Vomit. Had to do it in stages (which means I stopped a few times along the way) because it was so slick that I spun out while hammering Granny. I think if it were drier I could actually ride it. On the way down I noticed that Big Vomit might actually be easier to climb. I wonder if I have them confused now.
I headed back to the white trail and actually caught up to one of the led rides. Actually it looked like a CT NEMBA Trail Ambassador ride with all the orange jerseys.
Pictured from left to right: Tren "Big Daddy" Spence, Eric "eMoney" Mayhew, Mandy "the Rock" Mayhew, Al Tiniti (famous trail builder from the east side of the river and creator of the Tinti Trail), his buddy whom I always forget his name, Steve Bennett, and Nathan Lundstrum who is the author of the blog Amble On.
From there I hammered back to the lot. In my rush to go pick up the Subs from Subway I put my Garmin Edge on the bumper of my car while I was putting the bike on top of the car and I forgot to put it in the car when when I changed. I was looking right at it but I was in such a rush that I forgot to throw it in the back of the car. When I pulled out of the lot I think it fell off the bumber. In fact, someone picked it up, a dog walker is my guess, and asked if anyone lost a GPS but no one knew at this point I lost mine.
When I got home, I made a post on Craigslist and subsequently called the police departments of both Redding and Bethel and left my contact information in case someone turns it in. Tomorrow, I am going to post some lost flyers on the signs posts around the entrance to the park and might even try going door to door along Sunset Hill to see if anyone has it.
Wish me luck. Not having my Edge is almost like not having the mojo to ride. I have become such a data monger for miles and mapping that the Edge provides I just don't know how I can ride with out it.
The 2008 Happening at Huntington was a smashing success! There was quite a turn out, including Philip Keyes, the Executive President for the New England Mountain Biking Association. EMS Fairfield was on hand for mechanical assistance, and there were tons of demos from Iron Horse, Cannondale, and Kona.
Joanna Brooks (Girlz Rides Leader) and Philip Keys
Alan Stemple signing in. Heather LaPalme and Joanna helping with registrations
The weather seemed to have held off for the riding portion of the day but around a noon there was at least a passing shower. According to Paula, one of the event's organizers:
A few riders in the north end of the park "got hosed" in the words of the ride leader, but at the main entrance we were fine. We had just cleaned everything up and closed the gates when the steady rain started -- about 2:30 or so.
Not sure how the afternoon went because I had to leave early. Still, there were tons of demos, including Iron Horse, Cannondale, and Kona. Both C'dale and Kona had 29ers; Caffine and the Kula. I wish I had more time because I would have demoed one or the other.
As with every event you get some kid that shows up on a Toys-R-Us Huffy, as well as guys wanting to get into the sport but not willing to commit to a quality bike and invariably find that their bike isn't really up to the type of riding that most people were doing that day. In fact, in the video at the bottom of this post, there is a guy working on his rear derailleur because the chain popped out of it.
Besides the 29er demos, there was one other 29er, a Seven Cycles Ti rig that was pretty blinged out but it didn't look like the guy riding that rig was there for event and didn't want to be bothered. I think I was the only single speeder there as well.
The event had led rides, as well, three routes marked and I was planning on leading a bigger group but since I needed to be back by 11:30, Rich Stinchcomb (below, left) and Tren Spence (below right) decided to follow me.
I applied the route we took on the state map, below. Heading down from the parking lot we hit the blue trail which is some tight, twisty single track that goes through stone walls and some crazy rock gardens. The trail spits out onto one of the carriage roads which we took over to another section of nice single track, which I hit every time I ride at Huntington. Back on the blue to the cliffs and then hooked around them and took the little connector back to the blue.
I like this little connector because of the armored stream crossing. I took some clips of the three of us riding this section. From there we rode some more blue trail and then I took a wrong turn that led us back to the red trail so we continued back to another white connector trail back to the blue. My intention was to try riding up little vomit and see if I could do it this time. Got about half way up and then I choked.
Tren broke off from us when we got back to the Blue Trail so it was just Rich and I. Ran into Dave from Danbury who was out riding his with dog. There were some other riders that were attending the event that we encountered as well. On another section of single track came across the group that Vince Rinaldi was leading. One the riders went endo on a section of trail that Rich and I were attempting to ride up.
It wouldn't be a good day if there weren't a few mechnanicals to deal with. Vince is seen above helping out the rider in his group that went endo and subsequently got one of his cables hung up. Rich and I headed over to the roller that I learned on last year's Black Friday ride. We both took turns rolling down and captured each run on video.
Riding out of the Big Burn, took the short cut over to the Rock and Roll Trail. This is probably the most technical and challenging of all the trails at Huntington State Park and today it got a lot of attention. Rich and I stopped to help with yet another mechanical. This type, a rider's chain popped out of the rear derailleur cage.
Ran into Rich Coffey and his son. Rich has done quite a bit of work with me on the Upper Gussy Trail.
Shot some more clips of people riding the Rock and Roll Trail. I really like riding the trail in this direction. The technical climbs and rock gardens are really fun. Below is a blow up of the trail according to my GPS Track.
Here is the Trail Profile to give you an idea of the varied terrain
Here is my track from my Garmin Edge shown using GPSVisualizer
Tried something new in the video department by adding some slide shows to break up the video sequences. It makes for better transitions because you can control the sequencing better. It's not perfect but it was fun learning new things and realizing that I probably need a better video editor now.
