Sedona Sunset Ride on the Niner I.M.Baaaaaa

Something you don't see everyday....

At least in Sedona and it's a hardtail.   Full Squish carbon rigs with dropper posts seems to be the logical weapon of choice and on past trips I have rented a Santa Cruz Tallboy so you really can tell the difference on trails comparison.  One thing the hard tail does better is climb and that was on the menu today.  The pic below is the Chicken Point lookout after climbing up Little Horse Trail.  Will hit Mystic and Hogwash etc. another day.

Can you believe this is JANUARY ?

Sedona 2014

Leaving all the cold behind of Toronto and having not posted anything here of worth I thought I would start off the years post with a senic pano taken today from sunny Sedona on the Bell Rock trail leading over to Templeton and Slim Shady ( Made in the shade ) Should be a great time here before Phoenix & Tuscon and just literally confirmed the 24 Hours of Old Pueblo in a few weeks time.

My Local....

Depending on who you talk to there is anywhere from 4 to 6 hours of trails to ride in the Don Valley.  Taylor Creek, The Ridge, Dirt Jumps and all the usual suspects only account for about 2 and those 2 are also the most traveled.  Having done a few recon rides with Thorben I think I have a good idea on the network now and still finding new stuff...

Don Valley

Ravenshoe

Headed out for a late afternoon rip around Ravenshoe to clear my head up a bit. Trailbuilders have been busy. Kris and I met up and had a good rip

Ravenshoe from Philip Hudson on Vimeo.

2 Parts Singletrack, 1 Part Sunshine & 3 Parts Options =

A recipe for a perfect trail weekend. What can one say when you have Singletrack options for days & days. ....

Somewhere North of Barrie

1 Up USA - Hitch Mounted Bike Rack

I posted a fairly detailed pseudo review of these when I got this rack a few weeks ago.

Well 20 degrees in Ontario in March is great for one thing....TRAILS. Loaded up the rack and headed up to Durham Forest and the rack was perfect. It's doing all the things I wanted it to do. Easy set up, Super easy bike loading and freeing up hatch space.

The detail is unreal on this rack. 100% built in WI USA. If you want a more detail report and install pics you can find them here.

A Trail In The Woods, In Southern Ontario.....

What a weekend, no rain and the trails are in mint condition. There are so many trail networks that fall off the overly populated locations it makes days like these even better. Only saw 2 other riders the entire day.

A couple of re-con rides equals a perfect single track day with everything thrown in, rocks, wooden stunts, jumps, climbs etc.

I want to also thank GoPro for the deal on the replacement camera in case you were wondering why this years videos have been on the low side make this note to self.

Self.. don't see if your GoPro works under water if you have not double checked that the skeleton housing you have on is indeed the waterproof one, NOT the one with the cut outs for incoming audio.

The $15 Dollar Fix for the Mavic Crapmax29 Rear Hub

My.. Mavique ( french for W.T.F. ? ) saga has been going on for a while now and I am happy to say I finally have a fix. So here goes. I originally got this wheel because I wanted UST with no rim tape. In the short time that I have had them they have been back to the distributor twice. The second time they rebuilt the wheel with a crossmax hub from another platform but the issue still occured.

I am not sure why a big company like Mavic can't fix this as it's no secret this is a problem. So if your reading this your probably having the same issue or trying to find a fix. The problem on these otherwise good wheels is the rear hub. Particularly the bushing in the freehub body. The premature wear of the stock one creates slop, shifting issues, play, noise and more importantly fustration. You don't want to spend $600 + and have these problems occur.

Enter Bike WCM. Found their store while on e-bay seeing what I could get for my used cmax29'er wheels as I had made up my mind to scrap them and stick with my Industry Nines. Read a bit about their bushing and decided to buy a set and give it a try. I ordered the oversize bushing pair as I thought since my rear hub had so much movement they would fit the bill.

When they arrived took the hub apart and decided to install them right away. There really is not that much of a difference
between the stock bushing and the bike wcm version until
you put the calipers on them and the size difference is noted.

You get a pretty detailed info sheet but there is not much to do.

In hindsight I should have gotten 1 standard and 1 oversize
but again given all the aggro I have had with these wheels
I was sure the oversize would work.

They went on with no problem and the sloppy feel that the cassette had was instantly gone. So we threw the hub back together and put it back in the frame but it was evident pretty quickly that I got the wrong size. The cassette would not freewheel so took it back off and emailed John.

Explained to John what happenned and he sent out the standard size for me to try no charge ( again hindsight being 20/20 I should have tried this first ). 1 week later the bushing arrives and again swapped them out. This time perfect fit and no more play, hub feels great.

PROBLEM SOLVED !!!



( note: there are few knockoff's on flea bay but make sure you buy from john5w76 )

Hockley Valley, Mono Mills.....

What a killer day. Decided the hump day epic was in full effect. Took out the Tour of Georgia climbing jersey so we knew this was going to be a hilly loop. Headed off for a mini epic of sorts. ( GPS info and ride profile below )



Parked at Hockley Valley Resort and started the ride of with a 2 km climb up to the first section of single track. Basically the forest tracts are broken up with a grid of dirt roads to piece everything together.



Not a cloud in the sky nobody and I mean nobody on the trails ( we did not see another person for the whole 50 km loop ) Pristine singletrack at every turn and vista what else could you ask for. Epic Days!!

Hump Day Epic Rides

Copeland Continued.....chute's & ladders......

What's to say about this place other than EPIC. Riding for days if you know how to string it all together. Having spent several years exploring this from time to time and then mapping out the single~track with the Marathon course from 2 years ago it FINALLY makes sense.



You can't get much better than this and if you can erase the mental block of driving up here on a weekend and then returning in cottage country traffic then this place is the spot. Going to try to add this to some of the other forest tract's leading down to Hardwood Hills.

Copeland Forest ( Horseshoe Valley )

Finally some half decent weather...

So met up with the boys in Durham for a few laps of the forest. The weather was a welcome change to the 3 weeks of rain we have had. Durham is nice and empty during the days so perfect vacation day criteria. Weekends are getting way to busy for a uninterupted trail rip.

There is also a few new sections of single track in there this year and for the most part are pretty good with the trail on the north boundary having the most potential once they get worked in. ( Look for the red flags were all the logging has taken place ).

Walker's Wood Weekend.

We had a unusually warm Thanksgiving weekend weather wise. Got to do back to back to back rides up in Uxbridge. I think I now have the maps for my fantasy dirt century ( 100 km ) mtb enduro. I am also going to try to post a video a week leading up to the end of season.



Coulson Hill Video Teaser....

It's been a long time ( 10 + yrs ) since Tom dragged Ell & I up to do this midweek. Well the midweek is still growing and so is the network of trails. The best way to describe this place is big ring single track. You see it from the 400 just north of 88 and it has enough riding for 2 and a bit hours, lots of stunts, well marked loops and well its just different. Here is a little sneak peak and more to come.....

And yes those are arm warmers :)

Rouge River ~ The View from Here.....

Just wanted to post something to let you know I am still here, and to thank you for the emails your sending on my mum's battle. We take our time here for granted ( at times ) but it is a gift.. so make the most of it....

Updated Niner MCR pic's

What a difference the ti makes over the steel / carbon cockpit set up I was running earlier this summer.