Most of the NorCal riding I do is a mixture of single-track and fireroad...sometimes smooth, sometimes rocky. But, one thing I rarely do is a lot of off-camber riding. Being on Spring break, I decided to give Jason Moeschler from WTB a call to see if he could ride. My friend Chris Thibodeau and I ended up making the drive to Novato to ride on Tuesday with Jason and Mark Weir...here is what went down.
First of all, in case you don't know who Jason and Mark are, they are pro riders who work at WTB and do all of their testing at "the ranch". The ranch is very off camber in many places, making it a great place to test WTB tires...and that is just what Mark and Jason do. Looking at the videos on the WTB website may give you an idea of what it is like, but riding is different than watching. ; )
With a lot of rain last weekend, the ranch was sure to be muddy, making traversing the trails a bit, uh, tricky. The first loop we did climbed about 700-800 feet up a mixture of fire-road and switchbacks on the face of grassy hills. I have never ridden anything like this, so I just rode up behind Jason, following his line. About half-way up I realized that if I slipped, I wouldn't stop until I tumbled into the nursing calf 400 feet below...eyes forward, stay balanced, keep the speed up a bit. At the top, we stopped to talk a bit and take in the amazing view. The visibility was so good, that we easily saw downtown Oakland. Jason was nice enough to tell Chris and I what to expect on the way down: Let's see if I can get this right...off camber and not so muddy, off camber and really slick, hop over a log, into the woods, more off camber, up an embankment, 4 foot drop onto a fire-road, then into some loamy drift-all-the-way-around-the-corner stuff, exiting into a field with some knolls that sent you airborne whether you wanted to be there or not at about 25-30 mph. Fun, fun, and more fun...totally out of my element being challenged by stuff I never ride and loving it!!!
Round 2: Looking across the valley from the top of the 1st course we did, you could see a taller ridge-top knoll with a trail straight down the face for about 300 yards...so we climbed to the other side of the valley to do that downhill. Our first time up, we walked the downhill to clear limbs...a winding single track with berms, some jumps and multiple lines...these guys have worked hard on building these trails! Then, we ascended the last section and took a break at the top. Jason told us to just let go of the brakes on the first section straight down the hill, right before Mark told us he had hit 54mph on it at one point. Uh, ok. So, we began...after about 50 yards, we dropped in. It was one of those moments where the person 20 feet ahead of you drops in, and by the time you get to the edge, they are 200 feet down the hill...after a brief sphincter puckering moment where I held on to the brakes, I let them go...holy sh!!!!! Instant 40mph in a straight cow-hoof chopped line (lovin my BLT!), then veered onto a series of whoop-filled knolls, down a slightly off camber section and into the woods...berm, straight, pedal pedal, berm, straight pedal pedal, across a road, through a creek, done. OH DANG!!!! Bugs, and cow crap, and mud in the teeth. So Friggin fun!! We just had to pedal up and do it again. The climb had one steep pitch after another and went up about 1000 feet I think. Mark is an animal, pushing his single 36-tooth ring up that thing...us mere mortals had our "3-ring or 2-ring circuses" as he called it. But, it was so worth it...you know, one of those climbs that was really tough, but you were so excited to go down again it didn't really matter.
I remember the first time I went down the Kamikaze at Mammoth...it was so fast that it pushed me to another level in what I was comfortable doing. That is what this ride was like and why I wanted to ride there so badly. Not that one ride is going to improve my downhill skill, but I learned a lot about myself, my bike, and in this case, my tires. Thanks to Mark and Jason for waiting for us so patiently. Very cool experience.
Cheers,
Chuck
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