Hot Patapsco Action
Happy f'in Holidays! What a Christmas Eve this is! Thanks for the weather. I don't need anything for Xmas now! This has been an amazing year and the trails dried up from the rain the other day very nicely. The trails are in great shape (most of them) and today was a great day to get out, to be sure.Big bike day out at the jumps. Jed and the boys were out there and Frank managed to show up and ride. I took a bunch of video and I'll figure out how to post that later. Here are some pics that Punga snapped. He's got 3 weeks before he's back on the bike from shoulder surgery. Thanks for coming out Punga. It was fun.
Notice the helmet cam and my new invisible full-face helmet. It's the latest thing! And the invisible pads were hard to find...
Thanks to Endura for the comfy clo
thing, Speedplay for the rad platform pedals, Jamis for the bike.I gotta tell ya, I really like that bike. I need to put some smaller tires on that thing to speed it up a bit. That 2.7 on the front is MONEY, but it's a lot of rubber. And that 2.5 on the rear... Damn. It's hard to keep that sucker rolling. But I probably won't change it... Also, the bottom bracket is 12.6" off the ground, which is low! I like it but it's hard to get on the pedals quickly when you hit the ground. You basically pedal straight into the dirt. Those pedals are the nicest I've ridden. I took the Crank Bros 50/50 pedals off. They didn't stick at all and the smallest amount of water made 'em pretty slick. Not into it.
I keep forgetting to mention my favorite sticker on the bike. It's on the fork leg. I'll snap of pic of it but the text is the most important. Runs down the back of the lower leg and reads: 'Development
Prototype' which I probably should have looked into before riding this bike as much as I have been. The fork is nice, but I don't know how it feels compared to something that is full production level. Here's hoping it doesn't kill me...I'm making quite a face in a few of these. It's really making me work! Damn, I look stupid. Shawn was nice enough to say that it was like Jordan's tongue. He's being nice. He's also the one that showed everyone the face on the trail on his camera. Figures...
I'd like to figure out how to edit the video stuff and put some music down. Shawn seems to know his stuff so I'll .ftp it over to him to see what he can do. I copied it off the camera but I haven't even looked at it. Shawn and I took a quick look at a few files on the trail and I think the camera was pointed a little too far down. I got about 20 runs of cam work, but most of it is done with nobody in front of me so it's boring. Who knows. I think I'll have to find riders to help me out. I think Shawn is the guy. Between the two of us, we could produce a lot of photos and videos. T
hese stills were taken with his camera and I have some video from his camera as well. Helmet with still and still video should go together nicely and I don't think there's anything that I can ride that Shawn can't so it should fun. We'll see how it goes. Maybe I'll take some of the 24 hr events as well. That would be rad.So, stay safe, travel well and spend some time with loved ones. It's a great time of year for family and friends so whoop it up and I hope to see y'all out there in 2007.
No makin' fun of the face... It's hard enough walking around with it everyday, I don't need anything else to hold me back!
OH! I almost forgot! Bruce, me brother-in-law showed up on his annual bike ride and I met him at the top of the Norris Lane side. He's never seen the jumps before. We sighted up on that first 3.5 footer (photo #2 above) and I told him that it was kind
of an ugly drop with nothing on the other side and a flat landing and I THOUGHT that he heard me. Turns out, not so much. He rolled up that thing like he was gonna roll back down the other side when WHOOP! There's nothing there! He went ass-over-teakettle and augered himself into the dirt. DAMN! That was some funny stuff. Shawn and I BOTH missed the shot as we were just setting up to shoot. Heh.Bruce didn't find the time to hang out and try to ride the rest of the stuff although he did manage to bring his buddy back with a broken chain for me to fix. I should've gotten him a chain tool for Xmas...
posted by Big Daddy Mike @ 2:49 PM
6 comments
6 Comments:
as of Saturday dec. 30 some vigilantes completely destroyed two of the "stream gap" jumps on that landing rd jump trail. Definitely wasn't DNR or the park, just the work of somebody righteous...thought I'd let you know. What a stupid thing to do.
There's method in the madness.
See you at the next meeting.
mike
method in the madness?
Is that a sublime way of saying you condone such a thing? Chew on this then...
If it's illegal to build those trails, isn't it just as illegal for someone to take it upon themselves to go tearing stuff in the park down? That's like saying it's OK to beat up the next person you see littering (fun as it might be, remember the old addage? 2 wrongs don't make a right)Self righteousness and vigilanteism are way more dangerous then some industrious fun seeking mountain bikers.
Furthermore, why those two jumps? Somebody upset they couldn't get over em? It makes no sense even if you take a "reasonable" approach. Those two jumps had a big stream to get over, something to keep the faint of heart from even attempting. If you wanted to do something sensible, tear down the first big jump at the top coming from landing rd, the one you blogged about your buddy wrecking on, that's the one a novice might attempt unwittingly and get hurt on. And did the "trailwrecker" consider any environmental impact of their actions? Filling all that silt and mud, along with all the limbs and logs, into the stream has effectively created a dam there, and will worsen the overflow and sediment erosion problems that already exist. I'm sure it isn't pretty after all the rain the past 48 hrs...Sorry, I just don't think it can be safely argued that somebody did ANY good when they took matters into their own hands over there. Will there be any mention of such activities on the MORE site? I doubt it...when/where is that meeting again?
Some people (not me) have suggested that those stream gaps and in-stream borrow pits 'disappear' before the Jan 9th meeting with the DNR regional staff. I didn't want anything done over there as I felt enough had already been done. I UNDERSTAND why it was done, hence the 'method in the madness' response. I understand your point as well. I don't condone ANYONE doing ANYTHING in the parks that isn't considered legally 'good samaritan' for ANY reason. I think people should work within the system which is why I've been the damn trail liaison since 1999 or so. I may not be the right tree to bark up and MORE had nothing to do with this as I'm the closest thing to MORE that could have done anything. What else can I say?
"work within the system"
yup, that describes what people should do perfectly.
It isn't our system, but we must work within it to get anywhere.
I can understand your position on the fence as liason.
See you on the MORE forums, and at the next meeting
thanks
jp
Thanks Jon. Your willingness to be involved is the most important part of cool things happening at Patapsco.
mike
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