Mountain Biking Marin News

I Wanna Be That Guy

2010-06-16T08:41:00.000-07:00

By guest bloggers Jon Taylor and Graham Raymond from www.365DayTriathlon.com.

We've all seen it. Extreme athletes who push themselves to be able to go to lengths that nobody else can. Look at the snowboarders who jump out of helicopters, or the motocross dude whose normal race contains heart stopping jumps. It's like being a dare devil has become a competitive sport. Then there is mountain biking. Just you and the single track trail, the challenge: stay on your bike.

All of these sports have a really tough learning curve. If you fall from fifty feet in the air, you could get a learning curve imprint on your forehead. But mountain biking can be different. It's gradual. It's a thrill at every level. You can bomb down a hill at 60MPH or you can have just as much fun on the same hill taking it easy. Then there is the race circuit! The bottom line is… how can you not have fun on a mountain bike?

The pros:

On a trail or rough road a mountain biker can travel faster, farther, and consequently see more than someone that spends the same amount of time walking/hiking.
Quite often, I can travel faster than a 4 wheel drive vehicle, I get jarred around less, make less noise, have less impact on the environment and ecosystem.
It is human powered!!
I can ride bikes with my family which encourages a healthy lifestyle.
I can load it up and hit the road for a "destination vacation" (I don't miss any training days).
There is nothing like mashing on the pedals on some monster uphill climb just so you can turn around and bomb down that same hill lacing the best line and knowing your going to stack it up in a corner the same time you realized you actually gained speed in that corner instead of scrubbing.
You will learn what the heck I just said.

The Cons:

You will get a boo-boo.

Who Am I Gonna Be?
Like everything in life, I ask myself that question. Most people, when faced with that decision choose to be the same guy they were yesterday, hey they can go big on X-Box anyway right? No reason to actually DO anything. But some people, the ones that everyone else admires, get up and decide that they are going to be mountain bikers.
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Guest blogger Jon Taylor co-authored this with Graham Raymond. Jon is the star of TheDougAndJonShow.com and novice mountain biker training for a triathlon. Graham is a seasoned endurance mountain bike racer, marathon runner, tri-athlete, and professional river guide. Jon is on a quest to race in his first triathlon. The triathlon is the XTERRA, so it is all off road, lake swimming, mountain biking, and trail running. To make it interesting and really force them to be introspective, their team is blogging about it the whole way at www.365DayTriathlon.com.

Mountain bike races and events at Winter Park Resort

2010-06-07T13:18:00.000-07:00

Registration open for mountain bike RACES AND EVENTS at WINTER PARK RESORT

Epic Singletrack Series at Winter Park begins opening day at Winter Park, June 12
Trestle Gravity Series begins July 24
Crankworx Colorado, July 29 – Aug 1

Winter Park, COLO., June 4, 2010 - Winter Park’s Competition Center announces open on-line registration for the two mountain bike race series, Epic Singletrack Series at Winter Park and Trestle Gravity Series. Riders can test their legs on hill climbs and cross-country courses during seven race dates of Epic Singletrack Series at Winter Park, starting with opening day at Winter Park, June 12. Downhill riders can test their competitive skills in the Trestle Gravity Series beginning July 24. Just announced, Crakworx Colorado registration is also open. Either race or main downhill event of the summer, mountain bikers can experience the thrill of competition at Winter Park.

Mountain Biking Marin at Sea Otter Classic 2010

2010-05-19T21:30:00.000-07:00

Congratulations Brian!

Brian Popplewell, Mountain Biking Marin's Lead Guide/Instructor competed at Sea Otter this year. Christina Toms sent us a post race report.

The DH course was slightly different this year and much more suited to Brian's Big Hit (that’s HIS BIKE, gutter-brains), so our airborne one had an excellent race, finishing 20th out of 35 in his Cat 2 DH class and, most importantly, beating Brill. Bad-ass looking racing shot of our hero attached. -Christina Toms

Through Mountain Biking Marin, Brian offers bike skill clinics and guided tours.

More Sea Otter News - Brill gets 1st Place!

2010-05-19T21:29:00.001-07:00

Mountain Biking Marin's Instructor and Videographer (Reel Motion Sports) Michael Brill raced both the Downhill and Dual Slalom at Sea Otter this year. This year Michael placed 7th in Category 2 for his age group. This was his first year racing the exciting Dual Slalom event where you race side by side with the competition. Michael placed 1st! This year is already starting strong for him with that podium finish and also being named an Ambassador Rider for Zeal Optics.

Congratulations Michael!

Christina Toms at Sea Otter

2010-05-19T21:29:00.000-07:00

Christina Toms, one of Mountain Biking Marin's awesome and fun instructors competed at Sea Otter this year. Here is her entertaining race report.

Brilliantly, after finishing in the bottom half of my Cat 3 XC race last year, I decided that this year I would race against the big girls in Cat 2. I’m THIS MANY, you know?!? I rode a ton, did spin class 2x a week, and only drank one Corona Lite the night before my race – I was ready, right? BWAHAHAHAHA. Not only did I jump up a category, I jumped up an age class and was now racing against 30-39-year-olds – you know, the kind who wake up every morning at 6 AM and ride their road bike for 2 hours before heading to work in their sensible yet stylish 4-door sedan that they keep in the garage with their carbon hardtail 29er. The kind who travel from Vermont, Colorado, and Arizona to race at Sea Otter. Hint: they don’t come all the way out here if they think they’re not going to win! After waking up early to be at the start by 8:30 AM (a time at which I'm usually in the shower, only 30 min removed from bed), I rode what I thought for me was a respectable race. I crashed during the first loose, sandy singletrack (my shoulder hurts), and tipped over into a mud hole about 1 mile from the finish, but otherwise didn't do anything dramatically stupid and I even climbed a bunch of fire road in my middle ring! I did 19 miles in 2:30 which was about half an hour under what I thought I'd do (I really don’t have high expectations of myself), but I still came in LAST PLACE in my class. By four minutes. The winner (from Vermont, natch) was 40 min ahead of me. Yeah. So. I’m doing DH next year! Other highlights: meeting Darcy Turrene, riding her bike (!!!), and winning a sick new Osprey hydration pack from the MTBR.com raffle.

Mountain Biking Marin is offering a Women's Only Cross Country Bike Skill Clinic on May 29th.

Bikes & Beans' Bike Shop New Location

2010-03-01T16:04:00.000-08:00

Bikes & Beans, formerly located by the Seven Eleven near China Camp, has moved to a brand new and bigger location while still close to China Camp thus being very convenient to stop by before or after riding China Camp. In particular if you like coffee, bike talk with knowledgeable people, and good deals on bikes and parts.

Bike & Beans new location is:
292 North San Pedro Road
San Rafael, CA 94903-2857
415-507-1992.

Check them out!

I like stopping by to get my coffee fix since I am not drinking beer these days. The stores offers a cozy place to hang and yummy coffee and I keep hearing great reviews about the Commencal and Jamis bikes Justin (the owner) sells in his this store.

I also like the selection of cool hip bike clothing... I have gotten a pair of cool shorts that made me feel like a hot shot :-)

And the best of all, I like it that Justin kept decorating the shop with local artist work (some of his own work!). This mural is next to the bike mechanic shop area!

Check out my previous blog about Bikes & beans to get a better sense of what this bike shops brings to Marin county.

Upcoming Tour Treats Mountain Bike Enthusiasts to an Unforgettable Vacation in the Bay Area

2010-02-09T17:08:00.000-08:00

Summary: For the ultimate bike adventure, ride the trails where the sport was founded and join Mountain Biking Marin on a guided tour of the area from May 27-31. This vacation includes airport pickup, transportation, deluxe accommodations, daily breakfast, daily light gourmet lunch for the rides and more in addition to the best daily bike rides around scenic Marin County and beyond.

(Marin County, CA) February 8, 2010 – Mountain bike enthusiasts around the country are invited to hit the trails in and around the birthplace of the sport for a four-day cross-country mountain bike tour of Marin County and the San Francisco Bay Area.

Mountain Biking Marin has organized an unforgettable tour taking place from May 27-31, combining daily bike rides with the exploration of popular local tourist attractions.

Founder and CEO of Mountain Biking Marin, Celia Graterol, warns this event is not intended for beginners. She states, "To enjoy this tour, riders should have an intermediate to advanced technical level and the ability to handle a moderate to strenuous climbing level."

Graterol and her team of fun experienced guides will expertly lead riders through the Redwood forests, lakes, rock gardens and rolling hills of trails through Marin County, Mt. Tamalpais, the Marin Headlands and West Marin. Bikers will enjoy panoramic views of the Pacific Ocean, the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco Bay and the mountains of Marin.

After a tough day on the trails (lots of singletracks!!!), enjoy the optional excursions including world-class wine tasting in the Napa Valley and exploring the world famous streets of San Francisco.

This is an all-inclusive mountain biking adventure that includes airport pickup, deluxe accommodations, transportation, breakfast and lunch daily (dinner not provided) and the professional guiding services of 2006 Downhill US National Champion, Celia Graterol.

For this ultimate bike adventure, much care went into the choosing of the hotel. Guest are sure to enjoy their stay at the new remodeled Larkspur Hotel Mill Valley with a core focus on health, sustainability and getting people outside to connect with nature. Each morning of the tour, they’ll be serving healthy, sustainable breakfasts such as whole grains, healthy proteins and good carbs.

"We knew this was the right hotel to choose because they even provide bike parking," remarks Graterol.

This mountain biking adventure is limited to only 15 participants so anyone interested is strongly encouraged to register early. Early Bird Prices are in effect until April 15 with the cost of this inclusive mountain biking vacation at $1,150 per person ($1,350 if adding a bike rental). After April 15 the price will be $1,300 ($1,500 if bike is needed).

For more information, visit MountainBikingMarin.com

About Mountain Biking Marin
Owned and operated by 2006 Downhill US National Champion, Celia Graterol, Mountain Biking Marin offers fun, guided tours and clinics on the best mountain bike trails in the San Francisco Bay area. Celia’s experience and training give her the skills needed to lead and teach all levels of bike tours and clinics (cross country, freeride and downhill racing).

Contact: Celia Graterol
celiag@mountainbikingmarin.com
www.mountainbikingmarin.com
P 415-717-2263
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Mountain Biking in the Headlands, Marin County

2009-10-11T16:27:00.000-07:00

I love to mountain bike in the Marin Headlands, especially during the fall season because it is usually sunny and warm. Also, in my opinion, the Headlands offer the most visually impressive views in the whole County. I went on an awesome ride in the headlands with Alan last week.

News: I have a new column on the MoreMarin blog which has a section in SFGate. You can read more about my Marin headlands ride here.

Special Mountain Bike Cross Country & Downhill Skill Clinic Event

2009-09-04T10:04:00.000-07:00

Mountain Biking Marin Presents:
Special Cross Country (XC) & Downhill (DH) Skill Clinic Event
Saturday October 17th & Sunday October 18th
Event Powered by Mike's Bikes
Visit www.mountainbikingmarin.com more information!

Women's Downhill/Freeride Clinic - Fernie, Canada

2009-02-06T14:32:00.000-08:00

Attention downhill, freeride and cross country women riders!!!!

There is an awesome week-long clinic at Fernie, Canada organized by Sacred Rides taught by women for women coming up the first week of August. This is a call to all intermediate and advance women riders that would like to improve their downhill/freeride skills including technical descend, dirt jumping, launching techniques, and elevated trails riding among other skills like teeter totters!!!! And your cross country skills will also improve! Downhill riding makes you a faster cross country rider!!!!

Shanti and Celia already signed up.

Friday July 31, 09 to Friday August 7, 2009. Click here for more information.

Let's get the Bay Area contingency together and have girl fun while improving our biking skills.
When you register be sure to tell them Celia referred you.

Bikes & Beans: more than a bike shop, more than a coffee shop

2009-01-20T22:01:00.000-08:00

Are you looking for a cool place to hang out and meet other riders, drink coffee while talking about the ride you just did or are planning to do, talk about riding in general, purchase bikes and bike products? I suggest that you visit Bikes & Beans.

I think Justin’s words capture perfectly the spirit of Bikes & Beans: “It is not about what [bike] you ride, is about the experience of where you ride. It doesn’t matter how expensive or cheap your bike is, because what really matters is the experience of the ride.”

Founder and owner, Justin, born and raised in Marin County, a real Marinite! has been in the bike business for over 15 years. Besides a business owner he is a savvy and skillful bike mechanic. Justin raced cross country for two years in the Pro category and currently coaches the Terralinda High School XC Bike Team. As well, Justin is a very creative artist. You can check out some of his art pieces at the store in between bike stands and counters.

On April 2008, Justin opened up Bikes & Beans located on North San Pedro Road near China Camp State Park. Bikes & Beans is not just about buying bike stuff; it is also about spreading the culture of riding and sharing the experience before, during and after the ride.

Bikes & Beans, a life saver, a convenient place for a quick fix. Just 5 minutes away from China Camp State Park, Bikes & Beans is a perfect place to get those last minute things you forgot at home just before your ride: a spare tube to fix your flat, a water bottle, your helmet or gloves.

A great place to get bike staples, including nutrition bars, energy shots, helmets, bike shoes, pedals, tubes, tires, water bottles, cool clothing (cool Sombrio shorts, T-shirts, jerseys), body armors and gloves (661, Specialized), maps, backpacks, bike CD videos, bike books.

Bikes & Beans carries Commencal, Black Market, Surly and Salsa bikes. It supports local bike companies like WTB, Cliffbar, Mountain Biking Marin, and others. The coffee beans are from De La Paz Coffee, a local organic free trade company.

Services. Bikes & Beans offers full bike service including general bike overhauling, brake bleeds, fork and shocks rebuilding, wheel building, etc. You can also place customized bikes and bike parts orders and get your stuff with a guaranteed 2-day turn around.

Park, Rent & Bike. Bikes & Beans is an easy and convenient place to rent bikes. Because of its proximity to China Camp State Park, you can just park, rent & bike, you don’t even need to have a bike rack on your car. Bikes & Beans rents Trek and Marin hardtail, full suspension, and single speed bikes with flat or SPD compatible clip in pedals.

Green building. 90% of the materials used to build and decorate the store are recycled architectural materials. This picture shows a recycled log now used to hold handlebars:

The store has an industrial funky style enriched by art paintings and sculptures of local artists, including Justin’s own work! The first picture at the top you can admire a wall spray paint of Mt. Tam done by local artist John. And here are a couple of Justin's art pieces:

Bikes & Beans

292 N. San Pedro Road

San Rafael, CA 94903

415-507-1992

Thanksgiving Ride 2008 - The Spirit of Giving in Action!

2008-12-01T21:22:00.000-08:00

This ride called the Appetite Seminar, Turkey or Thanksgiving Ride is a tradition that started in 1975 (click here for some history and click here for last year's ride story/pictures).

There are several popular social gatherings spots along the route of this ride, and I decided to document what happens on three of them:

1) At the start, by the Java Hut parking lot in Fairfax, Marin County. And the spirit of giving starts right here with Java Hut offering free coffee, bagels and cream cheese to the riders.

2) The second popular gathering spot is Horse Shoe Junction, where the spirit of giving is also in action!At Horse Shoe Junction, Josh (a great mechanic from Fairfax Cyclery) and Dave, offer pancakes, hot chocolate, and hot coffee to any rider wanting to taste their goodies. They start carrying their cooking equipment and ingredients days before using their bike trailer.
and the pancakes are quite yummy!!!! Kristy really liked them!
3) And this the third popular stop spot I would like to talk about, at the top of the hardest climb of this loop, by Green Hill where Danny, Jim, Shrek and others were giving out GUs and Tamarancho applications. Based on Danny's estimate, about 900 riders went by this year.

Here is Danny giving out GUs
Jim giving out GUs Shrek giving out GUs
And here are more celebrities I found along the route...
Tom who decided to bail due to the climbing and went home without partying.
Mike, who probably should have bailed too since he was sick like a dog... but he did the whole loop!

Julia was also out on her single speed
Marty sticking his tongue at the camera and missing Nancy
Mary Lynn visiting from Tahoe, I miss her!
Nick probably done with the worst climb

Randy and Barbara looking good after the climb

even my neighbor Nick was there with a friend!

Gravy all happy after eating pancakes at Horse Shoe Junction
Jeff also quite happy since the climb is over!
Kristy and John who I decided to join to start heading back to Fairfax
Charlie with a friend said hello to the camera
And this is me all covered up in many winter layers, the only way I can survive for more than 5 minutes in the cold.

And when I though I was done with pictures I found Ricardo at the Java Hut parking lot putting his' and his girlfriend's bikes on his motorcycle rack! A home made bike rack with old Wilderness Trail Bikes Ti hardtail frames.
The End! Until Next Year!

My Second Weekend Riding in Laguna Beach

2008-11-26T19:58:00.000-08:00

Some weeks ago, I got in touch with my Southern Californian friend, Geof, to let him know I was going to a wedding (my friends Tracy and Eric) and a lovely and yummy pre-Thanksgiving Dinner with Sally's family. In between events, I wanted to do some downhill and technical cross country riding. And last weekend I had two perfect days doing so!.

On Saturday, we did the "downhill thing". From left to ride: Celia, Daniel, Rob, Bill, Geof and Brian. These are the name of the riders and you will have to believe me since it is a little hard to recognize anybody with those sexy full head helmets!

As I said before, we did the "downhill thing", meaning the car shuttling coordination thing with all of our vehicles. Look at these hot bikes on the hot truck:We were shuttling to descend on the Telonics (awesome DH trail, click here if you want to see pictures and descriptions). But back to the "downhill thing", it takes some brains to efficiently implement it, it could be challenging to design the car shutles order so you get as many downhill runs as possible with the least amount of driving. And Geof was seriously thinking all the time how the next shuttle was going to be!

Here are some action pictures I took on the Telonics.

This is Geof

This is Brian

And this is Rob On Sunday, we did a technical cross country ride that included steep fire road climbing and sweet downhill technical singletracks: T&A, Old Emerald, Rattle Snake, Nothing Better to Do (heritage trail), Marie Calender's (heritage trail), and Lizzards (heritage trail).

Here are the cross country riders: Brian, Natalie, Dave K., Rob, Geof and Daniel (from left to right).
Here is Geof showing some class going down on T&A
Here we are in one of the rest stops

I am glad I didn't crash on one of these cactus!

It would have been painful!!!!!

And here is a picture of the Telonics and the Laguna Beach Canyon (You can click on the picture for a bigger format):

And this is me with my dorky biker look after the ride....

To read about my first time riding around Laguna Beach Canyon, click here, read about and see pictures about a DH trail called Telonics.

North Bay December Rides

2008-11-19T14:21:00.000-08:00

Come and join Dana on these two fun only-girls rides:

December 7th: Beginner, Helen Putnam Park, Petaluma. Meet at Sonoma Bicycle Company 11:00 am
December 14th: Intermediate/Advance, Annadel State Park, Santa Rosa. Meet at Santa Rosa Cyclery 11:00 am

For more information, email Dana Beckstoffer at danabeck007@comcast.net

These rides are sponsored by:

Sonoma Bicycle Co. : 265 Petaluma Blvd., Petaluma, Ca. 94953 (707-776-0606)
Santa Rosa Cyclery: 4325 Montgomery Dr., Santa Rosa, Ca 95405 (707-537-2254)

Thanks to Magura, Gravity Dropper, Manitou, Shimano, Tom Fallon, Brian Popplewell, Richard, Martin, Tom Mac, Brian Herrman and Josh Orland

2008-11-04T18:23:00.000-08:00

If you are one of those "do-it-yourself-bike-mechanic-wanna-be" like me with many questions on how to fix, clean, replace or service bike parts, I encourage you to ask for help. I frequently call or email bike companies and visit bike stores with questions on what to do and how, and almost always I find incredible support. Here are some examples:

Magura: for many years I have used Marta Magura brakes on my three mountain bikes as you can appreciate in the picture below. These brakes are super light and great for feathering for super smooth riding. Jeff, Jude and Matt (all of them work at Magura) have taught me their tricks to calibrate, bleed, replace master cylinders and calipers through emails, phone calls and in person at the races.
The coolest thing of Magura is that they take their products very seriously so when I have an issue with my brakes they always help me to take care of it or guarantee the part. Below is a picture of the recently replaced master cylinders on one of my three mountain bikes.

Gravity Dropper: I ventured myself into servicing the gravity droppers I have in two of my mountain bikes. I changed the housing and cable and cleaned all the parts. In the process I ruined the screws that hold the cap of the lever and the seat post cap where the magnets are located. I called them and not only they sent me new screws but they gave me several tips and encouraged me to go ahead and service them myself. Now they both work like when they were brand new!

Manitou: I decided to purchase a Manitou Swinger-SFS X6 Coil Shock to install it one of my bikes (I had an air rear shock but I like coil suspension so now 2 of my mountain bikes have front and rear coil suspension). But the bolts I ordered with the rear shock didn't fit the frame. I emailed and called Shanan at Manitou who told me which bolts I needed and sent them to me! My bike now is ready to go!

Shimano: one of my Shimano SPD pedals lost one of the screws holding the pedal spring. I called Shimano and somebody (I forgot his name!) really nice and patient not only sent me several extra screws but took the time to tell me over the phone how to put the screw in the pedal without forcing it. I then sent him an email thanking him so much for his explanation and he sent me 3 pairs of Shimano socks!!! And my pedal is working just fine!

I want to thank my friend Tom Fallon for encouraging me to research how to work on my bikes, for showing me how to do it and for pushing me to do it myself. Also thanks to him I ride probably the only Santa Cruz Blur XC with front and rear coil suspension. Tom fabricated special parts for the frame to fit an longer eye-to-eye rear shock so he could fit a coil one and with a Titanium spring so the bike is still quite light, great for technical cross country riding and some dirt jumping too, check it out below:

Also thanks to Brian Poppewell, Richard and Martin at Mike's Bikes for their continuos support, and for inviting me to one of their bike mechanic training which gave me the opportunity to observe an expert from Fox shocks servicing several fork models. And guess what... one of the forks being serviced at the training was mine! :-)

And last but not least, thanks to Josh Orlando, Brian Herrman, and Tom Mac at Fairfax Cyclery for helping me finding out the right bolts I needed for my new Manitou rear shock, and also for encouraging me to finish servicing my fork and celebrating me for doing it!

Searching the Telonics, Laguna Beach, California

2008-08-13T13:23:00.000-07:00

Everything started with a mountain bike magazine short article I read describing a downhill trail called Telonics as one of the favorite trails of Hans Rey, one of the best trail and DH riders of all times, and the RADs, a local DH riding group.

I then decided to get in touch with my friend rider Geoff from Orange County and ask him if he would take me to the Telonics the next time I visit my partner's family. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to do it because he was going to be riding at Mammoth. But he assured me he was going to find someone to take me down on that trail and other DH trails of the area.

After a couple of days, Dave emailed me to set the date and time for the Telonics ride. I was so excited! Finally I was going to check that trail out! So I packed my Nomad, helmet, knee and elbow pads in our family car, the minivan. I was bummed I couldn't take my truck to this trip, but I had to compromise since I was travelling with my three teenagers and my partner. Remember? This was a family trip not just a bike trip.

Anyway, the day of the ride Sally drove me in the minivan to meet Dave at the bottom of the Aliso and Wood Canyons State Park. We put Dave's bike in the minivan and drove to the top of a local DH trail called Five Oaks. It was the perfect trail to get used to the terrain: loose sand, nice sticky slick rock, cactus and packed dirt.

In this picture you can appreciate the trail conditions of the area:

And we found creeks with trees offering nice cool shades:
The trail has some technical sections like this one where Dave is riding with perfect balance and body positioning:
After playing on some other DH trails, we then headed toward Telonics. On the way there, I learned from some downhillers we found on the trails that Hans Rey broke his leg racing Telonics at a local competition.

Near the top, the views of the ocean, Laguna beach and the mountains were just gorgeous! I am glad these mountains were recently made into parks so no development will take over them and its fun trails.

We continue on our ride toward Telonics, near the top along the ridge I took this picture below where you can see the bottom of Telonics (trail at the left of Laguna Canyon Rd) and another DH trail called T/A (trail at the right of Laguna Canyon Rd. behind the fire road you use to climb to the top).
And here we are at the very top of Telonics, called "Top of the World" which is how you feel when you are done with the DH trail and have cleaned the whole thing!Telonics is a fast DH trail with steep rocky, loose sand and slick rock sections. It also has jumps and drops that you can hit with different speed levels. To fly just go fast and to jump and get some air which is what I did this time just keep a steady pace/speed and pull up your front wheel. All the sections were rollable with the exception of a couple of drops. It is a good idea to scoop the trail and check it out before going on it at a high speed. Well... at least for riders like me that like to keep their bones in place. :-) Toward the bottom of the trail, there are great steep swichtbacks with really well designed chambers that allow you to corner fast without loosing control.

This is me riding down one of the steep sections. I promise this section is steeper than what it looks in the picture!
Here is a picture I took from the top where Dave is pointing at the trail to show how steep it is:
This is another steep section on slick rock like Moab, Utah. I took this great picture od Dave riding it without sliding because it was quite sticky rock!
When you see this picture at the end of Telonics you do feel in the top of the world! Dave was really happy because he rode and cleared many sections on that trail he used to walk.
After celebrating while eating some snacks we climbed, went down and climbed back again a DH trail called Steps with some really fun rocky sections forming steps. Some steps you can launch them and get exhilarating air.
And here is me going down on Steps with my dorky concentration face
After Steps we went back to the other mountain and hit a super fun trail called Rock It, really fast trail down through rock gardens.

When we were done, we pedaled our bikes to the local Mexican restaurant for tacos and beer. Dave's friend Jason joined us for beer and to talk about the ride. Too bad Jason couldn't join us earlier for the awesome ride but I was happy to meet another local rider. Bob couldn't join us because that day he was celebrating his anniversary. I learned that Jason, Geoff, Dave and Bob won a 24-hour race competing with 33 other men teams. These guys are really in shape and ride fast. I am glad I was able to hook up with Geoff, Dave and Bob a couple of years ago.

This time instead of Sally picking me up, I got picked up by our brother-in-law Jess who probably was bored listening to so much biking talk. But Jess is very nice and polite so he listened to all of our stories, drove Dave back to his car that was getting new tires. Thank you Jess! And also thank you Dave for an awesome ride. I will be back!

Mountain Biking Marin Featured in Newsletter

2008-08-05T12:12:00.000-07:00

Mountain Biking Marin was featured in OffAssist's online business newsletter this week!

Read the spotlight article here: OffAssist August 2008 Newsletter

Thanks Candy and the OffAssist team!

Reminder: Hot Mama's Mountain Bike Skill Clinic is on August 17th.
Click here for more information: www.mountainbikingmarin.com

Mountain Bike Events This Weekend

2008-07-24T13:08:00.000-07:00

Two Cool Mountain Bike Events Happening This Weekend!

1) Mill Valley Ellsworth Demo Bike:
When: This Saturday (July 26), from 8am to 1pm
Where: West Blithedale road at Railroad Grade trail-head
What To Bring: Helmet Shoes & Pedals
Participating Ellsworth Dealer: Bike-Rx located at Tam Junction, Mill Valley, www.bike-rx.com
Bikes that you can ride: Truth, Epiphany, Moment, Witness, Evolve

2) San Francisco premiere of The Way Bobby Sees It
Buy your tickets NOW to see The Way Bobby Sees It at the Victoria Theater in the Mission this Saturday night.
http://bicyclefilmfestival.com/2008_site/sf/

The Way Bobby Sees It is a gripping documentary about Bobby McMullen, a competitive mountain biker on a mission to race the most demanding downhill course in the country. Adding to the difficulty: Bobby is blind.
With the help of a guide and a rigorous training schedule, Bobby is determined to race his bike down a course riddled with obstacles and flanked by steep, life-threatening cliffs. But, the racecourse isn't the only challenge in Bobby's life. Between thrills, spills and jaw dropping helmet camera footage, we see how Bobby uses humor, determination, and unshakeable optimism to battle adversity - both on and off the bike.
"A powerful documentary." --Decline Magazine
"The documentary takes the viewer on a heart-stopping ride and an inspiring journey." --Ubiketv.com
"The Way Bobby Sees It grabs the viewer somewhere inside and makes them feel. Feel nervous, feel scared, feel mortal, feel inspired, feel sympathetic, feel empathic. Care. That doesn't happen all that often." --Mike Ferrentino former Editor of BIKE Magazine
Go to www.PoisonOakProductions.com to watch the trailer.

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Don't forget to tell your friends about the Hot Mamas Mountain Bike Skill Clinic on August 17th

Overdue Farewell to Amy

2008-05-08T08:29:00.001-07:00

I just got 2 emails from Amy saying she wishes she could be here to ride with us next Sunday. Actually, everytime I send invitations to local rides or riding blog reports from Marin and the Bay Area, I get emails from Amy now living in Colorado. Yes, my dear friend Amy always sends everyone big hugs and says she misses us and our rides. We miss her too... I was looking at the pictures from past rides and realized we did so many rides with Amy! I am so glad Amy asked me for chain lube some years ago when I was finishing a ride at China Camp with Joe. We actually went for a second ride just to ride with Amy. It was my opportunity to get another hot mama email for my email list!

Here is Amy at her farewell party

And here is Celia and Amy after one of so many rides in China Camp heading toward beers at Marin Brew Co.

Here is Amy and Steve drinking beer after a ride:

And yes, I promise besides the beer drinking we used to ride too. Here are Dolores and Amy somewhere in the mountains:

This picture is from last year's Turkey ride. We were quite a big group when we started:

The same day, from left to ride, this was the reduced group by the end of the Turkey ride: Mario, Celia, Amy, Dave, Lori and Alan.

I hope Amy comes and visit us soon. I miss not having anyone to pick on during the rides. I haven't been able to find a replacement for Amy, and I won't, because she will be always the only Amy.

Sunday April 27th Hot Mamas & Hot Papas Ride

2008-05-04T18:02:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday April 27th, 12 of us gathered on time along San Pedro Rd near the guard booth. From left to right: Julio, Alan, Tom, Dolores, Beth, Cowboy, Dan, Chad, Liz, Leigh and Gary. Celia was taking the picture. (You can click on the pictures to enlarge the images). Justin, Michael and Eric joined us later on during the ride... so I guess we ended up being 15!!!!

Chad and Leigh went for a ride with Beth and Liz who wanted to take it a little easier. It was Beth's first time riding with us. Liz already had joined us a couple of times before. We hope they continue to show up on these rides. The rest of us went on directly to the top of the camp at the Nike site.

Below are Dolores and Dan on their climb toward the top of the camp.
And here is Alan followed by Gary.
It was a hot day, so we all gathered under the Nike antena platform for some nice fresh shady rest stop that probably lasted longer than the whole ride.

Here is one of the late comers, Michael, already enjoying the shady rest stop.
Here is Justin, another late comer with Julio and Dan in the background being the geeks they are. We had 4 tech geeks in the ride...

Julio and Dan with their Garmin GPS devices are the boy geeks.
And keep reading for the 2 girls geeks. In the meantime, here is a picture of the 3rd and last late comer, Eric the Fuzzy.
Okay, okay, let's go! Some were saying while others were still enjoying the shady rest stop.
Until the plan to drink beers at Marin Brew came along. Then we all were descending the fastest way to the cars!
And here we are , already at one of the Brew Co tables! And you can start guessing who are the other 2 geeks of the group? This time females....
Yeah, Dolores and Sally showing off their i-Phones! They did not talk nor interact with the people seating with them at the table. They were doing their own private i-Phone talk showing and comparing features of their electronic devices. Rude! Geeks!
We saw Joanmary and Joe with some riders they made at the trails. They were doing their own ride at China Camp. I took their emails and names but lost the little piece of paper where I wrote that info. Darn it! They may never find out I featured them on my blog.
Here is Joe showing his wounde arm to Sally. He crashed on his bike somewhere in China Camp.
On our way to the cars, after everybody was gone, Alan and Celia were cracking up and laughing at nothing and everything! That is what happens after session of non-politically correct jokes, in other words, the good ones!
And here is a final picture of Dolores, Tom, Sally and Celia before heading back home, very happy after a fun ride, good beer, great dinner and lots of laughing.

Sunday March 30, China Camp

2008-03-31T08:56:00.000-07:00

After a morning Hot Mama ride (click here for pictures and stories about the last Hot Mama ride) this group gathered around China Camp. From left to right the hotties were: Dan, Steve, Mike, Mario, Joe, Dana, Dolores, Julio, Tom and Eugene. (Celia was taking the picture).

Mario, Joe, Dolores and Tom were skipping the afternoon ride and were heading to Marin Brew Co. for beers and lunch. They rode with us in the morning. Dolores was part of the Hot Mama ride in the morning while some of the boys were doing their own ride waiting for the 2:00 pm ride.

Dan, Mike, Steve, Julio and later on Justin (he was running a bit late and caught up with the boys later on) went for their own fast ride. Dana, Eugene and Celia went for a more relaxed climb and met Julio at the top of China Camp.
We took Eugene through some difficult trails and he was able to ride many of the technical sections. We also saw Jason who was trying to put 20 miles around China Camp. He rode with us for a bit until he had a spill on one of the downhill sections and broke a spoke. But I was able to take a picture of him and Dana before he left.
The rest of the boys joined us at the bottom of one of the downhills (the one where Jason crashed) to then finish up the ride through a fun trail. It was Eugene's first time on that trail, and he enjoyed the challenge! Eugene actually rode the section where Jason crashed! ... okay okay I am giving Jason a hard time :-)

Stay tuned for the next ride on Sunday April 13th at 2:00 pm at China Camp. For more information visit Mike's Bikes website.

Sunday Coed Rides Resume in Spring 08

2008-03-20T08:54:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday March 16th, Chad and Dan were leading the coed Sunday ride sponsored by Mike's Bikes and Mountain Biking Marin. Chad didn't take any pictures so we will have to believe him about who came to the ride:

Justin, Cameron (Justin's friend), Steve (Dana's friend), Cowboy (the fuzzy shorts guy), Kristy (using her brand new full suspension Stuntjumper) and Mike (Chad's friend).

They all had fun I guess and had a great time I hope! I will join next time!

Here is the schedule for the future coed rides, hope to see you there!

Sundays: March 30th; April 13th; April 27th; May 11th, May 25th
Ride levels: beginner and intermediate/advance
Meeting Place: San Pedro Rd by the guard booth
Meeting time: 2:00 pm
Rolling time: 2:30 pm

Sunday Feb 10th Big Group in China Camp

2008-02-21T19:08:00.000-08:00

Two Sundays ago was one of those warm sunny days we rarely get during these winter days. So everybody was out that day on their bikes to enjoy the weather and celebrate my birthday. Different people started gathering around 1:30 pm, some heard of the ride through my emails, some others through other friends, and some others through the Mike's Bikes website.

Here are some pictures of the bike caravan climbing to the top of China Camp. Here is me first, not because I was the fastest rider but because it was my b-day! followed by Mike, Allie, Danilo and others I can't recognize because I was going so fast!Dan is the first one in this picture below, followed by Justin, Jim and Cowboy.And here below is Fuzzy, Steve and Eddie warming up on the climb.
At the top of China Camp by the Nike site, we were a group of 23 riders. You can see 21 of them in the picture below since Dana and Steve were a bit late that day. From left to right in the back row you can see: Allie, Steve, Rex, Jim, Fuzzy, Cowboy, Justin, Julio, Kristy, Jason, Alan, Brian, Mike, Joe, Hannah, Dan and Eddie. From left to right seating in the front row: Danilo, Celia, Dan and Chad. What a group of handsome people! You can click on the picture for a bigger image to admire our beauty.
While we were waiting for Dana and Steve (a new Steve), some of us were rolling down the round platform doing the steep shoots. Some have been riding them for a while and some others took the challenge and did it for the first time that day. Stay tuned for the story on how Dana and Celia were able to defeat the fear and roll those shoots. I finally got the pictures so the next blog will be about that and hopefully I will inspire others to take the adrenaline challenge and do it!

After that big gathering the group splitted, and the coolest people stay with me of course to do my route. As part of the fun we had Celia's b-day Slow Race where Fuzzy demonstrated his falling skills after being defeated, and Chad demonstrated his incredible balancing skills leaving the rest of us with not a chance to win. You can enjoy the my b-day Slow Race in the video below:

Back in the cars when the ride was over, we went to Marin Brew some for beers and some for dinner, but all of them to celebrate my b-day! My friends Mike, Steve, Joe, Eddie, Cowboy, Kristy, Chad, Alan, Julio, Dana, Steve (the new Steve), Jim (another aquarius who invited me to days earlier to celebrate his b-day with a fun Calistoga ride) and Dan covered for my beer and also for Sally's beer. Yeah.. Sally almost always manages to crash our after ride beer celebrations and I love it! Thank you everyone!

Remembering the good old DRY days: New Year's Day Jan 1 in Calistoga - Oat Hill Mine Trail w/ Tara, Eric, Dana & Celia

2008-02-04T16:14:00.000-08:00

With so much rain and mud on the trails I have been practicing power yoga, walking Poncho my dog with Sally and sitting in the computer to look at riding pictures when it used to be dry and nice.

Yesterday Sunday, I got lots of responses from biker friends thanking me for inviting them to ride. They all were wishing me to have a great ride but nobody wanted to ride in the crappy wet and cold weather. So besides going to power yoga again and hanging up with Sally and Poncho, I decided to write this blog story using some of my pictures and also stealing some of Tara's pictures instead of going out for a ride.

This ride has been my ONLY DRY RIDE I have done this year 2008! It was on Tuesday January 1st. Tara, Eric (Tara's boyfriend), Dana and me (Celia) drove to Calistoga to do an out and back loop ride on Oat Hill Mine trail. It was the first time I was going to use DH flat pedals I borrow from Dana. Yeah, flat pedals... so we had to wear skater dudes and dudettes shoes because these shoes have wide and flat surface that grabs better on the DH flat pedals pins. Look at the shoes so sexy and cute.
Dana and almost all my DH friends have been telling me I should get used to ride in flat pedals because is safer, in particular on technical riding and because they will teach me to have the right technique/form when doing dirt jumping.

So far I have hit several technical XC and DH trails on my flat pedals. And I have survived. But I have to say I rather do trail riding on my clip ins. I feel more grounded and balanced. When I hit the jumps (if this rain ever stops!) I will use the flat pedals again to see if I can jump better. My goal this year is to jump doubles and increase the size of drops I can do.

Another goal was going to be to ride the DH shoots from the Nike site top platform, but I did that already, yeah! stay tuned for another blog story where I will share with you how I beat the fear, actually the terror of going down those steep shoots.

Here is Dana showing some style with matching bright yellow/green skater shoe laces and pedals. What a fashion queen! Here is Tara showing some style too!

And here is Eric downloading our sexy Free Ride bikes!
But back to the ride, I was very nervious because I didn't know how I was going to do riding with flat pedals for the first time on that trail which is quite technical, in particular the top half if you are planning on going down fast. So I came with all my protection gear! Gosh am I a hot mama, or what!!!
This ride in Calistoga offers really gorgeous views you can appreciate when you are climbing Oat Hill Mine trail. The combination of the views and technical sections makes the climbing really entertaining. And then flowing down this trail is just exhilarating.
I like the top half of the trail because is rocky and technical. It is really fun to both climb it and descend it. Here is Dana clearing a technical section when she used to have both arms healthy, before the burning with hot water accident
By the way, her arm got so bad, here is a picture from last week!
But back to the ride in Calistoga, here is Eric fixing a flat he got in the top half of the trail:
And here is me showing off my skater dude shoes:
Toward the end of the ride near the bottom of the trail there are a couple of small ramps where you can get some air, here is Tara showing some dirt jumping style:
And here are the three of us being photographed by Eric at the end of the ride.
For more pictures you can click here (These are more pictures from Tara):
http://picasaweb.google.com/tara.ride/NewYearDayRideOatHillMineTrailCalistoga

We went to the local pizza place for pizza of course and beers. What a fun DRY!!!! day we had!

Last Ride of 2007: Dec 30 China Camp, Remembering those Dry Days

2008-01-27T19:13:00.000-08:00

Here I am again remembering when we used to ride in dry weather, and came upon these pictures of my last 2007 ride. It was Sunday Dec 30, 2007 at China Camp.

We were at least 19 people and I believe everybody somehow knew everybody, so it was like a high school alumni reunion. The picture below shows most of the people that showed up. From Left to Right you can see Eddie, Cowboy, Kristy, Joe, me (Celia), Ronda, Lisa, Dana, Lisa's friend Cloude, Lori, Mike and Aaron. Linda was taking the picture! Mario and John were around who knows where, probably didn't hear my call for the group picture. And Chad, Dan, Dolores and Tom, were on their way, they joined later.

We all started to ride together although several rides were happening at the same time: Dana was leading the beginner's Mike's Bikes ride; I was leading the advance one with Chad; Lisa came with Cloude to do their own ride; Joe, Eddie, John and other boys also did their own route; etc... but somehow we managed to start pedaling at the same time and most of us finished together as well. Weird...

At the top of China Camp by the Nike site, Dolores, Tom, Chad and Dan catched up with us. Here is a picture of Dolores being mad at me for not waiting for her at the bottom. Mario, Linda and Lori are also on the picture.

And here is Tom with Mario and Lori managing to be in all the pictures.

I got a nice pictures of the girls Kristy, Dolores, Linda and Lori.

And here is a picture of Dan by the rolling shoots of the Nike site at the top of China Camp:

And here is Dan about to go down on the shoot!

And here is me going down as well, super fun!

In another blog story I will share how I finally managed to control the fear factor and roll down those shoots. Stay tuned!

Rainy Friday in the Headlands (Jan 25, 2008)

2008-01-26T22:10:00.001-08:00

This year Dana, Kevin, Chad and I haven't been able to ride much. Rain, rain, rain, being without power for days, being sick with a horrible flu, rain, rain, rain, burnt arm, visit to Connecticut, rain, rain, rain, school work, rain, rain, rain, and more rain.

Dana, Kevin, Chad and I were thinking about riding last Friday even though it was going to be raining, steady rain and more rain, rain, rain! And here is what happened:

Chad bailed due to rain, rain, rain, school work and, even though he hasn't admitted it, I know he didn't want to get his new XC bike his wife Leigh gave him for X-mas dirty and muddy.

Poor Dana had to bail not because of the rain, rain, rain but because she burnt her arm with boiling water at work really badly. Dana is a chef and also a great caterer (http://www.dbeckcatering.com/) and she was moving a big bowl of boiling water in the kitchen that spilled right on top of her arm! She was too much in pain to ride. Below is a picture of her very swollen arm:

Kevin who went back home to Connecticut (yeah I am referring to Kevin the Cunnecticutian, he is back!) and spent the whole month of December without biking, was dying to ride his bike. And I who was sick with the horrible flu for 2 weeks, I was dying to ride as well.

So Kevin and I went for a killer 3 hours ride in the Headlands. We only saw one more rider near Tennessee Valley Beach, everywhere else we went we saw just the mountains, the trails and incredible amounts of water falling down the sky.

Below is a picture of a desserted Muir Beach and two very wet riders.

Here where I am mounting my bike you can appreciate the kind of visibility we had due to really heavy rain.

But after a killer ride, we got home and got hot showers, hot chocolate, yummy meat and potatoes while telling Sally about our adventure.

We were very happy we went out for a quite killer, wet and fun ride!

And below is a picture Kevin sent me of a cool sculpture made of bike wheels and tires he saw in San Rafael at 4th Street. Pretty Awesome!

Mike's Bikes Winter Ride: China Camp Sunday Dec 16

2007-12-17T21:15:00.000-08:00

Last Sunday 8 of us showed up for the Winter ride: Kevin, Danilo, Amy, Julio, Kristy, Justine, Chad, Jeff and Celia; plus an additional addition, Staci, who was riding the same trails and didn't have another option but to ride with us.

Unfortunately I forgot my camera, so this posting is kind of boring. Celia's group finished the ride by 4:30 pm and Chad's group by 5:00 pm.

Amy, Kevin, Celia and Kristy went for beers to Marin Brew Co afterwards. Celia had their 9% alcohol beer but was lucky Sally joined for dinner and ended up being the designated driver.

Stay tuned for the next Mike's Bikes ride, the 2007 Farewell China Camp Ride on Sunday Dec 30th.
Meeting time: 1:30 pm
Meeting place: Guard Booth in San Pedro Rd
Rolling time: 2:00 pm SHARP
Ride levels: 2 levels available, beginner and intermediate/advance.

Headlands - Sunday November 25th

2007-11-27T12:58:00.000-08:00

YOU CAN CLICK ON EACH PICTURE FOR A LARGER VIEW

The picture above shows "almost" all of the riding group of seven from last Sunday. From left to right, the cast members were: Kevin; Chad; Dan; Alan (leaning on his then healthy right knee); Celia; Dana (who left the ride due to climbs but left Cowboy with a helmet videocamera behind instead); and Kristy (a so called "beginner" rider who was doing an intermediate/advance ride for the first time).

When Dana found out about the route and realized we were going to climb the steep Coastal fire road she decided to leave. I was quite surprised as she did a great weight loss ride with me in the Headlands area before Thanksgiving. Even though she lost 4 pounds during that ride she was not happy about the 4,000 feet of climbing we did in that 19 miles/5 hours ride. But we got Cowboy instead who was wearing his Fuzzy shorts, so we went on with the ride.

I noticed everybody in the ride were loving me after every downhill section but in between the climbs I could feel their I-am-gonna-kill-you vibes. Because in the Headlands you either go downhill or uphill, there are not flat or rolling hills sections, I made sure we were going to end the ride with a fun downhill so they were going to be loving me after the ride. It turned out everybody was indeed loving me at the end of the ride but Alan, despite his last name is Loving...

Here is Dan after one of those happy climbs

Here is Cowboy showing his Fuzzy duds and videotaping the whole ride:

Here is Kevin (who never complaint about the climbing)

Here is Alan showing strong climbing skills

Here is Kristy showing she is not a beginner anymore!

Here is Chad showing his pectoral and arm muscles

After descending Diaz Ridge near the Pelican Inn, we met Julio (drinking from his water bottle like a drunken guy) and his nephew Oscar who is visiting from Mexico and already kicking Julio's butt.

Unfortunately, on the last downhill section, coming down Miwok near the stables parking lot, Alan lost control at a high speed resulting on a crash. Fortunately he didn't break any bones but he cut his right knee. My partner Sally and I drove him to the hospital where he got 7 stitches on his knee. We then picked up Thai food and had dinner and beers with Alan at his place. So hopefully he will be loving me again. :-)

Send Alan an email wishing for a fast recovery so he can ride with us again. His email is rideinpeace@sbcglobal.net

Stay tuned for the next Mike's Bikes riding series Chad, Dana and Celia will schedule for everyone. We have to do it again so we can have the celebration dinner with white lager beer and flat bread in Mill Valley we missed due to Alan's crash.

Turkey Ride 2007 - Did it hit the 1,000 riders mark?

2007-11-23T08:37:00.000-08:00

Around 9:00 am, Fairfax Java Hut parking lot was packed and so the Post Office parking lot across the street. Lines of cars were also parked along both sides of the streets. I have never seen so many cars gathering in Fairfax for a ride. But this was not just any ride, the Turkey Ride also called Appetite Seminar Ride or Thanksgiving Ride is an annual ride going on since 1975, quite a tradition. Based on the counting some rangers were doing at the bottom of Pine Mountain loop, I think we may have reached 1,000 riders that day. (They counted 750 around 10:00 am when we rode by).

But back to the beginning of our ride, Alan and I ended up parking across the street from Fairfax theater, got ready for the ride and pedaled back to Java Hut where we agreed to meet other friends that decided to sleep a little longer that day before the ride.

Alan and I first saw Chris.

Amy showed up with Dave (from Colorado). Greg (on a single speed), Chris brought three friends: another Chris, Cameron and Justin. Lori also showed up after a whole year without riding with her! Mario from Tahoe also decided to sleep a little longer.

My friend and neighbor Jerry sent another neighbor Greg to ride with us (great to meet another neighbor that rides!).

Lina, Susan and Ernest stopped by to say hello. Lina and Susan were doing a shorter (and probably smarter) version of the Turkey ride. And Ernest was warming up to hammer the whole Pine Mountain loop. Here is a picture of fashion queens Lina and Celia:

Also Chad and Jeff joined us to ride.

Julia stopped by to say hello, she is another one of those crazy single speeders!

I think at the start our group had about 19 riders and at the end we were just 6.

After gathering everybody, we started pedaling at 9:45 am! quite late! and did our first detour of the loop. Instead of climbing Bolinas Road from Fairfax, we went up via Deer Park to do some fire road climbing to the country club. We lost our first couple of riders so the group shrinking started right away. After some hard climbing and some fun exhilarating downhill we reached the spot where Freewheelers Jim Jacobsen and Danny Forer who were giving away Clif Shots. Our group was reduced to just 8 or 9 of us.

We finally got down to six riders at Horse Shoe Junction when we headed to finish the ride via Tamarancho to ride some singletrack instead of descending via Repack. Here is a picture of the hot sexy girls that hanged on together 'til the end: Lori, Amy and Celia:

And here is a group picture of the six of us that finished together, from left to right: Mario, Celia, Amy, Dave, Lori and Alan:

What a great tradition!!! Too bad the Marin IJ was not around to have an article of the ride. About 1,000 riders! wow! They missed a great opportunity for a great article about how much popularity mountain biking is gaining in Marin.

Celia

China Camp Ride Sunday Nov 18, 2007

2007-11-19T15:02:00.000-08:00

This time five riders showed up for the ride. Celia, Chad, Danilo, Eugene and Hannah.

Danilo who has come to several of the rides, showed up with his brand new full suspension bike ready to ride with us for a while as he already has been riding earlier to test his bike. I think he wanted to show off his bike. Eugene and Hannah were first timers, they both learned about the rides via Mike's Bikes site.

We said hi to Karen who was going to ride with some of her high school bike team members and Staci who was going for a run as she is training for a marathon. These two ladies are moms and can kick many butts all right! Karen is a cross country racer and Staci also races cross country, triathlons and marathons!

After introductions, Danilo, Eugene, Hannah, Chad and I started climbing to the top where Danilo said goodbye. Even though the scheduled ride was at the beginner level we decided to go for a more challenging ride after assessing Eugene and Hannah's riding levels. Chad and I guided them through technical singletracks that included drops and switchbacks. With just a few tips and explanations on descending techniques they rode safely and succesfully some challenging trails for the first time. Awesome!

The last scheduled Mike's Bikes ride is next Sunday November 25th in the Headlands. We meet at 1:30 pm at the Tennessea Valley Stables parking lot located in Mill Valley at the end of Tennessea Valley Road. WARNING! Expect lots of fun and lost of Thansgiving pounds gained during the week!!! COME AND JOIN US!!!

The end.

Vote Today for More Acces to Mountain Bike Trails on Mt. Tam

2007-11-03T13:00:00.000-07:00

Should there be more opportunities for mountain biking on Mt. Tam?
Read the article and vote today at: The Marin IJ
(Deadline December 1st)

What to do when your brake fails right before a ride

2007-10-30T09:59:00.001-07:00

Last Thursday Oct 25 I was finally going to ride with my friend Mark and his friends. I met them at Java Hot, Fairfax. To my surprise, my front brake was not working at all. I was surprised because the night before I checked the bike and didn't notice my front brake was losing pressure.

Oh well, I went home bummed but determined to fix my brake myself. I thought the oil loss happened because some days ago, I had a rattling loose brake leveler after an over the handlebar crash I had in Tenderfoot.

I knew what to do to fix it because a couple of years ago at Sea Otter Classic, I stopped by the Magura Brakes stand to ask them to fix a rattling brake leveler. Jude and Jeff were there ready not only to fix the leveler for me but to spend hours teaching me how to maintain my brakes including how to bleed them, how to lubricate the pistons, how to replace brake pads, how to calibrate them, etc. Since then I always work on my brakes of my three bikes which I equipped with Magura Marta brakes. They are great brakes.

So back in my house I was trying to remember what Jude did to fix the leveler. I was afraid of messing up with the leveler. I went to the Magura website and found some helpful directions that served me as a refresher so I decided to go ahead and do it.

This is me. Yes, I am a total dork. I am wearing my over-forty-help-your-vision equipment for bike mechanics: good reading glasses and helmet with your night riding halogen light.

The most critical thing is to hold the central piston locked up so when you take the leveler off the piston doesn't retract. If that happens, the whole meachanism can jump off and you will need to mail the brake to Magura for them to take care of it.

The perfect tool to hold the piston for me was a giant needle I have to saw with big thick yarn. Very handy! and it works way better than the allen wrench Magura recommends.

I was with all screws out and the piston locked, but still afraid of pushing the two barrels out to release the leveler. And it was then when I called Magura to find Jeff on the line! Jeff patiently reviewed step by step the whole process, told me how to take the barrels out, bend the leveler and put everything back together. The brake is working perfectly!!! And not only that, when I told him that the piston was loosing oil he set me up with a new front piston set that should be coming in the mail soon. I didn't know Magura offers lifetime guarantee for their parts!

Thank you Jeff! And than you Jude!!

Sunday October 28, 2008 - Annadale

2007-10-30T09:36:00.000-07:00

For today's ride we had these stellar riders: Alan (honorary Team A member); Gavin (coming from San Francisco with his chain all fixed from his previous ride in the Headlands); Jason (riding his brand new bike); Dana (showing off her Halloween outfit); Michael (visiting his girlfriend Dana from Arizona); Chadcito (who has been coming with a different demo bike in every ride); Eric (with his big shorts); Kristy (with only 3 mountain bike rides under her belt) and me.

Below is Jason toward the end of the ride. Are we bunking?....

And here is Kristy on her 4th mountain bike ride. She handled the challenge quite well, and is moving toward becoming a killer downhiller. And she is looking much better than Jason... don't you think?

The total riding time of this killer ride Dana and Eric put together was 4 hours (2 hours and 15 minutes of moving time). We climbed 2,800 ft in 18 miles. Click in the map below for more stats and a map:

Friday Oct 26 Riding in Mt. Tam - A Delightful Mountain

2007-10-30T09:01:00.000-07:00

On the sunny Friday Octiber 26, Chadcito, Leigh, Dana, Joe, Chad and Celia did a killer 6 hours ride in Mt. Tam. Notice Dana eating my favorite cinnamon roll, but this time she didn't share with me because she still mad for the Weight Loss Headlands Ride.

Below is Leigh cleaning a technical section in one of those trails:

The end.

Sunday Oct 21 China Camp with the "Connecticutian"

2007-10-30T08:29:00.000-07:00

The riders this week were: Alan (honorary Team A member); Sue (honorary Hot Mama rider); Eric (Alabamean friend of Chad who showed great bike skills in a ride the following day around Old Rail rd); Dana (still mad at me for the Weigth Loss Headlands ride); Chad (today's ride leader for the front China Camp loopers); Amy (who became the leader of a killer ride); Mike (who showed us some awesome bike skills dropping down from the very top of the Nike site!); Mandy (riding Leigh's bike and showing skills); Kevin the Connecticutian (who found us in the Mike's Bikes site and didn't know what he was getting into until it was too late) and me (Celia).

Here is hot mama Amy, hot papa Alan with hot Amy's new car

Here is hot papa Mike with hot Amy's new car

Here is hot mama Amy and hot mama Celia with Amy's new hot car:

And here we are doing some skinnies. Click on the picture for a close up of the Connecticutian.

Here two of the hot leaders:

And after a super fun ride, Amy, Alan, Mike, Kevin the C., Sally (my partner who joined us there) and I went to Marin Brew for beers and dinner. This is me with hotties Mike and Alan.

The end.

Oct 14 Mt. Tam / Headlands Mike's Bikes Ride

2007-10-28T08:41:00.000-07:00

The meeing place, Muir Beach, was cold and foggy, so I was wondering if anybody was going to show up. I knew there was sun at the top of the mountain but wasn't sure if anybody else knew. However, to my surprise, we ended up being a group of nine and had a super fun ride in the Headlands. The group was formed by nine awesome riders who were (from left to right): Gavin, Nicole, Jason, Chad, Celia, Cowboy, Debbie, Danilo and Alan.

At the Muir beach parking lot, I kept watching all the riders getting their bikes ready and was wondering if I could be part of this ride's Team A since I am such a Team A wannabe and was unable to qualify for the previous ride. (to find out about qualifications for Team A and Team B membership click here). Chad was a Team A member on the last ride but he was going to be the rear rider this time so I didn't have to worry about him.

We first climbed to Pantoll via Coastal View Trail. On the way to the trail head, Gavin started having problems with his chain but it seemed Chad was able to fix it... yeah right....just keep reading and find out what happened.

The Coastal View trail climb was spectacular once we were able to climb above the fog, it was sunny and warm, it felt like flying as we were on top of the clouds.

In my opinion, the ride had four Team A members. The first one was Danilo who must be related to Speedy Gonzalez, although Speedy is from Mexico and Danilo is from Costa Rica. Alan and I were able to catch up with him at some point of the climb just because he stopped to take off his jacket and wait for us. The second Team A member is Alan, also a Team A from the ride before who reached the top quite fast. The third Team A member was Nicole because she was one of the first ones to reach the top despite being hangover from drinking and partying the night before just a few hours before the ride. She paid the consequences at the top of Coastal View, but I will refrain from saying what happened because I don't know her that well yet....). And the fourth Team A member was Jason, who didn't reached the top first but managed to get back down to the bottom of the mountain first and riding on his back wheel!!!

I was glad Debbie showed up for the ride to hear all the stories Cowboy always tells. Because she was meeting him that day, she didn't know his stories about his fuzzy cool shorts and his adventures. So she kept him entertained. Here is Danilo talking on his cell quite fresh and enjoying the sun at the top of Coastal View Trail.

The second part of the ride was about to start, we were back at the Pelican Inn when Debbie said she was bailing. At the same time, Gavin's bike came with a bent chain. I then decided to take a look and realized his chain was totally dried, no lube has been applied on that poor chain for at least 48 years! I fixed it with my chain tool, my chain link and Debbie's chain lube. Girls in action fixing bikes!

After that Gavin was really bummed since he didn't have any reason to bail. So the group said bye bye to Debbie and kept going to climb Middle Green Gulch to then descend back to the Pelican Inn via Diaz Ridge.

Here is a picture of amusing things you may encounter when you ride in the outdoors by farms and ranchs....

After a fun technical descend we ended up at the Pelican Inn for beers and dinner.

Ride Stats:
Total Time: 3 hrs 50 min (Moving time 2 hours)
Total mileage: 15.5
Total climb: 3,159 ft

Mike's Bikes Ride Report for 10/7, China Camp - Ride Leader Dana Beckstoffer

2007-10-09T20:28:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday October 7, a group of 5 did the China Camp Front Loop ride. Dana reported that they had a great day out. Sue , Liz , Tracy, Cowboy and Dana showed up for the ride, headed up the trail to the "stunt area" and the BMX jumps where everyone was working hard and did a great job cleaning big stunts, skinnies, ladder drops, ramps, table tops and double jumps and all sort of huge obstacles found in the front loop of China Camp.

I don't know if China Camp has that kind of obstacles, I wasn't there and there are no pictures... so I actually think Dana might be making the story up. But who knows....

Don't miss the next Sunday October 14th ride.
Meeting place: Muir Beach parking lot
Meeting time: 1:30 pm
Rolling time: 2:00 pm
Intermediate/Advance ride
For more information click here

Celia

Mike's Bikes Mt. Tam Sunday Sep 30, 2007 Ride

2007-10-01T15:59:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Sunday Sep 30, 2007 in the afternoon, the 2nd Sunday Mike's Bikes Ride took place in the Mt. Tam area. A group of 6 met at the Depot in Mill Valley. From right to left, the riders were: Celia, Julio, Chad, Dana, Steph and Alan.

Dolores, Tom and Amy tried to join us but they were always running a little late. So I don’t think they should be counted as part of our ride. However, they should be mentioned as they did the same loop Chad planned, just about 30 minutes behind.

We rolled around 2:00 pm and as soon as we hit Old Rail Rd our group started to split in two: Team A and Team B. During the first part of the climb I was proud of myself thinking I was going to be able to keep up with Chad, Alan and Steph (Team A members) and leave Dana and Julio as Team B members. Right away though, Team A dropped me. After recovering from such humiliation, I decided that instead of suffering trying to keep up with Team A I was better off waiting for Team B to pedal at a better pace for me that also allowed me to take some pictures since the day was just spectacular, crispy, blue skies, blue waters, incredible visibility of the ocean, San Francisco and Marin.

Team A and Team B re-grouped by West Point Inn, when Tom was able to reach us after hammering up Old Rail Rd. But he needed to wait for Dolores and Amy who were climbing at a leisurely Team B kind of pace.

Team A took off, and so did Team B after waiting a bit for Dolores and Amy. And when Team B finally got to the top of Mt. Tam, Team A was fresh, ready to hit the descent via Elderidge. Instead, Team B was dying needing a little brake.

Team A: Chad, Steph and Alan.

Team B: Julio, Dana and Celia.

I realized then that Amy, Dolores and Tom were not going to join us in this ride. They ended up riding the same loop Chad planned, and they were happy at the end (I talked with Dolores that night to check in).

After Team B recovered, we descended Elderidge. Steph was right after Chad who was leading the descent, she was staying on his wheel, was going very fast until she got a flat tire. The hole on her inner tube was big which means she was going quite fast.

Since Steph, a member of Team A got the flat tire, Team B took advantage of this opportunity and went on descending Elderidge all the way to Hoo Koo E Koo. We knew this was our only opportunity to beat Team A. And we almost did! But right by the intersection Chad reached us and it was all over. After that the climb started again to get back to Old Rail Rd, so once again, Team A was in the lead.

We hit together the Tender Foot trail. This singletrack trail is challenging and it has some spots that are quite hard. Chad was showing us how it is done. Alan broke his back wheel hub and I crashed... humiliating… but I did power yoga today and put myself together again for the next ride.

Click here for PICTURES and READ CAPTIONS!

Ride stats:
Riders: 6
Ride duration: 3 hours 45 minutes (Moving time 2 hours 30 minutes)
Climbing: 3,000 ft
Mileage: 17.6 miles
Mechanicals: 1 flat, 1 shot hub, 1 crash

Click below for the MotionBased GPS Ride Stats:

Sunday Rides

2007-09-25T15:27:00.000-07:00

Mike's Bikes Sunday Mountain Bike Rides

Noncompetitive, social rides guided by expert level guides Dana Beckstoffer, Chad Etheridge and Celia Graterol

All rides meet at 1:30 pm and start at 2:00 pm
Mike’s Bikes discount coupons available to ride participants!!!

To view the list of the Sunday rides (date, riding level, riding place, meeting place and ride leader) click here.

Front China Camp: This is a quick trek into the woods. Enjoy well-maintained singletrack through the hills along San Pablo Bay. Ride toward the ridgeline and follow the contours to China Camp Village. This picturesque spot offers a piece of local history. Return along the edge of the hills near the shoreline. This is a great introduction to mountain biking. Technical features are switchbacks and a few rocky sections that are easily walked or ridden. 1.5 - 2 hours. Guard Booth is located at the entrance of China Camp at North San Pedro Rd.

Tamarancho: Start out with a nice warm up climbing up a paved road, followed by nice singletrack climb through some narrow switchbacks and rock gardens. It levels out for some rolling singletrack. There is only one area that I would call “really technical”, the “boulder”, but the rest of the loop will keep you on your toes. 2 - 2.5 hours. Java Hut parking lot is located in downtown Fairfax across Iron Springs Brew.

Mt. Tam: Route to be determined. Considered an Intermediate/Advance ride due to length of ride and sustained climbing. 2.5 - 3 hours. Depot is located in downtown Mill Valley.

Headlands: This ride offers incredible views of the ocean and San Francisco Bay Area. It includes a steady gradual climb through Marincello followed by a fun descent via Bob Cat. After climbing via Coastal a well deserved fun downhill follows via Old Springs singletrack. 2 – 2.5 hours. Tennessee Valley Parking Lot is located at the end of Tennessee Valley Road in Mill Valley.

Annadel State Park (Santa Rosa): This Park is a mountain bikers paradise offering over 40 miles of singletrack, plenty of climbing and fun technical descending. Dirt Parking Lot is located at 6201 Channel Drive, Santa Rosa, CA before the ranger station.

Mt. Tam/Headlands: This ride has two sections. First section starts with an out and back climb and fun descend with gorgeous views of the ocean and the mountains between Muir Beach and Pantoll Station via View Coastal singletrack. Back in Muir Beach, the second section of this ride will go through the Green Gulch Zen Center to climb Middle Green Gulch singletrack and descend back to Muir Beach through Coyote/Miwok/Diaz Ridge or Coyote/Fox/Coastal. First Section 2 – 2.5 hours. Second Section 2 – 2.5 hours. Total 4 – 5 hours. Muir Beach parking lot is off Shoreline Hwy by the Pelican Inn.

Feb 11th, 2007 Celia's Birthday Headlands Ride

2007-02-19T15:26:00.000-08:00

On Sunday February 11th, 13 friends showed up at my house with their bikes to ride with me on my 42nd birthday around the Headlands. Amy, Bill, Mike, Steve, Chris, Tara, Eric, Joe, Julio, Joanmary, Jerry, Nancy and a mysterious rider called Dave...

The age diversity of these group was awesome, from almost 70 to almost 20! Some came with downhill bikes, others with free ride bikes and the rest with cross country bikes. We all got together to ride, play, get safe and enjoy the mountains.

To see all the pictures Joe (thank you Joe for the pictures!), Sally and I took before, during and after the ride and during the dinner party, CLICK HERE and DON'T MISS THE PICTURE CAPTIONS!

Thank you to all of you that stayed for the whole ride! I know I promised an only 2 hours ride and it turned out a 5 hours ride... but only 3 hours were actual pedaling time. The loop was 18 miles with more than 3,700 ft of climbing.

San Juan Trail, Orange County

2007-02-07T21:14:00.000-08:00

Last weekend, I drove with Sally down South to participate on a leadership conference in Los Angeles, visit her family in Costa Mesa, Orange County and hook up with riders for a nice mountain bike ride around the area.

I asked Nancy Harris of Team NoBrakes, also known as the network queen, if she knew anybody organizing rides around Orange County. She immediately forwarded me an email from Mark Warrick of 3FBC riding club and also a network king, announcing a ride around the San Juan Trail.

Thanks to Nancy's connection I was able to ride a first class 18-mile singletrack cross country loop around the mountains close to San Juan Capistrano in Orange County, and get to know four awesome riders: Mark, Ken Purdy, Dave Reffert and Geof Sanberg.

And of course, after a 5-hour fun ride, we all went (minues Ken who had to go to family duties) to the local pub for beers and pizza where Sally and Geof's wife (oops I forgot her name! shame on me because she is cool) joined us afterwards. Click here to see the pictures.

I hope to ride with them again soon when I go back to visit or when they come to visit the Bay Area! Click below to check the stats and the map at the MotionBased site:

Mt. Tam Delight - Another Modified Version

2007-01-05T18:11:00.000-08:00

On Thursday December 28th, we invited Eric A.D. from the Biking Fools of Calistoga to ride Mt. Tam to "pay him back" from that incredible ride he invited us some days before called The Return of the Light.

After dealing with some issues (shoes, pedals, dog fight and even family losses) Amy, Eric S., Pete and I started pedaling with Eric A.D. from the Java Hut parking lot. We headed toward Deer Park to climb Elderidge to the top of Mt. Tam.

Eric A.D. made my life so much easier by writing a really good story of the ride and posting some cool pictures. You should check them out on this link: Biking Fools of Calistoga.

Calistoga: The Return of the Light

2007-01-05T17:44:00.000-08:00

On Saturday December 23rd, Eric S., Dolores and Tom, Allie and Michael (the Michiganders) and Celia headed to Calistoga to meet our ride leader Eric A.D. from the Biking Fools of Calistoga, and do one of the most fun, relaxing, gorgeous, technical, challenging rides I have ever done.

The mountains where Eric A.D took us are just as spectacular as the landscape around the Tahoe area. But I am not writing more about this ride, rather I invite you to read Eric A.D.'s story and view his pictures.

The link below will give you the ride stats and a map you can download even on Google Earth! Enjoy it.

Soltice Dec 21st Rainy Ride in the Headlands

2006-12-22T14:58:00.000-08:00

On the night of Wed Dec 20th, I called Dolores and Tom to flake on their Solstice ride. After being with the flu for a week I didn't feel like waking up early to ride for the whole day and I didn't want to ruin their ride as I did in the past around the Tahoe area... but that's another story also posted on this blog under Last Weekend Adventure in Tahoe.

I was bummed I didn't have plans to ride on Solstice day but at the same time going to hot yoga the next morning was starting to sound more and more attractive. But when I was going to let go of biking, then I remembered that Dana was organizing a ride starting in Mill Valley around 10:30 am. I called her to confirm and yes! Dana, Sam and Al had plans to ride since Al wanted very badly to test his brand new Nomad.

Because of the rain, we decided to start and end the ride at my house. It was raining so hard I was wishing Dana could go riding with Sam and Al somewhere else and leave me alone so I could go to my hot yoga. But Dana would not let me off the hook.

And it turned out that despite the rain, we had an awesome 2.5 hours ride around the Headlands. It made me so happy that Sam and Al, who I met that day, really enjoyed my favorite trails around this area, including Celia's Ridge Trail, one of the best trail in the Headlands.

After the very wet ride, we all took hot showers... well stinky Dana didn't...and leave the house to go on with our lives. I hope Dana finally took a shower...

Singletrack Minds

2006-12-14T11:35:00.000-08:00

Last Sunday December 10th a bunch of mountain biker friends got together to ride the Headlands to then watch an awesome film produced by Jason and Wendy, Singletrack Minds, about the political battle between bikers and non-bikers for singletrack use in Marin County.

The 15 Headland riders were: Becky, Julie, Joe, Julio, Lisa, Chris, Steve, Mike, Erik, Lorna, Cowboy, Wendy, Jason, Allie and Celia.

14 other friends(most of them riders as well) joined the group to enjoy yummy potluck dinner and watch the movie. They were: Nancy, Marty, Dannie, Leslie, Shanti, Nancy V., Steve J., Tom, Dolores, Michael, Rene, Joey, Amy and Sally, the love of my life.

Click on this link to view all the pictures Becky, Joe and Sally sent me.

If you want to check out the ride stats and even download it to Google Earth just click on the map below.

Going back to Pacifica

2006-11-28T22:42:00.000-08:00

I finally got to go back to Pacifica for the second time. This time Tara, Erik and Brent picked me up with Erik's big truck at the Manzanita parking lot. They loaded my bike and all of my bags as older ladies like me need to clean themselves and put themselves together after doing this downhill and jumping stuff. But fitting all of my belongings was not a major deal since Erik's truck is way bigger than mine.

Our next stop was in San Francisco in Clemente street to pick up Jason. Once Jason and Brent bought 7/11 "delicious" coffee and loaded Jason's bike, we headed to Pacifica for the most fun riding ever! (By the way, delicious is in quotes because Jason says that if you drink enough of that 7/11 coffee you can get used to it and end up enjoying it... oh well... I don't know if I can believe that...).

We started pedaling up, climbing the old hwy and carrying up our heavy bikes up The Crack, we did our fast descend down that trail, but ended up having even more fun going down The Mile and then trying the smaller jumps of Boy Scouts (I think that is the name of that last trail). We did Boys Scout twice, so I got to do some jumps I missed the first time I went down on that trail.

Click below to see some awesome jumping pictures I took of these super awesome riders that don't mind bringing with them this older werid lady... By the way, Brent was doing all kind of jumps, even the double jumps!! even though this was only his second time on a bike!

Click here for the pictures link

Welcoming Allie with Tamarancho & Other Fun Trails

2006-11-22T03:24:00.000-08:00

Last Sunday, 11 of us gathered at the Java Hut parking lot in Fairfax for a very fun ride to welcome Allie who just moved to Novato from Michigan. The welcoming group included Amy, Becky, Wendy, Julio, Steve, Mike, Devan, Norman and Craig.

We headed to Tamarancho for a half clockwide loop. Before going out to the ridge Becky bailed to go back home. When we hit the fire road, Wendy and Amy bail toward the new trail. The rest of the group headed to Horse Junction where Julio bailed to go back home to his new wife and baby!. The rest of us headed to a super fun downhill trail for one of the most fun descend in the county. Allie not only is a great DHiller but also a strong climber! We then spend some time at the jumps and tracks at the bottom of that super fun trail where Mike, Devan and Steve were showing awesome balance and jumping skills. I didn't get inspired to try any jump until I saw how Allie could do it and encouraged me to try. It is so much fun to have both wheels on air!!! Steve took a picture so I have proof I did it!

After playing on the tracks we headed to the bottom of Loma Alta to try some more ramps and jumps. Mike gave us a good lesson on how bail without braking bones. And finally at White Hills school we spent more time playing on the stairs and benches.

What a fun day! It is so cool to be a kid again!

Click here to see some pictures

First Time in Pacifica with Eric

2006-11-22T03:09:00.000-08:00

About a month ago, I finally got organized to take on Eric's offer to ride Pacifica. I invited my friend Dana and Tara to join us so the four of us met at Manzanita in Mill Valley, loaded our free ride bikes on my very sexy blue truck and headed toward one of the most fun trails in the planet! Tara's friend, Parker, was able to meet with us on the trails after a wondering around trying to locate us using our cell phones.

Eric not only showed us some fun technical DH trails, but also his great biking skills followed by Tara's and Parker's. Dana and I, the old fart moms were also showing some skills although being more cautious as bones in this age are a little harder to heal from fractures.

Thank you Eric for showing us Pacifica and that great Mexican burritos place!

Click here for some pictures

Riding Headlands with Jason from Portland

2006-11-22T02:47:00.000-08:00

Some weeks ago my friend Jason came to the Bay Area and stay a couple of days longer to do somr riding in Marin. Steve, Eric, Lorna and I showed him one of the most fun trail loops in the Headlands. The day was warm, goprgeou and clear so we could appreciate views of San Francisco, the Golden Gate bridge, Mt. Tam, the Bay, the Ocean, Tiburon, Belvedere, Mt. Diablo and the Fairland Islands.

Click here to view some pictures

2006 USA Cycling National Championships at Infineon/Cougar Mountain

2006-08-02T12:49:00.000-07:00

Mammoth, 2005 was the first time I raced the National Championships. I didn’t know moms could qualify for such things. Encouraged by my partner and my unconditional emotional race supporter Sally, my son Alejandro, my friends and race team members Paula and Olivier, my coach Rachel, my business partner Zoe and some work colleagues and friends, I decided to check Mammoth out. I had a blast and even though I placed 5th out of 5 women, so in other words, I was the slow poke of the party, I got a medal that says National Championships, perfect for grandchildren stories in the future...

But let’s move to 2006, Cougar for more stories for my grandchildren. I qualified one more time for the Championships at the Infineon Raceway in Sonoma. But this time I got in the Downhill Sport category and I placed 1st out of 4 women. Which means gravity, unlike cross country climbs, favors my mom's legs and butt. I have to confess, I never imagined I was going to end up racing Downhill at this point in my life when I am supposed to get a rocking chair and learn how to knit for grand-motherhood… But I got sucked to the dark side by my friend Dana, who got sucked herself due to some on-line dating she did with the downhill dude Michael from Team No Brakes.

For me, the Downhill experience is quite different from the Cross Country. I actually get to enjoy it more, doing DH practice runs and racing DH is like going to the amusement park for roller coasters. I don’t have to work hard on the climbs; the shuttles do that job for my legs, but rather get adrenaline rushes every time I go down on steep loose hills and tight switchbacks. I get to be a kid again having fun fun fun.

I am not becoming a total lazy rider going only downhill. I also raced Super D which included some climbing, and placed 5th overall among 11 women (2nd out of 2 on my age group). That Super D race was a good training for the Downieville Classic but that will be another story.

And in some years, when my three children have grandchildren, I will have many stories for them when I was the US National Champion Grandma of the Universe and Beyond.

Click here for pictures of the event. (READ THE CAPTIONS!)

Click here to go to my team Garmin MotionBased site for more stories about the Championships. (SCROLL DOWN).

The 3 Stooges in Washington, California

2006-07-17T08:06:00.000-07:00

Friday Juy 7th, Sally and I drove toward Washington not knowing we were going to be hanging out with TV celebrities that weekend. We should have known what was coming upon us right from the beginning when we met up with them to drive together.

Washington is a little town by the South Yuba River located really close to Nevada City. From the Bay Area it usually takes to normal folks no more than 3 hours to drive there, but with the Stooges: Larry, Curly and Mo, it took us 10 hours due to challenges they faced placing their 3 bikes on their car, deciding where to meet along the 80 hwy, stopping to buy groceries, stopping to meet a friend with safety materials for the trip, stopping to pee along the road, etc... For a better idea just rent a couple of DVDs of the Stooges at your local video store.

Finally we arrived to a very nice house by one of the most beautiful sections of the Yuba River. Gorgeous water falls and really nice beaches to rest and swim.

Besides the river, the other attraction of this trip was a mountain bike ride planned by Larry that was supposed to take us 6 hours to complete. I should have warned everybody of the hell of an epic ride Larry wanted to achieve in just one day based on the time it took us to arrive to the house! This ride ended up being about 18 miles of technical (and dangerous with lots of poison oak!) single track along the Yuba River with another 10 miles of fire road climbing in a very hot day of about 100 degrees that made poor Mo bunk really bad...

To have some more female energy I invited Nadine for the ride since she lives nearby Nevada City. Probably this is the last time Nadine will ride with me again... oh well but not only she had the opportunity to meet the Stooges but also Super Mario got out of the video games to join us on the ride. To learn about the ride and the rest of the trip through the captions of the pictures, click here

And to view the stats (distance, elevation, feet climbed, etc.) click below:

Sunday June 25, 2006: Nick's b-day w/ the Freaks

2006-06-26T10:41:00.000-07:00

Sunday morning, I was driving my car to meet the Freaks at Deer Park around 9:15 am to celebrate Nick's 40th b-day. The ride, although somehow eclectic, ended up being fun for everyone (well.. almost everyone with the exeption of some pendejo Germans... but this story comes later on).

Nancy and Marty were the first ones arriving to Deer Park. I was bummed because my GPS ran out of battery, but better off that way so I don't have to pay attention to heart rates which it is not the case of Nancy who is on a mission to kick everybody's butt on any XC race that gets in her way. Nancy, currently training for the Infineon Marathon race (70 miles!!!) started with us but we didn't see her again until she was done with the ride in about half the time it took the whole group to do it. I would imagine Marty should be having some widow experiences during the rides...

But back to the beginning of the ride, after some minutes, the birthday boy came along with the rest of the Freaks: Brent, Kris, Randy, Barb, Chuy, Franco (Micolito), and Larry. Nick had a great ride plan to cover 40 miles, one per each year, that included a stop at the German Tourist Club for beers and head back to Fairfax to celebrate his b-day with more beers and pizza.

Climbing up Deer Park, the first eclectic incidence happened with a horse that almost threw his rider to the floor freaking out with the b-day baloon we made Nick carry along the ride. Nick placed the baloon under his jersey so horserider and freaked horse were able to continue their desdend. At the top of the pavement, we did the usual cruising race with Barb and Celia finishing up as the winners. Barb knew that everyone was going to be so focused on their own aerodynamic position that we could pedal through the pack and declare ourselves winners without anybody noticing the cheating. She was right.

The Elderidge climb ended at the intersection with Hoo-Koo-E-Koo where Danny joined us for a while in an attractive blue jersey. We were wondering why he didn't have his cute Freak one... we learned why later...

At West Point Inn, Randy displayed why his backpack was so heavy: a 40 oz of Miller Draft, and some other few bottles of beer to share with the group. Click here for more pictures

Descending down Coastal View, we learned there was a duathlon and runners were racing down Coastal trail. So at the bottom of the trail Larry took off to climb Middle Green Gulch and meet us later at the German's Club. Danny also took off to the nude beach in Muir Beach to check out for babes. He feels 25 again and looks hot in blue.

Nick's b-day ride had 3 riders down by now (Nancy to training, Larry to Green Gulch and Danny to the nude beach and the babes). We climbed back to Pantol, West Point Inn and descended via Old Rail Road. We found Sutat who was doing his own ride, said hi and kept going toward the germen Tourist Club where biscuits are called bitches and bikers are not welcomed. That German guy was lucky he was with his kid, because otherwise Kris, Celia and Barb would have beat the shit out of him after calling Kris a bitch. The Freaks, to avoid further confrontation, made a U-turn to climb back that very steep fire road and left behind a whole pitcher of beer Larry (already there after his brakeaway) got for Nick. I couldn't leave Larry alone with that much beer and not say hi to Sally and Lenore who planned their hike to arrive at 2:00 pm to hang with the Freaks. So I became the 4th rider to brake from Nick's b-day ride, and stayed with Larry and watched him trying to get an apology from the stubborn Germans. Larry had all the confrontations in the name of the Freaks fighting with every German in the club, and he was inviting me to join in but I stayed out of it visiting with Sally and Lenore and drinking the beer. After several failed attempts to get some apologies from the Germans for calling Kris a bitch, Larry gave up and invited me to ride back with him. Stupid of me, I said okay instead of staying with Sally and Lenore and get a ride back home for a nice refreshing shower before the pizza party. Instead I was pedaling in zone 10 trying to catch up the Freaks who had an hour and a pitcher of beer of advantage! I never had climbed Hoo-Koo-E-Koo and Indian FR so fast in my life trying to keep up with this maniac. Almost in Deer Park, I decided to call Franco (Micolito) to learn about the Freaks location. When I told Larry they went down Woodland trail or something like that the maniac grabbed me and made me fly down to the lake, then pedal through roads again in zone 10 so we could intersect the Freaks again near Ross. Larry had too much to say, he couldn't wait until the pizza party.

Finally, we all gathered at Nick's and Kris' adorable house, and thanks to the Germans, the Freaks that didn't ride (Nanette, Molly, Stev-O, Karen, Sally, Albert and little Sarah) got to enjoy after-ride conversations that were not about bike parts or bike accidents, but about biscuits and bitches, and about planning substituting the German Club for a more fun Italian Tourist Club. Happy b-day Nick!!!

Celia

Friday June 9th Mt. Tam Delight

2006-06-10T20:10:00.000-07:00

A week ago, my friend Dana asked me what good trails we could show off to her honey, Michael, who was going to visit us from Arizona. Michael is one of those hard core downhillers from Team No Brakes, so the challenge to show him something good, fun, and technical was definitely on my shoulders.

Thanks to Mt. Tam, this challenge was easy to overcome. Mt. Tam is a very special mountain, it is not very tall but its surroundings extent in all directions providing a web of gorgeous trail around beautiful lakes. These trails are not only challenging but they also offer spectacular views of Marin, dark pine tree forests and tricky rocky sections.
-- Don't worry, Dana we can show him the Mt. Tam Delight loop.
-- That sounds great Celia, said Dana, Michael will love that loop.
-- okay, I said, but you have to promise me you won't flake this time (FYI, last Friday, Dana flaked on a cool ride we were going to do because some sport store was having its annual sale! Straight girls! What am I going to do with them!?)

My friend Joe decided to drop his Friday ride to come along with us to complete a nice group of 4 riders. At 8:45 am we were pedaling up Elderidge to the top of the mountain and after 5 hours of awesome riding we were drinking beers and having lunch at Iron Springs Brew in Fairfax. I could tell Dana, Michael, and Joe were happy and satisfied with the ride, and of course so was I!!. We just had a blast.

Unfortunately, my Garmin GPS Edge broke last week so I don't have stats available.

Celia

Sunday June 4 West Marin Technical Delight

2006-06-05T20:15:00.000-07:00

Mike, Joe and James were really great companions last Sunday. They went along and rode every downhill trail I wanted to do (I am testing my new Nomad so I have to go down on technical trails to check out this big Vanilla 36 fork). The price to pay though were almost 6,000 ft of climbing on my now 31 lbs Nomad rather than my very light 25 lbs Blur since we were not shuttling like smart dowhillers do.

We started at Tamarancho, and went out to the ridge to have our first semi long stop at horse shoe junction. From there we went down a super fun downhill trail, hit the road to climb back via fire road to go down again but this time on another fun downhill trail. After that, we hit the road back to White Hills and I was able to convince them to climb Gun Shot to the top of Loma Alta to end the ride going down a 3rd downhill fun trail after stopping at the local market for some fuel and by offering them free beers later on at Iron Springs Brew. We ended up doing a really awesome ride!

Ride Crashes:
* Joe and James got some cuts falling on some rocks and bushes
* Mike and Celia wiped out got cuts and scrathes as well (although I was wearing my downhilling protective gear which save me from leaving lots of skin on that big rock!).
* My MotionBased GPS broke during my crash <:-( Back on Iron Springs Brew, we were enjoying our stories, and comparing and counting out cuts and bruises from the ride.. yes we are dorks but Marin trails just rock!

Friday June 2nd in China Camp

2006-06-05T19:53:00.000-07:00

Last Friday Mike and Steve let me tag along to their Friday ride around China Camp and the Dominican side. Although I was riding my heavy Nomad I was able to keep up... although they were waiting for me in every climb. They are just good friends that didn't mind slowing down a little to hang and ride with me.

We started in San Pedro Rd by the Kiosk, climbed to the top of the mountain to proceed to the web of awesome singletracks of the Dominican Side. Mike wiped out in one of the trails and didn't get hurt bladly thanks to his agility. I followed Steve's and Mike's wheels over a nice jump in one of the fireroads and I got some air as well. It feels good. We also explored some trails and found a very interesting downhill famous one M&M. It needs some clean up work and we may be able to ride some sections of it because it has really big jumps. It is hard to believe somebody can ride that! I followed Mike and Steve down a downhill technical descend singletrack I have been wanting to do for years but didn't have the guts to do! Finally I did it and I cleared it. It feels good!

After 3 hours and 20 something miles of singletrack delight we went back to the cars, drove to Marin Brew Co. and had beer while listening to a live band playing in the plaza while married women and children danced all over the place.

Tamarancho 5th b-day Ride

2006-05-22T13:49:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday's ride in Tamarancho turned out to be a really fun day....

Tamarancho No Dab Race
Around 9:30 am I called Julio: -- Hey Julio, can you pick me up on your way to Fairfax?
-- Okay, but call Joe and tell him we will be late, he replied (He is a good friend, for once Julio could have been at Deer Park on time but he sacrificed his punctuality and the possibility to get coffee to pick me up in Mill Valley)
-- Did you call Joe? Julio asked when he arrived at my house.
-- Fuck! I forgot to call him!
-- Chinga tu madre! Julio replied, now Joe will think we are late again because of me!
We arrived to Deer Parl at 10:15 am instead of 10:00 am. I thought they were going to be there since we usually wait for about 30 minutes. But nobody was waiting at the parking lot.
-- Oh well, I told Julio, probably Philip and Joe didn't want to wait any longer and took off already so let's forget about them and and do our own Tamarancho ride.
-- Chinga tu madre! (you know the mother is always blamed for everything) it's your fault!, said Julio. But I thought it was okay since we could be the Latin representation on the "Tamarancho No Dabs Race"
On our way to the camp while climbing Iron Spring road, I got a phone call from Philip (who was supposed to be with Joe). -- You turrrrrist! why you didn't wait forrrrr us? (Philip trying to imitate my accent).
-- What?!, I replied, I saw Joe's car at the parking lot and thought you took off with him.
-- You turrrrrist!, Philip yelled, don't underrrrrstand English! Wait forrrrr us.
When we rendevouz, it turned out Philip was with Steve and his brother Kurt.
-- Wherrrrre is Joe?, was Philip's first question, after a good laugh, we all said: -- Probably Joe had some coffee this morning, saw some girls going toward Tamarancho and just took off following them.
-- It is 11:00 am already so why don't you do my ride?, asked Steve, so we all decided to ride with Steve and Kurt.

In the meantime, we all were trying not to dab to see if we could get a free beer from Danny later on at the Iron Spring Brew b-day party. I was on my single speed so I was not taking my no dabbing very seriously, but after clearing the face rock and the rock garden wihtout any dabs then I was really paying attention to every detail on the trails.

Right before the rock garden, we finally found Joe with two girls, Drew and Terry, and with Jim. So for a while we all rode together, some of us trying not to dab although some like Joe and Philip were putting their feet or their whole bodies on the floor a.k.a. dabbing.

Before the ride was over, Joe joined Steve, Philip and Kurt. Jim stayed with Drew and Terry. And Julio and I ended up finishing the camp together. I dabbed on a tight left stwichback on the last climb before the last dirt road. I was bummed. But Julio's flat made me forget about my dab. We put some air so the stan could seal the tire, swap bikes since the tire was still loosing some air and I weigh a little less than Julio. Barbara's friends lent us a pump at Iron Spring road so we could finish the ride, go back to the cars and get ready for beers.

Click on the map to see ride stats, and other GPS goodies!

Tamarancho 5th B-day Party
Iron Springs Brew was filled with bikers, their families and friends. I can't mention everybody I saw because the list will fill pages and pages of this blog. But I remember Michael Moore, my favorite plumber, who got a free beer from me because he saved my family from a week of not having hot water. Eric Muhler, the Maestro, playing the piano who didn't get a free beer from me because he was sick. My neighbors the Colombians: Julio Leon with his son Juan and nephew Jorge playing congas and the tambora drum (yes, they got free beers too). Julio's wife, Ellen with their other two kids David and Daniel and niece Alejandra (Juan's daughter). Sally, my partner, chatting away with every biker at the place. My kids Alejandro, Nicole and Andrea, trying not to be too bored. Dana and Cowboy who were flirting with each other while Sally was jealous. Eric Sayetta and Lena who was filled with poison oak! Dolores and Tom who donated cute mini-skirts and arm warmers. Karen and Russell, John Sarter who was covered with mud from head to toe, Ron, Pete and Mo, Susan missing his boyfriend Rob. All the friends I rode with mentioned above plus Dave and Wayne who did their own ride too. Other Freewheelers Robyn (who will probably kick my butt at the Tamarancho race this July), Vernon, Larry, Molly, Barbara (who drunk Sally forgot she was at the last book club), Randy (who thought I was Sally's husband), Val (who I also hugged at Deer Park), Matt, Jim (who is coming to a focus group with me today to talk about Headlands trails) and Michael Kelly and Lloyd (who even danced to the music!).

And the best part of the party (besides the beers, seeing friends and playing drums of course) was the 2007 free Tamarancho pass Danny gave me since there were no females with no dabs present at the time!

My new hybrid XC/SuperD/DH bike

2006-05-15T10:52:00.000-07:00

(CLICK ON THE IMAGE FOR A BEAUTIFUL CLOSE UP)

For some time, I have been flirting with the idea of a bike with enough travel to help me clear more technical sections, race Super D and Downhill while keeping it light enough to to ride it all over Marin trails with all its climbs and descends.

I wasn't sure a hybrid bike like that was possible but after riding in Santa Cruz with my friend and MotionBased team member Dan O'Connor (he rides a Nomad), and also hearing that Mark Weir rides his Nomad as a trail XC bike all over the place, I decided to give it a try...

About 32 hours of research later (gosh the equivalent of 3 full working days!) I was able to come up with a list of components to go with my brand new Santa Cruz Nomad frame.

The end result is a hybrid mountain bike with 6.5 " rear travel and 6.3" front travel that weights only 29 pounds, light enough for XC and Super D riding and also for lots of Down Hill riding!!! That is what I call VERSATILE.

To give you a better idea, here is the weight of my 3 mountain bikes with equivalent tires:
* Hardtail SS bike, Seven Ti Sola frame, 22 lbs (it could be 20 lbs with a lighter fork, but got a Fox Talas perfect for technical riding)
* Full suspension Santa Cruz Blur XC: 25 lbs (it is 23 lbs when I swap to my racing wheels Olivier built for me with lighter racing tires)
* Full suspension Santa Cruz Nomad XC, Super D & DH: 29 lbs!!!
(I also got a road bike, Seven Sola Ti frame, 17.5 lbs and I hope this is it for me!)

But before I tell you the components, I have to thank 3 guys (and good friends) that knowing how I ride helped me so much to give birth to this awesome hybrid bike:

* Joe Towbis, the guy in the picture below building my bike, who besides advice and deals, built the bike with me in his garage. He actually has built 3 of my bikes and I know how to maintain and work on my bikes mainly thanks to him. (Tom, Olivier and Frank have also taught me and encouraged me to work on my bikes).

* Olivier Bock, my favorite MotionBased team captain and the one encouraging me to keep training hard and stay in shape for XC races. He actually sent me the original list of components he would put on the bike which is not very different from the list I ended up with!
* Michael Yares, Dana's boyfriend, who gave me critical advice for the DH components I ended up putting on the bike e.g. awesome gravity dropper!!!

Olivier and Joe's advice based on XC riding got balanced by Michael's advice based on DH riding. This was critical for the creation of the hybrid versatile Nomad.

I also wanted to thank Eric Admunson from Pleasant Cyclery, for his business and my bro the Puertorican Frank who I am already missing at Sunshine Bicycles.

Santa Cruz Nomad Components list:
Frame: Nomad Anodize Small w/ DHX 5 Air rear shock http://www.santacruzbikes.com
Rear Derailleur: SRAM X0 Rear Med Derailleur http://www.sram.com/
Front Derailleur: my old SHIMANO XTR (the SRAM doesn't work for that frame!)
Trigger Shifters: SRAM X0 front & back http://www.sram.com/
Cassette: SRAM 9-speed PG-990 11-34T option http://www.sram.com/
Chain: SRAM 991 http://www.sram.com/
Pedals: SHIMANO Shimano PD-M647
Chainguide: e-13 DRS Dual Ring Security http://www.e13components.com/product_drs.html
Handlebar: Easton MonkeyLite SL riser handlebar http://eastonbike.com/
Brakes: Magura Marta SL Brakes w/ 160 rotor in front & back http://www.magura.com/
Wheels & Hubs: Stan’s Rims ZTR 355 light with silver revolution spokes, front WTB 20 mm thru-axle hub, back wheel American Classic hub http://www.notubes.com/
Seatpost: Gravity dropper with 30.9 shims, 3 inches drop, 350 mm long http://www.gravitydropper.com/
Fork: 36 Van RC2 http://www.foxracingshox.com/
Crankset & Bottom bracket: 3 rings Truvativ Stylo Team Giga X Pipe 44/32/22T 165 mm arms
http://www.sram.com/en/truvativ/index_content.php
Stem: Thompson Elite 0° x 50 x 25.4 mm http://www.lhthomson.com/
Headset: Chris King Black http://www.chrisking.com/
Tires for XC: front Kenda Nevegal 2.35, back Kenda Karma 2.0 or Kenda Short Tracker 2.1
Tires for Super D/DH: front Kenda Nevegal 2.5, back Kenda Karma 2.2