Mountain Biking Northern California

Waldo Lake Single Speed Experiment

August 23rd, 2006 by Ogre

Chum at Waldo Lake near Oakridge, ORThe first of several ride reports I’ll be posting from the MTB Oregon Ride. I apologize for the flood of posts here but lots going on in my riding world!

Waldo Lake was our second day at MTB Oregon and was not an actual sanctioned event. It was just a bunch of guys who got together for a bonus ride. I made a big miscalculation on this ride. Since my bike was having some mechanical problems, I decided to try out a demo bike, a fully rigid Redline Monocog Singlespeed. I’ve played around a little in parking lots and such with singlespeeds but, this was my first full length ride on one. I’d been invited to ride out at Waldo Lake, a “Mostly Flat Trail that circles Waldo Lake”. This was supposed to be a rest day between two challenging rides. When I first started riding, the Monocog and I got along just fine. It is a little harsh but it was also the most responsive bike I’ve ever ridden. The bike just carved up corners. The gearing was a bit high yet seemed rideable. The hills got tougher and tougher as the day progressed and I was really suffering by the end of the day. My legs were shot and I wound up walking quite a few sections I would normally ride. Also, my arms were sore from the constant pounding they were getting from the rigid fork. Ouch! So much for a rest day. This could have turned into a huge problem for the Middle Fork Ride I was doing the next day. Please enjoy the Pictures and Trail Report For Waldo Lake.

Pinecrest -> Pinball… Well Sortof

August 7th, 2006 by Ogre

Ugh. long assed day. The ride was GREAT. It seems that every time I ride Pinecrest I remember how awesome this place is… then promptly forget. Someone has done some major reworks on Pinecrest… tons of trailwork on this trail. I didn’t much care for the 300 or so rock or log water bars they added but there are a couple of technical sections that they reworked/ added that were a total blast. The technical sections at the bottom of Pinecrest are still super fun and I was in top form today. Overall, still one of the most underrated trails I have ridden. I also heard after the fact that there is about 1/2 mile of additional singletrack at the top of Pinecrest. I’m not quite sure where it starts yet though, somewhere near the actual peak I believe.  Read the rest of this entry »

Long Delayed South Yuba Video

May 22nd, 2006 by Ogre

About a month ago I promised a video from our South Yuba Ride. Then I proceeded to dawdle and delay again and again plus tried to upload it to Google vidoes until finally I gave up on Google and posted it on YouTube. However the qualiy of the YouTube video is pretty weak so I went ahead and posted the original quicktime here as well.

Here is the original Higher Quality Quicktime video or but if you are bandwidth challenged or just too lazy to mess with quicktime, here is the YouTube version.