grrrah

8 day trip to UT and CO.


Various trails near Moab, UT -




*pic removed until warranty issues settled*





Then off to Fruita and Grand Junction, CO-






Then gone broke my bike

Rented a bike to finish off the last 2 days back in Gooseberry Mesa, UT

wishbone

Beautiful scenery and great pics -- thanks for sharing!

Palaver

Very cool. Looks like lots of fun.

mmconhea

looks like a lot of fun and hard work
great pics

LurkerDan

Nice.

Good to see some Fruita love. Looks like Horsethief Bench and then Bookcliffs (Rd 18)?

Damn, how'd you break that thing? What make/model?

grrrah

Nice call!

Bike broke, just riding along! At least thats what I'm telling the Manufacturer. (but really, it did) It is a Niner Rip9. Best bike Ive owned despite the break (and a lot of them at that).

Moab
Day 0.5 - SlickRock
Day 1 - Amasa Back/Jackson's
Day 2 - Porcupine Rim
Day 3 - Sovereign (no pics)

Fruita
Day 4 - (Grand Junction) Lunch Loops, The Ribbon
Day 5 - Bookcliffs
Day 6 - Kokopelli (Horsethief Bench, etc)

Day 7 - Gooseberry Mesa.

M2theAX

Where do you camp? Do you have a base camp? Would it be easier to be 100% mobile, backpacking?

grrrah

Camped in Moab (near the bottom of Amasa Back), motel everywhere else. Actually, some of the group Moteled it the whole trip. A hot shower and bed did feel good after a day of riding. Breakfast was included too.

We had way too much gear to backpack it. To do these rides, I wouldn't recommend anything harder than car camping.

LurkerDan

car camping is my usual choice. There's some great camping out in Rabbit Valley, and great riding out that way too, Western Rim Trail and others. But for a trip that long, even I would probably throw a few motel nights in there...

M2theAX

^
Oh was just curious saw a great distance covered but not a lot of gear on your backs. Looks like an awesome trip.

4KRG

Damn! Consider me jealous as hell (about the ride and the bike) but it sucks the bike broke

Awesome looking trail though!

I brushed the dust off my bike and went for a few rides already this year, I am getting back into it after taking about 2-3 years off from anything "off-road". (last couple years I just rode on the pavement with the kids)

I am amazed at the new bikes, new designs, and new things out there. I built my bike to be timeless and tough as nails (but I finally popped a spoke for the first time in 10 years, riding error to blame) but the new bikes have my curiosity (29er's).

oh, I see the frame snap, OUCH! That was my biggest issue being a large rider.

LurkerDan

Bikes have come so far in the last few years. My bike (2008 Yeti 575) makes me such a better rider, it's incredible. Of course, it's probably worth as much as my truck!

4KRG

Yep, and you will probably be able to say that again in 3-5 years, throw your bike away, and start over from scratch

I am not ready to do that.....


YET

LurkerDan

To some degree, yes. But by "last few years", my impression is actually that the revolution was really in the early 2000s, and the last 2-3 years have been mostly refinements. The revolution, as I see it, was making big travel bikes work for x-c riding, and improving suspension design (and culling out designs that didn't work well). I don't know if we'll see another revolution like that.

There really is no comparison between a 10 year old full suspension bike, even a great one, and one built in the last 2-3 years.

That having been said, it is always about the rider not the bike. While me on my Yeti is light years better than me on my 1998 hardtail Trek, me on my Yeti is still going to get smoked by a good rider on a single speed.

jeffkjoe

grrrah:

Cool pics.

Question: Did you see any snakes?

grrrah

just one in gooseberry - a nice noisy one

jeffkjoe

Holy mackrel - that's a huge one

BDB

Dang the cracked frame is not cool.

So how fast where you riding when it snapped? Flat? Downhill? Did you come off the bike? or was there a point where you realised something was amiss.

Great photos though.

B.A.

Thanks for sharing the pics.

Beautiful country.

Jacoby Ellsbury

Mountain biking on actual mountains, thats crazy. Took my bike out a few times this past month, Im no expert, dont wear a helmet and pads and couldnt even get up this monster of a hill that they rated the toughest of the trails, but I have a good time on the medium grade trails. My rear brakes need some adjusting or I would have gone down that steep decline on the monster hill, but I flew over my handlebars the prior week. That prior week when I was done riding I wanted to do a skid right in front of my car, but realized my brakes werent strong enough to skid so slammed on the front brakes rather than smashing into my car and went over the handlebars landing right next to my car messing up my shoulder for a few days.

Mole177

awesome!!! must of been fun!

grrrah

flew over the bars and still don't wear a helmet?

I wear a helmet if I am riding 2 blocks to the corner market, but don't want to start a flame war...

Dr Mabuse

the west is the best...

grrrah

It was actually on a flat fire road. I was going about 10 mph, taking pictures with one hand, doing nothing else. BUT, I thought I heard a pop the day before, on a rocky section. Luckily I was able to ride back to the car as I was about 15 miles away from the trailhead. The next day when it did snap, there was a bike festival going on, and it took me 30 minutes to hike back to the trailhead and another 10 min to find a different bike to finish off the ride [lucky me].

BDB

Lucky.. I rode with a guy who snapped an early Aluminium Frame when we were doing a century, when I was a young spritely lad. And it wasn't pleasant when the thing snapped.