Pictures from this mornings ride

One of the guys we rode with this morning ( "Tandem" from http://www.socaltrailriders.org/ ) took some great pictures and has been kind enough to let me post them.

One of the regroup points

No pressure while changing my flat



"JSD", Jake, and Vincent



"Grego" and myself

Me

Regroup at the tunnels

Here is where I almost puked

Waiting to go

Jake and I

In the parking lot before the ride

Jakes first MTB ride

This morning we left the house at 7:00am and drove out to Fullerton to ride the Fully Loop with the SoCalTrailRiders.org group.  This was a fun ride with a great group of guys.  There was one other kid there besides Jacob,  his name is Vincent and the two of them were shredding.  I on the other hand cracked after  about 1/4 of the total ride, I almost puked.  We were going to turn back, but I decided to push on a little further and I caught my second wind and was fine after that.  This was Jakes first ride in the dirt and this was my first ride in 10 years, but it was so much fun and we had such a great crew that I can definitely say that I am back!

My Bike is the Airborne Marauder, Jakes Bike is the Giant Boulder.

It's Here

Today I heard a knock at the door and found a Fed Ex guy trying to carry a box that was 5' long and 4' wide, he was only about 5'2" tall.

I could not wait to open the box, my wife left the house so she would not have to see me make a mess.
And make a mess I did.

It took a little while but I got it all together.  It looks great, but I still have to adjustthe shifters, the front brake has a bracket on the wrong way and the brakes need to be adjusted, and one crank arm was on wrong.  I will fix it tomorrow and hopefully get to ride this weekend.

Just a cool video of my favorite pro rider!

Berrecloth On All Three Bikes

Bike Ordered

Yesterday I ordered my new bike from Airborne Bicycles.  I got the Marauder.  Now I just have to wait until it ships.

Decisions, Decisions

I am ready to buy my bike but now I cannot choose between two models.  Both bikes are from Airborne Bicycles (I have not been able to find bikes spec'd like these at anywhere close to their prices) one is the Marauder and the other is the Zeppelin Elite.

The Marauder
The Marauder is a All Mountain/ Freeride bike with six inches of travel, a sram x-5/x-7 drive train with FSA 22/32 crank with bash guard, and mechanical disk brakes.

The Zeppelin Elite
The Zeppelin Elite is a 5" trail bike that is spec'd out nicely with sram x-7/x-9 drive train with FSA 22/32/42 cranks and tektro hydraulic disk brakes.

I like both of them to start and I can see possible upgrades to them both in the future.  If I get the Marauder eventually I see an upgrade in the suspension to a heavier fork and a rear shock that has some adjustment in it.  The mechanical disk brakes would probably have to be changed to hydraulic eventually.  When I say eventually I mean when they break.  In the Zeppelin I see less need to upgrade, it is spec'd pretty nice.

The Marauder is $699.95 with tax and shipping it would be $807.95,  The Zeppelin Elite is normally $799.95 but they have one listed as a demo from Sea Otter at $649 and I figure tax and shipping will be about $100 bringing it up to around $750.  The cost on either will be within about $50 of each other.

The big question is what can each do.   Both of them should be able to handle all of the trails around this area and even the trails up in Big Bear.  The Zeppelin should have the advantage in climbing and the Marauder should have it descending.  Being that I am more drawn toward the gravity side of riding the Marauder will probably win, I would rather have to push a little harder going up so that I can ride harder and faster on the way down.

New Bike

Two weeks till I get a new bike, I believe it will be from a company called Airborne the bike is called the Marauder.  It is a 6" travel All Mountain/Freeride bike that fits what I am looking for to a tee.  Soon my son Jake and I will be out there shredding (really just having fun/training so he can do some xc racing on his Giant and I can race some super d).