Summer Arrives!

After a relatively mild spring, summer arrived in full-swing this past weekend here in Phoenix. Tom and I started early (about 6am) but not nearly early enough. We started up Javelina Trail, then joined Mormon and climbed up. The slight morning breeze was cool at the passes, but the temps were climbing quickly. I'd not been on the bike in about a month, so I was sucking badly.. :(

Turned it around at the junction of Mormon/National and headed back down. A quick video after the jump.

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Later that day, I took Jaden to the last day of his 3-day Cub Scout Day Camp. I was back at South Mountain for the second time that day.
Lots of sunscreen, water and fun was the order of the day.

From Cub Scout Day Camp - 2010

From Cub Scout Day Camp - 2010

As residents of the valley, we often forget what a great resource we have in South Mountain Park

Arizona Spring Fling 2009 Sedona

Sorry for the length.. just too much fun stuff/footage to cut here. This is from the Sat. MTBR ride this past March, 2009 in Sedona. Part of the whole 'Spring Fling' series of rides which happens every year around spring break time. Great day to be out riding, party at the Bike & Bean followed. Stay tuned for some fun/hillarity at the end of the vid. The music is from the SXSW 2008 festival, you can catch Artist/Track info in the ending credits... Enjoy! :)

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Az. Spring Fling 2009 - Sedona Ride from tim schneider on Vimeo.

Black Canyon Trail (BCT)

Mike emailed me the other night, said that his neighbor Rick and he were planning on riding the BCT loop, which is not far from his place up in New River. I wanted to see how the new bike would do on something more cross-country in nature, so I dialed down the shock and tossed it into the Honda Element and met them Sunday morning.

About 10mins into the ride, I was following Rick down a kinda fast section of trail when my front tire washed out. Murphy's Law was in full effect! I landed on the *only* bed of Cholla Cactus balls in that section of trail. That sucker was hidden from view, like a speed trap near the Mogollon Rim, just waiting for a lamer like me to happen by. Thanks to Mikes flat nosed pliers, I was able to remove the bulk of the spines. The other thing that I was thankful for, was the scrape down lower on my leg? huh? I'd kept re-injuring the same spot, so I wore the kyle strait knee pads and shin wraps for this ride, despite it being total overkill. My knee and lower leg was saved the nasty fate that my upper leg (thigh) suffered.

Caught the incident on video: (low res YouTube and blip.tv versions)

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Other than the cacti encounter, the rest of the ride was really nice! Saw lots of other folks out on the trail enjoying the cool, breezey day. Pretty soon, we'll be getting up at O'Dark Thirty for these rides! Harbor Freight Tools and Walgreens have all the supplies you need to deal with cacti! :-)

GPS Data for the ride here

AZSF 09 is here! T-100 Ride/Vid

Got out for a Wed. afternoon ride with Greg (MTBR handle 'steelmonkey') on Trail 100. The idea was to do a loop, then head over to Aunt Chiledas. Ended up getting over there before the rest of the MTBR crowd showed, and ended up havng to head home due to time constraints. Did meet up with Jeff and SuLing and some of the others for a quick hello and some cheap El Salvadorian beers! (thanks Jeff!) before heading home.

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AZSF 09 T100 Phx. AZ from tim schneider on Vimeo.

Above is a short video of part of the ride.. still getting the latest 'toy' dialed in. Kinda cool, but this GoPro video camera really eats the batteries! I picked up some 1000mah AAA rechargeables to see how they work. I really hope I dont have to buy the Energizer lithiums for this sucker. They are expensive!

Garmin connect data here:

I spot a Green 5 Spot

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IMG_1704
Originally uploaded by honemastert.

Got the bike built last night/morning late.. uuugh. The desert is starting to really green up around here. Beautiful weather today

IMG_1701
Originally uploaded by honemastert.

One more shot from the other angle/side

I spot a 'Green' 5 Spot!

The new bike frame showed last night! I'll have most of the other parts soon, and can begin putting it together shortly! "Fragile.. Must Be Italian?" Nope.. made in the USA!

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I tried to get all the differing angles so you could see the latest 'state of the art' in rear suspension Mtb. design. The key is the 'DW' link which is really simple at first glance, almost one of those.. 'why didnt I think of that' sort of things. In reality, it does wonders for reducing the amount of 'pedal bob' (where the rear end flexes, while pedaling the bike uphill?) This means, less wasted energy in moving the rear shock up and down, and more power transmitted to the back wheel. If you head over to the USTPO (US Trade and Patent Office Patent) you can check out the technical info and also read all the gory details here as well :) The guy that came up with this has licensed the design to several bike mfgs, Turner Bikes being one of them. I've ridden many different bikes and designs from a dozen or so mfgs. This was the first one, that really blew me away as far as pedalability uphill, and plushness on the downhills! Thanks to my SNPS coworker Shaun Evans for introducing me to Turner bikes on our weekly rides last year in San Diego!