OT: Mountain bike pics from Fruita

[bike21]

Inspiration struck me reading Mad Doggy Dog's thread from Antigua (great post btw!) to post some fun riding pics. It was my buddy's 30th birthday this past weekend, so we headed out to Fruita, Colorado for some camping, cheap beer consumption and lots of good riding. Certainly nice to get away from the daily woes of our industry...

#1 - Fueling up for a good day of riding!




#2 - The gang getting their groove on!




#3 - My friend Corey tearing it up!




#4 - The birthday boy enjoying it to the max!




#5 - No shortage of dogs in Colorado




#6 - Bikes are cool.




#7 - The gang getting to some frothy refreshments after a long day riding.




#8 - Camp fire + good friends + cheap beer + cheap wine = a great time!




#9 - Not a bad place to ride at all.




#10 - Corey getting a little air.




#11 - My turn for some air time




#12 - Colorado singletrack, nothing like it




#13 - Thanks for the good times Fruita!





No bicycles were harmed in the production of these photographs, only humans were with a few cuts, bruises and wind burns

[pntbllr233]

Nice picture. I would love to try that in Oklahoma, but you need mountains. We seem to be short of mountains in OK.

[JA Yawd Bwoy]

I would love to try that in JA! lol Great pics!

[FlySooner9]

Nice pics. Im a huge mountain biker myself. Im in Oklahoma so our trails arn't really as pretty as that lol, theres a lot of good rides around the state though. I competed last year on the oklahoma mountain bike series and it was fun see the different trails around the state. What kind of bike do you ride?

[bike21]

Thanks! I will summon the earthquake Gods to create some mountains in OKC if you want!

However, there can be good riding found in some surprising areas. Some of my favorite trails located right in the heart of the Midwest.

[bike21]

Originally Posted by Craig_Davidson

Nice pics. Im a huge mountain biker myself. Im in Oklahoma so our trails arn't really as pretty as that lol, theres a lot of good rides around the state though. I competed last year on the oklahoma mountain bike series and it was fun see the different trails around the state. What kind of bike do you ride?

Nice to hear you raced! Racing is soooo much fun, I love the camaraderie of mountain bikers and competitive spirit at the same time. I think we need to have a JC M&G mountain bike style!

Asking what bike I ride is kind of a big question...our garage has 12 of them at the moment. Each has its own purpose though My main trail bike is this rig....

[FlySooner9]

Nice bike man, wish i had 12 of them lol. Anyway if your ever in Oklahoma especially central, give me a PM or something. I'll be here for at least the next 3 years.

[SoCalAprch]

very nice!

[coa787]

Cool photos!

[Mad Doggy Dog]

Originally Posted by bike21

Inspiration struck me reading Mad Doggy Dog's thread from Antigua (great post btw!) to post some fun riding pics. It was my buddy's 30th birthday this past weekend, so we headed out to Fruita, Colorado for some camping, cheap beer consumption and lots of good riding.

Awesome Bike21!

Fruita is great place to ride.

Last time I was there, a tree jumped out in front of me and clocked me pretty good.

Looks like you were riding the BLM land north of town along the Bookshelf mts?


--------------------------------------------------
Married life of a mountain biker true story snippet:


Me: Honey, I am going on a mountain bike safari for 3 weeks. I am going to ride near DEN, COS, Fuita, Aspen, Crested Butte, Moab, Wasatch front, and Park City. Can you go for part of that?

her: Probably not, have fun.


This conversation was repeated numerous times in the months leading to departure in late September 02.

So the day before I was to leave and was loading up the SUV, my wife says, "what are you doing....are you going somewhere?"

Me: Uh, yeah! I'm leaving for my 3 week mountain bike safari.

Her: You didn't tell me about that! You can't just go away for 3 weeks....what about me?

Me: I mentioned it about 20 times. You said it was OK.

Her: No I didn't

Me: Yes you did

Her: No I didn't

Me: Yes you did

Her: No I didn't

Me: Yes you did

Her: Who are you going with?

Me: Nobody.

Her: Why?

Me: Because I can.



Then I said, "Look, I want you to go. How about you fly out to SLC next week and I''ll get a nice hotel in Park City and we will ride The Canyons or Deer Valley."

Her: OK.



So I drove 15 hours from Dallas to Evergreen, Colorado the 1st day. Rode there the next day.

Eventually made it to Fruita. Camped at the state park....the BLM land looked spooky and I was alone with no weapons....other than bear spray and big knife.

Rode part of the Kokopelli Trail - Mary's loop. Passed riders or hikers about every 30 minutes. Saw mountain lion footprints in the sand and decided I probably should not be riding alone here.

The next day I rode the area you photographed. Met some dudes in the trailhead parking lot and rode with them all day.

Cleaned up at the campground and hit the town of Grand Junction for some night life. There was none. Found good beer and nachos though.

Pressed on to Utah to meet up with wife for a nice long weekend.

Sent her home afterwards and had a buddy from ORD meet me, and we headed for Moab. Good times.

Continued journey solo afterwards.

Slept in back of my GMC Envoy.

Saw some FA's I knew on my return through Moab at the Jailhouse Cafe.

Really loved riding on top of Grand Mesa. Was there standing at the rim looking down from 11000' and saw some fighter jets do a high speed fly-by underneath me! That alone was worth the whole trip.

Crested Butte riding rocked too!



Thanx for the pics!

[meyers9163]

Dare I ask how much your bike cost? Those bikes look pretty sweet.... What does something like that run these days?

[deek]

Man that is a sweet bike, looks a lot like the old Tomac revolvers, I race a Raleigh hardtail and was in a race this sunday here in the northern Houston area, 17 miles in 1:52, which just shows how not riding for 3 weeks prior to the race will bike you in the arse. I'm looking to get a new KHS this year. Houston has just a few decent trails, but nothing like you guys have, Rocky Mountains and all. Nice riding.

[troopernflight]

Come on over to SC, we had some fun riding down Paris Mtn in the Upstate. Although my buddy fell twice, once into a briar patch, and 2nd onto a part of trail that is covered by sharp rocks. No major injuries, but he was hurting. I think my heart rate was 180 coming back up the mountain. Fun stuff!

[bike21]

Originally Posted by Mad Doggy Dog

Looks like you were riding the BLM land north of town along the Bookshelf mts?


--------------------------------------------------
Married life of a mountain biker true story snippet: ......



Crested Butte riding rocked too!



Thanx for the pics!

Yep, north of town we were! Your story reminds me of a three week odyssey I did after college. Lots riding and camping out west with two bikes & my Jeep. Hung out with various friends along the way, it was a truly wonderful time! I rode the Front Range, Crested Butte, Durango, Moab & Fruita along the way. Ahhh the memories

Crusty Butt does rule! Planning a trip there pretty soon as a matter of fact!

Originally Posted by meyers9163

Dare I ask how much your bike cost? Those bikes look pretty sweet.... What does something like that run these days?

Umm...without quoting my exact total lets say something of that nature runs between 4-5k. Worth every penny too!

Originally Posted by deek

Man that is a sweet bike, looks a lot like the old Tomac revolvers, I race a Raleigh hardtail and was in a race this sunday here in the northern Houston area, 17 miles in 1:52, which just shows how not riding for 3 weeks prior to the race will bike you in the arse. I'm looking to get a new KHS this year. Houston has just a few decent trails, but nothing like you guys have, Rocky Mountains and all. Nice riding.

Good to hear you are racing! I am trying hard to get back to it again this year. Some of my best memories were from the racing days. Have fun!

Originally Posted by troopernflight

Come on over to SC, we had some fun riding down Paris Mtn in the Upstate. Although my buddy fell twice, once into a briar patch, and 2nd onto a part of trail that is covered by sharp rocks. No major injuries, but he was hurting. I think my heart rate was 180 coming back up the mountain. Fun stuff!

Nice! Never ridden in SC, but would love to. I have done some nice east coast riding, but sure would like to get down to NC/SC sometime. All these Colorado folks would have a hard time in the mud & roots out there!

Its great that there are so many JC ridres! If any of ya'll make it out to Colorado sometime give me a shout. I would be happy to show you some local trails. And maybe even a few of the top secret ones too

[meyers9163]

haha indeed a nice bike... Guess I'll never have one however! haha

[bike21]

Originally Posted by meyers9163

haha indeed a nice bike... Guess I'll never have one however! haha

Nah, you can get a pretty sweet entry level rig for around $1200 or so. Even less depending on what kind of riding you want to do. Craigslist is a great source for used bikes to start out.

You only 'need' to spend the big bucks on bikes once you are racing or doing lots of gnarly riding and need the performance/light weight/parts longevity.

[jtrain609]

Dude I'm gettin' a bike here, you gonna come out to Park City and ride? We're just down the road when you get some days off!

Oh if you didn't hear me and Emily just rented a condo in PC for the next year, you of course know you're more than welcome to come out, chill, ride and ski or whatever.

[bike21]

Originally Posted by jtrain609

Dude I'm gettin' a bike here, you gonna come out to Park City and ride? We're just down the road when you get some days off!

Oh if you didn't hear me and Emily just rented a condo in PC for the next year, you of course know you're more than welcome to come out, chill, ride and ski or whatever.

Right on! I am there! I have a buddy who lives in Heber City who is a pro mountain biker, so he knows all the local rides there. We have been meaning to pay him a visit soon, so we will be out there soon. If you want, I could try to hook you guys up sometime soon too. We might do a big road trip later in the year hitting the various trails along the way to SLC and back, so I will let you know if/when it happens.

Are you already in PC?

[jtrain609]

Let me know what's going on maing! I'm just getting into this whole mountain biking thing this summer, but my former room mate/best man in the upcoming wedding is big into it. He just got his bike (a Giant) last week and I think is itching to get up on it. I'm not going to be investing a ton in a bike this first year while I get into things, but in the next month or so I'm planning on getting a bike so I can get going with this gig. My buddy's also big into back country skiing, which he's trying to get me into. He just mounted a pair of AT bindings to a set of Teneighty Guns, has his skins, already had the beacon from yesteryear, blah blah blah. In other words, ima get killed with this guy, but it should be a good ride

We're all moved up to Park City, we just need to get fully unpacked. We managed to get all our furniture in before I had to go to work for the week. I'll be back this weekend to unpack the rest of our stuff and do our last little bit of cleaning up from moving in. We'll be there until May 1st of 2009, so this summer/coming winter should be awesome

EDIT: And what I really meant to say was, I'll ask Emily if it's cool for folks to come crash on our futon, but she likes you so she'll be like, "of course!"