Store Blog: West Vancouver

From Fromme #3…. Halfway there

Sep 01.10   Posted in category: Travel

The last few rides have shown one thing.... fall is on it's way.  But that's fine by me.  I LOVE fall riding.  It is by far my favorite time of year to ride!

Please excuse my lack of photos.....  A couple of the rides I went on were towards dusk and the light was just not working out for good pics with the equipment I have available.

Ladies Only / Upper Skull / Lower Skull

I thought I could make it all the way up and down when I left my house at 7pm.  But, it is mid-August.  So as I started down Ladies at about 8:15, it was starting to seem a bit dark....

Ladies is arguably the best trail on the Shore right now.  It's been said over and over again on the forums all spring and summer: THANK YOU DIGGER!  There is not enough that can be said about the flow of this trail.  I didn't start riding it until this year and it has been my favorite challenge of the year to fully link it all up and go top to bottom.  Such a great trail :).

The problem was that when I got to the bottom of Upper Skull, it was basically dark.  I can now advise that trying to ride Skull in the dark is not a good idea.

Pipeline / Lower Ladies / The Crater

Riding up the hill, I started noticing the leaves starting to turn.... if I didn't admit it to myself the other night, now I knew that summer was starting to end.

I used to (try to) ride Pipeline a lot.  It was the first trail on Fromme that I tried and I just stuck with it.  I enjoyed it, as much as you can enjoy trying to ride a trail like Pipeline on a dirtjump hardtail with a 4" fork.  But, it is a lot better on a big bike.  I like all of the features on the trail; the bridges at the start, the rock rollers, and the teeter.  The flowing section at the end is great as well.  You can get a lot of speed going and things stay technical and fun. 

I rode Lower Ladies earlier this year, and it needed work.  There were portions of the trail that were almost totally washed away.  Well, someone was listening to my thoughts because it has gotten some work and is in pretty good shape.  There are still a couple of steep sections that I can't quite get my head around yet.  It's good to have goals for next year.  And finishing on the Crater Drop always helps my ego.

Squeaky Elbow / Upper Oil Can / Grannies / Upper Crippler / The Elevator / Lower Crippler

Riding up the road, I started noticing that the higher I went, the more I could see my breath.... in August.... as summer continues to show signs of ending.

Squeaky Elbow is a little trail above the seventh switchback that, from the looks of it, doesn't get a lot of use anymore.  There were about 3 trees down within the first minute of the trail, and a couple more at the end.  It could be fun, but it needs work. 

Upper Oil Can was actually very similar to Lower Oil Can, which I didn't really expect for some reason but quite enjoyed.  Kind of a nice blend of technical, steep sections with some skinnies, including a little playground area with an uphill skinny at the end that I just couldn't get. 

I have to say that I've ridden Grannies earlier this year, and it was just not for me.  I just can't get it, and I'll say that when I try to ride it, I end up walking sections and it just gets frustrating.  I've heard from some people that it is considered to be an old school cross country trail, so maybe that's why the trail, myself, and my Norco Shore just can't all get along.

But then, off Grannies, I found the entrance to Crippler, which I didn't see last time.  Was I glad to find this trail!  Lots of technical sections, little steeps, tight corners.  This is what the Shore is all about.  Crippler would be another great trail to train to DH race on.  However, I would also say this is another trail that needs to be buffed up a bit too though.

The Elevator and Lower Cripper came up on the other side of Baden Powell and kind of cross over each other at a couple of different points.  More fun technical riding, and there were some nice new sections that have been worked on recently that have some fresh new berms and log rides.  The DNV and the NSMBA have sure been doing a lot of great work on some of the Fromme trails recently.

So, night rides are pretty much done for the summer because of light.  Most of the rides I have left to do all the trails will be pretty long, so they will be more half day rides on my days off.  But, I'm happy to have made it this far!  Might be a bit over goal for the end of the month, but we'll see what happens.

Kelly

Incredible Custom Passoni Road Bike

Aug 25.10   Posted in category: Random

Here's a couple shots of an absolutely beautiful hand-crafted Italian road bike we just finished up for a very particular and lucky customer. Pictures don't do it justice..This is the type of bike when you just have to have something that no one else in the group will have. Or no one else in the Fondo. Or probably in Canada....

It is a Passoni. They are a boutique custom builder in Italy, specializing in Ti but also doing some nice carbon work.

The bike is an XXTi model - carbon seat tube/integrated seat post with all other tubes in Ti. The bar/stem combo, fork and bottle cages are also custom carbon bits made for Passoni.

Of course a bike like this is equipped with a complete Campagnolo Super Record11 groupset. And it is rolling on some incredible Lighweight deep section all carbon clinchers. Look pedals, Selle Italia leather colour saddle and matching bar tape set it off. The fork and bars are Ivory coloured. The head badge, handpainted is just Ivory, not coloured.

Logos and customer name laser etched into the Ti.

How much does it weigh? 15.05 lbs as pictured.

How much does it cost? If you have to ask....

From Fromme: Week #2, Norco Demos, and Crankworx!

Aug 16.10   Posted in category: Travel

Holy cow, what a busy week....  Got in 5 rides, Fromme got some rain (thank god!),  we tried out some new toys from Norco, and went to Crankworx slopestyle!

38DD / Roadside Attraction / King's Crawl / Dreamland / King Of The Shore

38DD is kind of noted on the way up Fromme because of a huge drop off a rock with bad run in (right before the 3rd switchback).  There is so much more there.  This is a trail that needs a maintenance day that would turn it into a pinner, DH training trail.  There is so much potential in this trail.  Another fun little rip that I think I may have ridden once before and just ignored.  It's amazing now foolish I feel now about some of my riding choices......

Things got a little more XC, but fun, as we ripped down Roadside and looped around some of the lower trails.  There's been a lot of work developing the lower trails into more of a beginners network, and the result is some buff little trails that everyone can rip and have a great time on.  KOTS is a really fun loop that I will check out more in the future.  It's another great trail to end your ride on, and can lengthen out your ride rather than just pinning down Natural High.

Here's some random pics from the day....  a good scenery pic day!

Lower Oil Can / The Owler / Dempsey Trail

Lower Oil Can is one of my favorite trails, but I always seem to ride it when it's wet.  It makes some of the skinnies fun, and they are surprisingly achievable even when they're wet.  Go North Shore cedar.  Here are some pics of my favorite section on the trail.

The Owler was kind of an old creek bed trail that we stumbled across and it took a minute to figure out where we were.  Super rocky and kind of hard to pick lines.  It was a good challenge.  Dempsey is a nice smooth finish to any number of lines.  I haven't gone out that way in a while and it was a good change.

The 2011 Norco Range

Pat from Norco dropped off a couple of the new Range bikes off at our shop.  I snagged them for my girlfriend and I to try out right away. 

With the light going down earlier at night now, we only managed to get a couple of quick night rides in.  We checked out some of the lower trails on Fromme again (King of The Shore, Floppy, Griffens, Natural High). 

With kind of a quick review, I can say this bike is a good change for the Norco line up.  I was really impressed with the feeling of having a low BB height when desending, without sacrificing any climbing ability in the bike when going up.  I really liked the feeling of RaceFace SIXC bar.  It was really comfortable and went with the rest of the build very well.  As far as possible improvements, this bike NEEDS a chainguide.  I found that there was a lot of noise and chain slap which a chainguide would help out with a lot.  Also, the Nobby Nic tires are not a great Shore tire.  On damp roots, there was no traction.  This took away a bit from the enjoyment of the ride, because we kept rolling into things and wondering if the tires would hold.

Overall, this is a great bike and a really fun ride.  I've been bugging my girlfriend Kelsie for a long time that she needs a new bike, and this confirmed it for her.  She commented many times about how this bike inspired confidence and she was riding faster than me by the end of the ride.

Crankworx 2010

I have to throw this in at the end, because I've never been to Crankworx and we went up to check out the slopestyle contest this Saturday.  We got a great spot to watch near the top starting area.

I was really stoked to see this contest because of Casey Groves.  I met Casey when I worked in Kelowna.  It's been cool to know him for the last few years and watch his career develop, so it was really exciting to see him do well and get on the podium in 3rd place.  One of my best friends, Mike Kirk, is also one of Casey's best friends, and Casey let the cat out of the bag on what he was going to look to try and do. We knew that Casey was planning to tailwhip the huge drop off the judge's tower, so we were pretty nervous watching him do the step up and just praying that he wouldn't die.

Before he did his last run, we went up to the starting area to see him and I've never seen a happier kid in my life.  He couldn't even talk.   But he did a 360 anyway.

Here is one happy guy!

Crankworx is a bit of a spectacle but I ran into a lot of old friends which was awesome.  Kelsie and I went riding on Sunday and it was good to get some laps in with a lot of old friends that I haven't ridden with in a long time.  I will be having some A-Line withdrawl this week.....

Kelly