I went on a reconnaissance ride in the Santa Monica mountains today, covering some of the trails that could conceivably comprise the Rough Riders ride, and I'd have to say that Dustin is right on this one.
I put some 35mm Paselas on my Romulus, which were the widest I had on hand. I was able to do the fire trails, though it wasn't what I'd consider a good time. And when I peered down the canyon walls at the various singletrack trails, I said fuggedaboutit, there's no effin' way I'm going down there on 35mm Paselas, much less on a road bike. A wise decision, perhaps, because when I later encountered a couple of mountain bikers at a certain fork in the road where one could opt for singletrack down the canyon or remain on the fire trail on the ridge, they highly discouraged me from following them down the canyon, even as they admired the Romulus and were impressed that it had carried me as far as I had without incident. As it was, even on the relatively groomed fire trails, the 35 Paselas slid around a lot on the powdery dirt and sharp rocks and pebbles. Over the more hardpacked descending stretches where the dirt is grated to aid the traction of park ranger and emergency vehicles, the ride quality was jackhammer jolting, making control of the bike nearly impossible. It's clearly mountain bike territory, unless you happen to be super skilled at riding road bikes over very rough terrain and bunny hopping cervices carved by runoff rainwater. To top it off, by the end of the ride, my rear wheel (32 spoke Open Pro/Ultegra) had come significantly out of true. The ish took a beating! Aaron On May 9, 6:08 pm, Dustin Sharp <[email protected]> wrote: > FYI, I¹ve ridden with Chris Kostman on a Rough Riders ride here in San > Diego. CK often thinks nothing of doing gravel roads and fireroads on > 25-35s. So I¹m guessing that if he suggests that most people would want a > ³real² MTB for the ride--he means it. And the pace for the ride here was > definitely spirited. > > Dustin > > On 5/9/09 4:54 PM, "David Estes" <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > > On Sat, May 9, 2009 at 2:06 PM, james black <[email protected]> wrote: > > >> On Fri, May 8, 2009 at 22:35, David Estes <[email protected]> wrote: > >>> > I'd love to do it, but the distance and more so the pace they project is > >>> > above my ability/endurance... to bad as it would be great. Make sure > >>> > you > >>> do > >>> > it so you can lead us on a Riv Ride come this fall!!!!!!!!!! > > >> This ride sounds like it is beyond my ability/endurance as well, and > >> the closest thing I have right now to a mountain bike is a road bike > >> with 28mm tires and an internal hub gear. And I'm desperately studying > >> for an exam I am taking on May 19th. But in a few months I would enjoy > >> meeting some folks for a ride in the Santa Monica Mountains - maybe we > >> can chart a course for some of the paved roads and fire roads more > >> suitable for road bikes, although I don't know the area well enough > >> personally to plan a route without doing research. > > >> James Black > >> Los Angeles, CA > > >> --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ > > > James, I think we could have a lot of fun up in them thar hills! The XO-1 > > Ride sounds like it's mostly fireroad, so a 28mm can do it no problem. It's > > doing 50 miles of fire road at a fast pace... that's the trick!!! > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
