Six Mile Run : Test Ride

Spent an hour yesterday, bimbling around the new trail which was cut last week.

I arrived at the car park on Jacques Lane, just in time to find a hunter packing his truck. There was no deer strapped to the hood at least ...

Anyway, I rode into the reserve and quickly found the new trail.

It's pretty good fun, although it needs a fair bit of usage and tuning yet. There was also a lot more new stuff running into the field and plantations, so someone has been very busy.

This was the first time I have ridden my mountain bike for months and it showed. I found it hard to gain a rhythm, although climbing benefited from my recent road work, so threading through the trees and keeping the momentum to negotiate the more technical zones was more of a problem.

But still, I enjoyed it.

Six Mile Run : Trail Maintenance

This Sunday saw a good turn out at the Six Mile Run Reservoir site ready to do some trail maintenance.

Well, not so much maintenance as cut a whole new leisure / multi-use path through a new sector of the woods.

Plenty of preliminary work had been organised by Jason Fenton, proprietor of Halter's Cycles. It says much that the powers that be gave Jay a pretty free hand to carve the route as he saw fit.

Anyway, the day was very hot and humid so work was very, very hard, but totally worthwhile. A large group seemed to accumulate drawn mostly from the mtbnj.com forum.

A great day out and a great contribution to the community by NJ mountainbikers.

Now all I have to do is dig out the old Trek and give the trail a whirl.

Google map here.

More images here.

NMBS : Windham Mountain

I went and did something I haven't done for years ... spent a couple of nights under canvas at the East Coast Round of the US National Mountain Bike Series at Windham Mountain, NY.

Taking place just a few days before the national championships at Mt Snow, VT, it seemed a good time for riders to either show their hand ... or perhaps just keep a straight face.

Anyway, the cross-country course was a fairly typical, although rather short alpine type affair. That is, a rather savage climb up the side of the mountain, followed by a mile or two following the contours, then a white-knuckle descent.

Stand out athlete was Georgia Gould, a US pick for the Olympics, and who is to say, given the margin of her victory here, isn't on track for gold.

Conversely, the men saw their Olympic hopes beaten on the line by Canadian Mathieu Toulouse. Whether the US guys thought they'd get maximum points anyway and weren't going to exert themselves before the Olympics I don't know, but I think it was a bit of a shock for them.

The downhill course was heroic. The main problem being that the best bits were towards the top of the mountain so only the hardiest spectators made it up that far.

For results click here.

I've also posted a collection of images here. Please feel free to use them for your blog or club magazine. For commercial use, please contact me.

My Bikes : Trek 6700 MTB

This is my second Trek mountain bike. It's a few years old now, but spent a lot of that time in a cellar so it still looks pretty good.

I tend to ride a smaller frame than would be advised by a bike shop, but that's what I like. It does mean the seat-pin is on the limits of adjustability and I might need to investigate getting a longer one.

There are no major mods, other than in the cockpit. A slightly longer stem and straighter, narrower handlebars get me into a good position.

I use either SPDs or Kona platform pedals depending on what's happening.

It has a facility for upgrading to disc brakes, but the present brakes are more than adequate for my use.

Tyres are currently Continental Mountain Kings which seem rather good. Both wheels have been treated with Sludge tyre sealant.

I really like this bike. It will do me for a while yet.