Trip to Ray's - Dec 27, 2007

Assembled notes. This was my first trip to Ray's from Buffalo. That's a breakthrough concept, since it's only 3 hours (205 miles) door to door.

One older guy fell off one of the bridges and but his eyebrow and nose on the neighboring bridge. He left in an ambulance - I think just for stitches. My mojo left when I saw the ambulance. I fell off simple things after that, just because they were up high.

Lessons learned:
1) I needed a lock for the lockers, I kept all my stuff in the car and my keys in my pocket. So I was in danger of losing my wallet.
2) Pizza Hut is 216 524 4444.
3) Ray's on your own is only 10% as fun as Ray's with company

I met a local guy with a camera:
http://area106.typepad.com/photos/raysdec/rays_pic_7.html

I don't have enough peer pressure to get me to ride off the drops (I did just see a 15 yr old do the big drop, but I don't think we're peers) That drops section and all the bridges are almost exactly the same as last year.

Solo trip to Ray's Dec 27th 2008

I drove from Deb's parents again on Christmas visit. I left the house around 5:30 in rain. It occassionally turned into a blinding downpour. A little before 6, the driver's side windshield washer fell off the arm. I made it to a gas station and re-attached it under the light of the canopy. That lasted for about an hour. I did the same again and that lasted until Cleveland. Along the way, I stopped at one truck stop to shop for a wiper blade, but no joy. I had a egg mcmuffin in Cleveland and bought a $18 summer wiper blade - I couldn't find winter blades the right size. The gg mcmuffin was an attempt to have sufficient calories in me when I started to ride. I ended up at Ray's about 9:15.

Bought 2 Gatorades and started at the pump track. In 10 minutes, I was wrecked. The nutritional strategy was not a success. Also, I'm not fit enough to warm-up on the pump track. I got that from Shaums. (who is fit enough to use the pump track for a warm-up). Next time, I warm-up in the sport section.

It was dreary weather when I went in. It was 67 and sunny when I left. Definitely t-shirt weather inside, not long sleeves.

I forgot my padlock, so I left everything in the car except the key, which I left in my gym bag.

There was a guy who took 3 tries to get a rental that didn't have the seat post clamp borken. So maybe then rentals aren't in great shape. He ended up on a Three57.

There were 2 kids on electric motorcycles. I talked with the dad who said that his 5 yr old races motocross and this is how he trains in the winter. Ray lets him ride there when it's empty. I watched him onthe expert jumps, which he sky-ed to a flat landing on the table top. The dad says that the kid rides all the lines in the sport section on the motor cycle. Around 11, he switched to a bmx bike.

The expert section was pretty empty all day. That's because the jump line has it's own start. The pump track got busy in waves. It'd be empty, then fill up. The sport section got the same way by 10. The beginner section also got busy in waves. I got the log skinny 3 times in a row.

By 11 or 11:30, I was exhausted. I was doing fine on the baby rhythms, cleaning them all earlier. And then I couldn't get the front of the bike in the air. Once I got that tired, I never recovered.

I did the littlest of the expert drops once, I just rode off it. It's small enough now to do that instead of dropping. So are the bigger ones, the gap is filled with logs, so you can just roll off.

I totally rocked the pump track. I'm starting to get a little tiny bit of air on the bumps. When that happens, I get confused. I cased the tabletop once. I also have the 180 berm completely dialed. I need to get a picture of me on that when we go back next time. I didn't see many people on the intermediate rhythms. I didn't ride them.

There were 2 guys on unicycles. Father and son. The kid was college age. They rode everything, but fell everytime on the drops.

Other cool things I saw:

• 2 guys doing trials on the beginner skinnies. They leapt sideways from one line to the other on their back wheels.
• Big air. Lots of big air.
• I never noticed, but lots of the bmxers don't have brakes. They just drag a sneaker.
• In the subaru bowl, ice picks and nose picks on the spine. But they don't have any brakes. That's awesome balance.

I left about 12:30 or 12:40, stopped twice and got back at 4:10.

Fun things I didn't buy:

• Colored chains
• 5.10's ($90 is a good price)
• Colored pedals

Took a nap when I got home.

Movie Review - Earthed 3

This was pretty good. It was mostly downhill racing - which I can take or leave. But there were a couple of interesting things. One was coverage of Megavalanche at Alpe d'Huez. That was very interesting. It's a very long downhill race that they let go in waves of 200 riders. It's just crazy and looks like a lot of fun.

There was also some coverage of racing in Wales, it was interesting to see how well Steve Peat and the Aethertons (sic) do in the mud. There was also some good trials riding, which I always like.

Movie Review - Earthed

I got this from Neflix. It's just like Earthed 3. Another mountain bike movie focused on downhill racing and 4X. If you like this sort of thing, it's a good video. But how many times do you need to see Steve Peat fly through a muddy forest?

It's a question for all sports. Let's say you've seen several basketball games. 5, 10, 100.... Why would you watch another one? They're pretty much the same. Same with mountain bike races - except, in bike racing the terrain varies. Most sports are done in stadiums that are as identical as possible.

The thing the videos lack is the narrative. Often the interesting thing in a football game is the question of who will win. The videos just show amazing riding, they don't get you into the story of how the races unfold.

The road racing season is almost over. Paris Tours was on TV yesterday. I recorded it but haven't watched it yet. The Tour of Lombardy must be soon. Our leaves changed colors about 2 weeks early this year, I wonder about the leaves in central Italy. Usually they're mostly gone for that race.

Movie Review - Earthed 2 - Never Enough Dirt

Nothing special. I ordered it from Netflix for completeness, since I've watched a few of the Earthed series lately. Maybe Netflix just ordered them all.

There's a lot of downhill racing. Normally that doesn't interest me at all, but after riding at Diablo, it looks like we'll be doing more of it next year. So I like to look at how they corner and drop. After riding the Sunday I appreciate just how heavy the bikes they ride are: maybe 45 to 45 lbs. The move them like the bikes are weightless. There's a of technique and strength in that - as well as speed. Speed will pick your bike up for you.

There's a bmx section with Mikey Day, who took the silver in the Beijing Olympics this year.

There are a few dirt jumping sections at Woodward West that are nice.

Movie Review - All Out Grease

I like this movie a lot. It has a lot of things that usually bore me, but this one kept my attention. The Mark Weir pump track out take is great, it's enough for me to sit through the rest of the movie.

There's also a real nice section of dual slalom at Sandhill Ranch that has a lot of fast, flowy riding. I'm sorry to send this back to Netflix.

There are also a few sections of park riding with full size bikes, which I also like.