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

Posted: Aug 16 2010 in We Ride

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

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