Late to the Party - Part II

Thanks everyone! All your comments are very much appreciated. It's a major project to document a year's riding, but I'm so glad I did!

wow it's been really cool to read your articles ! I also just got reborn as a mountain biker a couple of years ago when we moved to Van. I bought a used Heckler and proceeded to get spanked hard on a variety of local classics - my previous riding experience consisted of a lot of road riding ( love those 6 hour rides) and some decent trail riding in Nelson in the mid-nineties on a hardtail with a 1" travel elastomer shock. Needless to say i love my squishy bike - it's taken me all over the shore, mt. burnaby, squamish, and whistler. BC is where it's at!

Wow, riding all over the shore on a hardtail!?! That's awesome! I now feel a bit spoiled with my dualie, but I don't think I have the skill to ride a hardtail around here…

Such a great read ive been watching/waiting for part 2 and it didn't disappoint. I think you rode more last year then i did in the past 3

Wow, riding all over the shore on a hardtail!?! That's awesome! I now feel a bit spoiled with my dualie, but I don't think I have the skill to ride a hardtail around here…

I'm always amazed by this sort of statement, and confused by why it's such a big deal. It's a bike, you turn the cranks and it should go forward weather there is a some squish or not. All of I've ridden for the last couple of years is a HT and before that a short but miserable experience on DS. I prefer to ride a HT and probably always will. I walked into my favorite LBS a few weeks ago and buddy behind the counter asked what I had ridden that day, I answered Neds which is really nothin. He was shocked I rode it on a HT. I've always considered Neds to be a a XC trail and I consider myself to be a hack. Why is riding a HT considered so strange? Good article, really enjoyed it.

I'm always amazed by this sort of statement, and confused by why it's such a big deal. It's a bike, you turn the cranks and it should go forward weather there is a some squish or not. All of I've ridden for the last couple of years is a HT and before that a short but miserable experience on DS. I prefer to ride a HT and probably always will. I walked into my favorite LBS a few weeks ago and buddy behind the counter asked what I had ridden that day, I answered Neds which is really nothin. He was shocked I rode it on a HT. I've always considered Neds to be a a XC trail and I consider myself to be a hack. Why is riding a HT considered so strange? Good article, really enjoyed it.

I have to have a HT in the stable. Too much fun to ride! Brings a fresh perspective on to trails that may feel old and stale on a squishy bike.

I'll give a little perspective, let's call it a bonus story.

In the first trip to Rossland, I mentioned having the chance to give Eric' A-Line Park Edition a go. It had a Boxxer up front, and 9" out back. I also mentioned the trail that dumps right into Jason's back yard. Jason had been at work during the day when I took his Demo out, and now we were riding up a gravel road from his house, keeping the pace up to ensure we finished before sundown.

The push up to the trail head is steep, and about an hour long for those who ride it regularly. There are five especially steep pitches that I was unable to pedal the Norco up, even though it had a telescoping seat post. Jason, familiar with the climb, cleaned most - if not all - of the steep sections.

In Part I of this article, I mentioned that Jodi and I rode many trails two days in a row last year, in order to take advantage of that same type of familiarity. Another way to get comfortable is to follow someone who's fast down that trail… being a good trail guide helps too.

Following Jason on a super slack and low bike was perfect in that regard. He stopped before particularly sketchy sections, but far enough back that we could still run in with speed. The Norco outperformed my expectations, and I was especially surprised with its stability on steep sections. (I was getting a crash course in what a 64 degree head angle is good for.)

The next afternoon, with both of the past day's riding buddies at work, I decided to head out on a solo run of Jason's trail. There is a very well-exposed rock face about half way down the run. What the Norco had crawled down with ease the day before all of a sudden seemed much burlier on my 140mm hardtail. I lost control part way down the face, and ended up having to dump the bike.

Familiarity wasn't going to help me here, as I had failed to keep even the sticky Minion 3C on the ground. Fortunately I was able to scale the exposed rock in what felt like slow motion, brushed myself off, and continued the descent.

I made it back to the house in 58 minutes - only 10 of that descending. I know that I absolutely hammered the climb, and cleaned a number of those pitches on my heavy hardtail. For riding that fast on steep stuff, though, I'm going to have to say the DH bike was very suitable.

I can't wait to try it again. What can I say? I dig the Kootenays! Now, the hardtail is not as much a disadvantage on the Shore's slow technical trails, but it's still a big challenge at times. It took quite a while before I could clean the right turn into chunder that looks over the 4th switchback on Fromme, and it was watching Khaled launch himself into it on one foot that eventually pushed me to do it.

I can point out a number of photos even in this article that have me say "holy crap, I did that." Anyway, long story, but I think everyone's gonna like Part III!

Wow, riding all over the shore on a hardtail!?! That's awesome! I now feel a bit spoiled with my dualie, but I don't think I have the skill to ride a hardtail around here…

I'm always amazed by this sort of statement, and confused by why it's such a big deal. It's a bike, you turn the cranks and it should go forward weather there is a some squish or not. […] I walked into my favorite LBS a few weeks ago and buddy behind the counter asked what I had ridden that day, I answered Neds which is really nothin. He was shocked I rode it on a HT. I've always considered Neds to be a a XC trail and I consider myself to be a hack. Why is riding a HT considered so strange?

I have no idea - but last season I went to a trip down South, to the Italian Alps, in the area where Reinhold Messner is living, near Livigno.
I would consider the trails really steep and technical at times.

I was joining a guided tour on the second day and it was all nice and rather easy singletrack according to my standards of difficulty. All of the folks had fs bikes, and apart from the guides, the other riders kept asking me "wow, you ride this on a hardtail, how can you ride this on a ht?….unreal."

The next day I was up for some exploring and found some really really steep and rooty and rocky singletrack, a very, very old hiking trail. Sure, I had to ride sections slower, but I still cleaned every bit of it.

I do not understand the fuss either - a ht makes you a better, more pro-active rider, you have to read the trail more and be more aware of the upcoming stuff and your body position and all that.

- a ht makes you a better, more pro-active rider, you have to read the trail more and be more aware of the upcoming stuff and your body position and all that.

:cry: But that's to much work.:cry:

Second aluminum hard-tail 29er ride of the year on Saturday on a 100mm fork with 2.2" tires down Executioner was TONS of fun! Not to mention the tech climbing back up St Mary's to Baden Powell, all smoothly churned on a hard-tail.

:cry: But that's to much work.:cry:

Not as much work as riding up the highway, nearly starting to puke and pushing up from the first gate on Fromme.