The famous “Rio” trail

Well, I finally rode the famous “Rio” that runs along above the hills behind Juniper. I’ve heard a lot about the trail, but had no idea where to go to find it nor did I ever seem to have the time or energy to get up and ride an hour or more on the weekend. Dave, a friend of mine from church with whom I share a love for mountain biking, has talked about riding with me up there for quite some time, but until this weekend, that was all but talk!

This weekend was Graedy’s birthday, so when Dave and his family arrived I noticed he brought his bike! I was excited about that, but a bit nervous as well. I’d heard a lot about the trail, and I knew I wanted to try it. But a few of the comments about it had somewhat scared me off… Comments from a co-worker that said “I wouldn’t ride it with that fork” as he looked at my 3” travel RST Gila… Seriously? Or how about the remark from a co-commuter when I suggested taking Corrie there. “Does she ride a lot? If not, don’t do it.”

But Dave assured me that with the riding I do, I should be able to handle this trail. “There’s only a few drops, and they’re small.” Whaaaat?!?!?! I bravely smiled and nodded, hoping my expression wasn’t betraying the panic that I felt building inside me. I don’t do drops. I’ve never tried drops. The most I’ve done to date is jump off a sidewalk curb. I’m thinking he means a bit higher than that…

So we set out. To save time, as it was getting late, we left my truck at the bottom of the trail in Valleyview, and then drove together up to the top of Rose Hill in Dave’s truck. We started off rolling along a nice, easy road. There is a lot of pasture land up on the top of these hills here in Kamloops, crazy! After about 2 or 3 kilometres, we arrived at the trailhead.

The view was amazing!

Dave at the famous Rio trailhead… Here goes nothing!

And off we went. Dave made a comment about some washboard. Hah! I’ve seen washboard. This wasn’t washboard. This was more similar to speed bumps, both normal and inverted, all back-to-back. It was nuts! But, the new fork soon inspired confidence in me that I didn’t know I had! It soaked up these bumps like there was nothing to it, and the bike stuck to the trail. This was fun! I kept up with Dave (something I’ve always had a very hard time doing going down), and we winded our way down. He stopped at one point to talk about other trails, and the one we were headed down. I still hadn’t come across any drops yet! However, we both noticed the dust line on the new fork I have. I had used at least 4” of travel to this point, sweet!

He then pointed at the trail we were going down, and my heart stopped for a minute. The trail went straight down, across a gravel bank until it levelled out a bit and disappeared into the woods. Seriously? I knew I was in trouble when Dave lowered his seat. He doesn’t lower his seat for just any trail.

Well, truth be told, I completely chickened out on this section and walked it. Hey, you gotta leave some room for improvement for the next time, right? Turns out, in just a short while I would find out leaving room for improvement was not going to be a problem.

Soon enough, the trail turned into a rocky, bumpy roller coaster, winding its way down through a gulley. It was a steep grade, with a few sections that at the time, I couldn’t believe I was willing going over! And then the first drop came. It was only about a foot high, but I was coming up on it pretty fast. I pulled up much too vigorously on the front wheel, and basically tossed the bike haphazardly, landing at an angle to the trail. After a bit of whooping and hollering, as well as skidding and bouncing, I realized I was still on two wheels, and careening down the trail. Wow!!! I made my first drop! I yelled out something to Dave about needing to work on my landings… Yeah, that’s an understatement!

Then the next drop came up. This one was a bit bigger, and the landing area not so forgiving. Not wanting to repeat the previous attempt, I took it a bit easier on the lifting of the front wheel… Too easy! The front wheel didn’t come up enough, meaning my landing was entirely front loaded. As my Grandma would surely say, uff da! I swear I rode a foot or so just on the front wheel. I thought I was a goner. But, again, I soon realized I was still upright and a smile slowly erased the look of panic… Shortly after that, I caught up with Dave again and we noticed my fork used the entire travel. 5” of dust had been wiped clean off the stanchions! Wow. My older fork would’ve just let me eat dirt. This fork lets me ride like the chump that I am, haha!

The rest of the trail wasn’t too bad, and soon we came out just below Juniper. The terrain went from forest, to desert hills. The trail was smooth and flowy, and followed the ridge of some clay cliffs above Valleyview. It was an extremely fun and fast little trail. The only problem I had with it was the fact that the closer we got to the highway, we really weren’t going down as much as I felt we needed. Now I’ve driven along the highway and looked up at these hills. I mean cliffs… Where on earth was Dave taking me? He stopped at the end and stood over the top. He pointed down and said, “There’s your truck.” Yeah, I know. Thanks. What are we doing up here? Dave pointed down the trail, “Now this trail…” he started to say. Good, he’s going to show me another route, phew! “…is the one the sane people take.” Whaaat?!?! He walked over to another section and pointed, “This one, however, is the one the crazy people try.” Yeah, no kidding, this one goes straight down a cliff for 20 feet before “levelling” out to the rest of the steep trail going down. Nope, I guess I’m sane then if these are my only two options!

Almost smack dab in the middle of this picture you can see my blue Ford.

Dave standing above the “sane” trail.

The sane trail wasn’t actually that bad. I mean, the first 20 feet was enough to make me wish I had a on a pair of Depends. But after that, it was manageable. Basically, I lowered the seat, rested my chest right on it, grabbed a fistful of brake, dragged one foot, and went over the edge. After the trail rounded the first corner, I was able to put both feet on the pedals and make the rest of the way. Wow. What a rush!

So, yeah, this trail managed to scare the bejeebers out of me, but in the end it was a blast and I really want to do it again. The new fork was absolutely amazing. Hopefully I can ride this more next year. It should be easily accessible with just a bit of climbing out of Juniper, so I’ll have to check that out soon. Thanks, Dave, for finally dragging my butt up there!

I love Kijiji… and my wife! :)

Corrie found a killer deal on Kijiji the other day. A (used) Manitou Splice fork (130mm of travel!) and an Alexrim front disc wheel for $50… $50!!!! A $300 fork and a $100 wheel, crazy! Of course I jumped all over that deal. And, just to add as a bonus to this deal, the head tube was the perfect size to make the swap over to my bike a breeze… Other than the $5 I had to give the bike shop to swap the bearing race over for me.

My new Manitou Splice! Very happy…

Not sure how much the extra front height will affect the handling, but I can’t wait to find out!

The Splice is a decent fork, not a top end but MUCH better than my heavy coil spring RST fork I had. This one is an air/oil fork, which is lighter and the response is pretty sweet. I can’t wait to hit the trails and find out how much of a difference this thing makes. The rim is hanging up in the basement (my front rim is a good one, and still pretty new, so I’m happy with it for now. I might be able to put the rim and the old fork on my old Balance frame (from my bike I bought in high school) and sell them together. Or, maybe start finding more deals on Kijiji to build a THIRD bike… Hmmm…

Treat it right, and it will treat you right.

And I’m talking about your bike. Yes, that inanimate object that really only reacts to what you do to it. However, how it reacts makes all the difference in the world between a bad ride and a great ride. And, controlling how it reacts relies heavily on proper maintenance. Something I have not done much of this season at all. And last week, I was ready to throw this bike down the Peterson’s Creek canyon! the brakes were sticking… The front fork was bumping and clunking… The derailleurs were grinding and jumping (and even actually jumping right up and over the crank, check out the picture)… And the front tire kept losing air.

Just how exactly is this possible? Mix in a poorly maintained drivetrain, dirt and grime, along with a bit of over-zealous shifting and blamo! Derailleur actually jumps up and OVER the front crank when going for the big gear.

Yes, my bike was letting me know loud and clear that it needed my attention. And more than just a quick wipe down on Sunday night with some dabs of grease and lube. But it needed help! As the picture above shows, I was riding down to Mac park on Thursday to meet Corrie there and watch her soccer game. However, as I turned downhill from TRU and tried shifting to the big gear, crunch! The derailleur actually jumped over the crank. I’ve never seen this before. I didn’t even know it was possible. But it was enough for me to realize that enough was enough, and that if I didn’t take care of this bike soon it would start costing me more money than it was worth (and that I have to spend). The good news? I was able to loosen the clamp, raise the derailleur and slide it back into position with no harm done.

So, I spent a bit of money, and about 5 hours of my time, on getting this bike back into shape. I replaced both shifter and both brake cables. I also lubricated the housings and cut them shorter where needed (the rear brake I cut off over a FOOT and still have plenty of housing). I even zip tied the cables at various points to remove much of the flex of the housing during operation (see the picture below). However, I didn’t just stop there. I took the brakes off, pulled them completely apart, scrubbed them clean, re-greased them and got them back into tip-top shape, clean and sparkly!

Zip tied cable housings create a much quicker and firmer response to braking and shifting. A very easy and cheap mod that brings a big benefit to the overall ride!

The result of all this work? A bike that ran better this morning than I think it did when it was new! It was a thing of beauty, really. No, I’m not kidding. Why else would I actually write up an entire blog entry just about this if I wasn’t so excited about it?

Anyways, the payoff was a pretty darn good ride this morning. The shifting was crisp and oh-so-easy! The shift levers clicked up and down with very little effort, really. And the chain hopped from one gear to the next without a sound, sometimes it did so with such ease and lack of noise that I had to actually double check that it actually even shifted! I rolled through the trails quieter than a mouse (well, except for the sound of me wheezing and gasping for air of course). It was such a good ride!

Therefore, the moral of this story is take care of your stuff! There’s a reason why this entry-level ride has given me so many great miles over the last two seasons. Even cheap stuff will work better and last longer with the proper care.

*Steps down off of soap box*