Inland Empire Mountain Biking - Helmet Cam

Look who's got a helmet cam!

Now to see how she works...

Ahhh the power of zip ties! (and a cheap eBay handlebar-camera mount that broke last time I rode the SART.)

Look for some videos to come! Hopefully these won't have the "handlebar shakes" since it will be mounted to my cranium!

UPDATE: Click HERE to check out a helmet cam video!

On another note, I took Anthony up to Jedi for his first mountain bike ride ever!

I'm pretty sure he's hooked!

Inland Empire Mountain Biking - Idyllwild

Idyllwild Revisited - August 29 2009

(Click on the pictures for a larger view)

Thanks to Sam for being my guide on another awesome ride in Idyllwild!

The journey began at just before 6am, when we left Sam's house in Redlands and made our way into Idyllwild to start the trip. By the time we were clipped in on the trail, I think it was about 7:30AM.

Well, 15-20 minutes into the ride, I was coming around a left hand turn and was off to the right just a little bit... I knew I was going to run the handlebars into the side of a bush, but it looked like a pretty wimpy one so I wasn't too worried. Well, the next thing I knew, I was flying over the handlebars, looking back at my bike, and thinking, "that's a weird feeling in my shoulder!" Got up, brushed myself off, nothing obvious broken, and set out again.

Within 1 minute, I heard a slight 'hssssssssssss'... yup, the tire must have caught something on the run-in with the bush! I caught up to Sam (who is used to waiting for me), and within 15 minutes we had the tube patched and were ready to go. The shoulder was a little sore, but nothing broken, so off we went.

The rest of the ride was uneventful as far as carnage (always a good thing!), and Sam had lots of time to polish his patience as I trudged up the climbs in granny gear or in full-walk mode.

All in all, a great ride, but my shoulder is going to need to heal for a week or so at least! I think I tore something, but I thank God that it wasn't worse!

Here's the video from a few of the downhill sections...

inland empire mountain biking mtb idyllwild hurkey creek 24 hour race of adrenaline hours southern california trail map bikes cycle cycling guide

Inland Empire Mountain Biking - Southridge Fontana

This is the site of the famous race and it's a pretty fun ride! Lots of rocks, farily technical, some good downhill too.

Van took me out here for the first time and we had a fun ride!

Directions

Inland Empire Mountain Biking - Downhill versus Car

Long live mountain biking! :-)

Inland Empire Mountain Biking - Idyllwild

Idyllwild Revisited - August 29 2009

Thanks to Sam for showing me the ropes at Idyllwild! Next time hopefully we will have more time to take pictures...

Here's the ride that Sam took me on...

We rode about 13 miles total. Pretty much all single track, with minimal fireroad climbing! (although I will have to say the climb at the beginning was pretty brutal, well, for me, at least!)

We had some good boulder action as well, but we were trying to finish the ride by noon-ish, so we didn't have time to take many pictures. The downhill was long enough that my hands were beginning to cramp up (thanks to my Tektro stock disc brakes!). I pretty much had to adjust them so they drag in order to get stopping power out of them, which makes for not-fun climbing!

Either way, I will get more pictures next time!

Inland Empire Mountain Bike Trails

Inland Empire Mountain Bike Trails 

inland empire mountain biking bike trails bicycle

Hulda Crooks Park Trail in Loma Linda

Hulda Crooks Park Trail in Loma Linda

Inland Empire Mountain Biking - Southridge Fontana Downhill Race

Southridge Downhill Race - July 12 2009

This was my first time visiting one of the Southridge events. My friend Van let me know about the race, so I decided to check it out on Sunday morning. I couldn't stay long because I am helping out with a church plant in downtown Riverside called Relevant Church , so I had to split to help setup for that.

Regardless, I had a lot of fun for the short hour and a half that I was there, and I saw some awesome riding! As far as I'm concerned, however, I go by this motto:

"Those who aren't fit for racing..... take pictures of those who are!"

Here are some of the shots from practice on Sunday morning.

If any of these pictures happen to be of you, just let me know if you'd like me to email you a high-res version of the pic. (Or if you'd like me to take down the picture for some reason...)

If you want a print of the picture, that can be arranged too..

Enjoy!

More pictures HERE