escape to Vermont

This past weekend I ventured up to northern Vermont to ride bikes and hang out with great people. Dejay Birtch is out here visiting for a portion of the summer and we felt it was best to spend the weekend with George from Bike29.

Saturday George and I rebuilt my rear wheel which died at the Bearscat50. (If there's anyone who knows wheels its him.) I also cleaned and re-greased my DT240 hub. Now I have a perfectly round and straight wheel. Thanks George!

Dejay joined us from his ride and we went out to ride the Perry Hill trails in Waterbury. I haven't ridden these trails before so I was stoked to see what all the locals can't stop talking about.

Like most trails up in Vermont... You do a lot of climbing and are rewarded with some sweet descending. We rode up to Permission and took Permission all the way to the top. This is one of the newest trails the Stowe Mountain Bike Club and other locals helped create. Definitely a sweet trail to ride. Weather was perfect. Sunny and upper 70s / lower 80s with little humidity.

We then descended Joe's Trail down to near the bottom where we rode in from. Dejay and George were having a blast on their RIP9 & WFO9 while I was doing everything I could to hold on with my hardtail (was on my singlespeed). This is definitely a trail you want a full suspension bike.

This photo does not do how steep the rock is, justice...

Near the end we played a game of no pedaling. Whomever gets the furthest without pedaling wins.

George then had to take off so Dejay and I climbed back up Permission and then descended RastaMan.

RastaMan was such a sweet descent until we had to climb back out. That climb out of RastaMan was pretty steep but we buried our heads and kept on turning those pedals. Over to the Reservoir for some food and drinks and then back to George's for more food and relaxing. Such a great day.

Sunday was a Root66 race down in Grafton VT. We hemmed and hawed about racing versus riding for fun. T-Hom was covering the Hilly Billy Roubaix dirt road race in WV on Saturday and driving through the night to cover the Grafton Root66 race on Sunday.  We wanted to see T-Hom but in the end we opted not to race and just go ride our bikes near Waterbury and have a grand old time.

Looks like the Grafton Race went well for quite a few people. We had our fun near Salisbury VT.

George let me borrow his Jet9 RDO which recently received a 120mm Fox 32 TALAS fjork. 120mm of front suspension and 100mm of rear with a 2x10 drivetrain. What was I to do with this since I normally ride a singlespeed?

I had fun.

Kept it in the 39T chainring and sometimes ventured up to the 36T pie-plate of a cassette. The TALAS feature in the fork is sweet. Dial the travel down to 95mm and lock the ProPedal on the rear shock and this thing climbed super effortless. Turn off the ProPedal and let the fork travel go at 120mm and the bike was super plush and moved. Haven't had a day this fun riding trails in a while.

If you were there with us all you heard were a lot of hooting and hollering from all four of us. We had that much fun.

This is what it is all about.

Riding bikes on some sweet terrain with friends. Definitely worth more than racing (sorry T-Hom and company). This will be a re-occurring theme for me continuing on throughout the remainder of this year.