MS Tour MTB preride

[I Are Baboon]

As a warm up (both literally and figuratively speaking :think: ) to today's MS bike ride, we headed out to Case Mountain yesterday. It was a humid, muggy 90 degrees. We covered an astounding 7 miles in 3.5 hours. :twitch: Not our fault though. We were plagued by mechanicals. That's probably a good thing because it kept our legs fresh for today's bike tour.

Anyway, I took a bunch of pics but I seem to have had a bad camera day. Most of the pics I took are blurry. Stupid. Here are the ones that don't completely suck...

[I Are Baboon]

Early into the ride, Charlene (BullitGrrl) on a 17.2" drop.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/mtbbaboon/Case%20Mountain/IMG_6014.jpg

MBC motoring along.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/mtbbaboon/Case%20Mountain/IMG_6018.jpg

BadDNA on a drop, braving the heat with the full face helmet. He'll be glad he had it later...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/mtbbaboon/Case%20Mountain/IMG_6026.jpg

Ed on the same drop.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/mtbbaboon/Case%20Mountain/IMG_6027.jpg

[I Are Baboon]

Quo Fan blew a rear flat on his tubeless tire. I think he said it blew in two spots. He got it mounted, and it went flat again. He was having a lucky day as his front went flat about 15 minutes later. Then MMcG snapped his chain. Here's Quo Fan working on the rear tire with BigT supervising.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/mtbbaboon/Case%20Mountain/IMG_6028.jpg

While he worked on that, we played around on some nearby rocks.
BadDNA:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/mtbbaboon/Case%20Mountain/IMG_6030.jpg

BullitGrrl:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/mtbbaboon/Case%20Mountain/IMG_6033.jpg

MMcG:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/mtbbaboon/Case%20Mountain/IMG_6032.jpg

[I Are Baboon]

One rock, three monkeys: BadDNA, Quo Fan, BullitGrrl:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/mtbbaboon/Case%20Mountain/IMG_6035.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/mtbbaboon/Case%20Mountain/IMG_6036.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/mtbbaboon/Case%20Mountain/IMG_6037.jpg

[I Are Baboon]

BadDNA got good use of his helmet on this drop. The ladder drop is probably about 5 feet to the landing. He hit that smoothly...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/mtbbaboon/Case%20Mountain/IMG_6040.jpg

Suddenly out of nowhere, this tree jumped RIGHT in front of him after he landed! He hit this tree HARD...full speed and square, helmet on tree. :dead: He shook it off though and hit the drop again. :thumb:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/mtbbaboon/Case%20Mountain/IMG_6041.jpg

Ed on a rock drop. He makes it look easy.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/mtbbaboon/Case%20Mountain/IMG_6045.jpg

Last pic...Ed on a sketchy roller. I have yet to try this thing.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/mtbbaboon/Case%20Mountain/IMG_6047.jpg

After the ride, it was food and beer at Casa de Baboon.

[BadDNA]

Whee, that was a fun ride...except for that damned tree.

[MMcG]

That was a hot ride. But despite all the mechanicals it was great to be out with friends riding the trails. :thumb:

[Quo Fan]

Great ride, except for the flats. I was thinking that I should have put a little more air in the tires before I flatted, but decided against it. Bad decision.

I missed Bad DNA's tree hugging incident, BigT and I had bailed because my front wasn't holding a lot of air, and her wrist was starting to hurt.

Bullitgrrl going up a rock
http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i284/pygar909/Case%206-2-07/IMGP0606.jpg

BadDNA, same rock
http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i284/pygar909/Case%206-2-07/IMGP0607.jpg

Different view of Bullitgrrl dropping
http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i284/pygar909/Case%206-2-07/IMGP0608.jpg

Baboon descending
http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i284/pygar909/Case%206-2-07/IMGP0609.jpg

[TreeSaw]

Damn....that place looks AWESOME!!!

[splat]

WHat was teresa riding ? Did canondale take care of everything with here bike ( the recall ) ?

[MMcG]

Teresa was on her old Jamis

[Quo Fan]

She e-mailed C-dale, and they said that the recall work is free. They said to print out the e-mail and show it to the shop. Any way, I don't think we are going to do business with Biker's Edge anymore anyway. The fact that they wanted to charge us for recall work is unethical, not to mention unlawful. Like MMcG said, the place is way too clean.

[MMcG]

Quo - yeah isn't there something weird about going in there - it is too sterile or something and everything in there seems to be "big brand" stuff.

[pakalolo]

So it's not good when a shop is too clean?! I'll take notice. So that means Vernon Cycles must be kick-ass huh?

Anyway, hello all. A newbie here. Just starting to bike. Soapstone is easily the closest place for me to bike. It seems extensive so I'll be spending most of my time there. If anyone wants to ride with a totally incompetent mountain biker that'd be cool. I have both training wheels on, but I hope to take at least one off in a week or two.