Downhill The "Elitists" do Bootleg

So with my surgery looming in the near future, a free weekend, temperatures below 90 and 18 comrades, we set out for a weekend of fun at Bootleg Canyon. I convinced SuperDKim and Surlygal to join me so the DH girls could be represented!! What can I say but "good times"!! I will let the others chime in and tell their stories and post their photos and videos (watch for my otb cameo).

 

Who is Suygal:lol:, is that the Traic character that's been sending PM's about the Rim Nordic 12 hour race?:lol:

 

were you the guys that didn't let me on your shuttle?

 

Iphone spell correcter strikes again!

 

Can we see some pics already???? (hehe)

 

That is correct!!! LOL

 

looks fun.

 

Where was my special invite? :?:

 

Great time this weekend. was able to get out and pop my bootleg cherry, and have a dam fun time (haha get it?) doing it.

cruised out with happy gilmore and stinkyrider at the arse crack of 3am, and got there in time to catch the first (late) shuttle. shook off the nervous, and got one run in.

next run, felt good, pinned it a bit harder, but caught a pinch flat about halfway down. amazing to me, on my 4ply monster tires #-o

did one more without any problems, took lunch, and went again. busted out the camera, and promptly busted another tube. kinda pissed, so I cranked 40psi into my back tire. then I got another taking the bike off the rack at the hotel, and was pretty annoyed about that, but whatever, it was a good time :bang:

here's some pictures that I got with my gopro (some accidentally)

Lee:


Blair:


Traci: (chargin the rock garden up top :bang


TrojanInsomniac:


and finally, a nifty video from saturday:
[vimeo]4481286[/vimeo]

all in all, a great weekend. good riding, good friends, losing a quarter in a slot machine, and best of all, not much serious carnage. can't wait for it to be cold out there again :bang:

 

Sweet Video meng you were haulin some serious @$$...

 

Well....I feel pretty Lucky to have been invited on this trip..I've been on the DH bike since Feb of this year - while i've learned quite a bit I wasn't exactly sure what bootleg and I could share.

I shared the car ride to Bootleg with Mark Y and Mark F all of us where Bootleg virgins..We decided to head up Friday afternoon. Upon our arrival to the Hacienda we were greeted by Mr Foesnasty himself... We carried JSims M6 up with us (he had a meeting) and somehow he beat us there :-k we spent the evening spa-side but i'll let Foesnasty tell you that story

Sat - 1st run Roger and Nancy thought Kim, Mark F and I needed to be warmed up on a XC run that would not only get our heart rate going but give us a little taste of what terrian we'd be riding. They tired to kill me with pedaling - but I made it through and was ready for the *real stuff*!!! That was after a break to bring the heart rate back to normal :lol:

The *real stuff* was totally worth the pedaling run, it was Awesome!!!! - With wisdom from the experts and lines to follow from Roger, Nancy, Foesnasty, Lee, and well everyone I was able to really let go and ride!!! I closely followed Nancy down the bottom of Snakeback with Lee behind me, that was the fastest and cleanest i've EVER rode!!! Way outta my comfort zone. The lesson this weekend was to do exaclty that :bang:

Sims also basically forced me to follow him and do the ladder drop cleaning it 1st try..

Sun - I totally blew up :beer: but everything was worth it!!!! Kim on the otherhand rode nice smooth and cleaned everything she tried :bangnice job Kim)


The *elitists* on this trip were fantastic! Total support everywhere - no egos just pure excitement for each other and their accomplishments (even Bryans flats). This is the group to ride and travel with

Thanks for thinking of me Denmo and Roger and thanks for a fantastic weekend everyone!!!

ps...Looking at the pictures and videos nothing shows exactly how steep, loose and exposed some of the stuff was.

Thanks honey for letting me go without you

 

soo jealous.

Nice face plant on that video! :clap:

 

glad you had a good time out there traci. way to kill it. and to think, you were sweating the easy course at fontana just a few months ago. now you're rocking down bootleg :bang:

when are we gonna see your stuff?

 

Thank you to Nancy and Roger for setting up a great time, it was a blast to ride and hang out with the Elitists.

I have to give mad props to Traci and Mark for rock'n Bootleg for the first time.

It was good meeting Tony and Kim, Bob, Vince's son and the experts from Incycle (sorry about names).

Nice video Bryon !, you were really move'n

 

What a blast...... It was so nice to get out and ride some real dh with people that I can now call "friends" and not just screen names,,,,,, I can't wait to go back in the fall.... we need to get 50 of us up there...that would be sick....

Prop's to all the cherry poppers!!!!!!! and best of all, we all came back healthy....

 

Meetings all day/Snuck out to repay the gravity gods on the SS(lots o Climbing) and now an evening of Expense reports and playing catch up with all the work I should have done over the weekend... I am hopefull that I can put it together by mid week...

What do you use to put it all together and ad the tunes???

 

that sums it up...... and the spa side stories....well you should have been there.....:wave:

 

Too much fun!

Friday after work, I went home and took a nap...I was still exhausted from jet lag. After waking up, I packed the rest of my things, and I hit the road for Bootleg at about 11:00 pm. I got there and jumped in the back seat and went to sleep at 3:30 am, or so (I was too lazy to go all the way to the back of the truck where my sleeping bag was).

Not only was I stoked to ride DH again (it's been since about Mammoth closing weekend last year), but I was looking forward to trying out the new CCDB shock.

We had a really good and fun group of people, which made it even better.

Traci (surlygal) really impressed me and the whole group with her riding. She attacked the top rock garden as if it was nothing, then she continued on down the trail appearing almost fearless. But she wasn't just fearless, she was in control the whole time.

Although I didn't ride much with Kim (SuperDKim), I knew she was relatively new to DH (although certainly not new to riding). She came flying over one of the lower jumps at race speed - she looked like a pro.

Knowing that Nancy (Denmother) was having knee issues, I was expecting her to take it easy. Boy, was I wrong! She hit the trails hard and fast! I love following behind her as she has perfect riding form.

We loved to give Bryan flak for his three flats. Someone didn't tell him that if you're going to ride the speed he does, there's no possible way to keep tubes alive. For the video he shot, I was going at a pretty good pace, and at each turn, I would hesitate and look back to make sure he was there, and I was somewhat surprised that each time, he was right there. If he ever tells you that a Giant Reign with a Boxxer is a good combination for DH, believe him. If he tells you that even beefy 4-ply tires will prevent pinch flats, call him a liar.

It took me a while to acclimate to riding DH again, so I didn't even bother touching the shock the first day. On the second day, however, I did make some adjustments. Although the shock settings out of the box are remarkable, compared to the Revox that came on my M6, after I made some changes the bike became freakin' scary...fast! There was one section that I was quite familiar and comfortable with, but after making some tweaks, that section was so smooth that I entered the following turn almost too fast! That shock rocks!...er...loves the rocks!

Looking forward to the next Elitist trip!

Thanks again Nancy and all who came!

 

whatever. I just used windows movie maker because it's fast, easy, and works well enough on my computer. I prefer to use adobe premiere pro, but it really bogs down the comp, and I can't directly import the WMV files from the gopro for some reason.

the trick with movie maker is to be careful with where you're putting cuts, and to change your background for titles from stock blue to black. otherwise you look kinda noob. also make sure you export it at a higher quality if you want the finished product to be as nice as the original files.

 

Damn Dudes. So freaking jealous that I couldn't make this trip.