Jim and I rode our trials bikes on some rocks in the woods this week. It was definitely a struggle-fest. The mosquitos were relentless. I could not seem to keep my feet on the pedals and neither one of us had our mojo. But you know what? We were still in the woods riding our bikes!
Sometimes for group rides we get a pretty good turnout – like the week prior to this one. For others, it’s just two of us. But that’s totally ok. While I love having a whole herd of trials riders show up, I also really enjoy the more intimate vibe of riding with just one other person as well. This week it was just Jim and me.
One of the first lines we spent a good deal of time on seemed like it was an intermediate (“Sport” class) level line. It was low to the ground and not too long. After spending some time on on, we realized it might actually require expert level skills to clean it. The first rock wasn’t bad, but to get onto the second rock, you had to fight a small tree. Once you’re up on the rock, there is no room for the rear wheel, and the front tire has no good place to be… and the rock is off-camber. The objective was to get from that horrible rock to another set of rocks, but we could not quite get that far. So, we decided to ride the 2nd set of rocks in the line separately. We both got up (the hard part) and then botched it. Oh well.
Before moving to the next spot, we tried another line that overall isn’t too bad, but requires rolling off a rock and then up over a big bolder with limited runup. Jim nailed it; I got a shinner (thankfully not a bad one).
We briefly sessioned one other spot before calling it a day. I had a little better success there, but still struggled, even on stuff that should have been easy. But as I said at the outset: a bad day of rider is still better than a day not riding!
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