Extreme Temps Locked Up Ryan’s Brakes

Thursday was brutally hot and humid. Not exactly the type of afternoon that motivates you to go outside and exert yourself. Though I guess we trials riders are a little off, so it was totally game on for us.

Apparently the weather wasn’t going to be the only obstacle: there was also a multiple-car accident on the Gold Star Bridge that occurred minutes before I got onto I-95, so traffic was already crawling by the time I reached the entrance ramp. The 20 minute drive to Glacial Park from the office took more like an hour. Of course I-95 was closed just before my exit, so it was slow going for some of us who had to cross the bridge for the group ride. When I finally arrived, Tony had already “finished” riding, but Jim had recently arrived. Fortunately, Tony was game for another go of it, so he and Jim headed back into the woods. Then Ryan arrived as I was just heading to the trail head, lagging a bit behind the others. I let Ryan know that the rest of the crew was already in the woods and then headed up the trail after Tony and Jim.

Several minutes later, Ryan arrived, but he was carrying his trials bike instead of riding or walking it. It didn’t quite register in my (possibly overheated) brain that he had carried his bike all the way up the trail (it’s about 1/4 mile walk). Until he said, “check this out” as he demonstrated the problem: it was so hot outside that his brake calipers locked the rotors, so neither wheel would spin without significant applied force. Obviously that’s not optimal, even for trials riding.

Soon after we all started our warmup lines (well, except for Ryan), Scott arrived. For his warmup – his first attempt at anything – he cruised right up a massive boulder, first try! After a couple attempts, he also rolled up a different spot on the same boulder that has a less-than-great runup between some trees and an intimidating overhang. He totally nailed it!

This was the first time back on the bike for me since gashing my shin open three weeks ago. While the stitches have been out for about a week, the wound is still one big scab – so I figured that for now it was probably a good idea to wear shin pads. They’re hot and itchy, but at least they’re lightweight and gave some peace of mind.

Since the combined temperature and humidity made any exertion even more difficult than normal, we mostly did small lines fairly close to the ground to conserve energy and avoid getting hurt due to exhaustion. Nevertheless, there were still plenty of lines to try. Even a single rock (or collection of them) can yield many different approaches, moves, and styles, as you can see in the video. Even Ryan got to do a little riding eventually, though his wheels still had quite a bit of rolling resistance.

Tony also experimented with a new approach (a “cheat” in his words) to getting up a tall obstacle with a static move when your front wheel is part way up the obstacle but the rear wheel is right against it. He was able to unlock the move after a few attempts, though I struggled to dial it in.

It didn’t take too long until we decided to call it quits for the day, riding back to the parking area with shirts literally dripping with sweat. But I didn’t mind. I got to ride my bike, hang out with friends, get some exercise, and avoid getting hurt. I call that a win.