BAB Mountain Bike Trail Ride

Official Mountain Bike Ride Report for BAB // Bald Mountain--Addison Oaks--Bald Mountain, 14.36 mile trail ride

Doug “Rhino” Jones, Joe “Lojack” Rosenhauer, Dave Kowalik, Peter Hill and I rode the BAB // Bald Mountain—Addison Oaks—Bald Mountain 14.36 mile combination trail and gravel road ride last Thursday. When Joe and I got the parking lot Doug and Peter were already there waiting and Dave arrived a couple minutes after we did. Dave was going to ride his “primary” bike this time which was a Specialized full suspension instead of his “backup” bike like he did on the last BAB ride, so we expected him to be really fast today. I was worried about Doug as well since he was riding his “backup” bike, his trusty Barracuda hard tail race bike instead of his new Giant full suspension since it still had mechanical problems left over from the Potawatomi ride in the downpour, and I remembered from when I first started riding years ago that he was really really fast on the ‘Cuda!

When we started the ride Joe took the lead, followed by Doug and me, and then Dave and Peter. We took gravel roads directly to Addison Oaks instead of riding the Bald Mountain trail because Doug needed to leave early. Doug was telling me about Daniela Bredemeier’s mechanical problems with her bike that she said would cause her to have to miss the ride (further fallout from the Potawatomi ride in the downpour!). Something about one wheel being out of true causing her brake to rub (which of course would slow her down!!) and her chain scratching her paint job so she was going to take it back to the bike shop for a tune up. Doug told her to put a “Lizard Skin” (bullet proof nylon sleeve held on with Velcro to protect the bike paint) on and not to worry about it but of course being the fashion maven she is, Daniela passed as it would ruin the color scheme on her bike. That and she really wanted to fix the problem, not just disguise it. Doug also told me about a sweet new 29 inch hard tail superbike that he was thinking about buying, something that would allow him to smoke the rest of us on future rides.

When we got to Addison Oaks Doug suggested that Dave or Peter lead since they had been lagging behind on the gravel road portion sandbagging the rest of us. Of course Dave had already stopped to take a drink or adjust his bike and the rest of the guys stopped as well. I saw this as my chance to surprise them and take the lead while they were all stopped so I wouldn’t get passed very quickly on trail! So, I took off and didn’t look back (I didn’t want to see them gaining on me!) after awhile I heard a bike behind me and I was worried it was Doug, who can ride about 2” behind my rear wheel all day long if he wants to force me to ride harder. So I rode harder and lost the bike for a short while but when I heard the bike again I called out to find out who it was (I didn’t want to turn around and look because I have a tendency to crash when I do that!) and turns out it was Joe, not Doug. We went through a pretty technical section and at the bottom of hill I was taking at a high rate of speed just before a hard left turn and a steep uphill my seat came loose and the nose of the seat was pointing straight up as I was trying to hold my butt up off the rear tire! Needless to say I had to stop to make repairs and all of the guys passed me. I say all of the guys since they had all just caught up to me so it was only a matter of time before they would have passed me anyway. Can you say “out of gas”?

I finally caught up to the guys at the concession stand where I saw Peter had his bike upside down and a wheel removed. I thought maybe he had a flat tire but by the time I got there he had it back on the bike and they were ready to continue riding. We had a short discussion where the guys humored me by telling me that I had been putting on a blistering pace (who knows, maybe I was)! Then Doug said he had to ride back to the parking lot because he was out of time. The rest of us decided to ride the Bald Mountain trail on the way back. Doug, Joe and Peter took off, and I followed but held back because I saw Dave stop a couple of times as he was checking his bike out for some reason (that’s my story and I am sticking to it—it had nothing to do with me being exhausted!).

When Dave caught up to me just before we were about to leave the gravel road to jump into the Bald Mountain trail he asked if he could ride my bike to test something out. While he was riding mine I rode his and sure enough his didn’t seem to be “right”. I found that he had four or five loose bolts on his suspension, which is not a good thing to say the least! I got out my allen wrench and tightened everything up and after a quick test ride Dave took the lead into the trail, while I was stopped putting my allen wrench away of course!!

When I finally caught up to the guys in the parking lot Dave already had his bike in the car but Peter, Joe and I decided to ride the South loop of the Bald Mountain trail. I was able to keep up with them, most of the time, but it was a good fast long ride on a day when we only had a few sprinkles of rain and good company. Still looking for some of our other intrepid riders who were AWOL though!

Sincerely,

Dan “Krash” Kiplinger

“Embedded” in-the-field Correspondent and Editor-in-chief for the “Official Mountain Bike Ride Report”.