This October I joined a few other members of the Colorado College Cycling Club on a trip to Fruita and Grand Junction, on the western side of the Rocky Mountains. Our plan was to ride some of the area’s renowned cross country and all-mountain trails for four days, camping by one of the trailheads and spending all day riding until we were exhausted. This area had been on my list of places to ride for years, so I was incredibly excited to finally get out there.
I started riding cross-country in my freshman year of high school, but my riding style has progressed greatly since then to favor more adrenaline-inducing trails. Due in no small part to the influence of my team coach and Chief Monkey Neil's aggressive (or insane, depending on your perspective) riding style, I quickly began to prioritize descending steep, technical terrain over fitness-based riding. By my senior year I had fully embraced the “all-mountain” attitude of earning as many vertical feet of descending as I could under my own power.
This year I started attending Colorado College in Colorado Springs. For riding in Colorado I knew I would need a durable bike that could handle relentless technical descents and more than a few hucks off rock ledges. I also knew that as a college student my time and money would both be limited, so I would need my bike to be extremely reliable in order to stay out of the shop and on the trails as much as possible. With these factors in mind, a Ventana Zeus frame mated to a Rohloff SPEEDHUB 500/14 seemed like the perfect choice. For suspension I opted for a Rockshox Monarch RT3 and the new 2014 Rockshox Pike in its 160mm 650b configuration. After building the bike up and getting in one last ride with Neil near home, it was time for me to head out to Colorado and see just what this bike was capable of.
When our group arrived in Fruita we set up camp at 18-Road trail, no more than a few feet from the start of some of the area’s most classic cross country rides. These trails were fun, fast, and flowy, but by the end of the day I was craving some steeper, rockier riding.
I got my wish in the days to come. The next day we rode Horsethief – a short loop made up of tacky red dirt, slickrock slabs, and jumbled boulders. As anyone who has ridden Horsethief will agree, the hardest part of the trail is the drop-in from the top of the mesa to the start of the loop. This is essentially a series of rock ledges of increasing difficulty that goes down more than 100 feet to the valley floor. The lower part of the drop-in looked like something that wouldn't be wise to try without a full-face helmet and body armor, so I elected to leave the bottom section for next time instead of possibly spending the rest of the trip in the hospital.
Trying to stay injury free was a good decision, because the trails only got better from here. We rode the Lunch Loops/Tabeguache trail system in Grand Junction next. The area's new freeride run – appropriately named 'Free Lunch' – was nothing short of incredible. At the top of the trail I was greeted by a large warning sign that assured me that fun lay ahead. The trail snaked down the right side of the ridge, eventually opening up into a freeride zone full of multiple line options, including a six-foot step-down. The trail continued, traversing across rock slabs that often ended in four to six-foot drops.
At the bottom of Free Lunch, I rode another technical freeride trail called Pucker Up. This trail was full of even more jumps and drops. One of the most technical parts of Pucker Up involved bouncing down a series of boulders wedged into the bottom of a slot canyon and then flying off a mandatory drop off of one of the down-sloping boulders onto even more jagged rocks.
When riding trails like Free Lunch and Pucker Up, the last thing you want to think about is whether your bike will survive the ride. The Ventana Zeus frame provides a stiff, aggressive platform with ample travel while the Rohloff hub equips the bike with a nearly maintenance-free drivetrain and eliminates the possibility of ripping off a derailleur on a technical section. This setup has allowed me to ride terrain that many riders would reserve for a 180mm to 200mm travel gravity-specific bike, all while keeping maintenance and mechanical issues off my mind while I'm pushing the limits of my riding ability.
I can't wait for my next Rohloff-equipped adventure!
-Xan Marshland
We'd love to hear stories and see pictures of your Rohloff and Schlumpf equipped bikes in action! Send them to adventures@cyclemonkey.com
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