After meeting up with Xan to help him move out of the dorms at Colorado College, I stayed in Colorado Springs for a few days to ride some of the area's great trails and take a break from driving. On my first day, Xan took me on an epic double loop ride that included two of the best downhill runs in the Springs. These loops represent my idea of the perfect Colorado Front Range ride – long climb following by long descent. We climbed 5,000+ vertical feet, and our legs definitely felt it by the end of the ride. Living at sea level and riding trails that start above 6,000 feet only added to the strain for me, but I was happy to be out of the car and on the bike!
The next day we got Xan fully moved out of the dorms and headed over to the SRAM product development facility to meet up with one of my college riding buddies who now designs Rockshox products. He took us on a tour of the most technical lines in Ute Valley Park, which is right next to their office, and showed us his impressive slope-style skills.
After the ride, we went back to the SRAM development facility to meet up with Sarah from SRAM's technical training program to get an overview of the new RS-1 fork. As a longtime fan of inverted fork designs, I was excited to see this fork in person. The fork's carbon upper leg assembly is incredibly stiff, and the fork supposedly offers Pike-like performance in a shorter travel package. The upper leg assembly also offers plenty of tire clearance and will even clear a 3” wide 29+ tire. I'm looking forward to getting a sample to test in the near future.
We spent one more day in Colorado Springs before starting our trip back home. The day started in the mountains with a repeat of one of the downhill runs from the first day; then, Xan took me into town to ride Palmer Park, where we made a loop out of most of the technical lines in the park. The trails we saw alternated between short climbs followed by short descents over large boulders, providing some of the most challenging terrain I've ever encountered – and all within city limits and a short ride from Colorado College! The uphill sections required power, balance, and precise body positioning. The downhill sections required much of the same, though trading pedaling power for confidence. We were on long travel all mountain bikes and using all of our suspension, but Xan said some of his buddies ride here on hardtails!
After the Palmer Park ride, we got ready for the trip back to California and hit the road the next morning. Stay tuned for stories of the great rides we did on the trip back!
-Neil
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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