Designer & bike rider in British Columbia, Canada

Mountain Biking in Sooke

Shawn, Héctor, Melissa, Scott and I have made a pact this spring to ride our mountain bikes together every Sunday, and for the past couple of months we’ve met nearly everytime at the Starbucks or Tim Hortons, rain or shine.
On April 3rd we had a particularly good ride up and over (2x, in fact) Broom Hill in Sooke. Héctor brought his sa-weet new compact digicam along and took the following shots:
Scott, Shawn and myself
Scott, Shawn and myself
Melissa
Melissa
Jeff riding a bridge
I am riding a bridge
Shawn, Melissa, Jeff and Scott
Shawn, Melissa, myself and Scott at the top for the first time.
Gotta say, it was pretty damn good up there. It’s a pretty consistent technical single track the whole way up and down, keeping us x-country riders on our toes, hunting the right lines, powering up the many boulder faces, but not requiring us to chuck it off 10 foot drops if we didn’t want to. But if you’re into that kind of thing, by all means the network of ramps at Broom Hill does the West Coast rep justice.
Dan, our free-riding buddy currently studying in Vegas, saw the pics and went whoa, spandex fest. Yes, it’s true, we’re all ex-racers and/or rodies in some form or another (except Scott, who will soon be one). You may have even noticed Melissa and I are still riding old-school straight bars, 1.9 tires and little baby 2″ shocks. I call it finesse fest.
But my freeride friends, my bike shop connections (Straight Up Cycles), they’re always telling me to break out of the old school. I’m still spandexing it up, and I ain’t getting any armour anytime soon, but on tomorrow’s ride I’ll be a little more upright, shoulders a little wider apart, power on the descents a little more controlled (at least that’s the theory) with my new riser bar. And holy crap 2.3″ wide downhill tires like I can not believe.
Ya, this is in fact big news considering I haven’t changed my riding style since I started 10 years ago. We’ll see if it jives, starting with tomorrow’s Hartland ride.


Posted

in

by

Tags:

Comments

4 Responses to “Mountain Biking in Sooke”

  1. Alistair Avatar
    Alistair

    What the heck is that thing floating above the first rider (Jeff) in the first photo? Also, that is som sweet vintage clothing on Melissa and Jeff. I am still wearing that very same vest myself.

  2. Jeff Werner Avatar

    “What the heck is that thing floating above the first rider”
    I believe that is a drop of water on Hector’s lens.
    Ha, ya those Edgar Miner vests never go out of style. I wanted to mention that, too: while most of us are ex-rodies, some of you are still kicking it!
    http://www.nonzero.ca/archives/2005/04/bikin.html

  3. Héctor A. Avatar

    Now you all are telling me that biking is all about fashion, spandex, no spandex, vests, etc … funny, non of us are into the fashion at all. Who cares?

    I agree “looking good is what it matters”
    It is never about how fast you ride, or how crazy is the down hill you go. It is all about how good you look doing it. Right?
    This is and old joke among rock climbers that can be applied to MTB
    You’re looking good, dude!!
    I thing if you picture your self looking good in that crazy down hill you may do it better or do it at all. May be not. Too chicken to do Jeff’s down hills. haha
    Last Sunday at the Dump we pushed a little farther the technical riding than normal. It was lots of fun. I’m amazed on the kind of stuff some one can ride on a bicycle.
    I’ll be bringing the camera to show every one our rides.

  4. Eric Hertzman Avatar
    Eric Hertzman

    I’m in the process of making a bike map of Sooke and the surrounding area. It will be available at Sooke Cycles some time in 2007. It will include trails around broom hill, and Sooke Mountain. Also, i’ve included some hiking trails in the area, and the galoping goose trail.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *