Lucky for me my job sometimes puts me in some pretty cool situations. Last week I was in Whistler, BC riding a Trek Session and this week I was in France riding a fleet of 2011 Trek mountain bikes.
The Trek Session is 38lbs of downhill fun. It has 8+ inches of sophisticated suspension travel, hydraulic disc brakes, and relatively big tires so it behaves similar to a motorcycle. And Whistler is the near perfect place to enjoy the Session. A chairlift takes you to the top of the hill and you choose the kind of trail you want to take back down. The trails range in difficulty from a mellow coast back down all the way up to 10 foot drops, 30 foot gaps, and 30mph, rutted descents. The place is awesome.
I’ve been to Whistler twice now. It’s a different kind of riding than I’m used to doing since almost all the bicycle riding I’ve ever done has me using clip-in pedals on road and cross country bikes. On a Session you use platform pedals. Whistler begs you to learn to jump up and over some pretty big terrain. The bike can do far more than I’m capable of (just like the RM-Z450) so I really enjoy learning how to make the thing work for me.
One of the cool things about the Session is being able to make suspension adjustments quickly and without any tools. Spring preload and compression and rebound settings can be changed just by spinning dials. It’s pretty satisfying to be able to make setting changes that make an immediate, tangible difference in the middle of the trail.
My trip to France was for a 2011 Trek product launch. Four different Trek mountain bike models were unveiled in front of 37 journalists that had been flown in from around the world. Trek’s European office made the travel and hotel arrangements for everyone. The venue was in the French Alps town of Chatel near the Portes du Soleil ride park. I was flown in with other Trek employees to help relay technical information and innovations to the journalists.
I'm sitting in Switzerland about to head into France. The trail network cross the border several times during our rides.
There’s no better way to learn about the bikes than to ride them. A local guide hired by Trek led all the rides. On day one I joined a group of 20 journos on a Fuel EX ride that mixed some very steep and rocky climbs with a few rooty descents. The loop took us about 5 hours to do but that includes several stops for photos and bike discussions. It’s tough to find rolling single track in the Alps so we had a few journalists complaining about the steep climbs and descents. The EX is a great all around mellow trail bike or even a good XC race bike.
Top of the world. Those are French Alps.
On day two I joined the Remedy ride. The Remedy bike has more suspension travel than the EX and more relaxed geometry so it can tackle more technical terrain. The beauty of the Remedy is that despite the 6 inches of travel, it still pedals well so you can actually enjoy the climbs before bombing the descents. We were on the bikes for almost 6 hours because we discovered a ride park that suited the Remedy perfectly. It was just too much fun to stop.
On the last day we all jumped on Scratch bikes. Trek offers up two version of this bike – one with air springs and one with coil springs. The air bike is slightly lighter than the coil bike but both are aimed a park riding and mellow downhill riding. You can “lock out” the suspension on the air Scratch to optimize pedal efficiency. The coil bike is active all the time. The Portes du Soleil ride park has a bunch of trails perfect for Scratch bikes. I rode with journalists and other Trek employees for about 7 hours doing run after run. The jumps and turns at Portes du Soleil are not as mature as the ones in Whistler so you have to be on your toes. Trails marked as easy had massive jumps or man-made structures that we far from being easy. After a few runs we learned which trails were fun and which ones to avoid.
This is suspension guru Jose Gonzales doing a drop in the Portes du Soleil ride park. Pretty bitchen for a 50 year old guy to be willing and able to rip it up as well as Jose does. Chapeau!
Because I just spent the last two weeks riding almost every full suspension bike that Trek makes, I have a new understanding of how much work Trek engineers and product developers have put into making them work right. Although each of the models I rode has been made for specific types of terrain, the suspension for each has been tuned to perfection. All of the journalists I spoke with while in France all remarked on how well the bikes felt on the trail.
One aspect of the past two weeks has made a huge impression on me. The groups of people I was riding with are all well into their 40′s. The terrain we were riding and the length of the rides were pretty challenging. I’ve been riding mountain bikes for close to 25 years and I’m 42. I see no end in sight. Places like Whistler and Portes du Soleil keep you young; I’m convinced.
I’m on my way home from France now and I’m anxious to get back on my RM-Z to try and apply some of the suspension tuning I learned while in Whistler and Portes du Soleil. Most specifically I want to mess with the slow speed compression settings on the rear shock. I’ll be sure to report back with my findings.
Gary Fisher was along for the ride, too. He was forced to ride 26" wheels and did a great job of keeping his thoughts to himself.
