Snow at Gambril

This is from the end of Feb. I went up to Gambril expecting some ok weather, and I get up there and I see snow! We had some freezing rain on the Friday, but I didn't know that Fredrick had gotten snow. I rode with Matt, and Anna and they kinda showed me up. I was riding the new bike, so the suspension wasn't dialed in and the stem was too long. Anna was showing some better riding skills then me through the rocks, and Matt was rocking the SS rigid! I was very impressed with Matt considering he is not a full-time SS guy. I did pretty well on the climbing, but I do need to ride up there more to get better riding the Rocks!

Built up a New Bike, now ride it!

My Brother-in-Law has needed a new bike for a long time. He is riding a bike that is too small for him so I said that if he would give me $500 I would get him a good bike. I have a bunch of 29er parts and since he is 6'3" so I think that a 21" 29er frame would be a good fit for him. I built up the bike with:

Motobecane Fantom 29 21" Matte Black frame
29er REBA fork
XTR Shifters
XT Rear Deraileur
LX Ft Deraileur
Bontrager Wheels
Avid ultimate levers
BB7 disc brakes,

So the bike had a cheaper frame with some really top level components.
Having the bike built up, I want to make sure it was in working order, so the best thing to do is ride it on a real ride:-)
I did not have my new 29er HiFi built yet so I decided to take this bike out to Fountain Head Regional Park for a spin with Ryan and his roommate. With the 29er wheels, and 100mm shock the trail was doable. I found that with the 100mm stem I had put on the bike, it fit me good, with the only issue having a little too light of a front end. One of the things that I have liked about 29ers is that when climbing the front end doesn't pop up, well this one did a little. I put on a 100mm stem, with my Brother-in-law he will ride with a 135mm. I think that the 100mm Stem needed to be lower so that wouldn't be an issue. I liked the bike, would really like to ride it at Roseryville, or Wakefield where the ride would be a little smoother. I think with my riding style(sitting) I need the Full squishy. I didn't really feel that strong hopefully, I will get stronger during my AZ trip.