Dajerseyrat
Well-Known Member
I couldnt imagine going any deeper into the park as I just dont know the trails and would never go alone. I also found out that apparently we have timber rattlesnakes here in NJ???
NJ Mountain Bike Festival 2018 Edition
- Thread starter Bleeder
- Start date
Mr.Moto
Well-Known Member
I would have liked to have ridden more and tested out a demo, but the Sterling ride first thing killed me. Took so long and I was so hungry on the way back that I just couldn't go back out again. My only complaint is I needed more pizza and to get it in my belly faster.
Many thanks to all the JORBA peeps!
Many thanks to all the JORBA peeps!
oobaa47
Well-Known Member
It was a thousand times more impressive in person, then watching it on video. I'd say out of the 25 or so guys on the ride, maybe three or four tried just to go down it. So Jeff was staring at the section for quite some time as we're watching the guys attempt to go down it. I was wondering why he was staring at this for so long. Then all the sudden he's like, "hey I think I might be able to ride UP this". Guys were like, what did he just say? I seriously thought it was completely impossible. Or at the bare minimum, for someone at his skill level, it would have took him dozens of times before he cleared it. But he cleared it on his first attempt......
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qclabrat
Well-Known Member
Now that we see the line... Haha, he's awesome
oobaa47
Well-Known Member
Thanks.
thegock
Well-Known Member
Impressive JORBA Jam Sunday at Ringwood. I don’t know how attendance is tracked or by whom, but it seemed like more people this year than have been at Jungle in the past. Of course, that may be because of the immense parking lot at Jungle?
Another thing that I noticed was the huge NICA turnout for Sunday, which may drive the attendance, too. The kids were all over the place and having fun. Good job by @KenS and crew.
I was on mile 18 of getting lost and climbing a lot. Two NICA age (16?), mud splattered dudes asked me where the race trail was and I told them that I didn’t know. I have been to Ringwood maybe six times and really don’t know the trails that well. They looked up the hill on the powerline cut and one of them said WOW, look at that! I then pointed out that there was a just as steep and impressive hill on the other side of the valley we were standing in.
One thing that the organizers could improve was coaching the self selection of riders by skill levels for different levels of rides. A couple of us stopped for the “expert” ride, which was coming down the White trails. Of the 25 riders, 8 of them didn’t clean a tiny bit of single track with an irregular rock on the left (downhill) side. My riding skills are not “expert”, nor would I put myself on an expert ride, but I went through there with two “non expert” friends toward the end of the day and we all cleared it and didn’t particularly notice it. Therefore, I am guessing that some of the eight people who didn’t clear it might not be experts.
Great day-thanks, JORBA.
Another thing that I noticed was the huge NICA turnout for Sunday, which may drive the attendance, too. The kids were all over the place and having fun. Good job by @KenS and crew.
I was on mile 18 of getting lost and climbing a lot. Two NICA age (16?), mud splattered dudes asked me where the race trail was and I told them that I didn’t know. I have been to Ringwood maybe six times and really don’t know the trails that well. They looked up the hill on the powerline cut and one of them said WOW, look at that! I then pointed out that there was a just as steep and impressive hill on the other side of the valley we were standing in.
One thing that the organizers could improve was coaching the self selection of riders by skill levels for different levels of rides. A couple of us stopped for the “expert” ride, which was coming down the White trails. Of the 25 riders, 8 of them didn’t clean a tiny bit of single track with an irregular rock on the left (downhill) side. My riding skills are not “expert”, nor would I put myself on an expert ride, but I went through there with two “non expert” friends toward the end of the day and we all cleared it and didn’t particularly notice it. Therefore, I am guessing that some of the eight people who didn’t clear it might not be experts.
Great day-thanks, JORBA.
Bleeder
JORBA:President
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Bleeder
JORBA:President
We're working on it. The guided ride page included descriptions of trail difficulties, and by extension skill levels. This year we've even added fitness levels to ride descriptions to better sort riders. But it's tough because people rank themselves all over the place. Heck, you wouldn't believe how many people signed up for both the beginner clinic and the Lenosky Ride. And that's complete opposite ends of the skill spectrum.
You could use Strava PR rank to come up with a ballpark idea of where you stand. For example =ROUND(((1-($Your PR Rank/$Total # Riders)))*100, 1) gives you a grade on a scale to 100. and =ROUND(((1-($Your PR Rank/$Total # Riders))/2)*10, 1) Gives you a 1-5 stars rating.
Bleeder
JORBA:President
We do our best to get as many bike brands as we can to demo. But at the fest, there's another 500 people that want to ride a demo bike too. Ideally demo rides, should be a half hour, 40 minutes max so the next rider can try it. That really limits the choice for demo loops. With the short loop, and compressed time frame, the best way is to use the fest demos as a broad stroke filter. Ride a variety of bikes, use the 3/4 fire road and 1/4 singletrack to weed out to ones you're definitely not interested in and follow with your local bikes shop for more in depth demo rides on the good ones.
FitmanNJ
Well-Known Member
Just so you know, I asked about which of the rides on the guided ride page we were going to be doing (as it wasn't listed on the sign-in sheet), and the ride leader didn't seem to be at all familiar with the content of that page. So, I couldn't tell if I was going to be riding on the ride that I thought best fit my skill level.
Victor I
aka Ridgehog
Come on Frank, let’s at least try it..
Bleeder
JORBA:President
You're right. In trying to keep the rides to a manageable group size we pressed into service a lot more volunteer rides leaders. In the rush to get everyone out and rolling we didn't get to brief them all properly. That's on me. I had hoped to be more hands on in wrangling the rides just too many fires to put out at a time.
I want to thank everyone that stepped up to volunteer to lead a ride. We really appreciate it.
We will be working to get better next year.
V-Dub
Well-Known Member
I really want to thank everyone who volunteered from small jobs to the huge and time consuming, this is a great event from riders to vendors the stoke was high this weekend! Without the volunteers it doesn't happen. Give us a couple days and we'll probably start planning for next year
Juggernaut
Master of the Metaphor
I’ve only been to a handful of these... but I can’t remember a bigger turnout. Hopefully that translated to some “new” JORBA members. It was great seeing all the people coming together and really enjoying the MTB scene and chilling with my OOS peeps.
Camping out in “ Bear Country” on the first cold night of the season was....interesting. Having not died, I’ll be doing it again next year if there’s an option to do so.
As much fun as it was to see all the old faces, seeing all the kids totally jazzed to be out on bikes was my favorite part.
How can you not smile seeing Zoey zip all around with @moose35 cruising along after her and then later Bobzilla crushing it out there while @UtahJoe soft pedals nearby grinning from ear to ear (how could he not). Wasn’t it like yesterday he was scootering around on the balance bike? Damn, they grow up so fast.
A big thank you JORBA!
Camping out in “ Bear Country” on the first cold night of the season was....interesting. Having not died, I’ll be doing it again next year if there’s an option to do so.
As much fun as it was to see all the old faces, seeing all the kids totally jazzed to be out on bikes was my favorite part.
How can you not smile seeing Zoey zip all around with @moose35 cruising along after her and then later Bobzilla crushing it out there while @UtahJoe soft pedals nearby grinning from ear to ear (how could he not). Wasn’t it like yesterday he was scootering around on the balance bike? Damn, they grow up so fast.
A big thank you JORBA!
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