ORBEA OIZ

Well, the new bike is great. I have gotten to ride it twice one at Oak Mtn and once here at the local trails. I am truly trying to be as critical as I can with this bike because I love my old bike and know it handled good and was, for the most part, fast. The bike is fast. It seemed to stick to the ground more than the Fuel...where the Fuel would bounce thru tight up and loop de loops and commit type trails the oiz feels like it rides the trail better.

The new combo of uni's this year will be fun. I have two kits to chose from now...

The supa sweet, classic, great fitting, simple look with the Orbea Continental Team Kit. It The bibs are really nice with a good feeling chamois. They fit perfect. The jersey is probably one size too big but i can only tell it in the chest when I'm leaning over, no biggie. I also have 2 of these.

Over all... A-

Then I have the supa fly, no doubt about bad ass, original style, hincapie, sleeveless lovin BOR kit. This kit has been s staple around the south for several years...and if you wear it you got to bring it. So I hope to keep that spirit alive. The yin and the yang...is I only one kit...the yang...it's sleeveless!

Over all A-

And the kits combined look just as good!!! I could see this becoming a popular look for 09!

The Oiz came with the new Mavic Crossmax SLR wheel set. I have been sporting the 07 crossmax wheels for, well 2 yrs, and I have loved them. I have had no trouble with them and I suspect that these will yield the same results but at a lighter weight. The have huge beefy hubs and are machined a little more this year...looks just cool as ever!

The Rock Shox World Cup Sid is a nice touch too! This is the first time I have had a remote lock out on the front, and I can't wait to use it on some fire roads! It also is adjustable...100/80 mm option...I have it fully opened at 100mm with 25 % sag in it...it tracks like a motorcycle! Awesome.

The rear design on this bike is what I just stare at...it just looks cool, rides great, eliminates the need for a lot of moving parts...it just works. It truly rides like a hard tail until I hit a large enough bump that it engages the travel...otherwise it rides like a hardtail. I can stand up and hammer and I feel no bob. Now that is something that wasn't happening on the fuel...at all! But don't get me wrong...it descends just as fast as the fuel. I bombed the downhill at oak mtn with absolutly no trouble at all.

The Orbea Oiz is bar none the baddest bike I have ever ridden...I have only owned 4 real mountain bikes...but I ride enough to feel like i got a good grasp on how a race bike should feel. This bike feels good, especially when you're going fast.

nice weekend and good things ahead!

This weekend was good times! B rad, Wesson and I have been planning on doing a small training weekend for awhile but with cold the hard freeze we got this Friday/Saturday, the fact that the campgrounds were closed, and that wesson couldn't find overnight kinel for his dogs, we decided to stay in Jackson and have a sleepover at wessons and hit up the ridgeland trails back to back days.

Sat's plan was a 2.45 hr ride with 3x 20 min z4 tempos...i only got 2hrs in w/ 2x 20 tempos...i had 2 flats and just decided to call it a day.

I did hike up in the woods for about 45 min looking at the new section of trails that j.polk is building...SWEET!

Sun's plan was 3hr ride time with pretty solid effort through out the entire ride...or a "c" race...since there's no races around i just warmed up for about 30 min, then slowly increased my effort for the next 3 laps around the race loop...ended up goofing off the last 20 min of the ride so i only probably pushed the pace for about 2hrs..still felt good and worked afterwards!

NOW...for the goods...i got these pics from Josh, my orbea rep! It's on the way...got plans with Glenn and some of the team to break it in right this upcoming weekend over in some epic GA trails...more to come on that!

WOW...so the new news for me is...a new bike sponsor!

Orbea! The have stepped up and hooked your boy up with a great deal for 2009.

I am supa stoked that I will be riding a full carbon Oiz this year. It will be the raw carbon frame with the world cup build. It will be without a doubt the baddest bike i have ever sat on!

In addition to the new Orbea, I will be riding with a new shop this year too. Bicycle Outfitter out of Douglasville, GA. Glenn, the owner is a awesome dude with a passion for only the good things in life. He will also be helping me with gear during the year.

Many reports to come on the bike...it has been ordered and shouldn't be too long before I'm blazing on a new rig! AWE JEAH!!!!

a little late ride report...short with pics...

For the last 2 years, I have taken a joseph trip...to nothin but chill on my own time and ride kick ass trails. Last year I discovered Racoon Mtn in the Nooga, hit up Tanasi in TN and rode Oak Mtn and Lake Lurleen which are both in Bama.

This year I decided to head over to Arkansas to the Ouachita Mountains to ride some brand new trails and check out Hot Springs.

I left out on early Thursday moning...it was damn near like this for about 5 out of the 7hrs on the road. Hot Springs was my town of destination.


Since the fog slowed me down and i had a stop in Jackson to pick up some extra gear so as i pulled in town it was getting dark quick...the first ride on the radar was Cedar Glades. It was short and fun!

The weather was chilly and the ground was wet...

I instantly noticed the rocks everywhere!

The light left me quickly...got about 2:15 ride time. Nice trails with a great switch back climb.
That night I crashed at the local campgrounds just on the fringe of town. I stayed in the truck and had a nice rainfall to send me off to dream land. I woke up to this awesome sight of a huge rock wall and sweet little stream.
I drove around town in the day to check it out and drove up to the top of a lookout tower to get a nice view of the area.

Then went downtown Hot Springs which was really cool. Old buildings with lots of history.
Theis is bath house row.

They have real hot springs.

After I hit up the local bike shop to pick up a few last things and get some local advice on what the next trail should be... Little Blakely or Vista Trails

Vista was the decision...great trail system. The Vista is an out and back trail that's about 14 miles. The trails started by winding in and out the Lake Ouachita.

Nice long ROCKY climbs.

It was a great ride...about 3:15 ride time.

There was a section of tree cutting that took away a little but not too much.
The last day of the trip was the Womble. I have been wanting to ride this trail from start to finish for awhile...so this was my chance. B rad made it over for this one, since it too is a point to point trail i needed either a friend to ride with me so we can have a car parked at the end of the trail of I had to arrange a shuttle. We started at the south trail head at North Fork Lake. The trail had mile markers and we started at mile 37 and went backwards...I had a flat sometime before this pic was taken, but this is the second flat...

B rad going to work on the tyre

Damn, it's a large tear in the side wall...what to do? Suck down a hammer gel and use the package as a patch kit.

After about 3:30 hrs of riding we were rewarding with some fantastic single track that was running around some ridges and was only about 2 ft wide...it was impressive. Then we got to this overlook...I would say about 600 ft up. It was great.

The B rad took the goofy pic of me happy and tired. From this point the ride was almost over...we ended up with about 4:20 min ride time from start to finish with about 36 miles, 4500 ft of climbing and a hell of an adventure with a great friend!