Chris, John & I headed up to Northstar on Sunday. We had a killer time as usual. We hooked up with Paul & Kevin whom I met via the DH forum on MTBR.com. This was John's first time at Northstar on his new Iron Horse. He was nailing drops and cleaning nasty rock gardens like mad! He did have a pretty good crash on the drop at the end of Karpiel and now has a sprained wrist. We all had some good bouts of riding as well as some good crashes. Towards the end of the day I just could not stay on the bike. Had a stupid crash off a small log and ended getting all tangled up in my bike. Ended up with some nasty bruises on my legs & arms. Gotta look into more armour. Northstar just finds a way to tear you up. Chris rented a Santa Cruz VP-Free for the day. A full review is pending. I rode it a bit, and took it down the slabs on Dogbone. My initial thoughts are that it wouldn't be my preferred type of bike for Northstar. It would probably make a great bike for Auburn & Downieville etc., just not plush enough for me. I'm so used to the full 9" of squish on my DHi that this bike felt way too rigid. We also hooked up with a yound kid from Australia who was an amazing rider! He was hitting huge airs off the stadium jump, tail whips and all. He must have done 10-15 runs that day, compared to our total of 4. Anyways we all had a great time, and have our battle scars to prove it! Paul managed to snap a few really good photos. I especially like the one of myself on the huge Boondocks rock with Martis Lake in the background! You can check out the photos on mtbr here.
