Idyllwild Mountain Biking Day 1

We arrived at Idyllwild late last night. Ah there’s nothing like driving a compact car through curvy mountainous roads. Friday night was a full moon and it sure was pretty too see the mountains glowing. I had to pull over and get a shot. Dumb camera sucks so the quality is bleh.

From what I’ve learned, Idyllwild has tons of trails, but the main one is Hurkey Creek. Priscilla and I rode part of this trail a few years back. So we decided to go back and see if we can finish it off this time around. After the first few miles of climbing, we were greeted by some sweet single track and beautiful scenery.


We ended up in the bottom of a valley and what we were surprised by was how green everything was during the middle of the summer.

You may have noticed that I was riding the IBEX Ignition 3. Joe S. should have a review on that bike soon. Though the frame is a large, I installed a Sette Stumpy stem to help me fit on the bike a bit better.

The IBEX Ignition was a BLAST to ride! I was really blown away on the performance of this bike. It is a bit chunky compared to my single speed, but the gears were there to help me clear some of the harder climbs. What I liked about the IBEX was the ability to absorb absolutely everything I put it through. There were many times that we went through a chute like single track that had 1-2 foot sidewalls and at the same time rolling over baby heads and in each turn was a nice deep berm.

That type of riding conditions is where the IBEX really excels. As soon as I rolled through the first baby heads and handled a few berms, I knew that this bike was ready to rock. Throughout the downhill single track, I purposely looked for bumps, jumps and anything that would make this bike respond.

Just think of it this way, you know when you have some sort of new power tool such as a drill or power saw, you want to find more uses for it since screwing the cabinets or cutting the legs off your picnic table to make them even is getting boring. Well that’s what I was doing with the IBEX.

Joe S. tested this bike for the review and one of the things he mentioned was the Ignition’s ability to be more than a great trail bike, but in reality you could easily use this bike for DH stuff and really technical riding. After today’s ride, I do have to agree. I honestly felt like the IBEX can handle WAY more than what Hurkey Creek gave.

Priscilla loved the downhill single track so much that she wants to go back tomorrow! More pictures to come!