Went out to Aliso Woods with my buddy Ivan this past Saturday. Aliso Woods is a BUSY trail network in south Orange county. It also comes in 2nd (to the Sea Otter Classic) for seeing high end bikes (Turner, Intense, Ellsworth…). I even met a nice guy on a beautiful Turner Sultan. The Sultan (such a great name for a bike) is Turner’s Full Suspension 29er offering.
A fireroad connecting Mathis to Rock-It
I met the Sultan rider while riding down Rock-It Trail, a pretty technical trail that gets its name from not only the rocket like speed you get but also the rocks you have to deal with. The Sultan rider normally rides a 6″ travel FS Turner 26er, but he just got his Sultan so he was taking it out for the first time that day.
I asked him what he thought of the 29er wheels and he said that they help him to climb faster but they weren’t as fast through the rocky stuff (ie. Rock-It). With only three inches of suspension, the Sultan wasn’t as cush as his 6 inch FS which in turn slowed down his descent down Rock-It.
Technical & fun? A resounding YES!
I also met a dude with a Gary Fisher X-Caliber. He normally rode a 28″ hybrid on the trails but decided to try something with disk brakes, hence the X-Caliber. I hope he likes the the X-Cal. It’s a blast to ride.
2 Gary Fisher X-Calibers. Aren’t they purdy?
Our route began with climbing Mathis (a climb of false hope; when the rider thinks the climb is over he peers around the bend and his hopes are dashed), down Rock-It (over a mile of technical downhill complete with rocks and speed), up Cholla (is it choh-la or choh-yah?), down Lynx then back to the car.
1 x 1 Clyde sporting the Hoss Ponderosa Camo Print shorts
By the way, a quick shout out to 1 x 1 Clyde from SoCalTrailRiders.org. This dude is a really cool guy. Not only was he leading a group through Aliso Woods (including two riders who’d never ridden Rock-It, both of whom Rocked-It) but 1 x 1 Clyde was also sporting the Hoss Ponderosa Camo Print shorts. Very cool indeed.
Nice reminder
