Working for Dirt Rag Magazine I periodically travel to attend press camps, where the latest mountain bike components and frames await for long demo rides on superb trails. In May the opportunity to travel to Sedona, Arizona for Magura’s press camp came up, and Maurice and I flew to the red rocks for some serious saddle time.
The Sea Otter Classic was held April 15-18th in Monterey, California and once again is my favorite event of the year. XC racing, dual-slalom, dirt jumps, pump tracks, road racing on the Laguna Seca Race Track and an extensive variety of road, commuting, and mountain demo bikes keep the days interesting, while the people walking around make it entertaining.
For the last three weeks I've been putting the Civia Bryant, built with SRAM's Rival components, through the testing procedure. When I first threw a leg over the frame and pedaled a few strokes, I could tell that I was going to like the riding posture, which put me more upright than my personal bike and allowed me to see traffic better.
It's not easy for me to keep a positive outlook through the winter. With ten hours of daylight each day and the majority of those spent inside in front of a computer. Beside creating my own music, I search for ways to keep my mind entertained after I bike home in the dark with eyes seemingly fixed to the illuminated area of my headlight, hoping deer are not suddenly going to appear in it.
At the closing of this year's Interbike Dirt Demo in Bootleg Canyon I wandered over to the Fuji Bicycles compound to pick up my three-day loaner bike, a Fuji Cross RC. Unlike most of the other bikes that were loaned to the Bicycle Times/Dirt Rag staff, mine wasn't strictly a city bike.
