A Break from the News-Wheel
Hi friends. Mike Herlinger, the Founder and CEO here. It’s been quite a couple weeks and we’re following along just as you are. While we ride through this challenging time I’d like to share a diversion from the news briefs with some welcomed stories of fun, adventure, and of course riding bikes. Adventures are still waiting to happen!
Desert Escape
Spring is time to recharge, get some perspective and unplug. The desert is the perfect place to retreat to. While Club Ride was founded in and still calls the mountains of Sun Valley Idaho home, the desert has a special place in our hearts. After a long winter we look forward to shorts, flip flops, and of course getting back on singletrack. This spring we attended Sedona Mountain Bike Festival before heading out for singletrack, desert camping, and the best of southern Utah's National Parks.While in Sedona we connected with a local ambassador Steve Hume for group rides and some of his favorite Sedona slick rock. If you haven't ridden the trail Hangover in Sedona, we highly recommended it. Keep in mind it does carry a double black diamond rating for mountain bike trails so ride within your ability and leave your ego at home.
Final Trail Thoughts
A number of us hadn't ridden hangover before. Knowing it is rated a double black diamond in trail difficulty we predicted primarily high consequence descents. We were surprised to find as many technical climbs as descents. In hindsight we would have run lower tire pressure for traction on the climbs, then pumped up tire pressures to protect our wheels from hard rock hits on the descent. Hangover will be on our "must ride again list" in Sedona with the personal challenge to clean a few more of those technical up-hill moves.
Suggested Route:
Huckabuy Parking Lot -> Schnebly Hill Road -> Cow Pies -> Hangover -> Munds Wagon -> Huckabuy Parking Lot.
Hardtail Party
Steve Hume, or better known as Hardtail Party, discovered mountain biking in the early 90s and still loves exploring trails with fellow mountain bikers today. His YouTube channel focuses on the simple joy of riding mountain bikes, especially hardtails. Steve encourages us to reconnect with the reasons we started riding in the first place and focus on having fun on two wheels with good friends. Subscribe to Hardtail Party on YouTube to follow along and see what he’s up to next.
Steve's Picks
Steve has been riding and testing some of our new products this winter in Arizona. His favorites are the Detour shirt for its soft feel, light weight, and crazy amounts of stretch. The bike inspired Tread Print stands out on the trail and ads some fun to every ride. The Hifi short is the longest short we make at 13" which gives plenty of coverage for knee pads in technical terrain and multiple secure pockets that carry everything you need for the ride adventures after.
Sedona Mountain Bike Festival Recap
Are we making you think about adding this festival to your bucket list next year? Steve made a full recap video below and we have images from Devon Balet Photography to entice you even further.
Sedona Mountain Bike Festival is a 3 day event which features mountain bike and gravel bike demos as well as shuttles. The event is packed full of happenings starting at 9am and finishing late in the night with movies, events, and various un-sanctioned festivities. Sedona Mountain Bike Festival is free and open to the public but to demo bikes or ride the shuttles you'll need to buy a wristband.
