
About half of the group consisted of locals (Truckee, Tahoe Donner) that one of my friends befriended when he lived up here for a few years. The local connection is always priceless. The right trails, the right subtleties, the right everything, instead of fumbling around like a pure tourist. One of the group owns a restaurant in Reno ("Beuno Grill"), and his annual community party coincided with our trip so we partied there last night. Great people, great time.
The main rides:
One of my favorite things about riding a hard-tail bike is when I get mixed in with soft-tail riders. There's nothing like being told "you can't do this trail on that" by a softie, and then beating them to the finish. I did get to ride some ultra-plush custom Ventanna full-suspensions though. I have to say, really nice rides, but just too disconnected from the trail. I need to feel what's going on underneath me, not be shielded from it. That makes for a good segue into one of the cool cars that came up.
The car enthusiast in the group brought up his new tricked out BMW M5 (500hp). While a killer ride with amazing power, the entire system is "drive by wire." Driving it was almost confusing as I lacked direct connections to the brakes, gearbox, and throttle. I want to be directly connected to a car with that much power. While BMW had done an incredible job pulling it all together, it was obvious there was a computer between me and the road.
I've been on V-Brakes forever, but after riding some HOPE branded hydraulic disk brakes, I'm going to switch over. The stopping power is incredible, and my forearms could use a break. I'm going to stay hard-tail though; all hard... all the time.
Great weekend. Nice to catchup with old friends. Nice to grind out some epic rides.