Tour De Santa Ana's

Mostly it's because I'm on a hardtail and it beats the crap out of me, but that's no reason to destroy the character of the trail. I can appreciate the difficulty without wanting it "fixed."

I like Monroe Truck Trail much much more.

 

Looking at just the moving time from Four Corners to Motorway, we were about 30 seconds faster than the PR. That's pretty cool considering how beat up the downhills are.

 

I was at the bottom of Motorway in 3:00 even, from the start of the ride. It was a fast ride for me up to that point, even considering the slower climb up Harding. The climb up Maple Springs... was like 34 minutes slower than my PR Though that includes my snack break before the climb and numerous stops due to vehicle traffic. I stopped at three of the switchbacks just to take a breath as well. I didn't feel like I was riding the trail as much as limping up it

 

I used to ride it on a hardtail, too, with V-brakes! lol Haven't been on it since before the fire, but I've been meaning to check it out. It'll be with the Ripley, cuz those hardtail days are over (I think).

I'm not sure what "fixed" would be for the Motorway. It is what it is. I also worked to WS standards, since they had the lead. And I'm not the one who took out that sketchy gully/trough thing above where the trail drops off the ridge. Kinda liked it, even though it had its way with me at least once. Lost skin and brain cells on that trail, but MS/Motorway's an awesome loop.

Gonna have to check out Monroe one of these days, too, after I get some faster rolling tires for GMR.

 

Just climb MTT like the rest of us.

Motorway and I go back to 2002 or so....I like it and appreciate it more now. It's always been good.

 

I've heard that there's a recurring Wednesday night ride that visits Maple-Motorway pretty often...

 

GMR and I go back a long way.. from my roadie days. I'm looking forward to putting THAT climb with an mtb descent.

I rode Motorway loops, either Black Star or Maple Springs, from maybe 2005 on? Then worked on it when it went to sh!t and was being neglected (around 2009?), and then rode it some more. Used to be fun to haul ass down it, then race down Silverado. It'll be interesting to see if I still like it cuz I had a love/hate relationship with it back then (at least ride-wise), for some reason I always enjoyed working on it.

 

I was thinking about that yesterday on Coal Canyon. I rode at night for a year or so, but missed seeing all the colors and topography. I'm sure the city lights are stunning, though.

 

One of the reasons I like the B* night rides is you can look down the ridge into Corona... and then step over and look over the OC all the way to the ocean... But I wouldn't want to do the B* to Motorway ride in the dark. And quite frankly, given the condition of Main Divide atm, not sure I would want to do the Maple Springs / Motorway loop at night either. A little sketchy right now - in full daylight.

 

Both are fine at night....you just go slower.

 

My Garmin tells me I hit 34.2 mph on Main Divide Saturday. I'm still trying to figure out where I had to stop early on because I forgot to put on my cycling sunglasses after the climb and I was getting dust in my eyes from all you speed demons. After that I was in chase mode and I kept thinking - hey... this is not the Main Divide I remember

We need some rain.

 

One way to find out! Anyone want to try for this Wednesday?

 

Try ????

Climbing Coal Canyon?

 

Maple-Motorway... Not Coal Canyon.

 

ooooooohhhhhhh......that one.

 

The evening traffic to get to coal would cross it off my list.

 

Nice ride. RWS and I experienced some heavy wind while climbing B*. At Beeks it was fierce. I could barely hang on to my windbreaker as I was trying to put it on. If I would have lost grip, it would have been gone! Funny thing is as I made my way across MD, the wind completely died down. Don't even remember it being a factor. I was about an hour behind you.