Revolution Bike Fest 2018

IMTB ride you say? Im coming on Sat, what time we riding?

 

I registered for the race on Sunday morning. Will be hanging out late Saturday afternoon through Sunday...

 

THIS^^

 

Revolution Bike Fest

We ❤️ bikes and the people who ride them! Stop by our booth @revolutionbikefest and let us help Support the Shred!

 

Revolution Bike Fest will also be having a Kids Race!!!! So, bring your family!!

Kids racing at @raceoc is serious FUN. Youth racing has not been the same since @avafongmtb @brentfranze @turnerconway73 @seanieb63 @dani__mari197 and many more took to the dirt at Over the Hump. We want to keep it going so @docentbrewing and @wolfcreekbrewery proceeds from beer garden go to @socalleague come join us and the bike world as we race and play this weekend. Regiatration link in bio

 

@George ignores me every time I tell him to sign his mini up for the bike race.

 

Signed up for Sunday's race and tent camping it.
Hope this wind dies down.

 

Good news for the Castiac area, the fires/smoke are not in the area as of today, but very windy (should be the same tomorrow, better on Sunday). The Tapia trails if you do a demo are in good shape, but a little silty in places. Saw a huge dear and 4 sheep today, 1st time for that.

 

Beer tickets for sale...

 

Hoping to make it out to this tomorrow. No excuse as my whole playground is on fire.

 

I've been here a little while.
No riding yet, I'll get to it tomorrow.
Got the tent set up in the wind, it's windy!
Superscoopers are flying overhead to the lake to grab some water for the fires. Seems they are overhead every 20 minutes or so. I'm surprised they can scoop safely in these winds.
Looks like I need to go find those guys selling beer ducats.

 

You're watching them fill up and I'm watching them dump. One just flew overhead. I'm on my phone so not sure if you can zoom in and see them.

 

Sheep? I saw about 100 in a pasture today. Do you mean desert big horn?

 

Not sure, could have been goats. They were right in the middle of the trail where we wanted to go, so we turned around. Black ears, white coat. About 4 or 5 of them.

 

Interesting no matter what they were for sure.

 

Goats have been roaming around for a few months

 

Nobody gets by Voodoo the parking cop

 

I wanted to get out there, but it just wasn't in the cards. Too much going on.

 

Nice vest....almost didn’t see you.

 

Everyone!
Today was my first day with a booth at the Fest. Guys... it is AWESOME!
Sunday has a lot going on and I definitely recommend highly coming out tomorrow. The bike demos are awesome! Santa Cruz, Ibis, Canondale to mention a few!
Apparently the pump track is amazing. The exhibitors are pretty high class and I am honored to be a part of it.
I will be there tomorrow with the booth and one next door with a a bunch of chairs to kick back in.

These guys are pouring their heart and soul in to this event, so please come out!
Hope to see you there.

Mikie

 

Yes like @Mikie said the Revolution bike fest is awesome. Great day to just hang out with friends, donate some time and be surrounded by everything bikes and chat with folks we just don't get to see often enough. No riding for me (unless you count the 300 yards from the Jeep to the booth but damn that Hightower was buttah). Tomorrow I shall ride though and it'll be fun. Keep thinking about demoing a couple bikes but then I kept turning around and staring at the General Lee and asking myself why?

The man with the addictive white powder...(and a shiny Hightower in the background)


Things went off the charts Mr & Mrs @Mikie Robin Mcguire showed up. Absolutely love these folks and I was beyond thrilled that my wife and son got to meet them. Robin and Mikie my wife says to tell you she loves you guys...


A few other hooligans showed up also...


Including Rodney @MTBHotRod. With a name like that you gotta be fast. He's a local yet I hardly ever get to ride with him. Probably cause he's always busy coaching the local high school MTB team. Good dude that surrounds himself with like minded trouble makers.


And @Postal Pat. His beard is a few inches shorter than normal but man this guy is the king of cool...


I should've filed a complaint for the Tailwind in my water bottle that had spoiled and was fermenting but after I drank it I forgot.

 

I went on Satuday and had a great time. So good to see so many familiar faces, cant even remember everyone I saw so I won't name names.

I took full advantage of the demos and didn't even ride my bike except to and from my car. INSANE value for only $10

1st demo was the Sant Cruz Blur. WOW what a bike. When I returned the bike the words spewing out my mouth were "take this bike back or my credit card I don't care you decide." I think this is the ideal bike for what is the majority of SoCal terrain. Insanely light, snaps like a whip in regard to responsiveness, still playful to hop off rocks, and climbs better than I can so I felt like a goat on it instead of the ox I am. Loved the remote lockouts on the f/r suspension. I miss it honestly. Straight to #1 of my potential N+1 bikes and if I see a deal on one used Id buy it w/o hesitation.

While I was on the Blur my buddy was on the Pivot Shuttle. When we got away from anyone that could recognize me I said alright lets trade. That thing is not a bike it is aptly named. It shuttles you to the top of the hill so you can get laps in. I climbed a steep long fire road on the cx course without even thinking what gear am I in. I looked down and I had 6 more gears I could have shifted into. Sounds like a way to shed lbs on that behemoth. SS E-bikes are probably coming. The suspension on that $11k bike was meh to put it best. I turned off the assist to see what if felt like to pedal that beast if the battery dies and it seemed like a just punishment for riding that moto bike. In summary, I wouldn't own one unless I lived at altitude and just wanted to bomb hills on repeat.

Finally I rode a Ibis Ripley LS. Took this bike to the Tapia side to do a familiar ride and check out the aftermath of the fire. Being on a DW designed bike it was very similar to my bike. Except the shock is horizontal not vertical. Pedaling was very similar to my bike. Big difference is tires were a 29" boost. Not a fan of all that tire. My riding style is more playful than what those big tires want to do. Im not a plow through rider. I am a bunny hop and show your steeze over obstacles rider. So I struggled getting it to pull up and respond like Im used to. It was great through all the silt and sand on G-Out. Glad I forgot to turn my strava on going up Tapia, dont want to PR on false merit.

Highlight overall was grabbing food after the ride eating and hanging with @Mikie at his tent. Watching him do his tailwind pitch was good. Nice authentic sincere approach he took and people responded well to it. I bought a fresh bag of the white lightning. When riding back to the car with it in tow a guy asked where they were selling TW and how much. I have no idea what I paid I told him honestly, but whatever it is its worth it go check him out. Hope my sales pitch worked for you.

Great grass roots festival and I look forward to the rapid growth I anticipate it will have in the coming years.

 

Awesome report, thanks for sharing!

 

Royalties, please!

 

Agree w/ @mountaingirl sara , great write up!

 

I rode the Hunkr...ouch...my buddy Nate and I talked up Mikie before he bought a box of Tailwind. Since I was out in the hinterlands most of the day its good to hear that people took advantage of the demos. It might take a couple of years to get to critical mass (and a weekend not beset with tragedy like this last one), but in an area with this many people (consumers) without an event like this seems like its an opportunity when the rest of the country is thinking about fatbikes and "pain-caves".

Looked like turnout could be better. Couldn't make it out Sunday due to obligations (and riding an hour on Sunday was hard enough), but hope turnout keeps this on the calendar for the following year.

Heck, even at the very least, a lot of the people I saw out on Saturday and in the booths were a lot of people behind the scenes at a lot of the Mountain Bike Events and Advocacy Groups in SoCal. Maybe one of the (side) focus next year is to make this a place where all the Race Organizers, Advocates, Trail Buildiners, (NICA Coaches?) get together for a summit and just shoot the $*!t around a Friday campsite...we already have a little bit of that going on, but we have probably close to 50,000 (or more) MTB'ers in our little hood of 18+ million (or more).

Seems like an opportunity...did I just volunteer for something?

 

It was a good weekend.....I spent the weekend hanging out with friends, talking bikes and riding bikes.

Got there early Friday(that's what happens when you are married to one of the chiefs) and was immediately put to work. Found out that even though we were prepped for tent camping, @horsebikerider was offered up one of the 2 display Lance Trailers to sleep in....only caveat was that we had to move out each morning and couldn't hang out during the day. It was also quite windy.

@Voodoo Tom was the first to arrive. We spent the majority of the afternoon schlepping things around the venue. We would end up selling beer. @Rumpled showed up as well.

Friday was on the slow side, as it was a kind of a soft opening.

Saturday morning started out on the chilly side, but the wind had subsided. The Tailwind pusher man arrived and we worked on getting him set up. A little while later we were loading up my truck to head out to our Aid Station for the HUNKR Gravel race. We were given a radio since we were told the phones don't work back there. Well about 5 miles up Lake Hughes Rd, we run across a head on collision. Fortunately no one was hurt...fortunately there was just enough room to squeeze my truck through. We got to our aid station and realized that my radio didn't work....we were too far away. So we were completely out of communication for hours. About 1 hr later the riders started coming through. As the event progressed, our supply of water got dangerously low. Fortunately I had my weekend camping stash in the truck....but we cut it waaay too close.

Hung out at the Tailwind tent for a little bit. Chatted with @MrGreedom for a few minutes. Later on hung out with friends at the bonfire and listened to the band.

Since I worked way more than I planned on Fri/Sat, Sunday would be my play day. @Faust29 showed up for his volunteer duties. I got to the Santa Cruz tent right at 8:00 and got my first bike....

Bronson(L) Immediately took it over to the pump track. After a few runs I was getting the hang of it. Took it out on one of the shorter climbs. Climbed well, descended well, but the trail wasn't very technical so the bike was overkill.

Next up was the Tallboy(XL). Now this was option #2 when I bought my Hightower. I liked it. I really like the XL frame. Felt much lighter than my HT. Took it to the pump track as well. Did a longer climb this time. It did well. On the DH it handled great, but again it was kinda smooth. I could see riding one of these.

Then onto the 5010(XL) Once again over to the pump track. Again a fun bike to play on. Did the big climb again, not bad.

When I returned the 5010 SC didn't have anything left in L or XL, so I headed over to Cannondale just to ride something. Got a XL Habit. It made it over to one lap on the pump track....then went back to the demo tent. Suspension sucked, the seatpost was not working properly and it was a low end spec.

Went back by the SC tent and the Blur(L) was back so I snatched it. I spent a lot of time on it. I did not take it to the pump track. No dropper post....no pump track and jumps. However we ended up doing the XC race course as well as some extra credit. This thing is a climbing machine. Locked out....you pedal, it takes off. Get to the top and unlock it....it still wants to take off. Even with only 100mm travel and 2.25 Maxxis Aspens it handled the DH's great. It was a little sketchy with the narrower bars. My buddy Jeremy was on the HTLT....so we stopped and traded bikes, it was good he got on a long travel bike.

My take.....I didn't care for the 27.5 wheels.....maybe I have spent too many years on 29ers. The Blur was a great bike, but I couldn't see it as my only bike. It would make a perfect Endurance Race rig. The Tallboy would make a really good all arounder.

The wind picked up pretty good today. Many of the vendors ended up taking off early.

Fun times with bikes and friends all weekend.

 

Bummed I couldn't have gone to this. I've been reading the postings leading up to it, and now these post-event write ups, and it sounds so great!

 

Since I knew my weekend was going to be consumed with dropping off and picking up my son from his robotics team responsibilities and a early Saturday evening performance for my daughter's singing class, I figured the least I could do was volunteer for a few hours and I'm glad I did. Showed up Saturday and was immediately put on bounce house duty which I'm sure is initiation for the newbies ended the day manning the vip parking area before I had to leave. My son's day started early so I was able to show up by 7 and was again put in charge of the vip parking, which is where I spent the day til the racing was over and people were starting to roll out. Since this in my hood I was able to talk with a bunch of locals who were participating or stopped by to see the set up. I think it was a success and didn't hear anyone saying anything bad about the day. Had moment to talk with @Mikie and @Voodoo Tom at their set up, also talked with @MrGreedom, @Luis came by Sunday, said hello to @mtnbikej, and of course @horsebikerider, awesome job putting it all together. The pump track was quite a hit. The thrill of the weekend for me was taking pictures with Tinker and Victor Sheldon, two of my favorites, both really good dudes. Will gladly help out again.

 

Well... I didn't really know what to expect, but I had time on Sunday, so I volunteered!

When I rolled in at 7:00, there weren't many people roaming around. I ran into @mtnbikej, @horsebikerider and @Mikie who was under his tent dealing his white powder. I may have bought some- just a little for personal consumption. Shortly thereafter @Luis and @Voodoo Tom showed up...

At the morning briefing, I was the only one on a bike, so the head honcho sent me out to play crossing guard near the pump track. Cake assignment! There were only a couple times that I had to dig deep and project from the diaphragm to correct a wayward rider. The kids were fine, but some guy with a white beard kept wandering onto my race course. He heard my wrath a few times. It's even rumored he might be @hewhodoesntdoforums. @Rumpled repped the IMTB and put down some race laps... That was pretty cool to see.

Someone had fun on the pump track


After the races, I joined the two hooligans on loaner bikes (@mtnbikej and @hewhodoesntdoforums) for a couple climbs and descents... I also had the chance to briefly pedal around on the Blur and the Hightower LT. The LT was dreamy... Oh my. Really dreamy. The Blur... No thanks. Too sketchy.

Hanging out afterwards, chugging a double espresso in a can, and an uneventful drive home...

Good day around bikes and bike people...