Helping A New Rider Conquer Big Bike Park Drops!

Yeah, have you done it before? I don't have any friends that do stuff like this. I have to do the test on it. That's why I'm here today. If you go too far, you're going to flat. And if you come up short, I'm not guaranteeing that I'm going to do it, but all right. All right, drop it in. That's a good sign. I mean, not for us, but for Gabalton. What's going on, Snoop? I watch your videos. Hey, what's up, man? How you doing? You got me into biking. How long have you been riding? I grew up biking, like me and Max saying. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I got an Enduro bike, and I was living in San Diego. I moved back last October. So when you say moved back? I was in the military. I'm originally from here. So you're in San Diego Navy? Marines. I worked on F-18 fighter jets. Gotcha. So I was stationed at a training unit. So all the people I had at my unit were beginner pilots. They were learning how to fly. So I worked on all their jets. So we don't go on deployments. We go on detachments, which are basically mini deployments where we only leave for a few weeks and we only stay in the country. I saw a bunch of states that I've never seen, which is cool, but never left the country. And that was a big reason why I wanted to join, to see the world. And then, of course, I get stationed in that place, and I don't have a choice. Needs of the military, not my needs. But it's still fun. I don't regret it. I started mountain biking when I was 11. So I've been doing it for a long time. So people are like, oh, I'm so stoked, Phil. You're really getting Haley into it. And I'm like, yeah, I think they're done now. It's just that my background is cross-country racing, not exactly like sending it down a mountain. I tried to explain this to a lot of people. It's like jumping in the big picture of mountain biking is new. It used to be you either did downhill or you did cross-country. There wasn't this middle ground. Downhill stuff, there were drops, and it was technical. And then it started evolving, and places started to build purpose built jumps. There's a lot of people I know who have been riding their whole life who aren't comfortable with the jumping, because if you don't learn that when you're young, it's really hard to pick up as you get older. All right. OK, so all right, let's see how muddy this is today. Yeah. Well, these brakes are not breaking. Oh, god. Oh, my god. Oh, yeah, this is so muddy. When I saw you splash into that puddle, I was like, boy, I'm going to go left first. Yeah, look at that. Wow, that was funny. I'm enjoying being on a downhill bike again. I've had this bike built up for a while now. I actually got this before I got my Force. It's just like once I got my new Force, I enjoyed riding that so much that I just haven't touched this. So quick bike check. This is my GT Furry downhill bike, and it has 27.5 inch wheels, not 29 inch wheels. So this is a bigger bike, but the wheels are a little bit smaller. Of course, I got Noble wheels on front and back, Onyx hubs, so it's nice and silent. This is the only bike I have with a 35 mil bar. Every other bar I run is 31.8 on it. I like the skinnier bars more than the fat ones. But anyway, let's see how this rolls today. OK, this trail is dry right now. It's the end of the season, so everything takes a lot longer to dry up. And we've gotten a lot more rain. I can tell you what, it's a lot different than riding out in Moab. Oh, no, they're making these two merge. OK, what? Oh, OK, now we're headed on. Gotcha, gotcha. OK, that's right. They've had to kind of repurpose some of these trails. Wait, where's the turn at the rock that they'll hit? Like, where am I on the trail right now? But to get to that trail, you have to take the blue jump. Yeah, that's the blue jump now. Oh, right. Because they've completed it. If you double down the blue jump now, it's double down to double up. Yeah. Or a blue. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, they've been doing some building up here, so the trails are changing a little bit. Where are my big wheels at? That lap confused me. Yeah. I forgot about some changes. I got it. This is the blue jump? Unless you want to override that, which is fine. You good to go? Yeah. Cool. Thank you. Have a good one. See, you let them do their thing, kind of they spot you, let them pull off when they can, and we can all have fun. Usually on the blues and greens, the beginner riders have them right away. Then once you get to the black trails, that's when you should generally yield to the faster rider. It really helps if you are dropping right in behind someone else. Give some space. Regardless of how fast they are, stop for a second and give them space. No, you're the one that chose to jump in right behind me. Yeah. I'm not pulling over for you. All right. You good? Traverse this for a little bit, and then we jump on the blue jump trail, which should be a lot more finished this time. I don't think we need to leave it until the end of the trail. So I have not ridden this bit. This bit is new to me. I think they opened this before I went to Moab or after I went to Moab. I don't know. This is where having my Daryl bike would be nice, because definitely having to work for some of those. But it's also a little soft. So come next season, this should roll quite faster. Ah, OK. Oh, that's so gross. Let's go ahead and fix it. So I had a funny crash. I just ended up in there. Yeah. Saw that the top of the berm was all decapitated, so I swung down low. And then I ended up under wetness and went straight. God, ah. The one time I don't bring my hip pack with spare gloves with me. Oh, dude, it's a stark contrast compared to last year on closing day. Yeah, exactly. We're in rain, five people out. It's so cold. Yeah, this is gorgeous. Quite the opposite. 100,000 people here in perfect weather. Yeah, have a great time. Yeah, thank you. Yeah, no worries, guys. Yeah, you're welcome. Have a good one. Yeah, you too. All right. So I told these guys you can do a lap, so I was thinking Boulder Gap Enchanted? I don't know. Yeah. Ah-ha, so much traffic today. Yeah, yeah, that's fine. Yeah. We're going to be following you to Gap. Yeah, have you done it before? No. Do you want to look at it? Yeah, I'll look at it. OK. The hardest part. Where do you start? Right there. That's it? Yeah, I mean, because they built the drop around the speed you have going through all these routes. The tricky part about it is there's no real good spot to stop. No, no. So you've got to commit back there. I'll let you walk out onto it. It doesn't look that bad. It's not terrible. It's just, if you mess up, if you go too far, you're going to flat. And if you come up short, it's not a drop I recommend a lot of people do unless they're really comfortable. I'll lead it out. It's up to you to decide if you're going to follow me off it. Basically, we'll come into here with a little bit of speed. And then I don't think we'll have to put any pedal strokes in here, but you might need one. Yeah, that's what I kind of thought. I'm not guaranteeing that I'm going to do it, but let me know when you're ready. I'm good. All right. All right, drop it in. Yeah. I just needed you. Oh, thank you. I needed that. I felt like I landed kind of far at the front. You landed a little bit. You went pretty deep. I haven't done this yet. This one's slow, right? Is this what we're doing? This one's slow. Yeah, I've done the show. I just haven't done the drops. It's easy to go too fast. That's what I think, too. Oh, my God. Oh, did you? I almost cased it. I should have gone a little. I saw how fast you were going, and I was like, I thought I had to go slower for this. And then I think I braked a little bit, and I was like, I should have just kept your speed. I don't have any friends that do stuff like this. I have to be the test dummy. I hate being that guy. I don't want to be that person. Sometimes it's nice to have your friends be test dummies. That's why I'm here today. Is my lens good? Yeah, it's pretty good. Surprisingly, your screen next to it is on. That's spicy. And the line is all redded out. I had to go way slower today. You're still going too fast for me? Yeah. I tried. All right, we'll see how Enchanted Forest is doing today. This is usually my favorite trail here. Not even close today. Given how wet my gloves were, I'm surprised that they're basically dry now. We're good. Yeah, we were headed that way. Oh, really? Yeah, yeah. Okay, cool. I was going to take Hard Luck, shoot over, same way, and then cut through over to Vista and Green. Okay. That little gap that you do at the top of Hard Luck, I was like, I wanted to do that one. Take some sweet little, where you popped off, came onto the side of that wall ride. I did that too. I was like, I would have never seen that. Never thought of that. Try to keep those trails interesting. I know. I watch your videos, and I see those things, and I thought I was going to do that there. I was like, I would have never seen that. Double down? Double down. All right, here's a stupid line that I like to try. Whoa, did you just slide right there? Yeah, a little bit. This section's so fun. Yeah. I'm just curious to know how you're going to get along with that section, because that was the first time we've done it into slick. Yeah. We said, this is where the entire ridge is rock in the wet, so it'll be how it goes. But the part that's actually scary was, like, Not that bad. It was this part. Yeah, it was the part right after that was tacky. It was slippery. All right. Ah, this section is actually way drier than I expected. But I love how this section rides. This section gets a little hairy. Not, not down with that section today. That section's hard to get along with. I've stopped and looked at lines. And that one section, you have to come off the bridge. There's no good line. There's a bunch of mediocre lines. They all have their pros and their cons. The line I took was probably the straightest. But it just feels like you have to check up so much to get into it. Oh, did he? OK. Where did you go down? Right before the bridges, I just, uh, I hit a lot of dirt. I was surprised. I was like, how do you eat dirt with a full face? Bolton is a place that has humbled me the most out of any bike park. Like, when you least expect it, it'll remind you, like, to, uh, to be cautious. Yeah. Yeah, that was a good one. But definitely, if you, the ego's too big. Could I get you to go down to the jump and film it? Yeah, absolutely. Will you give me the route? You want to hit the first one? Can you drop it? Yep. I just don't want to get cut over right next to it. The jump is not bad. Like, as long as you clear the first one, you should be fine. If you come up short on the first one, you might still be able to make the jump, but I would say that's a, like, good indication that you should pull out. All right, drop it in. All right, I'm going to call out to Haley before I do the jump. All right, Haley. He's not behind us, so I have a feeling he... I think he bailed. He's the opposite. I think he, if we found more, like, medium-sized drops, he would be more into that. Yep. He's a little bit more cautious on the jumps. I mean, that's how you maintain your longevity in the sport. Yeah, exactly. I was like, honestly, no reason to push it. Nice meeting you. What was your name again? I'm Connor. Connor. Connor and Michael. I'm really bad at remembering. Like, I'll remember your name for, like, a week, and then once, like, my, like, short-term memory, like, fades, I'll remember the ride, but... Well, it's a bummer that Bolton is closing for the year, but, man, that ended up being a really spectacular day. We didn't get as many runs as normal, but the runs that we did get were short and sweet, and I have to say, it was kind of fun riding my downhill bike again. Still, I do think I prefer my Force, but especially on a day like today where it's just, like, you're just muddy and thrashing your bike, it's kind of good to distribute some of the wear and tear onto another bike. It's all right. This place is just getting better and better, and I'm really looking forward to how it shapes up next year. So I got the sun in my eyes. Sorry about that. So I'm squinting. Anyway, that's where we're going to leave off this video. Thanks for watching, and I'll see you guys next time. Peace.