Harbins Park MTB Trails

What's up guys, it's Kevin again here to party. So today we're going to Harbin's Mountain Bike Park. Got my buddy Raymond with me, all-around rider. Pretty much is down for whatever just like me. If it's going to be mountain bike racing, if it's going to be road racing, if it's going to be cyclocross racing, if it's going to be running a 5k. Harbin's Mountain Bike Park is located at 2995 Luke Edwards Road, Decula, Georgia. The Gwinnett Arena Trail Riders maintain this area. They have bathrooms, water fountains, and a bike wash. Which one is the most common lane? Hey man, how you doing? I'm Kevin. Kevin, Chris Bro. Nice to meet you. I'm president of this thing. Yeah, yeah, so I was just getting a little insight. He was talking a little bit, name of the group, stuff like that. We're an organization that is Gator, is Gwinnett Area Trail Riders. We maintain and ride the Gwinnett County Trails. This one, of course, the one right down the road at Triple Mill and Yellow River. Have you ridden all three? No, no, no, this is going to be the first one I've ridden here. You guys are going to be here we rode this morning. But like if people are going to come look for like look for information about you guys you have like use your Facebook page or like a website. Our Facebook page is usually one of the better places. We post our group rides on our rides. In fact, we have a night ride coming up this third. Yeah, I'm gonna check it out. I'm trying to figure out how to get my headlight mounted to my helmet and one on my bike so I can have. It's a little chilly. I mean, I'm, you know, I got thermal pants on. I'm sweating like a dog right now. But yeah, I mean, we do a lot of different things. We ride the trails. We're trying to get a little bit more membership going on right now. Yeah, for sure. Right, try to get a little more interest in the club, a little more interest in the trails, because especially for people that live close. There's a lot of people here in this county that love these trails that ride these trails. Yeah. And everybody's looking for some how they can help more how they can participate, how they can become part of a bigger group. Yeah, yeah, for sure. Enjoy the ride. Yeah, more organization, you know, and meet people. Yeah, that's the idea. So that's kind of what we're about. In fact, that's exactly what we're about. A little bit more background, for instance, this club has been associated with the parks department in a partnership type way for the last 10 years. When this park was first built, the original master plan called for six miles of mountain biking trails. Because of our direct involvement with them, we got 15 miles built. Oh, that was good. So here at Auburn's Park, we've got Jennifer, we got Tom. I mean, you just want to call yourself Tom or Tom? Like the reason why I think that's funny, but if we call you Tom, but how do you spell your name? It's actually Tom, H for the silent man. H is silent in this guy's name. His name is Tom, but T-H-O-M, Tom, whatever you look at it. Yeah, it's Tom. And then we got Jessica. We got Ray. And I think that our expert rider for the day is probably going to be Scott. He's kind of a BS-er, but I think this is the guy with the most skill that's going to be here today. He's actually, if you look at the box one group sets, box one. Yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. So this push button thing is pretty sweet though. Hey, you take it easy over there, okay? Take it easy. Scott beating on you. He's picking on you. He dropped you on the blue trail. No way. Three derailers out of whack. She hit something with it. Okay. So it's okay. You get three gears. It just won't drop back down. So now you have three gears, hard, middle, and super easy. Sorry. It's all right. It's not a big deal. Don't worry about the bike. You're sweating good. Look, you want to take that head thing off? Let me sweat a little less. The thing's pretty warm. Yeah, it is. All the trails are very well maintained. There might have been some pine straw because it's wintertime, but for the most part, no limbs across the way. Everything was smooth, flowy, very inviting, very good for entry-level riders. No one should have any problem going here. Any skill set, any skill level should be just fine taking out these trails and having a really good time at Harbin's Park. It seems pretty regular. That's all life's about. I've only ran twice in a year. It looks like you fell already. Did you fall? Yeah, I think you just leaned against the tree. How are you guys doing? Yeah, I'm good. Yeah, for sure. So all the trails here, both ways, they're just just whatever? It's bi-directional. Bi-directional? That's cool. Less than five. Less than five? I just kept on trying. I kept trying. Anything goes here. Yeah, that's cool. Don't get my feet wet. Oh, I'm soaking wet. Hanging there with Scott just blowing everybody out of the water. Here we found some rollers. They said there were jumps in the trails, but these are more like rollers that anybody can hit. There's no trouble with crashing on the other side. Rolls right into some berms. Very flowy, very fun. Something where you can pick up a bit of speed, kick the bike around, start enjoying yourself a little bit more on the trail. So after riding the trails, flats on, I think flats are great for like downhill stuff, but I kept on bottoming out my pedal. Going around turns, trying to be super aggressive, so I'm about to switch to some Crank Brothers pedals and see how it goes. I want to bomb this ----. This is not one of the designated paths or trails. I don't recommend anyone trying it, but as you know, every mountain bike park is right at your own risk. I was supposed to stop with my buddy Ray back there, but I couldn't resist bombing this rock down here and hopping down this walkway and seeing what happens. That was cool. Just to make sure you have a good reference of what was going on here, these is going downhill and I'm only using my brakes when you hear them. You hold my pocket? Yeah, it was crazy. That was cool. Oh, I got to get my endurance up. This is uh getting drop city. Here is where things got a little tricky. Super tight trails, trees bobbing around from one to the next, but oh what a blast it was. So I have to say the uh box one group set is pretty legit. Push button shifting in your thumb is like a go fast button. It's pretty awesome. Jennifer, how are you liking the trail? I like it. Even if a trail isn't techie, the faster you go, the more skill it takes. So if you're on a trail that isn't so pressing an inability, try to go a little faster and see how fast you just can go. Raymond's XC bike is definitely outnumbering out here on these trails. Just being a small bit of travel in the front, my mission pro was way too much for this trail. I think you're doing good. You're good. Take your time. Yeah, it's a little learning curve. So Jess, how'd you feel about your first mountain biking experience? Awesome. What do you think you're going to want to do different next time? Different bike. Different bike? Scott's saying different bike. No, I think gear shifting. Okay. If I knew how to like go and not like wreck and ----. And then this like, it was like every time it just like impaled me like. She's missing one front brake pedal. I think I need like a chick seat. Yeah, you're getting there. Okay, look. So look, this is a trial run. You did great. Next time we'll be getting a different bike for you. Well, all being said, Jessica's brand new rider. This is a bike I had sitting in the basement. This is the Gary Fisher. Does have RockShox something on it. RockShox USA the Indy S. Right there twist shifter. Just goes to show that if you want to do something that's not about your bike, it's not about how nice your stuff is. Just go out there and enjoy the ride. She said she'd be back. You know, her first time out, maybe she's going to go buy a $1,500 mountain bike. Maybe she'll buy an $800 mountain bike, but getting out on a $50 mountain bike like this allowed her to see that she's going to enjoy it. And she did everything we did. Maybe a little slower, but again, first time mountain biker. And she'll be back out. He was chasing me around the whole field, like on that bike. It was like so cute. Yeah, they're cute. They're cool. All right. I got to go to my game. Enjoy your game. My son's basketball game. He's nine, so you know. So after some bumps and bruises, falling, Raymond dropping me old Captain Fitness over here. Captain America. How do you feel today? Huh? Feels good, man. Oh, he feels great. I bet he does after dropping me. It's great. So we do have those. We got Brian. Brian in here. Velofix Atlanta touching things up for me. Just helped me out with some kind of shifting in the down spot here. If you guys notice, if you guys think this bike is familiar. So Jess went out, never, never mountain bike before. She's just got her kid a mountain bike and she wanted to go check it out just for herself and not her kid to see what was going on. Came out on literally like a $50 bike. I didn't even realize that one of the front brake pads were missing. That was stupid of me not to like check that out, but it was fine. But she went out, she went through creek crossings. She was going over boulders. So one single track sampler took me to Bailey Bike Park. Going to another park is a little interesting because of how extreme Bailey Mountain Bike Park is. The videos don't do it justice. When you get out there, if you ever have a chance to go out there, somebody comment down below that has been there. I definitely want to do more. So big shout for taking me on that bike. My friends are all about wearing flat pedals. As far as my other mountain bike friends that I have, I'm pretty set on being clipped in because I like to pedal in my corners and be a little more aggressive in single tracks type stuff or tight trails. I keep on bottoming out the pedal and as soon as I put my clips on, because I'm so familiar with it, it immediately changed that situation for me where I wasn't bottoming out my pedals anymore. So I think I'm going to stay with clipping in for now. Maybe on downhill but flats back on because there's no pedaling. But if there's pedaling involved, I think I'm pretty much going to want to stick being clipped in.