RodTi

Yip. My first proper ride on a 29er. Not a bad place to be doing it, to be honest.

Upper & Lower Easy Does It; Crabapple; Lower Angry Pirate; Upper & Lower B-Line; Lower Crank-it-up; Devils Club; Heart of Darkness; Ho Chi Min; Karate Monkey; This is the list of trails I can remember doing... I jotted these down as soon as I got back to the hotel, and got off my buzzzz... At the time, I realised I had already forgotten a few from the list, since on several occasions I splintered off into a different trail, without barely seeing whether it was Black or Blue, nevermind stopping to catch the name... What's so cool is that you pretty much pick a particular trail at the jump-in point, but all along the way, you come out, and are then presented with several trail-options to link into... It can get confusing, but being able to start on the same trailhead after each run helps - you quickly start finding your way around, and by the 3rd run you already start predicting the turns, drops, ramps, berms etc...

All of the above, pics of my ride around the Lost Lake trails - and the Norco 29er 4.5(?)inch I rented... All the below, the Whistler Bike Park entrance, and the village - all within 4 min's of my hotel...

At some point, in the not-too distant future, I will pop up some ramblings on my weekend in Whistler... It's been a bit crazy since I returned, and I haven't really had the opportunity to put finger to keyboard, to smash out something remotely befitting the experience... Add to this the awesome "review" put up by Mintsauce [see my links to his write-up on the 1st page], and my knowing that my few words would pale in comparison - and this has taken somewhat longer than planned... So - in an effort to move things along and get myself to pull finger, figured I'd pop up a few of the [unfortunately ] very few photos I have... Watch this space. Or not.

Well spotted... Might have been the fail-safe switch - which would explain why it more-than-doubled it's previous speed record...

+1 on all of the above.

That is soooo irresponsible. It's simply impossible to see the bakkie's indicators. [clicking tongue]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqpO58x7vuE&feature=player_embedded

How to disassemble and rebuild a Jeep in under 4 minutes... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgwF8mdQwlw

Apologies... But I'm still smiling... Having issues uploading pics - wifi is not great here. But am buggered in any event, so will be turning in now (with a huge smile on my face)... Today has honestly been the best day I've ever had on a bike. And even though I only dipped my toe in the Downhilling waters - it's pretty clear what the appeal is... Promise to pop up a decent account of Whistler when I get back to ZA.

Took a video of these nutters coming down - but fear it's way too big to pop up here...

Will pop up some pics from yesterday in a bit!

Dude. I'm kicking myself... Left the iPhone in the bag locker down at the rentals place... Lady from Sydney took a few of us, and offered to email them to us - assuming she remembers my email addy, I'lll at least have those. I cannot begin to describe how amazingly beautiful those lift rides are up to the top... My only consolation is that after a week of good weather, I presumably brought the bad stuff to Whistler... It was raining periodically throughout the day, misty and overcast - so at least the I wasn't faced with stunning vistas and no camera! As for the trails - time is so limited, you try and get up and down as quickly as possible, to get maximum rides in (takes about 30 minutes to go down, get back up, and hit it again) - so figured I wasn't going to be stopping to be taking pics - but really wish I had it on the lifts up...

Wow. That was amazing. I am still buzzing. Hands have the claw. 2012 Giant Glory 8" - what a beast.

20 mins away from a half-day lesson in the Bike Park. To say I'm a tad nervous/excited would be an understatement. It be raining. They looked at me like I was daft when I asked the flats to be swopped out for SPDs... They had to go and look in the back to find a pair. I wish I had the option to run the flats, but rocket-scientist over here left his skate-shoes in the other suitcase, in Vancouver... Will pop something up here when I'm back.

Thanks Clint - will go the Discovery route, if TIC doesn't come through. As mentioned, I'm well covered for the business side of things, it's the weekend on it's own that I want to cover - and going with a separate "top-up" option will hopefully prove simpler and easier... Will report back if that proves to be the case! Ticket was bought by the company, so no go on this option - bank at FNB, so it would've been first port of call.

Cool. Popped an email to TIC, the company I was referred to by SureTravel. Should get sorted through them. Will give a shout out when I receive the rate.

Will be spending a few days riding overseas - on trails quite probably out of my comfort zone... Now whereas I don't plan on doing anything stupid - accidents are never planned. The travel insurance that I have been lucky enough to be provided with, won't cover my "hazardous pursuit" of Whistler A-line, and sorting out an endorsement to cover it, is proving to be a mission, since it's done though the company and not me etc. etc. Long story short - it's going to be easier if I simply take-out additional insurance to cover things for the weekend I'm in the mountains... Outsurance doesn't appear to do travel insurance(?) - maybe Discovery Health? Any other suggestions - or should I just contact a travel agent, and do something through them? Fanks peeps!

+1 That bike is a golden nappy!

I went from a Suntour coil something or other to a White Brothers/Fox - massive difference. I then went from (very)old-school Shimano's to a pair of new Cane Creeks - I noticed a difference, but it wasn't nearly as noticeable as the first upgrade. My 2 cents.

Happy Happy!

I think I might have picked up the last v-brake Mavic 819 rim...

The Swift is a "modern" Brooks saddle, first released in 2008. It's slightly cheaper than the Swallow, but comes with the copper rivets at the back, which imo are the deal-clincher... The Swallow is pretty much made as it was originally in 1937, and comes with the steel rivets at the back, which are smaller. I have the Swift, and am loving it - cannot vouch for the Swallow, but the fact that they still sell it unchanged as it was in 1937, no doubt tells its own story... kind of like a Zippo I guess?