2011 Outerbike - Bike Demo Event at Moab, Utah

Cap'n, Cableguy and I had an awesome bike demo experience at this years Outerbike in Moab, Utah. The weather was good, rode an array of bikes on unique trails with stunning views, enjoyed each others company, and in true pirate fashion clowned on all spandex-chamois- butter wearing XC riders

Thurs - Not a bad drive from socal to Moab. 11 hours total, but worked out well with 3 drivers.

Day 1- Friday

Woke up at the motel 6 to clear sunny skies and tacky dirt from the rain on thurs. Stoked. We rode Magnificent 7 which was a shuttled ride but fairly pedaly am/xc in the eyes of us DH'rs. Lots of dirt singletrack mixed with med sized slab rock that ran along side a huge canyon wash. I was lucky enough to ride a Pivot Firebird, Steve rode a Giant Reign, and Mike opted for an Ibis Mojo SL. Being the slow pedalers we are, we missed the DH shuttles after returning back to the demo and having lunch. We weren't about to pedal some more so deperately asked around to find a guide to the local DH rides. Luckily We hooked up with a Trek Rep that was glad to show us "Daves" which was a quick DH ride with small to medium rock drops and rollers with terrien similar to Bootleg. Cap'n had the worst time ever on a mtb riding his carbon SC Blur, I rode a Devinci Wilson, and cable rode a Davinci Dixon. Unfortunately I didnt get any shots here. Too much fun We came back all smiles and enjoyed their all you can drink beer garden. Finished up the night watching 3 Minute gaps with the demo gang at a small local theater.





















Day 2- Saturday

Cloudy, cold, and wet in the morning which made for some awesome dirt at Amasa Back and Jackson trail. Amasa Back was mainly a challenging technical pedal up with rock mixed in with a little dirt. We chose to ride Jackson trail on the way down instead of Amasa back becasue were told it was good tech singletrack, but little did we know it was a complete mind fuck. The upper portion was flowey up and down rock gardens and small rollers/drops. Middle to lower sections were steep, technical, with HUGE exposure. The trail ran along side the edge of the colorado river sometimes even pointing you straight down towards it with pedal/bar snipers everywhere. I happily walked a few sections even having a legit AM/FR bike theTrek Slash. Cap'n had a good time with the Devinci Dixon and Cable rode a Pivot 5.5 . Steve and I actually caught the DH shuttles and rode Daves once again. This time He came a little more prepared and rode a GT Fury and I mobbed a Kona Operator. We TRIED to hop on a Pivot Phoenix but some ass holes were hording them so we rode whatever we could get. We had a good time riding with a local vet ripper and a DH photog chick. Hopefully we get our shots as I have nothing DH'ing! Finished the day off with an endless amount of good local beer.

















Day 3- Sunday

Sunny, warm , and ready to ride the infamous slick rock trail. I did a parking lot test on a Rocky Mountain Slayer which rocked, but after hearing the buzz on how up and down the trail was I swicthed out last moment for a Rocky mountain Element Carbon. Super Impressed with RM's line up. All components were top notch. Steve also switched out last moment for a Specialized Epic 29'r and Mike rode a Trek Slash. Slick rock was up and down as promised but I had to admit it was really fun with the right bike. Almost the entire trail is semi smooth rock with the texture of 120 grit sandpaper. The grip was amazing everywhere and made for some daring off camber and bowl riding sections. We were pooped by the end of our ride but we pushed on for our long ride home. Somehow the steering wheel chose to veer off in Vegas so we rolled with it. Thankfully we scouted a few places for the bootbash get together cuz some were downright haggard. (sorry Kevin)








































Highly recommend this trip for any MTB enthusiest. I'd definately do it again next year but i'd bring my own DH bike of course. I think they should cater a little more to DH'ers as there was a demand for DH bikes. We also didnt get to ride the chilli and porcupine trails which are supposedly legit DH trails with knar and features.

Shredding moab on someone else's bike must make it even better.

That musta been quite a huck!

chuk2rs wrote:Shredding moab on someone else's bike must make it even better.

Yeah especially when we crashed

Nice looked like awesome times! Moab is definitely a mtb mecca. Must have been nice to abuse all those bikes that weren't yours! Porcupine rim is an epic ride. plenty of pedaling though. I got to do that one when I went to moab way back in 05.

Sounds like a Moab trip should be in the works.

Amazing trip. I had a good time pedaling. Everyone should explore their feminine side now and then. I tried a bunch of bikes. But the most fun I had was on an XC rig. Thats right....a 29" Specialized Epic. It was amazing to climb stuff, and not be tired. The circus sized wheels rolled like crazy too. I could be right next to a group, none of us cranking, and my bike just accelerated by them like I was being pushed. Now....here comes the weird part. I was more comfortable going DOWNHILL on this bike than any of the AM rigs. And this is a straight up XC bike. I was doing rock drops, and letting it go on the steeper sections without fear. Very weird! If.....I said IF, I were ever to buy an XC bike....the Specialized Epic 29" would be the one.

Capn.....



Btw, we need a walk the plank emoticon, unless I totally missed it.

Sasquatch wrote:

Btw, we need a walk the plank emoticon, unless I totally missed it.

Good call. Find one and I'll add it.

BTW Myron....since you did a report here, I did my long report over on STR. It WAS an XC/AM type of event after all. I hope I didn't offend too many girdle wranglers.

Nice reports guys!! Wish I could have gone!!

Shred on....

Thanks for the RR. I was planning on driving there saturday and staying till Tuesday with my banshee spitfire and my jeep. Is there really need to bring a DH rig out there...or should i just leave it?

See Cap'ns awseome write up on STR here

I'd definitely bring the DH rig if a group of riders wanted to check out the trails. If your going solo stick with the pedaly stuff.

Nice find perfektus. I found one too, yours is better.

How much did the overall trip end up costing per person? Was it relatively inexpensive with 3 people to share costs?

Good RR for sure. Looks lik a blast.

And the 29ers will get you. I have a friend that got two of them from the Canfield Brothers (the Nimble9 and Yelli Screamy).

Some random pictures from the trip:


Cap'n has an awesome writeup on STR. Some random facts to add:

Distance to Moab: ~740 miles, or 10-11 hours. Getting there, time seemed to fly...coming home, not so much.

Weather: Some front moved in, and made it cold and rainy (2nd day). 30's AM, 50s PM

Nightlife/chicks: ~10%? Sausage fest. Whoever opens up a strip club would make a killing. One bar we went into Thursday night had some dudes in cowboy hats and one chick singing horribly for Karaoke

Restaurants: In the middle to pricey side, but obviously not as bad as Whistler and some other resorts

Trails: Pedally. Really suited for 4-5" trail bikes, except for Dave's DH trail (and other ones we haven't tried yet)

Places to ride on the way: We really didn't hit anything, but Vegas/Bootleg, St. George/Virgin, Fruitta/CO are relatively close.

Other activities: Off road (MX, ATV, etc.), hiking, rafting, horseback riding, etc.

Cap'n wrote: But the most fun I had .I said IF, I were ever to buy an XC bike....the Specialized Epic 29" would be the one.

I can't wait to see you riding a 29'er at china vagina (tunnel 5).

so RAD!!!!!

very nice! fun times it looks like for sure. i've ridden slickrock it was fun. 4x4ed out there a bunch too.

and i rode three 29ers at trek world last year. it felt like cheating as far as pedaling riding is concerned.

looked super fun.. too bad you couldnt hit up more DH runs... we should try to get a crew for next year...

Thx for doing the report Myron. Nice! So, here's my long ass report with a lot of duplicate pics...here.

good RR...looks fun, but trying to get used to a new bike every ride must be interesting!

Porcupine is a good AM/DH shuttle run, really a 6" bike is plenty, but more fun on a 35lb SX trail type bike which would be good for everything in moab

Moab is one to check off the list for sure.

Moab is definitely one to check off the MTB epic list. I could easily see GP having a good time at Outerbike. Plenty of options for types of trails and bikes to ride.

Almost all of the logistics are already taken care of. You basically just have to show up and keep and eye on the schedule. We know of one DH trail, Daves, still have to locate the chilli trails and ride porcupine rim. Also, there was a legit DJ park near the motel 6 we stayed at and of course all the xc/am trails which are endless.

There was lots of good places to eat which was reasonably priced and the local people there are super nice. It can easily be done on a budget. If split with 4 people it could probably be done for under 400 bones.

This site has the trails from Moab and Utah in general:

http://www.utahmountainbiking.com/trails/idx-moab.htm

You had me until you mentioned the sausage fest.