Burke Mountain and Kingdom Trails on pinkbike.com

I headed East to visit my brother and ride bikes for 5 Days. When I arrived, Tropical Storm Lee decided to remind me why I now live on the West Coast. The first few days were more like white water rafting trips than a bike trip. However, the weather decided to give us a break when we headed up to Burke Vermont to ride the famous Kingdom Trails and Burke Mountain. Such a great time pedaling until my legs exploded but I was excited when on the last day we hit the lift and bike park at Burke Mountain. Epic times. Enjoy.

Finally one of us built up our new bikes (mine is soon to follow). The Niner Rip9 painted in what I call “smurf blue” is finally doing the rounds on the trails and its seasoned 29er owner claims, “Its a creme puff”… I guess that is a good thing. The short time I was on the Rip9, even on a short climb, it felt like it wanted to just go with every pedal stroke. The suspension sucked up everything and the big wheels made the gaps between rocks feel like small cracks on a sidewalk. We chose Ringwood State Park as the RIP9′s maiden ride as Ringwood gave us a variety of terrain and provides the rock gardens to make sure the suspension is perfectly dialed.

It’s Smurfy!

If you want a “smurfy” adventure, check out the GPS at MotionBased.com. Yeah I know the average speed was slow… plenty of time spent adjusting and waiting for me to catch up, especially when I started a hike mid-ride due to a bashed knee, broken chain, and no front brake… eh, excuses!… who cares. We all have our days.

Tony is getting his hands on this beauty … This is the 08 Niner RIP9… Sweet!
Now we just have to see who builds their bike first.

Nice pivots…

drool…

Niner Bikes 2009 catalog

My entrance into the 29er world starts here, with the 2008 Turner Sultan.
Planning to build a “dream bike”…

2008 Turner Sultan XL w/ the 2009 Fox Float RP23 rear shock… sweeet!

Gotta give Greg at Turner’s warranty department thumbs up… super efficient and friendly service keeps us coming back… Thanks!

Check out Turner Bikes.

Oh yes, last time I reviewed the Vassago Jabberwocky and told you I was going to put on a Fox F29 to smooth out the harshness of the rigid fork, well dudes and dudettes here’s a little write up on the 2009 Fox F29 100mm travel fork.

First thing you might notice is that the new 29er fork from Fox comes in 3 travel options, 80, 100 and 120. Fox heard the cries and must of read the forums where every bike nerd was crying out for a longer travel fork for their 29 inch wheeled rigs. Besides the 3 travel options Fox also redesigned the crown making it lighter without sacrificing safety and lightened up the legs a bit to keep you weight watchers happy. I ended up getting the 100mm travel fork so the review is based on that model. The 100mm model also comes with a spacer if you want to shorten the travel to 80mm, why would you do that though? Ok lets dive right into it

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