Date with Mt Tam...

Totally jealous,

The only visit I had to SF was for a stag night - a meal on pier 39 - touristy but good, then a visit to some famous place called miller bros.

Then back to san jose for the rest of the business trip. It was fun but all I did was dream of the repack as she.... I'll stop there.

I will get back someday. Hope you have a good day out.

I am very very envious my friend.

I hope Mr K remembered that the brake levers are the other way round in the US, or it would possibly be the briefest repack ride ever.

REKIBorter":2nptnkxa said:

I hope Mr K remembered that the brake levers are the other way round in the US, or it would possibly be the briefest repack ride ever.

Click to expand...

I have always ridden with the front brake on the right, which is opposite of most other riders i know. When I got my current bike it was the other way round and the hydraulics are a pain to switch, and I just have to remind myself which is which when I start a ride.

My chief worry about Mr. K was that he might meet a rider on a trail going the opposite direction and move to his left instinctively.

I had a report from my friends and the ride seems to have come off successfully.

Neil? Are you there?

From the iron lung...

Yes, I'm still here... having been to the mud bath springs of Calistoga today to recover from the relentless uphill grind to the start of the Repack...

We'd been pedalling nicely for 25 minutes under the 80+ degree heat when Pat says "just another hour of uphill to go..." - naturally I thought it was another Limey wind up (having just been through the 'what to do if a mountain lion attacks' gag...). Sadly this was not the case and I was forced to dismount in shame 3 times as Megan and Pat trundled seamlessly onwards, making me eat their hot dust - how I hated them for that!

Yes, I had a litany of excuses lined up if they'd asked (they didn't) including jet lag; 48 hours of holiday alcohol abuse; the onset of vertigo; and those bloody switched brake levers... in the end I settled for having never ridden a fully suspended, disc-braked freebie from Sinyard!

More anal detail later...

Neil

Neil,

Are you still stateside or back in the UK? I tried to leave a voice message on your cell # last week.

Eric

Aftershock

Eric - got back yesterday, still feeling the effects today! Thanks for turning out as the one-man welcome committee and letting me have a demo of a contemporarised klunker! The ride that afternoon went well (although I was dropped one too many times by Pat and Megan...) - the Repack is sure a grind to get up to! Sadly Santa Cruz didn't come off - so you didn't miss anything there.

Next time dude!

Neil

Mr K - Please can you post a more detailed account of your Repack & Mt Tam riding experience?

Infact, any of you guys that have ridden it or get to ride it regularly - could you please post a detailed description of the descent ?

Thanks!

jonboy":28g64w2c said:

Mr K - Please can you post a more detailed account of your Repack & Mt Tam riding experience?

In fact, any of you guys that have ridden it or get to ride it regularly - could you please post a detailed description of the descent ?

Thanks!

Click to expand...

Repack is our "home field" here in the Ross Valley, and most local riders are familiar with it.

Length is about 1.8 miles (3 km) and it descends about 1300 feet in that distance, a shade under 14% average gradient. There are other hills in Marin County that would have been suitable for racing, but Repack is perfectly located so that at the end of the ride you are back in Fairfax.

As Mr. K will attest, it is a chore getting to the top, since you have to climb all that way. We usually go by a longer and less steep route than going straight up Repack, and it takes about an hour to ride from town to the top. Riding down is a lot quicker.

There are very few points on Repack where you can see more than 50 meters ahead; the road twists constantly, and the impression you get is that it keeps coming at you and stays steep.

First 100 meters are level and even rise a bit to the first crest, which drops you off a steep, off-camber pitch with a loose gravel surface. From there it is one after another of off-camber turns on a loose surface.

"Back in the day" the racing season was fall, when the first rains of the season would kill the dust and turn the road surface to tacky clay. After the heavy rains of winter start, it gets to be a challenge to cross the creek at the bottom to get back to Fairfax, so that would end the racing season.

Recent road grading has eliminated deep erosion ditches, and replaced them with "water bars," humps designed to channel runoff to the side of the road. These offer the opportunity for massive hucks if you want them.

I'm too close to the subject to be objective about describing Repack, and I look forward to reading Neil's impressions. Unlike the modern downhill courses with big jumps and the like, anyone can ride down Repack. Riding down it fast is another story.

I went riding yesterday with the two people I set Neil up with, 59-year-old Pat, and Megan, the best representative I could imagine of a female Marin County mountain biker. She is TOUGH! I don't believe Megan has ever raced, but she is a dedicated recreational rider and I haven't seen the hill that can get her off the bike.

Pat and Megan told me that Neil insisted on about 25 photo stops, so I guess we can look forward to seeing his photographs.

Down and out

Yep, I'm writing up my account... but I cannot better CK's descrption of the Repack route, that's for sure. It's definitely one of those benign-looking downhills that sucks you in - then, spits you off! There's no safe place to crash out, either.

CK's people sure made me feel weak! The many photo stops were merely a ruse to recover, as was asking lots of stupid tourist questions...

As a taster of my story, this was where I did my best work...

Mr K