Quinn and I went back to the Trestle Park and rented real downhill bikes, full-face helmets, and all the associated protective gear - chest and back, arms and elbows, shins and knees. I ended up riding a Specialized Status II, and Quinn a Kona Stinky 2-4. It was fun. I could complain a little about some details relative to the bikes, but they were in decent condition, so I won't dwell on that here.
I liked the idea of having the facial protection afforded by the full face helmet. The downhill trails are sort of like riding a roller coaster, and it's best to ride at the speed that fits the trail. That is, flow across the berms, rollers, and jumps works best in the range of maybe 15 to 20 miles per hour. Too slow and it just doesn't flow, too fast, and well, you're likely kissing trees. I suppose some people ride it faster.
Here's a picture of Quinn and me in all our gear:
I didn't bother to track our rides with the GPS this time. And I took almost no pictures because there just wasn't any good way to stop and pull out the camera. The pictures below, of Quinn riding rocky technical stuff, really aren't the norm at Trestle. The norm is fast, mostly smooth, sculpted berms and jumps. The best way to document it would be with a helmet cam, but I don't have one of those. Here's a link to a video, made by one of my co-workers who frequents the Trestle Park, which gives a good flavor for the more advanced trails: Click Here.
Quinn and I made six runs throughout the course of the day. We rode most of Green World first, just to get a feel for the bikes, and then we worked our way up. Our favorite was probably Double Jeopardy, which had a really fun rocky technical section (I love rocks!), but we also like Rainmaker, which was jump after jump for miles. No wonder my knee pain has gotten worse! We did most of the advanced trails in the park, but we skipped those with really big jumps -- it's good that Quinn was there to put a cap on things. As it was, we got through the whole day, completely exhausted, but with no crashes.
Quinn tackles the rocks on Double Jeopardy with ease:
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