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I just got home from a trip down to Ray’s MTB in Cleveland, a really nice bike facility built into some old factories. We spent most of our time riding the the XC course, with stops in both the beginner and intermediate rooms, staying away from (but watching) the expert things, including some of the stuff that appears to be straight out of video games.
The trip worked out well, as I drove down Friday after work and split a room with Erik and Kristi. Lots of good food was had, and the weather was just about as nice as one could hope for in late January. Being above freezing put Ray’s building itself somewhere perfectly comfortable in shorts and light gloves/shirts.
At one point I let my front wheel slide while coming down a ramp and fell, but it only scuffed up my knee. The only other real problems were caused by other people, most notably kids on BMX/street bikes who can’t ride up hills but insist on riding the XC course. If they planned right it wouldn’t be a problem, but instead they’d stop part-way up hills, walk to the top, and stop. With the course being almost completely plywood it made stopping very difficult and restarting almost impossible. Then there were the collections of people who’d stop on any available mid-course platform, backing things up terribly…
That all said, this is definitely a place I’d like to visit again. Despite the few irritations riding there was a whole bunch of fun and quite a nice way to do some technical riding in the middle of winter. If you’d like to know more about it, head over to the Ray’s MTB website and check out the videos, maps, and things like that. There’s also a bunch of videos from there on YouTube. This video in particular shows a lot of the XC trail, even though it’s last year’s layout, which I’m told did not have nearly the number of lines (different route options) available now.
A few photos were taken today, but of those most ended up being crap. Here’s the few passable ones, including the one up top of the beginner room looking down from the place where one rides up a steep ramp into the ceiling/rafters:
· Erik’s bike, Kristi’s bike, and my bike in the hotel room when we went to Ray’s MTB in Cleveland.
· 24oz can of Colt 45 in my bike, in the hotel room. Works every time.
· Looking down from the ceiling in the beginner room of Ray’s MTB.
