My favorite Clif product is the: Iced Gingerbread bar
To learn more about Clif's sustainable efforts & key environment issues, please read all about it here: www.clifbar.com/article/sustainability-newsletters
GGR is so very proud to announce that Clif will be supplying all the nutritional and hydration needs again at this year's GGR Rocktober Festival October 30th at its new location in beautiful Castaic Lake. www.clifbar.com/find-your-favorite. This is Clif's 3rd year with GGR, supplying both our annual Rocktober event and our women's weekend in Big Bear with everything we need. My favorite Clif product is the: Iced Gingerbread bar To learn more about Clif's sustainable efforts & key environment issues, please read all about it here: www.clifbar.com/article/sustainability-newsletters GGR is so thrilled to announce that Director Wendy Engelberg will be riding as an ambassador for Specialized Bicycles in 2016. Wendy will be riding the 2016 ERA Expert, a women's specific XC bike. Wendy has been riding a Specialized Epic for the last 3 years so she is super excited to ride the ERA for 2016. Look for her racing her new ERA at this summer's Rim Nordic Enduro Series in Running Springs, CA. The new bike was presented to Wendy at Cynergy Cycles Saturday evening February 20th which is a Specialized Concept store in Santa Monica. The crew at Cynergy Cycles including GM Lisa Joaquim and Events Director Clara Dryden, put on a fabulous ladies night that consisted of a slide show and videos of GGR's time at Specialized headquarters, vino, appetizers, deserts, TONS of enormous sales, raffles and lots of socializing! Lisa at Cynergy Cycles reached out to Wendy and GGR immediately when she came on board to get Cynergy and Specialized more involved in the women's community. Starting late in March, Wendy will be at Cynergy Cycles once a month taking women on demo rides and helping ladies in the shop with any guidance they may need in their new mountain biking journey. Specialized has opened their doors to GGR, which you can read all about in another blog here: http://www.girlzgoneriding.com/blog/ggr-leadership-team-visits-specialized-kali-protectives. Specialized will have a dirt demo for GGR and ladies at Cheeseboro in Agoura Hills Sunday, April 24th. Wendy will be at the Specialized truck all day offering guided rides for all levels to demo these awesome bikes! Look for an announcement coming soon to reserve your demo bike. Also, look for Specialized at GGR's annual Rocktober Festival. This year at a new location, Castaic Lake, October 30th. Girlz Gone Riding is so very, very excited to announce the date and new location of the 2016 GGR Rocktober Festival! The date is now confirmed for October 30th, Sunday at Lake Castaic: www.castaiclake.com An EVENT BRITE page will go up August 31st to register for this event. If you have never been to the Rocktober Festival, well....let me run you through this epic day! This is GGR's annual festival...a celebration of women mountain biking for the day! Goodie bags for all! Guided XC rides Skills Clinics headed up by Leigh Donovan: www.ichoosebikes.com TONS of demo bikes to take out on the trails ALL DAY for free Exhibitors Amazing huge raffle Guest speakers Last year we had over 300 women participants! Already committed to the festival: Specialized: www.specialized.com Liv: www.liv-cycling.com Turner Bikes: www.turnerbikes.com Orbea: www.orbea.com REI: www.rei.com Bulls Bikes USA: www.bullsbikesusa.com G2 Bikes: www.g2-bike.com CORBA: www.corbamtb.com This event is also a CORBA membership drive! Want to exhibit at the largest all female bike festival in the US?? It's EASY! For a media kit and details, mail us at: [email protected] The leadership team of GGR: Girlz Gone Riding, was honored to be invited to Specialized in Morgan Hill, CA as guests. This trip was also a team-building trip for our leadership team to kick off 2016. Let the adventure begin! Wednesday January 27th Our adventure starts here…. We rented a huge van and were to meet at the Van Nuys Fly Away to make the 5-hour drive up. GGR ride leader volunteer Liz Kurtz was our happy and amazing driver for the entire trip. Once we got on the road, we played a couple of fun van games to get the team building & camaraderie going to set the tone of the trip. We checked into our hotel in Gilroy and then drove over to our group dinner to kick off our adventure. Joining us were a few others that drove up separately, Lisa Thomas and Samantha who are part of the Specialized retailers from Michaels Bicycles in Newbury Park. Lisa Joaquim from Cynergy Cycles in Santa Monica. (Clara from Cynergy rode up with us in the van, Lisa was already at Specialized taking classes) and of course our own new ride leader Leah Dilbeck, who was a major sponsor of the 2015 Rocktober festival. Leah Dilbeck is with Dilbeck Realtors. We used this kick off dinner to learn what each other’s accomplishments were for 2015 and how they planned on taking an active role for 2016 in our women’s mountain biking community. Thursday January 28th We were welcomed with open arms by Seth, Amy and a few others at the entrance of Specialized. We got signed in and immediately went to the museum to get some history on Specialized. Now it was time for the famous Win Tunnel! We were all especially stoked for this! There were other groups at SBCU during our visit, so we got to meet some of them as well checking out the win tunnel. We all got to go into the tunnel while they turned it on to just over 55 mile an hour winds. You were required to wear safety glasses and not have anything loose on! All types of bikes are tested in the win tunnel and so is apparel! They explained how a bubble machine helps them too inside the win tunnel. After the fun experience in the win tunnel, we were presented with some absolutely incredible swag from Specialized! Custom GGR helmets, jackets, a bmx/enduro jersey, water bottles and more. Now onto a suspension and tuning class! We joined this class already in progress. You see, SBCU: Specialized Bicycle Components University holds all sorts of classes at Specialized head quarters for their retailers. Ride Time! We all changed for our mountain bike ride in Fort Ord then went into their famous CAGE to pick up our assigned bikes and get our suspension set up for us. Now onto to Fort Ord. Seth was our ride leader, van driver and all around Bad Ass leader. He is one of the professors at SBCU. Amy from the women’s product division joined us from the start of our trip as well. I was assigned the Specialized Rhyme. A 1x11 trail bike. Some of the girlz had the same bike but with some variations like Desi had a Rhyme FATTY and Tam had a Rhyme 2x10. We dropped into a super fun single-track. There was hero dirt on this trail since it had been raining a lot lucky for us!! After a fun single track descent leading onto the main fire road. We climbed up to start a 3 run loop. We climbed a bit to get to the top where the views were purely green and spectacular. Then we all dropped into the super fun, flowey, single-track descent. At the bottom, I asked Desi if we could switch bikes so I could try the Fatty. The Fatty was definitely more difficult to climb with, however the descents were super smooth & utter fun! I just went right through the middle of the ruts. Lines didn’t matter with the fatty tires! Moving on to what turned out to be the 1st part of my favorite part of the trip (besides the riding of course). The women’s focus group! We went into one of the boardrooms at Specialized and met with the women’s product managers and held an open forum. What I have learned most about the team at Specialized is that they listen. We shared stories and gave them feedback on many women’s cycling issues, bikes, components, saddles, all sorts of things. Everything that mattered in women's mountain biking we discussed. After this super productive focus group, we all walked over to Bocca’s for dinner. There I got to chat with bike shop owners across the country, have some chow and enjoy some vino of course! We collected everyone and headed back to the hotel. I was so energized I wasn’t ready to shut it down, so I walked over to Chevy’s for a margarita and keep the positive energy flowing with a few of the other team leaders. Continuing the women's focus group & open forum, Amy, the women’s product manager had us go to the huge wall of white board and list under many different categories everything from what bikes we ride, components we use, things we changed on our bikes, pet peeves, shoes, and so much more. Giving our input for future product was the most important part of this trip for me. We want to make women’s products better and what better way than get the feed back from the women’s community who ride their brains out! We then changed into our road bike clothes and went into the body geometry room to get fitted for our road bikes. Now I have an entry level, super heavy road bike, so I just don’t ride it much except after work for a quickie workout in the summer. I’m not used to the typical geometry of a road bike which is your body being pretty low in an attack position. I was put on the Amira. A super fast, high performance race bike with a steep attack position. I was not comfortable at all on this. Seth to the rescue. He brought out a Diverge. A carbon gravel grinder bike. It looked like it was set up much more upright like a mountain bike and had bigger tires too. Apparently it’s the road bike for mountain bikers. YES IT WAS! I absolutely loved it! It was fast, solid and comfortable. I also loved the saddle, the POWER saddle. My new favorite saddle. We went on a 21-mile, absolutely beautiful road ride. The ride was just like GGR’s rides, no drop, ride leader, floaters, sweepers and regrouping. We all really appreciated that! After a wonderful late lunch, we went to the helmet lab and ended the day at Specialized with the Apparel lab. We then said our thank you’s and goodbyes and went onto the next part of our adventure at Kali Protectives for a tour then our final dinner of our adventure. Kali Protectives opened their doors to us for a wonderful Q&A and factory tour. Kali has been supporting the GGR Rocktober festivals since day one. I am a proud ambassador of their products and especially love their pads because they don't move on me. I was wearing their DH helmet the Avatar ll when I hit a tree in 2013 cracking the helmet. I didn't even have a headache, the helmet probably saved my life. It was really awesome getting to spend some time there and we are very grateful for their hospitality! In closing, I ended our adventure by reminding my leadership team we create our own opportunities and have the ability too not only share these opportunities, but also inspire other women. What better feeling is there to inspire others and lead by example?? It does wonders for your soul! As veteran women of the mountain biking community I feel very strongly that we owe this to others. To guide them, to always make sure they have a great experience so they can then lead others one day.... to be the unselfish ones..... Specialized and their team of outstanding people not only listen, but they really want to make a difference. I am so very honored that they invited our GGR leadership team to headquarters and gave us a jammed packed schedule of learning, experiencing, adventure and just rad times! Thank you's! I thank everyone at Specialized that made this happen and was there for us guiding, assisting and teaching. A HUGE shout out to Seth Rand who is da man! You made this happen, you allowed us to give critical feedback as well as show us a great time & open the doors to Specialized. I know it's not always easy dealing with 13 strong minded women! Well done! Thank you! Thank you to all that took time out of their busy day to show my team what you do best! Thank you to Kali Protectives who opened their doors to us late on a Friday night! Thank you for the tees and always providing me with the best protective products on the planet! Thank you to my rep Jon Sacks who always provides me with what I need and supports our annual Rocktober Festival! Thank you ZOIC Clothing for providing our leadership team with socks for the trip and always providing me with the greatest shorts out there! Thank you GGR Girl Liz Kurtz for handling ALL of the driving! Thank you GGR Girl Ali Hyde for agreeing to start a new chapter! Big Bear! And last but not least, I would like to thank my leadership team. With 4 chapters of GGR, we have a pretty big team so not everyone was able to join us. I thank each and everyone of you for your dedication and generoisty in leading our community. I thank you for being the heart of GGR and seeing my vision through. YOU make it happen. Together, we will all make our women's mountain biking community a better place. Until the next adventure.........a big MWAH to all of you! Wendy Engelberg, Director, GGR: Girlz Gone Riding I am so very thrilled to announce the long awaited 4th chapter of GGR: Girlz Gone Riding! Please welcome the Big Bear GGR Chapter! Our new Big Bear chapter will be lead by Director and all around bad ass Ali Hyde.
I am personally over joyed by this because I spend so much time in Big Bear in the summers and Ali has been there leading our rides every year. She is so much fun to ride with and has the strength of a goddess yet is very kind and sweet too. I love riding with her and I am proud to also call her my good friend. She is going to get more women on bikes in Big Bear! Please support Ali, her leadership team and women's mountain biking in Big Bear. Ali manages Bear Valley Bikes in Big Bear. Make sure to give them a visit. They are a Specialized store! Here is Ali's story! Racing: XC, XC Endurance, Enduro, DH Riding Style: Cautious and methodical, getting the job done! Favorite trail: The Tunnel of Love at Vail Lake Hobbies: All types of cycling, Bicycle junk art, graphic design, playing with her kids, hiking, paddle boarding. Ali studied Leisure and Recreational management in college with a specialty in outdoor activity leadership and has been teaching for over 10 years. Born and raised in England, She moved to the U.S. in 2006, settling in Big Bear, CA. After finding a job managing her local bike shop; Bear Valley Bikes, she quickly became obsessed with all types of cycling. She began racing XC and XC endurance but quickly branched off into enduro and downhill, but has most recently been back to racing XC on a single speed! Also passionate about road cycling, she can often be seen towing her kids in long distance events, or solo on rides like the Peak 2 Peak from Mammoth to Big Bear or the breathless Agony Century. Her passion for teaching, patience as a mom of 3 and ‘shop Mom’, make her an ideal ride leader for Girlz Gone Riding. Her enthusiasm for education and community in women’s cycling is both undeniable and contagious and as Director of the GGR chapter in Big Bear, she will strive to support the women’s community and to continue to ‘Spread the Love’ of cycling! I am so thrilled and proud to announce that we now have a Director for the GGR San Diego Chapter! Please congratulate and welcome Susie Murphy! Susie is currently the Executive Director of the San Diego Mountain Biking Association, so GGR is absolutely thrilled she has accepted the volunteer position of being our new GGR San Diego Chapter Director. Susie is an outstanding community leader who will now take the new SD chapter to new levels! Each chapter needs a leader to stay on track, develop leaders and integrate the club with her IMBA chapter......Susie is that leader.
Susie started riding mountain bikes in the early 1990’s in order to follow her husband who had started to ride with their young daughter in a backpack. She just needed to keep an eye on them, but discovered a family pass time that took them all on many adventures. Some of their best times were camping at Sea Otter, or going to 24 Hour Races with all of our friends. Her first race was at 1995 at Callaway Vineyards in Temecula. She threw up in the first quarter mile, came in third, and won a Rock Shox hat! Her last race was in 2005 and won the Am Cup Series Super D State Championship for Women over 40 while her daughter won the same title for Women Under 18. In between, she entered a lot of sports division races in California, Arizona, and Baja California and occasionally brought home some hardware. Susie has volunteered in the cycling community for many years and she is so happy to have landed her dream job as the Executive Director of the San Diego Mountain Biking Association. Meeting and learning from all the dedicated volunteers has been amazing so far she states. "I learn new things every day about San Diego that I never knew, and I was born here!" Her goal for 2016 is to work everyday to create, enhance, and preserve great mountain biking experiences, not only for members, but all trail users of San Diego County. Susie states: "One of the best parts of this gig is that I can ride trails in San Diego County that I have never ridden before and investigate some places to get some new ones built! I get to ride with friends I have known for years and ride with brand new friends almost every week! What could be better! The best advice I ever got about riding was to keep my chin up, literally and figuratively. When the going gets technical, this is best thing to get your eyes down the trail where you want to go! Your body and your bike will follow!" Each GGR chapter partners with their local IMBA chapter. GGR is a NON DUES club, so please become a member of the San Diego Mountain Bike Association here. Susie is looking for committed volunteers to join her leadership team. If you are in the San Diego area, please email us to get involved: [email protected] Welcome aboard Susie! GGR is so very thrilled to welcome REI to the 2016 Rocktober Festival!
REI has supported our community the last few years as well as always supporting CORBA. We have the same core values and that is to “educate for a lifetime of outdoor adventure and stewardship.” REI will have a major presence at this year’s Rocktober. Having 3 booths, a Ghost bike demo fleet, bike maintenance available with 2 bike techs and an outreach tent! REI is donating water bottles and reusable bags for our swag bags we give away and will be hosting the goodie bag stuffing party this year at their beautiful brand new Woodland Hills location at 6220 Topanga Canyon Blvd, Woodland Hills, CA 91367. For the 3rd year in a row, REI will be donating a grand prize of a Women’s Novara Madrona Mountain Bike retail valued at $849.00 They will also have a Booth Raffle Prize of a – Novara Dutchtown Bike Backpack retail valued at $129.00 “At Recreational Equipment, Inc. (REI), we love to get outside and play, and we know first-hand the importance of quality outdoor gear. We stand behind all our products with a 100% satisfaction guarantee, and we design our own line of award-winning REI brand gear and clothing. Whether you're new to outdoor adventure or a seasoned pro, we gladly share our enthusiasm for our products—and the trails, slopes and waterways where we play. Each year, REI donates millions of dollars to support conservation efforts nationwide and sends dedicated teams of volunteers—members, customers and REI employees—to build trails, clean up beaches, restore local habitats and more.... Through responsible business practices across the company, we strive to reduce our environmental footprint. What began as a group of 23 mountain climbing buddies is now the nation's largest consumer cooperative. But no matter how large we grow, our roots remain firmly planted in the outdoors. Our passion for outdoor adventure is clear, whether you visit any of our stores across the country, phone us, or interact with us online. By staying true to our roots, we've earned a place on FORTUNE magazine's list of the "100 Best Companies to Work For" every year since the rankings began in 1998. We work hard to earn our reputation for quality and integrity every day. Our core purpose guides everything we do: we all work to inspire, educate and outfit for a lifetime of outdoor adventure and stewardship.” GGR welcomes Gaerne Shoes as a year round club supporter!
“Whoever wears my shoes, should be proud every day as the Gaerne name stands for quality without compromise” Founded in 1962 by Ernesto Gazzola, one of the masters of sports footwear and from whom the namesake Gaerne is derived. Gaerne is still an example of excellence, of "Made in Italy" and is exported worldwide. Skills and tradition of expert craftsmen, rigorous selection of materials, uncompromising pursuit of quality, innovation and design to new and original solutions: this is the philosophy of a brand which has, in its own history, the basis for a continuous momentum and innovation for the international success of its products and its Italian style. Gaerne shoes is offering all GGR club members a HUGE discount on all shoes MTB or Road! Please go check out their shoes here: www.gaerneshoes.com. For the discount code, please check out the FB page file under year round supporters. This year's GGR Rocktober festival & CORBA Membership Drive was by far the largest to date! Held October 18th at Malibu Creek State Park. With 37 exhibitors and over 300 in attendance, our expectations were far exceeded! The event started out on Saturday with our pre ride for our ride volunteers. We had 34 ride volunteers pre riding all routes for the guided rides. We ran into the mounted patrol all day too! Great way to start the weekend of epicness! Saturday evening was our traditional goodie bag stuffing party and raffle tagging. This year Cycle World Chatsworth hosted and in a few hours many volunteers got 250 goodie bags stuffed and over $20K of raffle items tagged! And of course we had pizza, cake and vino! This year, thanks to Leah Dilbeck and Dilbeck Realtors we had the MOST amazing goodie bags! They are knap sacks with the GGR and Dilbeck logo’s. So now it was time to pack everything up, go home and try to figure out my speech, sort the gift certs and try and get some rest. Julie B was staying at my house for the event and worked all night on the gift certs while I was working on my speech. This is such a difficult task for me. Once a year, I get a huge audience, so I don’t want to forget anything, yet it can’t be too long either. I thought I covered everything I wanted too, but there was a section I was unsure about if it belonged there. Let’s just say I went a little NORMA RAY in this section. I had Julie read my speech at this point and she agreed I needed to cut that section out. I shortened the speech by a page and it was still way too long. Announcing every single supporter and exhibitor takes a very long time, but I felt they should have received a verbal mention. The morning of the Rocktober festival, the ranger at MCSP was kind enough to have the gate open at 6am this year!! This allowed our demo trucks to get there in plenty of time to set up and get the bikes ready to go for our lady shredders. It was still dark in the morning AND it was raining a wee bit...so I was just a bit concerned that the rain would stick. The trails were mostly clay, so they don't hold any rain well at all. Lucky for us, it cleared up for a beautiful day! Since I had announced the gates were going to be open early, everyone seemed to take advantage of it and get there super early. Registration didn't open until 8am, but at 6:30amish, we already had a ton of riders and the parking lot was half full. Lots of anxious ladies eager to start the festival and the exhibitors were already starting to set up! Once everyone was signed in, got their goodie bags and demo bikes, it was time for the morning commencement. Next year I promise it will be much shorter so you can spend more time riding! I introduced each chapter and the chapter leaders. I talked about the two C'S which I live by. Community and Club. All supporters and exhibitors at the event received a verbal mention. Then I went on to intro our 4 amazing volunteer skills coaches this year. Returning head coach Leigh Donovan, returning GGR coach Christine Hirst, (Christine has been a volunteer coach for GGR since day one!!! Thank you Christine!), new GGR coaches Kris Gross and Erica Phillips. A HUGE thank you to these ladies for sharing your knowledge with our beginner riders! This year's community award went to G2 Bikes and Girls Ride 2! This award is given to the shop that shows the most community involvement in women's cycling, has a great women's section and has shop rides. G2 and Girls Ride 2 earned this award hands down. I affectionately call them our "sister club" because we are all on the same page when it comes to community. There ride leaders spend the entire weekend with us volunteering too! Check Girls Ride 2 out here: www.girlsride2.bike Last but not least, Steve Messer, our CORBA President spoke about trail etiquette. Every Rocktober event is also a CORBA membership drive. Each GGR chapter partners up with their local IMBA chapter. After the huge group photo, riders split up into their guided ride groups and skills clinics. We had guided rides for all levels and beginner skills clinics running all morning. Rides were all through the park including the famous MASH site, Grasslands and Little Bulldog. Many of these rides went through the super fun creek bed where we had photographers stationed to capture the excitement! This year we invited a few of our GGR Littles too! We love that they got to see us grown up ladies doing some major shredding! Thank you to the Squeaky Wheel Bike shop in Palmdale who brought the young ones and have also supported the GGR Rocktober events since day one! When riders came back after their guided rides, they enjoyed an afternoon of tons of exhibitors, more demo bikes, lunch, catching up and just enjoying the day. We ended the day with over $20K of raffle prizes including grand prizes from REI, Specialized, Sacred Rides and San Juan Huts. We thank all the bike companies that came out to Rocktober. We had over 100 demo bikes for ladies to demo! Huge shouts out and thank you's to: Liv, Bulls Bikes USA, Specialized, Trek, Turner and Rocky Mountain. We also want to thank Clif who for the 2nd year sponsored the Clif Fuel station and provided the Rocktober event with all of our hydration and nutrition as well as plenty of goodies for the goodie bags! I personally would like to give a huge shout out and thank you to the companies who provide me with product all year round and take very good care of me personally as an athlete: Bulls Bikes USA, Kali Protectives, ZOIC and Petal Power. All 4 companies exhibited at Rocktober as well! Please enjoy some of my favorite pictures of the day! The Rocktober festival is so much bigger than GGR. It's truly a celebration of women's mountain biking and bringing our community together! Next year we will open up the event to ladies and littles of ALL ages!
Enjoy all of the thousands of pictures here: www.girlzgoneriding.shutterfly.com And course on the CORBA website here: http://corbamtb.com/Photos/Misc2015-10-18GGR/_Page.shtml I thank everyone who volunteered and worked so hard to make this happen. I'm so very grateful to our amazing community of women as well as our supportive and incredible trail males who are an important part of GGR as well. Thank you to all of our volunteer ride leaders, floaters and sweepers. Many of you drove hours to get to this event just to volunteer for the weekend and I personally thank you for that! All of our volunteers make this event possible! Until next year's Rocktober.....I bid you an epic winter of super long rides, practicing your skills (check out GGR Head Coach Leigh Donovan's instructional video's here: www.ichoosebikes.com/how-tos/improve-skills/) making new friends, challenging each other's inner much-ness, and enjoying life to its fullest! Be the best you can be on and off the bike and remember to give more...your soul will be content when you do so. GGR Girl Wendy E! Mwah! Specialized has really stepped up their community involvement in the last few years. I'm so thrilled to see this and hope to see the rest of the bike companies doing the same thing! With their reps and women's product managers stepping up and getting involved with the women's community, they are setting a great example for bike companies getting involved in the communities. We look forward to giving them our feedback to help make better products for the future and we thank them. This is Specialized 1st year at GGR's Rocktober event. They are bringing a demo fleet of their awesome bikes. To reserve one of their demo bike's for Sunday's Rocktober event, please check out their inventory here: www.girlzgoneriding.com/demo-bikes.html. One of the bikes I ride is a Specialized Epic which I really enjoy and have taken it on everything from XC, endurance riding to DH. It's an incredible bike. I personally had an amazing Specialized adventure this past summer being invited to SBCU. Specialized has also invited the GGR Leadership team to SBCU in December. We are VERY stoked to be a part of this! Specialized will not only have a huge demo fleet at this Sunday's GGR Rocktober event, they are donating one of their bikes for the GGR raffle as well in conjunction with Michael's Bicycles in Newbury Park! A Jet 29r! And in PURPLE no less! BIKE SPECS... FRAME - Specialized A1 Premium Aluminum, Women's XC 29er Geometry FORK - Custom SR Suntour XCT 29, w/ custom Multi-Circuit Damping HANDLEBARS - Specialized flat, 6061 double butted alloy, 10-degree backsweep, 4-degree upsweep, 31.8mm FRONT BRAKE - Tektro Auriga, hydraulic disc, resin/metallic pads, tooled women's reach adjust REAR BRAKE - Tektro Auriga, hydraulic disc, resin/metallic pads, tooled women's reach adjust BRAKE LEVERS - Tektro Auriga, hydraulic, women's short reach FRONT DERAILLEUR - Shimano Altus, high mount, bottom swing, dual-pull REAR DERAILLEUR - Shimano Acera, 8-speed, SGS cage SHIFT LEVERS - Shimano Altus Rapidfire Plus, SL type, w/ optical display CASSETTE - Sunrace, 8-speed, 11-34 CHAIN - KMC X8, 8-speed, reusable Missing Link CRANKSET - Specialized Stout, forged alloy, 8-speed, square taper spindle WHEELS – Specialized Stout Rims, 29” Disc, Alloy, Hi Lo Disc Hubs FRONT TIRE - Specialized Ground Control Sport, 60TPI, wire bead, 29x2.1" REAR TIRE - Specialized Ground Control Sport, 60TPI, wire bead, 29x2.1" INNER TUBES See everyone Sunday at this year's GGR Rocktober event at Malibu Creek State Park!
GGR Director Wendy Engelberg GGR is proud to welcome KENDA tires as an exhibitor at this year's ROCKTOBER event October 18th at Malibu Creek State Park!
KENDA. DESIGNED FOR YOUR JOURNEY On the road, on the trail or on the racetrack, you can count on Kenda quality. Our tires are engineered for performance and value across a wide range of interests and applications. See why Kenda is the right choice. It's your move. Kenda is a leading tire manufacturer with nine locations in five countries and countless distributors and retailers around the world. www.kendatire.com To read their full story, please check out their site here: www.kendatire.com/en-us/our-story Mammoth Mountain has put it’s stamp on all disciplines of mountain biking in 2015. Home to USA Cycling’s National Championship this past summer and now in it’s 3rd Year of the Kamikaze Games, people took notice. The Kamikaze Bike Games sold out Enduro field climbed from 400 to 600 this year. The race attracted riders from far and wide. Some even traveled from Bogotá Columbia this year. Why? In Bogotá they have to pedal or arrange a series of shuttles for gravity; needless to say those riders were beyond psyched. What’s cool is the Kamikaze Games are actually a fundraiser for Mammoth Mountain Community Foundation. All the proceeds get funneled into their program that supports academics and athletes here in town says Lindsay Barksdale, Executive Director of Mammoth Mountain Community Foundation. This year’s events brought quite the range of shredders. In the Pro DH field we had Jill Kitner, Jacqueline Thomas and Lauren Green repping the ladies as well as some up and coming pro riders such as Amy Rambacher. There was no shortage of smiles and blood spilled this weekend. Jacqueline took a nice digger but didn’t shake her spirit. Lauren Green tomahawked off a drop on Thursday but then nailed it after her 3rd time. The native, decomposed loose granite tested your high-speed bike handling skills while the drops tested your courage. Enduro here is no joke with most of the DH course included on one of the stages. ![]() Aside from the Enduro and DH they included Dual Slalom which was staged out of Canyon Lodge making the venue spectator friendly. Saturday afternoon was the Cross Country race held on the same course at Nationals, as was the Enduro. I entered the XC race and had a great time chasing down Mammoth’s very own 30-39 CAT1 National Champ McKenzie Long and was lucky enough to take the win, thanks to the stellar Lynda Wallenfels of LWCoaching, and my team sponsor Helen’s Cycles. My thumbs were a little confused on gears as my last race was a very long one, riding single speed. Larissa Conners from Ridebike Alliance took the win for the pro ladies and passed a few pro men on her way to the podium finish. Nic Beecham from Bear Valley Bikes was flying around the course taking first with a solid win. During the awards ceremony for Saturday’s races they held a Kluncker Race, the worse the bike the better, and of course a full line up for kids races. I caught up with a few of the ladies about the weekend. Here’s what they had to say: Rider: Amy Rambacher
Home base: So Cal Sponsors: Fly Racing, The Path Bike Shop, Industry Nine and Petal Power Heidi: How long have you been riding for fun and racing? Amy: I started riding in 2009 and raced at Over the Hump (XC race) for the first time in 2012. I raced my first Super D the following year and my first enduro shortly after that. This is now my third year racing enduro and it is my favorite racing format. How many hours do you ride in a typical week? 10-20 hours, depending on whether or not I have a race going on that week. I have a feeling I may be doing more, as I have signed up with Carmichael Training Systems for the next year! ;D How has mountain biking transcended into your daily life? Since I moved up to the pro division this year, my life has literally almost become entirely about biking. Mostly training to get myself in shape for my races and trying to develop my coaching style (I currently coach high school kids in the NICA SoCal League). What has it taught you about yourself? Funny, I wrote an article about that! You can read about it here on the singletracks.com blog. What are some words of advice for any woman wanting to get into the sport? Remember this is about having fun. Whether or not you decide to race, clip in, buy a carbon bike, etc. doesn’t matter as long as you are having fun! Don’t be afraid to try new things. Get some coaching from someone other than your significant other. What do you love about being part of a women’s riding group? There is a kind of positive energy you can only find in a girls only riding group. It is amazing! Don’t take my word for it! Try it for yourself! Favorite local trail? Best beauty tip for post riding? San Juan! Waterproof eye make up! It stays put when I sweat and looks nearly perfect after a ride! ;D Rider: Jill Kinter Home Base: Bellingham, Washington Sponsors: @redbull, @rideshimano @fox@sombriocartel @ixssports@renthal_cycling @bellbikehelmets@maxxistires @industry_nine@crankbrothers @fiveten_official@stevenspass @e13_components@maximausa #cb4others Heidi: You and Bryn shared the podium for Pro GRT this weekend. Is this a first in the history of gravity racing? Jill: It is quite special to have both won the series together, but we won the national series in 2011 as well. How did you two choose to celebrate? Dunno yet, will wait till we get home. You have a cool sprinter van, tell us about it and how does it make life on the road easier? It was my dream forever to have a kitted out sprinter van that all our bikes and gear could fit into. When I was training for the Olympics, it was my goal that if I medaled I would get one. Luckily that dream came true, and I used the money to get a Sportsmobile dream van. What are your top 3 tips for women getting into the DH? Go to whistler and see for yourself how much fun it is. There are so many ladies riding up there, at all different levels, just enjoying free speed and maximum fun going downhill. I love it, and try to be the best I can be so I can hopefully have a positive impact and lead by example. The life that I have lived through bikes, makes me really grateful that I embraced my fears and took a chance on something that was scary and thrilling at the same time. Being patient and taking baby steps with it will help too. Skills take practice to get right, fundamentals are the best place to start. I know you have interest in race organization. You and Bryn were the athlete representatives at the recent racing summit. What changes do you hope to see? We hope to see Americans leading the charge at the world level, and having a really good competitive national series that will prepare the next generation for the challenges overseas. Your helmet caught eye what’s the story behind that, the power critters and who did that super cool illustration on your site? Art has been a part of my life for a long time, and red bull is such a forward thinking brand, that they have encouraged the mix of art with my helmet design. Sauce creative firm works on a lot of helmet designs for them, and we nerd out drawing stuff and coming up with ideas. There are a lot of things from my sketchbooks and also a lot of their ideas and sketches. It’s collaboration and I really enjoy the process. It turned out awesome with all my favorite woodland critters. Rider: Jacqueline Thomas Home Base: Winter Park Sponsors: Last two years, I rode for Trestle Bike Park in Winter Park, Colorado. My community supports me the most I discovered after holding a fundraiser to raise money for travel and racing across the States. I'm currently seeking sponsorship for the 2016 season. How long have you been racing pro DH? Since July Nationals 2015 at Mammoth, CA. How many hours do you ride in a typical week? Other than ride, how else do you train? 15 hours give or take. I’m in the gym 3-4 days a week training cardio 30-40 minutes. My routine is warm up; weights 45 minutes, swim a mile in the lap pool and finish in the steam room to breathe and stretch. I also enjoy hiking, playing softball, volleyball and horseback riding, anything that gets me outside and my heart pumping makes me happy. How has mountain biking transcended into your daily life? Mountain biking has transcended my social group of friends and confidence. The biking community is where I feel most alive. Everyone is always happy to help and share advice and support. This sport has changed my life in the most positive direction and I’m most excited about the rise of female participants, it’s a step towards equal media and acknowledgement exposure and I’m excited to be a part of it. What has it taught you about yourself? Biking has taught me to always look further ahead; through your turns and past the rough, just as in biking, life will always have a challenge, learn from mistakes, endure, keep trying and you will excel and have more self-confidence. What are some words of advice for any woman wanting to get into the sport? We are strong and smart! Go with your intuition. Get out and ride, build the skill, focus on one thing at a time, something simple. You don’t know if you can fall in love if you don’t try! I love biking because it’s my time to escape and focus on one thing. “You have to keep moving to stay balanced.” –anonymous What was the coolest part of your race run? Crossing the finish line! Overall, being at the top, seeing other women warming up, focusing before they drop. Having a good spectator/heckling to encourage you throughout your run is always a blast. How was it riding that XL bike? I know you usually ride a small. I was struggling to adapt to the large bike and find rhythm with only a few days practice before racing. Honestly, I was very frustrated and overwhelmed to say the least. I prefer a medium, because it gives me room to maneuver and correct. I’m humbled. Did that spill on Friday get you fired up or give you some pause? I was fired up! I crashed when I held back and knowing that speed is your friend even though sometimes you have to go slow to go fast. I wanted a clean run and ended up catching the girl who dropped before me (Tasha Thomas). Unfortunately, I washed out and didn’t have a chance to pass. It’s all part of racing. You win some, you lose some. Just the fact you show up and did your best is like winning to me. What was the last thing you said to yourself once you left the gate at the top of the run? I visualize the run and every section, rocks, drops, lines, trees and where I can pedal, then attack, be aggressive and never give up! Rider: Lauren Green Home base: Reno, Nevada Sponsors: Pivot, WTB, Fox Heidi: How long have you been riding and racing? Lauren: I have been racing bikes for 7 years now, heading into my 8th full season next year! How many hours do you ride in a typical week? I typically ride 5 days a week, around 10-15 hours. When I was racing XC, that number was closer to 20-25. Now, racing gravity, I split my training time between the bike and the gym. How has mountain biking transcended into your daily life? Mountain biking has really formed me into the person that I am today. I’ve learned so much about myself through my bike- learned to work hard, conquer fears, and never give up. I really owe my successes ad my outlook on life to racing mountain bikes. What has it taught you about yourself? It has taught me that I am much stronger than I ever thought I could be. I’ve connected with the greatest group of friends I could ever ask for through riding. Racing really connects you with people, and I’m always blown away by how genuine and helpful other riders on the circuit are. Mountain biking truly has transcended and transformed my life and I’m grateful for it everyday. Do you always have a posse of guys helping nail some lines? I know you had a coaching squad at Mammoth. Yes, I have a great posse of guys that help me push my limits and progress. There are some features that, when I look at them alone, I feel like I could never hit, but I have some amazingly supportive friends that really encourage me to get out of my comfort zone. Without their help (and teasing and heckling!) I would never have been able to progress to the level I’m at today. What are some words of advice for any woman wanting to get into the sport? Believing you can clean something is the only way you can possibly hit it confidently, and my coaching squad somehow convinces me that I can clear these big hits, and I do! My advice for women getting into the sport would be- DO IT! Don’t be intimidated, start slow but celebrate every step of progression. Find someone who will walk you through the basics, make sure you know about your equipment and basic maintenance like how to change a flat tire, and go out and get after it! Also, don’t let that first crash scare you away. Stop and think about it- that scraped knee or big bruise isn’t really that bad, is it? It’s badass! Keep riding! What was the favorite part of your race run? My favorite part of the race run was hitting the big Flow Drop. I’ve been looking at that big drop since I started riding 7 years ago and finally got up the confidence to hit it for the first time this weekend. What’s was the last thing you said to yourself after leaving the gate at the top for your race run? The last thing I say before I leave the gate is “Smooth is fast. Smooth is fast.” Favorite local trail? My favorite local trail is the Tylorean Downhill trail. Best beauty tip post riding? I always end up with tons of dirt all over my face, so I always have to remember to rinse my face off before people start taking pictures! HA! I would say my #1 tip is to exude how stoked you are after your ride- no one will care if you have helmet hair and a dirty face if you have a big smile and a great attitude! Meanwhile back at the venue I talked with Candice, one of two female lift mechanics in a crew of 35 here at Mammoth Mountain. Her favorite job: haul rope line splicing. Each year the cables stretch and they need to take up the sag. It’s no small feat, as they have to unravel the metal lines and then weave them back together. Her favorite tool: Crescent wrench, and was proud to tell me she had the biggest wrench on the team. Why? More torque, work smarter not harder she said. Legend: Leigh Donovan Home Base: Orange County Sponsors: Liv, Troy Lee Designs, Cliff, RoxShox, WD-40 Heidi: Clearly you’re a gravity legend and an iconic ambassador for women’s racing. What do you hope your legacy to be in a nutshell? Leigh: Racing bikes saved my life, it gave me all the skills, opportunities, and confidence that has helped me navigate my adult life. During my racing days I learned that being a champion isn’t always about winning bike races, it’s about who you are, what you choose to do with that, and about being happy for others when they have a great day. If today was my last day on earth, I’d want my legacy to be one of a great human who showed her competitors, her clients, her sponsors, her family, her friends, and her fans that winning doesn’t always mean you’re standing on top of the podium, it’s about your integrity and your ability to strive for your best everyday your alive. What’s the most rewarding part of doing your clinics? The most rewarding parts of doing my clinics, is when a rider moves past the fear and begins to feel the pure excitement of doing something that seemed impossible...this moment changes the riders future on and off the bike. I like to think that I’m not just teaching people how to be a good bike rider, but I’m teaching them how to better navigate their lives. What have the clinics taught you about yourself ( off the bike ) or how has riding/teaching transcended into your life? I was not born with patience, which had affected my life in a negative way and those around me. Since I started my ichoosebikes skills clinics, I’ve found that I can be patient, which has helped me become a better person all around...and most importantly a better parent, which my daughter Grace really appreciates :-) After spending many years out of the bike industry and away from bikes, I realized this is where I am meant to be and where I am needed most. I’ve learned that I really love bikes and that when I’m around bikes and bike people, I am home. By Guest Blogger Heidi Volpe heidivolpe.com GGR is happy to announce that Velofix will be exhibiting at this year's Rocktober event! "Save Time. Ride More” is the Velofix tag line and our business provides a professional and convenient service. The Velofix Bike Shop comes to you – your home, your office, wherever you need your bike(s) serviced. To use, a customer books service online, and the Velofix truck then drives to his or her place to either do on-site service or arrange pick up and drop off services. In addition to repair and installation, Velofix will also pack a bike for a trip (rental cases are available); and sells products like Garmin computers, eyewear, tires, and new wheelsets. A basic tuneup goes for $69, and a full overhaul runs $189. The Velofix van is impressively organized and well stocked. To book one of their services, go to their website at: www.velofix.com SERVICE PACKAGES
MOUNTAIN AND COMMUTER BIKES In addition to our service packages, we perform full bike builds and other a la carte bike services, such as: computer installs, fender installs, hydraulic brake bleeding and handlebar wrapping, etc.. For the full list of services, please check them out here: www.velofix.com/services GGR is thrilled that Camelback is a Rocktober supporter! They will be donating some of their wonderful light weight packs for our GGR club members!
Camelbak products are a house hold name in the mountain biking community. Just check out their mountain biking products here: www.camelbak.com They have packs, bottles, filtration, mugs and much more! We thank Camelbak for supporting the women's mountain biking community! GGR has needed to add a 2nd food truck due to the size of this year's Rocktober. We welcome Alegria to this year's event!
Alegria is a fairly new food truck with special emphasis on organic and locally grown products, serving a delicious menu that combines some of the best flavors of American and Mexican cuisine; always using ingredients without hormones or antibiotics. Their menu caters to a wide range of dining lifestyles with many items under 600 calories. www.alegriafoodtruck.com GGR is proud to welcome Crazy Bear Bikes as an exhibitor at this year's Rocktober Event! GGR has personally used Crazy Bear Bikes for shuttle days and have had an absolute blast!
Crazy Bear Bikes is a limousine service specialized in transportation of cyclists. They manage the logistics and allow you to relax before, during and after your ride. Their comfortable Sprinter van seats up to 11 passengers and is equipped with secure bike racks, climate control, video and sound system, fridge, USB/110v charging ports, and changing tent. They even have a mobile workshop to handle your bike emergencies. Friendly guides and rental bikes are available on request. Clients love this service for its convenience and conviviality. Meet new friends when you join one of the scheduled rides posted each week on their online event calendar. Or hire Crazy Bear Bikes for your own group’s event. Cyclists commonly use the service for A-to-B rides, epic rides, DH shuttles, road SAG for centuries, and special events. Make a day of it and unwind after riding by stopping for food and drinks with your friends. Whether you’re an experienced local rider or a visitor who wants to explore the area, let Crazy Bear Bikes take care of your logistics so that you can concentrate on having an excellent ride. Check out www.CrazyBearBikes.com and contact the owner Xavier [email protected] or call 818-516-1157 to reserve your seat! GGR proudly welcomes The Gourmet Diva as an event supporter for this year's Rocktober event!
The Gourmet Diva offers In-home cooking classes taught to you by The Gourmet Diva…. With a Snap! Chef Lynn Kennedy. Lynn is also a mountain biker and a member of GGR! She won the Never Give up Award at the GGR Women's Weekend in Big Bear this past August. Chef Lynn was named a “Gourmet diva” by the food networks show “The best of…” and was also a finalist on the very first cooking competition show on the food network called” Ready Set Cook”, where she defeated 72 of the top chefs of the country to go to the finals where she came in second. She is also the second woman EVER to take the Certified Master Chef Exam and you can read about her experience in the book ‘The Soul of a Chef: by Michael Ruhlman. Chef Lynn has over 30 years of experience at some of the countries' finest restaurants, hotels and clubs, a graduate of The Culinary Institute of America and specializes in new American cuisne. She has been featured in many different publications and has won many awards during her career. She takes the melting pot of American cuisines and make new and interesting combinations prepared and presented in modern styles. So if you want to learn some basics, baking and pastries or something new and fun. We will have fun with food! Each cooking class is customized to what you want to learn and are typically two hours. Chef Lynn will come to your house or location with all ingredients and work one on one with you to teach you from the very basics of cooking to very complicated gourmet meals. The benefit is you get to eat what you have just learned and created. Here are some of Lynn's amazing career highlights! * Food Network appearances on Ready Set Cook…and The Best Of…”Gourmet Divas” * James Beard House veteran, “Rising Star of American Cuisine’ and “Wine Makers Dinner” * Voted by Memphis Magazine 1999 Readers Poll “Memphis’ Top Three Chef’s” * Featured in numerous publications, including “Art Culinaire” and “The Soul of a Chef” * Gold, Silver and Bronze Medalist in American Culinary Federation competitions To book a class directly with Lynn, shoot her an email: [email protected] GGR welcomes HT Components to this year's Rocktober event as an event supporter!
HT (Hsing Ta) concentrates on developing the best performance bicycle components to allow top athletes to push their limits and amateurs feel like a pro. GGR Welcomes Onza as an event supporter to this year's Rocktober event!
Using Swiss ingenuity in design and performance, Onza created some of the best performance cycling tires. By taking into consideration tread patterns, rubber compounds and trail conditions, we’ve designed tires that get the job done, where ever you ride. We are dedicated to your ride and your performance. GGR Welcomes Smanie as an event supporter to this year's Rocktober event!
The Italian word smanie means unbridled passion. Smanie’s passion is reflected by seeking and using the most advanced materials, the latest construction techniques, and considering ever adapting shapes to design and produce saddles that perform at the most comfortable and highest levels. We are passionately focused on being the best, by providing the best, for the most sensitive parts. www.smanie.com GGR proudly welcomes back Atlas Brace as a Rocktober supporter! Check out the new Atlas Air! "Entirely new, yet immediately familiar. From the moment it’s on your body, you’ll be comfortable using the Atlas Air. The sleek new design has been refined to fit better, move around less, and look better, while providing the unmatched comfort and mobility our customers know and love.
Does even more. Weighs even less.The new Atlas Air is unbelievably light - only 599g. And yet it’s more functional and adjustable than the previous model. With the new frame shape, added adjustability, and Easy Open system - all beautifully crafted into a smaller package - the Atlas Air is the best neck brace experience available. Period. The best design is the one you hardly notice.Just like people, not all neck brace are created equal. The DNA of each Atlas Brace starts with our Split Flex frame technology. Controlled amounts of engineered flexibility mimic your natural body movements. We would say you can feel the difference, but actually you can barely feel anything at all. Smaller. And Bigger.The sleek and slim new design is a smaller overall product than before, yet it has 27% more contact with your body than the competition. That massive amount of surface area helps spread out potentially harmful impact forces, with an enhanced comfort level making it feel like you are wearing less than before. Now in color.With inspiration from high end running shoes, we are introducing a big step forward in comfort, durability, and color. The new padding is extremely light weight, incredibly tough and tear resistant, can withstand multiple impacts, is waterproof, and can also be manufactured in exceptionally vibrant colors to match anyones taste and style." For more about the Atlas Air, please visit Atlas brace at www.atlasbrace.com GGR welcomes back Matrix Concepts as a GGR Rocktober supporter! Matrix Concepts is best known for their awesome bike cleaning and lubricant products. Matrix also carries their line of cycling stands, mats, tie downs, tool boxes and more! Visit Matrix Concepts for all your maintenance needs: www.matrixracingproducts.com
Look for the demo bike inventory list coming soon on the GGR Rocktober page: www.girlzgoneriding.com/demo-bikes.html. Rocktober is GGR's annual festival held at Malibu Creek State Park October 18th 2015. It is free to all GGR club members. www.girlzgoneriding.com/rocktober-2015.html. If you want to join and just reserve a demo bike, all are welcome. Entrance to the park is $12
Rocktober Goodie Bags!
LOOK at what Leah Dilbeck from Dilbeck Realtors has donated for this year’s Rocktober event! These are our goodie bags! The 1st 250 women to sign in at Rocktober will receive one! Bulls Bikes USA will be putting in water bottles, and there will be other goodies from Simple Green, Moto Solutions, MTBK4HER.COM, ZOIC and much more! If you need a realtor, please contact Leah Dilbeck from Dilbeck Realtors! O and sign up for the GGR Rocktober event if you haven’t already! www.dilbeck.com/ GGR Rocktober event is October 18th at Malibu Creek State Park and is a FREE cross country ride event for all GGR club members. |
Do you have great women's specific mountain bike story and want to contribute to the GGR blog? ? Email Wendy at: [email protected]
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June 2023
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