Ian checks in from the Hood River Super D on his new Ibis Mojo!

One of my objectives for the 2010 race season is to hit up all of the major Super D races in Oregon. When I first saw the schedule I knew right away that the courses were going to be proper. I am pretty sure every town that is a stop on this schedule has made a “top riding spot” list in multiple mountain bike magazines at least once. The super D races sounded like a great way to spend a few weekends on my calendar. Cool towns, party like atmosphere, ripping single track at stupid fast speeds and hanging out with a bunch of other bike geeks. Sign me up.

Prior to the 2010 season I had never owned a legit trail bike so when my team manager Evan Plews told me Ibis was onboard this season I was just about overcome with excitement. Prior to placing my bike order I spent hours at work looking at the mojo’s on the Ibis website www.ibiscycles.com I finally decided on the vicious blue Mojo with the X9 kit. My bike arrived in early March and I can easily say that it was one of the smoothest builds I have ever done.

My first ride on the Mojo I could tell right away that this bike was going to open some new doors for me. The mojo absolutely burns up the singletrack. When things turn uphill you just stay in the saddle and all the power goes straight to the wheel, no weird bobbing or inefficiency even with the pro pedal turned off on the shock. The downhill is where things really get fun with this bike. The mojo inspires so much confidence that it would be pretty easy to get yourself into some trouble. The bike feels super stable at speed and the suspension just gobbles up the choppy stuff and allows you to rail through turns. I knew that this was going to be the perfect bike for Super D racing and having fun out on the trail.

The Oregon Super D series kicked off in Hood River Oregon. My friend Dave and I rolled into town the day before the race. After picking up race packets and grabbing some food we headed up to Post Canyon to preride the course. The course was super fun and had some sections, which if ridden improperly would result in some serious consequences. My bike felt great and I was super pumped on the course. After riding we headed back to town for some dinner. Something that I noticed right away about the Super D atmosphere is that the weekend is clearly not just about the race. It seems like all the racers were out on the town the night before the race throwing back some beers and talking bikes. This is such a contrast to an XC race where everyone seems to be on a strict schedule of getting an early dinner and then hiding out in a hotel room.

Sunday was race day and you could clearly see that party time was over and racers had showed up for business. The course was in much better condition than the day before after having a chance to dry out a little. I felt I was on pace for a pretty decent run until I mistakenly took a line that was added to the course the night before. If ridden properly this line would send you off a drop gapping over a ditch and landing on a road. I came into the line not knowing about the gap. I was going to hot to shut it down and not fast enough to make the gap and planted my front wheel into the ditch and my body into the road. I came out of the wreck unscathed, but I could hear my tire squealing out air and my bars were twisted parallel to my bike. Luckily, there was a group of spectators hanging out on the road where I crashed and a nice lady let me use a pump and allen wrench to get my bike back in working order. After a pit stop like that I knew my race was over but at least I didn’t have to walk down the rest of the course and got to enjoy some more singletrack.

I learned a lot from my first Super D race in Hood River. Mainly that in order to do well you need to have a lot of practice runs to get the course dialed. In super D, there is no room for small mistakes whether it be picking a slow line or having a mechanical on your bike. Super D is won or lost by seconds. I learned that I have the right equipment to succeed; now it is just a matter of getting my mind right and polishing up my high speed riding skills. The next race in the series takes place in Oakridge and the final is at Sandy Ridge. Both of these courses should be great and I plan to get a bunch of practice runs on both before the races.

Ian Eglitis