10 Days on Fromme

I started doing something dumb a couple weeks ago: I built up a hardtail with not enough seat tube and a 32/16 single speed gear to ride Fromme. Test runs were 100% successful, if a bit of a shock to the lower back. So 10 days ago, I borrowed three more cog teeth from a wacky endurance racer – and the night of the installation sparked a continuous span of rides worth writing down.

  I broke my home chainwhip a while back and have been completely lazy about fixing that situation. Necessity leads to ingenuity?

With an extra hour of sleep from daylight savings in my bones, I began the streak. The bike is a Chromag Monk dirt jump frame that I built this summer to learn how to… wait for it… dirt jump. I had a good number of sessions at the Vanier jumps this year and definitely added some new skills to my bag. Dirt jumping in the rain just doesn’t happen, so meaty tires, a front brake, and a dropper post rounded out the initial mods to the summer setup.

  Logging road miles to and from the trails.

  Chillin’ with the little bro, who has become an excellent trail dog.

After a summer filled with mostly suspension-laden escapades, I was itching to try a new platform. This build was already pillaged from the parts bins but the four pot front brake was the coup de grace. With a new home base at the bottom of the hill and a bike that brings the fun back, I fell down a slippery slope of getting back to my hardtail roots on the Shore.

  There’s no place like Fromme.

  Mountain biking is at some level about winding your way through the forest to visit old friends.

  “If this fog lifts it won’t be mist.” – Mark Wood

Fromme is most definitely the home of a freeride era where thunderous dinosaurs with telescoping posts were pedaled up the hill with varying levels of leg extension and armour. My own seat is about 40mm too low on a 420 post; I’ve been standing up a lot the past 10 days.

  As daylight savings had just robbed an hour of sunlight from our evenings, I consciously brought my lights along on every ride. More than once I was surprised by how dark it could be on the hill at 4:00pm. Photos ~ Mark Wood

  A lack of chainwhip was not the only mechanical problem overcome in the 10 day period. One of my spare lights was acting up, so I took it apart blindly. Only one fork was harmed in the servicing of this light.

By day 3 of the span I was starting to wonder how long I could sustain riding my bike up the hill on a daily basis. On day 4 I got my legs ripped off by two animals on BC hardtails with SPDs. Wrecked. And on day 5 the stoke returned with the addition of a klunker to the Fromme shredding hardtail barn. One brake, controlled by foot, and I can guarantee Bobsled is rougher than usual.

  Ride Don’t Slide. I’ll try!

  That one corner on Bobsled. You know the one. After the chundery bit. Yeah, I blew that good. Right over the berm into a pile of logs and over the bars. I shot this photo from where I landed. Klunkin’ ain’t easy.

So, with the drive to keep going, day 6 marked an amazing sunny Saturday where we just kept bounding around the mountain on different tracks. Dry conditions meant I was willing to hit some woodwork, feeling comfortable on the new setup and stoked with the addition of a rear derailleur.

Day 7 almost didn’t happen, but I stuck it together, and the rest fell into place. I’ve ridden almost every trail on the main flank of Fromme this past 10 days, furthering my mental map and working out neighbourhood shortcuts to get to and from the trails. Flat pedals and a low seat are still not helping me go uphill, but I’m sacrificing in the name of fun…

  Always a classic spot. Before you ask where it is, the answer is here. Photo ~ James Weeks

  I wasn’t the only one learning new tricks this week. Inspiration from Foster.

The mountain’s trails echo the roads of Lynn Valley: twists and turns leading to places you need to be. My mental reset is in these woods and now I can be here every day. Good times have been had, steep stuff descended, skinnies railed, blasters blasted – over and over. After 10 days straight of riding out my door to the hill, my body is sore but my mind is at rest.

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10 days is a good stretch, but it’s no world record. What’s your longest streak on the bike?