GHORBA Fat Tire Festival

[Ridenfool]

From what I've read about the Fat Tire Festival (and Lyme awareness ride) most everything will be happening in the parking lot, other than a group ride scheduled for 1:30 on Saturday. So the trails should be open riding all weekend.

I think it's the first annual party celebrating Fat Tires hosted by the Houston club.

Other things listed included:

• Skills clinic for beginner through advanced riders at 9:00am,
• Bicycle frisbee ,
• Lumberjack event (skinny board riding contest),
• Bike maintenance clinic,
• BEER (New Belgium is a sponsor),

Damon (Bluff Creek Ranch) will be cooking during the day,
and I think there is a dinner and bonfire in the evening.

Night riding for those camping.

All for $10 including RHR access. Seems like a pretty good deal from the Houston crowd.

For more detailed info see Fat Tire Fest

It also looks like a great weekend to be outdoors, riding bikes, sippin' suds and meeting folks!

Count me in for the duration!

[ArmySlowRdr]

actually quite a number of years ago they held a fat tire fest at double lake. it was good time with a great band (moses guest as i recall) , free red bull, auction, poker run, time trial etc.

...
I think it's the first annual party celebrating Fat Tires hosted by the Houston club.

...

[DirtFace]

It was a great event. Organized, great free snacks and fantastic raffle. The burgers looked amazing. If you bought a glass you got bottomless pints of beer. Beautiful day to ride.

[Bear]

The burgers were taste-eee, thanks Damon (Damon from Bluff Creek Ranch was out there cooking them)!

Nice size, nice n lean.

Even after 33 miles on the trail, they're satisfying enough you don't want two patties. :^)

[J T]

Yup those damn Damon burgers were awesome

And the bottomless pint aided in curbing some pain

Thanks to GHORBA for a great event!

[Ridenfool]

That was some of the most fun I've had at an RHR event.

There were beginner and intermediate skills clinics that were very well designed and led riders through sets of exercises teaching key skills.

There was a mechanical clinic that had about twenty folks show up to learn some bike maintenance tips.

Their riding event was a very creative scored contest that began with a trip up Gray's Way to Ike's Peak where a judge (Booker- the Jack Brooks Park trail steward) scored folks on their ability to climb it successfully. From there it went back to the parking area for the next stage. The Tick Toss, where contestants threw a wheel with tick legs (tire quarters) attached and were scored on distance. Next was the Lumberjack Challenge which were five well designed obstacles made of boards, ramps and a teeter totter and riders were scored on successful completion of each they chose to attempt. On from there to the bike drag, where riders had to tie a beater bike to theirs and drag it through a slalom course of cones without disturbing them, points were lost for hitting a cone. After that was a stop to shoot a paintball gun at a Tick target. Lastly were two bunny hops with points for whether you cleared the obstacles or not.

Prizes were awarded based upon total high score for the different catagories divided by age and gender.

There were three raffles, one for a Jamis bike, one for a light set, and another for a wheelset. And, a LOT of other schwag, pumps, t-shirts, toolkits, and more. Everybody who signed up and attended the awards presentation got some of this loot as a door prize.

Another competition was bike frisbee, which I am proud to have been on the winning team. Mesquite thorns eventually took out enough folks that we had to call the game at 1-0.

Teams of four or five riders begin by picking up a frisbee off the ground without dabbing, then tossing it from teammate to teammate three times and crossing the goal line to score a point. This can become a full contact sport. Though we mostly just blocked each other or made the frisbee holder dab, meaning they had to drop the frisbee for another tip-off of picking it up.

The New Belgium beer was cold and tasty, the weather was great, and the folks from Houston were a blast to be around. I kept going back to the Lumberjack Challenge area to sharpen my skills, . . . as it was close to the keg beer. Not sure that was such a good combination.

About 8pm, I had just finished three big fajita tacos, was sippin' on a cold one relaxing and trying to digest/recoup from the days struggles when Dari (sp?) and Mike (some RHR regulars) reminded me that there was a night ride that I had agreed to join. By the time I found my lights and got ready the group were long gone. I managed to catch and pass one rider on the Switchback trail, then found two more at Water 1 looking confused about where to go. So, I had them follow me down Karaway and we caught Mike and Dari waiting at Off the Lip.

They said they would take it slow for the rest of the ride, and that was the last we saw of them. I hung back to make sure the other guys didn't spend the night going in circles till their batteries ran down. Everyone survived the ordeal and more beer was raised in tribute to the MTB gods who must have been watching over us.

What a blast!

Thanks to GHORBA and all the sponsors for a fantastic weekend! I look forward to seeing this become a Fall ritual at Rocky Hill!

[hallin222]

Their riding event was a very creative scored contest that began with a trip up Gray's Way to Ike's Peak where a judge (Booker- the Jack Brooks Park trail steward) scored folks on their ability to climb it successfully. From there it went back to the parking area for the next stage. The Tick Toss, where contestants threw a wheel with tick legs (tire quarters) attached and were scored on distance. Next was the Lumberjack Challenge which were five well designed obstacles made of boards, ramps and a teeter totter and riders were scored on successful completion of each they chose to attempt. On from there was a one-legged ride over to the bike drag (points awarded according to distance travelled), then the bike drag, where riders had to tie a beater bike to theirs and drag it through a slalom course of cones without disturbing them, points were lost for hitting a cone. After that was a stop to shoot a paintball gun at a Tick target. Lastly were two bunny hops with points for whether you cleared the obstacles or not.

You forgot the part of the event in bold above.

Agreed. Tons fo fun. I left shortly after the Lyme Ryde (that I later learned I 'won' ) but wished I had the time to stick around all day & night. Maybe next year.

Ian

[Tex Mex]

Pam and I had fun. Saw some friends from Austin and had a good ride. The weather was great. Pam will race next week and I will watch. The Full Fat Chucks Demise assault will be interesting to watch!