Legend Park & Centennial Campus Session

June 10, 2006 -- Daniel (Sir Launch-a-lot) and I drove up to Raleigh to hit some drops. Daniel has a new Trek Session 7 that he really hasn't been able to use for the bike's intended purpose - sessioning stuff, hence the name. His derailleur broke - twice, he bent his dropout, and his fork was messed up and had to be sent back. His bike spent more time in the shop than being ridden. But today, everything was perfect. No equipment problems at all and no (serious) wrecks or injuries.

First, we hit Legend Park in Clayton. The cliff drops were in good shape. We stayed here for at least an hour hitting the various drops. We were having too much fun and only took a couple of clips here. Watch the first clip of me and you'll see me hit a tree at the very end - only a split second was captured but it's still funny. I have no idea why I hit that. In fact, the trees just seemed like magnets to me that day. That's the thing you have to worry about the most around here - hitting a tree at high speed. On this drop in particular there are trees (which grow larger each year) barely ten feet apart right in the landing zone. The drop is big, about 15 ft, and you have to line up just right for it. But you can't see the drop from the top. You just see the edge. And there's a 5 ft or so gap to clear. You have to hit this one dead-nuts on or it's a hospital job.

After Clayton we headed to Centennial Campus in Raleigh. We'd been here many times before, but each time we go there's new stuff. So rather than ride the trails first, which is what Daniel did the last time and ended up trashing his drivetrain and his day before even getting to the FR area, we decided to go right to the good stuff. We sessioned most of it for a couple of hours until I got too hot and tired and we had to head back anyway. Took a few videos and photos too. Again, lots of trees you have to avoid if you're a bee-line rider like myself. Now onto the video clips and photos.

Disclaimer: Names and locations have been changed to protect the innocent. I cannot tell you where these areas are nor reveal my sources. In fact, each time I go I am blindfolded, driven to the location, stuck on my bike and pushed off the drops by hired goons. I guess I could figure it out but I am often too delirious from the ride to remember or care.

Thanks,

Sir Bikes-a-lot

 

Note: For the best experience use Quicktime 7 to watch the videos.

Legend Park (Clayton, NC)

The gap drop. Watch me kind of crash into the tree at the very end. In Quicktime you can go frame-by-frame so you can see it better. You can also hear it.

Daniel on the same drop. Different perspective. So smooth. Eh, he's a lot lighter than me. Note the trees.

Centennial Campus (Raleigh, NC)

Warm-up drop. You get so much speed off of this.

Warm-up drop. You can go pretty much as fast as you want and you'll land further down and gain even more speed.

Big drop. You can get hangtime off this one. You also have to clear a large boulder. Note the two large trees on either side of the landing zone.

Another one of the boulder drop.

Unfinished trail. Kinda tight for bigger bikes. A hardtail or bmx would be good here.

Ladder drop. This is the smaller one. The bigger one I didn't even think of trying. Wait-a-minute. Yes I did. There's a second drop down below which you go off at such a forward angle that you hit really hard, especially since you are also flying downhill and cannot check your speed yet. Daniel hit it so hard his hand got knocked off the handlebar.

Ladder drop from bottom perspective. Camera makes it look flat but just try to walk back up. Again I head straight for the tree.

Rock step-down. It's the last drop before the Bridge-to-Nowhere which I passed on yet again. I have the speed, just not the balls.

Rock step-down from bottom perspective.

Drop before rock step-down.

Another one of same drop.

Boulder drop again. Daniel hit it a few more times before we left.

Daniel killing it.

And now for a few photos...

The gap drop at Legend Park.

Small and large ladder drops at Centennial. Would you like to supersize that? Note the small skull in the tree.

Another view of the ladder drop.

6 ft long black snake. Sorry for the blurry pic he was trying to get away.