Quantcast

2008 Kenda Bikefest (long report, yo)

I Are Baboon

I Are Baboon

The Full Dopey
Aug 6, 2001
32,423
9,469
MTB New England
The 2008 Kenda Bikefest was this weekend in Hancock, MA, and The Monkey was well represented. :D This was the 14th year of the festival and the third one MtnBikerChk and I have been to. As expected, we had an absolute blast.

The festival opened at 8:00 Friday morning, so us and the Splat crew decided to drive to the festival Thursday night and stay in a motel for the night so we could stake out a festival campsite first thing Friday. After dinner at John Harvards and a solid night of sleep, we were good to go Friday morning. We got to the festival at 7:30AM and were the 11th car in line. I got the wife and I registered and MBC found us an acre of land to set up Monkeycamp. :D Friday’s weather was absolutely perfect.

Splat was about 10 minutes behind us and wound up way the hell back in the line.


Monkeycamp starting to take shape.


After setting up camp, we quickly got dressed and headed to the bike expo to grab demo bikes. MBC wasted no time in grabbing a Pivot Mach 5. Jason from Pivot really took his time in making sure each bike was set up correctly and was adjusted to each rider. That was very much appreciated.


Pretty Pivots all in a row.


I grabbed a Moots 29er softail….not sure of the model though.


“I’m sorry…the card says “Moops.’”


Splat decided to test a Titus carbon fiber RacerX.


Quo Fan tested a Fuji Outland RC and promptly broke the chain, so he had to go back and get it fixed. It gave me the chance to get this picture of him going super gnar gnar in the xtreme freeride park.


Splat had some fun there too.



None of my pics from that first ride came out any good. The trails were pretty much the same as last year…tight, twisty, rooty, wet and not enough of them. You could ride all the trails behind the festival in under an hour. They were fun trails but they just need more of them. One good thing about that though is you could get the demo bikes back in a quick turnaround.
 
I Are Baboon

I Are Baboon

The Full Dopey
Aug 6, 2001
32,423
9,469
MTB New England
After a fun but too brief first ride, we decided to poke around the vendor expo for a while. Splat and Keith picked up some Kenda stickers that are hopefully big enough.


Splat got strangled a bit by Philip Keyes, the head of NEMBA.


Eastern Mountain Sports had a wheel you spun and won the prize it landed on. Quo Fan “won” 20 pushups. :monkeydance:


Splat and I wandered over to the Dirt Rag tent and decided to buy event pint glasses. Much to our delight, the pint glass came filled with FREE BEER (Troegs pilsner) and free refills! Best $5 you can spend. We had a couple of pints, chowed down on some lunch, and headed out for another ride.

MBC made friends with Fernando from Fugi. Those Fuji guys were great. :)


My 2nd demo was the Pivot Mach 5. I was very impressed with that bike. SO MUCH fun to ride. It climbed really well, descended great, and came in at an impressive 28 pounds for a 5.5 inch trail bike. Taking that bike for a demo made me want to own one. By far the best demo bike I rode during the festival.

Here’s the bulk of our Friday ride crew: (L-R) BigT, Splat, Mrs Splat, Quo Fan, Baboon, MtnBikerChk, Danolite Dan, Rachel.


After that ride was dinner and beer time. Treesaw and Mr Treesaw joined us for dinner and it was nice to see them again. :)

Quo Fan made his teriyaki steak , which was AWESOME.


I made the spicy shrimp.

Keith went through his bags like a kid on Christmas morning. :D


After dinner, Rachel and MBC helped DANOLITE Dan make some sales.


The Luna Chix offered FREE BEER to adults who could hula hoop! I cashed in, as did Splat.


Tour de France viewing area. The beanbag chairs were quite nice for tired legs.


Dirt Rag offered a bourbon tasting. They only took 30 people and from what I hear it filled up in about 12 seconds. I didn’t try since I don’t really drink bourbon.



Once it got dark, we went for a quick night ride then called it a day.
 
I Are Baboon

I Are Baboon

The Full Dopey
Aug 6, 2001
32,423
9,469
MTB New England
DAY TWO. (told you this was long). Saturday morning we pounded breakfast and headed out cross the street to try out those trails.

Brain (monkey name Nemesis) took out a fresh out of the box Fuji Reveal 2.0.


Splat had the Pivot Mach 5.


Quo Fan had a carbon fiber Trek, though I don’t know which model.


The trails “across the street” were real nice. It took some climbing to get to them though. Some pics from that ride:

Quo Fan taking a picture of me taking a picture of him.


MBC


Quo Fan


MBC


We finished that ride, grabbed more demos, broke into two groups, and headed out for more riding. The “Nad Trail” across the street was awesome. The climb up to the top of it wasn’t, but that climb was a paved road so I’ve got no complaints. The climb wasn't real fun on a Titus Racer-X 29er though (I am still not sold on 29ers). The trail was great. Definitely “black diamond” by northeast standards. Pics from the ride:

SPLAT.


Quo Fan.


Such a small root but so deadly to splat. :D He hit this at a bad angle which caused him to slide and smash his knee into his stem. OUCH. :dead:


Keith didn’t do too good here.


After a good, hard 90 minute ride, we went back to the expo where the good folks from Finish Line were handing out free pint glasses filled with Sam Adams and unlimited refills. I couldn’t figure out what the catch was, but there was no catch. FREE BEER, free glasses. :monkeydance:


Their line got long. I know...it's hard to imagine a free beer line being long at a festival for MOUNTAIN BIKERS. :rolleyes: :p


After a couple of pints, we headed over to the food tent to watch The Clams, headed by Danolite Dan, play two hours of instrumental surf tunes. Good times!!




Quo Fan takes his photography seriously.


Rachel and I decided to compete in the wheelbarrow race before the mudbog. One person pushed and the other person acted as the wheelbarrow. I decided to be the device and we failed to even finish either of our two races, as I fell and Rachel collapsed on me. :D I guess doing a wheelbarrow race with a bum shoulder is a bad idea. My shoulder is killing me today. Not good. :dead: But I got tire levers and she got a saddlebag for our efforts anyway. :D
 
I Are Baboon

I Are Baboon

The Full Dopey
Aug 6, 2001
32,423
9,469
MTB New England
MUD BOG TIME! At 4:30 was the popular mud bog.


Splat’s son Peter competed!



Ridemonkey member J-Dubs won the event and a $500 Thule rack system! Awesome work, J-Dubs! Way to make the monkey proud!





This guy did not win, but sure as hell pleased the crowd!

 
I Are Baboon

I Are Baboon

The Full Dopey
Aug 6, 2001
32,423
9,469
MTB New England
After the mud bug race, the rain came.


The rain didn't last long...maybe 15 minutes. The rain made for a real difficult nighttime scavenger hunt. Splat gets ready...


Lights in the woods.


The scavenger hunt is a great concept but needs to be retooled. Teams of two had to ride into the woods at night and find glowsticks. Find a glowstick and the team wins a prize. It was kind of disorganized and I am guessing half the teams didn’t find sticks (supposedly there were enough sticks so each time would find one). After an hour of slopping around on wet, rooty trails, splat and I quit. I got very frustrated about the whole thing. Kenda came through though and all competitors got something. Me and splat got folding bead Nevagals. :monkeydance:

Apparently there was real nasty storm that ripped through Saturday night. I dunno…I slept through the whole thing. (hooray beer! :D ) Ez Ups got flipped, tents got destroyed, and the trails got turned into a mess. MBC and I decided we’d had enough and decided to pack up and head home.

BigT, Quo Fan, Splat, and Mrs Splat grabbed road bikes to demo and went out for a ride.


Splat demoed an $11,000 carbon fiber Storck. :eek: Damn was that thing light!


Here’s a picture of our haul. Some was purchased (at fantastic prices), some was free. Socks, shorts, tires, a bib, jerseys, bars, gels, hats, stickers, water bottles.


We had a fantastic time and the company certainly helped make it better. Thanks to all our monkey friends who make these things so much fun. :)

Monkeyfest in less than a week….
 
MtnBikerChk

MtnBikerChk

Squeaky Wheel
Aug 3, 2001
5,478
38
Southern New England (where there ain't no TITUS d
I had an awesome time!

AND I LOVED THAT PIVOT!! Seriously - bike aside... the Pivot rep, Jason spent 10 minutes with each person setting the sag and the seat height etc. The Fuji guys were great too and even let my cousin demo one of their personal bikes! The Felt guys went out of their way too and cut down a seat post for me :) Trek, Titus and Rocky Mountain need to reschool on customer service :rant:

ANYWAY....Thanks to EVERYONE!

Splat for always having a smile and leading great rides.
Quo Fan for carrying all the tools we could ever need
Big T & Maggie for making Sharon feeling so welcome and going on the beginner rides with her
Brian and Sharon for coming out this year and riding with us (next year the WHOLE weekend)
TreeSaw for the saddle and GOODIE BAG!
Sq-Earl for dragging his 575 for Rachel to demo
My cousin and husband for everything they do for us!
IAB for buying me tires, a jersey, a sweatshirt and LOTS of socks!

And Dan for being the best light maker on the planet and one cool guitar player!

363 days til next year!
 
Last edited:
maddog17

maddog17

Turbo Monkey
Jan 20, 2008
2,817
106
Methuen, Mass. U.S.A.
looks like you all had a great time, rode some kick ass bikes and got some nice kick ass schwag! i've never been to a Pedro's fest/Kenda fest. looks like i'll have to go next year.
 
splat

splat

Nam I am
Apr 27, 2002
14,751
318
Well Maybe Windows is Bearable ! Unix Rules !
Well I have lots of Pics to post . I use 2 differnt cameras , m t DSLR around camp, and my P&S on the trail


let start with the DSLR

First we would meet upo with IAB , MBC And dan-o-lite dan at Jon Harvards, an Interesting License plate my Wife spotted



We sat down and IAB order him self a drink



after dinner My wife and Kids took a run down the alpine slide



any way as IAB said we stayed local and then got in line , I swear we only left 5 minuts after IAB and MBC< that is them turning in



IAB and MBC staking out our camp



didn't take long for my Son to Jump something



IAB gets some Moots Scwag



Splat and IAB discovers Dirt Rags Keg :)



and we found Miss Tree saw ..



My Kids had a boat loads of fun on hte EMS climbing wall



Hula Hoop Time IAB




Earl did a good job too



All our Bikes locked up



a Hippie Mobile



IAB with his Fuji Outland



Ranbdom Rider on hte Kenda wall



who says you can't jump a 29er



My Son In the Mud Bog race



Jdubs in the mudbog race



Marla Streb autographing my Wife's Jersey ( wicked cool woman , more about her later )



The storm that came through saturday Night , wow ! what a storm that was , quite a few eZ ups died , including Fuji's and Terry's




Brian Showing that the strock wassoo Light you could lift it with 1 finger ! It wasstupid light something like 13 pounds



My daughter doingthe Bike limbo, She got more comments aobut the softride , a couple of people took pics because as they put it , they had never seen o a live one.



and finally for now The Nemba Hobbit workingthe Limbo also
 
TreeSaw

TreeSaw

Mama Monkey
Oct 30, 2003
17,670
1,855
Dancin' over rocks n' roots!
Woot!!! What a great weekend! I really had the time of my life. Marla Streb came to stay with us for a couple of days between the Mt. Snow Nationals and Kendafest and we had a good time working on her computer, rippin' our local trails (caught in the middle of a big T-storm), downing some beers at a local pub and even harassing the local who locked his lock to the fence but not his bike (yes, we took his cruiser up & down the street for the rest of the crew to watch).

Friday, we headed to Kendafest to set-up camp and met the monkeys who graciously took Marla out for a night ride ;)

Saturday, Sq-Earl & I spent the day at Jiminy Peak DHing with Marla. Then we were treated to runs down the Mountain Coaster (no brakes all the way baby) and the Alpine Slide (ok...after nearly flipping in the first big banked corner, Marla & I decided we needed some brakes). Then we returned to the festival for a brief autograph session, cake to celebrate Alison's birthday and some beverages to get us ready for the scavenger hunt. Sunday we had another clinic & ride (XC this time) and then it was pack up the camp, load up some Clif Bar treats for Monkeyfest and try to get home between all the rain drops.

Once I got home, I had to clean Marla's bike and start packaging it up for it's return trip home with UPS.

Good times for sure!
 
splat

splat

Nam I am
Apr 27, 2002
14,751
318
Well Maybe Windows is Bearable ! Unix Rules !
Ok here are some of the pictures from my P&S

a Baboon with a Demo Bike



Quo_fan With Broken Demo Bike



IAB over a Play toy



Quo_fan over some logs



My Wife JRA



Rachel and MBC through the river



Night ride ,IAB walks this tricky Log



QUo_fan rides said Log



well as we were leaving the woods, rachel , MBC wer coming into the woods brining Marla Streb with them. well all she had was her bike and what she was wearing , so she rode her tennis shoes ( no Cleats on Spd Pedals ) , sweat pants , etc ,etc. she didn't have a Light so being the gentleman that IAB is he let her borrow his Bar light.

and here is IAB fondling Marla's Handle bars, and I would have some fun leading hte Ladies ( and Woods Guy ) around the woods.



MBC cruising through the woods



I tried to open a gap to get a picture of Marla riding , but she is fast, no way that was going to happend :) but she was wicked cool to ride with

but I did get her at a Stop while we waited for the others to catch up




on to the next day , potato field road

Quo_fan



Rachel and woodsguy



Randee and Rachel



Quo_fan




IAB on the tough turn of Lower ZZ bottom



Mr and Mrs baboon




Woodsguy



Next demo Bike IAB's has a 29er racer x



My Moots



Kieth on Nads -- That was a Hard hard Trail!!!



Quo_fan , showing how fast his CF Scott was that it left him behind



Road ride

The ladies Making a Left turn after a 6 mile downhill



Patriotic Cows



Hi Quo !



Quo_fan showing off those sprinters legs

 
woodsguy

woodsguy

gets infinity MPG
Mar 18, 2007
1,083
1
Sutton, MA
I had a great time at the festival (even tho I had to leave early). It was really well run this year. The trails around the venue were pretty darn good (they would have been great if not for the heavy rains during the week).

Here is my gps info for the night ride. Hearing the band the whole time was really cool.

Here is my gps info for the Saturday ride.

Here is my slideshow.

Here are all my pics. Below is a sampling.

 
Last edited:
MountainDrew

MountainDrew

Monkey
Aug 15, 2007
471
0
It was nice meeting all you guys and gals up there. Wish I would have come over your way to hang out or tag on for a ride. There is always next year! The fest was a blast though, had a lot of fun!
 
J-Dubs

J-Dubs

Monkey
Jul 10, 2006
700
1
Salem, MA
"The Champ Is Here"

Thanks for the crowd support, it was great to meet those of you that I did. Albeit briefly.

All said and done, my winnings ended up being over a grand. Those Thule guys were quite generous.

Now I have a title to defend.
 
TreeSaw

TreeSaw

Mama Monkey
Oct 30, 2003
17,670
1,855
Dancin' over rocks n' roots!
J-Dubs said:
"The Champ Is Here"

Thanks for the crowd support, it was great to meet those of you that I did. Albeit briefly.

All said and done, my winnings ended up being over a grand. Those Thule guys were quite generous.

Now I have a title to defend.
Click to expand...
ratulations...I am sorry to have missed the victory run. The Thule guys were definitely generous throughout the whole weekend.
 
I Are Baboon

I Are Baboon

The Full Dopey
Aug 6, 2001
32,423
9,469
MTB New England
So, Dan was basically offering a 20% discount for festival goers and you low-balled him even further? :brow: :huh: And waiting until sunday afternoon probably wasn't too smart since half the vendors had packed up and left early. But, that's neither here nor there...

Dan mentioned someone stopping by Friday and showing interest in four lights, but the person never came back. Not sure if that was you or not.

Knowing Dan, I am sure there is more to this.
 
I Are Baboon

I Are Baboon

The Full Dopey
Aug 6, 2001
32,423
9,469
MTB New England
Hey, has anyone tried using that nifty little Pedro's VIP card they were handing out? I just registered a card online because I need a new pump, and their best pump sells for $35 with the card...normally $55. That's a savings of...like...a hundred dollars or so.
 
G

GetGoneRidin

Chimp
Sep 19, 2007
15
0
hey i was wonderin if anybody knows who the photographer is that was taking photos at jiminy during the festival. i passed him a few times on the trail. he was on the b and the c trails. let me know thanx. otherwise the festival kicked ass. OLDE ENGLISH ROCKS THE CASBA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom