In June professional mountain biker and content creator Brice Shirbach came to Boulder, Colorado to explore the rugged trails off of Lefthand Canyon and make a film, “Sight Unseen“, for Pivot Cycles.
Brice is based in Delaware, and has cut his teeth racing and riding up and down the east coast, starting in XC but quickly realizing that his sensibilities and body type were much better suited for enduro and gravity riding. Having not spent much time riding in Colorado, Brice decided to create a series of films documenting his experience exploring a few trails across the state. To celebrate the release of the beautiful film, Sports Garage sat down with Brice for a Q&A session about the Boulder section, his impressions of Boulder, the trails, and his bike setup.
How did the idea to ride in Boulder for “Sight Unseen” initially come about?
We were talking about trying to identify where would be a good fit for the project, Colorado gets a lot of attention but all my riding out west has been in the Pacific Northwest or Arizona, but I’ve never really ridden in Colorado, except for Fruita. But there are so many parts of the state and trails out here that are held in high regard in the mountain bike community, that I thought this would be a great excuse to get out here and sink my teeth into these places. It was perfect because the idea of the series was to push myself on trails that I’ve never ridden before.
What bike and setup were you riding during “Sight Unseen”?
When we filmed at Lefthand for the Boulder episode, I rode the Trail429 with an “enduro spec” version. I weigh 195-pounds and I occasionally ride the bike above its paygrade, so I definitely needed a spec that was a little beefier than a standard Trail429.
I had the DPX2 shock and I have the Fox 36 elite fork, I prefer it versus the factory one because of the black stanchions. I have an offset headset so its a little slacker than a standard 429 spec. The wheels and tires are Stans Flow EX3 with Maxxis Assegai 2.5 tires. It is a pretty burly setup and I run downhills casings on all my tires. The Assegai’s, for me, are the best tire of all time. You always get the comment about rolling speed, but to me that’s silly, because if I’m on a tire that is faster in a vacuum, but doesn’t brake as well, I’m not going to go as fast on it than I would on a tire that technically rolls slower but that I’m more confident one.
Brice’s Lefthand Trail Setup:
- Pivot Trail429
- Fox Factory 36 Elite (150mm travel)
- Fox Factory DPX2
- Shimano XT 4-piston brakes
- Shimano XT 1X12 drivetrain
- Stans Flow EX3 wheelset
- Maxxis Assegai 2.5 DH casing (front and rear)
- 9point8 Fall Line dropper post
- Deity cockpit and saddle
- Headset off-set for greater rake
Why did you pick Lefthand Canyon as the filming location for the video?
As I was planning logistics for the shoot Lefthand stood out because it looked like it had some cool fall line trails and long descents with a steady gradient without switchbacks, which generally means you can expect high speed. And when I got into town, I came into Sports Garage and had a chat with Jesse Kruzel, who helped me identify the go-to route on the way down.
Driving out of Boulder you turn left on Lefthand canyon drive and you are immediately in a Canyon. Boulder is densely populated and I was a little surprised by that. But as soon as I was 20-minutes outside of town I felt like I was way out of any population center, which was really nice and reassuring.
As soon as we got to the top where I was going to drop in it was absolutely beautiful. You can see the plains, Boulder, and even Denver. It was so pretty and I was immediately very happy that we decided to pick the location. It is tough when you go out and ride these places blind. There is always a little bit of anxiety about if the trail will be good and how we will make it look good if it’s not, but luckily, we didn’t have to worry about that at all. Right away I knew we made the right decision and the two trails we connected for the descent were just amazing. Super fast, fun and really stunning.
What were your first impressions and how did those change as you got more time on the bike?
I thought Boulder would be full of fit people and upscale, and it was. I loved the dedication to open spaces, if you are going to have a population center, Boulder does a great job of how you present yourself and achieve a standard of living for a large collection of people.
As far as the trails, the thing I was most concerned about was traction. I just kept hearing the words “kitty litter” over and over again when hearing about the terrain. In Delaware, summers are very humid and the mountains are very old, so there are tons of organic stuff and the dirt is delicious and amazing.
Lefthand isn’t well-represented with content, some grainy POV footage from first-gen Go-Pro, so I didn’t know what to expect outside of loose, dry dirt. Once I started putting rubber to the dirt, that description was certainly real. The traction is interesting, you are definitely drifting, but once you get comfortable drifting, it gets easier.
Lefthand was definitely chunkier than I’m used to. A lot of the trails on the front range are purpose-built and flowy, but Lefthand is just a bunch of old OHV trails that nature is reclaiming. It was really cool and interesting to see what happens when you take the off-road vehicles off and let nature re-take it. I had such a good time, the loose traction was a lot of fun, and the line of sight was amazing since there isn’t a lot of undergrowth. It was loose over loose and just a whole mess of amazing rock gardens. There were sections where you’d want to take it easy but you aren’t going to make a very dynamic video taking it easy and being measured, so I was trying to keep the fingers off the breaks. There were definitely times where I was a little white knuckled.
There is a stretch with the drone shot showing me on a little ridge going straight on a 10-percent pitch so in theory it is a perfect, no brake grade, but underneath my tires was golf-ball-sized rocks over kitty litter. I remember thinking, “I can’t even pretend to hit the brakes now or it will be a total mess.” It was a lot of fun.
Jesse’s advice was great and he was right, if you let yourself go too fast, it can be quite dangerous. It almost seemed to be the antithesis of the other front range stuff, it tends to be purpose-built and flow, jump centric. To have something that is a little more rugged and not built for MTB is pretty sweet, great to get to film on that.
Did you wish you had picked a bike with more travel?
I think some people underestimate how good short-travel bikes are these days. You’ll see conversations on social media where people think you have to go 150mm travel with a 180mm fork. But as the video shows, the shorter travel bikes are built to get loose on, they are just more efficient. So it was cool to show that even on a 120mm 29er you can really get after it.
The riding around the state really shows the diversity available in the mountains of Colorado. I’m looking forward to my next trip back.