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Interbike is the world’s largest bike show, where the best companies in the industry come to show off their next model year line-ups, as well as pre-production prototypes. Staged in fabulous Las Vegas, it’s not only right next door to the ripping trails of mountain bike specific Bootleg Canyon, but it’s an easy 2-hour drive from Zion National Park and Gooseberry Mesa in SW Utah, one of the world’s true premier MTB destinations. Put that together with exclusive access to an entire fleet of the hottest Intense production and prototype models, behind-the-scenes access to founder/design guru
Jeff Steber and the crew from Intense Cycles, and the first class “white glove” service of Hermosa Tours, and you get the “Intense Owners Fantasy Camp 2008”.
Your all-inclusive camp experience includes 5 nights lodging, 4 full days of riding and an optional shorter ride on your arrival day, as well as all your meals prepared by our expert staff or in restaurant settings. All ground transport including airport transfers is provided in our air-conditioned custom off-road MTB vans. Sports massage, mechanical support, and numerous other luxuries are all included. The cornerstones of the camp are the facts that you will be joined by other Intense loyalists. You will have your own ride with you, as well as access to our complete fleet of Intense demos, which include 5.5 FROs, Spider 29ers, and pre-production prototypes you might not even know exist. We’ll have ample access to Jeff Steber, the head of Intense, as well as his staff. And on Wednesday the 24th, you’ll have an entire day at Bootleg Canyon outside of Vegas, where we will have Intense’s entire Interbike Demo Rig all to ourselves. Run sessions on the best trails, trying different models, all tuned to your size and style by Intense’s factory mechanics while you wait.
If you’re thinking “wow, that’s just about everything” you are right, it is. All Hermosa Tours camps and tours are designed to be completely stress free. Turn your brain off, and focus on one thing, “Ride hard, Relax, Repeat.”
Interbike is the world’s largest bike show, where the best companies in the industry come to show off their next model year line-ups, as well as pre-production prototypes. Staged in fabulous Las Vegas, it’s not only right next door to the ripping trails of mountain bike specific Bootleg Canyon, but it’s an easy 2-hour drive from Zion National Park and Gooseberry Mesa in SW Utah, one of the world’s true premier MTB destinations. Put that together with exclusive access to an entire fleet of the hottest Intense production and prototype models, behind-the-scenes access to founder/design guru
Jeff Steber and the crew from Intense Cycles, and the first class “white glove” service of Hermosa Tours, and you get the “Intense Owners Fantasy Camp 2008”.
Your all-inclusive camp experience includes 5 nights lodging, 4 full days of riding and an optional shorter ride on your arrival day, as well as all your meals prepared by our expert staff or in restaurant settings. All ground transport including airport transfers is provided in our air-conditioned custom off-road MTB vans. Sports massage, mechanical support, and numerous other luxuries are all included. The cornerstones of the camp are the facts that you will be joined by other Intense loyalists. You will have your own ride with you, as well as access to our complete fleet of Intense demos, which include 5.5 FROs, Spider 29ers, and pre-production prototypes you might not even know exist. We’ll have ample access to Jeff Steber, the head of Intense, as well as his staff. And on Wednesday the 24th, you’ll have an entire day at Bootleg Canyon outside of Vegas, where we will have Intense’s entire Interbike Demo Rig all to ourselves. Run sessions on the best trails, trying different models, all tuned to your size and style by Intense’s factory mechanics while you wait.
If you’re thinking “wow, that’s just about everything” you are right, it is. All Hermosa Tours camps and tours are designed to be completely stress free. Turn your brain off, and focus on one thing, “Ride hard, Relax, Repeat.”
Here is an overview of what you can expect:
• Saturday September 20th: You arrive at Las Vegas’ McCarren International Airport at during the morning or early afternoon. Our expert guides are waiting to greet you at the gate, handle your bike/luggage, and shuttle you in our air-conditioned custom cycling vans. Those arriving earlier in the day have the option to explore Las Vegas on their own, or join us at our team trailer stationed at famous Red Rock Canyon where we can build and tune your bike, eat a BBQ lunch, and take a short ride in the canyon trail system to loosen your legs. By late afternoon, everyone is together and ready to depart along the desert highway for the short drive to Zion. Our destination in Zion is the Cliffrose Lodge, an amazing riverside oasis at the mouth of Zion National Park. We will call this home for the next 3 nights. Pool and Jacuzzi, riverside beach and firepits, amazing botanical gardens, and private rooms with wireless internet and HD flat panel TVs are just some of the offerings of this paradise.
• Sunday, Monday, & Tuesday September 21-23rd: For 3 full days, we’ll do nothing but ride the amazing singletrack of Zion and Gooseberry, while kicking back during our downtime in and around our base camp at Cliffrose. Each day will offer gourmet meals, full-day trail riding guided by our expert staff, and when not riding, relaxation in the pool and hot tub, on the lawns and gardens, and even sports massage. Sunday’s rides will include the singletrack offerings of the Prospector Trail, the slickrock playgrounds of The Church Rocks Loop, and multiple shuttle-facilitated runs of the Bearclaw Poppy Trail descent. Monday sees us transitioning to the Zion high country and the Virgin River Rim Trail within the Dixie National Forest, and finishing the day with a ride in the Pink Cliffs. Eroded from limestone, iron in the rock rusts to create an artists pallet of brilliant colors in countless rock formations. Tuesday brings arguably the crown jewel of the trip, Gooseberry Mesa. With its technical slickrock and great singletrack will challenge you. And, while the riding is incredible, be sure to keep your wits about you – the cliff edge views are unbelievable and vying for your attention. Long views of stone monuments and Zion Canyons abound, and we finish the day riding Gooseberry Point and the erratic overhead pattern of the Virgin River, as well as pine-laden vistas of the Pine Valley Mountains Wilderness. On Tuesday afternoon, we’ll pack up Base Camp and make the transition back to Las Vegas where a top-notch hotel on the strip and a private dinner with Jeff Steber and the Intense crew is waiting.
• Wednesday September 24th: After the amazing riding out in SW Utah, and getting all the inside dish on Intense’s latest bikes at dinner last night, you probably have one thing on your mind. Getting your hands on some of those bikes. Good thing Jeff has agreed to grant us a full day of private riding out at Bootleg Canyon with his entire Interbike demo trailer and factory wrenches. You see, one of the biggest components of Interbike is the Outdoor Demo on Monday and Tuesday. Only problem is, those days are crowded, real crowded. Hundreds, if not thousands of dealers, journalists, and other industry insiders wait in long lines (sometimes hours-long) to get a quick spin on the latest frames and components. But on Wednesday, when they’re long gone, we get the whole deal to ourselves. 5.5 FROs, Spider and 5.5 29ers, 6.6 and Slopestyles, and even Jeff’s yet-to-be named new 5/6 inch trailbike prototype. You’ll get to ride it all and compare with your own dream Intense Ride, while enjoying sizing and shock set-up specific to your needs and cold drinks and a bounty of great food at your leisure back at the trailer. This is our last full day together and we’ll close it out with a quick sneak peak into the closed Interbike showroom and a group dinner on the strip.
Thursday September 25th: We’ll help you get packed, break down your bike, and get you back to the airport in time for your flight. If you have time, you may even be able to grab another sneak peak into the Interbike showroom and say thanks to Jeff and the entire Intense crew for an amazing week.
The mountain biking in and around Southern California is world class. Intense, Crank Brothers, Manitou, Oakley, Mountain Bike Action Magazine…there’s a reason so many top cycling industry names call SoCal home. Read any major US cycling publication and chances are many of the gear tests and photographic spreads were shot right on the very trails we’ll be riding. Only here can you feel like you’re in the backcountry, but be so close to a major city and the sandy shores of the Pacific Ocean. These amazing trails and blend of mountain and ocean landscape, together with an exclusive behind-the-scenes tour of the Intense Cycles factory in Temecula, California, a guided ride with Intense founder/design guru Jeff Steber on his favorite local trails, and the first class “white glove” service of Hermosa Tours, and you get the “Intense Owners Fantasy Camp 2008”.
Your all-inclusive camp experience includes 6 nights lodging in both oceanfront and mountain settings, 5 full days of riding and an optional shorter ride on your arrival day, as well as all your meals prepared by our expert staff or in restaurant settings. All ground transport including airport transfers is provided in our air-conditioned custom off-road MTB vans. Sports massage, mechanical support, and numerous other luxuries are all included. The cornerstones of the camp are the facts that you will be joined by other Intense loyalists. You will have your own ride with you, as well as access to our complete fleet of Intense demos, which include 5.5 FROs, Spider 29ers, and pre-production prototypes you might not even know exist. We’ll have ample access to Jeff Steber, the head of Intense, as well as his staff. You’ll ride the bikes, with the guys who make ‘em, on the trails they ride and test on.
If you’re thinking “wow, that’s just about everything” you are right, it is. All Hermosa Tours camps and tours are designed to be completely stress free. Turn your brain off, and focus on one thing, “Ride hard, Relax, Repeat.”
Here is an overview of what you can expect:
• Sunday November 2nd: You arrive at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) in the morning or early afternoon. Our expert guides are waiting to greet you at the gate, handle your bike/luggage, and shuttle you in our air-conditioned just a few minutes north to the beachside community of Santa Monica. At our beach hotel, just steps from the sand, you are free to explore on your own, while the staff attends to last minute preparations and takes care of guests arriving throughout the day. Get your bike situated and ride the miles-long beach path, or get last minute supplies at our partner bike shop up the street. In the evening, we’ll get together briefly at the hotel to introduce everyone and make sure you are situated. Tomorrow, we start riding.
• Monday through Friday, November 3rd – 7th: We’ll be riding some of the greatest trails on the entire west coast, starting in the Angeles National Forest and its 5,000 and 6,000 foot San Gabriel peaks lying literally just minutes above the scenery and culture of historic Old Town Pasadena. By day, we’ll session famous trails like El Prieto, The Gab, Mt. Lowe and Sam Merrill trails, Chilao and Silver Moccassin. These trails blend technically challenging rock strewn singletrack and smooth switchbacking descents, with amazing views that can stretch through all of LA to the Pacific Ocean. Climates shift from chapparal forest and high-desert, to full alpine. By night, we’ll relax at a high-end hotel in Old Town, with pool and hot tub access, meals served by our staff or in top local restaurants and brewpubs, and enjoy sports massage, pro mechanic support, and other luxuries. Mid-week, we’ll transition our riding south to the Cleveland National Forest and our Base Camp to the picture-perfect seaside escape of Laguna Beach. Enjoy breakfast each morning in front of the crashing waves of the Pacific, ride all day, and make it back for hot tub time at sunset. Across all our tours, it really doesn’t get much better than this. In the Cleveland NF, our trail selection includes the switchbacking climb up Holy Jim Trail, the rocky descent of Trabuco, and the crown jewel of this trip, San Juan Trail. This SoCal classic climbs 3,500 switchbacking feet. With our vans and a road accessible route to the top, you have the option of climbing, or shuttling to the top, and running the long descent multiple times.
• Intense Factory Tour – Our private tour of Intense Headquarters in Temecula California will happen mid-week. Jeff Steber will take us step by step through his design and fabrication process, while the factory floor is live. From concept to final welding, it all happens right here. You’ll enjoy rack after rack of freshly powdercoated frames, and some of the oddball one-offs that Jeff has created in his endless tweaking and tinkering. Who knows, maybe the next hot frame design will be on the bench, or even your own next bike! After the factory tour in the morning and a nice lunch, Jeff and his staff will lead us on one of their favorite local loops.
Saturday November 8th: After our closing dinner last night, you’ll have plenty of time to pack and get moving, and enjoy a last seaside breakfast, before we shuttle you back north to LAX to catch your departing flight. Refreshed and relaxed, we hope you will have had the time of your life.
Intense Cycles is known for its handcrafted, championship-winning race frames, and is regarded by many as the “Ferrari of the mountain bike industry.” How does a company born in 1992 gather such a prestigious reputation in such a short period of time? Let’s take a quick trip back in time to see how one man’s idea flourished from the kitchen table to UCI podiums.
In 1991, Jeff Steber designed and constructed his first full suspension mountain bike in his garage, and the following year would see new additions to the frame such as CNC machined parts and sealed bearings. Then in 1993, Jeff decided to try his luck and go public with his product at the 1993 Interbike trade show, and his gamble paid off. Jeff sold every frame he had and then some. His success with the short travel frame fueled the passion to construct a downhill specific model, and the unparalleled history of the M-1 was born. The M-1 needed some serious testing and exposure before it went public, so Jeff went to work on rounding up his first factory DH team. Little did he know that his team and its members would become legendary: Randy Lawrence, Mike Metzger, and Shaun Palmer. Palmer brought to the DH racing world an attitude and race style that will never be forgotten, and one that rarely lost races. The spirit of the original DH team set the standard for Intense Factory Racing for years to come, as well as raising the bar for other manufacturers to step up to. It still has yet to be met.
So how does an industry leading company continue to stay on top? The answer is with technology, and it all began with a small company in Canada. Virtual Pivot Point Technology (VPP) was originally introduced in the early 90’s by Outland, a small group of engineers who were cycling enthusiasts. They set out to create the ultimate in suspension efficiency, but when it came to production their frames were under built. Consequently, the frames couldn’t handle the rigors of race-level riding and the company eventually folded. In 2002, Intense partnered with Santa Cruz and brought back a new and improved VPP design. The essence of VPP design is as follows: two linkages work together to move the back end around a point that would be impossible to put a pivot. Pivots are positioned to provide an initial rear moving axle path and at the same time control the shock rate. VPP helps eliminate unwanted and energy-wasting shock compression caused by pedaling by applying some of the pulling force from the chain to counteract the shock motion. The link configuration and axle path means the suspension continues to absorb bumps during pedaling. VPP allows for a much more tunable axle path and thus allows Intense to create optimal performance in all ranges of the travel, while minimizing pedal induced movement and also improving small and large bump feel. The end result is an incredible ride whether you are pedaling up hill or down, hitting small or large bumps, standing or seated. VPP is also special because the design provides the same pedaling efficiency on the 9.5-inch travel M3 as it does on the 4-inch travel Spider. Take one for a ride and you will believe in VPP.
All of Intense Cycles manufacturing efforts are located in Temecula, California, a town that is nestled on the inland side of the coastal mountains in between Los Angeles and San Diego. All of their products are made in house, from the frames to the bolts, and they pride themselves on the fact that each frame is handcrafted and assembled in the USA.
The best mountain biking destinations, and their crown jewel rides. The relaxing comfort of distinct handpicked accommodations and amenities. And zero-hassle personalized white glove service. This is not a bike trip. This is your fantasy mountain bike vacation. Ride hard. Relax. Repeat. This is the experience we deliver.
Service and Comfort
For years the benchmark for guided mountain bike tours has been a day one meeting spot, point to point riding, a supported campsite each night and a final drop off back in town. Hermosa Tours offers something different. We pick you up at the airport and shuttle you to your arrival night lodging included in your cost. After each day’s guided ride you’ll return to a hot shower, some hot tub time, perhaps a massage, definitely a delightful meal and a warm bed. We even provide laundry service midweek. Finally, we THANK our guests with a dinner in town, a final night’s lodging and a shuttle to the airport the next day...all included in your cost.
The Best Rides
Abandoning the camp-to-camp routes gives us (and you more importantly) the luxury of providing the best rides in each of our destinations. It also allows us a lot of flexibility. You finished your ride early today and want a little more? No problem; let’s load up and bite off a little more. Hermosa Tours has scouted our destinations for not only the “classics”, but also the hidden gems that you simply will not find in any guidebook.
Why Guided?
To many, “guided” evokes an image of someone holding your hand through a watered-down experience. That’s not what we’re about. We’re not here to get in the way of, or dictate your experience. It’s about your TIME. Your time is valuable to you. Don’t waste it scouring outdated guidebooks, running two-car shuttles, standing in line at restaurants, searching for a campsite, renting cars or hoping for a good hotel. Step off the plane and worry about the coldness of your beer (we’ll make sure it’s cold) and if your camera is charged.
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