Andes DH

Imagine a road that starts out at 10,000 feet above sea level, and in 22 km reaches the great flat grassland of Argentina.
365 curves, dirt road, cut stone surface mixed with dry earth, open vistas, and basically endless descents.
22 km is a very relative term. It felt like we were going down all morning. Which, with the numerous photo stops, might be true.
We had vehicle support and at the bottom, rewarded ourselves with a grand country meal and the house wine.

We started at our home base in Uspallata Hostel (10k out of Uspallata "centro"), packed the bikes on the rear rack, one wheel had to go inside to fit the Samurai, and up to the watershed. We reached Cruz de Paramillos, where the view takes in the Aconcagua mountain to the west, and the Pampas on the east.
Big sky is nothing, this is a view that seems to stretch out to the end of the world.

Keery from NZ was driving support, and she had a grand old time too.
Our bikes were:
Francisco on a aluminum framed, Deore and LX equipped bike, with Maxxis Larsen tires, Deore V Brakes, and a Suntour fork (which has to be fixed...didn't work) with handlebar lockout.
Olivia was on Cristobal Sotomayor's Cannondale Raven carbon fiber freeride. With XTR, Hayes discs, Manitou double crown fork.
We had to swap a 2.3 Tioga downhill tire on the front, since on the drive to Argentina, the rack wore through the Michelin tire (headache). Lucky we had spares!
I was on my Trek 6500, with XT, Deore, Shimano hyrdaulic discs, Marzocchi Bomber 100mm fork, and Bontrager tires.
All the bikes behaved well, though the lack of discs did make for some sore fingers for Francisco. Maybe the fork not doing its job helped increase the pain.

Discs really come into their own on these rides, the effort is much lighter, and modulation and control are easier to maintain since your mitt is not simply trying to squeeze with all its might.
and temperature wise, it is always good to keep the heat off the rims.