Spring

What great Spring weather! I just came in from outside and my hands are so fozen it's hard to type! Oh well, as long as the desert has good weather next week, I'll be fine. Seems like everytime this year, it's nice to escape from the daily routine and the just-past-winter doldrums into a fresher, warmer atmosphere. Fresher not in the sense of better, more along the lines of "ahead." That's one of the reasons I like Fruita this time of year. Seems like they're just a little ahead of us with weather and Spring blossoms and all of those nice smells and sights associated with Spring. I am a bit apprehensive about going, though, as I haven't ridden my bike in 2 weeks. Alas, the life of a shop owner!

Tonight was a fun night at the shop. All of the tune-ups, upgrades, and repairs have already been made for the week so I finally had some time to spend on the shop itself. It felt like things were getting more cluttered all the time. Fairly easy given the massive square footage, I know. Anyway, I received a bunch of cool inventory tonight and somewhat re-merchandised the shop.

Among some of the cool things I got in this week were a Gravity Dropper seatpost, Answer Pro Taper Carbon bar, a complete build kit for Scott's bike, the new 29" WTB Epic Wolf tires and a smattering of Latitude 40's maps. Those are the best maps in the business when it comes to Colorado. Latitude 40 doesn' just make maps, they are works of art.

Speaking of art, the town of Lyons wants me to remove the bike from the roof. Here's the rub, though: You need a sign permit to put up a sign. "Art" is specifically exempt from permit requirements. There are other types of signs exempt from permit as well. Regardless of permit requirements, Town code specifically states that "no sign" must be mounted above the roofline of the building. It says nothing about art. Therefore, if no sign permit is required to display art, and art is not a sign, the bike on the roof stays. I'll keep you posted.

And speaking of bikes, we've got a handful of GTs and Schwinn's in now. I even brought down my own new PeaPicker for display.

There are lots of things going on with the shop right now. So much that I'll have to write more later. Until then...

Desert Dessert

So, it's time for Redstone to officially kick off the season. Spring is here and what better way to roll in the ridin' season than a trip to the western slope deserts of Colorado. I have been looking forward to this trip for a long time. The Redstone Crew will be meeting up with the gang from Monkey Wrench Cycles in Lincoln, NE for a hell of a good time frolicking on Fruita's superb singletrack. It will be a motley crew of racers, ex racers and homeboys that live to ride, have a great bike ethic.

The plan is to leave Thursday after 5 to drive to our campspot. We'll ride all day Friday, camp, ride all day Sunday, camp, ride 1/2 day Sunday and drive home.

If you're interested, shoot me an email at dave@redstonecyclery.com for more details.

the fun awaits.

Thursday Night Ride, 3/24

Let's meet up at 6:45pm at the shop. It's likely that we'll head to the Eagle Trail trailhead just east of 36 on Neva Road.

Tuesday night rides start at the shop on April 5, just after Daylight Savings!

Dirt is Good! 

Full Moon Ride next Thursday

Looks like the moon will be full next week. Is anyone up for a full moon ride on Thursday night? Last full moon, I rode from Neva Road, all the way around the Res, and into Boulder on the Foothills trail without lights. Hopefully, next week will be another bright one.

Saturday Evening Post

Today was a good day. Temps were trying to break into the 60s at times, the sun came out a bit, and lots of folks were out on their bikes. Hall Ranch is even drying out. Sounds good to me.

The shop was busy, too. Service was rocking today and I sold a bike, too. To top all of that off, we finally got the sign mounted. You know, the big, 200# rock sign. Whew. Debaser came up to help out with that. It wasn't as big of an undertaking as I originally estimated, but it was a fair size time consumer. Hmmm. Come to think of it, the project was a fair size beer consumer as well! Anyway, the shop is looking top notch finally, but we still have a ways to go.

new bikes!

This has been a good week for Redstone. Come on by and check out the new bikes. We've got a silver Turner 5 Spot frame hanging up and we just got in some Schwinns and GTs.

I got the GT ID XC4.0 and the Schwinn Cruiser SS built tonight. Building the Cruiser SS was a good feeling. Having been an ex Schwinn employee, it felt like a homecoming of sorts. I know a lot of folks have mixed emotions about the Schwinn brand now (I do, too), but having spent so much time with Schwinn in the past, it just felt good.

Then there's the GT. This is the first ID XC I've seen outside of a trade show format. I have to say that I am really impressed. For only $1000, it's a really nicely spec'd full suspension bike. About the only thing missing are disc brakes, but hey, it's only $1k. It's not 100% done yet, but I'm eager to give it the ol' parking lot test. I really like the new I Drive design over past versions. It's much cleaner looking and lighter, too.

Hopefully by this weekend I'll have the other bikes built.

Tonights Town Hall Meeting on Hall/Heil Ranch

Tonight was the big town hall meeting about Lyons connecting to Hall Ranch and to Heil Ranch. Originally, this was intended to be a pretty low key event between Boulder County and some folks around town, but the crowd ended up being over 100 people. If you've ever been to Lyons Town Hall, you know that building was waaaay over capacity!

Anyway, this was the first meeting of hopefully several more. We (the mtb community) walked away from the meeting with hopes of working positively with Boulder County in the near future. Boulder County has 2 brand new and one pretty new Commissioners. That's the position in the drivers seat with regard to County Open Space. In the past, the Commissioners have contiunally favored preservation over recreation to a fault. Despite the fact that the counties residents have clammored for more outdoor recreation, the County has roped it off from the people.

Tonight could mark a turning point. Boulder County came to Lyons to present folks the idea of a trail going from Lyons to Hall Ranch and a trail going from Lyons to Heil Ranch. Most of the folks there were very opinionated and some groups (the local NIMBYS) were coordinated and well represented. Lots of bikers were present as well. It was mostly an informative session and nothing "real" came of it.

Perhaps the best thing, though, is that Boulder County officials realized that they were overwhelmed with folks sick of the County not listening to it's constituents. Hopefully, this will lead to a more progressive era in County politicking with regards to land management and recreation. I've got my fingers crossed.

we've been riding...

Time flies - I can't believe it's been over a week since I last posted an update. I was looking at the page and I think it needs some more pictures. Here's some pics from our last few rides. We've been riding Left Hand Canyon lately. It's super steep, very technical and most importantly, it's dry! Enjoy the pics. Also, keep Tuesday evenings open. Group rides will start soon at 6pm from the shop!

Enjoy the pics!

migz and bg climbing a faint singletrack


bg rockin' the ONLY smooth section of singletrack on the entire downhill.


smooth,LHC style


the views aren't half bad either. don't fall...

Thursday night ride

We're riding this Thursday, 3/3. Wow, hard to believe it's March already... Anyway, we meet up at the shop at 7:30pm and decide where to ride from there. Last week, I was solo, so I headed down to the reservoir for some full moon cruising. The moonlight was so bright, I didn't even use my light for half of the ride. Not the case this week, but we'll ride something fun anyhow. Hope to see some of you there!