5 Spot Love

Today was a great day for a ride. I was able to get out early to beat the weather. It was a beautiful morning.




I got out on the 5 Spot today. I'd been spending most of my time on the Flux lately so I thought it'd be good time for a change. It's a tad heavier than the Flux but that extra inch and the relaxed geometry are oh, so nice! Especially in the rocky stuff

If a bear's natural habitat is a Studebaker, what's the natural habitat for the 5 Spot?

I hope everyone was able to get out for a great ride today, too.

On a somewhate related note, the Lyons BBQ guy that sells fine dining out of his moble kitchen just set up shop across the street from me. It's a bad thing - I've already given him way too much money! Great stuff, check him out next time you're in Lyons. On the approach to the singletrack, I got hungry for some barbeque.

Great Tuesday Night Ride!  

Friday!

Another fantastic work week down the tubes, eh. Where do I start.

Well, most importantly, after cracking my helmet earlier this week, I finally got my new one today. Zoe and I went for a little bike ride after work and I tested out the new shell. Man, oh man, that has got to be the most comfortable helmet I've ever worn. It's a LAS Kripton. The fit system seems to be way beyond what Bell and Giro are doing. Plus, it's got a coolmax liner and bug netting. Very nice. I'm now a big fan of LAS helmets! I'll give the longer term review in a few days provided I don't manage to break it before then!

In other news, I recently got the latest update from the Forest Service on the Left Hand Canyon management plan. They are getting ready to roll this thing into action! What they are proposing is way too long to mention here, but here's the basic skinny:
*close Carnage Canyon to all
*open potential new 4WD rock crawler routes
*build one (yes only one) new singletrack trail that short and not a logical connector
*limit the area to day use with the specific exception of night riding (our only real victory)
*close off all the little spur singletracks in the area

If this plan gets finalized, I'd have to say that we didn't get much. In fact, I'd argue that we, as a mountain bike population, lost out on all of our opportunity. Not to say we didn't show, but it is definitely an OHV area and they need their place to play. Never hurts to ask, though, huh? Anyway,the process isn't over yet! I'll have more info up on the Redstone LHC OHV page soon.

One more thing! Save May 14 on your calendars for what promises to be a fantastic movie night at the Boulder Theater:
"hard-won victories, agonizing defeats and desperate attempts to gain coveted points were captured on film in "Off Road to Athens," a documentary about eight athletes - four women and four men - and their aspirations to become Olympians

May 14 (2 shows) Boulder, CO Boulder Theater $10 adv. $12 door"

yep. Racin'.

That's about all I've got to report today. Did I mention that the first batch of stickers are in? They're sweet, come on and get yours!

So the Tuesday Night Ride was fun. Well, at least most of it. We rode the tour de Hall. The crew was 4 strong. We climbed up the main trail, looped Nelson, then back to Hwy 7. Everything was fine except for one part. That would be the part where I sampled the dirt. You know, augered head first into the earth. We were descending from the loop. We'd just passed the rocky section with the tight right handers and just past the Prarie Dog Sign on the right side of the trail. 3 jumps right in a row. 1 jump fine, 2 jump fine, 3 jump, land on a gravelly off camber with my wheel cocked-not fine. I tried to ride it out but I could not correct my error. The front wheel slid on the sandy off camber and I augered head first into the dirt at full speed. Add to that the fact that there was a field of cactus just before where I laid. When I got up, I thought, "hmmm, good thing I didn't land in that cactus." As the adrenaline wore off, I felt a twitch in my left arm. I looked down and found that my arm, jacket, and glove were full of cactus needles.

It was an expensive fall. Not only did I break my helmet, I broke my sunglasses, too! As I type this, I still have (3) 1/8" needles stuck somewhere inside of my hand. They're buried so deep that I've tried to forget them. Hopefully, they will emerge someday!

Anway, thanks to Kirk, Jamie, and Chad for rolling with the 'stone. I had a great time and look forward to continuing the tradition next Tuesday!

what a week!

Wow what a week. Real Spring weather early in the week, followed up by real Spring weather at the weeks end. Last Tuesday was the first shop ride of the year. We had a couple of riders and conditions were fantastic. Later in the week, I was lucky enough to squeak out for a recon snow ride. I took to the high hills and was quite surprised at what I found:

There was still a bit of snow, but less than I had suspected:


good views, too:


Then we got some moisture. That's ok. I was still able to get a quick ride in. Come on out and ride Tuesday at 6. Conditions will be great!

mmm fruita

Fruita was good. Check back - I'll have more pics up in a bit. For now, though, here's a couple of my favorite pics:

Pablo dropping into Horsethief Bench. Yep, he rode it


Mic on the moto trail that took us to heaven


We all know that Matty likes to jump

Yep, the desert was good. Our main blogger powering out of a corner on the Western Rim.