sight for sore eyes

I don't know which was easier on the eyes. Real dirt or the rock garden of Hall Ranch. It was good to get out and revisit both. The front side of Hall is bone dry up to the top bench. After that, once the trail visits the north facing slopes, it is still very sloppy. I turned around before I got into it. Still, despite the short ride, I was on the rigid ss, so I felt pretty worked.

Apparently, I didn't hurt enough after climbing and descending the rock garden with one gear, so I went looking for more pain. A visit to Heil Valley Ranch was just the ticket. I had good beta that the trail was 100% rideable, so I took off early, early in the morning to get 'er done. It was terrific. I was the only person at the park this morning. Zero cars in the lot when I arrived and zero cars in the lot when I left. I saw no one. The 29er SS On One Inbred was perfect. Heil was suprisingly single-able on a 32x18 gear. I did have one dab, but that's mostly because I was a little tired and my aim was off :). Not like all the walking I had to do in the rock garden...

To say that Heil is dried out for the season would be an overstatement, though. It's 100% rideable, but part of that includes riding over some hella snow drifts that are now firm, glaciated ice/snow. Once it warms up a bit more, it's going to be muddy. Enjoy it when it's good!

Sooo, Tuesday ride at Boulder Valley Ranch? Locals meet up at the shop at 6:30 so we can be at the Neva Rd trailhead by 7?

a good day

The snow has not melted but I gotta say it was a good day, I was on the bike.

H. P. D.

High...

Plains...

Drifter...

You know he is a drifter!

New trail at Marsall Mesa is good.

GT Peace9r

Redstone got a batch of the GT Peace9r's in yesterday, happily mine was one of them. I got that baby together quickly to join Chris for my first Single Speed & 29" ride at hall ranch, my first ride there in too long. I gotta say, for the price this bike has already earned it's worth in smiles. Chris & I rode to the bench before we ran into some mud & decided to turn back for the trails sake. I was pretty stoked to ride the Peace9r through most sections on the way up, the thing rolls really well. Again on the way down the ride really impressed me as Chris & I ripped our way back to Lyons, both happy to be getting time on the dirt. I'm a 29 believer. As a matter of fact, I was so stoked I stopped home to huck down a piece of pizza before heading to Redstone to catch the crew at Boulder Valler Ranch for round 2. Single speeds where the call of the day & a good sized group all headed out in search of dirt. It was a great day & good times, can you say gateway drug.?.? More details to come.

Peace9r,

cm

Thursday Special, 2/22

Thursday Special - Dirty Dog brake rotors. Available in 160, 185, and 203mm. All kinds of different flavors. Check them out at www.dirtydogmtb.com. $60 for 160mm, $70 for 185, and $75 for 203mm. Get some extra style points with these. Email dave@redstonecyclery.com to be part of the brake rotor style revolution.

Hey, great ride tonight, too. The Boulder Valley Ranch trails were totally dry except for a few small spots here and there. Perfect for singlespeeds. See you all out there next week!

Wednesday Ride!

Is that a Burrito in your hand or are you just happy to see me?

I'm just happy to ride on dirt! Reports are that Boulder Valley Ranch is finally dry so be there or... well, just be there. We're meeting up at the shop at 6:30pm wed to caravan down there. I imagine we'll be at the Neva Rd trailhead around 7pm. Singlespeeds will be the weapons of choice for most, methinks. Doesn't matter, though. Just bring what you brung and come ride some dirt!

And in other news - fantastic news from Boulder County Open Space today! Since the Town of Lyons estimates it will be April of 2008 before they figure out what to do with a trailhead at Bohn park, Open Space has decided to open the connector trail from Heil Ranch to Red Gulch Rd before Town of Lyons get's the trailhead built. That is the best news I've heard in a while. Now, we'll get the Wild Turkey trail done at Heil, then it's full speed ahead north to Lyons!

Howdy, time for the weekend update. For starters, Chad and Chris came over to the shop Sat afternoon around 4. We donned the lamps and rolled out to the cowboy (aka True Grit) and headed south on dirt. Having lamps helped us to keep going way after dark. We ended up turning around when Chad got a flat and we got cold standing around waiting for him. Yep. And we also managed to survive eminent doom and other unspeakable harm despite the fact that we were on the Certain Death trail in the dark with lights off. And 36 in the dark on the shoulder with lights. That was, um, fun. Surreal for sure.

I got out on the cross bike again today. There's still a lot of snow on Old South. And Hall Ranch? I rode thru the parking lot today around 10am. Don't even think about riding there. It's a muddy mess.

Not far out of town I decided to take a break on the St Vrain. Looking down on the water was awesome. It's good to see it so clear right now. I can't wait for the runoff to come full swing to muddy up the scene.

Twas a good ride today. I even had the opportunity to take off my earwarmer/headband today. Spring must be on the way!

Oh, and today was a beautiful day of another type. Lewis's bike turned out great!

And if you've read down this far... The Tuesday ride this week will be on Wednesday. Let's meet up late and pray that something has dried out. 6:30p on Wed?

steamboat dual slalom bike race

I was in Steamboat skiing last weekend on a family vacation. The snow was crusty and icy and not a lot of fun. Luckily the Winter Fest was going on that week. I went out to dinner with the family, drank a few beers (sorry dopers suck), and headed back to the condo. Everyone was pretty tired and wanted to just chill out. I wanted to go out and hit the town and check out some of the events.

The Winter Fest has been going on in town for 95 years and still going strong. They have a high school band that plays with cross country skis on, horses towing skiers down the street, and other weird stuff. The best events are going on at Howlson Hill, a small resort right in town with a vert of about 1000'. The biggest event is the ski jumping. This is not the terrain park stuff, I mean the long distance stuff ( the record is 330').

I managed to miss all the jumping events and did not want to miss the next event. This was the dual slalom snow bike race. This was happening right after dinner when the tired family wanted to just hang out. I couldn't stay cooped up while this was going on and decided to try and convince somebody to walk to the race with me. I got no takers and left the condo by myself. I brought 3 cans of Dales and an Ipod. I was walking to the race jamming to some killer old school Public Enemy and Rage Against the Machine when the course came into view. They had the lights on and people were screaming for the racers. The course had about 12 gates and two jumps. Riders were falling all over the place, on about every other turn, and I thought this would be a good race to show up to and easily win. After about 1/2 hour of watching I noticed the skill level was improving. I saw two racers going head to head battling it out when one falls down. The other rider saw this and decided to showboat across the finish line. He stood up on his bike with one foot on the seat and one on the bars, and raised his hands in victory reaching to the sky. This is all while riding on the snow. This got the crowd going. Definitely a great event to go see. I forgot to bring my camera, so the photos here were taken with my phone. These are the only ones that came out. The first is of a tire one of the racers was using. It had 2" screws sticking out every inch. The other photo is of the winner, I never did get his name.

Thursday Special 2/15

Happy post Valentine's. How does 185mm sound? Avid Juicy 7 Carbon 185mm brake - front or rear, $170 each? Email me dave@redtsonecyclery.com for more juicy info.

Fred's Turner Flux

This '06 Turner Flux turned out to be a real beauty. Size large, 26.75lbs without pedals. Nice. It'll be sad to see it go.

Marco Pantani

Aside from being Valentine's day, today also marks the 3rd anniversary of Marco Pantani's death. For those not familiar with Pantani, he was one of the great Italian road racers of the early 90's, a real animal of a climber, undeniably aggresive, an undersized hothead sort of guy. He had one speed - attack. Responsible for what Lance Armstrong calls "my worst day on a bike, ever" Pantani was always one of my favorites.

Often plagued by depression, Pantani ultimately succombed to his depression in a hotel room in Nice 3 years ago today. His death was labelled an accidental overdose by authorities, but really most people understood it to be suicide, Pantani becoming one of many former Tour De France Champions to eventually take his own life.

Every year on Feb 14th, I like to get out and climb something tall, go needlessly hard, and take a lot of risks on the downhill. This year, despite the 2 inches of ice that fell in Virginia last night, was no exception. A few pictures of Simmons Gap are attached, plus one of Pantani himself. I ran up the 1300 feet of ice while my brother rode. Marco, I hope, would have been pleased.

Ride on, Il Piratae.

Flux teasers

Just a few teaser pics of Fred's new '06 orange anno Turner Flux. It's going to be sweet.

I was lucky enough to get out on the cross bike for a couple of hours Sunday morning. It was a beautiful morning. Temps were in the upper 30s/low 40s and the skies were relatively clear. I made leisurely figure 8 of dirt and paved roads between Lyons and Boulder. I'd have liked to go for longer, but I only made it as far south as Nelson road. All good, though, the dirt roads were extra tacky. This is one of my favorite corners. In the summer, it can be a little hectic with ball bearing gravel underneath 23c tires with 100lbs. Sunday, though, with tacky dirt and 35c knobs, it was perfect. The rare road corners that you can big ring thru carrying all of your momentum.
Later, it took me 20 minutes to get from home to the bike shop. This is photo #1 in a periodic segment I'll do called "Rally Lyons." The construction has a nice, dirt, chicane right in the middle. It's hard to see, but cars in this picture are just making it thru what is a tight left then right section for them. It was pretty fun to hit it at about 30 with no traffic. I was bummed today to see that it had been straightened out.
Tuesday ride anyone? Unless it's uber crappy, I'll be down at the shop at 6:30.

Brainard Lake Ski.

Got up to Brainard Tuesday morning, early. First person up there, it was worth it. Just me, the wind, the snow, and the mountains.

Sheldon Brown

If you don't know who Sheldon Brown is, you should. This man knows bikes like no other and is a genuine character, in general. Peace, Sheldon, and I hope things are going well for you. Good luck with all you've got going on right now.

Tuesday Night Ride

What is the plan fella's? It looks to be a bit wet & muddy to hit off-road, but I'm in to ride the road since the temperature is finally cooperating. Cross bikes, thoughts?

Fellow Wisco homeboy made the trip across the pond for CX World's - congrats Tristan!

Sorry I haven't had a real update in a while. Life has been busy, but good. Last weekend, we escaped the cold Colorado Winter for a trip back to the midwest where a cold Nebraska winter awaited. I wanted to ride, but Mary insisted we fly...

While we were in Omaha, we stopped for a short day at the world renown Henry Doorly Zoo. I've got to say, if you are ever in the area, it is absolutely a must stop. In recent years, they've even built a desert dome habitat for desert animals and flora/fauna. It was like visiting Lyons in the summer. Look inside the dome and you can see a mini Steamboat Mountain.

Back from the big O and had to hit it hard. Seems like the last of the '06 Turner 5 Spots were a desirable item. Looks like the '07s will be here mid Spring. Keep your fingers crossed that they will come in early if you've got one on order!

Finally, we rounded out the work week with a throw down bash at the St Julien Hotel in Boulder. This was Boulder Mountainbike Alliance's 2nd annual party/fundraiser. The event brought in a few thousand dollars for BMA. In addition, freind of the 'Stone, Laura O, was able to present BMA with a $15,000 check from Wonderland Hills Development. They had a deal going with which, if a BMA member buys a new home, that member will get a $5k discount. Wonderland Hills, in turn, gives $5k to BMA. That's 3 BMA home sales right there. To add fuel to the fire, the new development in Lyons is right next to Bohn Park, the park that all the NIMBYs want to keep from getting a Heil Ranch trailhead. These 3 brave BMA souls purchased their homes because they want the trailhead in Bohn Park, and they want to have a trail in their backyard. That's more than I can say for the whiny NIMBYs in the surrounding neighborhood that claim to be hardcore mountainbikers. I can say what I think of that whole hypocritic mess, but that'd be another blog post entirely. Anyway, here's a pic of Mtb Mike talking to the crowd at the BMA banquet.
That's all for now. I hope everyone was able to get out this weekend. I got about an hour on the SS today.

Oh, and Schuman, you'll be happy to know that I went ice skating today, too. I liked it enough that I went this AM and after dinner. Fun stuff!

Sourdough Ski

Headed up to the south end of the Sourdough yesterday for some 7 degrees warm skiing. Conditions were about perfect, no snowshoe tracks, fresh snow, cold fingers, big smile.

Check out the fancy new map they put up. Lots of interesting little trails on there, and ommissions.