Good Ride Today/Hall Conditions

My commute to Broomfield this AM was sucktacular with all the snow and ice in Boulder and the southern reaches. It was an entirely different scene in Lyons today though, as we barely had enough snow dust to cover the ground this morning.

I had some business away from the shop today so Redstone was closed. Fortunately, things ended a bit earlier than expected so I was able to sneak out with Chris and Chad for a ride. It's funny. By 3pm, you couldn't even tell that it had snowed. Hall Ranch was in prime condition, too.

The bottom section was alarmingly good. The dirt was perfect, maybe even a little dry.




Further up and still perfect.




We turned around at the bench, but not until we rode a little further to get a check on the north side conditions. Granted, it was cold so there wasn't any mud, but it sure looked like conditions would be prime all the way to the loop. We were running out of daylight, though, so we opted to hit the dh with enough daylight to see and have fun.


That didn't stop us from taking the long way back thru the park, though. I had a couple of shots of Chad and Chris riding on the frozen St Vrain, but they didn't turn out. You'll have to trust me on that one. The cracking ice sound was a bit disconcerting. Here's a good parting shot.



Thanks for the good ride guys!

BMA Party

One week to go - who's in?

Free Dale's, dinner by Jason, open channels to those who make a difference, and a chance to buy a couple bottles of Stranahan's & a Redline in the auction.

Tuesday Ride

North Boulder fun is on! Meet up at the shop at 6. We're heading to the Boulder Valley Ranch trailhead off of Neva Rd. With any luck, it will be frigid, super windy, and snowing. See you there :) I'll be on my SS.

Sultan time

I just finished up this beautiful Sultan. It will be sad to see this one go.
Industry Nine Enduro Wheels with Stan's Flow 29er rims. 10mm DT thru ratchet, too, for added front wheel stiffness.
Factory tuned Push shock
And the super high polished Formula Puro Bianco brakes. 10mm thru ratchet on the rear hub, too.

I got out for a ride later in the day, too. I kept it around town mostly. I visited the Hall trailhead where I ran into Debaser and BRG, then rode over to Rabbit Mountain. The first climb at Rabbit was in good shape, but there was mud everywhere after that so I turned around. Didn't want to get my Sunday ride machine all muddy or anything...

Come and get yer Turner Highlines! 1.5” headset up front and 7.1” of freeridin’ love in the back make this bike a contender. $1599 retail – sales@redstonecyclery.com/303.823.5810

no tuesday ride

No ride this Tues

A) frickin cold
B) frickin snow
C) I'm finally just getting over a frickin cold that damn near had me on my deathbed. Riding Tuesday night would probably just put me back there.
D)frickin Bohn Park Planning Commission meeting - I get to go here people be negative and complain about what we're trying to do to improve our parkland. yay. I'll keep you posted on that...

Dealing with the Devil.

A weekend of comprimises for me. I gave up Saturday to ride on Sunday, and it was worth it. Headed up to Loveland and met up with a pair of MTBR'ers for some Devil's Backbone action. I havn't been up there since Blu Sky opened up a whole new load of trail options, and I can't wait to get back. Great stuff up there.

Anticipation



Loop

TuesdayNightRIde

I need more of that good stuff.

Bullit for Sale

A friend of the shop is selling his '03 Santa Cruz Bullit:

03 Large Santa Cruz Bullit04 Marzocchi Super T, med and firm springsHayes hydraulicsTruvative Holzfeller Cranks,MRPSun Rims.XT and a few LX pieces. $950 takes it all. This is a great bike for someone looking for a great bike on a budget. This bike is in great shape, too. Contact me at the shop if you're interested.

I got a wrong number call the other day. On my voice mail. Why do wrong number callers leave messages? Do they not listen? I wish I'd have written it down verbatim, but I didn't. The guy leaving me the message was from a creditor of sorts. He told me that he had located his customer's car and that it needed to be picked up asap. Even gave me the zip code and the exact street address. In Los Angeles. Sheesh. He never did tell me what the car was. I wonder if it was a 1964 Malibu?

On a completely unrelated note, Redline is starting to sell out of 2007/8 season cross bikes. Holler if you want one of the last ones.

The Tuesday ride is on! The tv weatherguy says that Tues is our best day of the week, too. We've got our fingers crossed that something in the Marshall Mesa area will be good to go. I'm waiting to hear back on some recon reports of the area right now. How about a singlespeed dirt Morgul-Bismark if it's dry. Followed, of course, by beers at the Southern Sun. Or we could ride up Red Gulch (ouch).

Minnesota cycling alive and well

I think we need the Sprint challenge set up at Oskars.

http://www.kare11.com/video/player.aspx?aid=60154&bw=

Turner RFX in it's natural habitat

Scott sent us this sweet picture of his custom Iron Glimmer RFX at home in the woods. It turned out beautifully.

Wes brought me a new project to get together for him. This is about as far removed from a full suspension mountain bike as you get. Still pretty cool though. And fun, too, if you're in the mood to go fast in a straight line, dragster style...

Brown came today, too. Got in a couple of parts I'd been waiting to get my hands on. First up is the new 110 headset from Cane Creek. It's priced comparably and is set to be their Chris King killer. Don't know if it'll knock CK of it's perch but this Cane Creek 110 is sure nice.

Here's the first expanded view. Nicely machine aluminum cups and high quality bearings. The crown race is pretty standard Cane Creek - angular contact with a good seal. Take a look at the upper race, though. It looks fairly straight up here, but it is actually pretty intricate. Instead of the bearing race and seal just held together,

the upper race/cap assembly is actually 3 pieces that fit together very precisely. The green race fits into the upper cap like a snap ring and the brass seal goes underneath it. Bearings are smoother when they stay dry. This sucker should last a long time.

Here's the next candy that showed up today. Formula Bianca brakes. How superb are these?

That high polish finish will work quite nicely with the high polish rear triangle on the Turner Sultan that these are going on. Ever seen a caliper that pretty?

Believe me, these brakes feel as good as they look, too. Formula has struck gold. Oro, as it were.

BMA Banquet

The BMA Banquet is a month from today! Good food, good beers, and a good cause. I hear Dave's got a nice addition to the silent auction as well!

Get yer tickets and info here!!

this Fox has a new home

Big news for Fox Racing, makers of fine suspension parts. They have new owners as of last Friday. I hope this change isn't felt on the trail...

http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/cat...SITIONS&isub=1
http://www.compassequity.com/acquisi...our_companies/

Prime riding season

Better get out while the gettin' is good!

This week, we get to welcome back the Tuesday night ride. Make sure your batteries are charged and show up at the bike shop at 6pm. Don't know where we'll go yet, though, as it seems that quite a bit is up in the air due to weather and conditions. I'm sure we'll manage to have a good time, though. :)

First Road Ride of 08

And I felt it...too much holiday cheer (specifically "spirits") made my ride up the South St. Vrain Canyon feel like running up Longs Peak. But it was good for my other spirit of choice. I made to the Riverside turnoff before the sky starting spitting and I was coooold. I have the fortunate experience to see Gunn Rita Dahle riding up the canyon on her brand new Merida Mountain Bike. If you don't know who she is, she is probably the best female mountain biker that has ever lived. I honestly don't think she has ever finished 2nd. Check out her diary She has a place in Boulder that she frequents on occasion. All in all it felt good to shake out the cobwebs.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/riders/2007/diaries/gunn-rita/?id=gunn-rita0720

Nothing but Bike Porn

Some Intense bike porn for you.

First, Tom's new Intense Spider 29. It is a thing of pure beauty.



Beauty being in the eye of the beholder, here is something completely different. This is a shot of new Intense M6 dh bike, which is soon to be in a production run.

good riding lately

I feel really fortunate that I've been able to get out on the bike 3 of the last 3 days. That's pretty much unheard of in the life of a husband/father/bike shop owner! Sunday's tour de snowpacked Hall on the Redline Monocog Flight 29 was so much fun that Chad, Chris, and I opted for a repeat on Monday afternoon. It was a perfect New Years Eve ride. It's also crazy how fast conditions change at Hall, too. Sunday was 99% snowpack with a couple sections that looked like they were going to start melting soon. Monday was already down to only 60% snowpack. We were lucky that the dirt was still frozen, otherwise it would've been super sloppy. Riding with Chris and Chad makes me spend more time catching my breath than anything else. I guess that's good training. I did manage to catch 1 picture, though.
We even ran into Jim on his poo brown Transition Preston FR. Here he is pointing at an incoming rider and saying, "we should move or Eric will run us over." It was good to see Eric, too.

Today, Tuesday, New Years day called for a little bit more saddle time. Now that it's officially 2008, I'm officially needing to get my ass in shape if I want to complete the White Rim/1 Day ride without keeling over in a near death position at the end of the ride. Locals Dan and Chris as well as Strongmont resident Bill showed up on cyclocross steeds ready to pedal. We left at 1:15pm, and the 38 degree temps felt great. It was brisk to start, but we quickly warmed up and the ride (a tour of mostly flatish dirt roads) was great. I noticed that it was starting to feel a little brisk when I got home at 4. The temp had dropped to 18 degrees. Brr. That called for an old timey recovery meal for me. Back in my racing days, when 3 hrs in 20 degrees was a common occurence, my favorite thing to do as soon as I got in was to pop a couple of pieces of bread into the toaster, then saturate them with honey when they're nice and hot. Thankfully, it's still as good as it ever was. mmmm, honey :) With that big ride on the horizon, it looks like the toast and honey recovery snack will be a bit more commonplace. I'll keep you posted.

Happy New Year from Redstone, everyone. Hope 2008 will be as good as 2007!

~dave