Public Service Announcement

Shop jersey, 2008!

The new 2008 shop jerseys have arrived. Super stylin' and Pearl Izumi custom. That's a combo.

You can buy them, too :)

recappin'

What a last couple of crappy days, huh? I was moderately excited to get out and ride on Monday, Memorial Day, but it was not to be. All day long rain and cold temps kept me unmotivated and off the bike. Optimistically, I thought Tuesday would be better. After all, Tuesday is ride day, it has to be nice right?

Well, I woke to rain very early on. The rest of the day was cloudy and overcast, but there was no rain. I even caught a glimpse of the sun for brief amount of time. With that in mind, I was confident that if we drove into the hills for a ride at 6, all would be good.

We arrived at our destination and it was chilly! I mean, really chilly, almost dowright cold. 8000' of elevation, fog, and a narrow river canyon did nothing to help warm the air. A steep climb out of the gate sounded like just the ticket. The fog was thick and hung all around, but the skies held tight and it did not rain. The steep and rocky terrain shed water like a champ. The sandy and, at times, organic black dirt provided perfect traction. The rocks were dry, too. That's always important when you're riding after a rain. One wet rock can make all the difference on a ride sometimes.

The rains had softened up the soil considerably. There was some fresh deadfall so we performed a little impromptu trail maintenance.

There had been enough rain lately that the old south was raging.

We were about ready to wrap up and the fog set in thick. Like ghosts in the mist we were.



Afterwards, I noticed that my backpack, camera bag, and everything else I had were very, very damp. Even though it was never raining outright, the air was thick and wet enough from the fog that it made a difference. It's rare that we get Washington-esque weather like this. I'm glad we savored it.

Tuesday Ride/Shop Housewarming Party

Yes Virginia, there will be a Tuesday Ride. If'n it's still sloppy and rainy, we'll have to come up with something on the fly. Otherwise, let's plan for good weather and a tour of Miller Rock from Raymond. Shop at 5:30/trailhead at 6. We'll be parking exactly 1 switchback above the Raymond Store. Again, if it's raining, we'll ride from the shop and try to come up with some kind of plan B. Oskar's anyone?

In other big news, next Saturday, 5/31, good friend of the shop, Jason Rogers will be grillin' out front of the shop and serving up a multitude of culinary delights. What's the occasion? Well, it's the shop re-grand opening/hey we moved/open house/housewarming party. We will have giveaways and discounted items and food and beverage. Come on by from noon til 4 and we'll take care of you :)

Lyons Fat Tire Festival 2008 Video

Thanks Dave. May we have another!

Fat Tire Fest 08 "A" recap

Jesper starteed the day off with a new bike. A magic bike. Pretty much as soon as our feet hit the pedals, we started climbing. 6 miles on the road followed up with as many more on jeep road climb. Some steep and technical, and other parts looong and gradual.

Everyone was feeling pretty good and riding well at this point, roughly 1.5 hours in. Still climbing.

The road rolled up and down before spitting us out to the western reaches.

Where we found some more climbing.

The day started wearing down on us, breaking us. It's not a mountainbike ride unless your hiking.


We did manage to find a beauty of a spot for lunch. Georgeous meadow, fantastic views, and full sun. The snowflakes had quit blowing around mysteriously by this point.

Ah, snacktime. Gotta celebrate Lyons proper, now :)

After lunch, there was some descending, and a bit more descending. Loooong steep and fast sections of rock, rut, and root covered double track descent. Snow and water crossings, too. Too fun to stop for pictures. And then there was a flat. First one of the day, too. Not too shabby.

At least it was a good place to stop, take in the scenery, and snap a pic or two.

Then there was more climbing. It's not mountain biking unless you're hiking.



Finally, the singletrack. An all too brief descent followed up with some more climbing.

Hot damn, that last singletrack climb was followed up with one of the most well rounded, fantastic descents on the northern front range. Again, too fun to stop for pics except at the bottom. Not the foundation. This was our first homestead stop on the tour.

We had a few bail out at this point. One with a destroyed bicycle (it really was a fun descent), one with fuel reserves almost tapped, and one wanting to have enough energy to really enjoy the final descent. We took a brief tour of a few more homesteads. It was then that I heard my first and only disparaging comment. "More climbing? sheesh." Or something like that. It was worth it for the final descent, a trail that makes men of men and can bring other riders and bikes to crumble.

Rocks

and steeps

and water crossing
But we all made it out alive. Another 2.5 miles back down the paved road and we were back at the car. Stats were something to the effect of 6,000 feet of climbing in just shy of 32 miles. Good stuff! Smiles were seen all the way around as folks loaded back up to head back down the hill towards Lyons. After all, the day wasn't over. We had grills to stoke and a keg of Dale's Pale Ale to look forward.

Thanks all for coming out the 8th Annual. We'll do it again next year. Stay tuned :)

Tuesday Night Ride Report

Last night's ride was an adventure; complete with water crossings, route finding, steep climbs, and rocky descents on new trails.









It of course also got dark before we made it back to the cars, but we all came prepared with lights: It doesn't take that many rides out with Dave before you learn your lesson ;-)







A little bonus video...

Something to tempt you for the Fest this weekend

Chad and I prerode the "B" ride for this weekend today. It was good.

There was climbing. And more climbing. And even more climbing. And the views were splendid. See the meadow centered in the picture? The "A" ride will circumnavigate that meadow from the other side.

There was some really, really good technical descending.

Steep, too. This shot was in the same series of shots as the one just above. Hopefully that gives perspective of the steepness. Not all is like that, but there are some fun steep and rocky chutes.



Then there's some fine rolly singletrack, too. Some sand, but not enough of a bother.
We opted to take a tour of the homesteads.

Lookey like someone's coming to visit!
Gotta tie up the steeds for a rest break after a hard day of riding, too.

Did I mention the technical descending? These 2 sequential shots are probably the hardest move on the trail. Anyone got a guess on location?


Ah, the elevation profile. Enjoy!

**Please note that B ride does not equal "easy ride." It'll still be tough, just a couple thousand less feet of climbing than the big ride. Hopefully, Bryan will have reports of folks using his name in vain :)

Tuesday Ride 5/18

Howdy everyone. The Tuesday ride this week will be LIGHTS MANDATORY. We've got some explorin' to do and I'm not sure that we'll make it out by dark. Sound fun? :) Meet at the Jamestown post office at 6pm. Carpoolers from Lyons, we'll try to leave a little before 5:30pm.

I think I lost my backpack today, too. argh!

*************************************************
Update - found my backpack, now I can put up some pictures.


It was a superb sunny Spring day today.


Keith showed some very fine form.

Fat Tire Fest Version 8.0 Next Weekend!

Howdy all. Sorry for the late notice on this, it's been a little hectic around the shop lately. The time has come. The 8th Annual Lyons Fat Tire Fest is next weekend.

This year won't be a super over the top big production, just a homey fest like you all grew to know and love. So much so, in fact, that we'll be retracing the route of the 1st ever LFTF Deathmarch. That's right. Deathmarch. I feel like I let a few folks down last year. Sure it was a long ride but it was mostly technically easy and I was personally bummed that absolutly noone used my name in vain last year. I would like to make up for that with this years Version 8.0

What you can expect:

Friday, 5/23. We'll start off with a short-ish ride by meeting at the shop at 2pm. We'll get back somewhere between 6 and 7. Well, that's the plan anyway. Expect steep and loose climbing, good singletrack, and fun descending. We'll be driving approximately 20-30 minutes.

Saturday, 5/24. Deathmarch Day. Meet up at the shop at 8:30am. I'll have breakfast waiting, too. Local Lyonsite Denise Braly has generously agreed to fill us up on Breggos, her own creation of bread/egg/pototato/other stuff that's kind of like a breaded breakfast burritoo. Yeah, there good. Anyway, after we leave the shop we'll drive about 15 minutes before we ditch the cars. Parking will be limited so please carpool. We're shooting for about 35-40 miles, LOTS of climbing, and some big descents. I mean steep, long, technical unmaintained and forgotten about forest trails. We'll see some history, too, by touring an area ripe with homesteads from the early 1900's. The last time I did this ride, I was with local fasty Chad and it took us over 5 hours. It's a big ride, so bring lots of water, food, and a rain coat.

If that sounds like a bit much, we'll have an alternate ride as well. The alternate ride will have all of the same bittersweet singletrack, but will be about 1/2 the distance of the big ride. Ride B will be a point to point so be prepared for shuttling logistics :) Our good man Debaser will be leading up Ride B.

After the Saturday ride, we'll reconvene at the casa del Dave and Mary for beers and grilling. Homeboy Dale from Oskar Blues and Dale's Pale Ale will be providing the beverages. I'll be providing the grills so just bring something to char and a side if you'd like and we'll be all set. There's even potential for a chicken crit inspired time trial. Details will be released on that beerside.

Fat Tire Fest 2008. Be there. Hopefully you'll hate me for it. :)

racin'

Harman Rocks in Gunnison is definitely good riding. Good racing, too. I remember some real sufferfests on the old Rage in the Sage course. We'll, I just got this from Brian at Mountain Flyer magazine.

The Gunnison Valley Bicycle Club and Gunnison Trails are bringing back the suffering at Hartman. Also note that endurance freakos will be pleased with the long distance offerings on June 8.

Tuesday Ride, 5/13

Finally. The days are long enough. It's forest time. Time for trees, streams, heinous jeep road climbs and fast flowy, rocky descents. Sound good? If it does, let's meet up in Raymond tomorrow. Park in the switchback on the road directly above the Raymond store. We'll meet there at 6pm. Raymond is 20 minutes west of Lyons up Highway 7. We'll be leaving the shop around 5:30 if anyone would like to meet up to carpool or caravan.

We'll hit the grinder of a Jeep road up to Miller Rock, then down to the S. St. Vrain creek for an out and back on Cerain St Vrain. Hopefully we'll see some snow. Nothing like a little adversity to add to the adventure.

As an aside, we'll be closing early a few days this week for various reasons.
Tues, 5/13 - closed at 5:30 for Tuesday ride
Wed 5/14 - closed at 5pm for Bike Patrol training
Wed 5/15 - closed at 5pm for Bike Patrol training

Spot Time

Todd's new Turner 5 Spot is a beauty. A stealthlike beauty. We opted on this one for the slight upcharge and the rear triangle painted to match.


Painted to match in the smoke black. What a cool paint finish.

Along with cool turner only details, like the 1 piece forged rear chainstay yoke.

We laced up some custom Chris King/DT 5.1d wheels for this creation and topped it off with Formulas Oro K24 brake. It's hard to beat that brake for the performance and money.