Arizona Roadtrip!

2009 was my first visit to Phoenix, AZ with a bike.  My wifes family has a house that's, fortunately, only a 10 minute bike ride to South Mountain park.  It's like being at a ski in/ski out condo right on the mountain.  2 years ago I said, "I'll be back. Next time, though, I think I'll have to nab the car for a day to check out some other riding areas around Phoenix."

Needless to say when Christmas rolled around this year and there was talk of an AZ road trip, I said "Sign me up!"

Intense Carbine!

For the record, so far I'm LOVING the new Intense Carbine.

Carbon fiber, 5.5 or 6" of travel, 12x142 rear thru axle.  Damn, this bike is sweet and rides every bit as nice if not nicer than the oh so awesome Tracer 2.  After 12 hours of hard riding in the Phoenix area desert, this bike has been thru about everything I could throw at it.  Incredible.  Expect a full write up soon!

Cyclocross comes to Lyons for some Ghetto Singletrack Lovin

The last stop of the Boulder Cyclocross Series came to Lyons on Sunday 12/11.  With the exception of maybe 1 year, Lyons has played host to an annual cross race since the State Champ Cross race in 2007.  The original course was in the middle of Bohn Park.  It would've been blazing fast and flat, but the big dump of snow a couple of days before the event set the park up for some great racing.  Since then, promoters have moved the course to the high school allow for a better course, more parking, and better spectating.  It was a good move.

XT Trail Pedals, PD M785

Favorite things. Favorite, not because it sells well or is marketed well. This is stuff that we ride and like and ride and like some more. Because we like it, because it works like it's supposed to, and because we don't have to work on it any more.

Todays Favorite Thing - the Shimano XT Trail Pedal.  This is a new pedal, part of the 780 series XT.  Shimano introduced the XTR trail pedal early in 2011(reviewed in Bicycling here) with the new 980 group.  By late summer, that had trickled down to XT level and fortunately, XT price point.  Enter my interest!