Tuesday was on

Even with Dave out on vacation 4 of us still managed to get out tonite. Chad, chris l, bstiff, and I hit the locally famous Lyons ghetto singletrack. Chad "Blaze" Melis led up the crew and took us on a ride that covered the old town, northside, and southside. We all rode our singlespeeds except for bstiff on his wannabe singlespeed rohloff dos niner. Liked the way we linked up the ghetto- it was different. We also did things differently at OB's and ordered shots of maker's. Warmed that belly up quick.
No pics from tonight- but I did double dip today. I headed down to Pueblo South Shore where the trails are dry. Digging the Pueblo trails, especially during this snow spell. Trails were pretty much bone dry except for the north facing canyon innards. I liked the set-up; good mix of beginner, intermediate and advanced trails in this 30+ mile stacked loop network. Spreads folks out. Diverse too- ranged from short steep rocky technical to buff fruita like singletrack. Could bring any bike from your quiver and be content. Great for singlespeed rigids too. Definitely would go back to master some of the technical lines. The turner sultan did well today. I recently replaced the pads on my formula oro biancos with the formula brand sintered pads (this is what came with biancos originally). Nice to be back on an awesome pad again. Previously went with a cheaper brand-ceramic pad, and the difference in feel and stopping power is significant.


Trail conditions- this trail had the most snow about 1/2" of packed powder
Shot of Hooter's-

Rolling singletrack, unfettered vista of the mountains in the west

sore dough 50

It was big ride Sunday today. Haven't been on the bike since the Coulson Gulch Tuesday night ride. Since then I've been on vacation sort of... considering I had my kids and my parents over at my house for 7+ days. Would escape temporarily from the madness by seeing how the Breck Epic was going for Jen G and Chad. They both kicked ass and it got me thinking about a big ride out of the backyard cause needless to say I was chompin at the bit to get out. Lee's been talking about a Lyons to WP ride so I thought I would scope it out to get a feel. See my track from topofusion -Camp Dick on the right and Nederland at the left.
Elevation profile

Stats for the day. Was stopped in Nederland for quite a bit to recover from leg cramps before heading home.

Love sections like this if I take a breather before attempting

My Turner Sultan is still treating me good. It was good therapy to be out there today- weather was great... nice cloud cover for the nasty ascent out of camp dick. Appreciating a lot of things, but bike related - loving the sultan, this thing is staying together good. It is nice to not have dealing with fiddling with something before, during and after every ride. It was eating up the baby heads. Two Nine or die.

A river runs through it

Got to the Sourdough trailhead at Rainbow Lakes Rd. and then took Rainbow Lakes rd to 505 Caribou rd. You can see it's a nice wide 4wd road. I don't mind riding roads especially this one- scenery was great and the flowers were abundant. Smelled like pine sol out there.

Highest point on Caribou was 10500. Most of my riding today was around 9000 - 9600. Breck epic got up to 12000 big difference - that high it zaps you.
There's eldora

Another splendid view

The descent on 505 to Eldora was steep and rocky- a lot of fist sized loose rock. I was thinking how much it was going to suck riding back on this.

Barker res furthest back as I stop the 505 descent to take in the views

Originally thinking I was going to go to Jenny Creek via Ned High School trails but as going up near singletrack near high school my leg started to cramp up and it started to rain. Exit plan was developed -not the best plan but would ride the peak to peak to rainbow lakes rd. then I could get back on the sourdough and avoid some tough climbs. The 6 mile road ride would let my legs recover but it was hot. I was fatigued - it may have been less tiresome and cooler to ride 505 back in hindsight.

I had been going at an all day pace but things definitely slowed up from here. At about the 8 hour mark was definitely feeling it and starting to make mistakes and I've ridden this trail dozens of times- 1) I took the upper saint vrain about a mile up before realizing that it was not the sourdough or wapiti trail. My gps was showing the beaver creek trail as a possibility but it's wilderness. No dice.

Upper st. vrain is noticeably different from sourdough. It is a tough descent and ascent.

Mistake #2 came in the form of riding with my head down- not only affecting line choice but this tree got me good. Good thing I did have my head down because the helmet took all the impact.

Shots as the sun dropped


This bike is tired but did well no mechanicals or flats.


So what I learned today is riding these type of distances is tough. When fatifgue sets in it is easy to make poor choices. My legs are tired and I only did one day. Hats off to the breck epic riders for doing this day after day.

Turner Bikes raw/unpainted finish

I've had a few questions about what exactly the raw/unpainted finish looks like on Turners frames so I took a few pics of Doug's bike. Check it out. Complete with fresh dirt from Hall and Heil Ranch :)

Sick Man

One of those days where the mind was sick and unable to go to work. Got out for a tour de p-rock and hall to set things straight. Although i didn't necessarily poop big nor ride hard today at least I bought the new t-shirt and got to adjust a few more things on the sultan.

Nothing like a little bit of sun and pristine front range singletrack to set things straight.

Stepping up on the soapbox here but "keep it single, man!" had to be said to what appeared to be racer boys. You think they would have seen my Garmin Edge and yielded to the uphill rider since they appeared to be sponsored by GPS and burritos. Instead they rode off trail passing me on the left. If they were going blistering fast it would be one thing cause it's real easy to sneak up on someone on p-rock, but they weren't. Actually 1 out of 3 yielded probably cause the last one in line heard my preach, and he did it the right way. Kept the wheels on the singletrack and leaned it over to let me ride by. No big deal I think I saw a total of 7 people today.

Instead of the obligatory Turner couch shot, here is a Turner bench shot on top of the rock garden.

I still missed a few spots in this morning's shave.

Love these stouts. Great hook-up or is it the Turner suspension? Isn't it great when you find a bike you feel can take your riding to the next level?

Hey Ladies! Seems like this lady likes the bike. Or maybe it's natures way of letting me know it digs the red & black subtleties of bike bits.

Get out and ride it's good out there.

It was a Friday night bike buildin' party

And in this corner of Redstone weighing in at 7.03 lbs is a Large Turner Sultan d dub…

My frame arrived Friday. Talk about anticipation, with this mild winter I was getting amped about riding full suspension again. All the great things I heard about the new suspension, plus a 29er offering 4.7” of travel in the rear, slacker head angle (70.5 when compared to Spyder 29r HA of 72), superb craftsmanship and built in the good ol’ USA made me pull the trigger on this. Honestly I had been waiting for the Intense 5.5 29er but after being teased for the past two years it became apparent it was not to be. After riding rigid for a while I’ve realized that big travel is not needed even on the nasty trail goodness we have near Lyons.

Dave was cool enough to rearrange his schedule so we could build it up Friday night after closing. That’s service…plus I think he was as excited as me to build up the bike. Thanks Dave!

And of course Friday night’s means Happy Hour at Redstone. It was a particularly lively happy hour several of the redstone crew + beer + bikes = good times. The full offering of OB beer was there and I brought in some Alaskan IPA that turned out to be a crowd pleaser.

Dave in action: selecting the right tool for the job.

Now back to the bike. Built it up with a combo of new and old parts. New XT cranks and front derailleur, 1 season old XT shadow rear d, old SRAM cassette made the drivetrain.

Old Joplin seatpost and WTB V rocket saddle. Old formula bianco brakes- still looking sexy as new. Old maverick duc 32 and old front flow with maverick hub. Dave built me up a new stan’s flow with a hope II pro. Instead of a bell on the handlebars I prefer a loud freewhelin’ hub to announce my presence on the trail to others- the hopes are louder than my American classics.

New rubber front and rear- WTB 2.3 stouts great hook up with small penalty in weight. These tires come with big whiskers. Get those tires a shave or do some road riding to the trailhead to scrub them off.
Good bling -new Pedals on the bike and cane creek 110 headset. I chose Acid 2 crank bros. They complement the raw/black/red theme of the bike wonderfully. Nice pedals too with a magnesium / carbon mix on the platform. Went with these to alleviate some of the pain in my foot I get after big rides. Chris L. was calling them Victoria’s Secret Lace Panties at this point cause they looked so damn good and he had a couple fo beers in him. Here is Aimee and Chris modeling the panties. I think Chris would make a great hand model.

Chad getting fresh with the panties too.

This all-mountain epic riding build finished in at 31lbs. An XC build would be around 28. Looks great just need to sort out the cockpit and put it through the motions once the trails dry out.

Turner Sultan update

Mountain Bike Action magazine finally got hold of the 2009 DW Link Turner Sultan for a review. Check it out here. To say they liked this do it all 29er is an understatement. Tree just got his and Doug's will be here next week. Next delivery is late April/May ish.

(Photo courtesy of MBA)

With respect to Turner using journal bearings (bushings) over cartridge ball bearings, MBA says, "There must be truth to Turner's bushing tale because his customers are among the roughest of the cross-country/all-mountain set--and none of the one's we've met are whiners."

love it!

Turner Sultan, DW link style

We got in our first DW link Turner Sultan today. For an XL frame, this thing is beautifully proportioned. They say that a picture is worth a thousand words, so I'll let these do most of the talking.

Asymetrical stays with an elevated driveside mean no chainsuck.



Here's a look at the undercarriage. Note the greaseport. It's still a Turner ;)

I like dealing with Turner. Not only is their customer service second to none, also is their prepwork. Chased and faced bottom bracket, just like the doctor ordered.

Let's hear it for post mount rear brake tabs. One of David Turner's concerns with post mounts is how to remove a bolt if it gets stuck in there or broken off. He remedied that with removable threaded inserts. Genius.

The rear der cable routing will work perfectly with a SRAM or Shimano Shadow rear der.

The box section. It's still a Turner ;)

Drive side lower linkage.

Clean cable routing.

Let's hear it for the taco. It's still a Turner ;)

Another grease port. This is on the upper linkage.

Another view of the rea brake tabs, complete iwth immaculate welds.

more machining craftsmanship and beautiful welds.

Lower linkage frame pivot grease port.

There's been a lot of hype on these bikes. I can see why.