another cold one

I don't think I ever saw the sun today. It tried to peek out a couple of times, but it was still shrouded in gray haze. Chad and I got out for what turned out to be a fantastic SS ride. The Redline Flight Monocog was in full effect. This has been a really fun bike to ride. It feels a tad quicker and stiffer than the Inbred. We tested some high speed stability today, though, and the geometry was dead on.
If only pics could do the world justice. This is at the top of a loooong grinder.
Oh wait, that wasn't the top, this is the top.
Nope, nope. THIS is the top. Man. The SS was the perfect bike today, too. There were a couple of times that the road was so steep, I didn't think I was going to pull it off.

I did, though, and the dirt road descent was butter. 17 miles and 2000+ elevation gain. I'll take a few more winter days like this one. Cold isn't bad when there's still good riding to be done.

cold turkey

I hope everyone had a good thanksgiving. After feasting on turkey, potatoes, beer, wine and other assorted goodness, I snuck out for a ride as the rest of the family took their places on the couches and chairs. Hey - grandparents make good babysitters so when opportunity knocks, you've got to be ready. I saddled up the Redline Flight Monocog and was off.

Well, it seems as if that wonderful Indian Summer has left us for good. You know winter is here when you're chasing down singletrack thru Bohn Park on a rigid SS and it's great riding! The sun was shining when I rolled out, but it sure got chilly as the sun started to go down. This was taken from Old South looking up at Coffintop Mountain. You can literally see the cold in the air. By this time, I was already riding with my fingers curled up inside my gloves. Keeping hands warm is a great thing. The beauty of SS is that you really don't need the digital dexterity that you do on a gearie.
We had about 5" of new snow in our driveway on Friday morning. It's been sunny but cold. Cold enough that not much has melted at all. I rode over to the hwy 7 rock garden side of Hall Ranch. I dabbed about 4 times and walked a couple of times on the climb. What the hell, it's November, it was icy and snowy and I'm out of shape. I'm not too proud to walk. heh heh

For what it's worth, definitely stay away from Hall unless you're certain the ground is frozen. It's going to be a sloppy, muddy mess for quite a while.
I rolled past antelope and up to the loop. Both daylight and temps were dropping quickly, so I turned around and rolled back down the Antelope. I was amazed at the snow. 75% of Antelope was still under snowpack. It has seen enough use already that some sections of it were super slick. Fun, though - definitely fun.
Bitter cold, snow, late day light and a glimpse of the moon. Yessiree, winter is here. I'm going back out tomorrow to enjoy it :)

last ride up high for a while

Here's a few pics from the Tuesday ride. Conditions were great. Super cold with sleet and snow. The rocks and roots were treacherously icy, which made for a particularly fun night ride.
Everything, and I mean everything (bags, bikes, etc) had about 1/8" of ice accumulated on it.
Smiles all the way around and looking forward to some tasty Dales Pale Ale!

w i n t e r

Lyons weather looks like the first of WINTER night rides is here, best get the gear ready
Might be a bit more of this...

SEE YOU AT THE STONE!

Ultra Bling Intense 6.6

check out this latest creation. It's a custom painted British Racing Green Intense 6.6. This bike turned out really nice.
Complete with the uber stylin' I9 Enduro wheels.

Ever wonder how those big aluminum spokes attach? I surprised even myself with this shot. I thought my poor photo skillz were not good enough for this kind of resolution!
Fox has their version of the Maxel now, too. It's super sano and works equally as well.
there's no denying that the shaped monocoque top tube of the 6.6 is dead sexy.
John is a lucky man!

Advocatin'

I originally had relatively big plans for a ride today. After all was said and done, though, I was lacking the motivation to drive anywhere so I headed out from home on the mountain bike and rode to Hall Ranch. I didn't feel like dealing with the masses on the rock garden (and I was beat from the SS ride I did on Sat), so I opted for the more chill Antelope Trail side. As soon as I rolled into the parking lot, I saw our good friend Ranger Kevin Ogrady. He was busy writing a ticket for an illegally parked car. I thanked him for that and we chatted a bit.

Yesterday I had heard the good news that another 2100' of the Picture Rock trail at Heil Ranch had been completed, leaving us with over 4000' of trail already done. Kevin is also the caretaker at Heil (he lives there) and he verified my findings. If we do get a mild winter, it is likely that Picture Rock will be open sooner than later. I thanked Kevin for the good talk. Just as I was pedaling away, the culprit of the illegally parked car emerged, finished with her trail run. As soon as she saw Kevin, she started going on and on about that she was there now and would move her car. After she had already enjoyed her run mind you. Here's the kicker - this woman was with a group of about 6-8 other women. It seemed that, between them, they had taken several cars to drive to Hall and they took up pretty much the entire parking lot. That's efficient.

I pedaled on. It was a beautiful day and I figured it was going to be crowded as hell. It was. Rather than complain about the traffic, I decided that it was, instead, great opportunity to do a little mountain bike advocacy. I smiled and greeted everyone that I encountered, biker or otherwise. I hear a lot about user conflict, but it's pretty apparent that most of it is in the approach. If you slow down to say hello, you'll get a freindly hello or wave 99% of the time. At least that's what I've found today (and any other day I've ridden Hall). After running into several friends and acquantances, i was able to bust out a couple of laps. Again, not wanting to deal with crowds, I went back down Antelope. It was good. After that, I still felt like pedaling so I rode to Button Rock Preserve and back. That was the ticket.

Hope everyone had a great day.

We're still riding Tuesday. Meet up at the shop at 6pm. I have no idea what the weather will be, so we'll hold off on a specific location until we meet up. See you then!

The good stuff.

I can't seem to ever get enough of sweet tasty singletrack. Especially with a nice view tossed in the mix.

Friday Bike Porn - Turner Highline

Most of you know that I have an affinity for baby blue bikes :) Check out this beautiful Turner Highline freeride bike:
Is that sweet machining or what?
Not the lightest bike, but if you want one bike for both going uphill and going big on the way down, this is the machine.

Complete with 1.5" of Chris King lovin'.

Miller Time 2

Definitely one of the best Redstone rides I've been on. Great ride fellas, I had an awesome time. Hopefully one of these night rides we will get some photos. Art, hope the hand is doin good. I gotta bad case of bruised ribs. I warned Dr. Brett's office that you might be comin in. Redstone alone could keep that clinic open.

Cheers Stone Pile. RS
Agreed. Fantastic ride last night fellas!
Although warm temps, high elevation and night time isn't exactly seasonal for mid November, I'll take it. By this time last year, we'd already had a couple of snows. I woke up to some snow dust on the ground this morning, but that's it for the season so far.
It was a trip to see so many other twisted souls out for some fun riding in the dark. You know it's a good ride when almost 20% of the crew things about going to the ER instead of OB.

Seems like everyone wised up real smart like, though, and opted for beers over hospital. We had a full showing at Oskars for liquid pain killer and food. We'll have a pre-Thanksgiving warm up next week. I'll take requests for ride location...

Tuesday Ride, 11/13

Who'd have thunk that it's mid November and dry as a bone. Well, as of Sunday night anyway. Things could change by Tuesday, so we'll play it by ear. I'm thinking maybe Miller Rock? Rockin's post got me jonesing. Besides, it'll be nice to ride there with lights!

Oh, I'm posting this on after midnight, just for you Chris...

Miller Time

Saturday - 65 degrees - 3 hours to spare - dogs need exercise = Miller Rock.

I started out at the Ceran St Vrain trailhead. This was my first time on the Rock and heard alot about jeep roads so I was more than thrilled to roll through that sweet singletrack in the beginning.

Hey Ladies! Transition Syren

Transition's new ladies freeride bike, the Syren is due to hit the trails sometime in January. Transition is taking preorders now. If the Syren is as popular as it seems, these babies will be sold out for quite a while. Transition is taking preorders now. Available in silver, black, or baby blue.
Here's what Transition has to say:

"The Syren is our ladies only freeride bike built to be a do-it-all package. From bike parks like Whistler to freeride and singletrack trails, the Syren's versatility has all the guys begging us to make one for them. Designed with the input from over 30 girls, every detail concerning a women's needs for a aggressive freeride frame have been accounted for. The Syren features ultra low standover (easily fits girls down to 5'0"), a light flickable frame that is burly enough for freeriding and a shorter wheelbase that makes it easier for women to pull the front end up. "

Jeremy Powers @ the Redline Cup

What a great shot by Steve Z(?) from Boulder.

I.D. Please

Another good weekend of riding

With the time change, I was out the door at 6:30am. It was nice to get out early and still have some daylight. I made the best use of it I could think of - singletrack!

I considered spending a few hours on the roadie, but decided to get dirty instead. Our days are numbered for the good riding up high so I had to take advantage. It was a good thing, too. I stayed in some densely forested areas. I could hear the wind howling above the trees. The wind was blasting on the few occasions where I didn't have tree cover. The wind knocked over the Spider29 shortly after taking this pic!

Oh, and the Tuesday ride... Meet up at the shop at 6pm with good lights and full batteries. How about a Lion Gulch night ride. heh heh. Rockin has a light now, so it'll be good to have another regular.

Congrats also to Vogelman for baggin his first ever deer on Sunday. woohoo!

Crossin It Up

I found myself in South Boulder after riding on Sunday morning so I made it over to Fairview high for the second Redline Cup cross race. Melis's race had just started when I got there. I stuck around to take photos, handup water, and shout obscenities. It was a great time.

Congrats on the 2nd place finish Chad!

Big days, cold nights

Another western slope trip on the books.

Not cycling but....

since there hasn't been much traffic I thought I would post something entertaining. Maybe this will get our cross racing brethren fired up for the weekend. By the way, this kid is like 20 years old.

Daily Distractions

If you haven't been to pezcyclingnews.com, now is the time. Here is a supple sample from their "Daily Distractions" section.

Discuss.....

Rocky Mountain Flyer

Here's a new ad Oskar Blues will have in the upcoming Rocky Mountain Flyer magazine. Yep, that's the first edition Redstone wooly & a picture from our own Debaser.
Cheers!

Doudy Draw, Coyotes in the city

Finally got to see the recently opened Doudy Draw Trail from the handlebars, and it adds a great section of trail to my local loop. 2 1/2 hours of riding from my door leads to this great view!

And coyotes in the city! Looks like he's hanging out at the buffet line there.

Boulder Res CX #1

Redstone & I Made our way to the Boulder Res for the the 3rd stop on the Boulder Racing Cyclocross series. The weather was amazing, to good for cyclocross & that amount of sand. A little moisture is always welcome on this course. This baby doesn't fit my strengths & is basically a glorified road crit. Again, I didn't get called up & had to fight my way through the 3's field. The size of the field was smaller than the last round but still took a lot out of me to fight through. I was able to work my way up to the 3 leaders. I saw the leader make his move with a guy between us. Homeboy didn't respond & by the time i figured out he wasn't going to I had let the leader get away. I was unable to close the gap but cruised in 2nd for the first podium of the new season. Hopefully this race will up the high end with the BIG weekend coming.

What's up Red Stoners?

So that's what the blog has boiled down to in my absence - Melis ripping up the cross course, rad Moab trips, and Tuesday night long-light burns in the darkness. You sallies used to rally. I don't even know who you guys are anymore.



OK, really, I miss it this time of year, and I'm glad to see you guys in action, Jackson.

Race season winding down here in VA. I took 4th out of 32 in our local 6 hour race - The Paranormal. It rallied.

Miss your mugs.

-AJ