zombies

Every day I ride through a cemetery on the way to and from work. Its the time of year when I ride in its dark, and when I ride home its still dark.

I think we can all agree, its just a matter of time before the zombie uprising comes and I am attacked.




I can rest easy knowing the Pittsburgh Dept of Zombie Disposal is on gaurd.

withdrahall

I hadn't been to Hall in long enough that I was going thru withdrawal. A Saturday short ride at Hall Ranch and today's extended mix at Hall on the Flux proved to be just my medicine. Conditions today were perfect. The barely frozen moist ground offered up traction a plenty while the cold temps (sub 30) this am kept the crowds away. I saw one other trail user. Coincidentally, it was another Turner, a red Burner. As I got higher, I kept seeing more flurries. You can't see them in the pic, but they are there. I like the way Blue Mountain hides in the clouds in the distance.

Glad I was able to enjoy it while it lasted, as it's been dumping snow for several hours now. Snow ride on Wed anyone?

Oh, and the Tuesday Ride this week will be on Wednesday night instead. More on that later.

Hall Ranch Conditions

I just got back from a quick, abbreviated tour de Hall. I had 45 minutes this am so I went up Antelope, over and down the front side. Everything was in good shape. There are a few parts of Antelope that will definitely be soft later, and a couple that will have mud. Overall, good shape, though. The trail looks to be fine continuing up to the loop, but I didn't have time to check it out. The rock garden is back to its usual dry self.

mo' underground

In the past couple of days, I've recieved several emails regarding next season's underground races. Sounds like there's a few good ones on the horizon, for sure. Here's a sampler.

Rim Ride Moab
and
The Colorado Trail Race.

Spread the word on these fine events. Underground get togethers like these are what mountain biking is all about. yep. Mountain biking is good.

Planet X Kaffenback

This one was a fun bike to build. Laura uses her cross bike predominately as her main ride but doesn't race cross. She was getting beat up on her Redline. Steel is real, especially if you're looking for comfort. Hence the Planet X Kaffenback. This stylin' rig was built to do it all from road riding to commuting to backcountry gravel roads to singletrack.


Check the sweet carbon FSA post. This is my favorite carbon post so far, in that it doesn't use a plug on offset head.

The new for '07 Shimano XT looks great and works well, too. Anybody else think they took a cue from SRAM?

Crosstop brake levers are key for an everyday do it all bike. It especially makes singletracking on the top a lot easier.

Thursday Special

Here's Redstone's first weekly special. Stay tuned, we'll be doing this every Thursday.

XTR 960 crank,only $295. email dave@redstonecyclery and get crankin.

Great News for Mountain Bike Access!

Well, first off, City of Boulder has approved (as in, it's a done deal) the Eldorado Trail Study Area. This is the area south of the road going to Eldo Springs and west of Hwy93. Pretty much, with the exception of the climbing trails, all of the existing trails get open to bikes. Also, City of Boulder will be cutting more multi use singletrack for all of us to enjoy! Check the map on Debasers September blog post. It all got approved.

Now, on to what is perhaps the best news I've heard in a long, long time. Anyone familiar with HP's Hermit Park just off 36 outside of Estes? Well, HP announced towards the end of summer that they were ready to sell this parcel of land. HP has owned and maintained for eons as an employee benefit. HP employees from all over the world could come to Hermit Park to camp, stay in a cabin, and generally enjoy the Colorado mountains. Since it is such a pristine chunk of land, several local land agencies, including Estes Park and Larimer County, expressed interest in the fact that they would not like to see it developed. Well, good news. Larimer County just announced that Hermit Park will be their newest Open Space acquisition. The Ft Collins paper, The Coloradoan, has the whole scoop here.

Oh yeah, forgot to mention. The best part about Hermit Park is that it abutts Roosevelt National Forest. Roll thru the jeep road in Hermit Park and, voila, you are right in the middle of Homestead Meadows! Click on the map on this page. See where it says Private Property in the upper left corner of the map? Yep, I'm pretty darned excited about it. It'll probably be a bit before we're riding there, but it's a step in the right direction!

Good night ride tonight, too. Those of you reading that don't include Melis, ChrisL, and myself probably didn't miss too much, though. It was 1.5 hours at Boulder Valley Ranch in howling gusty winds. Soft dirt with a 50mph headwind does not necessarily equal let the good times roll. They did, though, but barely!

Tuesday Night Ride 12/11

Anybody have any ideas? If all else fails, we could do a little Lyons or Boulder Urban. Not that Lyons is Urban at all, though. Bike Shop at 6?

I hope everyone was able to get out on the bike a little this weekend. I was lucky enough to sneak in a quick ride Saturday morning before the shop opened at 10.It's a tough job, but someone has to do it. Man, riding at 7:30am in the middle of December can be a cold proposition. It wasn't anything near the 5 degrees of last week, but 25 is still pretty darn cold. I took the Inbred 29er SS up to Hall. I rode up the frontside and was surprised that I only had to get off 3 times. Those weren't dabs either, they were full on gettin' off to push. There was still packed snow in spots, dry in spots, and soft patches in spots. I made it back down to SH7 by 8:30 and places were already thawing and getting muddy.

With 2 kids out of bed at 7:15am today, I was not able to duck out incognito this morning like I had planned. What was originally intended to be a 3 hour cruise on the crosser ended up being less than 2. Oh well, have kids, get flexible with time management. This is one of my favorite resting spots on the St Vrain. I was only 10 minutes into my ride, so a rest wasn't necessarily in order, but I wanted to take in the relaxing view.

I pedalled on to Rabbit Mountain next, hoping that it would be marginally dry. I encountered just one or two soft spots on the main rocky climb. I think it was dry because it's so rocky. I dabbed on this one a couple of times. At the top of the rocky climb, a few trails convene in a big meadow on top of the saddle. it was super sloppy with mud. I walked thru it and took the service road out. Good views, though.
After that, I still had a little time in me so I opted for a short but sweet climb. The last quarter mile or so is a pretty steep pitch. You have to turn around at the top, too, because the road turns to private. It's worth it for this, though. A few quick turns and it's over with too soon. Back into town, a quick ride thru the park and that was it. I was back by 10:30 and already had a fantastic day.

Since I'm on a roll, just a couple more things. I have just a couple of jerseys left from the new batch of Pearl Izumi long sleeve woolies. I have 2 mediums, so give me a shout if you're interested. They are charcoal black with a subtle grey embroidery. They are very classy looking, if I do say so myself. We can't get any more because PI is sold out of them!

Anyone got any ideas for the Tuesday ride? I'm thinking Boulder Valley Ranch, but if it's still sloppy, we can go for a bike path ride/semi urban ride around Boulder. Would anyone be down with that? I need to get that flask holder mounted on the Inbred...

Lastly, stay tuned to the blog this week. We'll be introducing a weekly blog special. The weekly blog special will have as smoking of a deal as we can get on cool parts and other stuff.

Thanks for reading this far, and have a great Monday!

Cross race

A bunch of Redstoners were out watching Chad rip up the competition yesterday. Chris, Dave2, me. Chad was leading with a 20+ second gap about halfway through when some double flat badness happened.

leaves to ice

In what seems like a day, it went from leaves so thick you couldn't see the trails to...

...rock solid frozen trails.

And here is proof that Subaru Outbacks and Audi A4s are at all mtn bike trail heads, not just Boulder(Deer Lakes Pittsburgh PA):

Froota Vid

Eric the Red has a sweet Fruita vid up on U Tube. Check it out.

Yep. Jason is the man and Jill's is his spot. If you ever want to taste some legitimately good food, go to Jills. Lyons' very own Jason Rogers is the grillmaster over there. He will take good care of your palate.

24-solo

So the folks who filmed Off Road to Athens followed Chris Eatough around 06 to cover his run at a 7th straight 24 solo championship. As you may recall, Craig Gordon almost killed himself (literally) making an effort to beat Eatough which he did. I'm not sure the release date, but if they do another showing at the Boulder Theatre, I say we repeat our night of fun like we did last night. I'll keep my ears to the ground to find out when its showing and where.

If this is anything like Off Road to Athens, it should be incredible.

www.24-solo.com

Thank you Dave, thank you Jill.

Tasty food, cold brews, cyclocross. That was a mighty good time this evening.

freeride brah

The Intense Uzzi is a beautiful machine. It needs no other words. Well, except that Heather is stoked to be on one!

Tuesday Ride and Wednesday movie night

No ride for me Tues. Aside from being sloppy with nothing decent to ride, I plan to use my 1 free night to go to the 'cross movie at the Boulder Theater Wed.

The movie starts at 7 or 7:30 at the Boulder Theater. We're meeting for beers and cocktails at 6pm. The place is Jill's, the restaraunt at the St. Julien Hotel near 9th and Walnut. I hear the appetizers are tasty and it'll be weird food night, or something like that. Jason has some will have some funk cooked up and is eager to serve it, or at least that's my take on it.

The Art that is Cyclocross!!!

Live & Learn is what they say. The day & course could not have been any better for a cyclocross race. I learned why the experienced crossers run simple cantilever brakes & not V-brakes with a "travel agent" adaptor. At the end of lap 3 of 7 my brakes were working like vice-grip pliers. I hopped off 4 or 5 times cleaning them out & getting the wheel rolling again. By the end of lap 4 I figured it simply was not going to let me roll on. Instead of unhooking it & trying to cowboy that baby to the finish(a death defying feat but not a bad idea that Laura shared after the fact & I had not thought of)I dropped out of my 2nd race this year. Living & Learning before tackling the season finale @ XLINX this coming weekend.


I hope to see you all at the movies & Xlinx this week

cold sunday morning

It sure was chilly this morning. The thermometer read 5 degrees when I headed out this morning. Cool temps and snow on the ground are perfect single speed conditions. It's easier to stay warm when you're forced to use the same gear for everything. All that was on tap today was an around town thru the parks cruise. I hit some of the towns ghetto singletrack too. There was a 12" packed singletrack everywhere. It was a great ride, I was happy to get out.

Good luck to everyone crossin' today. Hope conditions are epic!

The beer store called...

...your guitar is in.

If only I knew how to play!