Get your 29er party on

The annual Big Wheeled Ballyhoo is coming. This year, it's Oct 10 and 11 in Brady, NE, about 4.5 hours from here. It's a great stash of singletrack on semi forested private property on the edge of the Sandhills. Fun times, great peeps, and a completely different riding atmosphere are guaranteed. Live band, free camping, and a homebrew contest. Oh, and bike riding, too.

We'll even be close enough to dine at the world famous (really, world famous) Ole's Big Game Bar, too.

Get on your big wheels and roll out!

Left of center recon mission

Big Fall Ride 4 is coming up (Sept 27, Sunday). To prepare, I went off today to do a little recognizance for a potential addition to the route. I mean, last year was tough all but not what I had dreamed of. Although some folks bailed early and the ones that didn't were plenty tired, no one was abolutely wasted and hating life. My goal today was to do some on the ground research to see about adding another 1200' or so of climbing, much of it hike a bike. Left Hand Canyon OHV was in my sites. Although I had originally planned to ride there via Heil Ranch, the plan was changed to driving to LHOHV due to time constraints.

I had thougth about adding the Castle Gulch climb out of James Canyon to the route. From there, we'd be at the top of LHOHV and would be able do descend some sweet singletrack back to the highway. I did find some additional singletrack, but even to climb up to hit it would be downright dastardly to add on after 5+ hours of riding. It would have some hella descending

and some fine narrow and ledgy singletrack

But I'm not sure it would work in very well. We'll see. Perhaps we'll include it on another ride for which I had an idea today. I think we'll keep that one in check til Oct or Nov...

Here's the route down that I intended to take. This would take me back down to James Canyon and the bottom of Castle Gulch, all jeep road.

Don't fall in the straight down for ever open mineshaft. Must be some kind of bird or something living in there. I heard some strange noises coming from the shaft. Maybe it was the ghosts of all the miners that died in this area.

I got to the bottom of Castle Gulch and wanted to explore the opportunity to get down onto the pavement. Looks like the USFS has been doing some creative signing down here. Looks like we'll have to contact the BRD to find out exactly what's up.
From there, the climb was steep and loose but tolerable for quite a bit. Then it turned rocky. Really, really rocky. This was the Castle Gulch that I remembered. I had never been up it before, though. It was quite a hike.

The USFS is a mountain bikers friend.

From the top, there was some crazy steep jeep road descending before the sweet, sweet singletrack.

The singletrack was a bit trenched out in spots, but other than that, was it's normal beautiful Left Hand self. Love it.

So far a good match :) On the steep and fast, the Tomac Snyper 140 did not dissapoint. The Snyper is proving itself to be a super good handling and capable bike.

Tuesday Ride 9/1

This Tuesday, we'll be doing some more maintainence on Heil Ranch's Picture Rock trail. We will be meeting at Redstone around 5pm and riding Picture Rock in to the worksite. Bring boots and gloves and clothes you're comfortable working in. We will be cleaning up the tread of the trail and choking it down in several spots. We will work until almost dusk so we will have time to ride out in the daylight. Bring your lights, though. After we're out of Heil, we'll blaze the lights and hit a tour de Lyons ghetto alleyway singletrackin.

If you can't make it by 5, no worries. Just ride up to the worksite when you can - we'll be there with tools waiting!

The North Face

You will soon be able to get your The North Face fix at Redstone Cyclery. We'll be stocking a modest selection of hydration, mtb apparel and accessories. We will, however, have access to the entire TNF catalog (www.thenorthface.com). We'll be placing an order shortly. If you'd like to put a special order in when we take our first order, we'll help you out a bit ;) We're open to suggestions for inventory as well. thanks!

Intense Spider 2 time!

We just finished up a super custom Intense Spider 2. Red, white and blue was the theme. Chris King, Control Tech, Raceface, SRAM XO, Avid. Absolutely beautiful. Check out the details...

Track Star Randy

Fellow Tuesday night rider and friend of Redstone just completed six days of racing in Colorado Springs.  It was the Masters Track Nationals and Randy, just coming off some broken ribs, decided to race even though his is supposed to be retired.  Here are his results

Gold-Pursuit   

Gold-Sprint

Bronze-Sprint

Bronze-Points

And he also won best overall rider.  Life is good Randy. 

 

Tuesday Ride schedule

Tuesday 8/25 - lights mandatory and we will spin the wheel of rides to decide our fate. Be prepared for anything. We'll meet at the bike shop at 5:30 and drive from there. Here's what I'm thinking for choices...
Lion Gulch, Left Hand OHV, Raymond/Miller Rock, SSV loop

Tuesday 9/1 - trailwork at Heil Ranch. Originally, county folk were going to use us to help widen the trail in a couple of places. We were proactive on that one, though, and now we will be using the good side of the force to choke the trail down where it has widened. Please rsvp to me at dave@redstonecyclery.com if you'd like to help. We're looking for 10-15 volunteers.

Tuesday 9/8 - Ned ride. Lights required.

Tuesday 9/15 - ?

Tuesday 9/22 - ?

Tuesday 9/29 - full moon Estes cross ride. Front and rear lights required. We'll be on the road in the national park.

new bike, new trails, great trip

I got a large Tomac Snyper put together late last week - just in time for a trip to Crested Butte. The plan was to meet up with some other folks from the front range and get in a few solid rides. Mission accomplished.

The bike, a 5.5" travel 2009 Tomac Snyper 140:

Day 1 was to start on top of Reno Divide then connect Flag Creek, Bear Creek, Deadman Gulch and Doctor Park. Oh damn. What a great ride that was. I've ridden the traditional Reno/Flag/Bear/Deadman loop, but was looking forward to a different twist. The first sections, as always, were smoove and swoopy and excellent. I love the fact that those are all moto legal trails, too. I like the whoopdies and every corner has a lip. All good ingredients for fun and fast. We travelled as a pretty big group and made the whole thing in about 4 hours.

Deadman dropped onto Spring Creek Road and we started climbing again. Fortunately, the gravel washboard gem of Spring Creek wasn't very long. The last and final climb was 2 miles and 1,000' up to the top of Doctor Park. It was steep and Johnny Park-ish and we made it up in good time. 2,500' below me and 5 miles out was the Doctor Park trailhead. All downhill. I'm pretty sure I had a religious experience on that trail. Good enough that I'll be dreaming of it for years to come. One of the best in state for me. I got some pretty good photos, too. Unfortunately, they are gone forever due to a memory card meltdown. The curse of the voodoo cow apparently is lingering on.

Beers and food followed later at the Brick Oven in Crested Butte. It was pretty good, but as far as mountain town beerhouses go, they didn't have nothin on Oskar Blues. That and what's up with them not having OB on tap? The arrogant bartender hadn't even heard of Dale's Pale. Huh? Anyways...

Back at camp was pretty fun. Too bad I know longer have the photos of the fire exploding glow sticks. Oh well. Some people win the lottery. Others get a boulder on their car as Doug says.

Day 2: The main group was disintegrating. Most folk had ridden both Friday and Saturday and were eager to roll off to alternate destinations on their own. Tree, Doug and I were also eager to check out a big loop circumnavigating Mt Crested Butte. It was Tree's birthday present after all. Happy Bday Tree! This day's plan was to park at the Gothic Trailhead on Gothic Rd where Snodgrass trail starts. From there, back thru Mt CB, Upper loop, Upper Upper Loop, up Brush Creek, then connect and loop back to Gothic Rd via Deer Creek. We estimated it'd be a big ride with around 3k' of climbing and 25miles.

Rolling thru Mt Crested Butte allows you too see a lot of hardcore development on the mountain. Made my head swim lookin at all the condos. Upper and Upper Upper were fun. We were also stoked to see some good technical bits sprucing up the Uppers. The aspens were fantastic as was the trail.


The tread was grippy dirt and tons of rocks. Upper Upper had a pretty stiff little climb in it, too.


But the descent was sweet. Upper and Upper Upper had some qualities similar to the riding we do off the Peak to Peak and I was impressed. Completely diverse from the day's prior ride.

The road up to Brush Creek was well maintained, hard pack, and otherwise pretty darn ok. The views didn't suck either.

After a short climb on Brush Creek road, it was time for a quick break. In locales like this, it's always good to stop a bit to soak it all in.

Just a bit more jeep road climbing and we were on Deer Creek Trail. It had a bit of everything from buff and beautiful red dirt singletrack

to steep rooty black dirt climbs. So steep it had us all walking eventually.

The rest of the climb happened without incident until we came across a momma cow and calf on the trail. As Tree approached them to shoo them off the trail the momma gave Tree and unmistakable steel glare that could only have been her evil eye. 20 feet down the trail past the cow, Tree encountered a rock that repositioned him on the ground and off the bike. Watch out for evil cows on Deer Creek. Especially this one.

more good scenery

then snacktime.

bad voodoo cows

the final descent was short but sweet. Fast, bermy, black dirt and even more aspens. Good stuff.

We were pretty tired, but feeling fresh enough to buzz back quickly on Gothic Rd to the car.

We should've taken it easier as it turns out. Curse of cow stuck again and we showed up to the Mexican joint 40 minutes too early. Not open until dinner at 5pm. Guess we'll have a beer to celebrate!

Thanks for the great riding this weekend all. The bike turned out to be an absolute gem and the riding was all top notch. CB will beckon again.

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time for a change

CB ought to be a good break in for this baby.

Tuesday Ride 8/18

I will not be in attendance, but Chris has graciously agreed to lead some bike riding folk around N Sheep and Coulson. Bike shop at 5:30. Bring lights and raincoats!

Transition Covert for Sale

Friend of the shop Jeff has decided to part ways with his 2008 Transition Covert. His loss is your gain - this is one sweet do it all All Mountain bike. It's got a Lyric Uturn on the front, a near new set of Transition's Revolution All Mountain wheels and a solid X9/Juicy 7/Truvativ build kit. It's at the shop, so come on by to check it out. Size is small, but it'll fit a small to medium stature person. $2500/offer

Lyons to Winter Park or Bust

We’ve been talking about this – the recent fervor from the Colorado Trail Race calls out to go big.
We debated the starting point- should we attempt to ride all dirt from Lyons, should we take Hwy 7 up to Peaceful Valley or Bunce School Rd?
Man’s got to know his limitations..so in the end we chose Hwy 7 to Peaceful Valley.

We left Lyons about 6:30 AM and went up thru canyon.

I was ready- I packed heavy on this one. Rain jacket, long sleeve jersey, leg warmers, first aid kit, emergency bivy, steripen, maps, bike repair stuff. Nourishment check -5 L of water/electrolyte, sharkies, nut butter, clif shots, lara bars (the ones without estrogen), nuts, and an Ophelia’s Steak and Salsa Jalapeno burrito I was going to need this in order to keep up with the company. Hallin’ Ass Lee (mastermind of the trip) and local riding legend Bernie made up our crew. Lee got it set-up – dinner reservations at Gasthaus Eichler for 8PM and the shuttle ride home from WP by his lovely girlfriend. Knowing this awaited on the other side of Rollins Pass were huge comforts as we journeyed.



Blew a seal on my fork while descending Caribou Rd. into Eldora. Bummer! Four fingered front brake here on out with only 25% of the power. It was my bad I got probably a little overzealous with progressiveness and put 42mL of 7.5w oil in air chamber night before.

Photos were sparse on this ride- I did manage to get a few of Bernie and Lee . Notice camera position—yep never got in front of them on this ride. Oh yeah and Bernie cleaned it.

From Rollins Pass took Ranch Creek trail down. The first 1000 ft of elevation loss its a great trail. The trail disappeared though.

Did the wet summer cause the trail to fade? Do we go back up or descend? Lure of singletrack or the chance for less pain in the form of climbing. We’ve got to make dinner at the gasthaus. These were some of the thoughts that went that went through our head this late in the stage.
Downward we went, finding a few segments of the trail that were ridable. Finally made it out to the CR 128 and descended into WP.

Got to the Gasthaus ,changed in the parking lot, got some heat for being late for our reservation, but damn it was good eating.

Here's the stats 69 miles, 14,000 ft of climbing, 14 hours. Would we do it again, not sure we'd do this exact route, but I wouldn't mind trying to do it faster or shoot for something bigger in terms of mileage and climbing in a day. Summer is running out- get out there.

Tuesday Ride 8/11

The Intense demo tour will be here for our 8/11 Tuesday Ride. Jason from Crank Bros will also be on hand with wheels to demo. Rolling out and riding local for this one, be here at 5:30 to ride or earlier if you want to take out a demo. See you Tues!

Ain't Life Grand?

I was able to skip out of reality for a bit and escape to Grand County. You know Grand County, home of Winter Park, Sol Vista, and the Fraser Valley? My goal was to ride some of Grand County's lesser known gems. Had a couple of epics planned.

The first was in the Stillwater recreation area west of Lake Granby and Grand Lake. I had been eyeballing this loop ever since I moved to CO. Some close family friends have a cabin nearby so I've ridden parts of this before. I had always been thwarted on the complete loop, though. Whether it was navigational errors or weather, I could never seem to put the entire loop together. I did exactly that on Sunday afternoon. Here's some pics of the Supply Route/Wolverine loop.






I was happy that the ride ended literally at my campsite. Beers were waiting and I was exhausted.

Monday was a different mission. Little did I know that it would involve lots of bushwacking and route finding. 8 hours on the bike and it was all good. I started near Arapahoe Bay on Lake Granby and made it about 1/2way out on High Lonesome. I wanted to ride all the way to the end of High Lonesome but I didn't have it in me. It would've added about 1000' of climbing. Here's pics of the route finding extravaganza. Still a successful mission despite the hangups, though.