What a difference a week can make here in the Spring. Just last week, we were thawing out from a late Spring snowstorm that rendered trails useless for about a week. My only dirt escape was to a very nice dirt road loop just outside of town. I took the cross bike out for some fun.


here's to you, view

It had been nudging me for a while now, "take me out, it's been too long." Last time I had the cross bike out was probably in January when I did the dirt road loop from True Grit to Nelson and back. Hmm, that's only... whoa - 4 months! Yikes! The cross bike was the perfect fit for the day. The dirt roads had been soft from the snow, but warming conditions left them damp and hardening. I couldn't have asked for anything nicer for my 35c knobbies. Traction was great.


from the top

I hit the descent (900' on a rough, country road)on the limits of what those 35c things could hold. The day was chilly and damp, but a great Spring day.

Forward a week to another great Spring day. Only this time, there wasn't a cloud in the sky. It was only 7:30am but temps were already in the 50s. Trail conditions are quickly on their way back to prime. I couldn't be happier. I ventured forth into the forest for a quick little trail ride. It was a good call. A short ride, but some prime singletrack indeed.


from the top

I couldn't believe that it was snowing hard just one week ago. Springtime. Love it.

Lots of things going on right now as Lyons Fat Tire Five approaches. To me, the fest seems to symbolize the 'start' of the Front Range backcountry season. I usually keep it relatively close until the end of May. Spring, with summer quickly on its heels, brings fantastic conditions to the area west of Lyons. Springtime out here is one of the best times to be outdoors.

I can't believe we'll all be grouping up again in Lyons for some superb front range riding. I think I'm looking forward to it as much or more than a lot of folks. The storefront will be closed for the weekend and I'll finally be able to get out on some big rides, some epics. I can't wait to ride some old favorites, new stuff, too..

Don't take these hills for granted folks. When the space craft dropped us off here in Lyons, I was riding 6-7 days a week, I was exploring and otherwise spending a ton of time on my bike in the backcountry. Now, if I ride 3 days at Hall Ranch, it's been a great week of riding. Family, work, and other obligations can really change a persons riding habits! It's been a great ride so far, though, and I'm still excited about that next turn in the trail.

Fat Tire Five is coming up at the end of this month. The event is 5 years old this year. That's definitely cause for celebration so we'll surely do it up in style. Did I mention the free beer? We have a sponsor this year! Heck, by next year, we may even have 2. The season is kicking into gear and I'm excited to ride. Did I miss anything?

Want pics?

yes, it will be steep

yes, it will rain

ahh yes

Less than 1 month to go!

Lyons Fat Tire Five is coming. Memorial Day '05. Get ready. Remember last year?

5 Spot Love

Today was a great day for a ride. I was able to get out early to beat the weather. It was a beautiful morning.




I got out on the 5 Spot today. I'd been spending most of my time on the Flux lately so I thought it'd be good time for a change. It's a tad heavier than the Flux but that extra inch and the relaxed geometry are oh, so nice! Especially in the rocky stuff

If a bear's natural habitat is a Studebaker, what's the natural habitat for the 5 Spot?

I hope everyone was able to get out for a great ride today, too.

On a somewhate related note, the Lyons BBQ guy that sells fine dining out of his moble kitchen just set up shop across the street from me. It's a bad thing - I've already given him way too much money! Great stuff, check him out next time you're in Lyons. On the approach to the singletrack, I got hungry for some barbeque.

Great Tuesday Night Ride!  

Friday!

Another fantastic work week down the tubes, eh. Where do I start.

Well, most importantly, after cracking my helmet earlier this week, I finally got my new one today. Zoe and I went for a little bike ride after work and I tested out the new shell. Man, oh man, that has got to be the most comfortable helmet I've ever worn. It's a LAS Kripton. The fit system seems to be way beyond what Bell and Giro are doing. Plus, it's got a coolmax liner and bug netting. Very nice. I'm now a big fan of LAS helmets! I'll give the longer term review in a few days provided I don't manage to break it before then!

In other news, I recently got the latest update from the Forest Service on the Left Hand Canyon management plan. They are getting ready to roll this thing into action! What they are proposing is way too long to mention here, but here's the basic skinny:
*close Carnage Canyon to all
*open potential new 4WD rock crawler routes
*build one (yes only one) new singletrack trail that short and not a logical connector
*limit the area to day use with the specific exception of night riding (our only real victory)
*close off all the little spur singletracks in the area

If this plan gets finalized, I'd have to say that we didn't get much. In fact, I'd argue that we, as a mountain bike population, lost out on all of our opportunity. Not to say we didn't show, but it is definitely an OHV area and they need their place to play. Never hurts to ask, though, huh? Anyway,the process isn't over yet! I'll have more info up on the Redstone LHC OHV page soon.

One more thing! Save May 14 on your calendars for what promises to be a fantastic movie night at the Boulder Theater:
"hard-won victories, agonizing defeats and desperate attempts to gain coveted points were captured on film in "Off Road to Athens," a documentary about eight athletes - four women and four men - and their aspirations to become Olympians

May 14 (2 shows) Boulder, CO Boulder Theater $10 adv. $12 door"

yep. Racin'.

That's about all I've got to report today. Did I mention that the first batch of stickers are in? They're sweet, come on and get yours!

So the Tuesday Night Ride was fun. Well, at least most of it. We rode the tour de Hall. The crew was 4 strong. We climbed up the main trail, looped Nelson, then back to Hwy 7. Everything was fine except for one part. That would be the part where I sampled the dirt. You know, augered head first into the earth. We were descending from the loop. We'd just passed the rocky section with the tight right handers and just past the Prarie Dog Sign on the right side of the trail. 3 jumps right in a row. 1 jump fine, 2 jump fine, 3 jump, land on a gravelly off camber with my wheel cocked-not fine. I tried to ride it out but I could not correct my error. The front wheel slid on the sandy off camber and I augered head first into the dirt at full speed. Add to that the fact that there was a field of cactus just before where I laid. When I got up, I thought, "hmmm, good thing I didn't land in that cactus." As the adrenaline wore off, I felt a twitch in my left arm. I looked down and found that my arm, jacket, and glove were full of cactus needles.

It was an expensive fall. Not only did I break my helmet, I broke my sunglasses, too! As I type this, I still have (3) 1/8" needles stuck somewhere inside of my hand. They're buried so deep that I've tried to forget them. Hopefully, they will emerge someday!

Anway, thanks to Kirk, Jamie, and Chad for rolling with the 'stone. I had a great time and look forward to continuing the tradition next Tuesday!

what a week!

Wow what a week. Real Spring weather early in the week, followed up by real Spring weather at the weeks end. Last Tuesday was the first shop ride of the year. We had a couple of riders and conditions were fantastic. Later in the week, I was lucky enough to squeak out for a recon snow ride. I took to the high hills and was quite surprised at what I found:

There was still a bit of snow, but less than I had suspected:


good views, too:


Then we got some moisture. That's ok. I was still able to get a quick ride in. Come on out and ride Tuesday at 6. Conditions will be great!

mmm fruita

Fruita was good. Check back - I'll have more pics up in a bit. For now, though, here's a couple of my favorite pics:

Pablo dropping into Horsethief Bench. Yep, he rode it


Mic on the moto trail that took us to heaven


We all know that Matty likes to jump

Yep, the desert was good. Our main blogger powering out of a corner on the Western Rim.  

Spring

What great Spring weather! I just came in from outside and my hands are so fozen it's hard to type! Oh well, as long as the desert has good weather next week, I'll be fine. Seems like everytime this year, it's nice to escape from the daily routine and the just-past-winter doldrums into a fresher, warmer atmosphere. Fresher not in the sense of better, more along the lines of "ahead." That's one of the reasons I like Fruita this time of year. Seems like they're just a little ahead of us with weather and Spring blossoms and all of those nice smells and sights associated with Spring. I am a bit apprehensive about going, though, as I haven't ridden my bike in 2 weeks. Alas, the life of a shop owner!

Tonight was a fun night at the shop. All of the tune-ups, upgrades, and repairs have already been made for the week so I finally had some time to spend on the shop itself. It felt like things were getting more cluttered all the time. Fairly easy given the massive square footage, I know. Anyway, I received a bunch of cool inventory tonight and somewhat re-merchandised the shop.

Among some of the cool things I got in this week were a Gravity Dropper seatpost, Answer Pro Taper Carbon bar, a complete build kit for Scott's bike, the new 29" WTB Epic Wolf tires and a smattering of Latitude 40's maps. Those are the best maps in the business when it comes to Colorado. Latitude 40 doesn' just make maps, they are works of art.

Speaking of art, the town of Lyons wants me to remove the bike from the roof. Here's the rub, though: You need a sign permit to put up a sign. "Art" is specifically exempt from permit requirements. There are other types of signs exempt from permit as well. Regardless of permit requirements, Town code specifically states that "no sign" must be mounted above the roofline of the building. It says nothing about art. Therefore, if no sign permit is required to display art, and art is not a sign, the bike on the roof stays. I'll keep you posted.

And speaking of bikes, we've got a handful of GTs and Schwinn's in now. I even brought down my own new PeaPicker for display.

There are lots of things going on with the shop right now. So much that I'll have to write more later. Until then...

Desert Dessert

So, it's time for Redstone to officially kick off the season. Spring is here and what better way to roll in the ridin' season than a trip to the western slope deserts of Colorado. I have been looking forward to this trip for a long time. The Redstone Crew will be meeting up with the gang from Monkey Wrench Cycles in Lincoln, NE for a hell of a good time frolicking on Fruita's superb singletrack. It will be a motley crew of racers, ex racers and homeboys that live to ride, have a great bike ethic.

The plan is to leave Thursday after 5 to drive to our campspot. We'll ride all day Friday, camp, ride all day Sunday, camp, ride 1/2 day Sunday and drive home.

If you're interested, shoot me an email at dave@redstonecyclery.com for more details.

the fun awaits.

Thursday Night Ride, 3/24

Let's meet up at 6:45pm at the shop. It's likely that we'll head to the Eagle Trail trailhead just east of 36 on Neva Road.

Tuesday night rides start at the shop on April 5, just after Daylight Savings!

Dirt is Good! 

Full Moon Ride next Thursday

Looks like the moon will be full next week. Is anyone up for a full moon ride on Thursday night? Last full moon, I rode from Neva Road, all the way around the Res, and into Boulder on the Foothills trail without lights. Hopefully, next week will be another bright one.

Saturday Evening Post

Today was a good day. Temps were trying to break into the 60s at times, the sun came out a bit, and lots of folks were out on their bikes. Hall Ranch is even drying out. Sounds good to me.

The shop was busy, too. Service was rocking today and I sold a bike, too. To top all of that off, we finally got the sign mounted. You know, the big, 200# rock sign. Whew. Debaser came up to help out with that. It wasn't as big of an undertaking as I originally estimated, but it was a fair size time consumer. Hmmm. Come to think of it, the project was a fair size beer consumer as well! Anyway, the shop is looking top notch finally, but we still have a ways to go.

new bikes!

This has been a good week for Redstone. Come on by and check out the new bikes. We've got a silver Turner 5 Spot frame hanging up and we just got in some Schwinns and GTs.

I got the GT ID XC4.0 and the Schwinn Cruiser SS built tonight. Building the Cruiser SS was a good feeling. Having been an ex Schwinn employee, it felt like a homecoming of sorts. I know a lot of folks have mixed emotions about the Schwinn brand now (I do, too), but having spent so much time with Schwinn in the past, it just felt good.

Then there's the GT. This is the first ID XC I've seen outside of a trade show format. I have to say that I am really impressed. For only $1000, it's a really nicely spec'd full suspension bike. About the only thing missing are disc brakes, but hey, it's only $1k. It's not 100% done yet, but I'm eager to give it the ol' parking lot test. I really like the new I Drive design over past versions. It's much cleaner looking and lighter, too.

Hopefully by this weekend I'll have the other bikes built.

Tonights Town Hall Meeting on Hall/Heil Ranch

Tonight was the big town hall meeting about Lyons connecting to Hall Ranch and to Heil Ranch. Originally, this was intended to be a pretty low key event between Boulder County and some folks around town, but the crowd ended up being over 100 people. If you've ever been to Lyons Town Hall, you know that building was waaaay over capacity!

Anyway, this was the first meeting of hopefully several more. We (the mtb community) walked away from the meeting with hopes of working positively with Boulder County in the near future. Boulder County has 2 brand new and one pretty new Commissioners. That's the position in the drivers seat with regard to County Open Space. In the past, the Commissioners have contiunally favored preservation over recreation to a fault. Despite the fact that the counties residents have clammored for more outdoor recreation, the County has roped it off from the people.

Tonight could mark a turning point. Boulder County came to Lyons to present folks the idea of a trail going from Lyons to Hall Ranch and a trail going from Lyons to Heil Ranch. Most of the folks there were very opinionated and some groups (the local NIMBYS) were coordinated and well represented. Lots of bikers were present as well. It was mostly an informative session and nothing "real" came of it.

Perhaps the best thing, though, is that Boulder County officials realized that they were overwhelmed with folks sick of the County not listening to it's constituents. Hopefully, this will lead to a more progressive era in County politicking with regards to land management and recreation. I've got my fingers crossed.

we've been riding...

Time flies - I can't believe it's been over a week since I last posted an update. I was looking at the page and I think it needs some more pictures. Here's some pics from our last few rides. We've been riding Left Hand Canyon lately. It's super steep, very technical and most importantly, it's dry! Enjoy the pics. Also, keep Tuesday evenings open. Group rides will start soon at 6pm from the shop!

Enjoy the pics!

migz and bg climbing a faint singletrack


bg rockin' the ONLY smooth section of singletrack on the entire downhill.


smooth,LHC style


the views aren't half bad either. don't fall...

Thursday night ride

We're riding this Thursday, 3/3. Wow, hard to believe it's March already... Anyway, we meet up at the shop at 7:30pm and decide where to ride from there. Last week, I was solo, so I headed down to the reservoir for some full moon cruising. The moonlight was so bright, I didn't even use my light for half of the ride. Not the case this week, but we'll ride something fun anyhow. Hope to see some of you there!