Holidaze!

This was what it looked like at the house in WV. Not much to be done in this wet-ass snow.....

so I headed south to the NC. Hung out in Raleigh for a week or so with my sister's family and just rode here and there a bit. Crazy wet so not much singletrack, but it was still good.



And yeah, Maddie is the jam! Hit up a few playgrounds and she rocked it on the slides. Agility baby!

Just riding along with the black and white!



Headed to snowshoe mtn for the new year with some good folks. Full moon, some snow and probably lots of ice. Should be a great place to ride bikes or at least try to ride. I'm out.

wow!

Last Minutes with ODEN from phos pictures on Vimeo.

Pets, so much more than just a little critter!

No worries

has been my theme for about a month. We actually had a day without rain and it was 60 degrees. So sweet! The only plan I had was to pedal for most of the day. The day started out with some thick fog so hung around long enough to watch the fog lift away. Riding by 10:30 with a tentative loop. Started out with some roads up and out of town to some nice gravel. Climbed up to High Knob only to descend some true sketchiness. Steep and packed dirt with a nice layer of moisty goodness on top only to run into 50 yard sections of 3 inch thick loose gravel. Just hold on and try to stay upright. Would be a way better climb due to a HUGE sketch factor. Stopped by a house my buddy Dann-o is building and help set a few large windows then away I went.
Hit up a road I haven't been on in years and missed a major turn. 12 miles later I had to ask the state road workers where I was. Ended up being in the wrong county and had to backtrack. Whatever, made it home 5 1/2 hours after starting and a solid 70 miles was thrown down. Will try for a few more biggies the latter part of the week and weekend. I'm out. peace.

The Gorge

road ride was pretty flippin' sweet. Met up at New River Bikes in Fayetteville, WV. The weather was less than stellar but the riding partners were of rock star status. Diesel, Andy, J-bird and myself. Andy hooked Jason up with his old Bianchi 1x9 cross bike.
Started with a little road section down into the gorge and yeah the bridge is BIG.
Hit the first trail section and it was moist. Trails and old railroad grades and some pavement was the way of the day. Rode down to the New River along an old railroad grade
that had some pretty sweet views. The weather was perfect until we stopped for lunch. That's when the rain started at the not quite half way point. The camera got put away at this time. We ended up bailing on a big climb as there was no way we could pull it off and still get back to the shop by dark. There was only one light and it was going to be a dark night.






We decided to do an out and back on another old road, then headed up a rail trail to Ace. Then from Ace we went up to a main-ish road for a few miles to the trailhead of some super fast and flowy trails. These trails dropped us right into downtown. How sweet is that? Ended up with around 60 miles and pedaled for several hours. Nice and moisty, another day in the saddle in WV.

Hit up a meeting for two stacked loop systems in the gorge along with an eventual plan to do a park through trail. One of these stacked loops will join in with the existing trails in downtown. Creating 25-ish miles right out the door of the shop. A lot of good things in the cycling world are going on in Fayetteville. If you're going through Fayetteville stop by New River Bikes and Touring and hit up Andy. He'll give you a heads up on what to ride and may even take you out for a sweet ass lunch time loop. Peace.

So Moisty

yet oh so good! J-bird, the craziest and toughest person I know along with being one of my favorite people, was in the WV from MT. So something good was in order. Had a run or two already thrown down, his forte, so it was time for a bike ride, my forte. Less than a mile into the ride was the initial foot soaker. It's normally not bad but 30 degrees and moisty within the first few minutes definitely sets the tone for the day.

This dude hadn't been on a bike in over 3 years and hadn't done one of my road rides, but rocked it anyway.


There were only about 12 creek crossings, but there was LOTS of mud. Just a day of shooting the shit and pedaling some bikes with great company.

A casual day enjoying the leftover snow. Stopped by another buddies house and had a foot warming session in front of the wood stove. Warmth never felt so good. It made the last 10 miles rather enjoyable and quite cozy.
The Merckx loves the dirt road goodness, no matter how shitty the road is.

The v-dub has been getting thrashed. Very little traffic, wet and sloppy roads along with a fun little rally-ish car is killer. Commuting by car hasn't been this much fun in a while. Headed to the gorge for an all day sketch session on tuesday. I'm out!

Just being

Here's some sweet dog stoke. Maddie's ready, are you? Just been doing solo night rides on the Merckx around central WV. In case you were curious, big gravel road descents brakeless are............. sketchy. But I don't like to back away from 'em and there are lots of 'em around here. Thinking the punk bike enduro in the 'burg is in the werks for this weekend, should be sweet.

Pedal,

that's all you have to do! Another stellar weekend in CO!

Hit up Lubes on thursday for a quick what's up ride. Out came the fat tire road bikes and away we went. Hit up everything that is dirt on our side of town. Just riding along was the theme of the day.

Friday hit up BC for the T.I.T.S. ride. The weather was nasty in Denver but was beautiful in BC. Several came up to brave the weather. Just as the ride started, the snow began to fall. Perfect temps and excellent company. Did a little of this and that and just pedaled. There was a bobcat sighting and possibly a Jason sighting as it was friday the 13th. Got back to the car and I decided to camp there for the night since the Hut ride was taking place saturday am.

The Hut ride was badass! Finally met the infamous Ed and Jenny and ridin' bikes is what we did. 9 brave souls showed up for a 5ish hour ride. Definitely a VERY casual pace with a lot of stops. The weather was nice and brisk as it snowed, quite heavily at times, most of the day. Hit up chair rocks and then back to the cars.

Maddie rocked it as usual, throwing down for 23ish miles friday night and then back for 30 more saturday morning. Such a killer little black and white.

Then to the hut we went. An absolute killer dinner spread was there for our enjoyment along with the coziness of the hut and some excellent company. A wonderful way to spend the day. It continued snowing so it was obviously time for the pump track on spikes sketchy-ass bike, in some fresh fluff. Headed home with about 9 inches of snow on the road and had a blast. The little v-dub is rock solid. Lettin' loose in all the turns with some sweet drifting action, so sweet. And it is true, most people in CO have no idea how to drive in snow. Ridiculous. Another amazing weekend.

I'll hit you up with a link to Ed's photos whenever he posts them and want to say sorry to everyone for their muddy Maddie prints in all of their cars. It's what she does, explore!

Good Times

Absolute stellar weekend of riding. It all started on Thursday afternoon. Met up with Lubes for an around town cross ride. I just did get some cross tires on the old Merckx and she is a ripper. Had wanted to do a trail ride but they just weren't ready. Ended up riding all of the trails at Bear Creek then met up with the t.i.t.s. crew for the night ride. Wet trails pushed us off of Green Mountain, so back to Bear Creek for the evening. The ranger politely kicked us out and then we split off. My sag wagon had bailed and within two minutes of seperating from the group I had a rear flat. Since I never carry anything it was a nine mile pedal home in the dark on a flat tire. A great way to end a killer ride. Ended up with 50-ish miles and around 25 of those on trail.

Saturday was supposed to be the pint-2-pint but most of us bailed on it due to probable shitty trail conditions. Headed to BC instead and had an awesome day on the bicycle. Seven of us rode and it was one of the first times that no one was on a time schedule. Just ridin' and chillin'. Then up to Mateo's for a reworking of the pumptrack. Finally put in some of the adjustments Ben recommended upon his inspection.

Then Sunday headed to Lyons with Spike, Lubes, the Chad and Gavin. Heil-picture-Hall and back with a little pump track acton in the middle. I was definitely that guy on this ride. Numerous mechanicals with no tools. Two flats, my grips kept coming off, broken spoke with significant frame rubbage due to said broken spoke. Glad my sag wagon always has what I need. Ended up with 35-ish miles of some nice and rocky goodness. Rode the last mile on a flat front tire.

The weather couldn't have been any better and the riding partners kept it interesting. Miss Maddie threw down for a solid showing on Saturday, but isn't allowed to ride in Boulder County. Boulder and all of their rules. It's not a place for me. Several rides should be going on this week. May even break out the fixie for a ride or two. I'm out, peace,

Something

The snow is almost gone and the trails should be ready, soon. The last few days have just been riding the merckx around town and seeing what I see. Not gonna lie, been jonesin for a trail ride, and missing the cross bike. Working on something new and badass!
my little bike and Lube's big bike


The pint to pint got reschedules for this weekend. The light is charged and ready, let's ride!

Yep!

For those that aren't in the front range area you missed some snow. Ended up with about 2 ft here at the house. All I know is that I have a little black and white dog that is in need of some serious exercise. 3-4 hours a day of walking through a couple feet of snow did nothing for this critter.



Maddie digs the snow and loves to bury her head in it, but she definitely needs a 30 mile ride, soon. I think I may need a few of 'em as well!

Had to dig the car out last night. Had to use the snow shovel to get all of that shit off of her. Then the old v-dub powered right through all of that other shit.

This weekend is the bicycle film festival and since all of the rides that were going on this weekend kind of got shelved, that's where I'll be. Come on out and enjoy some bicycle films. The melt is on, so hopefully in a few days we will ride again. peace!

Snow Day!

A little bit of snow at the house. Supposed to stop tomorrow sometime. Gotta love a snow day.
Happy Dog, she loves the white stuff!

Bean FeSSt VI

This weekend was the annual Bean FeSSt in BC. Two days of riding with a mexican food potluck on sunday after the ride. What wasn't expected was the carry over shittieness (snow) from last week's storm.

Woke early on saturday to drive up to BC, set up camp and be pedaling by 10:30. The plan was to ride to Lenny's Rest, possibly Indian Creek and meet up with John and Doug who were riding in from Colorado Springs. The idea was to meet up and then pedal in together to BC.

As soon as I got on trail I ran into snow. Completely rideable, just very moist. The further I went the more snow I encountered. The only snow free areas were the south facing sides through the Buffalo burn. After dropping down to the South Platte is where is the trails conditions got shittie!

Once the climbing began, the snow gradually got deeper. What started as a killer day, deteriorated very fast. I ended up pushing up to the highest point where I decided I was NOT going to make it to Lenny's Rest. I was hoping the other guys had chosen an alternate route.

So I started descending back to the river. A lot of the descent was unrideable as well, stupid snow. Had to stop half way down and ring out my soaking wet socks, eat some snacks and warm up. Once I got to the switchbacks the snow had melted and created a small river down the midle of the trail. This created a sloppy mess. 2 miles of this and then the real climb began.

90% of the snow had melted on the climb and thus very moist. Once I finally got to the trailhead/camp site, 5 1/2 hours later, Doug and John rolled in right behind me. They had run into significant snow and sketchiness and thus bailed on their original plan. What should have been a 65 mile ride turned into a 95 mile ride with the last 15 miles into a 20 mph headwind. In their words, "it was one of those rides where you didn't want to talk to anyone or look at anything, just put your head down and get it finished!"

The after party turned out to be super fun. Eight of us built a big fire, ate some grub and everyone else hit the bottle. Just kicked it for the night and enjoyed the tomfoolery.

Woke up to the sound of frozen rain drops on the tarp, which turned into snow pretty quickly. It snowed all day and the temperature was dropping steadily. The low for the day was supposed to be 30 degrees. It didn't get close to that.

We built a fire and the procrastination began. 4 of those who camped bailed on the ride, and all of those who camped bailed on the longer ride. 13 started the ride and at the first intersection 7 of us opted for the shorter route and 2 picked the shortest route possible. The trail was fairly wet with snow covering the wooded sections and just wet in the burn. It was one of those rides that you did just because you were already there and you may as well ride.

Threw down for a sweet session of eating and burnt the rest of the wood. Just kicked it 'til the fire was out and headed back to town. Another beautiful day in CO! It's still snowing, no work tomorrow due to snow, so may head to Loveland for a day on the slopes.

more pics. here

Diversify!

Thursday ended up being a full day on the bike. Started out at the skatepark on the new dirt jumper. Spent a few hours figuring shit out. Then headed to Buffalo Creek for a quick 30 miler! Ended up a little shorter than anticipated but was super fast and flowy. Left there and headed to Mateo's for a quick session on the pumptrack. An hour later I was beat. I have to say it was a good day.

Was supposed to meet up with the t.i.t.s. crew for a night ride but I didn't want to pull a late night and I was stoked with the day I was able to pull off.

Maddie has been a bit down as she ran a stick through her chest the other day. She's full of antibiotics and spunky as ever, just doesn't have the capacity for her normal rides. She was beat after 30 miles when normally she is just a little tired. Give her a few days off and she'll be ready for next week.

On a lighter note, I do know that the new ride feels, oh so good!

BRRR!!!!!

All I know is that a cold front was coming in today and I was gonna ride in it no matter what. No bitching out due to the cold, snow, rain or whatever else we me get. Hit up Spike friday night and he was game. Packed every cold weather item that I may possibly need. A 9am ride time in BC was sure to be cold. They were calling for 15 degrees but was gonna feel like 8 degrees.

Woke at 7 and out the door at 7:30. A brisk morning to say the least. Hit the highway and it was an ice rink. Lots and lots of wrecks, just coast through it and don't hit your brakes. Was definitely wishing I had put on my studded tires on yesterday. Whatever, made it with only a little sketchiness. They ended up closing 285 right after I got through, due to extremely icy roads

Ready to roll by 9 am and it was brisk. 14 degrees and felt like it was about zero. Up sandywash we went and we both realized that we were over dressed. Stopped to shed a layer, on the new section of trail, when we ran into another dude riding bikes. Got moving again, down hill-ish and wished we hadn't shed a layer.

At the top of Baldy I decided I need to put my highly visible and well marked vest back on. Dropped baldy and about froze to death. I went as fast as I could while still having functional extremities. Brain freeze like crazy, my forehead was too cold. Hit the road and climbed Morrison, it wasn't quite steep or long enough to warm us up. Got to the top and had to descend shinglemill. It was the slowest either of us had ever gone down that trail. Just trying not to freeze.

Got to the cars and decided to go to Mateo's house and get the hut warmed up and to hit the pump track for a bit. I have to admit it's a great way to spend the afternoon after a good bike ride. The hut was toasty warm and the pump track was sweet.

Doing it again tomorrow with a few more folks and it's supposed to be around 30 degrees, nice and warm.

btw, I finally built up a street ride, dirt jumping bike. With two squishy gadgets. I've been looking forward to this one for a while.