Riding Singletrack

70+ Degrees in March?

I rode for a few hours up in the forest – it’s been forever it seems since I’ve been able to skip the open space parks for something a bit more rugged. Headed up to Lefthand OHV to get away from the masses that were certainly taking over every other place. Felt good to get up the top and look back down on the world for a few minutes!

New wheels kicking on the 5.5 today. I felt like a hero climbing, and couldn’t manage to knock ’em out of true. I did however manage to scratch ’em. New parts are only new for so long…

Decidedly nonspectacular

But I ride this weekend, finally.

 Yesterday was to work and back on the cross bike. Mostly road on the way in, and 1/2 trail on the way home. Man, that bike is a hit. It’s so compfortable, and it handles damn near like a mountain bike offroad. Smooth too. And flies off waterbars straight and true. I do need to get it on the local loop pronto.

 Today I was supposed to ride Hall, and made it all the way up there with the family. And it was windy and spitting rain. Super windy, too windy for the ladies. I pouted and acted as spoiled as possible, and then sucked it up and had the wife drop me off near home for a smaller more family friendly ride. It was good, not great. But I’ll take it after the nothing i’ve been doing so much lately.

Here’s to next weekend and some more fun!

Off

I’ve been down and out since Saturday afternoon. I started felling ‘off,’ and before Sunday morning, I’d lost 9 pounds, in all the most unpleasent ways. I’ve been a zombie since, pretty much sleeping when I’m not at work. Here’s to hoping for some riding in the coming weekend!

Winter Park Singletrack

Headed up to the Fraser this weekend fot a little get away time. Didn’t want to mess with the resort and all the big bucks, so I packed the xc skis. I wanted to hit the Creekside/Flume loop, but that whole area is closed for pine beetle removal. What I got instead was climbing up the backside of Tippery. I’ve never played on the xc trails there in the winter, and now I can’t wait to go back.

Dealing with the Devil

The past weekend was all about comprimises. All weekends are, it seems.

Saturday, we had a 1st birthday party to attend that started at three. After a semi-lazy morning of playing with the kid and some light chores, it was getting late. I looked at the wife who looked a bit mentally worn after staying home dealing with a sick for for a few days, and sent her out for a hike on her own and all the time she could ask for. Saturday was a bust for riding, but opened Sunday up.

I did some posting on MTBR, and decided to bail on the Pueblo ride. It was shaping up to be a 2+ hour ride in the car each way to ride with 20+ people. Not the relaxing day I was hoping for. So I posted about riding in Loveland at Devil’s backbone, where I’ve only ridden once, 3 or 4 years ago. It’s since opened up a bunch more loops and trails, and now connects all the way to Horsetooth in Fort Collins. After some last minute posting, I ended up there with 2 strangers and we set off to enjoy the day.

 A perfect January day – 30 degrees, sunny, light breeze, new trails, and tired legs. Exactly what I was looking for. Good enough too that I’ll be glad to head back up there.

 Here’s a view from our northernmost point. A nice little loop before heading back.

 And this one is Aaron before one of DBB’s famed drop off then left handers. He nailed both the drops, but didn’t quite make the corners. Impressive, since Chad and I were content to walk rather than risk it. I look at this picture and my first thought is ‘anticipation.’

So that’s what riding during the week feels like!

I finally hit up the Redstone Tuesday Night Ride again.  Helps that they came down my direction for some Marshall Mesa action.

I havn’t ridden much at all during the week in the last 4-5 months, and havn’t ridden at night in something like a year. It really hit the spot. It was cold, windy, icy in spots, and a ton of fun.

New website…

New bike! 

It’s good to finally make some progress with structuring my online space. First post on the new format, so why not celebrate with a new bike!

After numerous bike projeccts and not nearly enough focus on getting things done at home (that means I’ve been super lazy in far too much lately), I did manage to finish my new cross bike, a Soma Double Cross. It replaces a Jamis Nova I’d been riding for years, which was a favorite bike of mine, super dependable during its thousands of miles of abuse.

The Soma came about out of a hate of another bike I had for a year or two – a Merckx road bike. The bike just never fit me right, a little too big and long, and a little too aggresive for my tastes (I’m a scaredy cat when it comes to fast downhills on skinny tires). After 2 years of hanging in the garage, it had a whopping 600 miles on it, 100 of which came during the Elephant Rock ride. It was too much bike to not ever get ridden, so I tore it down to frame and fork, sold those, and had a nearly new mostly Ultegra 9 speed grouppo in a box. After a few months of moving it from place to place in the garage, I finally sold the Jamis and ordered up the steel Soma and a few parts I’d need to turn it and that box of parts into a working bike.

I did that months ago. Again, I’ve been very lazy for quite a while…

During the few days I was here alone while the family was in Olympia, I got back to work on it and finished it up on New Year’s Eve. Got out for a quick ride on the ice covered streets, and it felt pretty good. This weekend I got two more rides in. After a bit of fine tuning to the seat positioning and handlebar height, I think I’ve got a winner on my hands. It’s longer and lower than the Jamis, and from initial impressions it’s going to smooth out road and gravel and trail imperfections as well as any cross bike I could imagine building. I can’t wait for it to dry out here so I can get it on the local loop and come up with some more impressions.