Velonerds

Gas mileage and roof racks

2011-10-18T09:58:00.000-07:00

In the old days I used to drive over the hill every day with my bike on the roof. My roof rack was a Thule with two side arms, a fairing and an old velo vice in the middle. My little Toyota Corolla Matrix used to get around 21-22 mpg. Recently I've been lucky enough to be able to ride from my house and so I was only driving over the hill with an empty rack on and my mileage shot up to 24-25 miles to the gallon. Well since I wasn't really using the rack much and my daughter now fits in one of those easily moveable booster seats so I can put the seats down if I need to get a bike in the car I took the rack off and now I'm getting 30 mpg. Something worth thinking about.

I always wanted a trailer hitch (Thule T2) for this car, in fact I have one, but it's the 2" version for the truck and you can't get a 2" hitch for the Matrix. I contacted Thule about getting just the smaller hitch connector, or the hitch and bit the trays connect to and not a whole T2 so I can put it in a 1&1/4" hitch but they don't sell them. One day I saw a matrix with a 2" hitch, I followed it until it parked and asked the owner where he got it, he looked at me smugly and said, "I made it!" Sigh, he wasn't willing to make one for me. Yup, I could have got a 1.25" to 2" converter but it would have made the rack stick out even more and I think hitch racks have too much torsional force to introduce any more play into the situation.

I wonder if I would have broken even if I'd bought the 1.25" hitch and new T2 and what kind of gas mileage I would have got with that? It sure would be easier to take on and off.

Turkey Day Ride!

2010-11-25T17:52:00.000-08:00

We posted the flyer, we might as well post the pictures! We all met at Epicenter Cycling at 8:00AM sharp and some of us enjoyed the free coffee and I picked up my daughter's Christmas present (ssshhhhh, don't tell her!) and we began the climb up to sand point.

It was literally freezing cold on the climb up, frozen water on the puddles and condensing breath as we hoofed the 9 miles to the top. We were rewarded with crystal clear views of the Monterey Bay and the beautiful woods below.

On the way up we saw a few groups of people who had made it up to the top even earlier and were on their way down, some in fancy dress, one with a huge turkey head on her helmet.

The pot luck part of the ride was well represented. Shawn provided turkey sandwiches and Daryl brought a party platter. Some genius brought chocolate chip cookies which went down great.

As you can see there was quite the crowd and we even picked up some more people who just happened to be riding by.

The ride down was much less cold and lots of fun. A great event, the best annual Epicenter Cycling turkey ride ever!

Looking forward to next year!

Epicenter Cycling Turkey Day Ride 8am!

2010-11-22T11:31:00.000-08:00

Since they don't have it on their site, I thought I'd pimp it here a bit.

Epicenter Cycling are having a Turkey Day Ride!

Thursday November 25th 2010 at 8AM at the shop

Free Coffee at the shop and a pot luck at Sand point if you feel like bringing some food!

See you there!

Lifecycles!

2010-10-26T12:47:00.000-07:00

Epicenter Cycling presents

Life Cycles

Thursday October 28th 2010

Aptos Cinema 7pm

Tickets are $10 at Epicenter Cycling or $12 at the door.

VDO MC1.0 Wired Bike Computer

2009-11-25T16:02:00.000-08:00

I've had my VDO MC 1.0 for over a year now and I can without reservation heartily recommend it. It has worked flawlessly throughout the year. I'm still on my original battery and it's worked through rain and shine.

I got the wired 1.0 rather than the wireless 1.0+ because of the horrible experience I had with the sigma wireless. This wired unit turns on right away when the wheel turns and I don't think I've missed a single mile the whole time I've had it.

I like that it always shows the temperature, I wished it always showed the clock too, but it's not hard to get to the clock anyway. The altimeter seems to work great, agreeing with the total ascent on several of the large rides I've been on and also being consistent from day to day. The buttons to get to and set functions are very intuitive and I find it really easy to use. I like that the mount has the ability to mount on the stem or the bars and spare mounts are cheap (I have three). Be careful when ordering a mount, if you want a stem mounted one you have to make sure to get that spare mount. They also sell a spare mount that only mounts on the bars. Sadly the only place online I found that sold them was pretty lax about shipping all the parts when I ordered a mount.

Even though I love it, there are of course a few things I would change. First of all, I'd add a backlight, it's a glaring omission in a computer of this price and I miss it on my night rides (I ride with bar mounted lights). I would also change the odometer menu so that it went clock, odo1, odo2, navigator, because I never use the navigator, but if you want, make the navigator come after clock, not before it. The numbers are pretty small, like I said I'd like to show the time all the time, but once you get used to the font and the display reading the numbers isn't that hard, even on a bumpy mountain bike trail. I'm also a bit bummed that I can set the odometer readings but I can't set the total altitude settings for each bike (It has settings for 2 bikes). I've run this over the altimeter counter's max twice now, when it goes over 200,000ft it ends up showing 10's of feet so it will display 250.34 when it means 250,340ft. hitting the all reset button on the back and programming in your wheel sizes, time, home altitude and odometer settings gets you back up and running. It's bit of an inconvenience but you only have to do it once or twice a year if you care.

The sensor wasn't quite large enough to mount on the disk side of my mtb fork, and the magnet that came with it was kind of lame, luckily I had an old sigma one left around to use :)

Cambria is currently selling the VDO MC 1.0 for $100, if it was a bit cheaper I'd buy another one just so I have a spare. Or you could get it direct from the manufacturer for the same price.

Trail Maintenance Tools

2009-11-22T19:30:00.000-08:00

Winter storms leave lots of detritus on the trails. Here's something you could easily carry along in your camelbak to quikly open up any trails that have small to medium trees blocking them. I like to only clear out trees that stop cyclists riding through the trail. If the log is low just pile more logs next to it to make a nice trail feature. If it's high enough to duck under and keep riding then why not leave it there for extra trail riding fun.

Obviously I would never advise cutting down tress or doing any trail maintenance where that is not allowed.

Corona 10 inch folding saw. I've been carrying a Corona saw around on the trails for years now. This latest one is the best by far. The 10" length lets me cut through some sizable trees and the curved blade really cuts through the wood efficiently.

When the log is too big for that saw above, or too many cuts would be required to affect the ride too much, I usually just end up leaving it, usually within a week, someone with more fortitude has come along and fixed things. Occasionally a log remains on a favorite lesser used trail for longer and then it's up to you to fix it. That's where a sawzall comes in handy. I've found this battery powered ryobi unit fits perfectly in a camelbak hawg with two batteries and an obscenely long blade. I put in some cardboard too so that there weren't any lumps sticking into my back, it works surprisingly well. Here's a picture gallery of how it al fits in.

These are the blades I want to have, super long and come in a 5 pack for a pretty reasonable sum.

These are the blades I have. They work well and they also have The Ugly written on them.

Social Ineptitude?

2009-10-05T06:48:00.000-07:00

Ruh Roh, perhaps we should have been the Velo Geeks instead?

3" PVC pipe makes a great bottle holder

2009-08-27T18:15:00.000-07:00

I drink a lot of water after a ride and my car doesn't have enough cup holders for them all. I've been keeping my bottles in the pocket behind the drivers seat but they fall over and end up dripping back there and it's a mess. I got 1ft of 3" PVC pipe and cut it into three 4" sections and hot glued them together, this stuck into the seat pocket holds water bottles perfectly. There's more pictures of this in the gallery. Also check out my Camelbak opener.

Second Ever: Santa Cruz Off-Road Metric Century

2009-07-11T21:17:00.001-07:00

The second ever Santa Cruz Off-Road Metric Century was a huge success! Nicole, Alex, Bob and Dave started off around 8:10AM and 10 miles later we had already spit Nicole out of the back. She broke her 7 year old frame with a clean break on the seat tube. Luckily it had a lifetime warranty, sadly the new front triangle they're putting on will need a new shock :(
The rest of the ride was frickin' sweet.

Bob crashed on the trail that everyone seems to crash on. Bob's been on some night rides with us in the past and ridden Cream Puff and Leadville 100 and all sorts of stuff so this ride was cake for him. He was patient waiting for me on some of the climbs and as I walked up the fire road towards twin oaks. It's worth noting that after the crash he kept on riding and didn't cry or anything! Great to have you with us Bob! Jun had just crashed on the same trail 2 days before and so was unable to do the ride with us. Quite a few others were also unable to come because they were off being awesome at the Downieville Classic.

We lost David in Wilder but found him again when we headed out for loop 3 and in a heroic effort he turned around and came with us to ride over to Bear Mountain.

In the end by 9PM we did 72 miles and almost 10,000ft climbing. That's over 115Km for those keeping count which means, again, we got 15% extra free on our Metric Century! Having Jun and Char's as a base was as awesome as last year and they were great hosts with a nice spread of food and beer and sausages afterwords! Erin met us after an awesome hike and showed off her impressive blister (should'a ridden bikes!).

A highlight for me was bumping into Karen on one of the back trails at 5:30PM around mile 55, she yelled at us, "I thought you only rode at 7:40AM", I yelled back, "I've been riding SINCE 7:40AM!"

After the ride we all hung out, ate BBQ and since Jun and Char were moving, they had a lot of junk to get rid of, so that instantly became our traditional post ride raffle!

More pictures in the Photo Gallery.

Camelbak opening tool

2009-05-30T20:42:00.000-07:00

I've had a tough time opening my camelbak ever since I got a new one with a supposedly easier to open bladder. I tried putting mineral oil on the threads and that helped for about a week. Today I finally solved the problem. I present to you the camelbak opening doohicky.

It's just two screws in a piece of 2x1. Works awesome!

Boggs IV

2009-04-08T16:01:00.001-07:00

The Velonerds were at Boggs IV this year and had a blast.

Bob, Nicole and I all drove up and had a great day's racing. Nicole came in 1st in women's Sport and says this is the last time she's racing sport, she's moving up to expert for the next race! Bob came in 5th in EXPERT (only 5 mins from the podium)! kicking ass and breaking 3 bones in his back in the process. I still had flu but didn't come in dfl. Jessica, Dan and Birdsong were also there ripping it up and lots of our friends from Sac. and around.

Bob's back? I hear you ask!? Here's how he describes it:
I hit a tree or two after overcooking a downhill turn just after cresting the last climb. I only had about 2 miles of downhill & rolling trails to finish my last lap. I was so jacked up on adrenaline, endorphins and my final bottle full of flat Pepsi that I had no idea what was going on. I'll go see a doc around here this week to see how soon I can get back on the bike. I would really like to hold onto my fitness.

Here's the list of injuries

3 fractured spinal transverse processes (bones that come of of the vertebrae) When my muscles contracted hard to protect other parts they ended up fracturing the bone.
Sprained and bruised shoulder - rotator cuff
Rib contusion
Chest contusion with pulmonary contusion
Bruised ego

Why we wear propellers on our helmets...

2009-02-12T14:59:00.001-08:00

2009 Races/Rides

2009-01-27T13:15:00.000-08:00

Here's some of the races we're planning on attending this year. Make sure to look out for us in our shirts and ties with propellers on our helmets!

Sat March 28th 2009
Boggs 8 hr (registration is full)
Sat May 2nd 2009
Coolest 8/24
Sat May 16th 2009
100 miles around lake Sonoma
Sat June 6th 2009
24 hours of adrenaline (we're not racing this one)
Sat June 20th 2009
Coolest II Boggs 8/24
Sat July 25th
Santa Cruz Mountains Challenge (WARNING: ROAD RIDE)
Sat Oct 3rd 2009
Whiskeytown 9 to 5, Whiskeytown Lake

Other races that aren't scheduled yet:
The Santa Cruz Off-Road Metric Century (April,July?)

Other races we might do (mostly TeamBigFoot):
12 Hours of Weaverville, Weaverville
12 Hours of Humboldt, Arcata
Clikapudi Six to Midnight, Shasta Lake
24 Hours of Whiskeytown , Whiskeytown Lake

old parts suck

2008-11-28T18:43:00.000-08:00

It all started off so easily. The old bike wouldn't shift. Turns out the shifter pod was busted, likely a teeny little spring on the pawl died. Luckily I had a spare set of shifter/brake lever combos but they were 8 speed, the bike is/was 7 speed. So I put on the levers, I changed the wheel to a new/old wheel that can take an 8 speed cassette. Then I put on a new chain too and re-threaded all the cables. Then I found out the new levers were for v-brakes and the old bike had canti's, had, now it has some left over v-brakes. In summary: a broken shifter == new shifter/levers, wheel, cassette, chain, v-brakes, brake cable. When I was all done and adjusting the chain length, I found the front shifter was also broken! but screw it, I'll fix that another day.

Dinotte Lighting Kicks Ass

2008-11-06T14:03:00.001-08:00

There's a reason why Dinotte Lighting Systems are quickly becoming the standard bike lights for our monthly waxing full moon night rides. Three of us have a 600L system and it's really nice to be on a ride and know that we have several spare batteries snuck into our camelbaks in case we decide to ride longer or forgot to charge our batteries. When I ordered my lights an extra battery was only another $30, a total deal. Also Dinotte sells the light units (they call them engines) separately which means you can buy one set and then have another light just by buying an engine and using your other spare batteries! A Single 600L provides more than enough illumination to light the way in the deep redwood forests. The controls are really nice to quickly get to full beam and burn times are excellent. The charger is light and small and turns off when the battery is charged. The batteries are also light and small and connected with a very robust connector that is very unlikely to come loose. I like to use the helmet mount on the visor of a baseball cap when I'm working around the yard at night.

Another reason why I really like Dinotte is that small local company service. Even though they're in New Hampshire, they ship the lights in a box that fits in a priority mail flat rate envelope. That means that you'll likely get your lights within one or two days of your order and mailing things back for service is usually less than a week to get them back! Dinotte are very quick at replying to emails and quick to try and fix any issues that come up.

On the Halloween montebello ride I got more wet than anyone should ever have to endure. my dinotte 600L worked great the whole ride. However after that the battery wouldn't charge and would blink red/green on the charger. I emailed Dinotte and waited for a reply. I then tried another morning ride with a different dry battery and found my head unit was damaged such that it blinked really fast (and was NOT in blinky mode) and the lights on the back cycled left to right, including red. I got home to find a nice email from Dinotte that they recommend I send back my battery (they didn't know about the head unit yet) and suggesting while I was at it, to just send back everything and they'd give it the once over.

Since they ship in a box that fits in a flat rate priority envelope it was trivial to mail everything back. In 5 days I had a package from them with a whole new light head, charger and 3 brand new batteries!

This has taught me two things:

My dinotte batteries aren't quite as bomb proof as I thought and if it's raining I might tape over that little clip hole in the battery. I had ridden with them during rain many times but now I'll be a little extra careful.
Dinotte will look after you (above and beyond) if you ever have any problem with their system.

I highly recommend Dinotte lights!

Bike Nashbar rules

2008-11-06T13:48:00.000-08:00

I figure I should offset some of the negativity coming up in the following posts with some positive news. So I'm going to highlight a company which I think has really stepped up and helped me out and give them praise and encourage you to give them your business. Bike Nashbar recently accepted a return of a 2 month old heavily used Sigma BC 2006 MHR bike computer. I bought it from them, found it sucked, worked with the manufacturer but couldn't get an acceptable resolution so sent it back to Nashbar who gave me my money back. I had already ordered a replacement 'puter from them so that all worked out well. I got a VDO MC1.0 (wired) which is working very nicely, I'll post full reviews sometime soon. Thanks Bike Nashbar, you've earned my business for a very long time to come!

Sigma 2006 MHR - do not buy

2008-10-28T18:37:00.000-07:00

I try pretty hard to stay positive and only post negative posts about epic fails like Race Face's sucky product failures and sucky customer service. But I'm afraid I have to post a negative post about the Sigma BC 2006 MHR bike computer. I got one because Erin had one and she loved it and it had all the features I wanted and then some. I'd had trouble with wired bike computers in the past, seems the connectors on the mount just end up getting dirty. Using a pencil eraser on them, or contact cleaner would sometimes help but eventually the problem came back. My trusty Specialized Team Wireless bike computer was pretty awesome, as long as I remembered to push a button to make it start looking at the start of a ride. It also showed the time all the time which I really liked. But I was missing altitude and also temperature which is some data I really wanted to start collecting. The Sigma bc2006mhr had it all and I installed it right away.

Before I get into some of the details of this bike computer I'll outline the one flaw that makes me want to yell and scream and insist that you not buy it. The computer will easily get itself into a state where it looks normal but will not register the wheel rotating. You might not notice this and lose a lot of riding data. What's worse is that the only way to get it to look foryour wheel again is to take it out of the mount for 10 seconds and put it back in (or press and hold a bunch of buttons for a 30 second process). This is inexcusable, dangerous and incredibly frustrating. If you're looking for similar functionality I've had great luck with a VDO MC1.0 wired bike computer. A review of that is coming up soon.

How does the sigma lock up? It has a bump sensor which is slick, if the bike is moved it starts looking for a wheel and counting distance. This is a really awesome idea with an awful implementaion. If it doesn't find a wheel in 2 minutes it gives up (to save on battery life). However the unit needs 5 minutes of no bumping to go to sleep properly. during the 3 minutes between when it stops looking and the 5 minutes to sleep, if you bump it, it stays in this state of retardedness where it's not looking for anything. The only way to make it look again is to take it out of the mount or go into settings menu and then out of settings menu. This is dangerous when you're riding down the trail.

You might think that's not a big deal, you might imagine that you rarely enter this limbo time period during normal riding, but I hit it so often that it drove me crazy. My bike on the roof of the car would put it into this stuck state. Stopping on a trail and chatting with my friends would cause it to lock up.

I worked with Sigma support on this for 6 weeks, they sent me a new (refurbished) unit which had the same problems (and a nearly flat battery when the one I sent them was with a brand new battery!). In the end they said this is how it's designed to be and that I should just try and sell it. They were in a tough spot since I hadn't bought it from them, so they couldn't offer me my money back. They did offer me a generous credit towards other sigma products but I was pretty soured on them by this and just wanted my money back. In the end I mailed the used unit (with no box) back to Bike Nashbar and they were awesome and gave me my money back. I'd already ordered a replacement unit, the VDO MC1.0 which has been working great.

Here's some other complaints I have about the unit:

The mount has contacts on it even though the unit is wireless. This has me worried that if the contacts on the bottom of the mount start getting flaky will the computer just stop working. All the drawbacks of wireless and a wired computer.
Resetting trip takes a long time. You have to hold the button until it resets just the distance (or whatever's showing) and then wait until it resets all and then stops flashing. Takes quite a while, especially if you're riding along the trail at the time.
It has 4 buttons, but only 2 really move between the data you want to see, which means to get to trip altitude or the temperature it's 4 or so presses of the button.
The heart rate monitor display is always there, even if you have it turned off. If the hear rate monitor is of, why not use those digits to show the current time or something useful. or just blank, rather than a distracting OFF.

There were a few things I liked about it, until it let me down so badly.

Really nice settings. It was really easy to setup. Sometimes the use of buttons wasn't quite uniform, sometimes the bottom right button would toggle an option, other times it would move between digits, but generally it was easy to do.
Nice clear display. The display was big and very easy to read. The backlight was good with a full battery but often using the backlight would cause the display to show zero
With a second wheel kit you can seamlessly move between bikes, just move the head unit and you're done. The second wheel kits transmits that it's the 2nd bike and everything just works. No need to remember to switch between wheel sizes.

None of thse benefits outweigh the fact it might just lock up on you and stop recording your trip info.

Circumnavigating Mt. Hood by Mountain Bike

2008-10-20T01:19:00.000-07:00

A report from Jun:

As we bulleted through a rainstorm on our 12 hour drive to Oregon, the bikes were washed clean of the dust, parasites, and spores from our familiar NorCal rides. No non-native species introduced by us! We may have had some concern about whether or not we’d have weather or not, but for the next 4 days, my mind would be likewise swept clean of most preconceptions about what this trip would be like. Too many roads? Too little singletrack? Way too much climbing with big packs on our backs? Backcountry haunts in hillbilly mountain glens, and us in goofy spandex? Would we get lost like others before us, lamenting their missed turns and botched directions in articles? Pure chance encounter reintroduced us to young Blaise Hamel, young MTB phenom, formerly of Santa Cruz, with his new girlfriend in a brewhouse near the Oregon border. Nothing to make me feel older than that young face looking at me sadly as he took his measure of our intent. Rolling into Portland at 1:30 AM, we drowned the last of our doubts in good local draft beers and a fine selection from Matt’s (San Luis Obispo expat and friend of Dylan’s) extremely impressive computerized wine vault, falling asleep to the last frames of a freeride video from SLO.

Late rising and the requisite coffee-mongering at one of a bazillion cafes in Portland got us to the tiny town of Hood River past noon. Hasty map purchasing and burrito purchases got us rolling within the hour, almost 27 miles and 6000 feet ahead of us before the sunset. 2.5 miles in, I thought we’d lost Dylan. As we buzzed along a paved historic trail closed to vehicular traffic, he invented an alternate route behind a white fence --there probably to prevent people from accidentally falling down the cliff behind it – caught his handlebar and went over the bars, almost disappearing down the slope. He was up and riding again in no time and we were all appropriately cowed by the experience.

The views all along the historic bike path and into the next town were gorgeous – literally, the Columbia River Gorge is where kitesurfing was born – and we were grateful to shift into granny gears for the first, brutal, endless climb into the foothills towards Mt. Hood. Brief burrito breaks later, we were at the option to take singletrack in to the hut, rather than continue on roads and we took it. Or rather, it took us. Descents were short, when faced with extremely technical climbing sections over and over again.

At the end of our day, this roller coaster of tight singletrack, rock gardens, and nose-of-the-saddle climbs was punishing, to say the least. Dave needed more burrito power, so stopped just short of the Surveyor’s Ridge Hut to feast and recoup energy. Our first views of Mt. Hood were rewarding and reminded us, as we looked out over the grand view, that we had a lot of terrain to cover in the next 4 days to get all the way around that beast!

Our first night in the huts, we were rewarded with a cooler full of beer, wine, and food by the armload in the cabinets. We figured out the routine we’d use all three nights in the identical huts, cooked, drank, belched, and collapsed into deep sleep.

Nights got really cold, with all of us layering up multiple sleeping bags from the empty bunks (eight per cabin, with only us three inside). Come morning, none of us wanted to get up and make the pancakes, but strong coffee (“it IS the pacific northwest” the literature said) and Dylan’s secret oatmeal hotcakes recipe got us on the move again.

This time, the ride began with long stretches of singletrack along the previous day’s Surveyor’s Ridge, then connected with Gunsight Ridge. At times, it was flowy, at times rough and rocky, and always challenging and fun. It was almost like getting two singletrack rides in during the morning (10-13 miles each) having a lunch break, then finishing up with a gentler double track ride along the historic Oregon Trail.

Each time we got out of the trees along the ridgeline, we were rewarded with stunning views of Mt. Hood, always with the implicit challenge of a vista that included our entire route around it. By day’s end, we’d done about 4500 feet of climbing, 5300 feet of descent, and 36 miles of distance before beating the sun just barely to the Barlow Hut.

Dylan’s crank brothers pedal (candy) self-destructed just before we got to the Barlow Hut (his third pair, what crap!), so we skipped a singletrack option in the morning to ride to the small mountain town of Government Camp and track down a replacement pedal. After doing laps back and forth around the small town, looking for an open bike shop, we rolled out without a pedal – despite looking through a glass window at exactly what Dylan needed with no one to unlock and sell. We certainly did not come away empty-handed, as we had lots of good will from the townsfolk, warmth from their fireplace, and hot pastrami and lattes in our stomachs.

Along our way, we were flying down some tight singletrack when I saw the beams of a wooden trestle-like construction ahead. “Sweet! Feature coming up!” I shouted as I accelerated a little towards it, only to find that it was actually a collapsed trail bridge. Too late, rode down it – said many quiet thanks to whomever put a little boulder in the middle of the break – and kept barely enough momentum to ride up the other side. Dave followed closely and we exchanged VERY nervous/relieved laughs on the other side. That could have gone very differently.

We still had 5000 feet of climbing to do (after our 4700 feet of descent) and 26 of our day’s 43 miles to ride. People we’d talked to in Government Camp were very polite to not laugh when we told them where we were headed that night (Lolo Pass), and kind enough to relate stories of the many dead on Mt. Hood each season from the radically changing weather conditions.

That aspect was soon forgotten as we hooked up another historic trail section (Pioneer Bridle Path) to the old Oregon Trail again, via smooth, flowy singletrack snaking along contour through green moss-covered forest hillside. Flavors of El Chupacabra, mixed with 420 lingered on the palate as we carved along.

I broke the flow to look down an historic mine shaft and instant karma got me as I managed to step off my bike funny and turn my ankle. No biggie, barely even felt it. Wouldn’t have meant anything at all had I not 7 million more pedal revolutions before we stopped riding. And 7 million more the next day. Whoops. Well, isn’t that why we were carrying whiskey and ibuprofen all that way? The riding continued to be really good, lots of well-maintained singletrack, with logging crews clearing falls across the trails for us, even stopping their sawyering for a moment as we rode by.

Dave and Dylan, on their big travel bikes with 2.5 inch tires, badgered me for my constant flicking of my old Blur on high-speed descents. I argued that I was merely trying to avoid pinch flats in my tiny tires from my 210 lb rider weight + pack by dodging big or sharp rocks that were in otherwise clean lines. Yeah, it probably looked pretty dodgy alright, I’ll admit, but on whose tire was I patching up a pinch flat after a particularly nasty rock garden a few miles later? Not mine! (errr, that’s a good thing too, as I forgot the majority of my flat fix kit in the car when I had to remove it to fit Dave’s rack…. eheh.)

As we finished out our contour singletrack romp along the valley, we began needing to more frequently confront the damage we were doing. Dave’s knee was going bad, my ankle was catching up to me, and Dylan still had hand pain from his first day’s adventure. All three bikes were having consistent pressure loss in the rear shocks, not to mention crying out for lube on drivetrains. Good thing we brought a shock pump and lube, but Dave’s Enduro was left with only a quarter inch of travel for the rest of the trip. The ride was definitely taking a toll on bikes and bodies, quite unlike that taken by the historic toll gate we crossed through at the end of the singletrack for the day.

Our final climb to Lolo Pass lead us higher and higher towards the snow line. Layers went on over layers as we climbed up some unmerciful ascents towards our last hut. Snow was patchy at first, then everywhere and it was fun to leave knobbie prints in it as we rolled on, ever upwards.

Rock gardens and ridgeline singletrack became less of a treat as we neared exhaustion – our perspective about roads had definitely been changing as a result – but we still enjoyed the luscious views of our constant companion, Mt. Hood.

We rolled up to the final hut and took in the amazing 360 degree view around it with mouthfuls of cold beer and, later that night, (surprisingly nice quality) tequila found in the supply cupboard.

Our last day, we decided to forgo the extra 20+ miles of singletrack option to get a head start on our drive back to the Bay Area. We enjoyed our 5300 foot descent over 34 miles, taking in the sights and tucking into our high speed descents. But the scant 1900 foot climb used up the last of my ankle and Dave’s knee. As we got farther out of the mountains and closer to the Columbia River, we entered a valley full of orchards, ripe fruits spilling from their branches and into the road ditches.

We stopped to sample at a roadside stand and were treated to such delicious apples, we brought some home for loved ones. The gal who sold them to us was an endurance mountain bike racer who regaled Dave and Dylan with her own experiences at 24 Hours of Moab, which they also raced. We rolled into Hood River at last, eating the best damn burgers and beer on the deck of a local establishment, looking out over the river. Perfect end to a great trip.

So much goes unrelated here, the fall colors exploding out of the lush green overexposure of deep forest like fireworks, the waterfalls everywhere, the late night strategy sessions with headlamps pouring over map details, the velvet happiness of brandy in our hot chocolate every night, the little jumps and features found like candy on the trail, and so much more. Would I do it again? You bet -- maybe some modifications to add singletrack here, less snow there -- but without hesitation. If you’re reading this, you should go!

There's a few more pictures in Dave's Album.

Autumn!

2008-09-30T11:11:00.000-07:00

Ah, Autumn! A time for settling down, getting ready for another winter rainy season. Those animals, whose name escapes me, big rat like things with fuzzy tails, are grabbing their nuts and squirreling them away for the hard months that are coming. But they're not here yet.
The weather is beautiful, the trails mud free and if anyone is hankering for the fall displays of color that you might have known from back east, I challenge you to go out and ride and tell me you're not filled with awe looking at the beautiful palette of greens, browns and reds you can see on the poison oak right now. Who knows!? you might even get a little souvenir of your leaf peeping, some might even get a rash and blisters on their genitals. Anything is possible!

Easy Trails in and on the way to Tahoe

2008-08-11T13:45:00.000-07:00

This weekend quite a few of us headed up to Donner Lake for an BONC, ROMP, MBOSC and others camping weekend. Some even swam the trans Donner Lake Swim which was 2.7 miles of cold choppy water. It's debatable whether that was more fun than the trail work everyone else was doing. Since I was there with family we were looking for easier rides we could do with our 2 year old in a wee ride. We found two great trails so wanted to blog about them here.

Emigrant Trail: 22 miles of sweet smooth single track with little climbing. It's 11 miles out and 11 miles back. super nice we all loved it. More information from MTBR. This would be a great spin if you arrive at Truckee in the middle of the day and need a quick spin after you've set up camp. We saw two folks walking out with busted tubeless tires. We never got a flat. You could even do this ride with a bob trailer and camp by stampede reservoir (but there will be car camping boaters there so it's not a total wilderness experience).

Forest Hill Divide: a sweet 11 mile loop with more climbing but nothing terrible also not very technical and a great route. Easy to follow. More information is available from: Forest Hills Trail Alliance and this PDF map. We rode counter clockwise from the east entrance. We were only confused one time 1 mile near the end where you're dumped out in a big parking lot on a gravel road, but some local riders showed us where the trail started again and it was a short climb back to the car. This is in Auburn, CA so is either on the way to or back from Tahoe.

Both great rides for beginners, or people with kids.

The Best Wilder Loop Evar

2008-08-11T11:04:00.000-07:00

Here's a snippet of the Wilder Ranch part of our route from the Santa Cruz Off-Road Metric Century we did. I'm posting it here since I think it's the best loop you can do in Wilder and hope people like it. This route starts at the bottom of Old Cabin, how you get there is up to you, from the parking lot you can head up Englesman Loop, from the top/Twin Gates you can come down long meadow.

up old cabin
down rodrigo (eucalyptus loop)
to top of enchanted
down baldwin singletrack
eagle cutoff
up baldwin fire road
down enchanted
up enchanted fire road
down zane grey cutoff
dairyman (wilder loop)
up twin oaks
up rodrigo
down old cabin

That should be around 16 miles.
More resources are here:

Nerds

2008-07-31T01:31:00.000-07:00

This lady know's what's what:
From: motivatedphotos.com

Santa Cruz Off-Road Metric Century

2008-07-30T23:34:00.000-07:00

Today the VeloNerds hosted the inaugural annual Santa Cruz Off-Road Metric Century. Never mind that the acronym for that is horrible, we're just never going to shorten it. The name of an event should match the event and this ride was LOOOOOONG!

Eight brave folks started at 8AM and five completed the planned route 12 hours, 115 kilometers, over 3,000 meters of ascent later. This year there was a special offer with 15% extra free! That's 72 miles and 10,000ft of ascent for those that can't deal with new fangled scientific units.

The goal was to ride 100 kilometers on all single track and never ride the same trial twice in the same direction. We came pretty close, only re-riding a few key connector trails and managed to ride every single one of our favorite trails (except Hillbilly).

At the end of the ride the people who completed it got a frickin' laser etched stem cap for their troubles and as with all great events there was a raffle! Nicole grabbed as much tat lying around her apartment that she didn't want and fobbed it off on the poor suckers who were too tired to realize they were being bamboozled! She still couldn't find anyone to take the huge package of Heed (heave!) she has though.

It was, by far. the best experience I've ever had on a bike, so much fun to be riding with friends and having a great time pushing out bodies riding hard. I can't believe I know 4 other people who can ride that long and hard and I get to ride with them several times a week, life is good!

There a few more pictures over in the gallery.

VeloNerd Traitors

2008-07-29T01:20:00.000-07:00

Nicole and I betrayed the good VeloNerd name (HA!) on Saturday and rode a huge road ride (gasp! ... awkward silence). We road the Santa Cruz Mountains Challenge, a local Century ride with 10,700ft of ascent through most of the beautiful cool mountain roads around here. It was a blast. I wasn't quite as sissypants roadyesque as Nicole on her full carbon road bike, but I did ride a mountain bike with a rigid fork and slick tires to make it a little easier. We had a super great ride, so much fun, laughing all the way. Many people commented on our awesome team outfits and Mark also joined us but only wore a propeller and his cow jersey (no shirt and tie for him). Erin rode up and joined us for the last 15 miles and we saw Matt right before the big climb up Jamison Creek. A super fun ride (even if it was on the road).

Why Fox Rocks: a rider's view

2008-07-21T15:55:00.000-07:00

Jun Says: So, what's with the Fox shorts, gloves, jerseys, t-shirts, socks, etc? I don't work there, I don't have any close friends that work there, so what gives? Well, it could be that they make the most solid, reliable equipment around. When I bought my original Blur, it came with a Progressive 5th Element shock in the back. I requested that it be replaced with the non-platform version Fox Float, because it's made by a local company, as is my 100 RLC fork. Since then, I've heard of many Progressive shock failures, but my trusty Float has never been serviced and is still going strong. Or maybe it's the fork, which never leaked a drop in its much-abused long life. I got it serviced at a local bike shop out of guilt for running it so long without maintenance and the mechanic said the oil inside looked fine. After that, it leaked badly until I took it down to Fox in Watsonville and asked them to look at it. They serviced it for me and it has not leaked a drop since, even after race punishment that warped both wheels. Their turn around time was awesome and they didn't charge me a cent! Yeah, they took good care of me, but it's their service to the wider mountain bike community that really shines.
When the Mountain Bikers of Santa Cruz was fighting to keep riders' access to Nisene Marks State Park, Fox developed the "Save the Trail" shirt campaign to help us raise legal fees. I've worked alongside Fox employees at local charity bike builds for disadvantaged kids to have bikes for Christmas. They raised the bar for professional decorum and community service at those events. At more than one trail advocacy event, such as Ales and Trails, I've seen Fox represented by staff and/or donations that furthered the goals of local access and riders. Even the local high school teams have benefited from Fox involvement. I cannot stress enough how fortunate we are to have this local company engaged in our endeavors and how many positive contributions Fox has made. So yeah, I support them and speak out on my appreciation for their help. Good people.