Spring Cleanup (Mar. 22, 2009)

It is another incredible sunny spring day and I had decided to get out on my new cross country bike and go for a ride up Menzie's trail in Golden Ears Park and do some trail clean up. This was winter has been one of the snowiest on record and fallen trees and snowy winter conditions had kep the park closed to vehicle traffic all winter long. A sudden wind storm hit our area just a couple days ago and I knew there be even more falen debris on the trail. This was also my first ride on my new xc bike and I was stoked to test it out.

Right off the bat thebike proved to be amazing. I was able to sprint up hills that I was barely able to slug my way up on my freeride bike. The light weight and especially light rolling weight made for a very quick and mostly painless climbing bike.

It didnt take long for me to encounter fallen trees on the trail. I manage to drag a couple fallen trees down into the bushes and off of the trail, but others I had to cut with my trusty collapsable saw. I only manage to get out 2.5 km because of the extensive debris. I will definitely have to get out and do some more. Here are some examples of the cleanup:

Before.

After.

Before.

After.

This is what the trail should look like, meandering through the forest with the sun filtering through the canopy.

Of course there is more to this adventure than just biking and pretending to be a lumber jack. I was approaching the lookout and it was a pretty technical ascent so I was looking forward to reaching the top and resting my lungs and have a drink of water and a rest while admiring the view of Allouette Lake. Instead of a view of the lake I got a view of a middle aged man completely butt naked! I suppose he heard me coming up the trail because he had been racing to pull on some pants and sweatshirt. So I simply stopped on the trail just outside of the clearing and had a drink of water before going out to the view point. I wanted to give him a minute to reclothe himself. Now as if being naked wasnt weird enough, he had a tall tripod set up with an slr camera mounted on it! I have no idea what this guy was doing and I didnt ask. I simply commented on the nice weather and he agreed that it was and then I left. You never know what you'll find out on the trail.

Birthday ride 2009. (Mar. 21, 2009)

Birthday 2009. It has become an annual event going on four or five years now. My uncle's birthday is two day before mine so we end up having a joint celebration. This years ride consisted of my dad, my uncle Jim and cousin Jesse out from Nelson, and my cousin Jordan who bussed it out from Kamloops.

The group L to R: myself, Jesse, Jim, Dad, JordanO.

The weather on Saturday was perfect, super sunny. We all met up at the Woodlot parking lot and set out up the mountain. Jesse, Jim and Jordan decided to hike Shotgun from the parking lot and see if they could beat my dad and I, hiking up the main trail, to the main road. Well, they won, by a small margin. I'm still not convinced that I would rather hike up Shotgun.

The ride started off a little chilly, but the air was steadily warming as we made our way up the mountain. There was a little bit of snow on the road from the bottom of Crazy Carpenter up. Once we got to the power lines there was several feet of snow! At one point I actually fell through snow well up past my knee! Crazy Carpenter had quite a lot more snow than I had expected and was probably not the best trail to have ridden since there was about four inches of mushy snow covering the trail. Still fun none the less.

The Jesster with his glowing green pants ready to drop in to Blood Donor.

We cut out of Crazy Carpenter and trudged our way up a wet and snowy connector trail to the top of Blood Donor. There was still some snow on the top of Blood Donor which made the berms great for drifting. I managed to slide around a corner and fall and continue sliding for another 10 feet. The rest of the trail was clear and we managed to rip our way down and along the log/ ladder bridge sections and stop for a some photo opportunities on a small gap jump. Finally we ended up out on the Stovetop connector where I successfully landed the jump at the end of the trail this time.

Jesse cruisin one of the log rides on Giant Killer.

At this point Jordan and Jim decided to take B-Line, and Jesse and my dad and I continued on with Giant Killer. My dad ripped on ahead, while Jesse and I took our time to school the log ride sections before riding up the ladder bridges and over the elevated teeter totter. The two of flowed the last section of the trail. I wussed out of launching the seven footer near the end and Jesse and I detoured around and ripped down to the main road.

Uncle Jim finding the perfect line down the rockface on Hoots.

The sun was out in full force now and it was time to weave our way through the clear cut into Hoots. I pummelled the roots and rocks on my way down with Jordan close behind me. We conviened where the trail enters the forest and it was time to play on the jumps and natural obstacles. First up: the big ol rockface. After Jordan and I nailed a sweet line down the rock we in turn coached the others as I snapped the pictures. My dad who initially walked down, climbed back up and then blasted right down the middle of the face. That's a way of redeeming yourself. Jesse then managed to crawl his way down despite his less-than-excellent braking power. And the last man down the rock was my uncle Jim who managed to find the smoothest line down up and over some roots along the right side of the rockface! We than took some time to get some air on the next few jumps and snap some pictures.

Jordan in my grandpa's blue coveralls getting some air on my wife's Kona Stinky Deelux. Unfortunately my camera was not setup to capture a crisp action shot.



My dad getting airborn on Hoots.

The birthday ride of 2009 ended with us racing down Shotgun and hitting the newly rebuffed jump. We exited the forest out into the parking lot and went our separate ways before meeting up that evening for a piece of birthday cake.

New bike.

"Bisosceles"

I didnt manage to get out riding this past weekend, but I was working for a friend, which scored me some extra cash to purchase an "new" xc bike. I was originally looking at a very intro mountain bike that would suffice for some on/off road riding but for an extra 50 bones I got a sweet xc rig. The bike bike just happened to be another Devinci. A 20" frame Devinci Cameleon, mint condition, plush little 80mm Manitou Splice Comp, Hayes hmx-1 mechanical discs, shimano disc hubs laced to Alex anti-snakebite rims and WTB Weirwolf 2.1" tires (super light wheel combo). Everything on this bike was new, including the tires. SRAM X7 shifters and derailers, shimano cranks, WTB SpeedV seat, Cane Creek headset. I took it for an afternoon rip around some neighbourhood trails, super fast. I can't wait to take this baby out on an epic trail ride, and finally make a serious attempt at the TCT. No more part swapping on my free-ride rig to make it xc-able!

Tsuga in the snow. (Mar. 8, 2009)

Sunday I headed out for a spur of the moment ride with my dad at the Woodlot. I was nice and sunny out except for a big dark cloud that sat right on Blue mountain and the Woodlot. We hummed and hawed on our way out towards it. "Should we try Bear Mtn instead, or should we just risk the rain and push hard up the mountain and rip down." As we aproached the Woodlot we realised that it wasnt raining at all but snowing and snowing hard.

Old man in the snow storm near Quick Hit.

We pulled our bikes out of the Silverado and trudged up the mountain on fresh crunchy snow. It snowed on us the whole way up and yet the sun was bright and still managed to shine on us at the same time, very weird conditions. We made our way up to Tsuga, a trail I have never ridden in the snow before. With our armor and fullfaced helmets on we descended in tothe trail, tires coated in snow. There was enough snow to cover any possibly frosty rocks or roots and made for a soft and almost silent ride. Snow covered bridges were a trat to ride over. We opted not to attempt the challenging rockfaces that are sketchy enough when dry.

Myself on the snow covered road near Toad.

We blasted our way down the last stretch of Tsuga towards Snakes & Ladders. I love riding all the log rides and ladder bridges on this trail in the snow and this day was perfect with nearly three inches of fresh snow covering everything.

Who's that coming out from the trees? That's my dad at the end of Snakes&Ladders.

The two of us finished of our snow-biking with Shotgun and left our bike tracks in the snow all the way back to the parking lot. Of course the sun was shining and it wasnt snowing anymore, but I have proof that it was snowing that day despite how sunny some people claim it was.

Poco Bike Skills Park (Mar. 7, 2009)

Friday night a light snow dusting came into town. Saturday awoke windy and sunny and the snow quickly melted away. And with that Cory, Jordank and myself were off to the Poco Bike Skills Park in Port Coquitlam. The park was designed and built by Jay Hoots, of Norco Bicycles and Hoots gear. The plan was to play around on the table top jumps, drops, ladder bridges, log rides, wall rides and other cool stuff, hone our skills and take some pictures.

Jordan practicing one of the ladder drops to a nice dirt transition landing. There were three drops that got succesfully higher.

Cory hitting the first of four table-tops in a row at speed. There were three sets of table-tops to jump. Each set was significantly larger than the next.

Me getting skinny with it. This was a really long log ride section that linked several logs together end to end. There were a couple other really good log rides to practice on that were interrupted by large boulders that you had to negotiate over to get on to the next log.

Cory "the cinematographer" had his sweet home built steady-cam setup to capture Jordan and I on some stunts. Cory also brought along his digital SLR for some sweet still shots.

After a couple wall ride attempts and a couple jumps on the big table tops we decided to pack it in for the day and just in time too. As soon as we left the park driveway onto Shaughnessy street the snow started coming down hard.

Woodlot Snow Ride 2009! (Feb. 28, 2009)

It is bright and early Saturday morning and Jordan and I headed up to the Woodlot for a ride. It snowed Wednesday and many areas of the valey were hit with a few inches of snow. Maple Ridge really didn't get any snow so I figure there was no way that the snow we recieved th other day would have been enough to penetrate the trees. I was wrong. There was a good 5-6" of fresh snow on the trails. It was gonna a be a fun ride.

We hiked our way up the mounatin as far as the bottom of Crazy Carpenter were we stoppped for a snack and decided to suit up while we discussed what trails we were going to ride. We had decided against hiking up the power lines, so Carpenter was out, and we decided that the rock face on Tsuga wouldn't be wise covered in snow, so it was off to Blood Donor.

Jordan just before we drop in to Blood Donor.

With helmets and jackets on, to guard against the huge clumps of snow falling from the trees, we pushed our bikes up the trail to Blood Donor. There were four other riders on the trail taking turns hitting the 16' gap on the trail, I find that jump scary enough when it is dry out let alone coverd with snow so I opt out. The two of us carved and slid our way down the trail in the snow and rolled our way along the log rides and ladder bridges. I decided to hit the final jump at the end of Blood Donor only to get crooked in the air and come down on my ankle before crashing in the slush. Bad move, I tweaked my ankle pretty good, it hyrt to stand on let alone walk, but fortunately for me it didnt hurt while standing on my pedals, so we kept riding.

Jordan riding a log section on Blood Donor.

The next trail was Giant Killer. We continued our way down the is trail in the snow rding up and over ladder bridges and the occasional log ride. The long log ride section proved to be difficult while covered in snow so I bypassed most of since I didnt want to rist falling off and landing on my already bummed ankle. Live to ride another day.

Myself on a ladder bridge section of Giant Killer.

We popped out of Giant Killer onto the road and dropped back in to Hoots. The upper section thru the clear cut was nicely smoothed out thanks to the snow and didnt seem to hinder traction on the big nasty rockface. We then cruised the rest of the way down and over the last couple jumps and out onto the road again where we made a left and headed back up the hill to Shotgun. We met up with the same four riders as before and chased after them down the trail toward the parking lot. Other than my bunged up ankle, she was a sweet ride out in the snow. Just another winter ride at the Woodlot.

Back in the mountains. (Feb. 21 & 22, 2009)

The power lines.

Well, its time to retire the cross country components and get ol Bicyclese ready for free-riding season. Swapping components back and forth from XC to FR is getting to hard to do, I will have to invest in a xc specific bike.

Dadman at the powerlines.

The plan was to get up to the Woodlot, finally up in the mountains and out of the lowlands. This will be my first ride in the mountains this year. Saturday, the plan is to meet up at the Woodlot parking lot with my dad and Doug for 10:30am. Unfortunately, mechanical problems kept me from riding until 1:00 pm. I decided to swap out my xc clipless pedals for my platform pedals. I discovered that one of my platform pedals had seized, after a quick disassembly and repacking with new grease the pedals were on. Next the 2.1" tires needed to be swapped out for my 2.5's. My front axle was really sticking to my 20mm hub, so I cleaned it up and lubed it, and then noticed that neither of my tire tubes were holding air. After a quick trip out to get a patch kit I patched to tubes and carfully put the tires back on and pumped them up. Just as I am about to put my front wheel on my front brake pads fall out. They had worn through all the pad material and part of the backing plates. I found a used pair of pads kicking around and shoved them in. Now to switch out the long seat post for my shorter telescoping post, after what seemed like forever looking for it I had replaced the post. Done! I flip bike over onto its wheels and realized I have no pressure in my front brake. Arrg! I ended up having to take my bike in to get a replacement bleeder valve because we couldnt bleed the air out. After hours of frustration we were at the trail and ready to go.

Doug at the powerlines.

The three of us chugged our way up the forest access road. The road and the trails were dry, thanks to more than a week without rain, the weather was perfect, no clouds and just cold enough to keep from sweating too much. The power lines however were another story. There was still a good four feet of snow that we had to walk on until we got to the trailhead. We gear up out in the snow and then we enter the forest ready to tackle Crazy Carpenter. The first section was still snowy until the first log ride, then it was nice and dry from then on down. We negotiated our way down Carpenter to Upper toadstool. We cruised our way down Toadstool over the bridges above the creeks. We pop out onto one of the access roads and we decide to ride Heckle and Jeckle, an extremely flowy trail. After bombing Heckle we ride up to Shotgun and race our way back to the parking lot.

My dad riding Toadstool.

Doug riding Toadstool.

Sunday I follow up an amazing Woodlot ride with another, this time with two other riding buddies: Cory and Jordan. I decide to take them on the same ride that I went on the previous day. It had rained a little bit over night but it wasnt enough to penetrate the trees so the trail conditions were still perfect. After making our way down Crazy Carpenter and Toadstool we decided to switch things up a bit and ride Hoots instead of Heckle and Jeckle. We cruised our way down Hoots and then made our way back up to Shotgun to round out the ride.

Myself at the powerlines.

Jordan at the powerlines.

Cory at the powerlines.

Trans Canada Trail (Feb. 15, 2009)

It was a sunny day and just enough time to head out for a quick ride before I needed to be back to head out to a Canucks game. My plan was to grab the bike which was already in its cross country form and head out onto the Pitt Meadows/ Maple Ridge portion of the Trans Canada Trail from the Pitt river bridge along the dykes all the way back to my home near Kanaka creek.

I started from my parents house in Pitt Meadows and headed east along the paved path parallel to the highway. I crossed the busy highway at the intersection at the bridge and made my way up to the gate at the dykes. I decided this would be a good picture opportunity of the Pitt river bridge construction at the 0km mark of the TCT section. Standing there on the side of the highway, my bike leaning against a sign post, putting away my camera as the cars are whizzing by I am startled by a loud and sudden BANG! A couple walking past me with their dog are staring at me, I ask them "what was that bang? did you see what that was?", but they just keep staring at me as they walk away. I am thinking did someone just throw a firecracker out their car window at me? Another couple is walking over the bridge toward me, and I ask them the same thing. They don't answer. They just look at me puzzled. I ask them again, frustrated by people outright ignoring me. Finally the man answeres as they get closer. "I think your tire blew up. I look down and sure enough my tire sidewall had exploded for no apparent reason. Lucky for me I was not riding it at the time.

Fortunately I had come prepared for any mechanical failure. I really did not feel like walking for five and a half kilometers back to my parents so out came the tools. I removed the old tube and used my Leatherman to cut out a section of the old tube to use a reinforcing material where the sidewall had blown out. I wrapped the new tube with the piece of old tube and then used zap straps (zip ties) around the tire and rim to prevent the tear from bulging out. Voila, some trailside McGyvering and I was on my way back home , at a careful speed, in time to get changed and head out to the 'Nucks game.

Hayward Lake with Manda (Feb. 7, 2009)

Yay! My little wife Amanda finally had a Saturday that she did not need to spend on homework and she asked if she could come biking with me. "Of course" I said. So we geared up and prepped the bikes for another trip around Hayward Lake. Each time I ride around Hayward there is less and less snow, which has made trip times faster each time. However, although I have been routinely gettting out for a ride, Amanda unfortunately hadnt been riding since a trip down CBC trail on Seymour last spring and was feeling a little rusty.

Amanda riding the now rideable snowy stretch on the west side of Hayward Lake.

The plan of course was to complete the 17.5km course by no later than 3:30 pm. A late start and a casual bike ride pace meant that we would have to alter the game plan, so we decided to ride the 7.5km to the Stave dam and have our lunch and then ride back the same way for a total of 15km (still not a bad ride just to get some fresh air). The weather was nice when we were standing in the sun, but the wind was really chilly once we were riding (sorry Manda).

Amanda riding down the switch backs from one of the steeper sections on our way back to the parking lot.

Although the distance we rode was relatively short, we managed to pack in some scenic bridges to ride across and some fun forested sections amidst some monster douglas firs, and the melting trail conditions left a whole lot of mud splattered over us (a true sign of a great ride).

This is a poorly taken picture of a Peregrine falcon we saw perched near the trail side.

As I said earlier the wind was quite cold so the best way for us to keep warm was to keep up the pace and this is what we did for the last 4.5km back to parking lot. We were also trying to ride the last section fast because we came across a couple who had an ailing german shepherd and we were hoping that if we came across a BC Hydro worker that we could get them to drive down the trail and help the people get their dog back to the parking lot. Unfortunately we didn't come across anyone, I hope they got the old hound out ok.

15 chilly kilometers down and a warm car sure felt nice. Unfortunately next weekend is Valentine's day and I would be unwise to take off riding so I may have to delay my adventures for another week.

Bicyclese Mark II (part I)

This is a history of my bike Bicyclese Mark II, predecesor of Bicyclese Mark I, and how he came to be what he is.

Bicyclese started out as a 2000 large (19.5") Devinci Magma. The frame includes 6" of suspension travel by way of a four-bar linkage and an asymmetrical swingarm (for added front derailer clearance).

My frame did not remain intact for long. The first thing to go was the swingarm which eventually succombed to brake shear just forward of the reinforcing gusset, which was designed to prevent such an occurance. This design flaw led to a warranteed replacement swingarm which consisted of large aluminum plate on the brake side to replace the insignificant stock gusset.

The next thing to succomb to failure was the upper shock bolt. Again, another design flaw: the shear plane between the shoulder and the threads of the shock bolt was coincident with the rocker arm/ shock reducer shear plane, which meant constantly shearing shock bolts. The cure: longer shoulder on the bolt and drilled out threads so that the bolt shoulder is now slightly inset in the rocker arm.

Numerous harsh landings led to another sheared swingarm which also took out the seatstays. Bicyclese now sports another new swingarm and a set of used seat stays. Bicyclese Mark I was beheaded at Whistler where I sheared the top tube, on a step down jump. A crash replacement front triangle is what you see now with a huge wrap-around gusset at the head tube junction. The previous frame had no gusseting here whatsoever.

The frame originally came equipped with a Rock Shox Deluxe shock with a rebound damping knob and a 500 Lb spring. This did not cut the mustard, the spring was way too soft and I couldn't even pedal. I swapped out the 500 Lb spring for a 750 Lb Eibach spring. I ended up buying this vintage Fox Vanilla RX (that's pre Vanilla RC) which came off of a Rocky Mountain DH Race. The shock was the perfect touch with rebound adjustment and compression adjustment via a shock pump. Pretty sweet for 30$ and still performing after all these years! Look at that pretty blue anodizing.

I actually cracked the top part of the stock headset. My motto early on was to replace any damaged part with the strongestand or most reliable part I could get (within reason). Here is my FSA PIG DH headset with servicable ball bearings. I have never had a problem with this headset yet.

One of the few stock parts left on the bike. This is a Titec Knucklehead stem which has a lifetime warranty (no wonder I still have it). I switched to a FUNN Hedhuncho adjustable stem for a while to raise the cockpit into a more comfortable position. A taller fork and the fact that the FUNN four-piece stem was heavy left me to switch back to my faithful Titec.

Hayward Lake Loop (Jan. 31, 2009)

Today I decided to ride the Hayward Lake loop again and continue on with my photo every kilometer idea seeing as how my camera died last time. This time however my plan was to complete the loop in less than three hours. Hopefully the ice has melted from the trail and I can actually ride the entire trail.

I parked at the same parking lot as last time, on the west side of the Ruskin Dam and headed out on my bicycling mission. There was a lot less snow this time around thanks to the week of warmer weather (five degrees) and rain, which had also left the trail very wet. There was still one section of trail, approximately a kilometer and a half, that was still snow-covered, and unfortunately the warmer weather had left this section now slushy and unrideable. After trudging through the slush I got back onto solid ground and was pedaling on with much more speed than last week thanks to the lack of ice that had coated almost the entire forested portion of the trail, (which was the majority of the loop).

13 km: There were still some snowy sections but they were now crunchier and not icy and I was actually able to climb some steep grades on the snow.

This was my view to the right at km 13. Tree graveyard with its tombstones sticking out of the ice.

14 km: A neat section of bridges at one of the many creek crossings along the way.

15 km: A nice gradual incline and no more snow.

16 km: Yet another bridge and yet another creek crossing. I can't wait until all the snow is gone and I can cruise the entire trail with more speed.

This is actually at 16.5km mark and it really needed a picture. This is a secluded bay on the lake which as you can see doesn't get much sun and is still frozen.

17.5 km here we are, a full circle right back to the Ruskin Dam. It felt nice to stand in the sunshine here.

The end.