The Biking Fools

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

MNR - The 5k edition

Usually the 5k refers to a distance. This time, it was the 5k, meaning five krazies that will bike no matter how cold or what the weather. Chris, Dale, Paul, Dave N, and myself made our way out to Tranquility this past Monday for our weekly Monday Night Ride. Will anything cancel the ride? Yes, rain and muddy conditions. How about left over snow dustings and below freezing temps? NOPE!

Our first encounter with snow for the season.

Seasoned MNR and cold weather mt bikers know to dress warm. Neoprene booties, good gloves, and some head protection is a must. The same goes for layers whether it be long underwear or baselayers. They're all good. We actually built up a sweat last night! Or at least I did. Haha. You go through cold phases and warm phases on the trail. Creek area tends to be a little more chilly. Also while riding the trail area behind the houses you can feel the warmth from the dwellings. Stop too long and the cold will turn that sweat on your back down right bone chilling. Gotta keep moving...

Trail was much different than the muddy mess it was on Sunday. It was near frozen, crunchy at times. Traction was good, or at least in our minds it was. It was really hard to tell knowing that the trail was frozen, could it be icy? It was anyones guess!

Did some stop, drop, and roll action...

I did manage to fall on the compost pile. I saw Dave N ahead of me bypass it and I should have followed suit. Chris was trying to make his way up, yelled that it is slick at the top. Heck I'll give it a try. I decided to stand up and had most of my weight over the handlebars. Which was my biggest mistake. My back tire spun in place, probably a full rotation. The fatness couldn't grab the meat of the trail. Spin. I eventually fell forward and racked my little boys. Hard! Then I fell over sideways which finally released my pedals from my nearly frozen feet. Once I cleared the falling bike I proceeded to roll down the heap of compost like I was doing a stop drop and roll campaign to an elementary school. All I could do was yell profanities then start laughing. It was like a roller coaster ride in 5 seconds flat, with me in pain down below. Oh well. It happened. I cursed myself for the first time ever for not buying the smaller framed Mukluk. What can you do but push on?

Eventually Big Mike on his Pugs caught up to us and it was time to head over to Paul's to get some warming chicken noodle soup. Thanks everyone for showing up and to Paul for the warm up your core soup after. Much appreciated!

One handed night biking, photography taking, and staying on the narrow trail is not easy. I purposely didn't use flash, but they turned out just way too blurry.

Come on snow...we're all looking forward to your presence at Tranquility tomorrow!

Snowbiking at Tranquility Wed Night

Not to jinx ourselves, but we're READY TO PLAY IN THE SNOW!!! Chris set a time of 6:30pm at Tranquility. Be there. Bring a light. Dress warm. But not too warm because you're gonna sweat your butt off! See you guys there!

Saturday, December 15, 2012

Tis the season!

Remember that time at the tacoride when people were throwing bikes into the trees??? Yeah that was stupid, people were drunk, and it kinda ruined the tacoride. But this... its a whole different level!!! This picture is from the Endomondo facebook page. Looks like they were maybe doing a charity or fundraising ride to log miles? There was no explanation.

Sunday, December 9, 2012

Get your motor grillin...

Hot Rod Grill. Saw a commercial for this. Cracks me up. And guess where the smoke comes out of!

Photos from
http://www.hotrodgrills.com/

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

The colors!

Purple and black...purple and black. I'm drooling right now...

http://forums.mtbr.com/fat-bikes/my-first-fat-bike-grape-ape-build-822684.html

PVC pipe fat bike stand

A user posted this link on MTBR on how to make a fatbike stand out of PVC pipes. Cheap and simple. I might have to try this, but then again my bike is already up on my wall. Oh well. Cool idea! Chris, since you'll be adding +1 to the stable, maybe you need a low cost solution to keeping your fatties upright.

https://nuxx.net/blog/2011/11/28/low-cost-fat-bike-stand/

The future is here...now

These are straight out of a scifi movie. Out of a military movie where the soldiers have HUD (heads up displays) right in front of them through their eyewear. I'm talking about Oakley's latest and greatest snow goggles called the Airwave. They teamed up with Recon to give you goggles that are able to pop up with a perceived 14 inch screen in front of the rider. That screen is able to tell you GPS, distance, speed, airtime, temps, altitude, and can sync with your smartphone via bluetooth so that you can access your music playlists while on the slopes. Where are your buddies at? It'll help you find them too! The goggles even ship with 600 ski resorts preprogrammed with trail maps. Somewhere I saw it can also show heart rate monitor info.

All of this comes at a price though. A hefty $599 price that is. Maybe Oakley needs to ship me a pair so that I can review it out at Mt. Crescent. I'll make it worth their time. But what's cool about this technology is that it is available to consumers. Not just actors in movies, not just Shaun Wipe who is doing a 1080 on the halfpipe. Regular slope goers can utilize this technology. And who knows, with these, google glasses, and whatever else is out there, it might trickle down to other sports such as biking and what not. How cool would that be?

http://www.oakley.com/airwave

Sunday, December 2, 2012

A little light review

http://reviews.mtbr.com/2013-bike-lights-shootout-mtbr-tunnel-beam-patterns

Lots of Fat Goodness

December 1st, 2012 I participated in a worldwide event. I rode my bike. Haha. Oh, but it was so much more than that. It was the global ride your fat bike day! I have no clue where it originated, but on the fat bike section of the MTBR forum, they were throwing around the idea of a day to ride fat bikes. Snow or now, rain or shine, ride your fat bike. Why? Because the fat bikes are a do anything, go anywhere breed of bikes!

The fog made for a really cool looking ride

Almost looks like we were biking up in the mountains or something, but nope! Just Lewis and Clark

FFF - Fatties Fly Fine from Misterlime on Vimeo.

No views here. Just dense fog. We could have told the stoner that drove up to the monument to have a look out, only to get right back into his car and leave.

Luckily or unluckily depending on how you look at it, we made it out with foggy trails and temps in the 50s. I say unluckily because being a snowbike, it would have been fun to have ridden in snow on December 1st. But heck, we were just happy to have a reason to ride bikes! With fatbikes also working great in the sand, we chose Lake Manawa as the trail of choice.

Manawa Photos

MG on the TTF at Lake Manawa from Misterlime on Vimeo.

These few "bridge" photos were taken with my big Canon. All the rest with either a GoPro or my little Canon Elph. Can you tell the difference in quality? I can for sure!

Cody and I decided to get in a lap a Lewis and Clark before meeting up with the folk at Manawa. It was super foggy out, probably about quarter mile visibility in Council Bluffs at noon time. While it made driving a little hairy, the biking was a blast! I've never biked in fog during the daytime, and it was all so surreal looking. Like being on the trail straight out of a calendar! It was super beautiful out. If the fog rolls in again, I think I'll leave the bike at home and just hike with my camera.

Lewis and Clark is awesome! It was our first time riding the new section out there, and man is it sweet. Its a good little loop, probably adds on a good half mile or so? Some rocks to launch the bike off of, the trail had perfect traction, and with the fog the scenery was just amazing. The bad thing is that Lewis and Clark really showed me how bad of shape I am! huffing and puffing, trying to pedal that fatbike up those long climbs. Uggh. Todd E was out there working on a new section. Looks like more climbing, but that is just part of riding out at Lewis and Clark! Thanks to him and the rest of the THOR crew who have been working hard on both Lewis and Clark, Manawa, and all of the other trails around town. If you see them out there working, defnitely give them a word of thanks and a pat on the back!

With the riding done at Lewis and Clark, it was time to head over to Manawa for some fat sandy goodness. We met up with Chris, big Mike, MG, Karl, and Steve D. Steve B and his two daughters met up with us and he had his Moonlander out. We joked about the need for mini fat bikes for his daughters! As for the rest of us, MG and I had the Salsa Mukluks, while Chris, and Mike had the Surly Pugsleys.

How is the riding out at Manawa you ask? It is great! If you remember how Manawa was before the flooding, I would have to say its just as fun if not even better! Lots of trees to avoid, some sand here and there, lots of log crossings, good times! As of right now, there is about 4.5 (?) miles of trail out there. There was a new section that we rode and its already pretty good to ride. I can't exactly explain how the trail is. It's flat, its fast and tree sectioned, its technical with the log crossings, and its just a wide variety of riding. Everything except the climbing! Steve discussed alot more trail to be proposed, maybe up to 10 miles total. Can't wait!

Not sure if you guys have ever seen a bunny hop on a fat bike, but yesterday was my first. Just so happens that my GoPro captured Chris in mid-air. Pretty cool looking.

Stupid beavers at work on the tree

We picked up a little buddy during the ride. Actually, his name was Buddy. Or was this one Bucky?

Thanks to everyone who rode yesterday. The best thing about the fat bike day is that it got people out to ride on the 1st of December. Whether you had the skinny or the fat, the riding was good and the times were great!