Year: <span>2015</span>

Last spring, Camelbak announced that they were giving away two K.U.D.U. enduro hydration packs a week during their #gnarliestdescent Instagram photo/video contest.

Camelbak gnarliest descent contest 2015

Back in April, I rode the Admiral Rockbar portion of the COGGS Piedmont mtb trail that runs along the cliff above Haines Rd in Duluth. A few photos:

Foxx Rocks portion of the COGGS Piedmont mtb trail, Duluth Foxx Rocks portion of the COGGS Piedmont mtb trail, Duluth Foxx Rocks portion of the COGGS Piedmont mtb trail, Duluth

I entered a video of me riding it, taken with my GoPro, chesty view. This image links to the Instagram post with the 15-second video:

Equipment Protection

I crashed hard on my first attempt to ride the new 4-foot high skinny drop at Hillside MTB Park in Elk River, MN a month or so ago. I somehow had it in my head to not go too fast, that it was better to err on the slow side. And since I’m good at riding skinnies, riding it slow was not a problem, or so I thought. 22-second video:

Looking at the video, clearly visible in the slowmo segment, I not only approached the lip too slow but I didn’t use any ‘technique.’ My front wheel dropped immediately and OTB I went.

Fortunately, I was completely armored up: chest and spine protection, shoulder & elbow pads, hip and tailbone pads, knee and shin pads. Unfortunately, I was pretty shaky afterwards and decided to bail on my riding companions, L to R, Paul Hogan, Troy Sierakowski,  and Bradley Cyr:

L to R, Paul Hogan, Troy Sierakowski, and Bradley Cyr

I sustained some cracked ribs on my right side, which have pretty much healed since with no complications.

Here’s a video of Hillside’s DirtWirx trail steward Rich Omdahl riding the skinny drop on the day it was installed this past summer:

Learning to ride

A few months ago I noticed two small cracks developing at the top of the seat tube on the frame of my 2011 Trek X-Caliber 29’er. It gradually got to the point where seat post wouldn’t stay up. A couple of my fellow riders suggested that I check with my local Trek dealer since the Trek Care bike warranty covers “Frames for the lifetime of the original owner.”

I bought the bike from Penn Cycle (see my June 2011 blog post for the story).  And although we have two Trek dealers here in Rice County (Mike’s Bikes in Northfield, Milltown Sports in Faribault) that I regularly patronize, I knew that Penn Cycle would have my original purchase info in their database.

 

Dealers Maintenance People

This past summer, fellow mountain biker and uber volunteer Bill Nelson used his Ford Tractor to help CROCT, our local mountain bike club, fashion various obstacles in our new skills park area along our Sechler Park mountain bike trail. I soon became his apprentice operator and it inspired me to take on the role of skills park ‘dirt boss’ for the trail. More details and skills park photos in this CROCT blog post.

Bill Nelson, Ford tractor Griff Wigley, Bill Nelson

Equipment Trail work

Mid-November here in Minnesota is a good time of year to try riding some MTB obstacles that I’ve been avoiding. Why? It’s not too hot to armor up completely and I have all winter to heal should my lack of skill make me pay a price.

1. Riding down the big rock at the end of the wooden bridge in the X loop of the Lebanon Hills Mountain Bike Trail. It’s a steep drop, made trickier because the landing is the bridge over a 4-foot culvert with some rocks down below. I rode it just as it started to rain. It took me 4 attempts to clean it. 20-second vid:

Learning to ride Video

Last weekend I took photos of the Sawtooth Mountain Challenge, an annual mountain bike race in Grand Marais, Minnesota, hosted by the Superior Cycling Association (SCA).

Superior Cycling Association Sawtooth Mountain Challenge

I’m starting work on a bike advocacy project for Advocate Cycles, one of the race sponsors. (More on that soon.) So I thought it would be fun to capture the event while spending time with founder Tim Krueger and some of the SCA guys I’ve met in the recent past, (eg, Tim Kennedy, Adam Harju):

Advocate CyclesRace sponsor Tim Krueger, Advocate Cycles Tim Kennedy, Adam Harju

With sunny skies, temps in the mid-30s, and a gusty north wind, race director Jay Arrowsmith DeCoux sent the riders out at 10 am on the SCA’s Pincushion Mountain Trail System in one big group: Experts first (22 miles), followed by the Sport class (15 miles) and Citizens (4 miles):

Advocacy Competition Events Photo album

I finally got together with Advocate Cycles founder Tim Krueger last week at the company’s headquarters in south Minneapolis (photo by Advocate’s general manager Adam Blake).

I first heard about Tim last year in a MORC Board meeting when there was a discussion about him taking over the MN Rusty Ride, given his history running the Chequamegon 100 for several years with 100% of the registration fees donated to CAMBA.  At a subsequent board meeting, I think there was some mention about him starting a new company called Advocate Cycling Productions and adding more races but that was about it.

Advocacy Businesses

Last Saturday was IMBA’s Take a Kid Mountain Biking Day (#TKMBD). I’m on the board of CROCT and we got a late start on planning activities for it. But rather than doing nothing, we decided at almost the last minute to invite CROCT members to meet at MORC’s Lebanon Hills Mountain Bike Trail where Dakota County was hosting its annual Wild Ride Mountain Bike Festival.

Take a Kid Mountain Biking Day 2015 Wild-Ride-Mountain-Bike-Festival-flyer-2015

We had 5 kids and 4 adults show up and we all had a blast among the many hundreds of others who attended. We’ll be better organized for next year’s TKMBD!

See the album of15 photos and a 1-minute video on the CROCT blog post.

 

Advocacy Group rides Organizations

Back in June I blogged about the weekly youth mountain biking group rides I was co-leading all summer, one of my activities as a CROCT board member.

As part of that collaboration with the Northfield Public Schools Community Services Division, we recently took the kids and some parents on an overnight youth group trip to the Cuyuna Lakes Mountain Bike Trail System.

I’ve published a long blog post with dozens of photos about the trip here: CROCT leads an overnight youth group mountain bike trip at Cuyuna Lakes.

CROCT youth trip - trail

Advocacy Group rides Organizations

Ryan LeechLast spring when I saw that pro mountain biker and coach Ryan Leech was going to offer an online 30-day course on learning to wheelie, I was thrilled because A) I suck at wheelies; and B) he was going to use an online approach to learning a complex skill similar to what I’ve been doing with my Thick Skull Mountain Bike Skills online instructional courses , ie, many small steps, using exercises and drills, with a multimedia delivery platform.

I started the course back in April when it launched but I quit after about ten lessons. I started having low back pain, something I struggled with years ago but eventually solved (or so I thought) with a special regimen of pilates and yoga called Back RX which I described in this 2013 blog post. I thought my subsequent regimen of kettlebells and free weights (more on this in a future newsletter) would be enough to keep my back in good shape for mountain biking so I quit doing Back RX.

That appears to have been a mistake, because like most geezers, the discs in my back are gradually degenerating with age so exercises that work on my flexibility are just as important as those for strength and endurance. I know, duh, right?

Affiliate Learning to ride

After my two days in Duluth, I headed across northern Wisconsin and Michigan’s U.P. to attend the 2015 IMBA Great Lakes Regional Summit in Marquette.

Dan FauseyThe best way to get a sense of what is was all about is to read this blog post by Dan Fausey published on his Mountain Bike Trailer Park blog a titled Something for Everyone – Riding Marquette MI and the IMBA Regional Summit. It’s an entertaining, engaging, and informative read.

I may have my own blog post about the experience in the days to come (yes, that’s Gary Fisher in the featured photo at the top of this post) but in the meantime, see my large slideshow of 115 photos (recommended) or SLOW CLICK this small slideshow:

Organizations Photo album