I learned a lot about cornering from this James Wilson video: Three Steps to Faster Corners. It’s exactly the same as turning a bike in motorcycle trials (mototrials):
BikeJames.com Presents: Cornering Basics from NoahColorado on Vimeo.
Last night, Milltown Cycles proprietor Ben Witt hosted a viewing of a feature film titled Ride The Divide at the Viking Theater in St. Olaf’s Buntrock Commons. It’s about "the world’s toughest mountain bike race" called the Tour Divide, an "… ultra-cycling challenge to pedal solo and self-supported the length of Great Divide Mountain Bike Route…as fast as possible." It’s 2,700 miles from Banff, Alberta to the Mexican border.
Earlier this summer, Northfielder Ben Oney finished 13th (80 participants) in the race on a Salsa Fargo, a drop-bar, off-road adventure bike. He hosted a Q&A session after the movie. See his old Tour Divide blog and his new Boney Bikes blog, but better yet, follow Ben Oney on Twitter.
See also:
I started out mountain biking this summer clipped into Crank Bros Eggbeaters with a good pair of Bontrager Multisport shoes. After a few minor spills, I got the hang of getting out of them (rotate your heels outward) and I could feel some benefits to keeping my feet in the right position on the pedals.
But I was still nervous about tackling the advanced technical stuff that I like and after a few scary crashes, I found some blog posts with long discussion threads that opened my eyes:
James Wilson on MTB Strength Training Systems:
Gene Hamilton on BetterRide.Net:
So I got a pair of Five-Ten Impact High shoes and thin VP-Vice pedals and they’ve made a huge difference. I’ve been way more adventuresome, not having to think or worry about being clipped in.
I’ll keep the Eggbeaters and Bontragers for the gravel rides.
Updates, November 2014: I’ve updated the expired links to the shoes and pedals. And I’ve added two more article links.
I attend my first MORC board meeting last night at REI in Bloomington. MORC Chair Ryan Lieske (right in the photo) was running the show. I was amazed at all the projects and activities the organization is involved with.
I’m interested in learning more and hope to attend more board meetings.
I made a big step forward last week when I began to understand the difference between a pedal-powered wheelie and a manual. These articles helped me:
I’ve been using it this week to get over larger rocks and logs at speed. And when I say ‘larger,’ I don’t mean large. I mean bigger than the curbs on my street. Go ahead and laugh, but it was pretty cool when I got the hang of doing a manual over the curbs repeatedly. And I can now see a bunny-hop in my future.
I’ve cleaned some steep uphills with steps/logs recently (St. Olaf College, Lebanon Hills) after reading about the techniques in this BetterRide.net blog post:
MTB Skills Tip w/ Pic, Technical Climbing w/Andy Winohradsky
Losing traction, “bogging out”, doing accidental wheelies, and/or getting a case of the “swirvies”, are all common causes of riders not making it to the top of technical descents.
Oh yeah. But I’m now getting the hang of how to do it right.
I spend the afternoon on Saturday at Lebanon Hills, much of it on the new riding area that opened a week ago.
It’s considered a beginner loop, though some folks in the MORC forum trail discussion are referring to it as a beginner + loop. Trail designer Tim Wegner wrote:
I believe that we felt there was a bit too much of a gap between the old beginner trail and the intermediate trail as far as features and skill required to ride. The new beginner addendum trail kinda fills that gap. It is a bit more difficult than the old beginner trail but not as much hard climbing as the intermediate trail. I think this new segment of trail will really fill the bill as far as helping to enhance rider skill development. Perhaps this segment should be labeled advanced beginner????
I had the good fortune to meet current MORC Chair Ryan Lieske on the new loop and took a bunch of photos of him riding the five big berms in the upper open area and the smaller berms in the lower open area. Looking good, Ryan!
I also took several photos of beginners riding these features, including the 21 whoops and the 6 larger jumps in the lower area. The father and son in the center photo above repeatedly rode those, whooping and hollering for joy every time they went down. And true beginners can get through the area without actually having to ride the ‘obstacles’ as evidenced by the photo of the woman on the right, who, when she noticed me taking her photo, shouted "I’m scared to death!" No wonder: her mountain biking outfit consisted of short-shorts, a tank top and a baseball cap. Oy. But she got through it.
I spent an hour practicing the lower berms of the open area. I probably rode them 20 times, which was easy to do since it only takes a minute or two to get back to the top of them. I then went back and rode the 5 big berms of the upper area (which only takes 5-10 minutes to get to the top of those). My skill and confidence had increased dramatically. Thank you, Tim!
See my album of 33 photos, the large slideshow (recommended), or this small slideshow:
Bill Nelson, Jerry Bilek, Ben Witt, and I took off on our mountain bikes from GBM at about 7:30 this morning, riding primarily gravel roads to the mountain bike trail in the Murphy-Hanrehan Park Reserve, just south of Savage.
After riding the 7 mile advanced loop at Murphy, we chowed down at Chipotle in Apple Valley, biked through UMore Park in Dakota County, and arrived back in Northfield in time for dinner. About 85 miles, 9 hours. Whew!
I had so much fun at the Cuyuna Lakes Mountain Bike Festival Grand Opening that I had to go to the 2011 Squirrel Fest Mountain Bike Festival, held last weekend in Crosby, MN, primarily organized by MORC member Don MacNaughton (left photo above).
On Saturday, local dirt boss and MORC member Nick Statz (right photo above) led the morning ‘fast’ ride group, mainly through the Yawkey Unit. (See this Silent Sports article featuring Nick: Cuyuna Lakes Reclaimed.) I’d not ridden Yawkey before so I was thrilled when we rode through its fabulous technical area.
I went back later in the afternoon to further explore the technical area of Yawkey and met MORC member Troy Lawrence who showed me how to do it without crashing. Some day when I get a little older…
For dinner, my wife Robbie and I paid a visit to Louie’s Bucket of Bones in the adjacent town of Ironton. We met owner Joyce Hoggarth and her son Louie and of course, feasted on BBQ ribs, as Louie’s is among the top ten BBQ joints in Minnesota according to this article in the July, 2010 issue of Minnesota Monthly.
In the evening, Don MacNaughton organized squirrel sled competition. Here’s his promo for it:
Have more in the tank? Did you drop your nuts? Let’s take it up a notch! Here are some details. Miniature bike, a sled, and the desire to pedal until you puke! Do you have what it takes? Can you pedal longer than your fellow squirrels? Game on!
With the dewpoint nearing 80, I declined but most everyone else punished themselves to the delight of the crowd.
Dave LaChapelle has an album of Squirrel Fest 2011 photos on his Green Body Facebook page.
If you care about bicycling for yourself, your kids or your town, you should know what Gary Sjoquist is up to.
I met Gary over beers in Crosby, MN a month ago (left photo, blog post here). He’s the Director of Advocacy for Bloomington, MN-based QBP (Quality Bicycle Products), one of the largest bicycle parts distributors in the world. He invited me to take a tour of QBP’s headquarters and yesterday I took him up on his offer. (Photo album below.)
Among his Minnesota-related activities, Gary co-founded Minnesota Off-Road Cyclists (MORC) “a non-profit volunteer organization dedicated to safeguarding the future of mountain biking in Minnesota… ” One of MORC’s projects, which Gary has worked on for over ten years, is the Cuyuna Lakes Mountain Bike Trail System that opened a month ago in the Cuyuna Country State Recreation Area. The Cuyuna Lakes Mountain Bike Festival is what got me hooked on mountain biking and spending more money than I’d ever imagined at Milltown Cycles.
Gary’s the director of the Minnesota Mountain Bike Series, a non-profit organization that, besides hosting the races, uses the entry fees to fund:
Nationally, Gary’s the Director of Government Relations for the Bikes Belong Coalition:
Bikes Belong Coalition was formed in 1999 as the national coalition of bicycle retailers and suppliers working to put more people on bikes more often. U.S. bicycle companies recognized that they could accomplish more for bicycling by working together than by working independently. From helping create safe places to ride to promoting bicycling, we carefully select projects and partnerships that have the capacity to make a difference… Additionally, we operate the Bikes Belong Foundation to focus on children’s programs and bicycle safety.
For more on his work, see the 2008 Bike Radar article, Interview: Gary Sjoquist, advocate.
As you’ll see in my photo album, QBP’s headquarters and distribution center is not only huge, but spectacular. And it’s got a reputation as a great place to work. Their Career and benefits page has the details on why.
See my album of 30+ photos, the large slideshow (recommended), or SLOW CLICK this small slideshow:
I rode Lebanon Hills for the first time last night. Amazing to have a mountain bike park like that in the middle of a big suburb.
I barely kept up with these guys. L to R: Ben Witt, Curtis Ness, John Ebling.
