March 2007

March 29

Looks like there is actually a group ride set up for Saturday. Trogs are off to explore the Bell Station entrance of Henry W. Coe State Park. It's been a while since I've gone in that entrance. It starts off with a 6 mile climb before you even get into the park. Right after Dowdy ranch the fire road drops down steeply into the canyon for a mile. It's going to suck to climb out of that thing at the end of the day, I also get to try out the Garmin 205 I borrowed from Gary.

Here is a map of the possible ride area, we'll be comeing in from the south East where Burra Burra Peak is marked.

This is an odd story.

Looks like Lebron James likes to bike, and likes Cannondale.

My next MTB

This what I'm eyeballing for my next mtb. Even though I almost broke one at Interbike, I still think it's really cool.

I'm off to work on my mtb to get it ready for Saturday, I think have to put in one last 70-80 miler on Sunday before the century the week after. It's going to hurt. It always hurts.

March 22

Weekend Trail Work

Dennis is planning a trail work day at New Hogan Res on Sunday. From Dennis,

It's that time again, c'mon out and join me at Lake Hogan for some trail work. I'm going out on Sunday March 25th for a 1 day and I'm going to try and book the peninsula for the weekend of April 22-23rd. In any case March 25 is solid. Joseph, if you can't make it can I borrow your gas powered hedge trimmer?

I don't suppose anyone has a boat we can use for hauling tools around to more distant places? I would love to clean up some of the damage from the cattle after the gate. For those who haven't been out in a while it looks like Hogan has been getting more use than it has in the past but the brush is encroaching again mostly in places we didn't attack last year.

--

Dennis Da-Ogre http://ogrehut.com

And a followu up.

I've got to call Rod and see if anyone is coming from up the hill. I was planning on around 10AM just in case it gets warm in the afternoon. If John brings his boat?? Then I think we should spend some time smoothing out some cow damage right after the gate. Otherwise we'll probably focus on clearing some brush along the switchbacks and the upper trail. Bring some pruning shears if you have them. If you can't get there by 10 I'll see about leaving a note on my car to give you some idea of where we are. My Cell number is (209)482-XXX but it likely won't work once I'm on the trail.

-- Dennis

I'd email him if I were interested in helping out.

Other oportunity to help out other trails are Saturday the 24th for the Folsum MTB bike park and Sunday the 25th for trail work at Demo Forrest.

Stockton Roadies are riding

From Gary Colburn

The Stockton roadies will be riding out of Jamestown city park on
Saturday around 10:00. We'll be crossing the river at Wards Ferry, and
then heading west on 120 to Jacksonville Rd. to return to Jamestown.
About 45 miles with 4400' of climbing. Feel free to bring your road
bike and join us.

Retro Trog References from way back.

One of the more interesting bike blogs comes from an apendage of the SWOBO website. How to Avoid the Bummer Life is one of my must read bike blogs. Today's entery had an interesting flashback and a Trogish photo. Do you know the who, what, when, where and whys of that pic?

Speaking of SWOBO, did you know they're coming out with a line of bikes. Very utilitarian and reasonably prices bikes that look like they could take a beating.

Bike Petition

Maybe you heard about the booby traps set up on trails in Marin, some people have decided to start a petition to get more trails opened up in Marin county. I'm not sure it can get much accomlished, but if you're interested in looking at the petition, here it is.

more later.

March 13

After some extensive begging, not really, Bob came up with a race report from Cool.

George;

Here's the race report you asked for;

The Cool race was held last Sunday on an uncharacteristically sunny warm March day. My daughter and niece came along as support crew dressed in T-shirts that said "Shake" and "Bake". Here's the movie.

And of course, I uploaded the movie to youtube also even though Youtube kills the quality

March 11

And then the time changed

Getting up to ride this morning was a bear. It wasn't that early but I tend to stay up late on Saturday nights and then Daylight Savings Time kicked in last night, two weeks earlier that the previous years. I don't know how this is going to affect the Wednesday night ride out of Cyclemasters but it sounds like people are eager to start riding it this Wednesday. I even heard rumblings of the old crew Merced riders coming up to ride the classic.

Along with the Wednesday Turlock starting up, the Tuesday/Thursday Salida rides should be starting up soon also. I've never made that ride but now that my Thursday nights are free I should think about showing up and getting dropped by a new group of characters.

MJC Noon Ride

On the subject of weekly rides, it looks like a new daily ride has popped up. A MJC Noon Ride has been organized and an email group has been set up. It apears to be two distict loops that alternate daily. I hope it catches on and grows. I don't think I can personally make it out there very often unless it's during Spring Break or summer vacation.

All this talk of road riding and what I'm looking for is a good mtb ride. But frankly, I'm just tired of driving a couple hours every weekend. I've done it for years and gas is just too expensive. I can afford it, I just don't want to pay it.

Interesting Rides

If you just follow cycling links, they'll send you to interesting places and you can learn new things. I have never head of anything like the Dunwich Dynamo. It's a 120 mile road ride.... at night. That's pretty cool. I guess it's been going on for years. At some point it was pay ride like anyother century but now it's a free ride and you just show up, get directions, and ride. There is some club sponsorship and a basic ride faq.

That sounds a lot more interesting that the century I'm going to ride next month. I haven't even really decided which century I will do next month but I have to do one with Carlos for his senior project. It's going to hurt.

Magnus Backstedt

As a closer, check out the interview of Magnus from Rouleur Magazine and his online bike diary.

March 6

Lots of bike stuff this past weekend.

It started with the North American Handmade Bike Show '07. Gary and I headed out to San Jose around noon and we got to walk around the show before the busy weekend rush. Gary stopped by and said, "Hi." to his old friend Don Walker.

Every once in a while Gary surprises me as to who he knows in the industry. He and Don have know each other for years and Don was the guy who put the show together. It's almost more art show than bike show and it's always cool looking at the craftmanship that goes into these bikes.

Of course, I shot some video, it's just a quick montage of some of the things and people I ran into. The usual hard core bike nuts, Francois, Al and Hollywood among them.

Handmade Bike Show video link - about 23 meg, (right click to download)

or of course, YouTube

Saturday was the downtown crit for the Merco Race. John and I rode our bikes from Turlock to Merced then spent the day watching the races.

When we got there the Masters races were going on. We were watching Aaron Tate and Dave Loogam race and then went to hang out behind the pits where Kevin's Bikes was set up.

With about 8 labs to go there was a crash. Over the PA we heard that Aaron Tate would have to go to the medical tent for a scratch on his head. It didn't sound to bad but the next thing we knew an ambulance was on it's way and they had stopped the race. Aaron was being placed on a backboard and taken away.

He ended up being OK. He had hurt his back and was in so much pain that he couldn't move. John and I saw him later that night and he was hobbling around so everything looks to be all right.

When the pro racers showed up we were immediately impressed by the Rock & Republic team kits. They were all white with black graphics. They looked really sharp. They have all black kit too. I've been searching online to see if I can get a jersey in either version but there is no team web page. Cadillac was also a sponsor, and all the team cars were Caddys, including a couple of Escalades.

The team is made up of an interesting cast of characters. Lots of tattooed riders, including the infamous David Clinger who made headlines a couple years ago when he was riding for Webcore and decided to get a Maori facial tattoo.

One funny thing that happened at the race was the appearance of Rashan Bahati. I was explain to John about how there used to be this young black racer who everyone expected to be an up and comer and how he had disappeared from cycling. I couldn't remember his name and I asked Gary and he remembered Bahati.

A few minutes later we were watching as the pro race was about to start and they were calling up the 'famous' racers, national champs, etc., to the front lines. While this was going on we saw one of the Rock & Republic racers jump into the pits looking at his seat and acting like something was wrong with it.

The starting gun then went off and he jumped on his bike and ended up ahead of the pack and lead the pack by a couple bike lengths into the first turns.

He pulled a fast one to get in front of the pack and get a shot at the $300 prime. That racer was none other than Rashan Bahati. We laughed our asses off because he were just talking about him and boom, here he was pulling a fast one right before our eyes.

On Sunday Bruce and I ended up riding around Red Hills for a few hours. I had really forgotten how hard that place is on the body. It doesn't help that I'm really out of shape but what took the most abuse were my arms. On the long rocky downhill runs I had to shop a couple times to shake out my arms.

No pictures or videos from Red Hills but a bunch of people are going back again this week. I think I'm good when it comes to Red Hills for a while, but I hope to get some riding in somewhere.