This week in Rides

PBR's Thursday night rides provides beer,riding, flask, riding and more.....beer



Saturday's short morning ride provided a moment of bliss just above the clouds



and Sunday Monument was shut down due to snow and rain but Castle Rock provided a new trail in the form of the Ridgeline Open Space to ride

The Goat's Play Corner

Finally after a few years of procrastination I have a play corner put together in my garage. I've been wrenching on my bikes out of tool boxes since moving to Colorado and inevitably I'd forget where I put this tool or that one. I've been planning on building a new workbench for a while but PBR saved the day with an old train box turned desk that he had. I took it and started searching out an old door or a stainless tabletop and just as I was about to give up, along comes PBR with an old stainless tabletop that the Denver Museum was throwing away.
I have a few things to do yet, such as building two drawers and cabinet doors but it is functional and every tool has a place. Every bike tool that is. All my wood and sheet metal working tools still reside in tool boxes but that's OK because its usually the bike I'm wrenching on anyway.

There's always Monument

When the local Front Range Trails get ya down and you want something a little narrower, a little more technical, and a little more fun, There's always Monument.

I took Full Trucker down for a sampling of the fun and techy trails of Monument yesterday. The thing about Monument is exploring. Finding trails, finding new linkups, finding the local horde. There is no signs, just a mish mash of trails and I really haven't found one that I don't like yet.

The lower trails are about flow and relatively smooth singletrack



While the upper ones are more about techy riding on and around rocks







It was awesome Bombing the Stoopid Trail with Full Trucker...We railed it! I'm looking forward to some more early season riding down there soon.

Chasing the Storm at BC

So last night for PBR's T.I.T.S. we headed to Buffalo Creek where there were rumors of unridable trails, mud suckin muck on the CT, and boundless amounts of snow still left in the tree covered trails. We'll let me tell you folks last night was the fuggin BOMB (well, besides me getting sick and Full Trucker having the mother of all Bonks) and I know all of are hating yourselves for not showing up. So I give you a photo teaser before darkness fell.

Full Trucker getting his carbs just as the ride begins



A mother of a Trucker, trucking up Shinglemill



Guacamole always gets pics in the cool views





R-L: DS2199, PBR & Full Trucker



that's all folks.

We did a sweet loop of Shinglemill>CT>Redskin>Gashouse>Charlies>Sandy Wash

On Sandy the 1st flakes of snow started falling that would make for a treacherous drive home but all made it safe and sound. Now I know all of you think BC make be shut down for the weekend but that wet snow + a super warm ground temp + a nice warm sun today is sure to have melted it off and given a nice base for you to go rip it up this weekend.

Facial Hair Stylings

On and off for over a year and consistently for the past 6 months I've sported a beard. It's time for a change, I give you the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. I wonder if it'll become popular?



Neat trick. Take a piece of paper and hold it over half of my face to get the beard or non beard and cast your vote.

Exploring Cheyenne Canyon

On the bike, you know your out of shape when a 20ish mile long MTB ride can beat you down. It's the lack of winter riding, poor eating habits, and just maybe trying to at least keep Kip and Ol PBR in sight all day on the climbs.

I met up with Guacamole, PBR, and Kip for some fun in Cheyenne Canyon. Thanks to Kip for playing tour guide. It kept me from having to pull the map and every intersection and we saw more trail then road due to his knowledge of the area. It kinda reminded me of riding back east where the choices could have you taking the easy way up via Fire road or the harder way up by known or semi known trails. At each intersection Kip would tell us about the easy way up the fireroad or the funner singletrack that may have some steep climbing. At every intersection I would vote for the singletrack and then watch Kip and PBR blow me and Guacamole away on the steep climbs.

Ol PBR rocking the 29er and glad I talked him into Cheyenne after a Friday full of ribbing text





Guacamole climbing out of the Chutes



Kip showing us the lines



a few views were seen







It can't be a Evil MGE! ride without some hike a bike



Kip on Captain Jacks

A Broken Axle

You might have seen on my last post how I took apart my rear hub, found a broken paw spring and thus decided to reduce the number of paws in my hub to a equalized triangle per Industry Nine's specs. It rode nice.....until the 3rd ride of which the 1st two rides were lunch rides and the 3rd ride I was two hours in, so you may call it the only ride if every ride you ride you expect to be of epic or length or as a roadie told me once...."I won't even get on my bike if I can't ride longer then 2 hours." Not having a roadie's mentality I'll still think of this as the 3rd ride even though the 1st two rides were lunch rides of less then 2 hours.

If you followed that then continue.....

On that 3rd ride which was a ride ride and not a lunch ride, my freehub started slipping. I had already climbed Green Mtn that morning; up Hayden, crossed to the backside on Summit, which still needed more drying time and crossed back over to descend Rooney Valley. From there I had climbed Zorro, descended Dakota Ridge and started to climb up the Red Rocks when the offending freehub began it's slip.

By the time I reached the actual Red Rocks my freehub had completely given up and I took the wheel off to see if I could do a trailside fix. What I found instead was my one piece axle was now two and able to be removed without tools of any sort.



Not good...

I thought to walk back to my truck but either way I looked at it, my truck was miles away. I called my wife but the kids were napping so I took a chance and called Bad Andy who had just finished church to be forgiven of his heathenish ways and just so happened he was home and willing to come get me.

Bad Andy, what ever they tell you at the Pearly Gates...for your one good deed that day, you are forgiven all else.

Once back to my truck I drove home, slapped on another rear wheel, went back to Green Mtn and got in another hour and a half of single track loving fun before calling it a good day.

A good day indeed. So I later called Industry Nine fully expecting to pay for a new axle and the paw springs that cracked when the axle when out thinking I had done something wrong in the Hub Love I had recently given it. I-9 says they had some issues with their 1st Generation axles and they have a new axle available and all will be covered under warranty. Thanks for the outstanding customer service Industry Nine. Your above and beyond customer service should be a benchmark for other companies!

Some Hub Love

Since buying my daringly expensive though cheaper then you think, Craigslist bought Industry Nine wheels I've had an issue. When set up geared (compared to SS) my cassette would rotate forward 90 to 180 degrees, wrapping the chain and making a good peddle stroke inefficient.



I finally took the time to tear down my rear up and I found a paw spring had broken into about five pieces. All of these little pieces were floating around and getting caught between the paws and the drive gear binding it up. I thought to replace the spring but I also wanted to quieten down the hub a bit so I took three paws out including the offending spring.



I've had some friends question why quieten the hub and all I can say is, "On a good long adventure with a bonk looming near my hearing becomes sensitive and silence or close to it, is golden".