Bike knowledge...

...was definitly imroved this weekend.

After a great ride Saturday, Sunday was dedicated to setting up the race rig and test riding in Canmore. Should have been a quick task and allow for plenty of time to pack and get ready for trip. Though I should know better than that; what small projects actually turn out small? In my world, not so much.

Long story short is that Im now very knowledgable on bike assembly and specialty would be headsets and races, also learned a bit about G2 vs regular fork set up and quiet good at the avid integrated solutions.
All my plans on packing and getting ready; well they are still plans and eventually must be put into action but today was spent up north so last call tomorrow.
Looking forward to just getting on the plane.....at that point nothing matters....what i remeber ill have, what works will be great and the rest I cant worry about.
Thanks Craig, Ryan, Suzanne and Toby for help.....

Happy Riding!

Picture ....

....perfect day! Craig thought the view driving out to meet Jon looked more like a picture that the real world we live in. That speaks for how fortunate we are to be so close we can jump in the car and be part of the awesome picture in no time. Today we took it a bit further and found some awesome riding in Invermere. The trails were great and even better with the right company. They kicked my butt and forced me into me in to my discomfort zone; perfect and what i needed. We started with Juniper; fun flowy punchy shorter loop; great warm up. Had a quick snack and rode along Johnson loop and cloosifire (that might not be exactly what they are called); more super flowy fast punchy little bit more teckie awesome views and just fun trails in great spring condition. Then over to mt swanse and climbed a long road up to the first sign of snow so back tracked down slightly and hit steep trail to autobhan and and gravy train .... More DH like trails but a fun way to end a great day. Pizza after some locals recommendation and Jons awesome navigation to Peppis.
Drive home was filled with more awesome views and lots of deer.

One more ride before Portugal!

Happy riding!

No need to....

....drive south when a few km west is as good as it is right now. Craig and I headed out to Canmore for a second mtb day.
Some more TC trail; nice technical snow free and pretty dry. Had a copy of my yesterday lunch at Beamers and then up to Benchlands again. Great ride there too, so many fun loops. Bike is continuing to impress....

Good luck to Craig and then the rest of the riders that will race tomorrow, ill be enjoying the trails on the Superfly100...

Happy Riding!

Mountain bike season...

...is here!
I survived another winter but so very happy ill see less of my great cross bike and more of my 29ers ! Less roads and more dirt!
Started out with a city ride during the week and so sweet. The Superfly100 rides much like my hardtail but didnt reAlly get to Ride It....
Today i got the real test and it was awesome and cant wait to push it further when the snow is gone higher up.
Craig and I headed out to Canmore to search for some dirt. We succeeded but Toby was the big champ of the day!
With no real training under his collar he rode two good rides. Benchlands west and east. Both directions in great shape. And then a shorter ride on the TransCanada trail. Think a rest day tomorrow is in his books. Me; no time to rest, one more week of riding then pack and get ready for Portugal.
So Canmore again tomorrow.

Happy riding all, time to get the mtb's out!

Will this ....

...be my new best friend? Well if look counts it has a good shot!

Happy Riding!

Mud and....

...some more mud!

That summarizes one of the few rides the last couple of weeks. Work and some home front things put a bit of a damper on the motivation to get out; oh and of course the snow! Calgary finally had some winter this week.

The weekend group ride last week was a bit of a hard plan but got at least one good ride in with trying to hang on to Gabor on our way to Coochrane ... from there we tagged on to Erik and Shawn for a nice ride back to Calgary.

This week was mostly work. Went out for a little city NW path ride including Starbucks.

Today the group was down to three with Alana, Cesar and I. In mildly winter conditions; mostly ice/rain/snow/wind...until the last 2 min with the sun peaking out. Still a great sw and se city path ride.

So far three visits to Cadence today...that must be record mocha day for me.

What to plan for tomorrow?...a couple of more weeks to Portugal.

Happy Riding !

Windy...

...day after.

Alana, Michelle, Craig and I met up at COP and planned a ride to Cochrane. My legs felt it for sure from yeaterday WV ride but if im gona do 9 days in Portugal i better get suited up to ride with bad legs. The wind was right from the west going out, and can you believe it?...out of the Northeast going home....though since Craig did all the pulling im not really allowed to complain other than about the noice....it was very noisy. We practised some echalong; not pros yet but darn good (though im not even sure I say the word right...)! Had a great stop for coffee and grilled cheeses; some more gourmet than others. A new member of the Terrascape team joined us here. Planned to show off the Glennbow path but at the one gate we met the ranger. And I guess you Dont mess with them, maybe if I told him "Im good to ride the ice...I know where the holes are and won't crash again" though he seemed pretty set on the rules ; so back toward cochrane; and up and out at the parks official entry point. It was a great just short of 100km ride.

Good weekend of riding; ready to take on another week at work...4 day week :)

Happy Riding!

Ridley's ...

...Jon and Kate plus eight. That was the crew leaving cadence Saturday morning.

Craig just got there in time after a few concerning phone calls; it was confirmed he is on his way. He would be the last person I know that would miss this day for no good reason. He just happened to have one of "those" mornings mixing up time. Erik almost had to ride the plus 200 with no gloves, but now he just owes Cindy one (probably more than one....). Katy  and Keith are too busy these days, but great when they have a minute to stop by for a coffee.

So slightly after plan we leave north; Jon and my self, Craig S and Craig M, Cesar, Thomas, Erik, Pat, Mark and one of Eriks friends. And a few km north of the city we picked up Graham who road out to meet us. A group of 11 for a 200km ride in march (almost April i guess); id say that's pretty good.

Last year I had no idea what to expect; but whatever that could have been; it was. This year I knew and it didn't disappoint.
Perfect day, sunny and not too cold.  Awesome group to ride with but the ride is still hard! Good hard. We hit the lunch stop, local Water Valley pub at the 75 km point, that's not even half way in. Great spot with all sorts of animals on the walls. The stop is as it can be with only one cook; we snack and go. Next stop Cochrane 100 + km. Mostly gravel road; a couple of bald eagles and a huge owl, some hills up and some down. Not much wind. We make it to Cochrane; Erik makes sure we get all the way to Calgary and fuels us all at Starbucks. We ride some awesome new "pathway" and Craig gets hijacked by a party bus but in the end we all make it home and its not even dark!...210km and a bit....long day in the saddle but even though my butt hurt and my legs hurt I feel so fortunate to have a passion for something that lets me experience these days. The ride, the people, the experience ... Im very lucky...where to ride tomorrow?

Happy Riding !