Cycling Carson City has a new place on the web!

You can now find us at:

http://www.bikecarson.com/

Please update your links and bookmarks. Hope to see you over there!

Last week, Jeff P and I met with Barbara H, and talked about Bike Month coming up in May. The League of American Bicyclists is promoting Bike-to-Work Week from May 12-16 and Bike-to-Work Day on Friday, May 16. This week will be the primary area of our focus for promoting the event in Carson City.

The more I learn about Bike to Work Week, and the hard work that went into it last year, the greater appreciation I get for those involved in such projects. I felt a bit overwhelmed at first, but we’re starting to break down all the duties and making assignments. I’ve been getting in touch with the people that worked on the event last year, and finding out what their rolls were. Jeff P is starting to contact businesses to see if they’ll sponsor the event. Tasha G has contacted NDOT and has gotten a lead on some free promotional materials.

To help us organize, we’d like to get a feel for how many people will be participating in Bike to Work Week. Make a comment here and let us know what your plans are! If we can get commitments from people at many different businesses, it’ll be much easier to get the word out. Additionally, each contact could adopt a friend or coworker as a Bike Buddy, helping recruit those who would otherwise not participate.

We plan to have some social events as well. We may have a movie night, and will most certainly have an after work social ride. We plan to have bike swag and a raffle too, so if anyone has some leads in this area, let us know!

The theme for Bike Month is going to be “Fun”. We all know how healthy cycling is, and it’s an activity we can enjoy that causes minimal environmental impact; however, that’s not how we plan to sell this event. We plan to encourage people to start riding more, because it’s fun! All the other beneficial aspects can be the wonderful side effects of cycling.

We have a whole list of ideas that we’ll be sharing with you in the near future, so stay tuned.  In the meantime, share your thoughts and ideas in the comments.

As you have seen from previous posts, the Sierra Nevada’s are still covered in snow, preventing any trail riding on these mountains whatsoever. Fortunately for us Nevadans, there are over 300 other mountain ranges to pick from. Sunday’s adventure began 20 miles east of Carson City in the mostly snowless Flowery Range, on Jeff P’s Iron Mountain Singletrack.

When we pulled up to the trailhead, I was shocked at the great turnout we had! We had twelve riders show up, and probably half of them I’ve never met before. After exchanging pleasantries, Pecos Potter (aka Jeff P) announced that it was time to ride. We headed north up into the mountains along a gently graded double track, the perfect warm-up for the singletrack to come.

Like other Jeff P built singletrack, you pretty much need to be shown where they’re at. He does a good job of concealing the entrances, as proven by the little use this trail has seen. Although primitive, the singletrack was smooth, and easy to ride. The dirt is still drying out, so the ground was a little soft. There was even a little bit of snow on some of the less sunny exposures. I was glad to have a full range of gears for the day.

The trail was neither fast nor slow. There were a few grinder climbs and a few fast downhills, but for the most part, the terrain was rolling. This kept the group together and made for a good social ride.

There were only a couple of casualties on the trail that I heard of. I heard talk of Jeff P endoing on a gully crossing, and one of the guys had a flat tire after we skimmed through a couple of spiny desert peach plants. But overall, we all returned back to the cars with nothing more than tired legs.

Near the top of one memorable switchback climb, we had to port the bikes across the side of a snowy hillside. I love little challenges like this, as I think they add to the adventure of the ride.

The scenery of the day had me constantly thinking of old western movies. We saw many wild horses throughout the day too, but they kept an eye on us and kept a safe distance. You could almost hear an old west cowboy theme playing as we rode along the barren landscape.

I think all the riders would agree that we had a very successful day, both in riding and making new friends.  I was glad to see the Cycling Carson City blog act as a tool for getting this many riders together, and I imagine that we’ll see even more riders on our next outing. For those of you who missed out, I wouldn’t be surprised if we did the Iron Mountain Singletrack again real soon.

Here’s a little video that sums up how the day felt to me.

We had three cameras going on the ride, and got a lot of great pictures. Browse the rest of these great pictures over on Flickr by clicking HERE.

This weekend’s ride is a go. The weather looks to be cooperating and most of the snow should be melted off the trail by then.

Ride description: The first two miles of the ride will be on a double track that will provide a good warm-up and an opportunity to socialize before hitting the singletrack. To give you an idea of the level of difficulty, this trail is a little more challenging than the Centennial Park loop. I hope that helps.
Total mileage will be about twelve, with 1200-1300′ of elevation gain. Depending on the makeup of the group we could extend the ride and add another loop. The pace of this ride should be early season casual, but if there is too big of an ability level gap we’ll split into two groups.

When: Sunday, February 17.  10:30am

Getting there: On Highway 50, approximately ten miles east of the Dayton Valley Road (stoplight), there will be a dirt road heading north (just beyond Chaves Rd. If you’ve crested the hill and can see Stagecoach, you’ve gone too far). Turn left, and in about two hundred feet there will be a clearing on the right. Park there.

If you would like to carpool to the trailhead, leave a comment and I’ll make the appropriate arrangements.

I’m a bit at a loss here for my first post. First off, I’ve never posted on a blog with the exception of the occasional comment. Second, I haven’t been in the saddle nearly enough lately to really have much to say in the way of riding other than, I wish I was riding more, though I tend to say that even when I am riding a lot. A few short road rides and some quick trips to the grocery store has been the bulk of the cycle time as of late. Not a riveting tale to tell.

What I can report is that it appears that after 19 years of co-production of the Death Ride, the Alta Alpina Cycling Club (AACC) and the Alpine Chamber of Commerce tag team is no more. Apparently the AACC was unable to renew or re-negotiate the contract to co-produce the ride in 2008, thus ending a 19-year partnership. It’s hard to say how this will affect the Death Ride this year. Anyone who has participated in it in the past knows that it is a very well organized and supported ride. Personally, it’s probably the best ride I’ve participated in in that regard and arguably the most fun. According to the email that was sent to AACC members, Alta Alpina has been largely responsible for ensuring a safe and enjoyable ride for participants: ensuring that the right food, water, and equipment gets to where it’s needed, ensuring the presence of experienced course marshals, SAG, tech support, appropriate signage, and a lot more.

This year the Chamber has indicated that they have the skills and experience necessary without involving the club.” Only the event itself will answer that question, but hopefully all goes well and nothing suffers as a consequence of the “new” management.I myself will not be participating in the Death Ride this year as the Downieville Classic takes place on the same weekend and I’m taking a crack at that. But I’ll miss it for sure. Anyone who is taking part this year, and especially those that have in the past, might want to weigh in afterwards on their impressions of this year’s event. I’ll tell you one thing, if they don’t have those tiny cans of V8 at the rest stops, I’d be a little hacked off.

http://www.deathride.com/

Trail Conditions

This is a picture from the top of the Kings Canyon road climb. As you can see, the southern exposures have melted, but anything that does not get direct sun still has quite a bit of snow on it. There is hope for a taste of singletrack in the near future if this current warm weather keeps up. And it looks like it will.

Kristy was out walking the Centennial Singletrack earlier this week, and she says most of the snow is gone out there. She thinks it might be dried out by the end of the week.

Tour de Nez moving to Northstar-at-Tahoe

This RGJ story was sent to me by Patrick C. Thanks for the heads up!

The Tour de Nez, a professional bicycling stage race, will be headquartered at Northstar-at-Tahoe Resort in Truckee this year, organizers said last week.

Continue reading this article HERE.

Bike Maintenance

The sand, snow, and ice of December and January took a serious toll on my single speed’s V brakes. Last weekend I took advantage of the nice weather and replaced by brake pads, housing, and cables. I wrote an article on Blue Collar Mountain Biking about a trick I used to make this maintenance task a little easier. The link to this article is HERE.

New Contributor to Cycling Carson City

Scott, aka XD, the man that has me continuously reaching for my dictionary, has joined on as a contributor to Cycling Carson City.  The first time I met Scott, he was bleeding profusely from one of Jeff P’s well constructed trails. I see him every once in a while when we’re out riding, but mostly I just know him from his comments here.  Scott does a bit of racing, and is even going down to the Sea Otter Classic. Racing coverage may be something Scott contributes too. We’ll see what he comes up with.

Tuesday’s Road Ride

Stay tuned for Jeff P’s update on this Weekend’s Iron Mountain Ride. He should have all the details tomorrow.

Amy and I traveled to Portland, OR. this past weekend to visit with Bill, Amy’s father. Fortunately the timing of this trip was perfect, for it coincided with the North American Handmade Bicycle Show. The show was too overwhelming to absorb in one day, but that’s all we had. After returning home and reading better and more detailed accounts of the NAHMBS than I can offer, I’ll just post photos of some of the bike-art that caught my eye.

P.S. A local celebrity made a special appearance in Portland.

Renovo Hardwood Bicycles

Calfee Bamboo Tandem

Brian Baylis Bicycles

Wolfhound Cycles

Waterford Precision Cycles

Delta 7 Sports

Roark Titanium Bicycles

Back on January 24th, we reported on the Law Enforcement/Cyclists meeting that was to be held on February 5th. The meeting was quite a success and very informative, both for law enforcement and the cycling community. You can read about this meeting over on the Muscle Powered Blog HERE.

Some of you may have read my post on the Muscle Powered blog about Bike to Work Week. We will be getting together sometime in the coming week to start discussing this event. Right now it looks like Wednesday the 13th, sometime after work (time and location TBA). If you’re interested in in participating in Bike To Work Week, you are encouraged to attend. I’d like to start brainstorming ideas and promotions now, so we’ll have plenty of time to contact businesses and get materials together.

I found the following information about Bike to Work Week on the The League of American Bicyclists website.

May is National Bike Month - The League of American Bicyclists is promoting Bike-to-Work Week from May 12-16 and Bike-to-Work Day on Friday, May 16.

There is a wonderful set of resources on the LAB site as well, including:

• National Bike Month Organizer’s Kit
• Sample Bike Month Proclamation
• Bike to Work Commuter’s Booklet
• BikeEd Brochure
• Bicycle Friendly Communities Brochure
• Web Banners
• National Strategies for Advancing Bicycle Safety

After I talk to a few more people this weekend, I’ll get the details of time and place up on the blog. Stay tuned…

Warmer weather is creeping in. In fact, it was warmer on my morning commute than it was yesterday at lunch! The asphalt is mostly dry if you stick to the main roads, making it a perfect time for road bikes.

Kristy rode over to meet me at work, and then we headed for Combs Canyon. It felt great to roll along so smoothly and swiftly after so many days of plodding along in the ice and snow. Fitness is returning, and the legs welcomed the resistance from the hills.

One cool thing about Carson City, and maybe even Nevada in general, is that you can be out of town rather quickly. One moment I was sitting in a cubicle in a basement, and then minutes later, I was riding up a beautiful snow filled canyon. I think the geography of the area helps limit some of the urban sprawl. Some of the country around here is just too rugged to build on.

Once we finished climbing Combs Canyon, we began the fast rolling descent into Washoe Valley. It was still a bit chilly, but not so cold that my beard froze and my eyes watered. Not today. It was actually pretty tolerable. The only mistake I made on my clothing choice, was that I left the booties back at work in protest of winter. Bad move. I had cold toes for a couple hours after I returned to work.

We rode out as far as the turnoff to Franktown Road, and then headed back the way we came. We had a bit of a tailwind coming back through Washoe Valley, making for a 21 mph pace across the flats. We raced back to Lakeview, and climbed back to the top of Combs Canyon. We didn’t open up the brakes all the way down like we do in the summer. We played it safe with our wet, sandy tires. There is still quite a bit of red sand on the roads from the snow plows. This made for some pretty cool red stripes on the seat of our pants!

Once back in town, Kristy and I parted ways. She headed home for a warm bath, and I headed for the shelter of my underground lair. As I walked back to my desk, I wondered if my coworkers could even begin to imagine how much fun I just had. Probably not…