No More Skin

Yeah... it's starting to get COLD! (-25C sheeesh...) Finally had to succumb to the full-face covering. Starting to think about the summer again...

Post-Fall but still awesome!

Another BEAUTIFUL post-fall day. Vanessa and I rode some of the suicide loops in the sandilands. 8 degrees celcius. Definitely preferable to snow at this point!

1st Single Speed Trail Trial

Ok...

So i've been intrigued by the whole single speed concept for quite a while now. Folks like Hal L. and Dave D. sparked my interest, while new convert Greg S. really made me want to try it out. Often this year I've experimented by choosing one gear for a given trail and sticking to it. I found that I wasn't any slower, and mentally i ended up being more relaxed. So as of Thursday, I converted my Niner EMD to a single speed. I rode a 32/19 on my first ride- figured out quickly that it sucks in the city- but is great for the long enduro (8 hours of spruce woods last month at 32/20). Today I rode at bhp (burr oak, blue stem, chickadee) with Kevin Miller, Jason Hiebert (also on single speed), and Gord Buhr (considering single speed). I tried a 32/16 due to burr oak's limited pitches and found it fantastic! Max speed would be about 30km/h and average could easily be maintained at 20. Only once did i feel the need for more gears on the trail, and it was only the trail conditions that slowed me down. There were blankets of fresh fallen leaves, creating a slippery surface for cornering and visually for trail detail perception. There are a few sharp climbs by the tower and no way to get proper momentum into them, and these were the only points of issue. So far... I'm sold. Perhaps for the mountains next summer I'll consider gears again.

Fun Fun!

November 11th....???

WOW. What amazing weather and trail conditions. 9 degrees and sunny with no wind. Jason Hiebert and I had a nice 2-hour leisurely ride in the Sandilands yesterday. We rode the trail system near "Suicide Hill". It has lots of decent ups and downs, as well as some really flowy singletrack. This area is north of the 52 highway and was not burned in last years awful forest fire. It was pretty salad-like in summer but now the ferns and tall grass are gone leaving clear views of the terrain. Lots of potential in this area for future race course and new trail building! I just got my single-speed conversion items and new cockpit from Jenson USA (ordered Monday) and it came already!! Insane. OK, off to tinker.

C'Yas

8 hours of Spruce Woods

Gord and I headed out for his final training ride prior to attempting the Maa Daa Hey trail (100miles) on November 7th weather permitting. We got a bit of a late start and were attempting to get in 120km. The trail is bumpy and meadow-ish, no long sustained flats, just lots of little ups and downs. Great training for MDH. Temp was 8 degrees with high humidity and a light north wind. We started our third and last 40km out-and-back lap at 5:20pm and new we'd be fighting the light, especially given the cloud cover. As we reached the 1/2 way point, it was almost dark, and we ended up in pitch black conditions for the last 1.2 hours, luckily Gord had his trusty MEC turtle light to illuminate a few blades of grass in front of his bike.... turned into a mild adventure! Good times! Completed: 121.4 kms, time on bike 8:14. Not fast, but a consistent pace.

Early October frost

With each passing day the joy of summer activities is passing away...

Check out more photos from the Frost gallery in my links!