had a great ride this morning as i had to pedal into town to pick up the van, which was having new brakes and rotors installed. The temperature was around 20d but i did have a nice tailwind pushing me along. I love how tailwinds make you feel good about your conditioning…..and since i was feeling so good i decided to take the long cut and hit the local river park singletrack stash. The trail was decent and there wasn’t too much snow, but what the trail lacked in snow…… ice more than made up for the difference. After about 30 minutes of ice covered trail i headed in to pick up the van. All was well until they handed me my bill…..damn volkswagons are expesive to maintain. Oh well…..had a good ride though.

This past saturday we had a fantastic fall ride on a trail near the Idaho border. …..i was spending the day getting to know the El Rey , which is one of Ventana’s 29″ wheeled offerings and also one of the Red Barn demo fleet of bikes. With four inches of travel via a Rock Shox Reba up front and a Fox RP23 in the rear it has just enough suspension to tone down any rough trail (mind you that i’m typically on a 6″ travel trail bike). Honestly i’d have to say that there were certainly portions of this trail that seemed a little easier with the larger diametered wheels…..steep, rocky sections and at average speeds just seemed sweet. The bike just rolled over the large boulders lessening the typical endo sensation and i was able to pilot the bike downhill at a very controllable rate and without locking up the brakes. Technical terrain tackled with a little bit of momentum seemed slightly easier than my 6″ bike. But in a sense it also didn’t feel like it wanted to be ridden overly aggressive….a mellow steady pace seemed to be the theme. Just find a good flow and roll with it. The mellow attitude was certainly present, maybe it wasn’t the bike at all BUT the fact that i had an entire saturday to hang with good pals and absolutely no where to be.

Also…..the Heart Lake ride is one of many throughout the Idaho/Montana region that is currently subject to be closed based on a new Proposed Wilderness ruling….the best thing that any of us can do to keep super nice trails like this one open is to join IMBA. Please consider it, thanks !

just thought i’d post a few pics up from this past weekend…i’d like to thank our good buddy Shrek for joining us (with broken leg) and being the official camp host and chief entertainer. For those that joined in on the festivities…..thanks for the good times.

2007 Nicholia Creek (Wilderness Study Area and threatened to be potentially closed to mtb’s for good)

Day One:

Day deux:

here’s a couple of pics from this past sunday…Sheephead Creek down near the Nez Perce pass. You can kinda tell in the middle picture with sir hanrahan that the air quality is quite piss poor in this part of country as the fires in Montana are about as bad as it gets and on par with the summer of 2000. No reason not to ride though.

as for the trail….super conditions and the dh was fantastic.

So this past weekend my family and i headed on over to Idaho to hit up the Hiawatha Trail for a little family fun and a camp over (and also to flee from the smoke from the ongoing local forest fires). Caelen, my oldest and only son who is only six years old decided to ride the 15 mile trail on his own will. If you’re gonna rope in a 6 yr old to ride 15 miles then there is nothing like 7 very old train tunnels and 5 bridges to keep the attention of a young tike. He finished the ride and still managed to crack a smile but consumed a ton of calories afterwards as i’m sure he was near his first real life BONK. The scenery is second to none and i would esily recommend this ride to all….mark it on your TO DO list as it’s an amazing ride.

the lonest tunnel was over a mile and a half in length !! Darker than night and around 32 degrees in temperature. You MUST bring lights !

in the middle of the season like this one of the most common questions i get is ” Chad, don’t you get to ride much ? ” , welp….the honest truth is not as much as i’d like but trust me when i do get out it’s not taken for granted. Sunday’s stroll with good buddies…in the rain…mud….and 50d temperatures. Good stuff and Happy pappa day to all the fathers out there.


also…..i’ll be away from the shop on wed. & thurs. so please feel free to call Aaron or Tim about any and all bicycle related ?????’s , Tim may even be able to help with any carpentry fielded subjects and Aaron with anything remotely on topic with exercise science. If you can’t wait then i recommend talking to either of these two fine fellas. If it can wait……talk to you soon !

later, Chad