mw in fruita

Here's Matt Wills on Joe's Ridge last weekend in Fruita, CO on his SS drop bar Holy Roller. More photos can be seen by clicking this here link.

ABC Fall Tour de Trash Rides are set for Oct 18

Hey Soulcrafties,

It's time once again to intentionally get into the roadside ditches, unlike what SteveP usually pulls off during races, but this time to collect trash.

Our "trash-hole" (as Yuri proclaims them to be) is set for October 18. Check out the latest info at the usual ABC Rides blog.

New member of the Soulcraft Family?

It's not every day that former Tour de France champion (?) Floyd Landis comes to town for a charity ride and shows up in your bike shop to borrow your autistic mechanic's Soulcraft while there's a dog fight going on in front of him, and after the ride proclaims the Soulcraft to be "one sweet ride." But, it happened today.

ponca 2008

for the last 4 years a group of lincolnites have ridden from lincoln,ne to ponca,ne. all gravel roads, pretty much striaght north. leave early morn, get there before sunset. stay in a group all day. camp that night and drive back with some friends that drive up the day before with our gear. it's between 155 and 165 miles depending on where you're leaving from in town.

this year it took 16hrs to go north. and this year a few of us agreed to ride home. and that took 14hrs. we cheated a bit with some highway shoulder but 310miles in two days nonetheless.

thanks for cornbread for the pics. i broke my saddle on the way up and had to shim it with a wad of duct tape between the saddle shell and the top of the seatpost. of course, it failed at mile 30. so the rest of the way on a ride-able but painful saddle. i switched it out to a friend's saddle that his wife drove up since she was camping too. the tire lever fix was my first attempt. it didn't work well.

i've got the route on a series of maps i printed from garmin software. it shows all the gravel and paved roads. pretty much a big grid untill you get up north or around the platte river. in 4 years i have the route pretty much in my head, but i like to check it alot so we don't get off track and waste a bunch of daylight.

we'll try to keep this as an yearly event. it sure is a good time.

guitar ted's death ride invitational 2008

guitar ted is the head promoter of the transiowa race. that race is held in early spring and consists of 300+ miles of gravel roads navagated by a series of 'cue sheets'. he is assisted by a serious right hand man and a series of volunteers when the event draws near. he loves gravel and so do i. the TI will be in it's 5th year if it goes off again this spring. mother nature willing. i've attempted but not finished V2 and V4. i completed V3 in 2007, 340 miles in 33 hrs, pink sean crafted single speed flat bar nanoraptors camelback tights and long sleeve LED light.

g-ted puts on a ride as well about this time of year. just a ride. he puts together a route and we all stick together. gravel roads. small towns. rolling hills. peace and quiet. 100 miles or so. two years ago it was 152. depends on the route and the fitness of g-ted. it was fun. photo by guitar ted.

Downieville

Stinkbomb
Monday, July 21, 2008

Escaping on a Thursday, chauffeuring my dentist and a doctor, we made our way to Downieville to suck some smoke. Despite the air quality, Friday's pre - race run was flattening. Wrong tire choice.Used tires of mysterious origin.Too thin skinned.Beer resulted in salvation. Next concern was morning deposits. As our campsite was a complete poach we had to scout blue rooms and wait for neighbors to mosey on to other adventures. Thank you fox forks. The Frenchman arrived with buckets of food and promises of buying my old bike. Early Saturday morning, the usual dawn scury/furry/ hurry for breakfast, deposits, bike preping, loading, etc.Off to Sierra City for the start. A mob of faces old and new in a sold out show. Larry Hibberd parted the waters, helping my start go smoothly in an otherwise cluster*uc*. 3000 feet up no conversations. Cresting the hill never felt so good. Rarely have I ever had the opportunity to watch such down hill talent, inspiring me to ride beyond my tires capacity.They lasted two-thirds of the way down the hill before the rear gave it up.In the mean time I caught Mr. Hibberd on the down hill, staying with him over the crest to third divide where he allowed the pass. 5 minutes later I flatted.Many went by (including Mr. Hibberd).Rolling again, regaining the groove, not long before spotting Larry with similar tire issues I went by and flatted again one minute later. To close to the finnish to bother with any repairs period. No supplies left anyway. I rode the flat tire out of the woods to the pavement where it finally became unridable. Fan on sideline with sharp knife sliced off tire and tube and sent me onto Master's Glory. Too bad about the rim. Drank many pain killers.Received fat crome bag of swag.Edibles,Wearables and Inspirationals via SOULCRAFT are huge and appreciated. Thanks for keeping it real. - George
Posted by stinkbomb at 8:01

Flagstaff Kids Camp

Last weekend I had the opportunity to run a kids MTB camp sponsored by Nova Youth Cycling. I had 7 kids, mostly from Phoenix, who were the top finishers in their age groups in the state series. It was so cool to see kids who are super-competent riders, have good trail manners, and are so eager to learn new skills.

We're lucky to live in places where kids have opportunities to ride bikes at such young ages...can you imagine how fast we all could be if we started at age 8?

The highlight of the whole clinic for me was getting these tiny little 10-year-old twin girls to do a monster log ride. We spotted them the whole time, and they rode the whole thing! That was pretty awesome.