Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Poker race report

The "very serious" Billy idol pose captured by Kat Wright on my third checkpoint

The SIMBS poker run on Sunday was a great success. 40 people showed up for the race and everybody had a blast as far as I know. Awards were awarded for best time, DFL, best hand, worst hand, best team time, team hand, and best team name and whatever else category Mitch could come up with, so there was lots of nice swag given out to good people. The race was set up with four stations scattered around the park, and at each station you had to pick up a card, that would build your hand. The stations were located at Inventive/little Face intersection, at the Bench on Dave's line, the lookout at the end of Dave's line/start of Southridge, and at the bottom of Bottom feeder. Most people took their time between points and stopped to chat with the guys giving out the cards at every station. I did the run in about an hour or so and came in somewhere at the middle of the pack. I added some trails to my ride just for fun, and rode down Green Ribbon, and then did Crossover, Ruffles, Rolly ridge, Inventive and short cut on the way back, trying to avoid the fireroads. I had an absolute blast at the race which was organized by our own Mitch Thacker and he did a great job. He also destroyed the sprint race on Friday but more on that later.
Reinert from the Zone/Q cooked up some kick ass burgers after the ride, with his own barbecue and for free. That guy's awesome, he does not even ride mountain bikes but offers his BBQ and his time to SIMBS without hesitation. Very cool.

Friday, June 26, 2009

Race report, upcoming races, poker run

So after a mad dash in the shop van and a consequent rotor change in the Hartland parking lot I managed to show up for the race last night. Just before the race I thought: "Hmmm... that rear tire is a little low, ahh to hell with it, it'll be fine... NO IT WONT! If it can go wrong, it will at some point or another, said some guy named Murphy. Well, he was right. In the first few hundred meters, I got a flat. I was only half way up shock treatment too. So I walked back to the start, repaired the flat and got to start again. The second lap was pretty good, but on the third and last lap I felt the rear end getting loose again. Oh sh&%! Another flat?! Yes indeed it was, but it was a slow leak, and I managed to finish the race on a mushy tire...The race was good overall and my cunning strategy of getting a flat on the first lap so I'd only need to do two saved me from puking my guts out. These XC dudes have some weird perverted love for climbs.
There were about 22 people that showed up and the race was nice and casual, true Island style.
The loop that we did consisted of: Shock Treatment, second ave, emergency one, rolly ridge, crazy horse, little face, inventive, skull trail, and the regional trail back to shock treatment. Everyone had a good time even though competitors were somewhat plagued by mechanicals. I think there were 5 or six flats in the race, broken chain etc. The mixture of tough climbs, technical trails and the recklessness of full out racers combined to make for good carnage. Fun times where had by all though, and I'll be sure to show up for the second round which will be an orienteering race, whatever that means.
Tonight its sprints somewhere on the "mean streets" of Victoria. But the real race is on Sunday:
The glorious SIMBS poker run! It will be fun, it's dirt cheap ($5), not to mention all the sweet swag that will be there and the BBQ!!! - Bike race, free stuff, burgers, and beer...what else can you ask for really?
Check it: Poker

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Durian cup

There's a fun event coming up tonight at the Dump. Dave Shishcoff of organicathelete.com has organised 4 races in cooperation with SIMBS. The first of the 4 race weekly series is on tonight. Sign up starts at 6:30 and racing starts at 7:00. The race fee is a meager $3 if you have a Cycling BC insurance. If not you can buy a day licence for $40. http://www.organicathlete.org/blog/durian-cup.

Unfortunately I don't think any of the Shop staff will make it out tonight, but I'm sure we'll be there next week.
This is a nice development. There have not been a lot of races at the dump for awhile, but after the first super d there last year and the second one this year there seems to be an increased interest for putting on races at Hartland and this will train the Capital Regional District in being more accepting of such events. It's a constant struggle to keep the little land we have for riding in the CRD and events like these, that show that there is a big group of energetic people using the trails might help in developing more land for mountain biking. What seems to elude the CRD is how much is to be gained from having a nice network of trails within the city limits. CRD tends to focus on liability issues, but forgets to think about how much mountain bikers contribute to the local economy...Somehow this goes unnoticed. BC is a Mecca for mountain biking and there are thousands of people that come here (BC) specifically to ride our trails, and if the city of Victoria is interested in keeping a healthy tourist population they should expand the riding in the region, not limit it. Mountain biking adds to a list of nice sustainable things to do in Victoria and it would be great if those that travel here would have more options in trail systems to ride.
but that's a whole different story...Go out there and race the Durian Cup... It should be great fun and I'm sure there will be some beers afterwards...

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Get em hooked while they're young!

Nick and Emily Nicholson

Nic Nicholson is probably the most consistent rider's of the tuesday night rides at the dump. He usually shows up, rain or shine, or snow or whatever the old man upstairs throws our way. He does not let many things get in his way of riding, but fatherhood is certainly one of them-as it should be. Nic and Lucy just had their first child a few weeks ago, Emily, and as the above picture illustrates, she is already getting conditioned to the mountain biker lifestyle. Nic thought it would be appropriate to pose with Emily next to a staple of Santa Cruz bicycles, since he rides a Nomad and a Superlight. We thought it was very appropriate as well. Nic did the infamous Test of Metal Race in Squamish BC this weekend and was therefore missing in action yesterday as we went out for the ride.
The ride last night was great though, we wanted to do something different so we rode up Skull like usually but then cut across to the bottom of NiteShift and rode up it. That's a surprisingly fun trail to climb, even though descending it is much better of course. From there we rode up to lemmings run, and hiked a bike up to Old payoff. From there we went up twister to the top of Dave's line and then did Southridge. Finally we cut across the top of Fun trail and scrambled to the bottom part of Green ribbon. After that we rode crossover, ruffles and rolly ridge towards the parking lot and finished off by doing Inventive backwards and then taking the shortcut to the TTA. the Conditions in the park are great. It was a little dusty, but the rain today will take care of that. Justin had the privilege of watching Andrew do an uphill endo, which is always spectacular and earned Andrew the RSC-trophy. Justin himself, tried to lay a claim to the trophy when he did a full on endo and consequent sliding on his belly and forearms, right at the end of Green ribbon. He literally had about a foot to go...crashed through the finish line so to speak.

in body building circles (Justin is very familiar with those) this pose is called the left clockwise armtwister-reverse.
mmm...

Saturday, June 20, 2009

Chevy's Checkin' Out



So it has finally come. It's my last day here at Rider's as i prepare to move on to smaller and quieter things. My friends, i am moving to Dodge (cumberland for those not in the know) and plan to spend my days riding, drinking beer on some sort of patio arrangement....and probably working a little as well. I'd just like to say it's been a treat and i'll miss all you guys who i've come to know over the last 4 years. This isn't goodbye...it's more of an "i'll see yah in Dodge" kind of thing...cheers and beers guys,
-Chevy

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Rider Down!!!

Shayne jumping the Little Missy on a recent outing.

Our Manager/Fitmaster flex/Keiser/general store guru, Shayne Alexander took a spill on Monday. Details of the crash will be left up to him to explain to all you curious types, once he'll get back. But we'll disclose that the crash was on the road, after the group road ride and only a couple of blocks from his home. He went down hard and suffered a number of fractured ribs, and fractures to the scapula and other related injuries. This obviously put him in the hospital, and his injuries left the Rider's cycles team with a broken wing. He will be out for a while, but is in the capable hands of the hospital staff so he will be fine...in time.
Get well Sanchez!

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Races Poker and Sprints

What's happening here? Who's running this show? How come there is no action on this blog?...
Well, the weather has been nice and we've been riding lots. But when the store is busy, the blog suffers. There are however, lots of interesting things happening this weekend.
Last Sunday was the the last DH race in the Island cup series it took place in Port Alberni but unfortunately I did not make it up there this time. Mitch was up there though, and got his third place overall in the expert category confirmed and Dave Pfaffenberger won the intermediate category overall. Pretty bitchin results there and they deserve a congratulatory knee-to elbow jerk from the goof that generally writes this blog.
This weekend has some races coming up as well as the 12 hours of Cumberland takes place and also the Arduum Challange DH check vid:

I don't know if anyone is showing up for those races from the store, but you never know.
I did race last Friday night however, and had a blast. One of the bicycle couriers in town, Dave (not of Pfaffenberger fame) , put on a great sprint race that took place in Esquimalt. The race was set up with two stripes of duct tape across the road with about 400m between them. We raced one on one, and the winner got to go to the next round, the looser was out for the evening and had to resort to beer drinking and heckling the other racers. This worked out well and much beer was consumed. This was my first sprint race and I suspect there will be quite a few more. Sprinting fits well with my fitness level since races are over in a matter of seconds.
But let's keep reporting on upcoming races rather than wallowing in the previous ones.
The 2009 S.I.M.B.S. Poker Run will take place at Hartland on June 28. That should be a fun event with lots of good riding and lots of good people...

Monday, June 8, 2009

On new trails snapped frames and backcountry repairs


I got to ride some new trails a few Sundays ago...Mitch, myself and Jeff got up reasonably early in the morning and drove out to Harbourview in Sooke. I had never ridden there before so I was really excited to try some new trails. Harbourview is a promising area that will be a part of the Sea-to-Sea Green Blue Belt, conservation initiative.
After driving to Sooke, we made our way up to a special trail in Mitch's heart and started the descent after a brief exchange of awkward words with some other mountain bikers up there. I got to ride about 1/16th of the trail when I noticed a strange sound coming from my rear wheel, or so I thought. After deciding that this was not the normal twig in the spokes or leafs in the derailleur I decided to stop and take a closer look:
Yes, I snapped my first frame. I've cracked frames before, broken bb's, snapped steer tubes and bent cranks, but this was a new experience. And at the top of the damn trail too!!! Sheize!!!
But not to worry, cause Jeff and Mitch know what they're doing...and promptly set off to fix my bike enough to get me down the trail.

First step was remove the bolts connecting the seatstay to the rocker-link on the Fuel. Then Mitch took off in search of suitable frame repair material:
#1 Scotch broom (Cytisus scoparius) is an escaped garden ornamental, common west of the Coast-Cascade Mountains in southwest BC, and is concentrated at the southern end of Vancouver Island. Also, as it turns out, Cytissus scoparius is good for repairing snapped seatstays. And Mitch put on his carving hat and started cutting away with the Topeak Alien II.

Cut to fit

The phenomenal repair team of Jeff and Mitch got the broom in there... and pushed it back in from the top with the QR skewer, so it would sit on both sides of the snapped seatstay.

#2 Duct Tape: Another essential material in the frame repair man's quiver of tools. Jeff is smarter than most of us and has this wondrous material wrapped around his pump for emergencies like these.

duct tape...

ahh...duct tape, best tool in the world after vise-grips and hammers

some idiot inspecting the work approvingly, note humongous feet; all the better to snap your frame with. The frame repair worked great and I managed to ride all the way to the bottom without incident. New seatstay arrived about a week later just in time for the Super D at Hartland. That one is still holding up...knock on wood.