Grown men playing in the mud

We rode in daylight all the way to the top but once we were there it got dark and a little foggy.
Justin was somewhat perplexed by the presence of the paparazzi in the parking lot.

hogs in the mud, just loving it.

dirt and beer, can you really complain about the weather?

So there were just the two of us out for a night ride on Tuesday, Me and Justin. Some old geezers from our night group, did not feel up to riding with us presumably because we're too fast for them. So Tyler, Ryan and Alex went on their own separate geriatrics-ride and were careful to leave early enough so that we could not catch up to them. They probably just rode a little lap on the fireroads and than had a cup of tea and some crumpets under a nice big cedar tree, where they could bicker and quarrel about insignificant things like heating blankets and joint ache and arthritis and glaucoma. Justin and I decided to go for a good loop anyway, and rode our usual loop up to the top of Switchbacks. From there we did Twister and then we did the Super-D course down to the bottom. The conditions were less then ideal, and it rained non-stop. This made for an interesting ride with many near crashes and a few real ones. Although none of them were good enough to strip Andrew of his RSCT (rock star crash trophy) from last Tuesday when he secured the trophy with a silent endo, and a consequent crash of of the last bridge on Twister. Nobody was lucky enough to see this fantastic combo but, Andrew came limping up to the rest stop on twister with a bent rotor and told us what happened and claimed the trophy.
On our ride, Justin managed to crash into the trees of the trail on Jellyroll and I almost killed my self when my front tire slid of a log jump on Who's your daddy and I, just like Justin, went flying into the trees, clipped out in the air, and rode on the top tube into the underbrush while braking Flintstones style. Quite a sight to see, I'm sure, but Andrew retains the trophy.
When we finally got to the parking lot we were so disgusting that we decided to take the hose to ourselves from the knee-pads down. I changed into my street clothes in the parking lot as not to get the new van dirty, and as I was standing there buck naked except for the cycling shoes, the only logical thing to do seemed to do the first Unofficial Rider's Night Ride Streak. As always, it felt wonderful.

Justin coming down twister.

Night Ride & Trail Maintenance

Tonight is our weekly 'Night Ride' up at Hartland. I am expecting the weather to be clear with some sunlight at the start of the ride, but it will be chilly. I am also pretty sure there will be a bit of snow from the little dump that we got yesterday. However, the weather and conditions won't stop any of us from enjoying ourselves on the ride tonight. Please come and join us; we should be at the parking lot no later than 6:45pm.

It's SIMBS Trail Maintenance this Sunday morning at Hartland. I will be there and I am fairly certain I will be able to recruit one or two more riders from the store to be up early Sunday to play in the dirt. If you RSVP to Chirs Oman by 9 am this Friday you will be able to put in your sandwich order of either roast beast, turkey, ham or veggie. Tools, gloves and training are supplied. There is always tonnes of swag given away as well. So if you enjoy riding Hartland please help us keep the trails in good condition for everyone to enjoy.

Night ride!!!

The weather was not ideal this morning for the commute to work, a bit of rain and wet streets, which made for soggy bottom commute on the Tractor (EX8)...It was not all bad though, at least it was not poring. The weather is supposed to be like this morning for the rest of the day, scattered showers and mild. That's the key word here "MILD." For my commute home last night I did not even wear my jacket and I swear I can smell the spring in the air. Daylight savings time is this Sunday as well so it won't be long until the night rides will actually be in daylight. Compare that to the weather right now where I come from:
So remember to be thankful for the privilege of being able to live here. There are a lot of bad things you can say about Victoria, but the pros definitely outweigh the cons. In 25 min we're out of the city and on the trails, and that's including a stop at the beer store. Try that in any other major city in Canada...Speaking of trails, night riding is tonight and it's looking like it's going to clear up by the evening. I'm going to ride and so is Justin, and perhaps Chevy as well. My wrist is still sore but I'll tape that up and see how I do. I'm sure I'll be a bit apprehensive of some stunts tonight though, as my last RSCT put the FEAR in me.

Night Ride report...

Well, it's about time I got the Rock Star Crash Trophy (RSCT). I've had a couple of close seconds this year but, last Tuesday I took it fair and square. It happened at the first climb on Jelly Roll, and it happened in slow motion. Shayne and Nic where waiting at the top and I was making my way up the rock face when my front wheel started to lift of the ground... At this point I thought it was kind of funny but I did not think too much of it. I managed to blurb out the internationally recognized "uh oh," as my wheel kept creeping towards the sky. It was at that point that I remembered that I had tightened my spd's earlier that day. Yes, they are apparently a bit too tight. The result was a dead sailor over backwards. Or as some would describe it, a half a backflip. I landed on my camelbak and thank god for camelbaks, they've saved my bacon more times than any other "armor" except for helmets. The camelbak softened the blow, but it was still a pretty hard landing (as most back-landings are) and I felt rather unintelligent laying there on my back, still clipped in and looking up at the stars through my frame. I came out of that one with a sore back but no other injuries, except for the horribly bruised ego. The bike sustained a bent brake lever wich made the rest of the ride sort of interesting.
The ride was epic though and the conditions at the park are kick-ass these days. We rode all the way to the top and shayne was "laying ze powah dooown" (insert German accent). Apparently giving Shayne a gentle tire rub at the bottom of the hill is like giving him some "Boonen powder." He was pedaling like a mad man and the hills seemed easy compared to our hangover Zoo-ride on Sunday. Tyler and Chevy did great on their 34,5lbs (TJ) and 38lbs. (Chevrolet) beasts and soldiered up those climbs, kudos to them . It was great to have Nic back as well since the nightrides just don't feel the same without him. Sadly Ryan blew apart his Crap Brothers pedal (oops who said that? What what!?) just after the tta and had the world shortest nightride, at 1 minute and 53 seconds.
All in all a great ride...can't wait for next Tuesday.

The Crew at the top of Jelly roll...soon after this photo was taken the undersigned went down.

Shayne and Nic doing the Lumpy pants drop

Night Ride!

Chevy (resident shop ninja) wore 300 layers and the required ninja-mask to evade recognition by the Hartland Ronins and aide with breathing. 'Cause ninjas don't like cold air you know.

Rick was running his vintage Kona with style and had lots of fun. Hopefully he'll become a frequent night rider with us.

Rick and a very winded Halldor at the bottom of Switchbacks

Laurence striking a pose, very posh.

Night ride was great last night like always. The park was dusted with a couple of inches of snow but it was not too cold. Laurence joined us for the first time out after her "bar fight" in Cumberland, and Rick Thiessen joined us for the first time. Like usually it was colder in the parking lot than in the woods, which made for an interesting combination of crunchy and slushy snow. We missed Ryan's and Tyler's "entertaining discussions" on the ride, and Nomad Nic Hardcore Nicholson could not make it this time (a very rare occurrence) which made us all feel kind of empty inside and we started to question our own existence for awhile there.

Cowboy logic of the day: Good judgement comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgement.

SIMBS AGM

Reserve Monday night the 26th of Jan. off for showing up for SIMBS AGM. 7pm at the Victoria Event Center at 1415 Broad. Bike lockup at ChainChainChain and beers overflowing. Bring cash for renewing your membership, buying raffle tickets for swag and for beers.

Night ride tonight! Allthough I'm feeling a little rough around the edges I think I'm going to try and brave the night ride this evening. At least 3 guys from the shop will show up plus whoever else is up for it. Shayne is out of commission with a messed up foot from fighting and kicking a Mountain lion in the groin on his way to Picaflick to return some dvd's, and Chevy can't make it because she's hanging out with the cool kids, plotting world domination and going over plans for their cool Freeride park in North Saanich. For us other geeks who just ride bikes and don't mess with lions or the elite, we'll be at the hartland parking lot at 7 as per usual. Dead animals and beers go down nicely after a ride in the dark.

By the way, even though no pictures we're cought of Shayne's apparently epic fight with the Lion, I stumbled upon another Badass...well, uhm Ass, kicking some kitty's, yes you got it, ass: Check it:

BAD ASS!!!

blood sweat and gears

Shayne doing the stepup on Night Shift

The Crew after a brutal hike a bike, everyone a little winded.

Sweet ride last night! The Dump is shedding it's cloak of snow for the most part and the majority of the trails are rideable now. It's nice being able to use more than your two lowest two gears like the last few rides I've done up there. The snow did not really hold us back except on some of the fire roads where we had to hike-a-bike for a bit. We had some issues with fog though, and that made the riding somewhat complicated at times as the lights only lit up the fog, not the trail ahead. Justin, Shayne and me made it out from the shop, and were joined by Nomad Nic "hardcore" Nicholson who always shows up, kicks ass and takes names. The trails we did were Skull, Inventive, Little Face, Old Payoff, Snakes and Ladders, Who's your daddy, Night shift, and the short cut down to the TTA. The ride took about one hour and 45 min. No major crashes or anything although Shayne was aching for some war wounds and managed to acquire one on his arm while attempting one of the trail features of off Centerfold.

Shayne's war wound.

Justin's first night ride was excellent. He exceeded our expectations and proved that there's good material for a mountain biker in him.

Paradox of the day: Why does Chevy drive a Ford?

Slushy ride last night

It was a wet and slushy ride last night. There was still a lot of snow up there although it seems to be melting pretty fast. With any luck it will be gone before the night ride next Tuesday. Me and Nomad Nic showed up in the pissing rain and after some deliberations decided to go for a short ride. We managed to ride down to the TTA without too much difficulty, but from the bottom of the hill past the TTA, where a 6feet wide stream was washing over the trail, we basically had to hike-a-bike to Skull trail. Skull trail was actually somewhat rideable although some parts were pretty sketchy. At the top of skull rail we were already sweating after pushing the bikes and overdressing so off came one layer before we hiked up to the top of Niteshift in the torrential rain. Nic and I did our best to ride Niteshift but with the slush and the crusty snow the going was tough. One of us would lead, then catch a rut and be thrown off the trail, then the guy behind usually made it a bit further, seeing the mistakes of the leader. This is how we made our way to the step-up and the rest was actually rideable, super tachnical and lots of fun. We were both running ridiculously low tire pressures, so we were both pretty worried about pinch flats in the clear sections, but luckily we managed to avoid those. From Niteshift we made our way to the Shortcut, and down into the TTA which was quite sketchy as that last part was a gnarly mix of ice and mud, resulting in a unavoidable point and shoot descent .
This would normally have been a short ride, but because of the conditions it took us 1 hour and 40 minutes. All in all, a very interesting ride and lots of fun. Hopefully we'll get some more people coming out next Tuesday.