Dirty MTB Route I found last year. Decided to try it on the MTB. It was rought, but refreshing, in this all-road season!
Here is the link to the route: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/52806296
Posted in Video, tagged 303, 700c, abandoned roads, beach, bicycle, bike, biking, Buckhannon, chainring, cobblestone, crank compact, crash, cross, cx, cycling jumps, Cyclocrross, dance, dirt ride, doubletrack, downhill, extreme, fireroads, freestyle, hampton, heights, Hutchinson, jeep trails, Maryland, Mountain, MTB, new free baltimore, Race, redline, richmond, ride county, riding, ridley, seattle, shifters, singletrack, style, tires, trial trail, trials, triple, Ultegra, university, washington, West Virginia, willier, WV, WVU, wvwc, x1, xo, zipp 404 on 06/13/2011| Leave a Comment »
Dirty MTB Route I found last year. Decided to try it on the MTB. It was rought, but refreshing, in this all-road season!
Here is the link to the route: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/52806296
Posted in Event, Video, West Virginia, tagged cycling, cycling event, cycling facebook, cycling in the snow, cyclocross, Facebook, ice cyclocross, loose horse, snow, snow angels, snow bike, snow cycling, snow riding, snowcross, Sports, stray horse, Travel, Travelogues, weather, wild horse, wvwc on 01/10/2011| Leave a Comment »
Started an event on Facebook last week where I invited 20+ people to come ride with the WVWC college students during their first week back. About half replied, and a quarter of them were planning on attending. No one showed up. It snowed like crazy two days before, and I guess that killed everyone’s appetite for a ride.
Not me!
I suited up, rode to the meeting point, and waited a whole five minutes longer than I said I would. After that, I scuttled off on my adventurous ride. The route I planned has been ridden by me several times, but never on the cross bike. I didn’t know how it would handle it, or how the snow would affect its maneuverability over rocks, dirt, and mud… For the most part, it rode like a dream. After a very arduous climb, I ended up not having brakes on the way down since the rims and canti’s were coated in ice. Luckily I was able to slow myself down with my foot, and death grip on front and rear shift levers.
At the bottom of the hill, I saw a stray horse. Not knowing much about horses, I didn’t know if I should confront it like a dog, or whether it would attack. Do horses attack people? Bite? Trample? What, anything?
After unsuccessfully wrangling’ up some horses, I went back on the ride. There were many photogenic landscapes and opportunities, but for some reason, this was the only shot I took during the ride:
I couldn’t even keep my shadow out of the photo 😦 I blame using a phone to take such pics…
By this point in the ride, I had been on the bike for almost an hour and a half, and the only part of my body that was cold were my feet, despite the temperature only being 22*F. The sun was coming out, and I knew I still had enough time to have some fun…
Off I went to Gene (Fat Tire Cycle)’s house to see why he didn’t make it to the ride. I didn’t see any vehicles there, so I decided to leave him a little surprise:
A ‘cross snow angel! I knew he would know it was me, and I thought it would be a funny gesture.
All in all, the ride was very fun, and kept me burning calories, and improving my bike handling skills by leaps and bounds. This is the first year I have really embraced cold weather riding; I’m really wondering why I wasn’t so receptive to it before….?
Posted in Event, tagged bike crash, bike fall, bike snow, Brendan Kennedy, Cold inflation pressure, cycling, cyclocross, dismount, downhill, snow, snow bike, snowcross, Sports, tire, United States, uphill, West Virginia Wesleyan College, Winter biking, wvwc on 12/14/2010| 1 Comment »
With snowfall, it is really hard to motivate yourself to do anything. After work, I was planning on doing an hour or so of cross country skiing to keep my aerobic activity up. I haven’t had too many exciting or super enjoyable ski sessions so far, so the inspiration to go out is even more difficult. With cycling, I can recall past experiences that make me remember great routes, climbs, downhills, or feelings in general. These great times allow me to know that I’d feel great after a good, hard ride.
I got on my bike and took off through the powdery snow, leaving wonderful tire tracks everywhere I went. The initial sting of the cold air hit my legs, but after the first mile… I was ready to keep on pedaling.
Oddly enough, the cross bike really feels more responsive, nimble, and under control than the MTB does in the snow. I’m sure this is due to the skinnier tires at low pressure, the tires not half-floating, half-sinking into the snow, and the differences in geometry and center of gravity.
We all know getting started for an activity is the hard part, but once I was out there, I was whipping around, trying to burn as many calories as possible. It didn’t take much discipline to have an adventure, and test out things that I have never done before on a bicycle in these kinds of conditions.
I learned a lot of new skills, and abilities of my own body (how long it takes my toes to go numb, then hurt), or about the bike (how I can powerslide down a hill by locking my rear wheel just enough..) These things made it totally worth going out.
Posted in Humor, West Virginia, tagged Club, emeritus, passing the torch, President, wvwc on 04/15/2010| Leave a Comment »
Got invited on a mountain bike ride today, and an odd thing happened. Three Wesleyan Cycling Club Presidents were in attendance.
Myself – Emeritus
Current President – Graduating this year
Future President – Freshman
I see a lot of hope in this group, as long as they are able to get out a bit more often!
Posted in DIY, Saturday, Video, Weekend Post, West Virginia, tagged bike repair, community outreach, tune up, wvwc on 03/20/2010| Leave a Comment »
A friend from Wesleyan asked me to come and help out with a project she was working on involving; my job was to help tune up bikes, and I think Shannon did a better job describing what was going on than what I could do:
About a dozen or so people dropped off their bikes during lunch to be tuned up, or sized up to the rider. We had a blast, and I met a bunch of underclass that have started up after I have graduated. Seeing how Buckhannon is only 2.8 miles to just about the furthest stretches of anywhere in town from campus, a bike is the perfect thing to see more college students utilizing!
Posted in Interview, tagged 29er, andy hampstein, big bear, bike shop, Buckhannon, buenos aires, cannondale, cecil jarvis, cobia, columbus rides, engineer, full suspension, gary fisher, Gene Wells, hodgesville, Interview, LBS, lemond, madone, morgan miller, pink bike, Racing, snowshoe, stonecoal, sue haywood, sugar, superfly, t2000, tandem, training, trek, Upshur County, walkersville, West Virginia, West Virginia Wesleyan College, wvwc on 12/31/2009| 2 Comments »
Today’s post is an interview with a LBS in Buckhannon, WV: Fat Tire Cycle with owner Gene Wells.
Gene Wells is well… a swell guy (see what I did there?) He is active in many aspects of his community as a business person should, but you can also tell he cares about everything he does. He can also kick most of the people in town’s butt in speed and distance on a bike, yet he chooses not to. (sometimes!)
(I’ll let you know before this interview gets through that he is my main mechanic, I was sponsored by him during my tenure as President of the Cycling Club/Team at West Virginia Wesleyan College with the standard collegiate store discount. I have also purchased a pretty sweet rig from him, my ’09 Gary Fisher Cobia. All in all, we have a pretty good relationship by means of business and also friendship.)
With that out-of-the-way, let’s get to the Q&A!
1.) First of all, tell us about your history, how did you get into cycling?
Well, I got into cycling in 1972. I was doing a lot of cross-country racing, and touring in the area around Pleasantville, Pennsylvania. I remember getting my first road bike in that town in 1973. (more…)