Not going to make it this season personally, but this looked like an excellent opportunity for a weekend of bike packing to test the waters if you’re keen.

Alternatively it’s a real good “big day” for some folks out there.

https://www.cannonball300.com/

Pottery Trail Head trimming is well underway. The climb is cleared and large portions of the downhill have had nature beaten back significantly. Sadly the downhill isn’t complete and will take another Monday evening to cull the overgrowth and tend to a a few spots that have no hope of drying out without help. As can be expected more hands make for…[Read more]

Slow to update, but the extra “loop” in sun valley had a full trim. Next Monday’s agenda provided the weather co-operates is to tackle the area around the Pottery Road trail head. Both up and Down as well as the bit leading up to the down portion. The overgrowth is real this year with all the rain.

Sight lines are getting all kinds of awful anywhere the under story grows in. The Flats, Beaver Flats, and Boo Trail in particular are getting extremely dicey to ride “quickly” on without risking a good old head on with anyone going the opposite direction. Just a friendly reminder to tone it down as those are generally the places you’re going to…[Read more]

Heads up, straight from the source

On foot currently

Swamp and everything North is still saturated with the exception of road apples

Out this morning on the boot pack and it is softening up. Today will be crucial with the temperatures dropping, whatever is rutted today is likely to remain rutted until this time next week (if one is to believe the forecast). If you can shuffle your day to ride after the temperature drop the reward should be real. Expecting fast and smooth…[Read more]

Fresh snow on glazed ice now. Studded tires (and footwear) are highly recommended.

It was slick to say the very least yesterday before the snow started and this is not likely to make it a lot better without a bit of packing. Expect conditions to be extremely slippery, not dissimilar to the wet leaves on slick clay effect we get in the spring and fall.

NOT a mechanic, but my first thought on this is how is the chain line? If you’re only experiencing issues in the tallest cogs I’d suspect that might be a good starting place

Can’t really say it’s got to do with the holidays, but got a “road” bike and back to the trainer for some structure over the winter. I’ve got my time split with about 75% of my time on the bike still occurring outdoors. I’m hoping to do some bigger longer rides out in the snow, but life tends to get in the way so getting the 2-3 hour rides in has…[Read more]

I’ve been using a pair of these. They weren’t cheap, but three years later they’re still killing it..

Duo 1500 Lumens

One on the helmet, one on the bar. The remote is really handy for managing the battery. Flipping it to low while climbing or medium while just spinning along really helps. The high…[Read more]

This looks wicked. Must have a few beverages and discuss/plot breweries and greasy spoons.

Got out on the Fat Bike last night and again this morning.

Cleared of a few felled trees (thanks hydro!) and running frozen, but well rutted from our CX friends doing what they do, not much concern on the big tires, but regular mountain and CX bikes may get hung up a bit.

Same as the Flats. Frozen and fun.

Still free of the ice sheet that it…[Read more]

@fasttimes – Make sure you follow the directions about bedding those studs in. I’ve got two friends that didn’t and had studs flying out of them in a real hurry.

@soban that looks super fun, but I think that pace may have something to do with all your effort over the last year!

My rig is really just an evolution this season. Elliptical chain…[Read more]

Out on the Fat Bikes last evening and the trails were thoroughly frozen up by 7:00 last night. If the forecast holds tonight and Thursday are going to be pretty much perfectly frozen dirt as well.

Prime. Everything has wholeheartedly died back, sight lines are as good as they get and even the frozen ruts aren’t too bad. Worth noting the Bell…[Read more]

I’m reading between the lines here and assuming you mean you’re contemplating the new M685’s…

I’m a big fan of the 3.8’s this time of year for all the reason I mentioned above about hard packed… There’s not much in the way of snow, so it’s more or less magic carpet season on the Farley EX until we get our first real good snow storm.

I did…[Read more]

You bet. I’ve got some time scheduled to go through a season debrief later this week and I’ll be sure to express the continued and growing desire to see more TTF’s. I’m certain the ladder skinnies of old are thoroughly out of the question between their maintenance requirements and the nightmare that bruce county went through with theirs, but…[Read more]

Just got off the road home and the snow falling on the 401 across the top of the city is just melting and making a proper mess of things up here. I’m not sure if the ground is actually frozen or if it’s just going to be getting wet and slick as well, but gonna take a pass in favour of hopefully riding in the morning after the overnight lows

I’ll preface this all with you really have to chose which hill you want to die on in these scenarios.

Based on your photo I’m looking at less than 2 minutes to undo the work you’ve done to close the line. The debris may be plentiful, but it’s light weight and easily removed by an individual.

IF you want to close that off in a more effective and…[Read more]

On foot this morning things were very bipolar on the Sunnybrook loop. Either clear and super dry or slick wet leaves holding water. The end of Roller Flowster and start or Foreplay appears to have gotten a serious rework I hadn’t seen mentioned. It looks a lot faster with a ton more flow.

With the additional rain that started coming down this…[Read more]