Cycle the Sunshine Coast, BC

Clarity -  noun 1. clearness   or   lucidity   as   to   perception   or   understanding;   freedom   from   indistinctness   or   ambiguity. 2. the   state   or   quality   of   being   clear   or   transparent   to   the   eye;   pellucidity:   the   clarity   of   pure   water. This state of mind as been my mantra for years now. As I work hard in my career in growing my skills and knowledge, I've also encounter alot of stress in my life.  Cycling seemed to be my stress reliever in my life and if done right, provides that clarity state of mind that I can think freely and enjoy the "moment" of just....riding a bike and enjoying the simpleness of it all. By throwing out the next Strava segment search and being not concerned whether my SRAM RED, Carbon fiber bike is the lightest and best tuned machine in the bike group, Clarity is suddenly simplified thinking. The other day while riding, a thunderhead was building while the sun was setting, its red light re

I guess it was enviable that I became a Video Blogger or "vlogger" when the thought occurred to me that I should be videoing the trails that I'm trying to showcase.  Actually, I just wanted a camera to document my rides as part of a diary so to speak.  I looked online for cameras to do the stuff that I wanted it to do.  Time lapse, 1080p recording, waterproof, solid construction and the only camera that came to the top of the heap was the GoPro Black Edition. This is a really neat little camera and I mount it on a Chesty for that full "your riding with me" feeling.  I'll post a review of the camera soon I'm sure. Here's a couple of samples of some video taken to date.  One is a time lapse every 5 secs of a ride from Spin Cycles Bike Shop in Gibsons to Roberts Creek and back.  The other is a trail in West Sechelt called Cheap and Easy. Hard to find but worth the search. Want to watch more video?  Go to my blog page here

A couple of blog posts ago, I wrote about that not doing a trail feature doesn't define your ride.  Well last night I did the drop and crashed hard.  Words to myself like "dumb-ass" came to mind as I was trying to catch my breath and getting up to walk it off.  Sore knee (yes no knee pads), bruised ribs and a left arm that I can barely raised above my shoulder.  Afterward, the crashed mellowed me out and decided to take it easy on the ride home.  I started laughing after the pain subsided that the feature that defined my ride previously because cause I didn't do it; definitively defined my ride when I attempted it for the first time and crashed.  There's irony  in there somewhere.   My friend Gail wrote a poem of my experience: Bicycle week is an endurance test So man can prove he is at his best! He mounts his bike with a polished flair His bright yellow rain coat flapping in air Shifting a gear he starts on his way Picking up speed – wheeling throu

What is it?  Why should I bother? Strava.com  is one of those brilliant web applications that brings GPS and the cycling training diary into harmony! That's its basic use.  Log your rides and monitor your progress. Whats this?  People want to follow me?- that's too weird to show people where I ride...  but it would be nice to see where they ride so I might try that ride too. Okay, follow me and I'll follow you. Kudos?  Thanks but it was nothing and I felt like crap. Hey, I just got a King of the Mountain on a hill segment!  Umm, maybe I can start to create segment and try to beat myself?  There's this guy I know that is pretty fast up one of my favorite hills and has the KOM.  Maybe if I ride more like train and lose weight, I can beat his time? And just like that I was hooked!  To date, I've put 314 rides  and 7400km into Strava and follow 43 people.  I've created 30 plus segments and have 70 KOM's.   It provides me the competition I need without

All smiles...At this point - my legs were cramping bad!!!!

So there is a new trail in Sprockids Park in Gibsons.  It was built by the Mountain Bike Program by Capilano University.  Its a great trail with lots of trail features like a pump track, ladders, table tops and drops.  One such feature is a 4 foot drop into a really nice transition.  I've ridden to the lip of the drop 6-7 times on two different occasions and it just sketches me out.  The reason being, I figure, is that I can't see the landing until the last second.  Its a confidence and trust thing that I can't seem to wrap my head around it.  I wear all the gear that should protect me if  things go wrong. But this is a real mind over matter thing.  Two  times now I've eventually taken the chicken route and I have beat myself up about it for the rest of the ride and for a good long time after the ride.  I'm literally depressed about it.  It didn't matter if the ride leading up to the drop was totally great (which it was) as I defined my ride and my remaining day

   Time to review the Cove Hummer Softail.  No, this isn't a new bike - in fact, it has brake bosses for V-brakes and bosses for disk brakes...or maybe the disk tabs were added later?  Hmmmm.... The softail is not a novel concept to the world of mountain biking - Moots being one the first to employ the softail concept to a hardtail.  Mongoose tried  it too.  Exploiting the flexy and no metal fatigue properties of titanium, a shock is inserted between the top of the seat stay and the seat tube.  No pivots are the located on the bottom bracket or near the wheel hubs.  Titanium in this arrangement can flex 1" to 1.5" - its that flexy!   The Cove Hummer that I've been riding lately uses a Stratos Shock.  Stratos was bought out by Specialized and set out to pasture. From what I understand the shock is about 7 years old.  Guaranteed that if it breaks, there is not a replacement for it. This Cove model didn't sell alot in its brief history.  There might be 8 fram

Crap!  Maybe it was fate; maybe my mind's lack of motivation to race did it; maybe it was dumb-ass stupidity.  Anyway, I was riding in bike park last week and was trying a 30'  by 5" log skinny.  I kept falling off about 1/2 way thru so I had this great idea of trying it again, but "faster". This time I fell off, hit a smaller log and endo'ed.  When I landed I felt this searing pain in my calf.  "F" did that hurt!  I had to ride back for 16km and by that time, I could hardly walk.  The next day, I couldn't put any weight on my leg except for walking on my toes.  I really thought that I broke my leg at one point.  Within a couple days, my walk looked almost normal and less pained.   Anyway, it turned out as a 2nd degree calf strain.  Its been a week and my leg is still really sore so it looks like easy riding for a while. Anyway, I missed the Duo and now I'm need to take it easy for 2-3 weeks before pumping up my riding for the Sunshine Coa

Like most people I know, I planned to participate in riding events throughout the season.  Last year, it was the TriDU at UBC.  This year its the Dirty Duo.  Trying to train during the winter has it's brief beautiful weather rides in amongst the 3 times as many crappy weather rides. So's its raining - again....and I'm struggling with trying to get enough riding in to at least do okay in the Duo.  When I do ride, its mental smashing on my motivation factor to keep riding.  Prolong steep climbing especially puts me on the verge of crying.  Small amounts of whimpering may have been heard on some of my rides.  Its a persevere moment in my life - what doesn't kill you make you strong I suppose. ---WAB1234---

So we have been bomb-barded by wind storms and snow that wreaked havoc on our trails.  There are several individuals that have spent their hard earned weekends packing a chainsaw or pruning shears to cut away the trees, prune the salal and hoist branches off the trail.  I'm in awe with the dedication that they put into keeping our trails cleaned of debris.  I completed my minor part to walk (and ride) Bypass, NMA and Cheap & Easy picking up the branches and large sticks off the trail. Except for 3 logs that needed a chain saw, the trail is in great shape. Call it a cheap investment to have the trails primed ready to go when the spring/summer hits and all we want to do is ride hard.  Winter Riding on NMA ----WAB1234----

The new Pro29 from Lynskey has just come out via Cove bikes in North Vancouver, BC.  The Cove-Lynskey relationship has been a successful one with Cove's Hummer line of bikes over the last 5 years.  Cove has again turned to Lynskey to help with a possible new Hummer design in a full suspension 650B or 29'er variety.   Taking back users comments, Cove will tweak this model here and there and launch a Cove version of Pro29 - Hummer.  When I was offered the opportunity to test this bike on the Sunshine Coast, I jump at the chance to put it through the paces.  From when I first started riding and racing mountain bikes in mid 1990's, I've always wanted a titanium bike.  I've considered buying the Cove Hummer on many occasions.  I've been also lucky to try out other Cove bikes such as the Hummer Softail, Hustler, and now I own their new G-Spot All Mountain Rig. First Impressions The Pro29 I tested was setup with 650B wheels.  The rear dropout is an unique 12mm