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..... we're gonna ride the range!
theres no way i can begin this story without a huge thanx to all the folks who made this trip the success it was. in no particular order: rroeder for plantin the seed, the family rroeder for takin supreme care of odus and i, darren at push for the 2 hour tour, makin us feel at home and his generosity, larry at hountain high cyclery for the biz advice, beer, hospitality and bein our guide on day 1, squeeky wheel for settin up day 1 and to rroeder, s works, icegeek, ventanarama, christian, j dub and the "k" kid for puttin up with and waitin for my slow climbin ass. it was a weekend to remember for a long, long time. lets not forget candycorn for not givin me any grief for doin all this while unemployed. kisses, my love.
i wanna keep this short but theres probobly no way in hell i can do that so bear with me for awhile will ya?
it all started with a invite to hit the front range of colorado by my new friend rroeder. why not? i have the time. so i packed up the car with 2 bikes, spares, gear and a dog then i took the 10 hour scenic route to ft collins from sioux city through norfolk nebraska, over to oshkosh, up into scottsbluff, down and over to cheyenne wyoming, then finally down to the fc, roughly 680 miles. after a short nap in the pet friendly plaza inn hotel, i met up with s works for dinner and a beer. on sat i had one of the best breakfasts in my long history on this earth. if ever in ft collins you MUST go to lucile's. the floor staff is all female and not hard to look at so thats another plus. seems thay have some kinda boob policy there. but i regress.....
on the way down to loveland, we took a quick tour of ft collins so odus could have some open window time in the car and i could see the city. i had some time to kill so we found push and mhc. i was about to find the local vw store and have a tranny error looked at when darren called and said it was time to go to candy land. the 1st thing thats obvious about this guy is how open and friendly he is, then his passion becomes quite apperant. his facility is well put together and a picture of efficiancy. his growth plans are excellent and his story is inspirational. simply put, a good guy doin great things. i got to play on his new and very custom nomad with the pushed dhxc and very freshly pushed lyric. wow! this has no miles on it yet? my parkin lot test felt like a fully broken in bike. not long after, the missing wheel showed up in his new ride and the 3 of us jaw jacked and watched odus play. darren even gave him a pushed dog bisket. no lie. he finally ate it somewhere in nebraska on the way home buddy. thanx! with a arm full of pushed goodies, i left for larrys shop and the big action.
larry showed up after rroeder hit town and the 3 of us messed around in the shop till j dub joined us. rr mounted some new rubber while larry and i talked shop. this is another example of a good man with a dream realized. no wonder you all respect him so much. on to the ride. we had options but in the end it was decided to blow off the lowland backbone route for higher, cooler ground up in the canyon. this is good and bad. it was hotter than all get out down in the valley but "larrys special" was a major grinder. 2000' of total elevation gain from 2 1/2 miles of steepening fire road followed by 1 mile of incredibly techy hike a bike. these are not my numbers kids so dont even start. then it was about 6 more miles of super tech, ultra steep 1 track on loose rock and dirt with very good flow. there were also plenty of stream crossings to soak my sidis. this ride was a real test of the flux, my poor decision to keep the larsons and not use the fire xc's and my small lungs. i was cool with my effort up to the top but quite happy bein able to follow larry down a few of the uglyer bits without dabbing. there were far more i walked or dabbed my way through. that top section is awsome! what a treat to be shown this most excellent trail. i coud mostly keep up on the downs but was in a class by myself on the ups. ya know, the "special needs" class? larry was impressive as hell on the tech and it was a joy to watch the man at work. after the ride and late into the day, we had a beer, changed clothes and gathered odus up from his temporary home and drove to the springs at about 10pm after gettin some grub.
pics - the road in:
loaded up and ready to hit the road.
scenery on the way down.
chimeny rock outside of scottsbluff.
the Best Van Ever!
day 1's ride gang. is there someone missing? why yes! ****in loose wheel.
more to come........
theres no way i can begin this story without a huge thanx to all the folks who made this trip the success it was. in no particular order: rroeder for plantin the seed, the family rroeder for takin supreme care of odus and i, darren at push for the 2 hour tour, makin us feel at home and his generosity, larry at hountain high cyclery for the biz advice, beer, hospitality and bein our guide on day 1, squeeky wheel for settin up day 1 and to rroeder, s works, icegeek, ventanarama, christian, j dub and the "k" kid for puttin up with and waitin for my slow climbin ass. it was a weekend to remember for a long, long time. lets not forget candycorn for not givin me any grief for doin all this while unemployed. kisses, my love.
i wanna keep this short but theres probobly no way in hell i can do that so bear with me for awhile will ya?
it all started with a invite to hit the front range of colorado by my new friend rroeder. why not? i have the time. so i packed up the car with 2 bikes, spares, gear and a dog then i took the 10 hour scenic route to ft collins from sioux city through norfolk nebraska, over to oshkosh, up into scottsbluff, down and over to cheyenne wyoming, then finally down to the fc, roughly 680 miles. after a short nap in the pet friendly plaza inn hotel, i met up with s works for dinner and a beer. on sat i had one of the best breakfasts in my long history on this earth. if ever in ft collins you MUST go to lucile's. the floor staff is all female and not hard to look at so thats another plus. seems thay have some kinda boob policy there. but i regress.....
on the way down to loveland, we took a quick tour of ft collins so odus could have some open window time in the car and i could see the city. i had some time to kill so we found push and mhc. i was about to find the local vw store and have a tranny error looked at when darren called and said it was time to go to candy land. the 1st thing thats obvious about this guy is how open and friendly he is, then his passion becomes quite apperant. his facility is well put together and a picture of efficiancy. his growth plans are excellent and his story is inspirational. simply put, a good guy doin great things. i got to play on his new and very custom nomad with the pushed dhxc and very freshly pushed lyric. wow! this has no miles on it yet? my parkin lot test felt like a fully broken in bike. not long after, the missing wheel showed up in his new ride and the 3 of us jaw jacked and watched odus play. darren even gave him a pushed dog bisket. no lie. he finally ate it somewhere in nebraska on the way home buddy. thanx! with a arm full of pushed goodies, i left for larrys shop and the big action.
larry showed up after rroeder hit town and the 3 of us messed around in the shop till j dub joined us. rr mounted some new rubber while larry and i talked shop. this is another example of a good man with a dream realized. no wonder you all respect him so much. on to the ride. we had options but in the end it was decided to blow off the lowland backbone route for higher, cooler ground up in the canyon. this is good and bad. it was hotter than all get out down in the valley but "larrys special" was a major grinder. 2000' of total elevation gain from 2 1/2 miles of steepening fire road followed by 1 mile of incredibly techy hike a bike. these are not my numbers kids so dont even start. then it was about 6 more miles of super tech, ultra steep 1 track on loose rock and dirt with very good flow. there were also plenty of stream crossings to soak my sidis. this ride was a real test of the flux, my poor decision to keep the larsons and not use the fire xc's and my small lungs. i was cool with my effort up to the top but quite happy bein able to follow larry down a few of the uglyer bits without dabbing. there were far more i walked or dabbed my way through. that top section is awsome! what a treat to be shown this most excellent trail. i coud mostly keep up on the downs but was in a class by myself on the ups. ya know, the "special needs" class? larry was impressive as hell on the tech and it was a joy to watch the man at work. after the ride and late into the day, we had a beer, changed clothes and gathered odus up from his temporary home and drove to the springs at about 10pm after gettin some grub.
pics - the road in:
loaded up and ready to hit the road.
scenery on the way down.
chimeny rock outside of scottsbluff.
the Best Van Ever!
day 1's ride gang. is there someone missing? why yes! ****in loose wheel.
more to come........
