The Salida Circuit

Salida makes the list of exceptional small towns with happy people and healthy economies.  A loose association of places that I may someday like to live, these towns all claim something special aside from jobs and homes.  Salida claims world-class singletrack and one of the most popular paddling spots in the US, the Upper Arkansas River.  What it doesn’t have, is a thriving ski industry.  That’s why it looks and feels like a real place.  Marquette, MI has Lake Superior, rail-trails and nearby forests.  Ithaca, NY is Gorges, if a little less happy.  State College, PA has access to amazing local forests and trails, but an overwhelming college culture.  San Luis Obisco, CA is great, but about 12 miles too far from the beach.  I hear Ashville, NC is nice.  And Flagstaff, AZ.  Leadville is a dream, although living at 10,200ft has both costs and benefits.  The more I travel, the more selective I become.  I may never settle down.

Salida warrants a week.  We found a ride to Interbike with a local shop owner, so we had a week to spare.  We waited out some weather, commuted to town every day on singletrack, and went for an epic overnight trip.  For a week, we were residents of Salida, doing all the normal things that people do, except working.

The greatest warmshowers host has a home in Salida, but lives in Texas.  Imagine the luxury of a house on a hill out of town after three months in a tent.  Of course, the outdoor hot tub overlooks the valley and several 14,000ft peaks.  Every morning, Lael practiced yoga as I wrote and drank coffee.  In the afternoon we would commute to town on singletrack– North Backbone to Lil Rattler, and then the Front Side Trail to downtown Salida.  We finished the day making conversation at one of three local bike shops– all amazing– before stopping at the grocery store and riding home at dusk.  Every evening, we prepared a feast.

Waiting out some weather, and snow in the mountains.

Commuting to town is fun, until someone gets hurt.

Riding home.

Enraptured in the routine of city life, another commute to town.

Crying makes it better.

Front Side descends right into town, right onto Main Street.

Route planning in town.

Salida, 7083ft.  West on County Rte 140, cross Highway 50 to 220, a dirt road.  Then a few miles up towards Monarch Pass on Hwy 50 to Fooses Creek.  Back on dirt, connect to the Colorado Trail and climb another 3000ft to the Monarch Crest Trail, and the Continental Divide Trail.  Push the last 1000ft up to 11,920ft.  Finally, almost 5000ft above Salida.  Rest.

Five miles along the Monarch Crest Trail at almost 12,000ft towards Marshall Pass.  As you ride over passes, they are the highest topographic point.  When riding ridges, the passes are the lowest.  Four more miles to Silver Creek, the last drainage that will route us back to town.  Further, the Colorado Trail leads over the Continental Divide towards Sargents Mesa.  For now, we want to return to the east side of the Divide, to Salida.

Beyond Marshall Pass, toward the SIlver Creek drainage.

Silver Creek, as the sun falls.

…until someone gets hurt, and a crank is bent.  Could be worse.  At least it clears the chain stay.  Fading light, pedal on.

Final light.

Finishing up by headlight.  As soon as the sun falls, my dynamo lighting becomes visible in the thick wooded singletrack.  At the junction of FS 201, the road to Bonanza, and the Rainbow Trail, we select the Rainbow Trail.  We were here a year ago and have already ridden down the FS road.  Time for something new, in the dark.

The final descent to Hwy 285.  High fives and a fast paved downhill to town.

Love. Salida.

Many thanks to Anton from Salida Bike Company for the ride to Interbike in Las Vegas.  And many more thanks for the escape from hundred degree heat and slot machines.  For now, we’re back in Colorado.

More capable and comfortable

It was less than a year ago that Lael had her first experience mountain biking.  She’d ridden hundreds of miles on dirt roads and doubletrack trails on her Surly Long Haul Trucker with 1.75-2.0″ tires, but atop the Monarch Crest Trail near Salida, CO last October she had her first singletrack moment.  Over the winter, we explored the many miles of snowy singletrack in Anchorage with our Pugsleys as a fun diversion from commuting on icy rutted roads and sidewalks.  The challenges of riding on snow are limited traction and wheel-swallowing snowbanks alongside the trail.  It is quite like riding narrow forest or desert singletrack trails, yet quite different.

Back in Salida after a year of cycling and travel, we are headed up to the famed Monarch Crest Trail for another round of riding.  This time, we are equipped with mountain bicycles.  Since purchasing Lael’s used Raleigh XXIX several weeks ago as a nearly stock singlespeed steel 29er, many improvements have been made.

At  the time of purchase the seller was offering a suspension fork on another bike, as well as a multi-speed 29″ wheel and an older XT derailleur.  I offered a bit more money for these parts.  When I picked up the bike, the headset, cranks, and rear hub were all loose, and without pedals the bike was unrideable.  I was fairly certain that with proper adjustment the bike would be fine, but for the money I had spent I was a little nervous.  As it turned out, the 2-piece cranks needed tightening, and the rear wheel, a nearly new Shimano Deore model, is better than new with a load of grease and a good adjustment.  The current Shimano Deore rear hubs have a propensity for loosening, which can lead to premature wear.  The solution to the maladjusted headset, which later proved to be pitted and gritty, was a new Grand Cru sealed cartridge bearing unit from Velo Orange.  Three key components were needed to convert the singlespeed bike to a geared touring machine.  A derailleur hanger was available online for $16, as none of the shops within 100 miles had the part in stock.  I bought two.  A pair of smooth action Suntour XC friction shifters were donated to the project by Big Dummy Daddy, and the rear XT derailleur is from the original sale.  With a new SRAM PC-951 chain, the bike was rolling with a wide-range 1×9 drivetrain.  WIth the addition of Lael’s favorite On-One Mary handlebar, Ergon grips and gold VP platform pedals, the bike was ready to hit the trail.  To this point, the bike cost about $600.

There were several other considerations on our minds upon setting out, but we decided it would be better to gain some experience on the bike before spending any more money.  That way, we could make wise purchases rather than speculating about what we might need.   Over the first few days of riding, several things were apparent: the rear 2.1″ Maxxis CrossMark tire was neither large or aggressive enough to gain reliable traction on steep climbs nor could it descend with comfort and speed; the range of gears was a little high as  the chain spent much of the time in the lowest gear, or walking; and the stem may be a bit long.  We casually asked at shops in Breckenridge if they would have any inexpensive or used parts to improve the bike.  Transitioning to ski season, very few shops were equipped with anything useful.  Finally, Podium Sports in Frisco, CO provided a 29 x 2.4″ Maxxis Ardent tire, and when we inquired about chainrings and cranks the following day, a string of other useful parts surfaced.  Kris, the kind and highly experienced shop manger immediately got to work helping us with our project, volunteering his time.

A lightly use Race Face RideXC crank with a single chainring replaced the original Truvativ FireX, and to it we added a 22T steel Shimano chainring.  I had been packing the other shifter from the Suntour pair and Kris dug up an older XT front derailleur, as well as a clamp-on housing stop (the frame was designed for SS).  We got to work connecting cables.  The design of many modern top-pull front derailleurs is quite bulky, and the 2.4″ tire comes within about 5mm of the FD pivot.  At this time we determined that the rear triangle of the frame was bent towards the drive side, as the wheel was off center in the frame and the front derailleur cage rested dangerous close to the tire when relaxed.  With some frame building experience, Kris was prepared with calipers and a Park FAG-2 alignment tool.  The two of us went to work bending the frame back into shape.

Push the driveside chainstay in, pull the non-drive chainstay out, check the spacing.  140mm.  Push the non-drive in again.  Check the spacing.  136mm, close enough.  Dish the wheel back to center, correcting our earlier corrections.  Fly through the gears, check limits, crank bolts and tire pressures.  Sixty bucks and a couple of hours later Lael has a fully-geared steel 29er with 2.3-2.4 tires, her favorite handlebars, a suspension fork and three water bottle cages.  I couldn’t have imagined that it all would have come together exactly like this, but for about $700, it’s a fully capable trail touring rig.

As for the stem, Lael thinks that the problem is as much about her posture and the tension she holds in her neck as bike fit.  We’re sticking with the old stem for now.

Kris has a nice collection of bikes including an NJS Keirin track racing bike and a steel 29er frame with a Gates belt drive, his first frame built several years ago while training at UBI.  I spotted this nice Panasonic ATB, likely from 1984.  This is nice example with a Hite-Rite seat post system, SR-100 slingshot-style stem and a Takagi Tourney XT crank.  While all three of our bikes (Pugs, Panasonic, and XXIX) are vastly different, there is a kinship of rugged construction and large tires among them.  It is bikes like this Panasonic that drew my interests away from vintage road touring frames, which offered only limited tire clearances and demanded high prices.  My 1985 Schwinn High Sierra is still my favorite bike to date.  If only I could get something like this Panasonic of the High Sierra for a 29″ tire…

Thanks for all the help Kris. Lael says, “thanks for the extra gears”.

Colorado Trail: Copper Mountain to Leadville

Just another day or two on the Colorado Trail.  Still, there’s nothing not to like.  Pushing the final few hundred feet up to Searle Pass, the sun sets in amber brilliance.  Sleeping above treeline ensures an immediately warming morning sun; sleeping in the trees is cool and moist, and the most enticing campsites near water seem to be shaded until noon.  At just over 12,000 ft, we erect the tent as a shield from a cool breeze and frosty, mountain dew.  By morning, only a light layer of ice has fallen.  The early sunlight treats our tent like a greenhouse; growing, glowing, warming until slowly awake.  The final half hour of sleep, cradled in warmth, is the most restful.  We like biking and hiking and eating and sleeping, but this time of year the sleeping is best.  Golden aspen and light snow on high are signs of the season’s change.  We love fall weather, but winter is soon to follow.

A short section of trail from Breckenridge to Copper Mountain climbs and descends at extreme grades, and is said to involve much hiking and pushing.  Theres is a paved 16 mile bike path around the Tenmile Range, which we took in search of the next rideable segment of trail.  Climbing across ski slopes and away from Copper Mountain, Searle Pass finally comes into view.  A final push over the pass leads to our camp, in top-of-the-world brilliance.  Just before cresting the pass, not a single road or building can be seen.  On the other side: a mine, a paved highway, and a few forest service roads are visible, and in the morning several bow hunters crest the ridge.  We’re far away, but not that far.  This is what I like about Colorado.  Alaska allows you to get away, but only through a gauntlet of muskeg, moose and mosquitos, with very few trails and roads for access.  The constant threat of grizzlies adds to the sense of the wild, and lessens my level of comfort.  Alaska is a beautiful idea, but not ideal for comfortable outdoor living.  While we tackle immense challenges, hardship is not part of the design.  Colorado is easy living.

Lael’s bike has seen some improvements recently, including a new tire.  The fast-rolling Maxxis CrossMark was great for smooth hard packed trails and dirt roads, but was short of traction and volume on much of the trail.  Her XXIX has some monster tire clearances, and a 29 x 2.4″ Maxxis Ardent hooks up well.  Descending, the suspension fork and the large tires allow her to pick her way through rocky sections without steering around every pebble.  The bike is finally becoming a familiar extension for her, despite a few mishaps.  No matter how well equipped, a rider must become intimately aware of their bike.  This is why we choose to own and ride only one bike at a time.  Equipment or skill is no match for familiarity.

Lael’s Hooligan has broken the one bike rule, but it is exceedingly fun and practical, and has a future with us.  For anything but real trail riding, including urban riding and touring, she demands to have “Hooli”.  With a 2″ tire, it would be fine on mild unpaved surfaces.  While 4″ tires and 29″ wheels provide much benefit, there is a lot to say of a highly maneuverable, and lightweight bike.  26″ and 20″ wheels have their place.

Searle Pass is the saddle left of center.  Many trails become quite rocky above treeline.  Gaining the ridge:

Camp at 12,050 ft.  Over the pass, a large mining operation and a few roads are visible.

Warming light.  Yoga atop mountains is Lael’s favorite, in lieu of yoga in the park, on the sidewalk, in the backyard, on the beach, in the woods, or inside.  She has done yoga almost everywhere.  Dressed for the cool morning, she practices “Yoga for Ninjas”.

Riding, pushing over Elk Ridge and descending down to Kokomo Pass near 12,000ft.  Descending, descending, down to 9,000ft feet over several miles of trail.  Brakes, kick up dirt, pedal and lean, fly; brake, skid, stop.  Snack.  Soon, 10, 9 thousand feet again and climbing.  Up, to Tennessee.

We both appreciate the value of a lightly packed bike.  I was carrying a small cooking system and a two-person tent all summer, so Lael only had to show up in Denver with a sleeping bag and pad, as well as some clothing.  She’s packed into a Revelate Vischasa seat bag, Revelate Gas Tank top tube bag, Revelate Mountain Feed Bag, and an eVent Sea-to-Summit compression sack.   A spare tube and tire are strapped to the down tube, out of the way. She’s not carrying a shelter at the moment, but overall, her bike is optimal for this kind of riding.  It is simple, quiet, and light.  The bike rides like a bike.

Every day, I enjoy Lael’s combination of socks and shoes.  Other trail riders must think we are lost, or from another decade.

I am carrying quite a bit more equipment, but this is exactly what I was carrying all summer.  We carry our own gear in favor of trying to match our paces by re-distributing the load.  Releasing ourselves from the idea of matching paces and necessarily riding together, we are relieved of stress.  It’s simply too much mental work, and is likely to slow one of us down or push the other along.  For such a fun, simple endeavor as walking or riding, there’s no need to complicate the joy of being on the trail.  Sometimes I ride ahead and wait at junctions.  Often, I ride behind allowing Lael to see the trail first, and we talk all day.  Other times, Lael rides ahead, descending with abandon as I stop to take photographs.  We’ve had too many fights about nothing by trying to match paces, so we don’t.

Tightly packed away is MacBook Air and an Olympus E-PM1, as well as a gaggle of accessories, chargers and cables.  Maps, a water filter, tools, a tent, and a cook system are stowed away along with food, clothing and shelter.  It’s tidy and it rides well, if a little heavy.  A framebag is a key component of any lightweight touring system and is the single greatest step to leaving racks and panniers at home, unless you are Lael and don’t even need a framebag.  In many cases, more important than the weight of equipment, is the ride.  My bike is quiet and comfortable, and the tires cloud the rocky disturbances of the trail.  I’m finally finding the optimal tire pressure for these trails, and it is much lower than I initially estimated.

Up and over Tennessee Pass, and on to Leadville.  We heart Leadville.  Good living at 10,200ft.  Without a ski resort, Colorado towns such as Salida and Leadville avoid the glut of condos and t-shirt shops that plague other mountain towns.  Leadville and Salida are both beautiful communities in the mountains.  Fourteen thousand foot peaks, everywhere.

The beauty of this part of the state is that it’s not a simple destination for tourists, but finding transportation out of town has been a challenge.  We’ve finally secured a ride to Interbike.  Some writing obligations and planning will take some time away from riding this week, but we’ll be back at it in a few days.  Thereafter we will transport to a galaxy far away from the CT, awash in the glitz of Las Vegas.  Whatever it brings, Interbike and Vegas will be an experience.

Lael’s Globe

I’m a bit slow to sort through photos and hate to spend time listening to “Endless Love” while borrowing wifi from local Safeway markets and Starbucks lounges.  Lael has a new blog, and she’s a real wizard at sitting down and getting it done– she doesn’t like listening to “Endless Love” any more than I do.  For a colorful preview of our Colorado Trail times, check out Lael’s Globe of Adventure.

Fort Collins Bicycle Zoo: Black Sheep and Panda

Fort Collins is a circus any day of the year, ripe with college students, swollen bike racks otherwise only seen in Amsterdam, and nearly a dozen breweries.  Numerous bike shops cater to townies and college students, while some specialized shops offer something else.  Crankenstein repairs bikes and serves coffee by day, pouring craft beers after hours; the wall near the end of the bar features a vintage French 650B touring frame in original condition.  Panda is fabricating elegant bamboo and steel bikes, with Mexican bamboo and Denver-area steel.  Black Sheep is crafting some of the most functionally radical big wheeled designs in titanium, noted for their truss-frames fatbikes, 29ers and an occasional 36er.  Yes, 36″ wheels and tires are available, borrowed from the unicycling world which relies on bigger wheels for bigger gears due to direct drive transmission, as with a Penny-farthing.  Black Sheep is engineering and craft, beautifully executed in  titanium.  Some unusual innovative ideas make Black Sheep a bit of an outsider, that is, until white-fleeced manufacturers catch on.  Between Panda and Black Sheep, Fort Collins hosts a bike zoo within the broader bicycle circus.

Only the ride quality exceeds the beauty and ingenuity of this titanium Black Sheep frame.  The full fat-tire titanium frame, with a titanium truss fork and one-piece handlebar stem rides like a cloud.  The frame is light, compliant, and responsive; the fork does not chatter under braking forces, yet seems to soak the trail; wide handlebars provide leverage, yet the consistent 22.2 diameter all through the construction allows more flex than any handlebar I’ve ever ridden, even other titanium models clamped to a standard aluminum stem.  The one-piece bar/stem offers maximum control in the design process, and maximum comfort and control on the trail.  Custom bends provide several hand positions which only make sense when ridden, as they look unfamiliar.  This frame has a symmetrical rear end and uses 135mm hubs front and rear, laced in a non-offset pattern to Marge Lite rims.  For singlespeed/fixed riding, internal gear hubs, or a modified geared drivetrain with a maximum of about 5 cogs (9-sp cogs with spacers), this bike is as versatile as the Surly Pugsley design, with some exceptional refinements.  The entire rear triangle is sleeved and can be adjusted or removed which allows chain tensioning, compatibility with a belt drive, and disassembly for travel.  The chain stays are each sleeved, as is the oversized tube that comprises the seatstay junction.  The system is claimed to be “creak-free”, unlike some eccentric bottom brackets (EBB) and sliding or swinging dropouts.  I did not perceive any noise or undue flex.  Surly Marge Lite rims are set up tubeless, offering the lightest fatbike wheel combination available without using narrower rims.  Several 40-50 mm rims are now available for fatbikes, targeting the non-flotation XC market.  I still think a 65mm rim is the best all-around option, and the Marge Lite is competitively light in weight to narrower models.  A curved titanium seatpost and Gilles Berthoud saddle are inspiring in their comfort.  The leather top of the Berthoud saddle is bolted, rather than riveted, and is replaceable.

The symmetrical 135mm design approaches an ideal for a highly compatible fatbike capable of operating with derailleurs (modified drivetrain), symmetrical Rohloff wheels and other IGHs and singlespeed, belt drives, and a “normal” symmetrical 29″ wheelset.  While 170mm hubs are not entirely uncommon these days, 135mm hubs are widely available and inexpensive.  These wheels are built with DT Swiss cassette hubs front and rear.  The front and rear wheels are interchangeable, as with the Pugsley design.  A 100mm bottom bracket is still required for the cranks to clear the chainstays.

Note the bolts underneath the seatstay junction, and near the rim on the chainstays.

Sliding chainstay parts:

Seatstay junction, sleeved with two pinch bolts.  These assemblies require precise machining, which is a hallmark of Black Sheep bikes.

A tidy workspace, seductive titanium tubes and tidy welds are all found at Black Sheep.

The 36″ wheeled machine is out of town for the week, but is pictured below as an award winning NAHBS bike.  A truss framed Black Sheep 29er is pictured on the left.

Panda Bikes blend art and craft, producing a beautiful fusion of organic and metallic tones, and a ride to match.  The combination of steel lugs and bamboo or steel tubes can be tuned to the riders needs.  Highly flexible frames are designed for urban riders desiring maximum comfort, while stiff, sporty frames can produce a go-fast road bike to keep up with the club.  Calm your doubts about the quality of a frame made with hollow woody tubes, the owners at Panda claim to have never seen a broken frame.  The bamboo is sourced from a sustainable farm in the Yucatan region of Mexico, and quality control is tight.  At this point about 15 percent of the bamboo that arrives is deemed unsuitable for Panda frames, although working closely with the bamboo grower is improving the margins, and reducing waste.  Custom steel lugs are sleeved to externally house the bamboo, as with a steel lugged frame, while an inner fitting slides preciely inside the hollow bamboo tubes.  The inside and outside diameters of the bamboo are machined to precise tolerances, and an industrial strength epoxy joins the parts.

Below, a raw seatstay junction is fitted with bamboo, stained, painted, and finished with a durable clear coat.  The process is time consuming, but yields a beautiful, durable product.  An attention to detail is paramount.

Most frames leave the workshop with Velo Orange parts and accessories.  These guys really love VO stuff— it allows them to meet a price point while keeping to the elegant aesthetic of their hand-crafted bamboo frames.  Lots of Velo Orange parts can be seen at the handbuilt bike shows, although no builder consistently specs as much VO as Panda.  Bamboo and shiny parts looks nice.

Pat Hegedus has been working on bikes professionally for 11 years, but has taken the plunge into frame building only recently.  His creative ideas and expertise are driving Panda in new directions, and he wields a torch with the finesse of a veteran.  The Ace hardware store is next door to the workshop, and we had planned to purchase some hose clamps to secure another bottle cage.  Instead, Pat efficiently drilled some holes in the underside of the down tube, cleaned away the paint, and brazed some threaded bosses in with silver.  The charge: $30, which included a plastic bottle cage that carried water on his own cross-country trek.  Like everywhere else in Fort Collins, the service came with a cold can of beer.  As the clock strikes 4:30, two water bottle bosses are installed and two cans of PBR, empty.

While Black Sheep is a climate controlled laboratory, Panda’s workshop is open to the back alley where broken steel frames await reconfiguration to tandems and tall bikes– this time of year demands such monsters as New Belgium Brewery’s Tour de Fat rolls into town.  The local brewery is growing a sector of bicycle culture that neither Lance Armstrong or the ACA can touch.  Art bikes and costumes pass through US cities by the thousands every summer in a non-political critical mass of fun.  At some point, New Belgium beer in involved, including their Fat Tire Amber ale and the new Shift Lager.  Bikes rule this town, but beer runs the show.  Even the refrigerator at Panda features a bamboo beer tap.

Pat’s workspace is perfectly tuned with two tall stacks of thrift store speakers, four apiece, a record player, and a collection of vinyl and compact discs.  The Temptations serenade the brazing process, while I spy a copy of Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew.

Keep your eye on Pat Hegedus in the coming years.  His experience as a mechanic, a grungy Philadelphian, a cycletourist, a BMX rider and now a steel and bamboo craftsman will produce some interesting results.  Lael says “thanks for the extra water!”.

Lael’s working title for this post was “The Jetsons and the Flintstones: Black Sheep and Panda”.

Need ride to Las Vegas, Interbike

Need ride to Las Vegas, Interbike (Colorado)

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Date: 2012-08-27, 11:23AM MDT
Reply to this post

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I’m seeking a ride for two people and two bikes to arrive in Las Vegas sometime around Septempber 16-18 to attend the Interbike show, a bicycle industry convention. I’ve been bicycle touring most of the summer from Anchorage, Alaska and will be riding the Colorado Trail in the next few weeks. I can detour from the trail to meet in a nearby city or somewhere along the I-70 corridor (Glenwood Springs, for instance). Anyone from the Denver area headed west mid-Sept? Any help would be welcomed. I expect to share the cost of gas. Thanks.

Nicholas
http://www.gypsybytrade.wordpress.com

• Location: Colorado
• it’s NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

Tell your friends, especially those that enjoy gambling or bicycle industry conventions.

Connecting the dots: Rawlins, Steamboat, Kremmling

Divide-style riding– the open dirt roads that are influencing a new generation of cyclecampers– has provided me with a home for the summer.  Daily challenges and joys come from climbing and descending the skeleton of the American west, while every evening is topped with delightful campsites, for free.  The Great Divide Route is the Trans-Am Route of the modern day, as Fargos and Trolls are the equivalents of old Trek and Fuji touring frames.  The Divide is the fusion of our American cycletouring heritage and several decades of mountain biking– it’s a way of connecting the dots and getting away from it all.

Most road maps facilitate travel along the paths of least resistance, though river valleys and along interstate highways.  Lesser known routes encounter greater resistance– in route planning and topography– but uncover the uncommon character that is hidden in the folds of the land.  The Great Divide Route is changing the way American cyclists look at cycletouring and is both ready-made and quite rideable, lessening the resistance to “getting away”.  While a single day’s ride on the Divide might be challenging, the open road ahead is an inviting yellow brick road of logistic simplicity.  Turn-by-turn directions and comprehensive resources for cyclists (groceries, water, lodging, camping, police, etc.) are listed on the maps, in addition to elevation profiles.  Concerns that the Divide reaches deep into the wilderness, days away from food and resources are unnecessary.  Every few days the rider encounters a proper grocery, and water is not an issue in most places; when it is less plentiful one simply carries a little more for the duration described in the maps.  If the Divide calls to you, I’m telling you that you can!  You still have to ride your bike up and over mountains, but it couldn’t be any easier.

The Great Divide Route is the realization of an idea with roots in the original Bikecentennial route (renamed Trans-Am), which was meant to uncover America’s backroads.  As originally designed, the cross-country route included miles of gravel farm roads inspired by terrain encountered on the Siples’ Hemistour ride.   Overwhelmingly, the first wave of Bikecentennial riders complained about the hardship of riding dirt on the typical 27×1 1/4 (630 x 32mm) tires of the time.  The Siples had ridden handbuilt 650b wheels laced to Campagnolo hubs, with an approximate 40mm tire.  Edit: I’m currently researching the tires used on Hemistour, as they are simultaneously and incongruously referred to as 650B (584mm) and 26 x 1 3/8 (590mm).  June Siple has a record of equipment used, and may soon shed some light.  Ten years later as ATBs exploded onto the market. riders finally had the appropriate equipment to explore these dirt routes, especially the more challenging rides into the mountains.  Meeting over margaritas and Mexican food in 1994, as legend has it, Michael McCoy conspired with ACA staff to design a dirt route along the spine of the country. Within the year the Great Divide Route was born, and the rest is (recent) history.

Today, more people are touring on mountain bike tires and mountain bikes, in the mountains.  Riders are discovering the value of lightweight packing as backpackers have known for years.  The combination opens up the opportunity to ride high mountain roads and singletrack for multiple days at a time.  My own evolution as a rider mirrors the history of American cycletouring, and after a few long years the final and most contemporary piece to the puzzle will fall into place on the Colorado Trail, and beyond.  They call it mountain biking or bikepacking, but it’s still just a bike ride.

Connecting the dots from Rawlins, WY to Steamboat Springs, CO:

I sleep atop mountains and passes whenever the weather is clear and calm, with only my sleeping pad and bag on a nylon groundcloth.  Since entering Montana, most nights have been spent en plain air.  I keep most of my gear packed away, but will remove my cookset for some dinner or tea in the evening.  Now out of grizzly country, I gave my bear deterrent spray to some CDT hikers and I can leave the stove set up for the morning.  When I’m feeling especially organized and indulgent, I’ll prepare the pot with clean water so that it can be heated as soon as I awake for coffee or tea, like the auto-brew setting on your home system.  The Penny Stove that I use was built almost a year ago while in Steamboat Springs, and has seen about 150 days of use.  The steel Klean Kanteen is versatile in that I can defrost frozen water from a cold night, or sterilize stream water right in the bottle.  An enameled steel camping mug isn’t much heavier than popular Lexan or plastic models, and can similarly be used for cooking or heating water.  While I technically only carry one 0.8L cookpot, these versatile vessels allow more creative meals and hot drinks.  A 1L plastic drink bottle contains fuel, of which I’ve mostly been sourcing the yellow bottles of Heet (automotive antifreeze, methanol).  In bigger cities I can buy a full liter of ethanol, or denatured alcohol at paint and hardware stores.  In France, corner stores sold a 95% concentration of ethanol as a household cleaner, always in an inspiring floral or citrus fragrance for two euro.  In Mexico, “alcohol industrial” can be had at some paint stores, which wasn’t an entirely reliable source.  I finally realized that the rubbing alcohol sold in Mexican pharmacies was a 70-90% concentration of ethanol, whereas rubbing alcohol in the US is almost exclusively isopropyl alcohol.   Isopropyl burns incompletely and leaves a sooty mess on your pots.  Inevitably, it makes a sooty mess on other things until you look like a coal miner on a bicycle.  For reference, higher concentrations of isopropyl alcohol burn just fine, if necessary.

With tired legs from several weeks of riding without a rest, I find cover during the heat of the day along the Little Snake River.  Of course, this was a fine swimming spot, if a little shallow.  My transition into Colorado signals a more temperate climate– surface water and shade quickly reappear after a few scorching days in central and southern Wyoming.  Aspens provide wonderfully cool shade while climbing, and a stark contrast to western skies.

Steamboat Springs is a tourist town, a ski town, and a little hard to crack at first.  Local businesses are busy crafting and creating, and a visit to the Moots factory is inspiring (10 AM on M-W-F).  Kent Erickson, who started Moots in the 80’s, now crafts fine titanium bikes in a space shared with Orange Peel Bikes, a must-see building and a fine shop.  Smartwool offices are in Steamboat as well, and my host for the night offered some socks and a lightweight merino sweater– he’s a quality control agent for the company, and is full of socks that didn’t make the cut.  Finally, I contacted Big Agnes in advance for some tent repairs after four years of hard use.  I’m constantly seeking better solutions to equipment, but my Big Agnes Seedhouse SL2 is hard to beat and while I’ve looked for other options with curiosity, nothing improves upon the blend of durability and light weight.  It sleeps two, but is light enough to carry for solo adventures.  It is conveniently freestanding, which is great during the buggy season and the rainfly can be used without the mesh tent body for good ventilation during a summer rain shower.  In more extreme weather, a total of 13 guy lines ensure a solid stance against the wind and rain.  While in town last year they repaired a large tear in my rainfly due to a zipper mishap; this year, some sections of my tent poles needed replacement and a finicky zipper was repaired.  It’s nice to have contact with real people, with real skills and expertise to help sort out technical issues.  If I had gone to REI, they would have shrugged and replaced the entire product.  Repairs are a much better solution, and the cost to get me back under cover was only $10.

The ride from Steamboat Springs to Kremmling is pleasant and familiar as I’ve now ridden the route over Lynx Pass three times.  It was part of my path from Boulder to Steamboat last fall to meet Cass and Nancy in early October for some Divide riding.  Check out Nancy’s first day of bicycle touring, climbing at 8000ft over Lynx Pass on dirt roads in the snow!  At the same time I ran into Greg Mu on the road, riding a look-alike Surly Troll to what Cass was riding.  Whose Troll was born first?  Greg insists it was his.  We all rode together for a period and had a great time, despite cold nights and some early season snow.

I overheated and perspired through my first freezing night, even though I was sleeping without a tent  After buying and returning a half-dozen sleeping bags to REI over the last few years, I finally found my ideal bag at The Trailside in Missoula, MT last fall.  The Mont-Bell U.L. Super Spiral Down Hugger 3 is filled with high-quality down and is rated to 30, which is an accurate description of it’s warmth.  The bag is constructed in a spiral stitch pattern with elastic stitching which ensures that the down is close to the body while sleeping, but that nighttime movements are not constricted by a narrow bag.  The advertised weight of the bag is 1 lb. 6 oz., and compresses to the size of a cantaloupe or smaller.  An Etowah vapor barrier liner (VBL) from Rivendell keeps me warm down to 10 deg, with a lightweight down jacket and a blend of Ibex and Smartwool long underwear.  I have not been carrying the VBL or down jacket through the summer months.

Connecting the dots from Steamboat to Kremmling:

My host in Kremmling is a recent Pugsley owner, with a glowing enthusiasm for fat tires.  Without saying, we got along just fine.  In a few weeks, he’ll set off for the Divide with my maps on his new fat tires.  There are great camping and riding opportunities north of town, most of which is BLM property.  Camping along Muddy Creek is recommended.

Rebuilding, reimagining

Rebuilding a singlespeed 2008 16″ Raleigh XXIX as a 1×9 (32 x 12-36) with a gold anodized On-One Mary handlebar, Ergon grips, a new Velo Orange cartridge bearing headset, extra bottle cage mounts, a tenacious rider and not too much gear.  Birthday on Wednesday.  Lael on Thursday.  Acclimate.  Ride to the trailhead later this weekend.

I’d been searching Craigslist primarily for a used steel 29er, with or without suspension and gearing.  If you seek a similar steel 29er on the used market, consider Redline Monocog (SS, but replace sliding dropouts, has braze-ons for shift cables), Raleigh XXIX or XXIX+G (former is SS, replace derailleur hanger with Wheels Manufacturing 133 or Raleigh 5) , Surly Karate Monkey and Ogre (both have track style dropout with der. hanger), Salsa Fargo or Mariachi, Haro Mary, or On-One Inbred or 456.  Further, Voodoo, Jamis, Soma, Vassago, Niner and Spot all produce steel 29ers that passed through the local used market this past week.

I’ve got a Colorado Trail Databook thanks to Brad in Boulder.  I’m living in Fort Collins for the week, which is a real bike town where people ride bikes to get places.  Denver calls tomorrow with a meeting of the local Surly Owners Society (S.O.S.), which I equate to the B.O.B. group with more beer and fewer lugs.  Amidst bike repairs and writing, I’m hoping to make it to Denver to meet the bearded, tattooed owners of Surly bikes.   Otherwise, I’m fixing and riding bikes and staring at a Rock Shox Reba fork wondering if I should take it apart for preventative maintenance, and fun.

It’s time for an upright handlebar on the Pugsley and a used Surly 1×1 Torsion bar will take the place of the Salsa Cowbell.  I’ve considered a modern “mountain” drop-bar, but if your flatten and flare a drop-bar enough you get something like a Mary, Jones, Space Bar or a Carnegie.  The Surly Torsion bar has a 15deg sweep and is manufactured in Cro-Mo by Nitto; Lael’s gold Mary is 35deg and is in the mail for $20 from the new US distributor of On-One equipment from the UK.  On-One makes incredibly inexpensive frames in steel, aluminum and carbon, as well as some innovative handlebars (Mary, 35deg; Fleegle, 15deg; Mungo, mustache; and Midge, mountain drop).  A steel 26″ or 29″ mountain bike frame can be had for $200 or less.  Velo Orange thumb shifter mounts are the least expensive way to fit my Shimano bar-ends to an upright bar for easy, reliable shifting.  Friction thumb shifters are king when simple, rugged shifting is needed.  V-brake levers should be close at hand for a few bucks.