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This is my bike, there are many like it but this one is special...

     Like all good superheroes, my Jeffsy has a tragic origin story. It starts with a violent car crash. It was a Saturday in early winter. Both my little girls were in the back of my 1991 Mercedes 190e. We were waiting at a light  when a Suburban rear ended us doing 50 mph.  The Mercedes was crumpled at both ends, but it took the hit like a faithful guardian. The brave sedan sacrificed itself to protect me and the girls.        With my head dazed and the girls still crying, my thoughts turned to my other vehicle, a 1972 VW bus.  We all loved riding in the bus. If the weather had been 10 degrees warmer we might have been in the bus. I  had daily driven it for 18 years.  I thought I would drive that bus forever, and in that moment I fell completely out of love with it. I knew that if the bus had been hit like that the result could be deadly. I sold the bus and bought a used Audi, with money left for a new bike. I was so out of touch with trail bikes, I thought seat bags were still a t
Recent posts

The Signs

The tale of the Left Hand Canyon trail signs is a story about art. Art in the woods, and corporate timewasting. I had become hopelessly addicted to Left Hand, and I had access to a sweet welder. I thought the broken shovel design fit with the asthetic of the trail system. A system dug by hand with sweat and shovels. My signs would be a tribute to the guys spending their free time out there digging. I started with Indy and Bon Scott since those were the existing trails, quickly followed by Deadass and the RZA GZA sign. The early signs were kind of crappy as I developed my technique. I eventually decided the best way to make the letters was a multistep process. I would lay down a layer of weld, then grind the top smooth, then lay another bead and repeat. I actually carried some of the originals down off the mountain and applied more weld to bring them up to the new standard. Also the first ones were unpainted and nearly invisible to a passing rider. The new trails started coming fa

The many stages of mountain biking

I love mountain bike culture. I love our tribe, I love all the different characters I get to meet. On a recent trip to Left Hand I met up with some fun riders, each at different stages in their cycling career. The first rider I met that day was my friend Matt. I knew he was out there because his car was in the usual spot. All summer, me, him and this dude with a Jeep Wrangler had been vying for the first tracks of the day. There is something special about being the first one to enter the trail system. Matt has known this feeling many times, including that morning.  This summer I learned to stop hating Strava and enjoy it as a way to see that my friends are out riding. So, I started to notice that Matt had been riding Left Hand consistently for many weeks. Matt has been on a streak. Starting At the end of August he rode, 26,28, Sept 2,9,11,13,16,18,20,22,23,25,27,29, Oct 1,2,4,5,7,9,11,13,14.  I love that he is doing this. I think it will forever affect the way he rides. When I was in h

ETs

     I limped into work on a Monday and my buddy asked what I did. I said, I slipped my pedals doing an ET. He said, The kids at BMX are always doing those. Why’s it called that? Doesn’t it stand for something?        Well,  dear readers, ET does in fact stand for Extra Terrestrial. Today I’ll tell the tale of how the cute little alien may be unknowingly referenced at your local dirt jump spot or bike park. First I’ll describe the trick. This is a pretty easy trick and I encourage every rider to try this for themselves. You ride off the lip of the jump and then once you are in the air you start pedaling again,  as you begin to drop, stop pedaling, set your feet level and stomp the landing        For me a good one is two or three pedal strokes. Blake from GMBN   says his record is six full cranks. That's a pretty big jump. I can also do a half a crank on a really little jump or roller. I think these are a fun, under rated jump. This is a trick impossible to capture in a still photo

The Doctors Office

     When I go to the doctors office I try to give them something to talk about. I’m sure they deal with a lot of people who neglect their health, I want to give them something out of the ordinary. I see the same thing at my job as a diesel mechanic. A driver will pull up complaining about the a/c in a truck and as I open the hood I’ll see leaks and loose bolts. I can see no effort was taken in maintaining the truck. Other times I can see that a truck has been very well maintained. The damage comes from a component that has simply exceeded its physical limits. That’s what I do with my body. I maintain it, but sometimes I exceed its physical limits.     That’s why it’s fun when a Doctor in the ER calls out to a co-worker, “Hey Dave, you gotta come check this out.” This happened when I scalped myself with the bottom edge of a loader arm. Doctors were coming in from other parts of the hospital to see the injury they had heard about. My wife was working at the hospital that day, she was no

Pay attention to harbingers

     I was on an early morning ride and had just completed the climb to the top of The Grind. I leaned my bike where I always do and started my pre-descent preparations. This includes sipping some water, a little stretching, then putting on helmet and gloves. I heard a frantic buzzing sound and noticed a black and yellow bee had become fascinated by my bike. I considered taking a picture, but then I figured most people could picture this scene.      The bee started climbing along the spare tube, then the frame buzzing and buzzing. I looked close and it appeared the bee had bundles of pollen already hanging from it’s back legs. What was causing this bee to get sidetracked from it’s job to freak out over my bike?       I shooed the bee off and it came right back. This lasted several minutes, and finally I had to grab the bike, run it a few paces and quickly jump on to leave the bee behind. This was my first ride of the week, so I thought I was feeling a little rusty. The jumps felt a lit

Spinning my wheels

     I think my problem is that I keep trying to write a post with a bunch of opinion, like, why I hate Strava. But, I always run out of steam because I’m just starting a one sided argument that no one really cares about.      Instead I’ll just tell true stories, the way they happened. I’ve been riding a bunch at Left Hand Canyon. This makes the fourth year I’ve been indoctrinated into the cult of Left Hand. Being in the cult means a day of riding elsewhere is a day wasted. I know the front range has lots of options, and people invite me to go try new places. I just smile and say, “ Yeah we should totally go ride that other place.” But, I know I’m lying. Riding someplace else local would be a betrayal of the dark powers I worship. The demon gods of Left Hand would know, and they would strike down upon me with great vengeance and horrible anger. And I want nothing to do with that.      Me and the demon gods of Left Hand have been really tight lately. We had a nice wet  spring season. I