3CogBlog.com

  Placing my bike in the roof rack of my car is a profoundly satisfying experience. I just hoist my ride up and place it in the track. Next I fold the clamp against the wheel and tighten down the knob, locking the front wheel in place. Cinch the strap down on the rear wheel and it’s good to go!   My last bike and rack combo included steps like, remove front wheel, set fork adapter in fork and reinstall front axle.Then the matter of setting a fork, or a fork adapter onto the skewer clamp could also be a challenge. The tension on the skewer seemed to always need some adjusting. I've also pulled the move of arriving at the trailhead only to realize a front wheel was left in the driveway.  The first time I went to Moad, I had two fork mount trays, but we needed to carry four bikes. So, we mounted two of the bikes in the racks. The other two were just bunjee corded to those bikes. That wasn’t even the sketchiest bike carrying I’ve done.   When I first got my VW bus,...

  I find there is an extra sense of accomplishment when I can jump over something with my bike. It draws at the very fundamental aspects of the biking experience. As kids on bmx bikes, some of the very first challenges we faced were learning how to jump over things. I can remember it wasn’t good enough to just perform a nice bunny hop. It didn’t mean diddly if you weren’t actually jumping over something.   If we found a decent jump, we could convince younger siblings and friends to lay down side by side under the ramp. If you can clear two people, the logical next step is trying to clear three people. This stunt was just as thrilling for the bike riders as it was for the obstacles. Admittedly this type of stunt presented more opportunity for injuring the jumpees than the jumper.   As skateboarders filtered into the riding posse, we started jumping over less animate objects. A couple of skateboards might be lined up as a proper bunnyhopping challenge. Coming up a littl...

  Here in the front range, we try to take care of our trails. The Boulder Mountainbike Alliance (BMA) and other local groups put a lot of hard work into maintaining and repairing the glorious singletrack we get to ride. Riding trails when they are too wet can cause considerable damage that requires a lot of time and hard work to fix. Sometimes ruts put into a trail in early season can last the entire summer. If it's rained recently, and you aren't sure just how wet the trails are, do a little research. Rangers from   Boulder County Parks  are consistently checking on the trails in county parks. They post conditions with pictures and descriptions on Twitter.   The  BMA website,  contains a very thorough chart that is constantly updated by actual riders. Anyone who visits a trail can contribute to updates on the conditions.   If you think "Ok, the trails are muddy, I'll just go to Valmont," think again. The trail crew at the bike park are con...

  One of the very first dates I went on with my wife, was a walk up the Bitterbrush trail. We walked along the trail through the rolling meadows below the rock garden. I'm sure we were talking sweetly and discovering new things about each other, typical first date stuff.  Suddenly!  Just a few steps ahead of us in the trail was a coiled and rattling, prairie rattlesnake. Looking back on the incident, I'm glad my first reaction was to pull her back to safety and take a protective step forward putting myself between her and certain danger. Another option would have been to push her into the weeds and run back down the trail screaming and flailing my hands. Really glad I didn't do that, but you just never know how you'll react when put to the test. Stock Photo   I remember that the snake seemed to be a perfect match with the color of the surrounding plants. It was beautiful, and it was pissed. I stomped my foot on the trail a few times and the snake left the trai...

   I was at work trying to think of bike related topics to discuss, when I realized the answer was right in front of me. I was disassembling a large chain drive system in a piece of construction equipment. The machine was one of those skid steer loaders, the kind you see at every construction site. A machine like this was probably employed at some point in the construction your home.  Chain drive is an amazingly efficient mode of power transfer. You've seen it lift your garage door, and it's used to spin camshafts on most car engines. Through the 1920's and into the 1940's chain drive was used commonly on heavy trucks before driveshafts came into fashion. Imagine someone's great grandfather hauling a load of logs up a steep hill in a 1927 chain drive Mack, then think about how much it sucks when your chain drops off.  That reminds me, have you ever seen a shaft-driven bike? It's a thing that is real.     I saw a little kid's bike that was shaft-d...

   Three years ago I purchased a Giro Chronicle helmet. I love this thing, its got a nice wide visor and plenty of vents. It fits snug, never bounces around, and the rear wraps around low to protect the whole back of my melon. The very best thing about it though, is a little round, yellow sticker that says Mips, short for Multi-Directional Impact Protection System. In case you haven't noticed, every helmet for every sport is starting to incorporate this new tech to help prevent concussions. I first noticed it in a ski shop several years ago and asked the salesperson about it. She waved her hand across racks of helmets both with and without Mips, "All of these helmets will save your life," she said, "But the Mips helmets will keep you from getting a concussion."    Having already logged a few of these brain killers,  I was ready to try anything to prevent another. So I hung up my trusty, but Mipless, Bern helmet and threw on the Giro.    In Mat Hof...

A Saturday morning ride with Duncan is bound to involve some hike-a-bike. Typically this means pushing bikes up a steep downhill trail. But yesterday’s ride acheived an entirely new level of transferring bikes along routes that cannot be ridden, we rode off the top of Button Rock. Maybe you’ve heard of Button Rock reservior, the Button Rock trail, or Button Rock mountain. Well, all of these are named because they are within sight of one giant hunk of granite that is the actual ‘Button Rock.’   Six am is our normal start time for Saturdays, and this day found us bumping along a steep, rutted dirt road in the small town of Pinewood Springs. We had turned off of Highway 66, onto County Road 47 and were heading up to the Johnny Boy camping area. We parked at the trailhead and stepped out to the soothing sounds of a generator running outside a fifth-wheel camper. As the sounds of camping faded behind us we pedaled into the vast network of trails that make up this area.    Th...