BikePortland.org (then others) posted this MacGyver tip for improving cycling traction in snow and/or ice this winter. As you can see from the photo below the author placed zip ties around the rim and tire about spaced about every 3 spokes. At first blush this seems like a great idea but it is certainly limited to bikes without rim brakes. One commentor mentioned removing her rear brakes to allow the wheel to rotate freely with the zip ties installed but doesn’t this mean you’re riding on snow with just your front brakes attached? Seems a little more dangerous than both brakes in the snow WITHOUT rear traction.

What about the old trick of “studding” your tires with wood screws poked through the tire from the inside? I’ve never tried this myself but it seems like a decent solution as well, though clearly not as easy and not really reversible the way zip ties are. The post also mentioned “chains” for bicycle tires but living in the south I’ve never seen these. Anyone ever use bike tire chains?

Apparently a homeless guy near Alexandria, VA was using his mountain bike as a weapon to attack cyclists near National airport. The short article says the guy “swung his bike by the handlebars and seat near National Airport on July 10, knocking at least one other rider off his bike.” Up to 15 other riders were attacked in a similar way.

This all sounds very odd until you read the part about police finding hallucinogenic mushrooms on the guy after his arrest. Kids: drugs and biking just don’t go together - don’t do it!

Leah and I visited the mountain bike hall of fame in Crested Butte, Colorado a few years back after riding the famed Trail 401 just outside of town. We weren’t quite sure we were in the right place at first, the hallowed hall of fame actually resides in a single room at the back of an old fashioned general store. I think we paid a buck or so to get into the back room and we were the only ones there on a beautiful summer afternoon. There was plenty of memoribilia from some of the early pioneers like Gary Fisher and Tom Richey and lots to learn about the origins of mountain biking.

If you’re familiar with the story about how mountain biking got its start you might be wondering why the hall of fame isn’t located in Marin County, California. Well apparently around the same time the guys started riding down Mount Tam in Marin some people in Crested Butte started tinkering with their cruisers so they could ride around town on the muddy dirt streets. Thus mountain biking grew out of both necessity and a need for an adrenaline rush.

Check out the pics we snapped in the Hall, notice the “singletracks.com” t-shirt I’m wearing. I’m hoping to push for a more “official” inclusion in the Hall as the “best mountain biking website ever.” Who will vote with me?

* This was originally posted on mudhunny’s blog but has been reprinted here since the old blog was ghetto (jeff’s fault).

yes! another excuse to bust out my favorite stationary - green engineering graph paper. the plan was to build a 12 foot long teeter-totter with an approach angle of 20-22°. the materials needed are as follows…

for the plank (rideable area):

• 2 - 2×6x12
• 6 - 1×4x11″

for the base:

• 2 - 4×4x2
• 6 - 2×4x7-1/4″
• 4 - 2×4x32″ (30¬? cuts on both ends)
• 2 - 2×4x30″
• 2 - 2×4x55.5″ (optional supports)

for the pivot box:

• 2 - 2×6x11″
• 2 - 2×6x11″ (can be slightly shorter in length)

and to hold it all together:

• 1 - 3/4″ steel rod (min length of 14″)

If you’ve been mountain biking for a while you’ve probably seen it on one of the local trails: mountain bike art. Maybe it’s a gnarley looking tree that’s been decorated with discarded bike parts or even a trailhead info sign plastered with colorful stickers. We used to have a photo of a tree in Hawaii that had dozens of mountain bike wheels hanging from it like fruit, though I don’t know what happened to that photo.

Anyway, apparently the Scots think it’s perfectly normal to place more “official” art on mountain bike trails and they’re soliciting proposals for some trails in South Scotland. Seems like a great idea. For me, mountain biking is all about exploration and coming across interesting objects can only make things more exciting (though the only interesting objects I seem to come across around here are old rusty cars and household appliances).

USA Cycling has come out with the first annual national mountain bike calendar and I couldn’t be more stoked. The calendar has 53 events in 3 categories (cross-country, gravity, and ultra-endurance) and gives pro mountain bikers the chance to earn points toward an overall title to be awarded at the end of the season. I’m kinda surprised nothing like this existed before but it really adds excitement to the race season and helps get people pumped for local races.

If you plan on participating in one of the 53 events you can look forward to excellent event management and quality events (at least according to USA Cycling). This is definitely a step in the right direction, event consistency is an issue mountain bike racers face in choosing races.

The cross country races include the Sea Otter Classic along with other notable races like the Snowshoe MTB Festival in West Virginia. Cross country races are given category ratings (large races like Sea Otter and Snowshoe are category-1) from 1 to 4 and points are awarded accordingly. The category 1 and 2 events also offer UCI points which will be used to determine the number of start positions the US receives at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Who knows where all this will lead but it definitely seems like a good start in adding to the excitement around mountain bike events. See you at the start line!

Whoa, how have I not seen these before? Sweetskinz has been around a couple years (actually since 1999 according to the website) with these gnarley mountain bike tires in all kinds of crazy patterns - plus they glow in the dark! They even have multiple tread patterns for each design so you can trick out your cruiser and your mountain bike alike. Very cool website, definitely worth checking out.

Leah and I drove out to Lake Norman State Park just outside Statesville, NC on Saturday to check out the mountain bike trails there. The Itusi trails had been on Leah’s singletracks wishlist for some time and we decided driving up to Blacksburg or Damascus would just be too far for the day. The forecast for the day was 74 degrees (in January!) so we were stoked to hit the trails.

At the trail we saw at least a dozen cars or so and a number of people gearing up to hit the trails. There were mountain bikers of all sorts - from the guys wearing jeans and sweatshirts to the dudes in spandex and pro jerseys. There were men and women at the trailhead and we even saw grey hairs riding with 10-year old kids. Truly an eclectic mix of riders that makes riding in the southeast so interesting.

The Itusi trails are broken up into a main loop with 2 shorter loops branching off at various points. The trails are designated for one way travel and we were a bit confused about where to start since the only trail we could see was marked “Do Not Enter.” We quickly realized the trail started across the road and we were off.

The first quarter mile or so is on a fire road but that quickly gives way to some smooth, fast singletrack. We were very surprised at the overall smoothness of the trails and the lack of rocks and roots to slow things down. There were some nice spots to get a little air on the trail and none of the climbs or descents were too steep. Trail distances were marked every half mile and the loops were very well marked and easy to follow. We didn’t see too many of the riders from the parking lot but that’s probably because the trail is mostly “one way.” This seems like a great way to manage a trail: people can ride fast without worrying about collisions, you won’t see as many people, and the trail is easy to follow. My only suggestion would be to alternate directions from day to day for local riders who tire of riding the same direction.

We rode the entire 7 miles or so of trail in around 45 minutes and having driven 2 hours to get there we were ready for more. We jumped back on the trail and did another, shorter 4 mile loop before we had our fill. After that it was off to Statesville for lunch and then back to Durham.

The Itusi trails at Lake Norman State Park are great for riders of all abilities. Work is continuing on a new phase of trails that promises to add another 6 miles or so to the existing network and we can’t wait.

It looks like IMBA is organizing mountain bikers for the 2007 League of American Bicyclists’ National Bike Summit to be held in Washington, DC in March. To be honest I’m not a card carrying IMBA member but I really respect alot of what they do. In particular, I’ve never ridden an IMBA-designed mountain bike trail that I didn’t enjoy.

We were really stoked to hear that IMBA was in the area recently to help with the new trails being built at Briar Chapel. You can usually tell an “IMBA trail” from its fast/banked turns, the switchback climbs, and the overall lack of erosion the trail seems to have.

Anyway, IMBA is great and they definitely have a good website if you haven’t checked it out yet. They have an official list of “epic certified” rides and trail building tips, plus they offer great opportunities to hook up with local mountain bike riders in your area.

I recently read about a new mountain bike helmet cam from Twenty 20 camera that looks pretty rad. Apparently it’s just an image sensor, to actually record your rides you’ll need a video recorder or camcorder of some sort but it looks sweet nonetheless. They even have some sample videos posted that look ok, though I’ve certainly seen better image quality from other cameras.

All this reminds me of my feeble initial attempts to capture the excitement and adrenaline rush associated with mountain biking. My first attempt involved a sling I rigged up for my 8mm Sony Handycam in the late 1990s as I rode one of my favorite sections at the world famous Chapel Hill High School trails in North Carolina. The results from my experiment were nothing short of spectacular and if you haven’t seen the movie you can do so here: mountain bike disaster. Needless to say I needed another solution.

Fast forward a couple years and change locations to Colorado Springs, CO. By this time I had upgraded to a newer camera and so my 8mm Handycam was essentially more “disposable” for my next attempt. This time I recognized the need for a more hands-free experience so I decided to mount the entire camera (weight: 1-2 pounds) to an old bike helmet I had in the closet. I chose my favorite Colorado Springs trail, Palmer Park, for this episode and went out with a group of friends. I rode a couple miles without incident, though the heavy camera on my head definitely left me with a bit of neck pain.

When I got home I was excited to see how the filming turned out, especially since I put on some gnarly moves out at the trail. Much to my disappointment, however, the resulting video was focused entirely on the ground directly beneath my front wheel. Apparently the angle of the camera was way off and I didn’t have the heart to try again. Lesson learned, I think I’ll leave the mountain bike filming to the You Tube crowd of 2007.

I’ve been meaning to share this photo for some time now but never had a good place to do it. Singletracks is, after all, a mountain biking website and most people here just aren’t interested in roadie stuff. But now that Lance is was going to race mountain bikes, I feel somewhat justified. Floyd, on the other hand, started out on mountain bikes long ago so I guess he’s a bit more legit to some folks.

Anyway, this photo was shot at the Tour de Georgia in April 2005. This was just before Lance’s final Tour and believe it or not, he did not end up winning the Tour de Georgia (despite finishing first on the mountain stage pictured here). My little bro John somehow snapped this awesome photo as the guys were pushing up the hill, pretty impressive given the speed these guys were moving.

Leah was shopping for some crazy mountain bike socks for my Christmas present (I like to wear them with casual clothing) but had a hard time finding socks that were crazy enough. She tried REI and when she asked the guy where the “crazy” bike socks were he told her, “This is a family store, we don’t really carry that kind of stuff” (no embellishment required, that’s verbatim what he said).

She also went to Performance and all the socks they had were mostly black, white, and grey. She was able to snag a couple pairs of solid colored Performance brand socks (red and blue) but was otherwise disappointed. All this makes me wonder: Did something happen to Sock Guy? Is he recovering from a serious cycling-related injury? Are his sock-making elves on strike?

An alternative explanation is, of course, that I am horribly out of touch with the current style in bicycle-related clothing. I mean, is it possible the socks I have with chickens on them that say ‘Ya Chicken!’ on the bottoms are no longer de rigeur? Is neon-orange passe? Personally I’m disappointed. Mountain bikers are not known to be conformists in their recreation choices so it’s unfair to expect them to make conservative footwear fashion choices. I say bring back the Sock Guy and his flair for the unconventional - I have an idea for some aligator themed socks I’m dying to tell him about…