Until then, happy trails!
 |
| Fuzzy because I still don't have camera batteries. |
Monday, August 30, 2010
Magic Shine
I'm extremely excited because my Magicshine GMG Special 900 Plus trail light arrived from Geomangear.com. This is a 900 lumen (rated) Li-ion trail light that will allow me to mountain bike at night, one of the favorite past-times of the Don Rats. This is the first trail light I've ever used, and I'll post a full review of it in a week or so, once I have a couple of rides on it.
Until then, happy trails!
Until then, happy trails!
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Mountain Biker Statistics *A rant
I spent about an hour today reading a survey done by the Corporate Research Associates for Parks Canada that profiles mountain bikers. Now I've learned that I am a token "frequent" mountain biker (25+ rides per year)
Let's see:
"Overall, US mountain bikers tend to be younger, male, and white, and with than average levels of income"
Not only do I fall into all those categories (except income levels), but also so does pretty much everyone else with whom I ride. According to the report, these trends apply pretty much everywhere around the world.
This got me thinking (it's scary, but it happens sometimes): I don't believe that other outdoor activities have the same demographic breakdown; so what have we done to exclude people in the past, and what can we do to attract a more diverse group of people to our sport?
The first problems is the gear involved with riding is blown out of proportion. As much as I love reading mountain bike magazines, there's never tests of $500 bikes, or really even $500 frames. Everything is the top-of-the-line equipment that only appeals to frequent riders who are able or willing to drop ridiculous amounts on their bikes. Do you really need a $2500 + bike to enjoy riding mountains? No. Hell no. I started riding on a $300 Giant and only spent more on a ride after years of enjoying the mountains. People need to try and promote biking on any safe equipment, not just the cool-looking stuff.
Besides that, as much activism happens through IMBA and more local groups, our outreach tends to be limited to trail building and access politics. What about bringing others into the world of mountain biking? We yell and scream about letting us build and ride areas, but maybe we should also focus on bringing people who may not have been interested into the sport. The beginner groups I've seen around seem to focus on those who already have decided to bike, but maybe we ought to try and find ways to bring people who otherwise would not have tried it out. Granted, do I have any suggestions for how? Not really.
Finally, and most importantly, what about women in the sport? On the last ride with my recently-discovered all-male DonRats, I overheard one fellow saying that some past rider "was the only girl to stick with us for an entire Thursday ride." There are some wicked mountain biking girls out there, but for the most part, there are a lot of dudes on bikes. Then I started to notice certain things, for instance on bonktown.com (an outlet for road biking gear) they advertised a tire pump as "The Dual X Pro features a high volume / high pressure switch, so you can fill up your tire with fewer strokes and get it up to pressure with ease." The same pump on chainlove.com was described as "getting you from flaccid to hard with minimal stroking." Fine, I found it funny, but that kind of humor is rampant in the mountain bike world. I don't know if that humor turns women away from mountains, or even if it's a symptom of the amount of testosterone in mountain biking rather than a cause. And I don't want it to stop, but maybe if we toned it down we might not turn away some potential girl riders...
The point of the whole rant is that I would like to see more people on mountain bikes, and there are some obvious actions we could take to attract others. Perhaps I should start being part of the solution before I open my mouth and criticize, but hey, this is my blog, so I get to say whatever I want...
Let's see:
"Overall, US mountain bikers tend to be younger, male, and white, and with than average levels of income"
Not only do I fall into all those categories (except income levels), but also so does pretty much everyone else with whom I ride. According to the report, these trends apply pretty much everywhere around the world.
This got me thinking (it's scary, but it happens sometimes): I don't believe that other outdoor activities have the same demographic breakdown; so what have we done to exclude people in the past, and what can we do to attract a more diverse group of people to our sport?
The first problems is the gear involved with riding is blown out of proportion. As much as I love reading mountain bike magazines, there's never tests of $500 bikes, or really even $500 frames. Everything is the top-of-the-line equipment that only appeals to frequent riders who are able or willing to drop ridiculous amounts on their bikes. Do you really need a $2500 + bike to enjoy riding mountains? No. Hell no. I started riding on a $300 Giant and only spent more on a ride after years of enjoying the mountains. People need to try and promote biking on any safe equipment, not just the cool-looking stuff.
Besides that, as much activism happens through IMBA and more local groups, our outreach tends to be limited to trail building and access politics. What about bringing others into the world of mountain biking? We yell and scream about letting us build and ride areas, but maybe we should also focus on bringing people who may not have been interested into the sport. The beginner groups I've seen around seem to focus on those who already have decided to bike, but maybe we ought to try and find ways to bring people who otherwise would not have tried it out. Granted, do I have any suggestions for how? Not really.
Finally, and most importantly, what about women in the sport? On the last ride with my recently-discovered all-male DonRats, I overheard one fellow saying that some past rider "was the only girl to stick with us for an entire Thursday ride." There are some wicked mountain biking girls out there, but for the most part, there are a lot of dudes on bikes. Then I started to notice certain things, for instance on bonktown.com (an outlet for road biking gear) they advertised a tire pump as "The Dual X Pro features a high volume / high pressure switch, so you can fill up your tire with fewer strokes and get it up to pressure with ease." The same pump on chainlove.com was described as "getting you from flaccid to hard with minimal stroking." Fine, I found it funny, but that kind of humor is rampant in the mountain bike world. I don't know if that humor turns women away from mountains, or even if it's a symptom of the amount of testosterone in mountain biking rather than a cause. And I don't want it to stop, but maybe if we toned it down we might not turn away some potential girl riders...
The point of the whole rant is that I would like to see more people on mountain bikes, and there are some obvious actions we could take to attract others. Perhaps I should start being part of the solution before I open my mouth and criticize, but hey, this is my blog, so I get to say whatever I want...
Monday, August 23, 2010
Levi's Legs
"And if you have ever wondered why you are not as fast as [Levi Leipheimer] is… take a look at those legs.**"
Truer words have never been spoken. Thanks Grizzly.
From this article by Grizzly Adams on his site Epic Riding
 |
**You know you’re a cyclist when you check out the legs of other guys. |
Truer words have never been spoken. Thanks Grizzly.
From this article by Grizzly Adams on his site Epic Riding
Friday, August 20, 2010
The Don Rats
Ride with the Don Rats take 2: incredible. More trails I had never seen or accessed before, night riding (without lights, yikes), beers and good conversation. What more could a man want for an evening? Unfortunately, my camera is still lacking in batteries, so I didn't get any cool pictures, but hopefully I'll make a trip through the don this weekend to get photographic evidence of these awesome trails.
At the beginning of the ride, I asked why there were no published maps of the extended trail system. The de facto leader of the crew, Tim, gave me a roundabout answer that basically amounted to: because we don't want to. As I rode more of their unmarked trails, I began to really understand. The main trail system has been coopted by the city to be a family-friendly walking space or has been washed out by the number of riders who go through every day. These guys have put years of work into their trail building and basically say "anyone who can discover these trails by themselves deserves to ride them. Mountain biker elitism? Perhaps. But the perfection of their work (or what I could see around my front wheel) justified their secrecy.
Anyway, here are a couple more pictures, one from the ride on Tuesday and on of my legs post-ride. Hopefully, I'll have a chance to ride through again this weekend during daylight and snap a couple of pictures.
 | |
| An accurate depiction of riding at night without a light |
At the beginning of the ride, I asked why there were no published maps of the extended trail system. The de facto leader of the crew, Tim, gave me a roundabout answer that basically amounted to: because we don't want to. As I rode more of their unmarked trails, I began to really understand. The main trail system has been coopted by the city to be a family-friendly walking space or has been washed out by the number of riders who go through every day. These guys have put years of work into their trail building and basically say "anyone who can discover these trails by themselves deserves to ride them. Mountain biker elitism? Perhaps. But the perfection of their work (or what I could see around my front wheel) justified their secrecy.
Anyway, here are a couple more pictures, one from the ride on Tuesday and on of my legs post-ride. Hopefully, I'll have a chance to ride through again this weekend during daylight and snap a couple of pictures.
 |
| Tuesday's group |
 | |
| You can't tell, but my right leg literally doesn't have any skin showing beneath all the mud. |
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Torba and Life Cycle
I met the riders from TORBA (Toronto Off-Road Biking Association) AKA the guys who build and ride the Don Valley Trails AKA The Don Rats. I stumbled upon them quite by accident while taking a ride I almost didn't do (due mostly to laziness on my part). They let me join their group and led me to all new trails I had never known existed. Needless to say, I did not have time to snap a picture, but one of them did, and I hope I'll be able to find a copy somewhere. Color me super stoked to ride with them again!
In other news, my front wheel goes more and more out of true as I attempt to stave off a true for another day. One of these days at Bike Sauce (Volunteer shop) I'll just stop working on their bikes an hour early and tension/true these el cheapo badboys properly. Until then, I guess I should resist working on jumping gaps and hitting (small) drops.
Also, I recently came across this teaser for life cycles, a new mountain bike film coming out in October. Let's just say I'm excited for it, if the film look as good as the teaser, I might actually have a replacement for The Collective's Roam.
In other news, my front wheel goes more and more out of true as I attempt to stave off a true for another day. One of these days at Bike Sauce (Volunteer shop) I'll just stop working on their bikes an hour early and tension/true these el cheapo badboys properly. Until then, I guess I should resist working on jumping gaps and hitting (small) drops.
Also, I recently came across this teaser for life cycles, a new mountain bike film coming out in October. Let's just say I'm excited for it, if the film look as good as the teaser, I might actually have a replacement for The Collective's Roam.
Monday, August 16, 2010
Ladder Bridges and Triathlons
Figures: I've managed to conquer some of my fear of ladder bridges and skinnies. However, when I wanted to take some pictures to post here, my camera decided to kill its batteries. Oh well, pictures soon.
On another note, I ran my first tri 2 days ago, which was much more fun than I imagined. I definitely want to do these again, maybe a bit longer distance (this was a try-a-tri - 400m swim, 10k bike, 2.5k run.) I placed 148 of 348 finishers with an unremarkable run and rather dismal swim. However, I made up a bunch of time in the bike portion (big surprise) with an average speed of 34 kph, 14th overall! It might be possible to do one more this year in the fall (uh oh, wetsuit time) but either way, I'm going to continue training over winter and hopefully improve my performance next year.
On another note, I ran my first tri 2 days ago, which was much more fun than I imagined. I definitely want to do these again, maybe a bit longer distance (this was a try-a-tri - 400m swim, 10k bike, 2.5k run.) I placed 148 of 348 finishers with an unremarkable run and rather dismal swim. However, I made up a bunch of time in the bike portion (big surprise) with an average speed of 34 kph, 14th overall! It might be possible to do one more this year in the fall (uh oh, wetsuit time) but either way, I'm going to continue training over winter and hopefully improve my performance next year.
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