Trails- GPS Tracker for iPhone

Trails- GPS Tracker is an iPhone/iPod Touch app’ that improves upon the unit’s built-in “Maps” GPS programme. After bashing around Eagle Mountain searching for trails and attempting (unsuccessfully) to log my route using Maps, I was looking for something slightly more capable without the cost of a full blown Garmin style unit. Cost? How does $3.99 for Trails-GPS Tracker sound? But does it work…

With no desire to repeat the 4.5 hour death march of my last upper-Eagle expedition, I chose to ride from the top of Plateau Drive rather than from home. The software interface, although slightly cumbersome at first, is deceptively easy to use. Add a new “track”, name it, and well, start riding. Trails- GPS Tracker plots your route with numerous trackpoints and the resolution (number of trackpoints) is adjustable via the “settings” screen. At any point in your journey you can mark waypoints with descriptions and photos (a junction or trail head for example).

I was looking for the ability to review a route post-ride and either compare it to previous routes or download and overlay it on mapping software. This does both, with the capability to review your route as you’re riding (say if you find a trail entrance/exit and want to compare it to where you’ve been) and to download or email files and open them in Google Earth.

The secondary feature (to me at least) is the recording of distance, time, average speed and elevation gain/loss. If nothing else this can be useful when planning future rides. About 90 minutes into my ride discovered yet another gem with this software: what ever database it pulls maps from already contains numerous trails, including many clandestine ones. When I stopped to review my progress the trail head I thought I’d have to search intensely for was already marked in Trails-GPS Tracker’s map, along with several other local riding trails.

Down sides? You can’t switch out of Trails’ screen without pausing the recording, although once reopened you can continue where you left off. Because of this I’m also not sure if you can listen to music while Trails is running. It’s pretty tough to find fault in a $4 program that works this well.

Unless you have a Garmin or don’t have an iPhone/iTouch I can’t really think of any reason not to download this!

Jonathan

Maxxis Tires on Sale

All Maxxis Ardent tires are on sale, regular $110, priced on sale for $59.99! This includes 2.4 and 2.6 sizing, as well as 60a and 3C compounds. This only includes the DH casing tires. Get 'em while their hot!

-Scott

Provincial Cyclocross Championships- North Vancouver!

How exciting, the Provincial Cyclocross Championships right here in North Vancouver! Check out the schedule and try and make it out to race or spectate. The course was designed by none other than Kevin Calhoun local racer and superstar athlete.

-kimbo

Welcome back Kotter....err, Parsons!

I’m stoked to be back riding and racing with the Steed Cycles squad again. After moving to Kamloops in 2005, then my wife and I had triplets soon after, racing bikes was the least of my concerns. Getting out for a short ride every other week was all I could manage.

I have been involved within the bike scene in Kamloops for a few years now, mainly co-organizing various events in town and at Sun Peaks. We put on a BC Cup race every year called Race the Ranch, which is held within Kamloops’ public bike park, the Bike Ranch. Our races range from a two and a half minute downhill, to a 6km cross country race. We have also done a Canada Cup XC race as well in sweltering 40 degree Kamloops heat. Our small team of race organizers have hosted the Cyclocross Nationals in 2007 right next to downtown Kamloops. Plus, we have done several BC Cups and Canada Cups at Sun Peaks over the past few years.

Now that family life is getting easier, I am able to get out on my bike a little more, but more importantly I am focussing most of my spare time on building and maintaining trails at the Bike Ranch. Earlier in 2009 myself and my race partner Henry Pejril, put in a proposal to take over operations at the Ranch with myself as the manager.

The city of Kamloops has been a pleasure to work with. Kamloops has the “Tournament Capital of Canada” status, so that means competition and training facilities are what the city wants to see. We are transforming a recreational bike park into a training center with the focus being racing and coaching. Of course not forgetting about recreational (non-racers) users and the trails that keep them coming back. I am busy building new trails and maintaining what is already there, like a new beginner/intermediate freeride trail called Rattlesnake which features smooth flowing lines and small, low consequence log rides. In addition to our regular DH race run, Tombstone, I am currently putting together a new more challenging DH course called Pale Rider. It will feature higher speed, bigger jumps, tables, step ups/downs, gaps, steep rock faces, and more technicality. Tombstone is the easier of the two and will stay that way, but many changes are planned for its reconstruction. Both courses share the same start/finish.

Huge rock garden on Pale Rider

The challenge for the past few years has been building trails on a glacial silt bed. Unless you have water on the trails most of the time, the silt simply cannot handle large amounts of traffic. Fortunately/unfortunately our last RTR saw 340 downhill racers. Second best attendance to date of any BC Cup… ever! Multiply 340 racers with an average of 10-15 runs each: that’s anywhere from 3400-5100 runs! My point? Now I can get heavy equipment in to 90% of the park, and along with my truck, I can bring in rock, wood, and better dirt to help armour the silt a little better. That’s the major challenge right now, building sustainable trails that can handle large amounts of traffic.

Unfinished road gap with trail up top

Snowy landing of the road gap, followed by a SmartCar sized rock,
a wedge jump, a gap, and more booters out of frame.
Looks better without snow.

My goal is to place permanent Freelap timing systems into the ground so anyone with a Freelap watch timer can time themselves at anytime. This is crucial if we are wanting people to train in the park. Considering that both downhill courses have the same start/finish areas, racers can time themselves on two different courses.

Old Downhill course, new section

We have many exciting plans for the near future. They include a World class dual slalom course, a revised UCI bmx track, a UCI cyclocross track, a slopestyle course, a pump track, an elevated Shore style freeride trail, a multi-use cross country climb, and an A-Line style jump trail but slightly smaller.

Thanks to Kimbo for helping out this salty old dog! I will keep updates about the Bike Ranch and some riding and racing in the Kamloops area. Keep checking back.

No rocks to be found, so you bring in your own!
More rocks with man-made roots.

Have Faith

The new 2010 Giant Faith was just built up for the floor. The Faith is a 7 x 7 free ride bike designed with the help of Giant Team rider Kurt Sorge. Kurt put this bike through its prototype paces in the Red Bull Rampage evolution to prove the bike's freeride capabilities. This bike is light, pedals very, and has more pop than a Wal-Mart Super Center. $3359.99 for this beauty, and $4599.99 for the Faith 0.

-Scott

Shimmy Shimmy Ya or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying About Having an Aneurism and Love Eagle Mountain

If you’ve spoken with me in the past few weeks you’ve probably heard me obsessing over finding trails on Eagle Mountain in Coquitlam. I was primarily interested because I love new trails but also because I live in the shadow of both Burke and Eagle Mountains. This minor interest in Eagle was transformed into a full blown fixation after watching a YouTube helmet cam video of several Eagle Mountain trails. After considerable research I had slightly more than a vague idea of how to access them, but all the written descriptions and Google Earth views had the potential to mean nothing when you’re standing in the middle of a non-descript logging road hunting for trail entrances.

When my riding partner backed out of the day’s plans, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to exploit a dry day and do some exploring on the Nomad. The first half of the accent was, well, nothing noteworthy. A long, paved grind from home to the top of Westwood Plateau is the Tri Cities equivalent of riding from The Shop to the top of the BP’s. From there the climb got properly hard; I normally interpret “hike a bike” in a climb description as “hike a bike if you don’t have a granny ring”… this however was about two kilometers of “ride 15 meters, hike 15 meters” up a loose, steep logging road. Two hours into my adventure I’d found nothing but the remains of a long extinct trail and was thinking that any trails had better be built with gold flagstones and teak ladders in order to be worth this climb.

And then… REWARD! Well, partly. I found the bottom of an amazing trail: phenomenal lines, structures built by Mike Holmes including drops and wall rides. It crossed the logging road and continued down, but I was determined more than ever to find the entrance even if it meant more uphill slogging. The road relented slightly (90% riding, 10% hiking) and after another 30 minutes I was there! Welllllll, not at the top of the aforementioned trail but at the top of another trail from the YouTube montage: Massage Therapy.

Oh baby I like it raw, and this was raw. Steep, steep, steep and fun! Being alone and tired I avoided some of the bigger stunts but damn, this trail just kept giving. What could top that? How about the second trail: Manhandler… incredible flow and incredible structures. Whereas Massage Therapy was a minor dose of posterior puckering, Manhandler was continuous “yeah, oh yeah, YEAH, oooooo, that was sweet, YEAH….”. Everything was so new, so loamy and steep, so well built… so raw.

This 2.5 turned 4.5 hour ride ended with Eagle Trail down from the powerlines to Bunzen Lake; no Manhandler but still an awesome trail. With my bloodsugar on “E” and my hydration pack dry I managed the 40 minute ride home buzzing about my new find and keen for some further exploration. More raw more better!

Jonathan

Remembrance Day Staff Ride

It was looking like we lucked out for our ride as the skies above showed signs of blue. We started riding from the Superstore on Mt. Seymour Parkway with 12 riders and met one other at the trail head. We were on a mission ourselves this remembrance day.

We gathered most of the staff, since we hardly ever get to ride together. Especially when its fall and the days are short. Today was looking good.

Out with the old, and in with the new. Jeff Bartel brought his Blur LT, which he has been looking to trade in for a new Blur LT Carbon and DOD is finally on a new ride! This was the blue Reign X1 with a couple trick extras, with more in the plans. Its currently sitting at 33.1 lbs size large!

We had Sean that used to work at the shop show up for the ride. He still swears his Nomad is the best bike that exists. Sean's always up for a ride.

Nik showed up as well which was awesome! It was good to see so many people come out for the ride. Little did they know the weather was soon to turn.

It was a typical foggy North Shore day when in the woods. DOD and Cody's faces explain how everyone felt after this gruelling climb up to the trails. Not too long after getting into the trails it started hailing. Combined with the wet trails we were a mess in no time.

Wet and rooty North Shore was on the menu today. With the right gear on, a rainy day can feel like any other. I kept warm in my Shimano MW80 Gore-tex boots. Sean is pictured here headed towards the wet roots. Before we headed into this trail Tristan and I saw a Bugatti Veyron tearing up the asphalt! This is a super rare $1.5 million car, with 1001 horsepower! I had never seen one in person before.

Branden coming into the same section, also on his nomad. Nomad's were plenty today, with 5 us choosing to ride them. It's amazing on a ride like this to see how the nomad is such a great all around performer.

DOD was loving his new 2010 Reign X1. At 33.1 lb. this bike was 4 pounds lighter than his old SX trail, which I heard him praising when climbing the hills. I heard him say how much he liked the bike many times during out ride. You can see him lovin' it here.

I had my turn down the greenery. What an awesome section of trail, I've got to say. Bright green moss, and ferns lining the dark root strewn trail. Great times! The North Shore in the fall can't get much better.

Not long after this section of trail we were on our way to the coffee shop. We gulped down the warmth of our Bean Around the World coffee, which I topped off with a tempting iced cinnamon bun.

After the coffee and filler, some of the group were on their way to the rest of their Remembrance Day. Steve, DOD, and I were off for another lap. We rode up for more fun, but it was not all fun and games before the day was done. Steve had his derailleur hanger brake. Lucky for him he had a trusty spare. Later on I had my chain brake for the second time that day, and the fourth time since I got my bike! I was so choked. I ended up riding chainless the rest of the trail and taking a page out of Kimbo's book with some cyclocross style dis-mounts and re-mounts.

At the end of the ride we had been out for 5 hours, I broke my chain twice, Steve broke his derailleur hanger, we had 13 people riding, we rode 3 major trail, were covered from head to toe in mud, and had a great time! Thanks to everyone for coming out for the ride, I was one to remember.

-Scott

Electra-fy your riding!

Hitting 80 kmph on the road bike, shooting a granly rock line, or schralping a loamy corner are all fun things to do on a bike but you can still have a great time just cruising along on a comfy cruiser bike. Electra is a new brand for the store this year. We just received a shipment of their bikes and have been trying to build them up to show-off as soon as possible. The bikes pictured above (from left to right) are a men's Townie Euro 24 (24 gears), and ladie's Townie Euro 24 (24 gears), and Delivery Cruiser. There are a large range of great bikes that are just a good time! Bikes like their Ticino range show great attention to detail. Ask to ttake of of these bikes for a spin, and try not to come back with a huge smile. The Electra bikes are all about a good time riding your bike!

-Scott

Muddbunnies 2010 Calenders a Great Gift Idea

The Muddbunnies are a local women's riding group on the North Shore. They have assembled a calender which they have done for the past few years as a fundraiser for their riding club. The lovely ladies from the riding group have posed as pinnup girls for 2010. The calender shows the women both riding as striking a sexy pose. These girls have some serious talent on the bike. I was really impressed with a lot of their photos.
You can pick-up a calender, and support the Muddbunnies riding group, from the store for $19.99. Calenders make for a great gifts for the holidays!

-Scott

Nomad- First Ride

This morning was my maiden voyage on my new Santa Cruz Nomad. This isn't going to be a review about how the "new carbon link stiffens the rear end by 12% blah blah blah" but rather why I picked a Nomad and what I love about it.
Although this is my first Nomad, I've ridden them before and always been impressed. The most recent experience was a week on Kimbo's 2010 Nomad while he was in Vegas, where I rode the bike everywhere I would normally ride to fully evaluate if it was the right bike for me. I was looking for an "all in one" bike to replace my 5 n' 5 rig from another manufacturer, and although I feel the term "all in one" or "do it all" is used to a fault in bike marketing, the Nomad is it for me. I don't race anymore, so weight wasn't a huge issue and I wanted an all mountain rig that I could use anywhere. That said, there wasn't much I couldn't ride on my 5X5, but some of the steeper stuff took considerable concentration, finess and involved frequent sphincter contractions. Although I'm not there every weekend, I also wanted a bike I could take to Whistler in the summer. While Kimbo was away in Vegas I put his Nomad through a couple of big rides on the 'Shore including all the climbing, a day at SFU and a full day at Whistler Bike Park. It performed amazingly well and before Kimbo was through customs I was ordering one for myself. Lets be clear: the Nomad does not climb like a Superlight with a SID, nor is it a full DH race bike like a V10, but it covers both climbing and descending remarkably well. When looking for an all-in-one for my stable, I was fine with erring on the side of big and plush. I have the fitness to ride almost anything uphill, and a bigger bike would give me a needed confidence boost on the steeps and drops. The best way to describe the Nomad's ride is smooth and effortless; you don't think about its weight or slacker angles while climbing and descending is more flowing that with any bike I've owned. It's not that I can ride sections I couldn't before, but now I just cruise over and through them without clenching, without hesitating and all with a huge smile.
Here are some details about my new ride and things you might consider. It's actually amazing how the bike's personality can be adjusted with some savvy fork, shock and parts selection. Kimbo's Nomad is fairly freeride oriented with a RockShox Totem Coil and Fox DHX Coil shock. I LOVED the fork (and the shock for that matter), but to all-mountain my bike slightly (read:lighten) I chose the Fox DHX Air shock and RS Totem Solo Air fork. To be honest, are you really going to notice the difference in weight between the Totem Air and Coil? Probably not, but I had the choice. I ordered my rig with the SRAM X9 kit, which was the right balance of slick parts and affordability. If this were my ONLY toy I might have considered the XO kit or even XTR but the garage has some other goodies that require funds. As for changes when I received the bike, I ditched the big chainring for a TruVativ bash guard (really the only thing I ever use a big chainring for anyway), bolted up a Blackspire Stinger chain guide, swapped the wider WTB Stealth saddle for a skinny Silverado model and upgraded the bars to a nice, 780mm wide TruVativ BooBar. Coming from a road and track background I've always ridden narrow bars and was hesitant to go wider, but a week with Kimbo's Chromag wide bars changed my mind forever: hello power and control!! The final duplication from Kim's ride was Shimano 647 freeride pedals. Again I've always ridden walnut-size SPD's but the 647's just have so much more platform and feel great both when your foot rolls to the side and when you don't quite click in but need the pedal NOW.

This morning's ride on Burnaby Mountain met and surpassed all expectations of my new bike. I know it's not exactly a 'proving ground' for a bike like Nomad, but it 1) let me objectively evaluate the bike because I ride there all the time and 2) let me test my ankle after 5 weeks of immobilization following a double break and severe sprain. The bike climbed amazingly and only took a slight change in technique over steep obstacles because of the slacker front end. On the descents... DAAAAAMN this thing is smooth. Even in wet, slippery conditions I was able to fly over terrain and the few bigger drops I normally creep and roll I was able to just loft off of. In spite of not going into details about the bike's new 1.5" headtube etc., hopefully this might make you think the Nomad is the "all in one" bike for you.

-Jonathan