custom… made from a hurley rash-guard for surfing…
Just a quick ride up the Chevin, a local loop.
When it is dry, I can ride all the downhill, and much of the uphill without falling off.
Today it was wet, and I sucked. The trail has also narrowed massively as the summer undergrowth is here (one bit is now about 6 inches wide, where it used to be 3 feet wide), oh and the roots and rocks are super slippy. These things combined to mean I had 8 upds, one of which was caused by the rocks pictured. I am trying to take pictures of the places of all my UPDs - my ride gps track has the first 5, for some reason pictures 6-8 didn’t upload.
Joe
Pictures of where you UPD? Now I know the difference between us, I try and take pictures of places I don’t UPD, much rarer. I couldn’t afford enough camera memory if I did it your way:D
Out AND ABOUT
Just out for a little muni on tuesday night
nice pictures! Thanks for putting them up for us!
Last week-end’s ride, on the Kettle Valley Railway, between Myra station and Penticton. We did 90km over 2.5 days, most of it being very sandy.
Hey, I’m going there in 3 weeks! We want to do the Myra canyon loop. Did you do that one? How safe / dangerous is it for a uni vs a mtn bike? My wife would prefer I did it on my bike but I think it would be fun to uni it…
-M
Not sure what you mean by loop, but we went through Myra canyon, which is about 11km long. The trail there is well groomed, hard-packed with a bit of gravel, and is pretty wide (about a car and a half wide, the first 2 pictures above being from the canyon itself, but there is a pretty steep drop-off on the side). The trestles now all have guard rails on the side (as seen in the 3rd picture, although this particular one is outside the canyon itself), so it’s safe to ride on, as long as you can ride a 1meter wide “skinny” (although I suggest to walk a few of them at least, or else you can’t really look at the view!). I never felt in danger while on the uni, so as long as you can ride fairly straight, and you got a tire that can handle a bit of gravel, you should be fine.
The trails outside of the canyon itself are more difficult to handle, like the access roads, which are steep, very dusty, and washboardy (we had someone drive us to the entrance of the park). The KVR trail also gets very sandy as soon as you exit the canyon, but inside the park is great. I’ve got more photos at http://www.marcoz.org/gallery/2009/kvr09 for more details on what it looks like. Feel free to private message me if you got questions.
Awesome, I’ll have a look at that gallery for sure! I’ll be on a 26 x 3" so it can absorb quite a bit. The trail sounds wide enough but the access roads may present some ‘comfort’ issues! 
Here’s that loop marked by green dots, it’s about 24Kms around. Alternatively we may just do the trestles - there and back at only 12 kms.
-M
That’s a nice loop. Both access roads in and out of the canyon are fairly steep, but should be doable if you’re a good climber/descender. At worst, you get to walk for a few kilometers (and a uni is lighter to walk up than a bike!).
Went for about a 7-mile ride on July 4th on a neat trail system in Corinth, TX. Don’t let the smile fool you, the heat index was over 100 F. It was brutal. I lasted only about an hour and a half, and drank two litres of water.
Interesting paint job, SqueakyOnion.
Below, a couple pics from a 13 mile ride where Rolandisimo & I climbed a few miles of road to a high pt near us called “Pinnacle”, a net gain of 1400 ft or so (I was NOT loving my 29/137s here - the final hill is over 20% grade). Then we thrashed our way through unmarked ATV tracks over to the next ridge and took singletrack down, down and finally back to the bottom on roads. Pics: a cool accidental shot of Ro clearing a birch log, and looking down a looong grassy hill - I was loving my 29/137s here, even though my brake broke earlier in the ride.
I was thinking the same. Reminds me of the classic “barber’s pole” as used by Mercian and others (I won’t post a pic of my bike here)
I keep thinking about doing something similar to my manky old coker frame, but haven’t got round to it yet.
Rob
Thanks, guys. It’s a regular Nimbus 29" that I sandpapered and then primed and spray-painted. Took almost a week to put on enough coats and let them dry sufficiently. Never even removed the chrome, and it’s still looking pretty good over a year later. A few chips from the frame hitting rocks, but overall not bad.
Steveyo, were you able to get up the 20% grade without dismounting? I can’t manage that kind of steepness (on dirt) with my 29/167s or my 24/150s. I blame it on age, gender, and genetics. I need some kind of excuse!
Firstly, that is a steep ROAD section, so not dirt.
I have made the hill to the top several times, but this time I did not make it quite to the top. I was lame, and I had a ready excuse: “Ah, my cranks are too short” (spoken in a whiney voice). Even with the 137s it’s doable, but I failed that day.
Roland cruised it on his 29/150s.
Today’s Muni ride!
Hello! Today I did a nice long-ish(for a 24") XC ride in Gatineau Park. I would say it was a 10/15 Km ride. There was some pretty muddy spots because it rained an hour before. But it was fun, and now I want a 29er to got there again. I took a couple of pictures when I came back from Pink Lake, so here they are.
- At Pink lake.
- A giant incredible tree, that is called “The amazing tree”.
- The big bunch of dead trees…
^ The “amazing tree” looks like it would be great for climbing 
Or for a tree house:P Thanks, I’ve been there 2 years ago with a MTB summer camp, and yesterday I had the idea of going there on my Muni:P I’ll return again next week probably.