RIDE

After last weeks hot race I think you all need a nice ride in Mont Alto. I'm going away so you all have a nice ride. Ride time 9am. Congrats to all who did the race.

trails workshop

click it

A horse rider sent this to me to help spread the word and get some mountain bikers involved. Looks like they're taking some trails stuff seriously, and this guy just attended a 3-day trails course at State College. Note the "Why" part specifically.

Would be smart to have some bikers and MBMers there. I'll be away that weekend/week. Weisers will be away. Time for our speedy new El Presi to make something happen? Damaged Inc? Cupcake Mafia? Never a better time and place to have horsers hear what we think, and maybe even get on the same team for some things.

If I could attend, I'd come ready with some locations that need some repair from hooves, like Trees of Tomorrow area, Upper Narrows etc?? I hope someone can make something happen out of this. How often do we get this kind of chance?

If you can't read the flier by clicking and zooming, let me know and I can e-mail it or try to paste in the text by itself.

Michaux Style

Dark Hollow

Hey, did anyone besides Larry, Steve and Travis do the Curse. If so how was it for you? I did not see anybody besides them. I found it to be rather hot at first then froze for a few minutes when it rained. Sprained my ankle at the start during the run. But I was able to finish the forty miler. Then it swelled up after the race. I could not walk on it yesterday. But it feels a lot better today. The forty was fun but tough. Wigwam sucks!

Tuesday Ride 5pm

Meeting at Long Pine reservoir. Start time 5pm.

FMFR (aka - not BOP - Happy Clownbike?)

Successful or unsuccessful attempt at the H-n-H gate? Superior Rider? I will let you decide.

Anyone interested in riding Monday evening 5:15p from the pipeline on Rattlesnake? Doing Virginia and Mackey.

Clownbike - the retarded rooster said you are not invited.

And Now for Some Good News

Or at least better news....

Forestry is hoping for final approval on the Wildcat reroute by October. At least that's the current hope and estimate.

Which means we might be able to build some new official trail in the upcoming "off season".

Whatchu think o' that?

Grave Ridge Timber Sale is Out for Bid

Ride it while it's here, people. The unstoppable timbering machine is grinding forward, trails or not.

Map o' the impending carnage:

Link to the original.

The top of the ridge is the boundary--they are logging the backside of the ridge, out of sight from rt. 233. The access road is going in across from Dead Woman Hollow. You can follow the dashed lines that are trails on the map to figure out where the haul road is overlapping the current trail. I've heard second, third, or fourth hand, that DCNR is going to re-establish the ATV trail after the logging, but it'll be surprising if it's close to the technical nature of the current trail.

Links to Prospectus and Statistics:

http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/forestry/timbersales/prospectus/01-2007BC03.pdf

http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/forestry/timbersales/prospectus/01-2007BC03stats.pdf

Tuesday ride update 5:15p

Still riding from the pipe line on Rattlesnake Run below Virginia and Mackey. Time has changed from 5p to 5:15p. The change has brought promises of Ho flying over the handlebars. Injuries not included of course.

James and Dave (a.k.a. Nancys) - maybe you can make it now that it is a little later. I know last we talked it was up in the air.

Tractor - the more the merrier just forewarn me so I am prepared for the punishment you dish out.

Gary Fissure

That's 3 frames (2 Paragons and a Rig) in less than a year. What am I doing wrong? Who's been able to ride one of these frames for more than a year? What's your secret??? I already contacted Gettysburg Bicycle about another frame. Jes and Kent have always been great about getting me a replacement frame. Thanks guys! I wonder what color I'll get this time? Will it be the manly powder blue again? Perhaps pink?

Tuesday Ride 5pm

Tuesday at 5pm Virginia and Mackey, plus whatever else we want/feel like doing
We plan to meet at the bottom of the gas line on Rattlesnake Run Rd. We may climb the pipe line or may go down the road and take the more gradual grade up. We will see.

Here is map of with the location
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=39.769558,-77.479105&daddr=&geocode=&hl=en&mra=dme&mrcr=0&mrsp=0&sz=15&sll=39.768238,-77.481422&sspn=0.023717,0.05476&ie=UTF8&ll=39.766556,-77.479792&spn=0.023487,0.038581&t=h&z=15

If you are coming from the south end of Rattlesnake Run Rd the open gas line area will be on your right. The whole road is only about 4 miles long. The gas line is about in the middle at the 2 mile mark.

Ho - if you can't make 5p let me know and we can bump it back to 5:15p or 5:30p.

Maybe if we are lucky we will see the former slayer out there.

RIDE

Big Flat. Ride time 9am. If you don't have the proper ID at the ride you'll get put on the rack.

Thurs. ride

DRW and I are riding from Birch Run to where ever Thurs. morning. Meet at the parking lot below old Birch run dam. ride time 8:30am..

Curse prerace ride

Presented by event organizers:
Sunday, July 18th at Big Flat back lot, ride time 9am.

Ride is intended for registered racers to preview the course.
There will be no support along the course during the preride.
Carry enough spares, water and food for the entire ride.

For more info click:
Race Michaux: The Curse Of Dark Hollow

Register for the July 25th race here.

They are still using Wildcat this year. Could be the last year its open.
20 mile GPS

RIDE

Sunday will be at Caledonia. Time to do secert trail. 9am ride time.

Two sweet rides on a sweet trail.

For Sale!

Brand New 26" Panaracer Rampage Tire
$35.00

Email or call if interested.
T
tjbenchoff@comcast.net

Beat Da Heat!

Anyone interested in an 8 o'clock start for the thursday ride?
Let's get the lights out and avoid the heat.
Whatdaya think?

Out of Town Rides This Weekend

Donna and I are heading west this weekend to ride with LHORBA. If anyone is interested in a day trip to join in, here are the details for both days from Mike Mucker:

"Sat. 7-10-10:
Laurel Mt., Forbes State Forest, 1:30PM. Meet at the big parking lot on Summit Road that is on your left 2 miles off of Rt. 30. It is across from the entrance to the old Laurel Mt. Ski Resort.

The Ride: 20 to 24 miles. Several bailout points. Little to no climbing but lots of rocks with logs and skinnies to play on.

Sun. 7-11-10:
Blue Knob, 10:30AM. Meet at the Pavia Run Pavilion, Mowery Hollow parking area. After turning onto Forest Rd. from Rt. 869 drive past the swimming pool (on your left) and turn right at the Mowery Hollow sign. After turning there will be an outhouse on your right and Pavia Run Pavilion on your left.

This is my “Best of Blue Knob” ride. We will be leaving some vehicles at the bottom and driving to the top to start since this is the best way to ride all of the best trails in under 40 miles.

Note: When you get there load up your bikes and gear onto the least number of vehicles possible and leave your post-ride stuff in a vehicle at Mowery Hollow.

The Ride: 20 to 30 miles with bailouts possible after finishing the Resort side. What you missed in climbs at Laurel you will make up for at Blue Knob. After a warmup on Lookout Trail we will ride all of the Singletrack on the Resort side. We will then ride down the mountain from 3100 feet to 1400 feet (with a couple of ups mixed in there, too) on the State Park side with an option at the bottom to ride part way back up to do a 2nd fun downhill.


Both days of riding are geared towards advanced riders. If anyone would like to organize an intermediate ride in conjunction with my ride please feel free to do so."

Cleaning House!

Anyone interested in a 2008 Trek XO2? It is a 55cm has 100 road miles on it. I switched the Sram stuff to Ultegra 10. Everything else is stock. I bought it in Omaha to do iron cross and as everyone knows I raced my mountain bike instead. MSRP was 2799.99. I'm asking $1725obo


Also have a 2008 Gary Fisher Rig 17.5. With headset asking $175 I paid $225 on ebay for it! Can be used as a Single Speed or Geared!

NEW 2009 Reba Team 29er fork Pushed 20mm through axle. With pop lock installed! I recived a new fork that had a oil leak sent it to PUSH for the PRO rebuild cost $250 for the rebuild and shipping. Asking $625. MSRP of the fork is $749+ 250 for the Push service!

New WTB tire 2.55 weirwolf 26x2.55 yea I was a dumb ass and order 26" NOT the 29" I wanted! MSRP $59 EACH Both HERE ONLY $65!

Just leave a comment or give me a call if you have my ## or email!

Solo SStoke

Due to the fact that one of my vehicles betrayed me and left the fam stranded in Hagtown yesterday afternoon I wasn't able to make the normal MBM Thursday night ride. Needless to say, I was pissed with the sweet, September like temps.

So I took the day off today. Couldn't find anyone to ride with so I did a little solo time up in Mont Alto. Beautiful day, isn't it?

Let's play a little game of 'Where's Mooch?' See if you can identify each of the areas below on my loop around Mont Alto.

A)



B)



C)



D)



E)




To the winner goes a slightly used 29r tube with very patchable holes...

MBM Goes to Idaho

Sorry to be missing rides with the MBM crew back in PA but I've had some stellar rides out here in Teton Valley Idaho. Here is a picture of the group I rode with this week. Some of these jokers are the ones who got me hooked on mountain biking two summers ago. The picture is us standing on a bluff in the Big Hole Mountains looking back toward the Grand Teton Mountains. Epic rides.....great people. If anyone is interested in riding out here I may provide the lodging for summer 2011. Anyone want to come?

RIDE

Because of the Long Pine Classic I'm going to make the ride at Long Pine. So if you want to race you'll already be there. And i think it will be fun just to ride and help out. So ride time will still be 9am but we will see what's going on and not get in the way. If you don't know where it is check out the race site.

Long Pine Classic

Anyone planning on doing this on July 4th?

Lincoln, NE

I went to Lincoln Nebraska for a couple days. In route I bought the latest issue of Bike to read on the plane. Pg 33 had article which mentioned a small bike shop in Lincoln. So, I had to check it out.

I found a very "bikey" town not just a cool shop.




There were bike lanes and bike art and bike racks all over the place. Some of which is shown above.



Monkey Wrench Cycles is owned by a guy who collects vintage mountain bikes. The collection includes about twenty and they are displayed on a high rack in the back of the shop. You can see them in the photo published in Bike. All of them are in excellent condition, some are one-offs, others are old or just rare.



I told him a was visiting, found the article and wanted to check the place out.
He showed me the shop and all the vintage bikes and told me a little about them. It was cool. I spent some money and went on my way.

Another note from Bike on page 42 shows Jeff Schalk riding Iceberg in the Watershed. He is the National Ultra Endurance Champion and Iceberg is his favorite trail. That's pretty impressive and speaks volumes for this areas trails. Then he goes on to suggest he can't clean it! Or maybe he's telling us we can't clean it. Not really sure. So, my question is: has anyone cleaned Iceberg?

Post away. See you at the next ride.

Gary my friend

SHIT don't mean to use bad words but Gary let me down. Getten my bike ready for Sundays ride and found a big ole crack on the swing arm. Sold my backup bike (Shit again) Well I sure hope Gary hasn't sold the farm.

RIDE

decisions, decisions, decisions, I think Big Flat, Ride time 9am

Gary Fisher Brand Is Dead! Holy Cow!

Tuesday Back O' The Pack

Teaberry lot 5pm start.

MBM Goes To Williamsburg

Neither work nor heat nor a murderous onslaught of bloodthirsty ticks will stop us from our weekly mountain bike ride! While in Williamsburg for a trade show Brian and I hit the Marl Ravine trail. This is a great 6 mile loop that is a twisting, turning, diving, climbing, rooty funfest. Numerous log-overs add to the fun factor. Not hard by Michaux standards but great fun!

The only downside was that at the end of the ride Brian lost count after picking the 12th or 13th tick off himself. I didn't have a single one on me but Brian was on cobweb duty out front most of the ride and I went pretty heavy on the DEET. Maybe he was bushwhacking up ahead.

If you are headed to VA Beach and want a fun ride check out Marl Ravine trail in York River State Park near Williamsburg, VA. Make sure to put on the bug juice first!

RIDE

Well I guess Caledonia will be the ride location this Sunday. Ride time 9am