Riding in Edmonton - the Fall '09 thread

[gord962]

I'll meet you at the parking lot and I will be on my 29er. Edit: I was hoping my headache would go away, but it is getting worse. No go for me this morning.

[dana109]

I went out on friday and it was wet and muddy and just not fun.

[jkirkpatri]

Good ride today. Met up with Sherijumper down in the parking lot (recognized the Moots). Him and I went for about an hour and a half. Terwilleger started off nice becuase all the mud was frozen, but my ride back out of the park to the bridge was super slick and muddy. Sketchy to say the least.

No other riders other than Sherijumper and I. Park was busy with dogs. Should've started at 8am as the park would have been slower and the trails would still have been frozen for the ride out. Spent an hour last night cleaning the bike from last weekend's mud fest, looks like I'll be doing it all over again tonight!

[sherijumper]

Good ride in the morning even though it was starting to get pretty crappy near the end .

Action shot of jirkpatri just starting to fly

[gord962]

Went for a quick 1 hour spin last night. Hit most of the single track through Mill Creek as well as the trails around Old Timer's Cabin. The weather was perfect, trails were nice and tacky, roots were just a bit slick and only found 2 muddy spots. As long as it doesn't rain too much today I will definately be out again Wednesday night if anyone is interested in joining me. Meet at the Mill Creek pool upper parking lot at 7:00.

[jkirkpatri]

Looks like pure crap out there. I was debating whether I'd go out last night - looks like I should have gone. Hopefully the weekend clears up.

[Psycho Mike]

Be thankful you're not near McMurray today....that was some nasty weather and would not have been on my list for a riding day. Thankfully, I put it behind me as I headed down here again

[jkirkpatri]

Two rides this weekend. Mudfest on Saturday and clean pavement today. About 70km total. Put a new chain on for my ride today, but my cassette is way too worn as the chain was skipping under load. Put the old chain back on and good to go. Guess I'll need to pick up a cassette this winter, and probably some chain rings too.

Yesterday was nice and warm, a bit wet, though. Today was super windy and cooler, but still good. I'll take these two days of riding over night riding, even if it is pavement.

[gord962]

Checked out the ST today and seemed to be close to being decent. I am going to slap the lights on tomorrow night and go for a spin. With the wind and warm weather the trails should be nice and tacky. Meet me by Old Timers Cabin around 7:00 if anyone wants to go for a ride.

[jkirkpatri]

Guess I'll have to get muddy again. See you tomorrow. I'll check in around 6ish tomorrow just to make sure that it's still on.

[gord962]

You won't get muddy - I expect conditions to be near perfect. There may be a few puddles but most everything else is just tacky. I finally got my 2nd light so I should be able to get through most everything at daylight speed.

[jkirkpatri]

Nice. I'll get muddy and wipe out trying to keep up with you.

[jkirkpatri]

...and that's 7pm, not 6pm. Fall back today.

[gord962]

Slight change of plans - I've been invited to join the Red Bike group ride at 6:30 starting from Da Capo Cafe (87th ave and 109 St) I'm not sure if I can hang with them or not but I will give it a whirl. If we can't stay with the group we can always drop off on our own.

[jkirkpatri]

Sounds good.

[jkirkpatri]

Wife has the flu and wants me home. Going to have to bail tonight.

[jkirkpatri]

Got home early to be the wife. She fell asleep so....

Went on the north side of the river straight across from Muttart down to the pedistrian bridge at Gold Bar park. The dirt trails are perfect, but the single track is still to greasy and wet. At least, for me it is. Nice and warm today. Only wore one pair of socks and no plastic bags in the shoes!

[sherijumper]

Las ride for me was two Sundays with jkirpatri , screwed my ankle up at work last Tuesday (still sore) Now we have a confirmed case of the swine flu in my house (my daughter) Don`t know when I`ll be able to ride again ! ....................not cool

I`m somehow hoping I could head out tomorrow

[dana109]

that sucks. I was thinking of going on the night ride tonight. But I have Monday's off and my wife and I went to a movie and I had to leave the theatre early because I was so sick. I don't think it's swine flu.

[gord962]

I was late meeting up with the Redbike group (I HATE trying to find parking around there!) so I ended up going out by myself through the Kinsmen area. Trails were tacky and a little mushy in a few spots but not what I would call muddy. It was a good ride for a short power ride and 2nd light (one on the bar + one on the helmet) made a huge difference on the winding trails.

Anyone down for a Wednesday night ride?

[JCYC5]

Think the U of A outdoors club is having one Wed night, meeting at 6:30 outside Redbike

[dana109]

ya my friend Sam is organizing a wednesday ride. I wish I could go. I work wednesday nights.

[jkirkpatri]

Originally Posted by gord962

Anyone down for a Wednesday night ride?

I'm in.

[gord962]

Won't be meeting at Redbike for 6:30 - no parking and it doesn't even give me enough time to get home change and make it out there, as I found out last night. I'll be heading out around 7:00 from the Mill Creek pool upper parking lot.

[jkirkpatri]

7pm at the Mill Creek works good for me. See you then!

[jkirkpatri]

Weather looks good here on out to the weekend. Will be doing Terwilliger Saturday morning 8am. Can meet people down in the parking lot around 8:30am if anybody can come out.

[gord962]

Originally Posted by jkirkpatri

Weather looks good here on out to the weekend. Will be doing Terwilliger Saturday morning 8am. Can meet people down in the parking lot around 8:30am if anybody can come out.

I'll meet you in the parking lot.

[Psycho Mike]

I'm likely going to try to get out for a ride tonight as well...not sure when I'll get away, though. Any idea where the ride from the Mill Creek pool will be heading?

[jkirkpatri]

I'm not sure. I just follow Gord when we go out.

[gord962]

The plan is to head North through Mill Creek, across 99th to Old Timer's Cabin, over to Kinsmen area, and back.

[civil]

Trails were in pretty good conditions at noon today.....a few slick places. Nice riding weather for the next few days.

[sherijumper]

I agree , I ain`t posting on that "other" thread until it is actually winter

[gord962]

Great ride tonight! Conditions couldn't be any better for this time of the year. Ran into Sam and Sheldon from the Redbike ride tonight. There were 2 other groups of riders we saw out as well. The plan is to do it all again on Friday night with an 8:00 start.

[JCYC5]

On a completely unrelated note... I'm getting sick of how inflated Canadian retail prices are... All padded by the distributors too!

Trust me, stores (or at least the one I know best) don't add much on in terms of cost... even at wholesale cost the prices are barely below those of pricepoint or other similar websites. My Time pedals came out to be just a little less than pricepoint's price!

/rant

[jkirkpatri]

Best night ride of the year was last night. Skidded out on a hill side and planted my elbow pretty hard into the frozen dirt. Nice big bruise on my elbow this morning. Gord and I did about 27km, with 90% of the riding on new single track that I had never ridden before.

[jkirkpatri]

I guess I'm going to the Panda volleyball game Friday night, so I'm out for that ride. Three riders confirmed so far for Saturday 8-8:30am at Terwilliger.

[jkirkpatri]

40km and amost three hours of riding. Good weather and trail conditions in Terwilliger. Only saw one other cyclist other than Gord and I.

[gord962]

If anyone is interested we are heading to Strathcona Science Park Sunday morning at 8:00 a.m. for some sweet single track. Meet at the Sun Ridge ski lodge.

[Psycho Mike]

Friday night ride for me...ride up on the FS rig from Millwoods to Millcreek. Ran the creek, did stuff in the valley, ended up doing the tight stuff west of Walterdale bridge and working my way down to Emily Murphy.

Conditions were pretty good...some slick spots where the back end was squirming a bit...but overall a great ride.

[sherijumper]

Originally Posted by Psycho Mike

Friday night ride for me...ride up on the FS rig from Millwoods to Millcreek. Ran the creek, did stuff in the valley, ended up doing the tight stuff west of Walterdale bridge and working my way down to Emily Murphy.

Conditions were pretty good...some slick spots where the back end was squirming a bit...but overall a great ride.

Hey , what time were you down there ? I started around five got back close to seven I believe . My lights are shot , I only get around 40 minutes of burn time ,when I was back in Millcreek I ran paved trails back to the car cause I couldn`t see anything . I should be getting new lights this week .

[gord962]

Awesome ride today - those hills are killer though!

With Wednesday being Remembrance Day I think most of us have the day off. If anyone is down for a ride, jkirkpatri and I will be heading out around 1:00 p.m. Meet us at the Mill Creek pool upper parking lot if you are interested.

[dana109]

Gord you are going to be in much better shape than I next race season. I have only been on a bike twice in the last month. I need to get out there.

[sherijumper]

Originally Posted by gord962

Awesome ride today - those hills are killer though!

With Wednesday being Remembrance Day I think most of us have the day off. If anyone is down for a ride, jkirkpatri and I will be heading out around 1:00 p.m. Meet us at the Mill Creek pool upper parking lot if you are interested.

I would like to join you but were taking the Friday instead of the Wednesday to turn it in to a long weekend .

You were at strat.science park today ? I must be missing something cause I`ve never been a big fan .

[Val Garou]

That is all

[gord962]

Originally Posted by sherijumper

I would like to join you but were taking the Friday instead of the Wednesday to turn it in to a long weekend .

You were at strat.science park today ? I must be missing something cause I`ve never been a big fan .

There is almost 10km of ST there. Not much for roots but it has challenging terrain and more twists and turns than anywhere else. Carrying any amount of speed requires some serious bike handling skillz!

[jkirkpatri]

Originally Posted by sherijumper

I would like to join you but were taking the Friday instead of the Wednesday to turn it in to a long weekend .

You were at strat.science park today ? I must be missing something cause I`ve never been a big fan .

It's pretty twisty and up and down, and up and down. I ran it mostly in one gear as there's no time to really get a clean downshift when you come around the corners. Our average speed was only 11km per hour, whereas something like our Wednesday night ride was more like 16.5km an hour. You can see by the drop in average speed that the Science Park is more of a finesse and technical area. I had only ridden the one trail down by the river before, but most of the real challenging loops are up on the side of the ski hill.

It was a lot of fun.

[dana109]

I've been to strathcona science park a few times now and I've always found it kind of boring.

[jkirkpatri]

What I liked about the science park is that the single track is fairly smooth. The downhill sections are short and steep, and not scary, but fun. The part I don't like, and where the challenge is I found, is the 90 degree turns to a super steep, albeit short, climb. The ins and outs of the trails are nice and smooth, but that's a relief for me as I ride a hardtail. Sometimes it's nice to have the super smooth trails.

It's the complete opposite of McKinnen ravine and I'd take the ravine over the science park, but the science park is a nice change of pace.

[sherijumper]

Hey Val , like the pics . what are you shooting with ?

[Psycho Mike]

Originally Posted by sherijumper

Hey , what time were you down there ? I started around five got back close to seven I believe . My lights are shot , I only get around 40 minutes of burn time ,when I was back in Millcreek I ran paved trails back to the car cause I couldn`t see anything . I should be getting new lights this week .

I didn't get away from the house until 6:30...would have been at about 65 Ave when you were back at your car. I'm tempted to throw the LED onto the cross bike so I can make a little better time getting up from the 'woods.

[gord962]

When you string all the ST together it is a lot of fun. Most people don't know where all the trails are.

[jkirkpatri]

I've had a cold since Sunday night, but I'll still be riding. Just want to confirm that we're meeting at Mill Creek upper parking lot at 1pm today.

Back brake was dead on Sunday. I was having to pump the brake handle to get some brake resistance (I'm using Elixirs). Turns out that I had no brake pads left and that my brakes had a small air bubble. Guess it pays to check your brake pads periodically. I checked them a month ago, but the last bit of pad wear was exponentially quicker on the last half of the pad wear than the first half. Shop figures that the air bubble could have been onset by the pad wear as there were no leaks found.

[gord962]

Yep - 1:00 at Mill Creek Pool upper parking lot. I may be a couple minutes late as the wife just left for work and is planning to be home around 12:30, but if she is a bit late, I will be late getting there. I have a 3hr ride planned out, but we'll see how things turn out? It should be an epic day!

Glad to hear you have brakes again!

[gord962]

That was an awesome ride! 34.5 km and 3hrs later I am exhausted. We started at Mill Creek did the west flowing piece of the CC course, out to McKinnon for Root Canal, Route 66, Bob Sled, back through the east flowing part of the CC course, over to Ewok + the Forest Heights slalom trail and back through Mill Creek.

[jkirkpatri]

Best technical ride I've pulled off all year. I paid for it, though. Had a nasty fever last night and bascially came home and went to bed! If the weather holds out for Sunday, I'm up for another round!

[jkirkpatri]

Sunday is calling for a high of 7 degrees and no snow. We should try to do another ride, same as yesterday. How about we meet at 1pm? Maybe Sherijumper and some others can make it on Sunday.

[Val Garou]

Originally Posted by sherijumper

Hey Val , like the pics . what are you shooting with ?

Thanks for the kind words...those were taken with an old Canon S2, no postprocessing.

[dana109]

Anyone interested in riding on sunday. I'm thinking of heading to Terwilliger Sunday afternoon.

[dana109]

My friend sheldon and I just made plans to meet at the Terwilliger parking lot at 1:00 on sunday. If anyone cares to join us you are more than welcome.

[sherijumper]

Would like to join you but we have a brunch a little earlier in the day that would run into the start time . I am planning on heading out a little later though cause I sure as hell don`t want to see the Seahawks get smacked around by Arizona

Dana , you sure you want to go to Terwig. at 1 ? That place is going to be crawling with dogs and people

[jkirkpatri]

Dana - how long of a ride are you and your friend going for?

[dana109]

no idea. we're just going to ride. Probably 1 1/2 or 2 hours.

[Sixty Fiver]

Just checking in... hoping folks are all in one piece.

Thinking of riding Sunday myself too.



sixtyfiver@shaw.ca

[jkirkpatri]

... I'm in for Terwilliger

[gord962]

Quick update for Sunday ride. 2:00 start - meet at the parking lot. There should be about 10 of us based on the count we had by 11:30 am today. Hope to see even more!

[sherijumper]

I now have a family thing to attend in the afternoon as well as the morning . Stupid family stuff keeping me away from my bikes sounds like it will be a little crowded anyways


Was in Strat . science park tonight , as far as climbing goes . Great stuff ! As far as flowy fun singletrack..............meh . check more on my blog . Yes I`m a dork

Have fun guys ..................cheers

[gord962]

Good ride today guys. It's great to get out this time of the year and trails are in primo condition. Ended up with only 6 of us after a few no-shows.

[jkirkpatri]

Fun ride yesterday. I feel like crap today, hopefully this cold goes away soon. Post up the next night ride that you're able to go out on when you get the chance, Gord.

[gord962]

Won't be out this week - perhaps a 1 hr power ride on Friday night around 8:30 - 9:00 or so if it's not too cold.

[sherijumper]

I will be out Wednesday night . During the week I go right from work , so I start pedaling around 5 .

I will be in the Terwilliger parking lot tomorrow around 5 . Red dodge truck with bike stickers on back window if you want to meet for a little spin .

Testing new light tomorrow night

[dana109]

I want to do a night ride friday night. Anyone else in? I'm planning on setting up the meeting place at DeCapo at 6 on friday night.

[jkirkpatri]

If I manage to feel better, I'll come. I'll post a definite yes or no on Friday. Still pretty sick right now and just have no energy whatsover.

[dana109]

well no one seems to be interested in a friday night ride.

But I think I will check out the interclub ride sunday at 11.

[sherijumper]

won`t work on Friday for me , working late .............................ya I know

[dana109]

I only have 1 more person interested so I don't know if there will be a ride tonight or not.