Join SBC and SVBC for a fun Bike Month Event

Join us on May 12th & 26th for a special townie ride followed by dinner and a movie night at Bella Luna.  The movie will have a bike theme since it is bike month! Last year both evenings had a full house so make sure to pick up your FREE tickets before hand at the Friendly City Food Coop!  A big thank to Wade and the Bella Luna crew for hosting!

Hope to you see you this Tuesday!

Oh Cananda!

This week marks the end of the Canadian invasion. This is not a bad invasion but the invasion of great folks coming to ride our beautiful Valley roads.  You see them each spring, riding in groups with the colorful club kits and fast rolling machines. They have a beautiful french twist to their words and know how to enjoy themselves during and after a ride.

Post Reddish ride dinner at "Ruby's"

Happy Hour at SBC with our friends. 

Departing on a beautiful day.

For three weeks, several tour guides bring down hundreds of folks from the Montreal area to break out of the northern winter and get their first taste of spring for the new year.  Most of these folks left Canada with snow still in their front yards. These folks love riding bikes and can't wait for their first ride of the year.  Thus, they visit Harrisonburg excited and ready to roll! For the last decade we at SBC have been working with the tour guides and their guests to make sure their time in the Valley is smooth and enjoyable.  We do what ever we can to make sure their bikes are always ready to go for the next day, even if this means lending them our own bikes.

A beaufitul road outside  the town of Shenandoah.

These groups make their base camp at Massanutten ("Massanewton") resort, a great place for bulk housing, but they love coming downtown to shop, eat and hang out. Last week I had the opportunity to get our and ride with one of the groups, their road etiquette was top notch! I could not believe the amount of riders we saw during our 60k spin that took us from "Massanewton" to Shenandoah, Stanley, Elkton and back.  These tour guides had a great route even showing this local boy some new roads to ride.

Until next year my friends!

Thank you!

Thomas

Michaux Maximus

Kelly and I left Harrisonburg at 4:45 a.m. Sunday morning to drive to Michaux State Forest in Pennsylvania for the first race of the Volvo Endurance Series. This race, the Michaux Maximus, was the "easiest" of the three-race series, each race being around 30 miles long. I had heard mixed reports of Michaux riding, and want to give credit to all who told me it was super gnarly. I should've known that legend Mike Carpenter's opinion ("it's like Massanutten, you'll be fine") meant the trails were comparable to the northern parts of Massanutten mountain, not the Western Slopes. Either way, I was excited to ride somewhere different and challenging. The rocks were very real, and there was a lot of great trail/fire road variety. Skill levels were tested to the max(imus), and I finished with destroyed arm and back muscles. But throughout the day, despite the venturing into my deepest of pain caves, I found myself laughing and smiling, meeting new friends, and loving every second.

Results for 1-7 of 8 ladies

Kelly rolling in strong to the finish!

There were three chutes for the three distances of races.

Stocked prize table.

Friday May 1 Costume Bike Parade

Friday, May 1: Costume Bike Parade

• Kick off Bike Month 2015 in style with the 3rd Annual Costume Bike Parade. Wear a costume, ride a bike. It’ll be a short loop around court square. Helmets are required. Family friendly pace.
• Meet us at the Turner Pavilion at 5:30.
• Watch the video of the parade: Harrisonburg Costume Bike Parade
• Checkout the Facebook Event:  May 1 Harrisonburg Costume Bike Parade

• Kick off Bike Month 2015 in style with the 3rd Annual Costume Bike Parade. Wear a costume, ride a bike. It’ll be a short loop around court square. Helmets are required. Family friendly pace.
• Meet us at the Turner Pavilion at 5:30

The Mother of all 300Ks

Nothing to see here. Just rolling roads and mountains in West Virginia near Lost River

I like to ride my bike. I like to ride my bike for long periods of time. Often across numerous mountain ridges on beautiful and remote backcountry trails, typically on a fat tired mountain bike. I also like to ride my road bike. Typically 100ish miles is plenty long for a road ride and I would have no reason nor motivation to ride much longer. Then Matt Hassman started working at SBC and brought with him a great interest in a bizarre and quirky world of randonneuring (Randonneuring is long-distance, unsupported, noncompetitive cycling within prescribed time limits). 

Don't worry. Even the bike shop guys flat sometimes. In addition, sometimes we get so anxious about quickly pumping our tires back up that we SNAP the VALVE in HALF (Matt Hassman)

 Matt is an active member of the DC Randonneurs and is actually helping to put on an event this Saturday May 2 (The Mother of All 300Ks). Since he is somewhat responsible for the event, Matt wanted to be sure he went and pre-rode the course. Just to be clear, the course is NOT marked nor is there any aid provided. Instead, participants must navigate the course on their own (with a provided cue sheet or GPS track) and be sure to make it to specific "control" points, often gas stations where they need to buy something with a time stamped receipt to prove that they actually followed the entire course.

Full Meltdown. Two small bottles. Super dehydrated and 7 more hours to go. DRINK plenty of water out there!

On Sunday April 25, we set out to ride the "Mother of all 300k's" which leaves from Middletown VA just south of Stephens City and Winchester. The route first takes you over Wolf Gap and then through Lost River and into West Virginia and up north towards the Potomac and the small towns of Romeny, Slanesville, and Gore, West Virginia before sneaking back through apple orchards and ridges to the Shenandoah Valley. When first looking at the course I thought to myself "14,000 feet of climbing over 190 miles. That sounds mostly flat compared to something like the Alpine Loop Gran Fondo." I guess what I missed was how many small hills we would hit throughout the ride. Post-ride I read the event website and saw this, "appallingly hilly but GORGEOUS 2005 West Virginia 300km.”

We aren't going to make it!? Breakfast at the Lost River Grill in West Virginia 53 miles into the ride and 10AM

The DC Randonneuring page recaps the early post breakfast part of the ride best, "The terrain here is ridge and valley. The route goes along several valleys. You are always following a stream uphill until it starts, then you have to climb over a little pass, then you start following the next stream downstream." Blah Blah Blah. Ride recaps aren't always that much fun but beautiful new routes and wacky long 190 mile rides are fun sometimes. Glad I pulled this one off but not sure I really need to sit on my road bike that long again in the future.

OK so we might make it. Sunset with 2 more hours to go

The Route!

THMS PE Class, AWESOME!

Over the past decade, Harrisonburg City Schools and Rockingham County Schools put bicycles into their Phyiscal Education programs. These cycling programs have a tremendous amount of momentum due to SVBC rock stars like Nathan Burge, Becky Johnston and others.

This past Friday, I volunteered to help with two morning PE Classes at Thomas Harrison Middle School. Despite the very chilly spring weather, the kids made sure they were committed to fashion.

A gym of bikes waiting for riders!

THMS is perfectly located to provide students with an opportunity to actually mountain bike as part of their cycling block class. Even though this school is only a 1/4 mile ride to the trail head of the Rocktown Trails it is still a challenge to get he students on the bikes, to trails and back in the 50 minutes of class. This past week PE Teacher Andy Thompson showed that this adventure  can be done in the alloted time, but volunters are always needed (do you have a hour or two to spare?).  I encoruage everyone to give volunteering a try, it is great to watch these kids find the magic of two wheels.

Reading to leave the grounds!

My hat goes off to all the teachers in our school system who keep the kids in line and learning. A big thanks especially to Andy Thompson for his willingness to take these groups of kids on  a magnificant adventure. Even though a lot of kids complained of "pain and suffering" they all came back with smiles. I assure you it will be a PE class that they will remember and from which they will grow!

Get the youth on two wheels - Thomas

Heading into the trails!

One Night Bike Tour

One night bike tours hold all the magic. Here to Staunton then onto Vesuvius VA for an evening at the "Doghouse" in celebration of Whitney March's 30th birthday. We planned a tour where we could grab lunch in Staunton on Saturday on the way to our destination and then lunch in Waynesboro on Sunday on our way back north back to the Burg.  

Map of our route south. 

Map of our route back north. 

For the first day, we hit some really fun and beautiful Augusta County dirt roads but not before realizing that Whitney's rear hydraulic disc brake was rubbing so bad that it smoked while she pedaled uphill and barely allowed the wheel to turn. After burping out a little bit of fluid we were good to go and on our way to cruise south down Stonewall rd and onto Flint Hill rd only to slide into Satunton via Limestone/Barry Farm rd. Once in Stauton we took in the Farmer's market, Black Dog Bikes, Redbeard Brewery, and the Split Banana for some delicious gelato. We never did find that whole lunch thing but the beer and ice cream was almost as good for the 2 more hours to our destination. 

Sneaking out of Stauton on Stingy Hollow rd lined us up for a nice Greenville connection over to Cold Springs rd (St. Marys area) and then a easy cruise to Gertie's Country store for french fries and onion rings before arriving at the Doghouse. Once at our destination we cooked real dinner, made a fire, read books, took in the red buds and watched the sunset. The best part was that we didn't have to carry any cookware or sleeping accessories since we arrived at an (off-grid) but furnished micro-cabin.

Redbeard Brewery in Staunton!

For the second day we were under threat of a flood warning so we tried to get on the road early but if you have ever gone on a bike tour you know just how hard it is to get going early in the morning when all you really want to do is hang out, make breakfast, and slowly pack up your things. We got on the road soon enough and headed north. Again, due to threat of rain we skipped Waynesboro for lunch and headed more directly north up through Fishersville. Shortly thereafter, my rear derailleur hanger snapped off. Turns out that I forgot to bring a spare. So...we were left with a chain tool and several attempts to find the perfect length chain that would hold a gear. After the fourth try, we were able to find the perfect length (in a gear that was a bit too hard) chain that held no matter how much I stood and stomped on the pedals with B.O.B. Trailer in tow. 

View from the door of the Doghouse. The Whetstone trail looms behind Adams Peak.

Gertie's Country Store in Vesuvius Va: http://www.virginia.org/Listings/Dining/GertiesCountryStoreandDeli/

Remember that sunscreen!

The Doghouse in beautiful Rockbridge County 

Always bring a spare hanger but if you forget one be sure you know how to single speed your bike