Celebrate the start of the off road season!

Everyone and anyone is welcome to join SVBC and Shenandoah Mountain Touring/Stokesville Lodge for a weekend of trail work, camping, riding and Solar celebration! The Solar Weekend will celebrate the time of year when daylight overtakes darkness. Join us for this celebration! Details below:

Facebook Event:
Trail Work Schedule:
Friday March 28th: Meet at Stokesville Campground at 3pm. We will park by the entrance of the Girl Scout Parking Lot and hike to the work location on Lookout Mountain. If you can't make it at 3pm please feel free to come later but remember to bring two tools from the"Big Red" Truck.
Saturday March 29th 9am-5pm : Our first crew will leave Stokesville Campground at 9am and do the same access as Friday.  We will have a second crew leave from the Stokesville Campground at 1pm as well.  Feel free to come to the work site (hiking or biking in) anytime during the day. Even a 3o minute trail effort during your ride goes a long way!
Sunday March 30th TBD:  There will  be a trail work component on Sunday. This will be building some new trails at the  Stokesville Campground.
Trail Work Details:Project Details:  Each hour you work is worth $22 to SVBC!  This project is part of the successful DCR  RTP grant that SVBC continues to administer. Your trail work hours count as part of the $30K match that SVBC is required to provide! 
Site Location:  The work location is the same project that was worked on during the 2013 Shenandoah Mountain Bike Festival, the Wild Oak Trail on Lookout Mtn. It is a step 20 minute hike in via a foot path (follow ribbons) then a 5 minute walk in on the Wild Oak Trail.
Work Sessions: We will have 3 work session (see above), each one about 4 hours round trip the Stokesville Campground, but anytime you can commit to this project is greatly appreciated.  For more details: tj@shenandoahbicycle.com or 540-236-2001.
Camping:  The Stokesville Campground will be open free this weekend! Feel free to camp Friday and/or Saturday Night.
RSVP:  Please RSVP (Tell us for which session of trail work or meals you will participate)  Shenandoah.mountain.touring@gmail.com
Meals: Stokesville Lodge will be providing dinner and breakfast meals this weekend, please include your meal attendance with your RSVP. You are on your own for lunch!

North American Handmade Bicycle Show? Yep.

After closing down on Saturday, a few of us jumped in the SBC team vehicle and set out to nerd out in Charlotte, NC.  We stayed busy along the way with gas station pizza, a debate over Fritos status as a vegetable or grain, and motion sickness from trying to read Bicycling magazine.  Our late-night arrival didn't stop us from experiencing the very best of the city including sanctioned handicapped parking, fresh pastas, gelato, a fine art cigarette machine, and drunken frowny faces on the green-clad masses.  We fell asleep watching a MotoGP special on an HD television.  I didn't get to go to the pool.

Sunday morning came and continental breakfasts were eaten. We walked to the convention center and rode an escalator to the main event. True to form, Matt talked to tube and jig manufacturers, Collin wandered to see whatever caught his eye, I worked systematically down each aisle in order, and Tim shook hands with new friends and hung out with old ones.

I saw fine garments and pretty, shiny bicycles from all over the world. There was a carbon unit turned chrome with layers of hand varnish, a tandem with removable stoker cockpit for use as a carbon road bike, a commuter with cut out headtube to display a mural on the steerer, Ti townies, full-suspension fat bikes, and wooden touring rigs.  A carbon/wooden balloon bike got stolen right out of a booth and was recovered later in the day.  The people who win awards did, some people who don't usually did, too.  A good time was had by all.  But mostly, Avery Co. Cycles had this sticker:

Check out all the pretty stuff at 2014.handmadebicycleshow.com.

-David

High in Schnebly Hill

Here is yet another spectacular high mountain view from high up on Schnebly Hill Road. We rode up to look at the remnants of the recently closed trail formally known as Tomahawk. A world-class trail that was built by a true artist, although without permission which eventually deemed it unacceptable by the forest service and therefore closed unfortunately, it meandered along beautiful slick rock shelves and provided some of the most scenic views of all of Sedona's magical spots. Cross your fingers and toes think good thoughts and maybe someday they will reopen it. 

Hogs rock work

About to roll into high on the hog's section of trail that the forest service along with the local Verde Valley Cycle club are collaborating on some trail effort to shore up some of the tighter switchbacks with some truly amazing and intensive rock work

Here falling Waters is strutting his moves as the first rider to test ride the new trail feature. A big thanks to all the volunteers who were there most of the week putting forth much effort and doing it right, hundreds of years from now this trail work will still stand!

The infamous trail designer Dr. Jeremy Wimpy just finishes his white glove test with two thumbs of approval for all the trail efforts there. 

Rando Something Something K

Went out riding on Saturday with The Kurt and 40+ something folks from the DC Randonneurs Club.

Six of the 40+

THE Kurt has gone full Rando trifecta, Hi Viz, handlebar bag, and beard.

Did you know that there is good riding to be had east of the Blue Ridge? Turns out that there is a whole other world outside of the Valley.

East of the Blue Ridge it is customary to build your home in trees to thwart attacks from outsiders.

We rode the Wilderness Campaign 200K. It sure was a good time, about 130mi. of flat to rolling terrain through several battlefields, and lots of horse farms.

Look at those elbows! Exposed knees! Nice and warm...

We met a really nice couple, Ed and Mary, that maintain a couple of nice bike blogs. Mary writes Chasing Mailboxes and Ed is taking a hiatus currently but his is/was The Daily Randonneur. Ed and I captured a weird modern meta moment when I took this picture.

And he took this one. I just blew my own mind.

SBC now has two different inexpensive Blackburn panniers in stock. I picked mine up last week, and they're awesome. They have reflective blocks so that cars can see me on my commute on Reservoir St. After I set them up properly the first time, they are quick & easy to install each morning. And they hold a lot of gear-- my laptop, lunch, dinner, change of clothes, purse, & notebooks -- without a problem. To be fair, they're no name-brand Arkel pannier.... but they get my commute done hassle-free twice every day.

Onyx Hill

Out for a Friday pleasure cruise with the mighty Ann Brie and "the boss", after countless intervals they both tell me their training to beat the record at the SM 100 this year… Time will tell. Most of the gravel west of town seems to have had it's spring scrape. Gravel is thick in spots.