Touring the U.S. of A.

There are many great perks of working at a bike shop, one of my personal favorites is helping a diverse population who love to ride bikes. Some folks ride for transportation, some ride for ftiness, some ride to share a great experience with the one they love.

This set of Surly Long Haul Truckers belongs to Bruce and Mary Ann who set off today to ride from Yorktown, VA to the Pacific coast.  I know many folks who have done this trip after college, prior to entering the "Real World", but  SBC we are starting to see more and more folks take their adventure of lifetime upon retirement! Bruce & Mary Ann, we wish you many safe smiling miles on your trip! Thanks for including SBC in your adventure.

Something to watch that may or may not stretch your imagination.

Check out this short helmet cam video footage of Geoff Gulevich riding his first run of the 2013 Redbull Rampage. If video makes stuff look flat and the course looks steep, then you know it is really steep!
To watch both of his runs shot by helicopter and professional camera folks, check out this link to see the third person perspective.  Be sure to watch run 2 for carnage.  There's an old phrase from West-By-God: "Sometimes you watch the show, and sometimes you are the show."  Everyone is between crashes, some are bigger and more frequent than others.

Runaway Roubaix

The Harris Roubaix, a group ride celebrating a few of the Valley's beautiful dirt roads, was this past Sunday. The weather and road conditions were perfect, and my boyfriend and I decided to do a pre-Roubaix ride that morning and drop in later for some gravel laps and socializing. We rode through Hopkins Gap, toured Long Run Road, visited a potential fishing hole, coasted through Fulks Run, then looped back to the Roubaix course via Turleytown Road. Oh, did I mention we were on a tandem bicycle? The power of two flew us through our morning tour, and we got to the farm hosting the Harris Roubaix event just in time to leave with a few friends for a "party lap". Oblivious to the rage of Yanni Yensen on the front of our bike, I had no idea that I was about to get dragged into a gut-busting race against the three leaders who caught up to lap us halfway through. My father, clad in a Ralph Lauren sweatsuit and riding a motorbike, came around a corner with the three leaders not far behind. Erik and I saw them and tried to get to the top of the next descent quickly to try and hold them off, as the tandem is a mountain bike with 300 pounds of fearless momentum. Once we got to the bottom of the hill, we had put a slight gap on the leaders, and held them off for a while until the next climb. A few helpful pushes from Dad on the motorcycle and Erik's race-mode legs driving our machine kept us with the top three for the next few miles. Between the serious trash talk to the leaders and vigorous pedal strokes, I was out of breath and in the pain cave (this is possible on a tandem... who knew?) We quit our teasing before the last uphill of the course, but finished the lap strong. I never thought I would feel more tired the next day after a tandem ride than I did after Dragon's Tale last week... Nevertheless, an awesome day with my significant other and an amazing time riding in the sunshine with some fun people makes the soreness worthwhile. To all those asking when Erik and I will be riding the Shenandoah Mountain 100 in the tandem category... Stay tuned.

Bike Camping Packing Touring Riding

Whatever you want to call it, we did it. 

Marshall is a little camera shy.

A crew of 16 folks loaded up their bicycles with camping gear and headed out of town for the night. We rode out to Hone Quarry, taking the most scenic route.

Riding at a party pace allowed us to stick together as much as possible. Nobody was left behind. 

We even picked up people along the way. 

Easy does it.

No hills were attacked. Conversation abounded.

No inclines were harmed in the making of this ride.

A little angel swooped down and handed beers out of a passing SUV.

We entered the forest without a single flat tire or mechanical mishap.

Upon arrival we were lucky to be joined by even more folks. People came from all directions.

Lots of food. Lots of drink. Lots of stars. Lots of laughing and story telling around the fire.

What is that? It is a hobo pocket full of  deliciousness.

The next morning, people woke from their slumber, rubbed the sleep from the eyes and dissipated back out into the world. Some went hiking, some went mountain biking. All went home having added something to this wonderful little trip. Thank you to everyone who made it out. If you couldn't make it this time don't worry, the next one is already in the works...

GW National Forest Trail Projects. SVBC wants to hear from you!

The Shenandoah Valley Bicycle Coalition (SVBC) is having an outreach round table map discussion about trail projects in the GW National Forest. SVBC will break out the maps towards the end of the SVBC Social on Monday April 14th 7pm Ruby's @ Clementine Cafe.  SVBC wants to inform the trail community about potential upcoming trail projects in the GW National Forest. Come find out more...SVBC wants to hear from you!

Here is a list of some of the future potential trail projects.
-Parking Lot on Tillman Road at the Wolfe Ridge Trail Head
-1 mile reroute on the Wolfe Ridge Trail
-Major tread work on the Wild Oak Trail (Camp Todd to Little Bald Knob)
-1 mile reroute on the Wild Oak Trail (Dividing Ridge to Dowells Draft)
-1 mile reroute on Dowells Draft Trail
-6 mile trail from theWolfe Ridge to the Wildoak Parking lot.

Park & Huck mini-vid

In 2013, Adventure Seen started making "Lifestyle Ride" short films.  Check out Sam and Collin blazing down a dirty dh coming of Great North Mountain near Bryce Resort.  The trail was much like many "old school" trails in the GWNF: steep, consistent gradient, loose washed out softball size rocks between huge bolders that once rolled down from the tops of the oldest mountains in the world.

If you listen closely, you'll hear Collin and Sam "pinging" their Industry Nine wheels on the sharp angle of the boulder drop.  They are running tubeless Minion DH casing tires with 18-20psi.  This setup allows for maximum traction on hair raising descents and technical climbs.



2013 PARK N HUCK from Adventure Seen on Vimeo.

Free Money with Trek Fest!

From April 10-14, we're having the biggest sale we've ever had at Shenandoah Bicycle Company.  Here's the deal:

• Receive a $50 gift card when you purchase any Trek bike priced between $399.99 - $999.99
• Receive a $100 gift card when you purchase any Trek bike priced between $1,000 - $1,999.99
• Receive a $200 gift card when you purchase any Trek bike priced over $2,000
• Make the most of great deals on select Bontrager & Trek accessories in store and online.  Check out all the awesome deals here.  

These in-store gift cards must be used the day of purchase. The cards have no cash value and there will be no change given.