Human Powered Machine

So having worked both sides of the industry for many years I've seen a lot of fancy pants frames components etc. Honestly they bore me to tears. Same stuff different medium or polished whatever. Then there is this!.....see picture below. John has made out of broken bikes and what others consider junk a functioning survive the nuclear holocaust vehicle! His creativity is truly inspirational. This is the kind of hand made bike I can dig. Thanks for letting me help with the cables and shifting John.............Jason

We Didn’t Start the Fire: Georgia Training Camp 2014

A few weekends ago, I journeyed to the dirty south with Mike Carpenter, Sue Haywood, and Matt Smith for a four day “training camp”. After an eight hour drive, we arrived in Atlanta, Georgia Thursday afternoon, and were on our road bikes by 4:20 pm. The five of us, now including Oliver Quinn whom we stayed with that weekend, rode fifty miles that evening - starting the trip off with an awesome taster of what was to come...

We northerners were given a southern-style welcome by a fleet of turbo-charged dachshunds and cocker spaniels, and I got a glimpse of Georgia gravel, (dirty, sandy, and chunky). We toured downtown Atlanta that evening, ate pizza, and made a grocery store run.

Powered by pancakes and West Virginia maple syrup, we started Day Two with dreams of fried chicken and cabbage patches. After lunch, we found the cabbage patch, a giant stretch of fields with dirt road webbed throughout. We took a tour through a "friend’s" hunting grounds, spotted some boar tracks, and affirmed the thorn growth in the woods surrounding the patch. We reached the dirt road again after an hour of testing our creek-crossing-and-log-hopping-on-road-bikes skills, and went out the way we came in... Over the fence. More freshly graveled roads took us back to the house to mark an 82 mile day, and we feasted on steak and lamb chops for dinner.

After another delicious breakfast featuring bacon, eggs, and juice, we were back on bikes for Day 3, and rode 110 miles in sleeveless jerseys and with high spirits. Many sprint points were achieved among the group, and I spent the majority of the day chasing the pack through porch parties and potholes. Pork carnitas awaited us in the crockpot at home, and were the only thing that kept my legs moving after bonking at mile 90. We ate our fill of another fine dinner, and later snacked on manchego cheese and dark chocolate while watching Mad Max.

More highlights from the expedition include: our following of updates about the missing Malaysian flight, potential sponserships by Golden Pantry, only one flat tire round-trip, juicing every morning, and a high daily dosage of Vitamin D.

On the last day of Georgia Slumfest 2014 we woke to rainy conditions. A quick pro-serious two hour spin in the rain brought my legs back to life, and we packed the car up to come back to reality in Harrisonburg: snow and cold weather. Very glad I got to experience some of the riding Atlanta has to offer and improve my endurance and performance with a group of inspiring individuals - it was a Spring Break well spent!

New PULP bowls

Check out our NEW Acacia Bowls and Spoons

Made from a fast-growing, non-endangered wood species, this Acaciaware is green and made for a PULP eating machine .

So come on in and get a beautiful and delicious bowl "for here" today! 

Country Ramblings

Welcome back. Some of you may know that I have a thing for long bicycle rides. I also love maps. I love studying them, looking for new roads that might be a nice addition to the repertoire. No road is too small to get my attention, although many are too large. Recently while creating a new loop, a line on the page grabbed my eye and kept drawing me back to it. The road was WV151/ Westside Road, and here she is.
With the Siren song wailing, I readied my bike with extra food and tubes. Lack of both of those things have made exploratory rides like this great lessons in bringing plenty in the future. Bad decisions=good stories, right? I woke up early to leave by 7am. The forecast for the day wasn't totally optimistic so I wanted to make good use of the window of warmer, dryer weather that they said would be leaving later in the day. Which, by the way, didn't happen. I believe that the weathermen are some kind of  terrorists that play on our fear of discomfort. I haven't figured out what the agenda is yet, but I'm sure someday they will make their list of demands known. Anyway.

Top of US33

 The most direct way to get there is to jump right on 33 and head west. While I normally avoid this road for it's volume and speed, it is practically empty early morning on a Sunday. After the climb up Shenandoah Mt. I paused and put on my windbreaker for the descent, which at 9% can have you hitting 40 mph without even trying. This kind of thing always has a way of making me feel hyper aware of my body and it's impermanence.
Once down the other side, after 33 makes it's last bend and straightens out, when you are feeling the relief of seeing the road run out in front of you, 151 has just zipped by on your right. I enjoyed the momentum and after turning back around, pedaled back up hill the half mile, grateful for the chance to warm back up.
151 is about as rough of a road as most folks will feel comfortable riding a road bike on. There are no monster climbs on it, it kind of rolls along the bottom of Shenandoah Mt., keeping a pretty steady elevation. The surface gets soft at times, but is mostly pretty firm with a nice small grain of gravel that will tempt you into picking up speed, right before rushing into sections of angular bedrock. Nothing too different from most of the forest roads around these parts, it is wonderful and remote feeling. I saw turkeys and deer and stuff. What made this road most memorable though were the six stream crossings.

All of them were running deep and cold. Rather than getting my shoes and feet wet, I opted for just wet feet. At each crossing I took my shoes and socks off, waded the stream and then dried my feet and put back on my shoes. If you find yourself in a scenario like this I would highly recommend this tactic. Even though the temperature was in the lower 40's, my feet would be dry and warmish by the next crossing. While this did slow down progress linearly, it also gave me pause and reason to sit next to streams in the middle of the woods. Sometimes the process of progress is not linear.

A thousand words.

 While the transcendental aspects of riding are formless, the roads are not. All things come to an end. 151 reconnects to the hard surface roads in Sweedlin Valley, offering yet more options for you to choose your own adventure. As for me, I'm back at the maps daydreaming about Spring.

Watch out for cattle gates.

 “Not I, nor anyone else can travel that road for you.
You must travel it by yourself.
It is not far. It is within reach.
Perhaps you have been on it since you were born, and did not know. 
Perhaps it is everywhere - on water and land.” 
― Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass

SBC Goes to the National Bike Summit

The National Bike Summit is the biggest event in bicycling advocacy every year. Built around two days of information sharing and one day of lobbying on Capital Hill, the National Bike Summit. Our area was represented by four fine folks including Chris Scott of Shenandoah Mountain Touring, Becky Johnston of RMH, and Nathan Barge with the Harrisonburg Public Schools.

Yesterday Construction Site...Today's Pump Track!

This past Sunday I took my two little dudes (Ethan,5 & Carter, 2) to Hillandale to ride their bikes. The kids, like I, have been waiting for conditions to dry out so we can enjoy riding on the City Park Trails.  As soon the bikes were unloaded from the mini van (parents dream, single man's nightmare) the kids darted for the pump track, they were not the only ones.

As I spent 30 minutes watching seven different kids roll the pump track I realized today's pump track is serving today's kids much like construction sites did for me 35 years ago. Having grown up in the great State of NOVA during the 70's we had no shortage of developement, which meant a lot of dirt piles on property owned by some faceless developer.  We spent hours rolling dirt piles trying to get our wheels to leave the ground, an inch of air felt like eternity.

As a Dad I feel much safer having my kids hanging at the local park riding their bikes instead of "vandalizing" a future home site with shovels and buckets. There is also less incentive for today's youth to camp out at local construction sites, ever since Virginia did away with returnable bottles they value of construction sites for kids decreased. All those nickles earned from returnable bottles found in construction site dumpsters bought a lot of bike parts, kids time to hit the neighborhood recycling bins for aluminum cans.

My advice to all you parents...take your kids to Hillandale, head to the pump track, kick back on the picnic tables and remember your childhood bike riding days while you help make memories for your little "dudes & dudettes".

-Thomas

Future Shredders

Collin and Matt took SBC to Harrisonburg High School last week to keep their mountain bike fleet in tip top shape. SBC is more than happy to support the integration of biking into our local school system. You never know, one of these students could be a future mountain bike national champion. Ride on!