May Events at The Bike Shoppe

May is Bike Month. So naturally it will be awesome. We have demos and group rides. There will be incredible things happening all over Ogden as well. We are also having a Strava competition for those that can't meet up with us. Join our club on Strava, The Bike Shoppe and Friends. We'll have prizes for the person with the most miles ridden during the month, the longest single ride, and the most elevation climbed.

5/7 @6:00pm - Ogden Trails Shin-Dig at The Front Climbing Club. This is a great event that helps raise money for trails in the Ogden area.

5/8 @8:00am - Ogden Mayors Bike to Work Day. Meet up with the Mayor at the northwest corner of WSU, west of the Social Science building. The group will ride with the Mayor to the Ogden Amphitheater (343 25th Street) for breakfast.

5/9 9:00am until 5:00pm - Electric bike demo at Rainbow Gardens. Haibike and Izip bikes will be there to demo. We will have lunch at noon.

5/16 7:00am until 1:00pm - Trek Demo and group mountain ride. Meet at Rainbow Gardens at 7:00am and you can even try a 2015 Trek. The demo will be going on from 7:00am until 1:00pm even if you can't join us on the ride or want to put some miles on a Domane disc or Emonda.

5/30 @7:00am - Group Road ride from Huntsville to Monte Cristo. Meet at Huntsville Park at 7:00am.We'll even have food to help make it enticing to get on your road bike at 7:00am.

Let us know if you have questions. Otherwise, we'll see you there!

April Events with The Bike Shoppe

We have some good things happening with The Bike Shoppe in April. We have already witnessed the premiere of the 7th installment in the Fast & Furious franchise, which is a difficult event to follow. We'll have our mountain rides each Saturday morning at 8:00 in April. We also have a family ride on Ogden River Parkway at 11:00 am on April 25. Then to help kick off next month, we'll be doing an electric bike demo on May 9th from 9:00 am until 5:00 pm. Keep an eye out for the Grand Opening of our new service center expansion also.

April 11 8:00am-Mountain ride on Bonneville Shoreline north of North Ogden Divide. Meet at turn off on right shortly after you pass all of the homes as you head east on the Divide road.

April 18 8:00am-Mountain ride in Riverdale. Meet at Riverdale Bike Park at the end of Weber River Dr. in Riverdale. Turn south onto 700 West off of Riverdale Road and then take your first left onto Weber River Dr. then follow it to the parking lot at the end. Some of us will be there early to help with the community dig day at Riverdale's new pump track where the dirt jumps were. This mostly flat, but fun ride through the trees is great for those new to mountain biking.

April 25 8:00am-Mountain ride on Bonneville Shoreline north of 12th. Meet at Rainbow Gardens. We'll be riding under Canyon Road and heading north.

             11:00am-Family bike ride on Ogden River Parkway. Meet at Rainbow Gardens. We'll have                                 lunch available.

May 9 9:00am-5:00pm-Electric Bike demo at Rainbow Gardens. We'll have Heibike and iZip bikes available for demo. Bring your helmet.

Recreationally fast

I routinely hear people justify buying a lesser bike because they "aren't looking to win any races". Which makes sense. If you can't stand on top of the podium drenched in champagne holding an over-sized check, the extra money spent for more precise shifting or suspension that doesn't allow air to mix with the oil isn't a sound investment. However, the work and sacrifice to get to the level of receiving any monetary compensation for riding your bike is too much for most of us mere mortals. So what would be the benefit of getting fast for the recreational rider?

The biggest benefit of being able to ride faster is that you get to experience more in your limited amount of time. When you cover more ground, you see more, and therefore your adventure is more full. A ride usually reserved for Saturday when you have an open schedule can become the ride you do before work. Without argument, your day goes a lot better when you start it off looking down the Wasatch Front from the saddle of Ben Lomond peak.

Also, it's easier to sneak out for an hour when you know you can get a good ride in than to go for an hour and not even make it to the top of the local awesome trail. There is something defeating about having to turn around before you're ready.

Another benefit is that you won't need a week to recover from your Saturday frolic. You could even fit a couple significant rides into your week and still get your epic ride on Saturday. This can be attributed to better overall health and it will translate into eating and sleeping habits. So that brings us to how we can get faster. Here are the quickest and easiest steps to instantly get faster. Otherwise you have to do cross-training, which is all of the stuff that we started biking to avoid.

1. Eat Better

-This step seems hard, and it is very difficult to change your entire diet. However, food is fuel. The better the fuel, the better the engine runs. It's as simple as that. Consistently eating well is harder than just eating something good right before you head out, so start out eating well to fuel your rides. Who knows? You may even want to eat better. I'll let you figure out what fuel to consume, but whole foods are always a good thing. Carbs combined with protein and fluids with electrolytes probably will help also. Appropriate fuel varies depending on the ride.

2. Sleep

-This step is the most difficult for those of us with kids. but getting proper rest is crucial in order to have the energy to complete your ride. Then after you're done riding, you need to sleep again to recover so that next time you ride you'll be faster.

3. Upgrade Bike

-A lighter bike is going to make it easier to go uphill, but that's not the whole package. A bike designed for an intended use is going to accomplish the desired task better than a bike designed for something else. If you trailride a cyclocross bike, it will be light so it should climb well. But it's traction and geometry will slow you down. It may still be fun, maybe the kind of fun that near death experiences provide,but it won't be fast on a loose or technical trail. The Same goes for an 8-inch travel, dual-crown downhill bike on a smooth and flowy trail like Bonneville Shoreline. It will just be wrong for the trail and therefore, not fast. However, if you go with a mid-travel full-suspension bike it will be perfect for 95% of the trails out there and really good for the last 5%. The same applies to road bikes. A bike with endurance geometry will excel on the long rides, but not do as well as a climbing bike on North Ogden Divide. Just like mountain bikes, there are good road bikes that do it all. If you cater to the 95% of your riding, you will get faster with a better bike.

4. Upgrade Wheels

-This is easier than upgrading your entire bike and in some cases it's a better option than upgrading your entire bike. Better wheels will handle, accelerate, and even brake better than heavier or flimsier options. Lighter wheels should make you faster, but weight is only one aspect of what makes a good wheel. If you are on a limited budget, just upgrade your tires. Tires are the easiest way to make an immediate change in how your bike rides. Make sure you find the wheels and tires that are going work best for what you want them to do. 

5. Upgrade Components

-This is the least noticeable way to get faster, but still makes a difference. If you can crunch through gears while the hammer is down, you'll be faster. Upgrading to carbon handlebars and seat post will only make a little difference in the short run, but for the days you can go on longer rides those  "small" upgrades will help you feel fresher for longer and that will help you be faster. If you have a mountain bike and upgrade your suspension, you'll have more control which equates to more confidence and thus more speed. As Sir Isaac Newton taught us, more speed is directly related to being faster. And a dropper post on any bike will make you faster. ANY bike. Just ask me to prove it when I can build the Wikipedia page filled with my biased assumptions.

Now you can justify all the awesome stuff(including food and sleep) that will make you faster, because being faster lets you fit more riding in. And everyone can benefit from more riding. 

March Events with The Bike Shoppe

We've already had an awesome ride this month. We went from the trailhead in Pleasant View to Stan Thompson's Shoreline in Willard. It's a lot like the Bonneville Shoreline trail in Ogden, but taken to 11. It has steeper climbs than the rest of BST, but without being too much. It's much more technical as well. We rode it at night on the snow so it made it more difficult to find our way to the singletrack, but we found some additional good stuff. It was the perfect temperature to keep from overheating and we had a full moon so the lighting was great for spotting nocturnal creatures. We'll definitely be doing that ride again, but we'll have to wait for it to dry out now that the weather has turned back to Spring.

And because it's Spring, you need a new Yeti! Lucky for you, The Bike Shoppe is having a sale. We've marked down all Yeti 575 and Carbon SB-95 at 20% off! All Aluminium SB-95s are 25% off. Any other Yeti purchase this month gets you a dropper post and tubeless set up included.

If you are only 95% certain that you want a new Yeti, try one of our demos. Riding one will take that last smidgen of doubt away. Even if are only 5% convinced that a new Yeti is in your future, riding one will still make it easier to start a new love affair with a Yeti.

And if that isn't easy enough for you, we'll even bring you a demo bike on our group rides. This month we'll be riding on Saturday mornings at 8:00. We'll be riding Bonneville Shoreline this month starting on 3/14 we'll meet at the BST trailhead on North Ogden Divide. On 3/21 we'll meet at the mouth of Ogden Canyon and ride North. This is the trailhead across from Rainbow Gardens. 3/28 we'll meet at Beus Canyon trailhead.

We'll be posting everything that's happening each month so you know what to expect and where we're riding. We'll also post the results from regular wheelie contests as well, so practice up and you could be a winner!

Top 5 areas to ride dirt around Ogden

 The most obvious must ride trail in Ogden to any local is Bonneville Shoreline Trail (BST). In the Ogden area you can ride from Beus Canyon all the way to Willard, mostly on dirt. And currently trails are being built to connect it entirely. I think the best sections are north of North Ogden Divide to Pleasant View and north of Ogden Canyon to Ogden Nature Center North. However, from Rainbow Gardens to Beus Canyon gets a lot more traffic and has really good flow. On any section of trail you should be well aware that there could be someone around a corner, but from Rainbow to Beus the chances of someone actually being there are very high.

The reason I personally like BST north of the Divide is because it is a fairly easy uphill with good sight in all directions and just enough technical riding to keep advanced riders entertained without being overwhelming to newer riders.

I like BST north of Ogden Canyon because there is less traffic and as you get further toward the Nature Center it gets quite rocky and technical. Most people will have difficulty past the intersection for Jump Off Canyon's trailhead. I only know of a couple of people that can ride the rocky, technical section out AND back. I think more riders will be able to do it as they try it on a fat bike, but on your typical mountain bike, you WILL get worked. This is part of the appeal to me. It's always challenging and I consistently have to walk less of it.

Another favorite among the locals is Ogden Bike Park (OBP). This has trails suitable for a 4 year old on 16 inch wheels and a coaster brake, yet it also has trails requiring 8 inches of travel and a dual crown fork. I have ridden OBP with my kids as well as with some of the most capable freeriders I know. It has every level of riding covered and it is constantly progressing because of the dedicated crew and locals that are willing to dig before they ride. Early this year the OBP crew built even bigger gaps and drops as well as two new pump tracks. I recommend these trails often to people that are just starting out riding on dirt as well as to people that want somewhere to take their bikes that usually require lift served or shuttle access.

I think the biggest thing OBP has going for it is all of the trails are one way only. That means that you can open it up and really rail the perfectly formed berms. You can also see most of the park from the top of the trails so you have a pretty good idea if someone is on the trail already or if someone is looking to come up despite the one-way only signs.

This is the first trail on the list that people might question your sanity if you enjoy it. Malan's Peak! It's a pretty short trail, but crazy steep with some insanely technical sections. Malan's is also a favorite among the hiking enthusiasts, so when we ride it we are perhaps overly accommodating so we can continue to ride it. I ride it because it's the only trail I am aware of that reminds me of the trails I grew up riding in Logan Canyon. Steep and technical can be miserable on the way up, but therapeutic on the way down. It usually takes me an hour to get up and about 15 minutes to get down. It is well worth it for roughly 15 minutes.

 Skyline trail to Ben Lomond's saddle is another personal favorite. It's another one that takes far longer to get up than it does to get back down. It has everything you could want in a ride; step downs, rocky sections, rooty off-camber sections, fast flow, and amazing views. When you ride it at night you can see all along the Wasatch Front, down into Ogden Valley, and up into Cache Valley. You can see mountain goats, moose, and deer on many of the rides up there. Plus the dirt and ecosystem change as you get further up. I can't relay how much I love this trail. Skyline is one of those trails that is physically demanding, but everything in life seems better after you've ridden it. It's one that you have to experience yourself.

The last place to mention is all around Snowbasin. If I had narrowed down this list to only specific trails, it would have consisted of mostly these trails and Skyline. If you start at Wheeler's Creek trailhead across from Pineview Reservoir, you can link thousands of vertical feet and pedal over 100 miles without taking the same route twice.

I think the routes most worth mentioning are the East Fork/Middle Fork loop, Sardine Peak Loop, and Ice Box Canyon. East Fork/Middle Fork is a fast flowing route that you can hit Ice Box Canyon on the way back down. Ice Box is steep, technical and beautiful. Sardine Peak ranks up there with BST as far as a favorite among locals, but because it's been the route for Xterra Nationals for a few years, it's on many rider's lists of must rides. I personally prefer to ride Sardine counter-clockwise, but because I made the mistake of trying to ride it that direction on a Saturday morning, I learned that most people like to ride it clockwise. Sardine is wide open for most of the ride because you have good visibility, but there are still some switchbacks and blind corners, and because it's a popular trail also, expect someone to be around that blind corner.

Let me know if you think there is anywhere I forgot to mention that you love to ride.

Why pedal assist electric bicycles should be allowed on Porcupine Rim and your local trails

The Bike Shoppe has started selling pedal assist electric bicycles. This is not news to a lot of people. We've been advertising heavily that we have them in stock. We've been riding them. We've even been selling them. This has caused some controversy amidst the community. Most of this is surrounding the pedal assist mountain bikes. Recently, the BLM in Moab banned "motor assisted bicycles" from non-motorized trails. It appears pretty simple, the bicycle has a motor so it is therefore motorized. Anything motorized shouldn't be allowed in areas designed and permitting non-motorized use. Until recently I had the same sentiments.

My change of heart came from education on the matter as well as the type of customers that purchase pedal assist bikes. We have sold electric bikes to people that want to ride with their spouses/partners as well as people that want to be able to stay up with their friends that are strong riders. It's not fun for either party if someone is pushing it as hard as they can and the other person is holding back. I've been in the situation on both sides. We have also sold electric bikes to people that want to just be able join family on casual rides. In every situation these customers have been able to pedal a bike on their own, sometimes even on long and fairly strenuous rides. The difference is that they were able to enjoy the ride alongside others.

The key to a pedal assist bike is that you still have to pedal. You still get exercise. Often when people from the shoppe take a demo electric bike out, they come back out of breath. It's fun. When you have fun you forget that you are burning fat and energy. The electric bikes that The Bike Shoppe has carefully chosen to sell are all going to amplify the power that you put into it. When you pedal softly, the motor will give less power than if you pedal hard. Standing up to tackle a climb will help you more than soft pedaling.

Some people will still argue that they agree with me as long as the pedal assisted bicycle stays on the road. People that I've heard from think that having these bikes on bike paths and on singletrack is where these bikes are dangerous. If a bike is capable of going faster then it will go faster. This is the same mentally that would prohibit cars and trucks from being able to go faster than 80 mph and those vehicles would need to be confined to freeways. Regular bicycles are capable of carrying speed in excess of 20 mph with average riders and even higher speeds when powered by strong riders. It's still the rider that has to control themselves and their bicycles.

My biggest argument about why these bikes should be allowed on non-motorized trails is that they impact the trails more like a standard mountain bike. There isn't extra noise pollution. The extra power from the motor is minimal so it won't tear up the trail. Even a powerful pedal assist bike at 400 watts is slightly more than 1/2 horsepower. Professional riders can still outperform most riders with pedal assist. I feel strongly that we shouldn't ban anyone from non-motorized trails because they are able to produce 1000+ watts, even if they are doping. (That's a completely different controversy and blog post.)

My last argument is for those of us that have had significant injuries that kept us off the bike for an extended period. Having a pedal assist bike can get us back on the trails faster and at the pace we had grown accustomed to. However, it doesn't just get you back on the trail and limit you to your current state. You do the work, with some help, and therefore you get stronger every time you go out. Most pedal assist bikes have multiple levels of assist. If you work more yourself, the battery will last longer and you'll be able to work harder until you need some extra pedal assist.

Here is a great example from when Nicolas Vouilloz was returning from injury and needed to train.



Let me know if my numbers are wrong. I would like to hear other views.

Riding Gooseberry Mesa...On a Fat Bike...At Night

While helping out with the Utah High School Mountain Biking League Championships this last weekend, we visited Gooseberry Mesa Friday night. We had several bikes at our disposal, but heard about how the conditions were perfect for a fat bike. Transitions from sand to steep technical climbs are definitely best experienced aboard super chunky bikes. Because we had access to the new 2015 Trek Farley 8, that was our choice of steed. It comes equipped with through axles, 1x11 drive trains, and the first suspension fork designed for chubby tires, the RockShox Bluto. The only thing the bike didn't come equipped with for a standout Gooseberry ride is a dropper seat post. We took care of that before we left though.

Even with many hours exploring the Goose, it is a completely different animal at night. It is also drastically more difficult to follow painted dots when your vision is limited to a somewhat narrow beam of light. Part of the fun was the adventure of trying to follow the trail. Part of it was the adrenaline rush of stopping just short of launching over a cliff. It was certainly my best ride on Gooseberry Mesa.

I can't argue that I was any faster on the Farley 8, but I didn't feel like I was limited or disadvantaged when looking at the overall experience either. We all had fat bikes, so the limiting factor was our personal fitness level. I knew that I would appreciate the fat tires in the sand and on the short technical climbs, but I found myself pushing the bike hard on the flowing singletrack and launching it off the ledgey descents. With the combination of hardtail efficiency and snappy handling plus the comfort and grip of super high-volume tires, it felt like I was getting the perfect mixture from the hardtail and full-suspension camps. I've ridden the Salsa Bucksaw in the dirt and whereas I enjoyed the bike, I felt you lost more than you gained with the rear suspension. That statement may have you questioning if my "everyday" mountain bike is a rigid steel frame or even short travel XC racer, but the last two seasons I've been on a Yeti SB-66 and currently am on a 650b Trek Slash 9. I definitely appreciate suspension, but with the efficiency lost with the extra drag and undamped squish of the behemoth tires I feel like the more lively pedaling of a hardtail accentuates the fun.

I'm not a climber, as illustrated by my choice of primary bikes, but riding a fat bike makes the technical climbs fun. (Note that I specified technical, long sustained climbs will never be fun.) I found myself retrying any climb I wasn't able to make. However, especially as the night carried on, even more often I found myself making the climbs. Even after we came down through Hidden Canyon and rode the jeep road back, we were boosting off of the rocks and ledges. We pushed pedaled hard on the wide dirt road because we were still having fun. The Farley 8 welcomed wheelies and manuals, albeit short wheelies and manuals limited by rider talent. When we arrived back at the truck I was on a euphoric high which was only intensified by the sky's absence of light pollution. It doesn't matter how many times I see the Milky Way, it is always amazing.

I will spend a fair amount of time on my personal Trek Farley this winter, but it may see as many trips down south as my main bike and roll some sand and slickrock. Plus, the slower nature of the Farley allowed us to see a ferret. (At least I'm convinced it was a ferret, others have argued it was a weasel.) The fat tires are drastically more stable and allow you to explore if you choose to investigate some eyes glowing from your lights.

A fat bike can't be my only bike...yet, but I can now better understand the mindset of the heavily bearded.