Canceled Turquoise Lake Ride July 15

Hello Summit Bikers,

 

Sorry but there is a very good chance of rain tomorrow so the Turquoise Lake Ride July 15 is canceled.  Next weeks ride is to Ute Pass with ice cream afterward.  More details to follow.

 

John Bowyer

Turquoise Lake Ride July 15

This was sent last Monday.  Not sure what happened.

Hello Summit Bikers,

 

Next weeks ride takes us out of the county to Turquoise Lake near Leadville.  This is beautiful ride with great views of the lake and the mountains around it.  Please be ready to ride at 10 am.  We will meet at the Maid of Erin parking area.  To get there take route 91 at the Copper exit toward Leadville.  As you enter Leadville there will be a Safeway on your right and a stop light.  Take a right at the stop light (Mountain View Drive) and follow the signs toward the golf course.  As you near the golf course there are signs for Turquoise Lake.  Follow these until you reach road 9C, take a right here and the Maid of Erin Parking area is on the left.  (If you reach the dam you have driven past the turn.)  There is a $5 fee, reduced for those with Access Cards.  Fee envelopes are available as you enter the parking area.  Please bring a pen to complete the envelope.  If this area is full there is free parking near the dam (which is a short bike ride or walk back to the picnic area).  To reach the dam go out of the Maid of Erin parking area and take the first right, go past the road you drove in on and park on the right just before the dam.  To walk back to the picnic area after the ride follow the path along the lake, it takes about 5 minutes.

 

I normally ride counter clockwise, control my speed and look ahead for potential problems.  Since this is a circle those that want  a shorter ride should plan to turn around.

 

We will have a grill at the picnic area so plan to bring something to cook for lunch as well as something to share with your friends and a drink. 

 

Since this out of the County we will start slightly latter.  Those that would like to car pool are encouraged to meet at the west end of Frisco in the parking lot at 8:45.

 

Ride safe and have fun!

 

John Bowyer

 

 

 

Vail Pass Slick Striping

There have been reports of a number of bike accidents attributable to the yellow paint striping being very slick on the recently resurfaced Vail/Eagle County side of the Vail Pass path.

We checked with Summit County Open Space and Trails about the issue. They said CDOT apparently used an epoxy paint on the Vail side but plan to use "regular" paint on the Summit County side this fall in accordance with Summit County's normal practice.

Let's hope this is correct and PLEASE BE VERY CAREFUL descending toward Vail; particularly, if the pavement is damp.

Mountain Bike Crossover Day Correction

Hello Summit Bikers,

We will have a crossover trail day on Friday, August 2 in the morning for any one wanting to give mountain biking a try. Working with the Summit Mountain Bike Group (SMBG) we have selected a trail on the Peninsula which should provide beginners with a good experience. The plan is meet with those people interested and fit them to a bike and to send out riders with an experienced person in groups of four or five. The hope is to give people an introduction to mountain biking without a lot of rocks and climbing to hopefully get some people interested in doing this as well as road riding. The ride will be relatively slow over good terrain so pads will not be needed, although if you want to wear them feel free. The SMBG has various levels, depending on ability so everyone does not have to capable of charging up and down hills at high speed. Much like the road group riders are a little older, so we do not behave like you may have seen at the ski areas with full armor flying down the mountain. In fact, many of the road bikers also do mountain biking as a change of pace, and I think everyone will find the mountain bike group is very friendly and always ready to help one another.

If you tried mountain biking years ago the equipment has changed drastically (disk brakes, better shocks, 29 inch wheels) and it may be worth another try.

The next step is to identify how many people are likely to attend, so if interested please respond back to me at bikebreck@yahoo.com. If you are interested but just can not do August 2 let me know and we will see if something can be worked out for a different day and time. We hope to have enough bikes on loan to cover those wanting to try this.

John Bowyer

Mountain Bike Crossover Day

Hello Summit Bikers,

We will have a crossover trail day on Friday, August 3 in the morning for any one wanting to give mountain biking a try. Working with the Summit Mountain Bike Group (SMBG) we have selected a trail on the Peninsula which should provide beginners with a good experience. The plan is meet with those people interested and fit them to a bike and to send out riders with an experienced person in groups of four or five. The hope is to give people an introduction to mountain biking without a lot of rocks and climbing to hopefully get some people interested in doing this as well as road riding. The ride will be relatively slow over good terrain so pads will not be needed, although if you want to wear them feel free. The SMBG has various levels, depending on ability so everyone does not have to capable of charging up and down hills at high speed. Much like the road group riders are a little older, so we do not behave like you may have seen at the ski areas with full armor flying down the mountain. In fact, many of the road bikers also do mountain biking as a change of pace, and I think everyone will find the mountain bike group is very friendly and always ready to help one another.

If you tried mountain biking years ago the equipment has changed drastically (disk brakes, better shocks, 29 inch wheels) and it may be worth another try.

 

The next step is to identify how many people are likely to attend, so if interested please respond back to me at bikebreck@yahoo.com. If you are interested but just can not do July 19 let me know and we will see if something can be worked out for a different day and time. We hope to have enough bikes on loan to cover those wanting to try this.

John Bowyer

July 8 Ride

Hello Summit Bikers,

 

For those that did not make last weeks technical talk you missed a fine breakfast and excellent technical talk.  Stewart did ask me to remind those people voting in the Summit Daily poll to keep Team Manager in mind this year for best bike shop.  Team Managers will also be doing afternoon rides starting this Wednesday July 3 at 5 pm and all Summit Biking is invited.  It is a good opportunity to ride with a bike tech that and talk about things that you want to know but were afraid to bring up in front of a group.

 

We will once again venture outside Summit County to East Vail and attempt once again to either do the Vail Pass or Vail Trail. See what our side of Vail Pass is going to look like once all the work by CDOT is completed. The ride will be from Big horn Park in East Vail, starting at 9:30am.  There will be a grill available so plan to bring something to cook, a drink and a dish to share with your friends. For those who would like to car pool meet at the west end of Frisco at the parking lot at 8:45 am.  Multiple rides are available from Big Horn, including West Vail Pass and the Vail Trail trough Vail and on to Minturn.

Directions to Big Horn Park: Go West to exit 180 in East Vail. Get off on the right and turn left going under I-70 on Bighorn Road. Go right on Streamside Circle. Stay on Streamside Circle and turn right on Meadow Drive. Bighorn Park is on the left ahead.

Remember the tourist are in town, slow down and do not cut corners.  Use those hand signals, especially in group rides and ride safe.

John Bowyer

July 1 Bike Ride

Hello Summit Bikers;

Next week July 1 we will have arranged technical talk from Team Managers prior to our weekly ride. This year I have asked Brad to discuss what to look for to know you should get your bike in for a tune. If we have time I will have him go over the use of hand signals again, as this is something we should be using for safety.

Plan to meet at Team Managers in Frisco at 8:45. Team Managers is located across from the Holiday Inn off the Dillon Dam Road in Frisco. The discussion will be in the shop so leave the bikes outside. At approximately 9:30 we will prepare for the ride around the Dillon reservoir.  Since there is not a good place to do lunch we can move to the Dillon Amphitheater for lunch around noon.  Bonnie will have a fire for us, so bring something to cook and something to share with others. 

 

Plans are being discussed for two exciting events this year.  One we hope to have bicycle trail day at Team Managers, possibly with Fuji bikes.  More details to follow.  The other event is an opportunity to try mountain biking for a day.  Details are being worked out with the mountain bike group.  My thought is to go on a simple trail where people who have never tried mountain biking can give it a try.  We hope to have the mountain bike group loan us bikes for the day, with the road people trading their bikes to them.  We hope to do this in July on a day other than a Monday.

 

I need your help as a few spots need to still be filled for volunteers on the July 13 or 14 for the triple bypass.  If you have thought about helping but waited now is the time as the schedule will be put together next week.  Duties are easy and will be limited to three hour shifts. 

 

Ride safe!

 

John Bowyer 

 

 

June 24 Ride

Hello Summit Bikers,

 

This weeks ride will be from the Dillion Amphitheater parking lot to Montezuma.  Some of you may want to do the climb either to A-Basin or Loveland Pass.  Both of these rides are on the roads so stay to the right and be cautious.  For those that prefer to stay on the bike paths other rides are possible.  We will meet in the parking lot ready to go at 9:30 am.  Bonnie will have the grill going so bring something to cook as well as to share after the ride.  As always bring what you prefer to drink.

 

Help is still needed for the triple bypass ride July 13 and 14.  Volunteers will work only a three hour shift (possibly split between the two days) and will receive lunch at the CTS ride as well as a ticket to a Rockies baseball game.

 

In case of a breakdown on the day of the ride call my cell number is 970-393-2190.

 

Ride safe and have fun!

 

John Bowyer

New Season!

Spring and warmer weather has FINALLY arrived in Summit County and our weekly group rides are underway. Visit the Group Rides page on our website for a calendar of our plans. Take a look also at our Youth Program series underway again this summer. All our members are invited - indeed encouraged - to join them whenever you are looking for another ride opportunity. 

It's also the time of the year for membership renewals. Please take a moment and go to the Membership page on our site to renew your membership for 2013. Dues are unchanged from the last two years; remaining a very modest $10 for an individual or $15 for a couple. Paypal, credit cards or checks are accepted. 

There are 423 Yahoo Groups members receiving this email compared to only 200 or so dues paying Summit Biking members the last few years. It would be spectacular if all the Yahoo Group members receiving this reminder would join to help support Summit Biking and our efforts to improve road cycling in Summit County. There has been some discussion of restricting access to the Yahoo Groups Summit Biking email list to current Summit Biking members if only 50% or so of the list members are interested in Summit Biking membership. Of course all club specific information is normally available on our website blog page or elsewhere on our site. If you are no longer interested in the Yahoo Groups emails and Summit Biking, you can remove yourself from the Yahoo email list by sending an email from the address where you receive these emails to summitbiking-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com.

Lastly, note that the US Pro Cycling Challenge is again visiting Summit County with both a stage finish and a next day start in Breckenridge August 20-21. That's the Tuesday and Wednesday following the Circle The Summit ride on Saturday August 17th and our group ride on the Monday in between; making for a great 5 days of cycling in Summit County.

June 10 Ride

Hello Summit Bikers,

 

Sorry about the lack of a grill at this weeks picnic but it was due to miss-communication.  Next weeks ride will start at Dillion Amphitheater.  Be ready to ride by 9:30 am.  The ride will be started by Steve Ladin.  There will be a grill for cooking.  Please bring something to share with your friends, whatever you want to drink. 

 

John Bowyer