Dirty Overnighter

I was really lucky to be invited out for a camping trip this weekend. Fall is nipping hard at our heels but it was incredible and sunny out there for the ride. We camped at Steep Ravine, an awesome spot just south of Stinson Beach. There's a nice grocery in Stinson so you really didn't need to carry much by way of food and beer. The best part about the route is that you can make it at least half way on the dirt riding the Headlands to Tennessee valley and then climbing up and over to Muir Beach. From there you're stuck on the road, but it's a killer section and the traffic was light when I hit it at 5pm. 

Tam from the trail

View from the trail just before the descent into Muir Beach.

The descent has some roller coaster-like burms as you come down to the beach and I realized that the marshmallowy feeling I was getting was a mixture of bliss and my nearly flat rear tire. I couldn't ask for a nicer place to change tubes.

Back on the 1

Eeking in at sunset

fogged in morning

Summiting

On the road with the crew

This thing saved me on this trip. It's a old down jacket thrifted for 4 bucks with a big duct tape patch on it. I'm posting about it because it was made in that era when a bunch of small California companies started making rad outdoor gear. This thing is probably 20 years old and is just as useful today as it was designed to be back then. It seemed like a treasure when I found it, a little like those old mtbs...

The label inside says it's from Fresno

this is a nice detail, I'll need to write my name on it asap!

France, Germany, USA

I recently got back from a little trip to see family and bikes in Europe.

French bikes street scene, a nothing fancy VTT.

the luggy champ

le pizza seat

Great names

There were some real gems too, like this one. It was unbranded, or at least repainted. It had amazing brakes!

Sorry about the non-drive side...novice stuff

Then some stuff from Germany.

Where did you leave my Fashion bike Skully?

This is the faceplate on a Konrad, the local bike share in Kassel. Nice technique to keep the parts on the bike. I met a nice guy in SF who sells a similar thing that he calls Bicycle Bolts, smart parts!

Thun

Der

Bird.

Germans have the smartest bikes! It's crazy, it seemed like everyone had fenders and generator hubs, racks, all the good stuff. I'm jealous y'all. This thing below is a Patria. I'd never heard of it but saw another one in a bike shop that was the touring model, also lugged. Very cool. They even make a rigid mtb.

Inspired flipped bars

This is not a bike. It's my friend's new house.

And nearby I spotted this rusting in peace.

pump peggin'

fast backin'

The choromed fork was snapped off...

some crusades stuff...lantern mount?

After that I was looking everywhere for bikes!

Back home we finished up this long forgotten project. It's an 84 Stumpy that you might remember from posts of the past finally built up right. (larger tires forthcoming)

Dirt riser with Bar Cons from Brian's MB1

Newer better brakes

nicer cockpit setup for a dirt tour style

Schredders last ride

Sunday was one of our solid Dirt Owl's last rides before he heads off to shred the gnarly streets of his new home in Brooklyn. Many a muddy tear was shed.


The fat tires all lined up ready for the ride. My Diamondback is center sandwich here and you can get a nice view of it's ugly replacement fork. Awhile back I bent the lugged original fork about mid-way up the steer tube, right at the TANGE stamp. I fixed it once but it just bent back and so I had to replace it. It kind of reminds me of how the early klunker bikes were breaking all the time and the parts for those bikes were hard to find. It's hard to find threaded mtb forks with a 9" steerer! Many of the bikes we are riding are 25+ years old and that old steel has it's limits.  At the same time though, these bikes are just production models and that gives us a kind of freedom to ride them hard, and when things break it's a bummer but it's not the end of the world. Now if we rode Ritcheys and Potts it might be a different story...

Here we are taking our training really seriously. You can see Jon just pounding that can of Gu here, and he's just got his jersey all unzipped because he's overheating from hammering out the miles during the last interval. It's all about performance...

Little meeting at the Wizard's staircase

It's seems like we were just standing around in all these pics but we rode our bikes too. We managed to hit Redwood, Joaquin, and Chabot. Shred on shredder!

Birthday trippin'

Quickie overnighter to Angel Island for a double birthday thing. I'd been before but what a radical place!

Loaded

 

camping scene

This is the underside supports for an old water tower. It was a maze of old redwood rotting in peace.

a forest find

ol' wrinkly head

Goofballs spring break 2012!

This tree is still blowing my mind

Abandoned stuff

Sf beach scene

This blown-out pic kinda grasps the feeling.

One of the buildings was open and welcoming.

Gnartopia

Stumpy brothers

Horned owl bro. I don't know how it is that it's eye is glowing, but I'm not gonna ask any questions.

sunset and fog dawn

It was crazy nice out the next day.