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Active Expert: Gale Bernhardt

2 Posts tagged with the old_flowers tag

Last Sunday morning was our annual fall colors ride on Old Flowers Road. Ten people showed up at the 9:00 am start time with three additional people getting an earlier start. I did a really bad job of taking photos on this ride. If other people want to post photo links in the comment section, that would be great.

 

The only photo I have is the one below, taken with a timer. In hindsight, I wish I would have had everyone closer to the camera. Also, I’ll work on getting all of the names correct and correctly spelled. For now, left to right:  Doug ?, Dave Newman, Bob ? Todd Singiser, ?, ?, Steve Douglas, Mike ?, Doug ?, Scott Ellis, Ron Kennedy, Carl Ciacci, me.

 

 

The group ended up splitting again, with five rolling the dice on weather and doing the White Pine climb. The rest of us chickened out and headed back. Turns out the weather cooperated. I do find it interesting that there are days that I just don’t have the spirit to take weather risks, while on other days I’m the first one to say “let’s go!”

 

Another thing I find interesting is that there are some people that will ride great, no matter what equipment is under their bum. The shining example from this ride was Carl Ciacci, a former Villanova racer. His trusty steed for the day was Frankenbike II. Frankenbike II cannot be classified as a light-weight, ubertechnical marvel. It is, however, a glorious piece of work.

 

As the name suggests, the Frankenbike family is assembled from the parts from other bikes. Yes, bike grave digging that would make Boris Karloff proud. To be classified as a Frankenbike one of the rules is that if parts must be purchased, the total cost of the final product can be no more than $50. The financial limit is one of the things that makes building a Frankenbike fun.

 

Carl and his brother constructed Frankenbike I, which I haven’t seen, but can imagine it is a classic. I’ll try to talk Carl into posting all of the particulars about Frankenbike II and also send me a side shot of it so I can post it here.

 

Do you have some bike parts that could live a new life? A Frankenbike in your future?

1,152 Views 2 Comments Permalink Tags: old_flowers, frankenbike, ubertechnical

A couple of weeks ago several of us met at the Stove Prairie School, just west of Ft. Collins, Colorado and headed out for one of my favorite rides - the Old Flowers Road. It is indeed a road and there's no single track; but that doesn't make this an easy ride.

 

A good sized group of Steve, Michael, Ron, Dave, Mike, Todd, Scott, Mike, Bill, Mike and me started the ride. Yes, you read correctly, a four-Mike ride.

 

 

I didn't get a start photo and unfortunately, three of the guys - three Mikes to be exact - had to head back early. The sort of half-way photo is below with Bill F., Michael, Dave, Steve, me, Todd, Ron and Scott.

 

 

 

 

The spot where the photo was taken is the intersection of Old Flowers and Monument Gulch Road. We did some exploring in the Monument Gulch area before heading back.

 

 

Ron logged the ride and you can view it if you have Google Earth. (If you don't have Google Earth, it's a free download on the left side of the hot link in the last sentence.)

 

 

The file is attached to this blog. If you don't see the file, click on the title for the blog and look at the bottom of the blog.

 

 

If you haven't played with Google Earth, it is really fun. You can zoom in, pan the view and a host of other fun stuff.

 

 

On this particular ride, I was consumed by learning how to operate a new camera and didn't bring any gadgets along - other than the camera. 

 

 

So...I'm going to ask for some help from the other riders. Mike - you collected climbing data, right? Can you post how many feet we climbed in how many miles on that first section?

 

 

Others, how would you describe the ride? Can we get descriptions from both experienced Flowers riders and first timers?

 

 

On this ride, I remember Bill F. saying something about the second section of climbs, "You know it's steep when you can't keep your front wheel on the ground."

 

 

On a past ride, a new Flowers rider (Bill Beyers) turned to the group after climbing the toughest hill triplet and said, "Don is the devil." (Don was the guy that talked Bill Beyers into doing the ride. Don is also the moto specialist from a few blogs ago.)

 

 

Steve Douglas posted some comments in his blog. (Notice Scott trying to push me out of the camera shot? He is such a photo-ham.)

 

 

Dave took more photos too. Dave can you post a group photo at the beginning in the comment box? I think that's possible.

 

 

In advance, thanks for the help...

 

 

PS...Mark Kuusick: This is the ride we finished last year when we met you and your buddies on your self-designed bike trip.

 

 

1,235 Views 4 Comments Permalink Tags: mountain_bike, old_flowers


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