Why so much dirt?

The dirtier the better!

If you are long time blog reader you will have noticed a definite shift towards dirt on this blog. Urban utility riding, road riding and road touring doesn’t get the same coverage it once did. That’s mainly due to my move from Calgary Alberta to Victoria BC. In Calgary I lived downtown and the closest mountain biking I was stoked for was 90 mins drive away and there was only a limited 4 month season each summer. That meant a lot more of my riding was on pavement and a lot more of my blog posts were about paved road missions.

Mood lighting…

Fast forward a couple years and I live on an underpopulated island on Canada’s far west coast with a lot of amazing mountain bike trails and logging roads to explore. I still use my bikes to get around town for errands or socializing, but I’m not as keen about documenting those rides. No real agenda here – I guess after posting so much about urban/utility riding in Calgary I’m happy to focus on something else.

Moss is good as well!

Now you could ask why I don’t do more road riding either for fun or in preparation for the rando season? And why I haven’t done a single paved tour in the last couple years?

The simple answer is that dirt riding is more fun than pavement riding in pretty much every case.

When I go mountain biking I can be alone in a stunning coastal rainforest or with a couple buddies. We rarely see/hear other riders and we have world class terrain to enjoy. No cars, no people – barely any hint of civilization other than the fact the trails themselves exist. It’s an amazing feeling to just forget about all of the practical issues of a modern life and focus on the simple task at hand – riding a bike in the forest.

So when faced with the choice of spending a few hours riding my mountain bike in the trees or doing a road ride around Victoria it just never seems like riding on the road is going to be more fun. Hence the mountain bike gets ridden and my rando bike waits for the next brevet to see action.

Beautiful…

The same principal applies to touring. Why ride along side a highway or rural road when you can ride a remote dirt road? There is a hard and fast rule about roads – the better the roads the more traffic you’ll see and the faster it will go. Governments only maintain roads that get used a lot and well maintained roads are preferred by drivers. It’s a vicious circle that sees the best roads used the most and the worst roads used the least. Nobody takes their vehicle down a rough/dusty remote logging road unless they really have to. That means you’ll see a handful of vehicles a day on a dirt road – possibly none as you go deeper into the spaces between paved road network.

What cars?

Yet with a well equipped mountain bike carrying a lightweight bikepacking setup you can move around on dirt roads and trails with the same ease a typical fully loaded Surly Long Haul Trucker rolls down a paved highway. The difference is you can be alone to a much greater extent and you can explore areas not frequently toured by cyclists.

Traffic jam on the Trans Canada Trail…

Exploring is what’s fueling my stoke currently for bikepacking. If you do a search for bike touring and Vancouver Island you’ll see that almost all the tourists stick to a handful of routes. Most of which I haven’t ridden! I’d rather spend my time looking at maps and trying to piece together a killer dirt touring route of the island than do laps on existing routes. It’s not as easy and sometimes your plans don’t work out, but you learn something every ride and get to know your “neighbourhood” that much better.

Awesome bike path in the mountains…=-)

There is a definite fewer cars the better message in this post. To be clear I am not afraid to ride on the road with cars. I am not a cautious cyclist. I’ll happily mix it up with rush hour traffic if I need to get somewhere. But the reality is that it’s not fun to be around cars even if they don’t hit you. They are noisy, smelly and I don’t like a lot of the people driving them. Let’s not stop at cars – I don’t love riding on bikepaths either. There are lots of idiot cyclists, dog walkers, roller bladers, joggers, etc… And let’s not forget Sharon had her most serious accident to date in a bike-on-bike collision on a bike path – so they aren’t necessarily that safe.

What trail?

The bottom line is that for fun I’d rather be outside in nature with as few people around as possible. On Vancouver Island that means riding dirt. So you are bound to see a lot more dirt riding on this blog. I’m not ashamed to be dirty…;-)

Gravel Pimping ain’t cheap…

My On One Scandal with Porcelain Rocket bags…

On our recent bikepacking recon adventure Scott mentioned that the white fabric used in my Porcelain Rocket bike bags was really, really, really expensive and that folks that were ordering their bags with that fabric based on seeing my bags here on this blog might be shocked at the extra cost.

So I’m letting you know that if you want to rock the white uber cool Gravel Pimp look it’s gonna cost you!

Same bags on my Surly Pugsley…

If you are on a budget he’s got a ton of different fabrics and can steer you towards something equally awesome, but considerably cheaper.

Personally I was a little shocked when I found out what the bags cost in white, but after having them in my hot little hands for a few months I’d spend the $$ and do it all over again. I definitely advise anyone wanting bike bags to skip basic black and consider a vibrant colour or camo.

Black is so 2009!….=-) It’s time to party like it’s 2012 baby!

Porcelain Rocket Flickr Porn

Santa Cruz Tall Boy bag set…

In case:

1. you are a bike bag porn lover
2. you didn’t know that Porcelain Rocket posts a regular stream of bag porn on Flickr

I’m letting you know!…=-)

Ben’s Porcelain Rocketized Surly Big Dummy…

Click on either image in this post to jump there.

Scott posts more than just bag porn. He’s got pics of his various bikes as well and the odd cute cat picture…=-)

Gravel Pimp – Extreme Recon

The plan…

The plan was to ride our bikepacking rigs from Lake Cowichcan along the Trans Canada Trail to an abandoned mining town called Leech Town. This is shown on the map above in green. This would allow us to jump on the Galloping Goose Trail just below Leechtown and ride home 90% on gravel/dirt. Even more importantly this would give us a critical link in an ambitious Gravel Pimp route that would ride the whole of Vancouver Island from top to bottom. The problem with our little slice of paradise is that it’s a narrow island with mountains that funnel you along certain routes whether they are going the way you want or not. So an efficient dirt route from Lake Cowichan to Victoria would be key for further exportation northwards.

What actually happened – click for larger version…

Things did not go as planned and I am sad to say we ended the day with 170kms on the GPS and no dirt route home…=-( What I can say is we tried really hard, but were denied at every turn! Don’t let anyone tell you the life of a Gravel Pimp is all professional photographers, diamond studded water bottles and bikini clad ladies. It ain’t true!

Staying toasty by the fire…

Sharon was kind enough to drive Scott and I out to the Municipal Campground at Lake Cowichan. The place was almost empty this early in the year so we grabbed a spot by the lake and lit a fire to hang out at while we drank some beer and solved all the problems in the bike industry!

Scott’s narrow room with a view…

Scott has a luxurious 1 man tent that packs up small.

Garbage bag with a view…

My bivy sack packs small, but isn’t very luxurious.

Scott’s Rick Hunter 29er…

Scott always manages to pack more gear into less space on his bike and have it all look so tight.

My Scandal 29er…

I’ve got half the stuff and my bike looks like it’s bulging everywhere it can…=-)

Excited to start the pimping…

We rode into Lake Cowichan and found the local grocery store was open early. Surprisingly it had excellent espresso which got us off on the right foot. Next up was getting on the Trans Canada Trail [known as the Cowichan Valley Trail to the locals].

This is what we came for…

The riding was sublime. Gorgeous country to ride through – easy rail grade undulations and nobody else in sight.

Pumpkin Pimping…

Several wooden bridges along the way gave us great views of fast running creeks.

Warming up…

The trail varied from dirt to gravel and back with wide open sections and narrow overgrown bits.

oh yeah!

It was so nice we let our guards down and the smack-down that happened later in the day took us by surprise.

Adding a bit of air for faster rolling…

We were on the trail early and cranking along at a good clip. So good that it seemed sure I’d be home to watch the hockey game in the early afternoon.

Kinesol Trestle…

The Kinesol Trestle is an impressive structure. The highest wooden trestle in Canada apparently. I kind of wished we had spent more time there to photograph it, but some times I feel like a slacker and sometimes I feel like I was born to ride. On this day I had ants in my pants!

Cruising the Kinesol Trestle…

South of the trestle we had another pretty chill section of gravel to pimp. Chit chatting and laughing our way along the route little did we know of our impending doom.

Stopping for a snack…

Peperoni, gummy bears, granola bars, M&M’s…you name it – we ate it!

Scott admiring his handiwork…

As we reached the end of the Trans Canada Trail we had a short 15km section of route finding we needed to do so we could link up with the north end of the Galloping Goose Trail.

WTF?

Back in Calgary Glenmore Reservoir is part of the city’s water supply. You can’t swim or let your dogs thrash around in it, but nobody cares if you walk, run or bike around it. So when we saw that the lake we needed to skirt on our connector was part of the city of Victoria’s water supply we figured they wouldn’t let you through with an oil tanker, but we didn’t think the would mind us pedalling through.

Scott assuming “the” position!

We were wrong. So wrong. Like Totally wrong. I figured even with a locked gate we could sneak past on bikes, but that was simply not going happen when we reach the DMZ.

Take no prisoners….

Scott wasn’t about to let a sniper in a guard tower and 2 dobermans stop him. He launched over the fence and asked me to throw him the Hunter. Before I could a black van rolls up and 6 masked security thugs jump out. Scott levelled 3 of them with his Porcelain Rocket Kung Fu, but the other 3 and the 2 dogs took him down in an EPIC bitch slap. At least when they threw him back over the fence I was able to catch him to stop further injury.

Happier times…

I didn’t have painkillers or a first aid kit so I treated Scott’s wound’s with gummy bears. They seemed to do the trick!

Time to work on Plan B…

We just didn’t have the firepower to break through the DMZ’s defensive perimeter. So we could either give up and go home or explore the missing map section and hope to find a route around the DMZ back to Leech Town. Battered and bleeding Scott would not give up so we headed north to loop around the DMZ [shown in pink on the maps above].

Logging road pimping…

This meant a significant amount of backtracking along the TCT, but the sun was shining and the skies were blue so our spirits were high. If you look at the map towards the top of this post showing our actual route the red line that heads south and stops is the start of the DMZ. The red line that heads west is our attempt to loop back around the DMZ, but as you can see there wasn’t much looping going on. Eventually after some brutally hot dusty climbing we realized that finding a way around was unlikely. If we had a topo map of the area our decision would have been more solid, but sadly I left that critical bit of the map book at home.

Lots of dead ends explored…

The valley we were in headed directly west towards Port Renfrew which would have got us home, but not without another night of camping. So it was time to turn back. Although that meant another round of backtracking it was beautiful country with very few encounters with other humans. Exactly what a Gravel Pimp craves.

It’s not hard to enjoy this…

As my trip computer on the GPS was climbing towards 100kms I was starting to realize that there was no way to make this a quick ride home.

Checking out a clear cut…

My bike was working well. I had added a longer stem for a stretched out position and the Porcelain Rocket bags allowed me to ride without having to accomodate my camping gear and food. So a few more hours in the saddle seemed like reasonable proposition.

Time for a soda break…

We hit 100kms as we reached pavement again. Our options now were either head for the Mill Bay Ferry and then ride down the quiet west side of the Sannich Peninsula or climb the heights of the Malahat with traffic roaring all around us and next to no shoulder.

Hmmmm?

We went with the ferry option as Plan C. On our way we stopped for a cold soda break. I gapped that the seasons were changing so my only top was a long sleeve wool zip neck. That would have been great 2 weeks ago, but on this hot day I was baking. Hence a cold sugary soda made me very happy.

Why is Scott angry?

Reaching the ferry should have been a happy time for us. We’d get a well deserved rest and the ride home along the far shore was topographically unchallenging.

But….

The fine print can be a bitch…

Neither Scott or I can be called rich, but we can afford the $9.20 ferry ride from Mill Bay to Brentwood Bay. Of course having spent our last $20 cash for coffee and food we only had credit cards and bank cards. No cash and after being beaten up at the DMZ Scott wouldn’t let me pimp him out to ferry passengers for a free ride.

So that left the Malahat. **sigh**

A little ‘schwacking…

To get to the Malahat we had to grind up a long hot steep climb from the ferry terminal and then bushwhack cross country  so we could jump a concrete barrier.

Not paradise for cyclists…

All that sweat and tears got us onto a busy 4 lane highway with gnarly shoulders. The photo above is the best part and far better than most of it. Not to mention if you look at the elevation profile on the map near the top of this post that last big ass hump is what awaited us.

Did I mention it was hot and we were riding during rush hour?

**sigh**

The only good part of the Malahat was looking over and seeing some ice cold water running down the rocks next to me. I stopped and poured handful after handful of water over my head. Washed my face and gobbled everything I could find in my bar bag.

That got me psyched for the last push over the top and the uber narrow shoulder on the high speed descent down the other side.

A Gravel Pimp happy to be home…=-)

At the bottom of the Malahat we stopped for another cold soda and a couple donuts at Tim Horton’s. That gave us the energy to crank back down the Galloping Goose to home.

Ride Stats:

• 170kms ridden [173kms for Scott who rode home from my place]
• Ride Time 12:15hrs
• Stopped Time 3:28hrs
• Avg speed 19.4kph

On the plus side we had an epic ride with great scenery and no traffic….until the Malahat! On the negative side we haven’t found a good gravel/dirt rout from up island back to Victoria.

Sharon confirming my loaded bike was indeed heavy…

A recon mission is only a failure if you don’t gather new info to plan future operations. By that standard we succeeded. We confirmed the DMZ presents an impassable obstacle and we confirmed that a reroute around isn’t’ straight forward. We also found out that if you want to ride the Mill Bay Ferry you better bring cash!

We still need a verified dirt route to Victoria so…

• we could ride bikes north from the Galloping Goose to Leech Town and try to recon a route to the active logging road we were on. Going from less used to more used routes is always easier than the reverse.
• we could continue down the active logging road we were on towards Port Renfrew and then ride back to Victoria. That will work, but it’s long-cut not a shortcut home!….;)
• I may try riding the logging road on my dualsport motorcycle checking out every turn off that might go where we need to go. There were a few low probability routes we didn’t explore due the the climbing req’d. I don’t mind twisting the throttle for a few hours even if the chances of success are slim.

Until next time – live large and prosper!

Surly Troll Rohloff Build…

Pushing Pedals Blog…

The Surly Troll is a popular 26″ bikepacking rig and some smart folks are building them up with Rohloff hubs. If you click on the images in this post you’ll be launched to other sites where you can enjoy some IGH bikepacking goodness,,,,=-)

Cass Gilbert’s Rohloff Troll…

BTW – Pushing Pedals Blog has a shout out to Porcelain Rocket that’s worth a look.

Congrats to the Rocket Powered Stagecoachers!

Stagecoach 400 Results Map - click to see live map...

The Stagecoach 400 is a 400 mile unsupported bikepacking race in SoCal. You can read the FAQ here. Looks like a challenging event! If I got my facts straight 3 out of the top 5 finishers were riding Porcelain Rocket bag equipped bikes. Congrats to the racers for getting ‘er done and congrats to Scott for his role in building race winning gear…=-)

A special shout out to Rick Hunter for coming in #2…he not only builds sweet bikes, but can clearly ride the hell out of them as well.

I’m no racer, but during my challenging rides I know that if I have to think about my gear I’m screwed. I can only put out my best effort if everything works and I trust it 100%.

Loving my other Long Haul Trucker…

Click on image for more info on custom Buddy Flaps for your fenders...

I recently posted that I was not loving my oldest bike a 700c Surly LHT. Having just installed some Retroshift brake levers on my 26″ wheeled Long Haul Trucker it has seen a bunch of saddle time and I must say I love it. The saddle, pedals and bars are exactly where I want them and the big balloon tires roll along like I’m on cloud. I’ll eventually take some measurements of the cockpit so I can adjust my 700c LHT to the same fit, but for now I’ll just ride the fat tire trucker and smile.

Profile shot...

This LHT is setup with:

• Schwalbe 2.15″ Big Apple tires
• Velo Orange fenders with some sweet Buddy Flaps
• Old Man Mountain Sherpa rack [new version]
• Velo Orange double crank
• XTR derailleurs and MTB cassette
• Shimano bar end shifters mounted on Retroshift levers
• Tektro 720 canti brakes
• Brooks B17
• Velo Orange stem & bell
• Salsa drop bars
• franken wheels I pulled out of the garage of which we shall not speak!

Protected light placement...

If you read this blog regularly you’ll know that my preference for bike tires has slowly move towards wider and wider rubber over the years. There was a time where I had a road bike on 23mm rubber and a city MTB on 25mm rubber. Today I wouldn’t ride those same bikes if you offered them to me for free! My performance road bike runs on 42mm wide rubber for example – yet it’s fast and comfortable enough to hammer out a 300K even with my pathetic engine.

So it’s not shocking to me that I am enjoying the 55mm rubber on this LHT more than the ~35mm rubber on the 700c LHT. For urban environments as well as the gravel/dirt around Victoria big fat rubber makes life better. There is no real downside at a utility ride pace to this big rubber and there are wide performance rubber options [26 x 2.0" Schwalbe Kojaks] if I wanted to improve the speed/range of this bike.

Those are some Big Apples...

Ideally I’d like to see 650B wheels and Grand Bois Hetres on this bike as I love how they feel, but I’ve got a limited bike budget so replacing some perfectly good wheels/tires isn’t a top priority. I’ve got some nice shiny Velo Orange 650B rims hanging in my garage so I’ll keep my eyes open for a deal on some disc hubs. That way when I do have a 650B wheel set I’ll be able to use it with both rim brakes and disc brakes.

Old Man Mountain - that's how I roll!

What happened to my Long Haul Trucker?

My Surly LHT with the Selkirk Trestle in the background...

I’ve been out of town a lot so far this year and have mostly been riding my MTBs and Bike Friday Tikit when I am home. So the other night I grabbed my oldest bike and jumped on it for a ride into town to meet a friend. My sage green LHT has been one of those bikes I’ve used to size other bikes I was buying because it fit so well and it was definitely in that category of “bikes I would never get rid of”. So it came as a huge shock that I was both uncomfortable on my LHT and didn’t enjoy how she felt to ride…=-(

Now logically I know our bodies and our preferences change, but emotionally I was just so totally unprepared to not be smiling as I pedalled this bike into Victoria.

Some of the issues are reasonably easy to fix. I need to move the saddle to get my butt/knees and BB into the position that’s comfortable and efficient. Then I may or may not have to swap in a different stem to get the bars positioned where I want them and I definitely will need to rotate the bars and reposition the brake levers. This is a bit of a pain, but nothing overly challenging. Give me a warm sunny afternoon and 3 beers! =-)

I wasn’t loving the skinny 35mm Marathon XR touring tires either which is also a shock as these have been one of my favourite for a long long time. Tires are easily replaced so other than feeling bad for not enjoying an old friend’s company I can get over this issue. Now I know 35mm isn’t skinny for a road tire, but keep in mind my MTBs run on 2.4″-3.7″ tires and my go fast road bike runs on 42mm tires – plus the XRs measure a bit on the narrow side so they aren’t a true 35mm width.

I actually came home after the ride in question and said to myself “I could sell this bike and be fine about it.”

Now I’m fortunate in that I have a 26″ wheeled LHT in my work stand getting Retroshift brake levers + bar end shifters installed. I just setup the bars/levers and saddle position to be comfortable/efficient so that’s not a problem and it’s running on Schwalbe Big Apple 2.15″ balloon tires. This should address all my concerns about my 700c LHT. I’m keen to get the 26″ LHT back on the road and ride both of them [after adjusting the 700c bike's cockpit]. A always assumed the 26″ wheeled LHT would be a bike I’d keep for 2-3yrs to compare wheel sizes after which I’d sell it, but now I’m really not sure which LHT will get sold.

If I do end up keeping the 26″ wheeled LHT I may forge ahead with the 650B conversion I had been pondering and perhaps even get the fork re-raked to lower the trail. That seems to be where my bikey preferences are headed.

Life is always full of surprises!

Bicycle Traveller Magazine…

Click here to jump to the Bicycle Traveller website...

You can download a free copy of this bike touring magazine by clicking on the image above.

My 29er MTB Bikepacking Setup…

My 29er On One Scandal mountain bike setup with Porcelain Rocket bags...

Okay first off I beter say that the frame bag you see here is from my Surly Pugsley and doesn’t really fit the Scandal properly. So don’t think if you get a framebag from Scott at Porcelain Rocket that it will fit so poorly. I just jammed the bag into this bike while I wait for Scott to build me a custom bag that will fit this frame perfectly.

The key to a great bikepacking setup is the ability to carry the gear you need on your bike with as little impediment to how it rides off pavement. You can fit panniers and racks to most mountain bikes, but they end up being the weak spot in the bike so you have to slow way down and ride cautiously lest you break something. Your handling is also compromised so that technical riding becomes hard to impossible. When Kurt and I rode our Pugsleys on the CDN GDR with racks and panniers we had fun, but I vowed never to bike tour on dirt with that setup again – unless there was some overwhelming reason to carry that much gear.

Same Porcelain Rocket bags on my Surly Pugsley...

You can see the same bags on my Surly Pugsley above and appreciate how well the frame bag fits the bike it was custom built for. This is a typical bikepacking setup and is designed to keep the weight securely attached to the bike as close to the center of mass as possible. The bags have a limited carrying capacity which forces you to load them with only what you need and the bike remains “thin” which aids in sneaking between obstacles and facilities the seemly inevitable pushing you have to do. If you are fast enough it also keeps wind resistance to a minimum.

So a word about why soft bags are such a great idea for a dirt road or mountain bike trail tour. Standard panniers and racks are stiff and heavy. They hard mount to your bike which means every bump gets transmitted very efficiently from your bike to the racks and then to the panniers. Eventually that will break something. Even if you are lucky and don’t break your gear you will spend your whole trip babying it always taking the easiest/smoothest path to reduce the beating your bike takes. With soft bags the attachment points to your bike are secure, but they can give a little which absorbs the shocks they see without stressing out and breaking them. The upside is that you can ride your mountain bike like a mountain bike while carrying food, water and shelter.

Seat bag...

Seat Bag:

• thermarest sleeping pad
•  bivy sack/tent [no poles]/hammock
• jacket when not being worn
• this bag acts like a fender when riding in wet conditions

Frame bag...

Frame Bag:

• bike tools
• pump
• spare tube
• food
• stove/pot/fuel/lighter
• mini first aid kit

Top tube bag...

Top Tube Bag:

• bike light battery
• camera
• snacks

Front roll bag...

Front Roll Bag:

• sleeping bag & spare camp clothes inside 10L OR dry bag
• tent poles outside bag if you got ‘em

Front bag pocket...

Front Bag Pocket:

• snacks
• cellphone
• wallet
• headlamp
• maps

Dinotte XML-3 bike light...

Front End Bike Stuff:

• Dinotte XML-3 900 lumen light [waterproof enough power for full night at low/high power for fast downhill runs]
• Ergon grips for hand comfort
• bar ends for extra hand positions
• 180mm disc brake to slow down on steep hills with a load
• 100mm suspension fork to allow for faster speeds on rough surfaces
• BMX platform pedals for lots of grip in whatever shoes I want to wear

The back end...

Rear End Bike Stuff:

• red blinky for nighttime visibility on the trail and road
• Alfine 11 IGH for wide range weatherproof drivetrain and strong undished rear wheel
• wide supple 29er tires with enough tread for loose conditions climbing
• wide strong rims
• 160mm disc brake [more than enough braking at this end]
• comfortable leather saddle

On the trail...

Stuff I need to add:

• water bottle cages on fork [w/ hose clamps]
• fuel bottle cage under downtube [w/ hose clamps] for longer trips only
• GPS [w/bar mount] when needed

Backpack or no backpack?

Backpack?

I ride my mountain bike with a hydration pack when on the trails. I used a slightly larger daypack for the ride out to the Sooke Potholes to carry water and some spare clothes. In general I think it’s better to keep the gear off your back and on the bike. Firstly it forces you to be ruthless with what you are carrying and secondly it’s much more comfortable. Plus it means that for specific trips where you need to carry a lot of food, water or clothing you have an option that isn’t already full of stuff.

I’ll be adding water bottle cages to my fork legs so I don’t need a hydration pack for fluids. I’ll be a bit more efficient about the clothes I bring and carry any spare clothes I am not wearing on my bike – either in the front roll bag or the seat bag. That will mean I can skip a backpack for most trips and if I really do need some extra cargo capacity I can add in a pack at that point.

Stylish and comfortable...

Clothing

It’s hard to be too specific about clothing since so much depends on where you ride, what time of the year it is and what the forecast is for. Here is a sample of what I might bring on a ride here on Vancouver Island:

• toque [never leave home without it]
• buff neck warmer
• sunglasses
• fleece gloves
• rain jacket [as breathable as possible means less sweat and you can wear it most of the time]
• wool top [maybe 2 if it's cool so I can layer]
• synthetic capris
• wool 3/4 tights
• wool leg warmers
• wool socks
• shoes
• rain chaps and rain glove covers

Gravel Pimping…

The Gravel Pimps at Oak Bay Bikes Westshore...

Scott and I have been talking about getting out and doing some bikepacking on the south end of Vancouver Island, but life has been getting in the way. So we decided to make a break for it when we saw a window of good weather Monday. With both of us busy with work our departure got pushed back until 4pm. In December that would have meant a 100% night ride our first day, but just a few weeks later we still had nearly 2hrs of daylight to enjoy from the saddle. We stopped in at the Westshore location of Oak Bay Bikes just to say hi and check out what they had on the floor.

What else would I rock for bags?

It got dark soon after we left OBB on the Galloping Goose Trail. We both had about 900 lumens of LED firepower at our disposal which we didn’t use at full-power given the easy terrain and our sedate cruising speed.  We wanted to hit up the 17 Mile House Pub on Hwy 14 for beers and burgers so I stopped a few times to check my iPhone. I don’t like riding with a GPS on my bars unless absolutely necessary so I had to stop and retrieve my phone each time.

Scott warming his hands...

During one of these stops I found myself at the top of a set of stairs [click here for a photo from the next day's return trip]. Scott wisely backtracked and went down the trail. I of course had to do a stupid human trick and decided to ride down the stairs. Now normally this would be no problem, but at night with a new bike loaded for the first time with gear and backpack, my weight distribution and inability to get back off the saddle because of the seatbag resulted in an over the bars endo/vault. Thankfully not very fast, but nevertheless I ended up with two sore palms and a bashed up elbow/knee on the left side of my body.

**sigh**

It’s been years since I’ve been even moderately hurt on a MTB so I don’t feel hard done by, but what a dumb way to get banged up. No heroic story of a 6′ drop off a skinny wood bridge while being chased by a cougar…just operator error!

Got gravel?

Luckily I was able to find a hand position on my bar ends that wasn’t terribly painful and we cranked along the rest of the way to the pub. Several pints of beer and many dead chicken wings later I was feeling better. I climbed back on my bike gingerly and we cruised the rest of the way to our destination for the night.

A room with a view and no doors!

I had spotted this shelter last time I was up this way biking with Aaron. Since only crazy people go camping in early February on Vancouver Island we had the place to ourselves and simply ignored the no camping signs. Yeah we are bad asses!

Low rent, hardwood floors and indoors bike parking - score!

The shelter was spacious and clean with great protection from wind and the inevitable rain that was to fall that night. Bikepacking bags only let you carry the bare essentials so we didn’t get up to much upon arrival beyond setting up our sleeping bags and munching on a few snacks. When it’s dark and cold I find myself very quickly jumping into a down cocoon! I told Scott he could yell and kick me if I was snoring too loud and with that I passed out.

Black and white On One Scandal 29er...

I woke up in the middle of the night and did a quick inventory of my aches and pains. Everything was feeling pretty good except for my left hand which was very tender and swollen. Not great, but at least I knew I could bike home with 4 out of 5 contact points on the bike feeling decent. Back to sleep I went.

Rohloff'd Hunter 29er...

I wish I had a watch in my sleeping bag as I got up at 6am [according to Scott] to pee and went back to bed because it was still dark. Had I known it was 6am I would have probably made a move to get rolling. After a certain point sleeping on a hard surface with a thin thermarest doesn’t provide much additional benefit.

It's alive!

It started to just get light at 8am so I got rolling. I fired up the stove and made a random dehydrated meal I found at home and some green tea. It was less than gourmet, but it hit the spot.

Minimal, but effective...

Water is plentiful in the rainforest so dehydrated meals are very handy if not the most delicious thing you can eat…=-)

Clean well stocked toilets...

Although we didn’t make much use of the campsite infrastructure there were lots of tables, water and clean toilets close at hand. Nice to see tax payer $$ going towards something I cared about instead of fighter jets!

Sooke Potholes Regional Park...

There was an old mining town a few KMs north from us and I had hoped to spin up there and check it out, but my hand was really sore and I decided it was best to make tracks for home, painkillers, ice and beer!

Scott loading my bike bags...

With one bum hand I was having issues loading my gear back into my bike bags. Scott was kind enough to help me out. Lucky for him I hurt my left hand otherwise I would have needed some assistance in the toilet as well….hahaha! =)

One last look back at our hut...

The scenery up this far along the Galloping Goose Trail is stunning something you can’t appreciate riding it at night.

Pointing our bikes down the map back towards home...

I was sad to miss the mining town, but it will be there next trip. This run up the Goose is our entry pass into a vast network of forest service roads. So unless we drive our bikes to a different starting point all our bikepacking rides will pass this way.

One of the many wooden bridges on the Goose...

My left hand wasn’t terribly happy, but as long as I lifted it off the bars before any major bump was encountered I was able to tolerate light pressure as I gripped the bar end.

Scott keeps it in first gear...

We rode down the Goose slowly in a light rain. Scott kept his back brake on the whole time just to get a better workout…=-)

Yo - check the Pimp rig...

Happily the wide 29er tires rolled well over the gravel/dirt trail surface making it an easy task to spin back towards Victoria.

Another killer view...

The spectacular views helped me keep my mind off my aches and pains!

My bike not looking so clean...

I was happy to roll into my yard and pop a couple Tylenol as I took a swig from an ice cold Corona! Despite my stupidity it was still great to be out on the bike on the South Shore of Vancouver Island. This ride let me figure out some things about my bike and how to best pack it for future adventures.

Nothing a quick hose down can't fix...

The Alfine 11 IGH and the 29er hardtail bike is proving to be a fun versatile machine that’s ideal for lots of different adventures. I’m going to take a few days off the bike to let my left hand rest and then I’ll be back hard at work wearing out parts…=-)

BTW – in case you are wondering about the title of this post we decided that “Gravel Grinding” sounded too boring for a couple wild and crazy guys like us – hence we coined the new term “Gravel Pimping”. You have our permission to use it as you wish!

Pugsley LBS Porn…

The window of The Fairfield Bicycle Shop...

Aaron [aka A-Man] Mankowske put together a sweet Surly Pugsley window display at his place of employment – the Fairfield Bicycle Shop.

Looking good!

My green Pugs is adorned with a nice set of Porcelain Rocket bikepacking bags. How can anyone resist the fat-tastic splendour of such a bike?…=-)

Hot from every angle...

Great work Aaron!…=-)

Hope to Homer Bike/Raft Trip…

Looks like a great time…=-)

Touring SA on a Pugsley…

Photo: Joe Cruz

My CDN GDR tour really opened my eyes to bike touring on a Pugsley. The big tires weren’t slow on dirt roads/trails and they provided some appreciated passive suspension over the bumps. Joe Cruz is a bike tourist, writer and philosopher who is touring South America on his Pugsley. That unusual combination makes for some very interesting blog posts illustrated with nice photography.

Photo: Tom aka Bicycle Nomad

The great thing about touring on a Pugsley is that it really encourages you to seek out the more adventurous routes where it performs better than any normal touring bike. It’s also a guaranteed conversation starter…=-)

Thanks to Aaron for sharing this link with me and thanks to Joe for demonstrating fat is where it’s at!

Weekend Mash Up…

Scott, Ben & I...

I had hoped to be surfing this weekend in Tofino, but Sharon’s got ankle & knee injuries from playing squash and I wasn’t motivated enough to spend the $$ to drive up alone. Ben was visiting Victoria so I went out with him and Scott for a few beers while we discussed world domination plans.

Ben and his Surly Big Dummy...

Ben rode his prototype Surly Electric Big Dummy Black Ops Urban Assault rig over to the island with some help from the ferry. He’s got a sweet bike with a Rohloff, e-assist and general awesomeness…=-)

What a sad day!...=(

I rode my Bike Friday NWT to the pub to meet Ben and Scott because it has a dynohub to facilitate lighting up the road. Sadly my 4yr streak of never having a flat on a Greenspeed Scorcher tire came to an end due to a beer bottle shard…=-( These tires have performed extremely well for me over the years and are all I use on my Bike Friday folders, but it was nice being able to proclaim a zero flat record despite so much urban riding. I was too lazy to actually fix the flat so I just pumped the tire back up and rode towards home – repeating that process 3 times until I got to my driveway. I’ll get around to fixing it on a sunny warm day.

Rustproofing my Pugs...

Friday was a rain-fest so I rustproofed my Pugs which was a very very very messy job!

Ben and Aaron at Fairfield Bicycle Shop...

With the weather looking grim I met up with Aaron, Ben and Scott down at Fairfield to get some supplies for my Pugsley rebuild. I must give the Fairfield Bicycle Shop big props for always having all the odd little bits and pieces that are a pain to stock, but vital to my bike needs. This time around they had a set of bearings in stock for my Pug’s 100mm square taper Phil Wood’s BB and installed them for me without hassles. They also had a Shimano 9spd barcon lever so I can complete a missing shifter set I had. Thanks Fairfield you rock!…=-)

Sharon sold her Mini Cooper and wrangled with local Honda dealers for a new CRV.

Goodbye little red buddy!

The Mini was a fun car to drive, but it didn’t really fit our lifestyle all that well or my tall frame for that matter. I called my position in the passenger seat The Praying Mantis…=-)

She looks so nice in white...

The Honda CRV will offer a bit more traction, ground clearance, leg room and cargo space without a punishing fuel bill.

Scott and Sharon trying not to buy any new bike bling at Fairfield...

We had a tasty lunch on Cook St at a Thai place Aaron suggested before heading home to wrench some more on my bikes and settle in for some Netfilx in the PM.

New flaps!

I put some Buddy Flaps mudflaps on my 26″ wheeled Long Haul Trucker which completes the Velo Orange fenders nicely while expressing my pro-pirate sentiments….=-)

Seriously?

Once we got on the pirate tip I had to explain to my cat why parrots riding on a Pirate’s shoulder worked so much better than a cat.

Whatever!

She didn’t believe me so she jumped off my shoulder in disgust and went on a nap-strike. Her “no cuddles for you!” message was received loud and clear.

What would Gary do?

I started the order process for a set of bags for my Surly Pugsley from Scott at Porcelain Rocket. Trouble is he has so many options that I tried to skype with the always fashionable Gary Fisher and get his take on what colours/options would best suit my fat bike. Unfortunately Gary was getting his goatee styled all weekend so he wasn’t available. I may just get on the Devo train and go camo for my bags….not sure yet????

I wish I was there...

This morning I’m drinking my 3rd cup of tea thinking about the beach in Baja while I try to decide if I am going MTBing or if I want to brave the cold water and kiteboard.

Velo Orange 60mm Stainless Fenders 26″

26" wheeled Surly LHT with VO fenders...

I’ve been riding and tweaking my 26″ wheeled Surly LHT project bike.  One thing it definitely lacked was fenders. In my opinion fenders make a bike look finished and classy fenders take it to the next level of sexy. I had been waiting to make up my mind about which tires to stick with and what size wheels I was going to use. I started off with 26″ wheels and 2.15″ Schwalbe Big Apples. I have a lovely set of Velo Orange 650B rims in my office that was thinking about using on this bike and if not some narrower 1.5″ slick tires I also considered as possibilities. If money was no object at the moment I would likely have gone with the 650B wheels, but that would require new hubs and a custom wheel build plus new brakes as well as new levers. That’s a few too many $$$ for me to spend at the moment when the I have wheels that work. I’ve decided the monster truck feel of the Big Apples makes me pretty happy and I have a 700c LHT with 35mm tires if I want a more speedy flavour of Trucker.

I managed a decent rear fender line...

Fenders aren’t hard to install – especially a set of VO fenders, but I have to be in the right frame of mind to tackle this job. For whatever reason I was in the zone yesterday morning so I got down to business installing this 60mm VO stainless ATB fender set.

The black and silver looks pretty sharp...

Stainless fenders are a bit heavier than their aluminum brothers, but they make up for it by being very stiff and strong. This LHT isn’t about being a featherweight or even touring across the continent. It’s about a practical, fun bike that’s ready to get stuff done around town.

Definitely needs a mudflap....

The Velo Orange fender kit comes with everything you need to install the fenders. It took me about 20mins/wheel once I got going. You can do it faster, but I recommend taking your time and checking twice at each step before you go on to the next.

Nice fender line and good coverage...

I do like a fender that follows the tire reasonably evenly. I don’t get too anal about this, but it’s worth spending an extra 5mins now for a great looking fender install you can enjoy for years.

Wide fenders for wide rubber...

The 60mm fender width is just enough for the ~54mm tires. Both the tires and the wide fenders give the 26″ wheeled LHT a purposeful look – kind of like an American muscle car. Both fenders will get a mudflap as soon as I decide what to use. I have a set of Buddy Flaps that I haven’t installed which are the likely candidates.

New bars...

I really liked the shape of the VO rando bars I started with on the LHT, but they were too narrow at the drops for my wide shoulders to be happy. Alix from Bike Mexico was complaining about her LHT’s drops and since she has narrow shoulders I gifted them to her so they would get to experience some Mexican adventures! Since I had a spare set of no name drop bars on my shelf I decided to use them for now until it makes sense to upgrade.

Downtube porn...

The other thing I wanted to change was my shifting setup. The downtube friction shifter isn’t making me happy with a cassette designed for indexed shifting. Unless I get the shifting position perfect the ramps and pins on the cassette try and “help” me by shifting the chain up or down to the next cog. I’ve got 3 options:

1. swap in a 9spd indexed bar end shifter
2. swap in a 9spd indexed downtube shifter
3. get a 7 or 8 spd cassette without pins & ramps for better friction shifting

I’m not 100% sure which way I’ll go yet – probably whatever falls to hand easiest.

Bike Mexico Tours…

I tour to eat!

Basil and Alix from Bike Mexico swung through Victoria a few weeks ago. I met Alix online via this blog and I know Basil through a couple mutual friends from my university days 20yrs+ ago. They are a couple of bikers who love to travel and love their bikes. They operate a cool bike touring business called Bike Mexico. Unlike a lot of bicycle tour operations Bike Mexico aims to give you a great cycling experience at a very low cost. They do this by providing only what you need [a couple of friendly guides, a great route and a bit of help with the language] and they skip the extras such as a cook, sag wagon, etc… I’m not dissing folks who take supported tours, but personally I have better things to do with my $$$ than have someone setup my tent and cook my meals.

On the other hand even an experienced Mexico traveller like myself doesn’t have the inside scoop on such a vast country. If I want to get the most out of a 2 week trip having the support of folks like Basil and Alix is a great way to ensure that each day is fun without breaking the bank and without having to spend a lot of time doing my own research.

A friendly local!

After chatting with them over a beer last month I said I would post about their upcoming tours and then I got sidetracked…=-( So the first one is literally around the corner…my bad!

Here is what Alix has to say about the Views of The Pacific Tour that starts 12 Nov:

“Is winter looking long?  See the real Mexico from the seat of your bike: beautiful beaches, courteous hosts, great food, authentic markets, breathtaking vistas.  Safer (and warmer) than riding at home. 

The Pacific Coast tour is all sun and beaches.  We ride rolling hills through quiet forest popping out to have a long lazy lunch and swim on a deserted beach before making our way to our hotel.  It is the perfect active “shoulder season” getaway.

Many of the folks who ride with us are experienced bike tourists who are new to touring away from their home country.  Others are well-travelled active people who are fairly new to bike touring and a few are worldly bike tourists who are looking for a little like-minded company without the fuss of finding good roads, places to sleep, and good eats.  We stress that we are not in a race, but enjoying Mexico from the seat of a bike. Touring with us is one step away from touring on your own.”

That's some lovely bike bling...

The Pilgrimage in Oaxaca Tour starts 6 Dec:

“The Pilgrimage in Oaxaca tour follows the route of hundreds of Mexican pilgrims over the sierras from Oaxaca City to request a miracle of the Virgin of Juquila. We pause to pay respects before dropping down to the Pacific Ocean at surfer paradise – Puerto Escondido.  This loop in Oaxaca is not for the uninitiated.  It is physically challenging and tests the spirit while serving up a dramatic variety of vistas and cultural groups along the way. One rider once called this trip “ultimate Mexico”.”

I like palm trees and sort sleeves in winter...=-)

I’m keen on trying out one of their tours with Sharon. We can carry our own gear and we can sort out most of the details of a trip for ourselves, but scouting out a great route and having some local support from time to time would be cool. That means a zero hassle trip to a new part of Mexico at a very reasonable cost. Not to mention Basil and Axil would be a blast to tour with.

Alix told me that they get many clients as return customers because they had so much fun the first time. I can believe that as they are fun to hang out with and very passionate about what they do.

Check out the details for each tour here:

• Views of the Pacific
• Pilgrimage in Oaxaca

Fatpacking Utah…

The Dog Detectives…

Cover Art...

Blog readers and bike touring ramblers Fin & Zoa have been writing children’s books based on some of their touring adventures. The main characters are their own dogs who travel with them.

You can click on the cover art above to jump to Fin & Zoa’s site – here is what they say about this book called The Great Grizzly North:

“When the Dog Detectives pedal into the wild woods of Canada they find a bully in ‘town’… a big, mean grizzly one. The grizzliest grizzly bear of all has stolen everyone’s bikes and turned the forest into a place of fear.

Jump on your mountain bike and help Detective Jack and Deputy Poco find the missing bikes in time for the Great Rocky Cycling Race. Along the way meet curious martens, feisty beavers and other furry Canadians.

The Great Grizzly North is inspired by the wild wooded valleys of the Rocky Mountains in Canada, an area with such rich biodiversity that it has been labelled the ‘Serengeti of the North’. The stunning scenery and wild animals of Canada are beautifully illustrated by Monika Suska.

This charming tale is an ode to friendship and to treating everyone with respect… even bullies!”

The authors and superstar dogs in action...

Fin sent me a copy of The Dog Detectives – The Great Grizzly North to review. My cat didn’t approve and I don’t have kids so I asked a few cycling friends with kids to have a look and give me their thoughts [thanks - Jo-Ann & Anna, Doug & Fiona and Mike/Brynne & Steve]. I’m reproducing Doug and Fiona’s review below because it captured all the feedback I got back from adult and mini-reviewers.

Finny [aka Fiona] says:

“read it again!” “I like the moose” [we saw a moose while camping in the snow on thanksgiving] 

“Tell Vik ‘I like the book’” “It was funny when the grizally [sic] bear went thud”

[Fiona focused much more on the animals than the bikes in the story, but she loves both]

Doug says:
I particularly like the way that bikes and Western Canadian animals (anthropomorphic) come together in this book. I am of course biased toward bicycles and animals, but I think this was a well balanced approach. Many of this type of books get sidetracked by trying to be too many things, this one avoids that by keeping to a single story line and not introducing too many superfluous characters. The illustrations to a fabulous job of filling in some of the back story to keep the narrative from getting too ponderous. This is a nice children’s story with a fun tone. There is just enough adventure to keep it interesting, and enough message to make it educational. There is a wonderful moral to this book with a delightfully complete absence of preaching and threats. I had a little trouble switching in and out of the rhyming sections, but after I read it a couple of times, it will come naturally. I am going to have to read this book about twice a week for the next few years and so I am really glad it doesn’t suck.

I read about 10 children’s books per day and I probably average 2 new ones per week so I am quite familiar to the genre. I like this book enough that I will be purchasing the others in the series.

Back cover art...

I went behind my cat’s back and had a read. I’m not much of a children’s book expert/fan, but the art by Monika Suska looked lovely and the book was obviously well crafted with lots of love for children, bikes and the outdoors – oh ya and for dogs!

Oregon Coast Dune Fat Tour

Click on this image for a full report of this Fat-tastic tour...=-)