Spikey Tires!!

Doug called me the other day and said he never knows what I am up to in CO cuz I never post. Well, it will be a bit before I can update for what I was doing in Janurary, but I can at least tell this story.
Thre are 18 of us headed up to Steamboat for 4 days of skiing. They are also having a winter carnival up there and one of the events is a mt bike dual slolam race on the ski slope. So I heard that best way to stay upright was to put some spikey tires on your bike. Too cheap to by some real ones, I made some. I tested them a bit on the frozen snow patch by my house, I think they will work pretty good. The race is Thrusday night, so I will let you know after the weekend.

On the single ply tire I could turn it inside out and put the screws in pretty easy. I just picked a random pattern that should allow at least one screw touching the snow at all times. I would prefer more, but that would be too many screws and too much weight. This one will be my rear tire.

Bling Bling 2.35 for the rear. One of the trashy tires I had laying around.

Insert a liner so the screw heads don't cut the tube. The liner is an old tube sliced open.

Slide the tube inside the liner.
The front tire is a Swamp Thing 2.5.

This is Front tire 1.0. I felt it needed more traction so I added another row of screws on each side.

Front tire 2.0.
In the end, I used about 160 screws. About 100 in the front and 60 in the rear.

December

December in Colorado was a little more disappointing than usual. There was just enough snow on the ground to make dirt biking and mt biking not too fun, but not enough snow to offer any good skiing.

Usually, we have a B-day ski day for Wayne's birthday, but this year it was a B-day hike day on Bergen Peak outside of Evergreen.
From the peak I could use m 8x zoom and see downtown Denver.

From the same place without any zoom, downtown is behind the dark ridge in the middle. Pretty crazy zoom.

Then after Christmas, Pam and I headed to Winter Park to meet up with her Aunt and nephew and niece. Her Aunt fell and twisted her knee pretty good and took the ski patrol toboggan ride down. I think she is mostly ok now, she was suppose to get an x-ray today to make sure things are as they should be.
Today brought 8" of new snow to Winter Park and we were lucky enough to get a piece of it. We didn't even know it was suppose to snow, so it made for a great surprise.
We made our way into the trees to find that it was almost waist deep, but with no bottom but rocks and down trees.

Wayne, working his way down over the rocks.

Pam, showing us how to keep our tips up in sketchy terrain.

Me. What happens when you don't take notes from Pam's technique.

Crack Pipe

After my adventurous ride last week, I found a good crack in the expansion chamber on the exhaust pipe of my dirt bike.
I called Wayne to ask about the best way to fix the crack. He said bring it over and he could TIG weld it.

Good as new. Then I put 500 degree clear enamel on it to keep it from rusting, hope that helps.

Then I put studs on my rear tire for snow riding this weekend. #8x1/2" metal screws. I hope they don't puncture the tube.

Sideways

Ever since I put the trials tire on my bike I have been dying to get back up to Left Hand Canyon and try this gnarly trail that Wayne took me on last year. We had to push and pull our bikes up over several sections. But now I have a new bike with longer wheelbase, better tires, and more power. Since everyone seems to have a job or a broken bike, I figured I would very carefully try doing the trail by myself.

A few shots of the trail.

The trail goes to the right, with lots of exposure pretty much the whole way.

Since this trail starts and ends at the top with the middle the low point, my approach was to work my way down the way that we went out, and each time I came to an area that we struggled with, I would turn around and try it. That way, if it was too much I would only have to deal with one of the problem areas, not all of them. This approach worked pretty well. I ended up making it past all the obstacles and making it to the bottom of the trail. Then I went up the way that we came in, and to my amazement, it was easier than the way that we went last year. After reaching the top on the other side, I went back down and up the way that I had come from. Me and Wayne had 3 areas that we really struggled with, this time the first area was much simpler, but still took some pushing. No problem with the second area. The third area, well...
(notice the little piece of white fluff below the bike, that is some of the foam from the seat where I ripped it open on the fall.)

Same result as last year.

So, lots of pushing and finally made it past. Only to struggle with one that I had made just fine earlier. This one was pretty tricky, it was so far to the side of the trail I could barely get it back onto its wheels without losing it down the hill.

The line was in the notch to the right. I had to lower it off that big rock and down to the left.
Once I had it back on stable ground, I started it and stalled it and fell over again to the downhill side. I was so tired by this point I could barely see straight. But, I finally made it back out.

Chicken Coop

Figure that I don't take the time to post as often as I should, so tonight is mass post night.

I went back up to Theresa's again this week and finished the Chicken Coop. I didn't do anything to the inside. That maybe in the spring.

Lane putting his head out the chicken door.

Still needs to be painted.

Barn behind the house. Angled to best shield the crazy constant wind of Cheyenne.

For Sale.

Pam's neighbor has had this car under a tarp since before she moved in 5 years ago. The tarp has been flapping in the wind since day one. It is a '77 Roadrunner that he used to drive back in the day. Today the tarp ripped open in all the wind. He sold the engine years ago and had plans of restoring it someday. I'm not sure someday will ever come. So I was thinking of putting up a Craigslist ad to maybe help the neighborhood out.

Moto Day

A few weeks ago, before the snow, Jeff and I went out for a day of riding. It was super fun and good temps. Probably Mid 40s.

Here is me at the bottom of a big rock slab getting ready to climb it.

Jeff rippin' the trail.

Climbing another rock slab.
These things felt way steeper than they look here.

4-wheelin' in the creek.
The way we unload the flat bed. Waitin' for one of those boards to break.