newsletter

We're trying to get this edition of the newsletter out before Joe goes on vacation and folks start taking case of the season's family commitments... oh yeah and before folks realize that it's winter time...

Just thought I would take this opportunity to remind everyone in Canada that I will be Mountain Biking in Cuba next week. 30 degrees, trails galore... I even found a trail listing in one my old MTB magazines! I'll make sure to get some pictures too... later suckers! (just kidding...)

Our local wrench will try to answer all reasonable questions related to maintenance tips and will provide one article each issue on how to perform some type of maintenance. Send your suggestions for articles to wrench@mtbkanata.com

Is your drive train just about shot from the mud of autumn? Don't replace it (yet)!
(sorry in advance to www.spokewrench.com)

If you're bike was used like mine, the recent mud has killed your chain, cassette and middle chainring. Keep them right where they are. Wait until the bulk of the mud is gone in the spring before you replace drivetrain components. You'll have fresh machinery for the best riding of the season!

I can typically get a full season out of a drivetrain (including the chain) if I tolerate the performance being just barely acceptable towards the end of one season (December) and at the start the next (March).

This tip isn't much good if your drive train is really, really bad, meaning you can't use any of the "normal" tips to prevent "chainsuck":
reverse the direction of your chainrings (if they were originally symmetrical)
file burs off the teeth (front and back)
or get really lucky and rotate the middle chainring 1 "bolt position" (1/4 or 1/5 turn) to change the engagement/release point under power

Also feel free to ignore this tip if your a reader from the land of the featured MTB Britain site... I've seen some of the video... "wait until the mud is gone" probably had you rolling around on the floor laughing.

"Recreational site for mountainbiking resources, with maintenance & repair, tips and tricks, current issues, and on-line store for mtb gear and accessories. Ride with us!"

The UK, small but perfectly formed is a great place to be a mountain biker. Within a couple of hours drive lie some of the sweetest trails through scenery of incredible variety and more mountains than you could shake a stick at. With our maritime (damp!) weather we have poor snow in Winter and almost no ski lifts. This means the British biker is a self propelled beast and rides often have a cross country flavour. Trail building is taking off here in a big way now thanks to the work of a heroic few (A.K.A. Daffyd Dafis and friends). This gives us awesome rocky single track through dense pine forests. Even in the wettest Welsh weather, these trails are fast and furious.

We ride on ancient rights of way, once cobbled now broken and cut by time and water. We cross barren moor tops on soggy peat that saps your strength and occasionally threatens to suck you under altogether. We ride on trails so wet you'd think them streams as we bash and crash over boulders heading downwards with the flow. Wales is my personal favourite shredding ground at the moment. Here you can go on a ride where you start from the sea, ride up to hill top lakes, and fly down rocky trails to lush green valleys. All served up with purple heather covered views of Cader Idris one of the most beautiful mountains on earth, and still be back in time for tea. To top this up, just down the road from here is Coed y Brenin which has miles of purpose built and fully sanctioned technical single track through evergreen woodland. Coed y Brenin also has waterfalls and plunge pools where crystal clear water falls in to deep cold pools, skinny dip if you dare!

The Pennines are a range of mountains running up the middle of the northern half of England. The moors here present a particular challenge, the bridleways are waterlogged, rutted, rocky and really quite fantastic. The views on a clear day are majestic, the weather on a bad day is fearsome, we've been blown off our bikes, faced horizontal hail, crashed through frozen puddles and as for the rain, lets just say waterproof clothing is a major industry over here.

Like I said, the UK is a great place to be a mountain biker!

Check out MTB Britain A UK based mountain bikers site with hundreds of high quality images in our features and over a dozen helmet camera videos to download. We have great tips for beginners in our FAQ and tips even experienced riders will appreciate in our main tips section.

The list of reviews is slowly growing... I can only review so much, so if you have a product you have reviewed, send me the details, and I'll make a page for it! webmaster@mtbkanata.com

The weather has been lousy recently. We normally have colder temperatures at night during November allowing us to ride on frozen mud - the traction is amazing! The first week of December was cold enough that the rain we got didn't evaporate but warm enough that the mud just wouldn't freeze.

Yes, saying it's too muddy sounds wimpy compared to laundry detergent and soft drink advertisement depictions of mountain biking, but the damage to both bike components and the trails caused by excessive use of the trails in the present conditions make it ill advisable. You can easily replace bike chains but being seen as the "force destroying the trails" breaks links to the rest of the trail use community that are a lot harder to replace.

The Decemberrrrr ride on Dec 2 fell victim to the weather but has been rescheduled for December 16th. Check out the "Event Calendar" at http://www.mtbkanata.com for details. Hope for freezing temperatures!

-Eric Twers

About the "Flat Tire Award":
You're having a great ride, the group is fairly well matched in skill and fitness, it's a social group, laughs are had by all... then it happens... someone gets a flat tire. Even the most social, happy group all stare at the ground and say "oh gosh" (Ok they don't say that, but you get the idea). Everyone will stop and offer to help repair the damage but it still sets the ride back. The award isn't meant as a shot at anyone that's got a flat tire on a group ride, the person getting the flat isn't (usually) at fault, it just happens. This award is so named because of the same "stare-at-the-ground-muttering-oh-gosh" that happens when someone close to biking does something really dumb.

Categories:
Least responsible statement or action from a member of an organized trail advocacy group

Since it left me with that "Flat Tire Feeling", the following is a description of the nomination:

If you're a member of the "Official" trail advisory group for the Kanata Lakes trail system (www.kanatatrails.com) you may have noticed that something you thought (at least I thought) could only happen in Marin county California and that you would only ever read about in a magazine, may be happening now in Kanata. Even though this is exactly where I would do it, I'm not reprinting any of the statements made. I will leave this at the point of saying that I've interpreted some of the remarks made to indicate the start of an access conflict between trail users.

If you saw the video, you'll know I crashed rather hard a little while back. It was a dumb mistake and a "ride ender". That happens, I'm nominating myself for the fact that after the crash I couldn't stop thinking and saying: "Coulda, Shoulda, Woulda".

For those not familiar with the expression, it's the statements of regret made after failing:
"I coulda gained an extra place if my chain hadn't come off"
"I shoulda run 35psi"
"I woulda been ok If I ate a smaller meal before the race".

I read in a (real) magazine once that a rule of etiquette is: after a race you only get one "Coulda, Shoulda, Woulda" then you're required to get on with life...

I know first hand how annoying it is when folks dwell on something like this. This self nomination isn't meant as a sneaky way to continue to dwell (I'm through my "Coulda, Shoulda, Woulda" phase on this one), it's meant to demonstrate "Coulda, Shoulda, Woulda", one the finer points of ride etiquette

Okay... so no one has a dream bike... that's cool... we'll start this back up in the summer. In the meantime, if you have a dream bike, send it to me (Not the bike!) joe@mtbkanata.com

Okay, it's my time to write about the website again... Things have been going extremely well! There are few mentionables this month. First, we joined a really cool Web Ring! You might have seen the ring listing in the Web Links Section... make sure you click on it and visit sites in the ring. It's really cool to see where other people ride, and what-not. Second thing, we are on a Top 50 Sports list! So make sure you click on the small banner at the bottom of the main page to vote for us. The more votes we get, the higher up the ranking list we climb!

Another good thing this month, is I was able to get the video section back online! I converted the server that holds the videos from Windows 2000 to Windows XP just for fun.. and well Windows is never the same one version to another... anyway, it's all working now, so download all the videos you want! We'll be adding more every month.


	In this edition: News From The Editors The Wrench (Maintenance Tips & Tricks) Featured MTB Website(s) Featured Product (Home-grown Spiked Tires) Flat Tire Award Nominations "Radio Free Kanata" Ride Review Dream Bike The Question - this issue The Web *News from the editors:* We're trying to get this edition of the newsletter out before Joe goes on vacation and folks start taking case of the season's family commitments... oh yeah and before folks realize that it's winter time... - Eric Twers Just thought I would take this opportunity to remind everyone in Canada that I will be Mountain Biking in Cuba next week. 30 degrees, trails galore... I even found a trail listing in one my old MTB magazines! I'll make sure to get some pictures too... later suckers! (just kidding...) - Joe Elliott *Wrench:* Our local wrench will try to answer all reasonable questions related to maintenance tips and will provide one article each issue on how to perform some type of maintenance. Send your suggestions for articles to wrench@mtbkanata.com Since our last newsletter we had no questions... This issue's "Sneaky Tip" Is your drive train just about shot from the mud of autumn? Don't replace it (yet)! (sorry in advance to www.spokewrench.com) If you're bike was used like mine, the recent mud has killed your chain, cassette and middle chainring. Keep them right where they are. Wait until the bulk of the mud is gone in the spring before you replace drivetrain components. You'll have fresh machinery for the best riding of the season! I can typically get a full season out of a drivetrain (including the chain) if I tolerate the performance being just barely acceptable towards the end of one season (December) and at the start the next (March). This tip isn't much good if your drive train is really, really bad, meaning you can't use any of the "normal" tips to prevent "chainsuck": reverse the direction of your chainrings (if they were originally symmetrical) file burs off the teeth (front and back) or get really lucky and rotate the middle chainring 1 "bolt position" (1/4 or 1/5 turn) to change the engagement/release point under power Also feel free to ignore this tip if your a reader from the land of the featured MTB Britain site... I've seen some of the video... "wait until the mud is gone" probably had you rolling around on the floor laughing. Coming soon: Not much... no one's really asking (m)any questions. Featured MTB Website(s): This week has two featured websites! I have been scouring the 'net for the best that it has to offer in Mountain Biking websites, and have found two that really stand out. They are in no particular order, http://www.mtbbritain.co.uk/ and http://www.webmountainbike.com. Here is the quick and dirty on both: *http://www.webmountainbike.com* There are so many things I can say about this site! It has links (to us!), picture contests, a cool webmaster and more! How about I just copy right from manimal himself: "Recreational site for mountainbiking resources, with maintenance & repair, tips and tricks, current issues, and on-line store for mtb gear and accessories. Ride with us!" *http://www.mtbbritain.co.uk* Here is a cool site from our friends across the big pond! Here is a write-up with a link to some cool pictures: (BTW: If this looks like something from Dirt World... it is.. but Gareth said we could use it)! The UK, small but perfectly formed is a great place to be a mountain biker. Within a couple of hours drive lie some of the sweetest trails through scenery of incredible variety and more mountains than you could shake a stick at. With our maritime (damp!) weather we have poor snow in Winter and almost no ski lifts. This means the British biker is a self propelled beast and rides often have a cross country flavour. Trail building is taking off here in a big way now thanks to the work of a heroic few (A.K.A. Daffyd Dafis and friends). This gives us awesome rocky single track through dense pine forests. Even in the wettest Welsh weather, these trails are fast and furious. We ride on ancient rights of way, once cobbled now broken and cut by time and water. We cross barren moor tops on soggy peat that saps your strength and occasionally threatens to suck you under altogether. We ride on trails so wet you'd think them streams as we bash and crash over boulders heading downwards with the flow. Wales is my personal favourite shredding ground at the moment. Here you can go on a ride where you start from the sea, ride up to hill top lakes, and fly down rocky trails to lush green valleys. All served up with purple heather covered views of Cader Idris one of the most beautiful mountains on earth, and still be back in time for tea. To top this up, just down the road from here is Coed y Brenin which has miles of purpose built and fully sanctioned technical single track through evergreen woodland. Coed y Brenin also has waterfalls and plunge pools where crystal clear water falls in to deep cold pools, skinny dip if you dare! The Pennines are a range of mountains running up the middle of the northern half of England. The moors here present a particular challenge, the bridleways are waterlogged, rutted, rocky and really quite fantastic. The views on a clear day are majestic, the weather on a bad day is fearsome, we've been blown off our bikes, faced horizontal hail, crashed through frozen puddles and as for the rain, lets just say waterproof clothing is a major industry over here. Like I said, the UK is a great place to be a mountain biker! Check out MTB Britain A UK based mountain bikers site with hundreds of high quality images in our features and over a dozen helmet camera videos to download. We have great tips for beginners in our FAQ and tips even experienced riders will appreciate in our main tips section. This small piece was accompanied by pictures, with large versions linked at: http://www.mtbbritain.co.uk/mountain_biking_the_uk_way.html - Gareth Robinson *Featured Product:* Home grown Spiked tires: Any responsible article of this nature would start with a legal disclaimer, so here it is: Don’t. Ever wish you could drag the season out just another couple of weeks? We we’ve found some of the best riding comes when the weather drops to -5ºC (about 25ºF). Our autumn gets rather damp and muddy making the trails anything but navigable and the damage to components and the trails becomes severe. So we rejoice when the mud freezes. We normally get to enjoy this trail condition on night rides from late November to early December. Unfortunately this year it has been annoyingly warm. The next phase of biking is the first few snowfalls. This is when there isn’t enough snow on the trails to make it time to start skiing but there is just enough snow to make traction once again an elusive commodity and to hide ice patches. What do you do? You watch bike videos. Idiots spike their tires! I’m not talking about the tires with small studs that are both commercially available and legally reasonable, I’m talking 26" radial saw blades! Note: I'm serious, this is horrendously dangerous. I’ve been fortunate enough to only suffer minor injury from the tires themselves but almost permanently lost some of my thumb while making the tires. This is being printed strictly to entertain, not to encourage imitation. Proper, reasonable, winter tires can be obtained through your local bike shop. How to: Don’t Get a pair of old tires Stop now Drill a 1/6" hole through the centre of large knobs from the outside of the tire, I’ve done 44 spikes in the rear tire (you need less there) and 216 in the front. Come to your senses Carefully screw #6x3/8" galvanized self drilling screws into the holes from the inside of the tire Now, if that didn’t tire you out (no pun intended) and blister your hands, stop. If it did, stop. Take an inner tube you’ve patched a couple of times and glue it inside the tire as a liner Hang these on a wall and don’t ever think of using them Things we’ve learned: Mounting and even making these tires can cut you rather badly Riding with these tires could be lethal (four words: rear tire, femoral artery) These can saw through wood (don't try it, just trust me) It’s a $90 fine for riding on the Rideau Canal in the winter time (you will get caught) Your flesh is easier to cut than wood Spikes add tire height and can cut into fork crowns (in case you don't care about yourself) Now go buy a bike video! Videos are a great way to see just how nuts the sport can get, listen to some loud, typically aggressive, music and keep from going insane while you wait for the snow to melt. Get one and watch it while your sweating away on the indoor trainer. The disadvantage to many of the hardcore biking videos is that they contain scenes you wouldn’t want to share with your family, but it seems that a ludicrous "story line" and filler such as idiots urinating, drinking, littering and generally just not biking is a prerequisite for mainstream videos. I’m not saying that watching an idiot drinking while in a moving vehicle and smashing the beer bottle against a street sign will undo the moral fabric of society, but if you have to negotiate the time you spend biking against the time you spend with your family, stupid videos don’t help. *Not Really Features, but Product Reviews!* The list of reviews is slowly growing... I can only review so much, so if you have a product you have reviewed, send me the details, and I'll make a page for it! webmaster@mtbkanata.com Review 1 - Sigma Sport Cycle Computer Review 2 - Total Air Fork/Shock Pump Review 3 - Hammerhead Bike Roof Rack *Ride Review:* The weather has been lousy recently. We normally have colder temperatures at night during November allowing us to ride on frozen mud - the traction is amazing! The first week of December was cold enough that the rain we got didn't evaporate but warm enough that the mud just wouldn't freeze. Yes, saying it's too muddy sounds wimpy compared to laundry detergent and soft drink advertisement depictions of mountain biking, but the damage to both bike components and the trails caused by excessive use of the trails in the present conditions make it ill advisable. You can easily replace bike chains but being seen as the "force destroying the trails" breaks links to the rest of the trail use community that are a lot harder to replace. The Decemberrrrr ride on Dec 2 fell victim to the weather but has been rescheduled for December 16th. Check out the "Event Calendar" at http://www.mtbkanata.com for details. Hope for freezing temperatures! -Eric Twers *Flat Tire Award Nomination:* About the "Flat Tire Award": You're having a great ride, the group is fairly well matched in skill and fitness, it's a social group, laughs are had by all... then it happens... someone gets a flat tire. Even the most social, happy group all stare at the ground and say "oh gosh" (Ok they don't say that, but you get the idea). Everyone will stop and offer to help repair the damage but it still sets the ride back. The award isn't meant as a shot at anyone that's got a flat tire on a group ride, the person getting the flat isn't (usually) at fault, it just happens. This award is so named because of the same "stare-at-the-ground-muttering-oh-gosh" that happens when someone close to biking does something really dumb. Categories: Least responsible statement or action from a member of an organized trail advocacy group Since it left me with that "Flat Tire Feeling", the following is a description of the nomination: If you're a member of the "Official" trail advisory group for the Kanata Lakes trail system (www.kanatatrails.com) you may have noticed that something you thought (at least I thought) could only happen in Marin county California and that you would only ever read about in a magazine, may be happening now in Kanata. Even though this is exactly where I would do it, I'm not reprinting any of the statements made. I will leave this at the point of saying that I've interpreted some of the remarks made to indicate the start of an access conflict between trail users. The following is my "editorial reaction" to the events of the nomination: MTBKanata in itself has always been rather quiet about any form of advocacy... the site is intended to be devoted to enjoying the ride. Along those lines, I'm NOT encouraging you to "take up the fight" for access to biking trails. I don't see interpreting this as a "fight" as being productive. Motivating? Sure. Productive? No. I'm encouraging you to get involved with both mountain biking groups or organizations such as www.NCMBA.com to increase their numbers and the strength of their voice and to also join multi user trails groups such as www.kanatatrails.com to make your voice part of their mandate... I still believe that we can share the trails without finding or creating conflict and resorting to exclusion. - Eric Twers Categories: Coulda, Shoulda, Woulda If you saw the video, you'll know I crashed rather hard a little while back. It was a dumb mistake and a "ride ender". That happens, I'm nominating myself for the fact that after the crash I couldn't stop thinking and saying: "Coulda, Shoulda, Woulda". For those not familiar with the expression, it's the statements of regret made after failing: "I coulda gained an extra place if my chain hadn't come off" "I shoulda run 35psi" "I woulda been ok If I ate a smaller meal before the race". I read in a (real) magazine once that a rule of etiquette is: after a race you only get one "Coulda, Shoulda, Woulda" then you're required to get on with life... I know first hand how annoying it is when folks dwell on something like this. This self nomination isn't meant as a sneaky way to continue to dwell (I'm through my "Coulda, Shoulda, Woulda" phase on this one), it's meant to demonstrate "Coulda, Shoulda, Woulda", one the finer points of ride etiquette - Eric Twers *Radio Free Kanata:* Eric and I have put the Motorola's through their paces, and they come out with flying colours! (well.. a sorta maroon colour), but anyway, the 2-way radio system has been flawless! Keep in mind, if you have or get a FRS 2-way radio, check out channel 13 when you are out on the trails... someone from mtbkanata.com might be there to respond back! - Joe Elliott *The Question - this issue:* This month's question is more of a request... The issue is environmental responsibility and trail sharing. As you know, Mountain Bikers are not the only people using the forest trails for leisure. There are many other people out there too! With all those people in a relatively small area... there are bound to be personal and environmental impact. Personal Impact: Seems every year there are a few mountain bikers, hikers, dog watchers and skiers that can't seem to get along. The bonus is in Kanata Lakes there are so many trails that people seem to spread out... it's only the main intersections that cause serious problems. I guess this issue can be solved quite easily. Be aware of who else is using the trails... respect everyone and their choice of activity (within reason... ie. pyromaniac's will not be tolerated). If everyone just got along, I think the trails would improve and the personal impact would be reduced to just the few isolated cases. Environmental Impact: So the trail is here today, will it be here tomorrow? Without any maintenance, the trails will either disappear into the forest, or erode away to a wash. This is something that will be different for every trail, but there are a few things which can work everywhere. First, don't cut down all the trees to make jump, ramps, obstacles, whatever... if you remove the trees, you remove the forest, and basically make a field. The live tress and their root system are what holds the ground together. Removing the root system makes the ground more susceptible to erosion and washing away. It's everyone's responsibility to make sure they make as little environmental impact as possible. Stay on the trails... don't bushwack everywhere... try not to expand the marshes by riding through them. Just my rant... being responsible is still up to all of us. - Joe Elliott *Dream Bike:* Okay... so no one has a dream bike... that's cool... we'll start this back up in the summer. In the meantime, if you have a dream bike, send it to me (Not the bike!) joe@mtbkanata.com *The Web:* Okay, it's my time to write about the website again... Things have been going extremely well! There are few mentionables this month. First, we joined a really cool Web Ring! You might have seen the ring listing in the Web Links Section... make sure you click on it and visit sites in the ring. It's really cool to see where other people ride, and what-not. Second thing, we are on a Top 50 Sports list! So make sure you click on the small banner at the bottom of the main page to vote for us. The more votes we get, the higher up the ranking list we climb! Another good thing this month, is I was able to get the video section back online! I converted the server that holds the videos from Windows 2000 to Windows XP just for fun.. and well Windows is never the same one version to another... anyway, it's all working now, so download all the videos you want! We'll be adding more every month. webmaster@mtbkanata.com.


	Make sure to visit http://www.mtbkanata.com for all your mountain biking needs! Please forward this newsletter on to any friend who you think may want to join! Any suggestions, or articles you would like to submit? Send them to: newsletter@mtbkanata.com Missed a newsletter? Check out the Archive at: http://www.yourmailinglistprovider.com/pubarchive.php?cosmicone To unsubscribe, please follow this link: http://www.yourmailinglistprovider.com/unsubscribe.php?cosmicone The MTBKanata.com Newsletter is © 2001 MTBKanata.com. All Rights Reserved. No part of this Newsletter may be reproduced in whole or in part without written permission. All guest articles are copyright their respective owners and are reproduced with permission.