Dirty Rat

So I call this the Dirty RAT, its the RAT (Ride Around Timp) on Dirt only. Normally you have to hit a section of pavement going up to Aspen Grove but we cheat a little.

So we met at Dry Canyon and Jerod and Russ shuttled us up in their trucks to Aspen Grove. Then we headed up to the Lame Horse trail. That first part is a tough one, it climbs through loose rock while it forms several switchbacks. After a while it turns into some really nice single track and eventually spits you out at the Summit parking lot.

Once there we tried to catch our breath, well some of us, like me, I was completely out of breath as you can see me coming into the summit.

Birthday Ride

For my 50th birthday, I wanted to do a ride up American Fork Canyon. I really love riding up there and with the late melt we've had here in the Utah mountains, most of the trails have seen little traffic.

I met up with Jeff Hiatt and Bill Watson at 6AM at the split to Tibble Fork. We drove up to the Timpanookee trail head and started off.

The stream was still pretty high and was lapping at the plank bridge. That bridge beckons me to ride it, but I am too chicken. I've seen Matt fall off of it and I have nearly fallen off of it myself. So again I walked across the bridge and then got on my bike and then fell down. For some reason I couldn't clip out and with my foot bound to the pedal I fell over in a pathetic pile.

So we started off: for some reason I was in front and really I was trying hard not to slow any one down but I'm sure I did anyway.

At the turnoff to the summit, Jeff took this picture of me. Yeah, a 50 year-old who still wants to be a kid.



Our next stop was at the 4-way. The trail to Tibble Fork/Mud Springs was still closed due to wet conditions so our options were: 1. South Fork of Deer Creek; 2. Follow the Ridge Trail up to Chain Break and over to Mill Canyon, up Mill Canyon and back down the ridge trail.

Jeff was not in for the longer ride today so Bill and I went over to option 2. That was at 7:20AM and I thought: "Well, we'll be able to do that loop in like 45 minutes."

What was I thinking?!! Yeah, Mill Canyon was really wet. This is July 16th for heavens sake! But yeah even before we got there we went through several marshy places that we had to slog through, a beaver dam washout, and lots of muck caking our dogs up to the ankles. Then when we hooked up with the trail up Mill canyon there was a decent river flowing down it. But soon we left the riverbed and climbed and climbed. Bill was pretty fast, and I wasn't slow, but I must have been 5 minutes behind Bill by the time we hit the last climb.

Bill stopped at the horse trough and the last I saw of him was when he said: "Go ahead Steve, I'll catch up."

Well I don't know what happened but he never caught up and I had to high-tail it home because my wife had tickets to Harry Potter for my birthday date with her. I couldn't be late for that!

On the way down the steeper section before the split to mud springs (not from the 4-way) there was a huge mud slough that looked like pudding. I tried to ride through it. Bad idea. The pudding caught and held on to my front wheel and I endoed right into that mud mousse. On the upside it was a soft landing. On the downside, it was really hard to climb out of.

I did stop at the spigot at the Timpanookee trail head and wash my shoes, my feet and my legs. Just too much mud to take into my car. While I was there I guess I blocked the path to some motorcyclers. I thought they could get by on the right side, but maybe not. I should be more tolerant, but they really damage the trails. Mountain biking is pretty gentle on the trails.

Well that was a great way to start out my birthday, I'll have to make it a tradition!

Julie Andrews Meadow

Yeah, it's been a late spring. Even though summer is here, the trails are just beginning to open in American Fork. So I've got to admit, I miss Julie Andrew's Meadow. So Tuesday when Russ and crew went up there, I was glad to be in their company.




We had a medium size group: Russ, Matt, Lionel, Bob, Royce, Dean and myself. I'm not sure what Lionel is doing in that photo, but the rest seem to be singing a tune from an old musical.

I think it's time Royce either keeps his tires up to 40lbs or gets some tubeless. He flatted twice today :)

Here's Royce and Dean coming up the trail after flat #1

Chris King Warranty part II

It took about a week and Chris King did a good job of fixing my bottom bracket.

The BB arrived earlier than I expected. I thought maybe it would be completely replaced, but it was rebuilt with new bearings on the side where the bearings had been damaged.

It's back on my singlespeed bike and working well.

I was a little worried that Chris King would not honor their warranty but such fear was unwarranted. So if you're looking for a good bottom bracket, you can't go wrong with Chris King.

Chris King Warranty

My last ride of the season ended with a bang. Or maybe a crunch. I was riding up a fairly easy hill in Orem. It was the week before Thanksgiving and probably about 30 degrees so the ground was in great shape.

I hadn't seen anyone but just up ahead I did see a lone rider so I sped up just to see who it was, when my crank or bottom bracket made a clicking noise and got significantly hard to pedal.

I stopped and looked at it. Everything looked ok. Just tight and hard to pedal.

So I coasted back to my car, pedalling as little as possible.

I pulled the crank and looked at the bottom bracket.

It had a problem. Some of the bearings were loose and the plastic bearing cage was crushed.

The non drive side of the bottom bracket looks fine, although I haven't taken it apart. The drive side actually fell open when I pulled the crank off.



So I didn't get to see who that was ahead of me. Maybe next time.


Now, I know these are great bottom brackets, I have one on another bike and have been happy with it. So I'm not sure what caused this one to fail.

Now I will get the chance to see if Chris King really has a good warranty or if it is just a paper tiger.

I will report later on my success with getting Chris King to honour the warranty.

Timpanookee frozen loop

Thursday morning Jeff and I met and carpooled up to the Pine Hollow parking lot. The gate was closed so we rode the road up to the Timpanookee trail head.

We began riding the frozen trail over to Salamander Flat and across to the Summit trail.
We rode up to the Summit and although the trail had snow on it occasionally, it was very rideable.


From the Summit we continued up the Ridge Trail to the 4 way and down South Fork of the Deer Creek. That trail was primo. I love being able to drop my seat with a flick of a finger. That Gravity Post seatpost has got it together.

We climbed over to Mexican Flat and began climbing back to the summit. About a mile from the summit the trail melted from ice to mud and we could no longer ride so we bushwhacked up to the paved road and rode back to Pine Hollow parking lot.

It really didn't help that the motorcycles had churned the trail into the consistency of chocolate pudding.

I don't have any footage of the really bad mud here. But I have some video of the climbing up to the summit early in the ride. Notice the water running down the trail. There is also a shot of Jeff riding down to the 4 way.

SingleSpeed Friday

After realizing that I am lazy and can do most of the rides around here without stopping, I thought I need to build up some better leg strength. And all these fast guys around here seem to ride single speeds. What is so cool about that?


So I got a Niner SIR frame and started building the single speed in May. Six months later, I finished.

The crank was created from a Shimano XTR M960 Crank. I modified it for single speed use by trimming the four mount points to where they just fit the middle sprocket. This makes for a very strong, proven crank all for only 500 grams.




I built the wheel up using Stans Crest and Chris King.


I rode my new SingleSpeed for the second time on Friday. With Brett DeHart. He can ride the singlespeed much faster, but was gracious enough to wait for me several times.

Parked by the Gate before the road that goes up to Dry Canyon trail head. We rode the Bonneville Shoreline trail up to Franks and then up Franks to the Belt Route to the Altar. Then we rode Buckle over to the top of the Dry Canyon twisty decent and down to where we parked.

We started at 4:10 and ended at 5:40, a little slow, but we were in no hurry, this was a ride to be savoured before the snows come.

On Tuesday I had ridden after work for the first time on the single speed. I took the Meekonector from the Belt Route and I was a little faster, 1:24 vs. 1:30, but then again I was alone and didn't talk as much. Here's a shot of the bike on the trail from Tuesday.