Passion Trail Bikes, Belmont, CA - specialists in quality bike service and custom-built mountain bikes: Category People

Ride Day 2, First Day at Baldface

Charles — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 06:12:00 +0000

We have completed our second day riding in the Nelson area, both in town, as well as from the Baldface Lodge 4000 feet above town. While we originally found Canada a smaller place than originally stated (metric conversion conspiracy. Every thing in Canada is about 1/3 closer than it sounds), we have found the 4000 foot drop into town is at least 5000 feet, and a “full day” of riding can be had by noon.

Our group started with 14 eager campers, and a 45 minute push from the Lodge up to Cherry Tops, because the aforementioned 4000 feet evidently wasn’t, by local standards, enough. Our guide today was some available local named Mike, and we followed him to the best of our ability down High Man to Swamp Donkey. The best of our ability turned out to be better than the ability of at least six of the riders in our group, and they got on a truck at mid mountain. Four were never seen again.

After leaving Swamp Donkey, we proceeded to climb Shannon Road and the descending resumed down the Shannon Trail. We popped out back in town to meet our shuttle van and about half of the remaining group had had enough. We all might have been happy to head back up to the lodge for massages, meals, and showers, but since it was raining, and we were in BC, we did as any local would do, and went for coffee, with just about every other person within 5 or so miles, er, kilometers.

After loading up on caffeine courage, we decided one more loop was in order, and we shuttled half way back up the mountain to drop Placenta Decenta, to Skiers Right. We had been experiencing a positive decline in the days activities, in that as we got more tired and hammered from rocks, drops, and ill timed tree huggings, the technical difficulty of the trails also subsided. These two last drops were no exception to that rule, so by the time we rolled off the last section of trail, we were riding something akin to a California double black diamond, or what here would be considered a blue trail. We also rolled off the trail completely stoked, with more energy than we had at the beginning of our rally and second loop. We did not, however, rally for a third, and instead stopped into the Sacred Ride bike shop in town to grab some shorter stems, and a crankset for one rider that had ridden his XC crank to its limit. While some shopped at Sacred, others grabbed a case of beer to sustain us for the at least 60 minutes of dirt road between us and the Lodge. Needless to say, we did not unload any beer at the Lodge, only empties.

The massages here at $110 per hour appear to be a good value, the meals plentiful and not too large for our eyes, and the couches, beds, chairs, and in one case floor, are very comfortable. We are looking forward to more of similar tomorrow.

Rodney "White Socks" Johnson, RIP

Patty — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 21:39:00 +0000

Today we learned that Rodney Johnson lost his life to pancreatic cancer, and we are feeling just a profound sense of sadness. Rodney was a good man. The kind of quiet and unassuming guy some people might ignore as being a bit too dorky; not nearly hip or “in” enough. But if you ever got the chance to get to know Rodney, you would silently shrink, and feel like such an idiot for judging a book by its cover.

Rodney Johnson

Rodney was a quiet, gentle, man. A giant in deed if not power output or outward appearance. A completely modest person, he never talked much about his contributions to our sport, but there can be no denying that he was the right guy in the right place at the right time. Several times.

You see, Rodney, Mr. “White Socks” Johnson, helped create the International Mountain Bicycling Association in 1988. He sat on the very first IMBA board of directors, and helped file the articles of incorporation and establish its non-profit status and bylaws. He helped create the “Six Rules of the Trail” which still stand today as an excellent code of ethics for mountain bikers.

He was one of the founders of ROMP, our local mountain bike advocacy organization, which combined with five other California clubs to create IMBA.

And he was also one of the founders of Mere Mortals, too. The club whose motto is “Our fast is everyone else’s slow.” Rodney fit right in. His longstanding battle with chronic fatigue syndrome pulled him off the bike for many years. It wasn’t until just recently that he got back on the bike and renewed his love for the sport at a more relaxed pace.

In the picture above, you can see his cotton shirt, signature tall white socks, and happy attitude in a Lee McCormack clinic, working on his skills just like everyone else. Rodney was proof that you didn’t have to look like a way cool dude to have a great time on a bike.

Tailwinds and downhills now for you, Rodney. You will be missed.

Female Friday Fandango - month 2

PeterD — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 22:20:00 +0000

Had another women-only ride and party last week. About 25 women came for the ride (and a few more for the festivities only). All cooking, drink-making, etc. was performed by men (especially, master chef Jay).

So, this came in early, to escape attention, and when out late. There were no leftovers. Handmade Tiramisu by Jay.

“Slower riders to the left of me, faster riders to right of me…” As you might imagine, most people clumped near the middle.

One way to mix four different colors. Rather nicely I think.

Jay and his sous chef, Michael. They were putting the finishing touches on hors d’oeuvres as the first of the riders began to return.

Becky, Valerie, Kat, Stacey, and some mysterious stranger on the lounge couch.

Here are our guests, enjoying the cooking. And our cook, enjoying the guests.

We had little islands of humanity just about anywhere we could put them. This was in the middle of the sales floor.

Charles works his one trick at the bar, a fresh lime margarita. Popular enough that no one asked for any other mixed drink, and good thing. We don’t know what he would have done. Notice the tester on top of the toaster.

Before dinner, evidently. Margaritas and wine in hand, lots of good cheer, standing room only.

Pacifica Ride Report

PeterD — Fri, 02 May 2008 00:39:00 +0000

Here is a ride report from Jay, who did a ride with Charles and some others this past Monday up in Pacifica.
(note – if you click on a picture, you will see a higher resolution version of that picture)

When you have no meetings, a boss out of town, some time off to burn, a new downhill bike, and a case of the Mondays, there’s only one thing to do – Go out to the coast and ride! The blooming spring colors, ocean views and quality of people couldn’t have been better today. Also, Tom and Charles had matching shoes, which somehow is less controversial than when Sterling and I show up in matching socks. Anyway…

We started off with a nice climb with what used to be the old Highway 1:

Looking back towards the town of Pacifica	Here’s a nice view. Ahem.
Enough of the breezy, rolling cliffside views, let’s find the quickest way down	Artsy shot of new bike. Ocean is on the other side
Oops, fog is rolling in, we’d better go	Daryl discovering
Charles in a technical section	Tom contemplating. (Tomtemplating?):

Down at the bottom, there’s a large stand of Eucalyptus. Lots of dirt jumps, step ups, drops and stunts.

Nica catching air	Daryl on a steep roll in
Hey look a teepee!	School was out at that point, so locals ~20 years my junior showed us how it’s done
I was subsequently inspired	Charles ‘made’ me go back and do it again, as I got a little too much air on that last one. Backing up a bit.

Bonus movie of me overshooting a stepup, and landing in the bushes above the landing:

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed the pictures and writeup as much as we enjoyed a well deserved day off.

Shop rides

PeterD — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 18:25:00 +0000

There was a recent post on MTBR that covers what the ride is supposed to be about:
I spend a lot of time training and riding with a focused goals. Racing is great but it’s good to recalibrate once in a while. I went to the Passion Trails Wednesday night ride tonight and remembered why I started riding in the first place. Good people, friendly vibes and just a damn good time on a bike.

It was great to hear this.

Did remind me of some things meant to say before the last ride I lead, which I thought I would post here:

Pace – One of the questions we are often asked is what pace the rides go at. That is hard to answer, as these are group rides, so we go the pace of the folks on the ride and have lots of regroups. If you have ridden with any of the others on the ride, you can get a feel from them what pace it will be. The ride description also sometimes gives some information related to the paces. Other than that, about the best we can recommend is come give it a try.
Socialize – These are meant to be social group rides, not training rides. Half the time, the ride leader is deciding on the route to use as he/she rides. And even if they do know their route, they may not say it so as to force everyone to stay as a group. If you go hammer off the front, the ride leader may decide to change the route on you (happened to 2 guys on a ride I lead a few weeks back).
Regroups – We generally regroup at both the El Camino/Ralston and Alameda/Ralston intersections. If you are up front, wait at these until everyone is together before crossing the road. On the trails, we regroup at most trail intersections. Not everyone knows the park, so we want to make sure we all stay together.
Good citizens – We need to ride safely and legally on the road up to the park. Follow the rules (stop at stop signs, etc.) and be careful of the cars. This will keep it safe for you, and will also keep others (drivers, pedestrians, etc.) from thinking cyclists are bad citizens. This also holds true on the trails, where we should yield to others when appropriate.
Control your own destiny – There are some lessons to be learned from the jumps behind Carlmont – just because a trail looks heavily ridden does not mean that you or I could ride it. If something looks difficult for you, feel free to get off and walk that stretch or ask about alternate routes around. There are some challenging parts to Waterdog (and, of course, at the jumps), and we have to leave it to you to decide what you and your gear can handle.

2nd Anniversary Demo Days

PeterD — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 04:41:00 +0000

The event went off well. The weather reporters were wrong when they said we would get rain on Saturday – we got just enough Friday night to make sure the trails were dust free, but not so much to make things muddy. Good set of photos and comments showing up on MTBR (though I am copying some of the better ones over to this post).

Thanks for everyone who showed up! And special thanks to folks like JohnH, Justine, TomR, MichaelP, and others who chipped in to help.

More photos below…

Riding with Presidents

PeterD — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 21:22:00 +0000

Charles and a whole crew went out for a ride at the Demo on Presidents Day. He has a new camera, so took a bunch of pictures and a few videos (plus one non-blurry pic courtesy of Caroline). Here is his write up:

A Three Hour Tour…

Well, that’s what I had planned. Ok, maybe a four hour, and at best a four and a half hour adventure in the woods, but I’ve swum with these fishes before, so I came prepared for an all day adventure as past experience has taught me. We used the occasion of Presidents Day to get together with friends and customers and take advantage of the warm Spring like day by taking a tour of the Soquel Demonstration State Forest. Of the fifteen or so riders that started last Monday’s ride, about half of us ended up spending over 6 hours riding just about every trail we could find.

Our approach was sort of like a clover leaf, where we kept coming back to near center, after most of us would loop around on some trail or road. Our first loop was out onto Cussacks Road, where the faster and more adventurous could get some additional challenge while I led a smaller group straight up the Aptos Creek Road toward our summit on Mt Rosalia. From Rosalia, Tom led a group out and down onto the first half of a side trail, and then back up to Rosalia. We had been stopping, chatting, offering a careful mix of encouragement and deconstructive criticisms, armoring up or armoring down, then continuing at a mostly social pace.

At this point, we had been playing Slinky with a pretty big group for a couple hours, stretching the stronger riders off the front, where they would patiently wait for those pushing a little less hard on the pedals, so the next group decision surprised me. We decided to drop Saw Pit, climb Tractor back up to the ridge, drop Braille, and then ride out Hihn’s Mill Road and up Highland to where we had parked safely on this side of the big slide, which committed us to at least two more hours of riding.

The entire group dropped in at the top of the Ridge Trail, following a team of photographers who were going to set up at the Big Step Down, and we high tailed it down past Corral, and Braille, then to the picnic table. Kate, Patty, and Reba the Trail Dog set up camp there while the rest of the group bit off one more big bite. The campers decided they would make good use of the available sun and recharge their batteries while waiting for the group to come up Tractor and rejoin them for a group run down Braille.

(text continues after videos)

In the process pushing our limits, and riding do-overs on some of the jumps and drops, and pulling sticks into our collective drive trains, it was already two hours later when we returned to the picnic table on Ridge. Kate, Patty, and the Pooch, having grown tired of waiting and losing their sun spot, had continued on ahead of us. The climb up Tractor was brutal for some, and hard work for all. Some opted out, and continued up Hihn’s Mill from the bottom of Saw Pit, to the parking lot, and up and out to the cars. There have been several periods of high winds in the Demo over the last month or so, and we found leaves, branches, and tree tops on every trail, sometimes deep and thick enough to obscure the trail from view. Doron was already hiking out from the bottom of Tractor, having lost his derailer hanger to a stick, and Nazim was hiking out behind him after experiencing a similar problem. The six of us that had made it back to the Ridge plodded along to Braille, where we received the instantaneous charge that only a little gravity or a whole lot of chocolate could provide. We hooted and cheered each other on, over log rolls, through narrows, and across bridges, down to the road to where we began our final climb.

Tom gets extra points for being the only one to ride the whole ride, every longer or harder option, setting some personal bests, like riding off the Trochanter Jump for the first time, and then having the drive to drop back in at the end of the ride to tow Nazim back up to the car. Josh, Daryl, Norm, Jeff, and Dave also get the extra points for doing the whole ride, setting new limits, and still having the wherewithal to not drop back in after Nazim, and heading to the Summit Store for replacement beverages and calories instead. Henry might get the Most Ambitious award, as he rode up from the town of Aptos, and met us at Rosalia for a couple loops before heading out the way he rode in. The Other Daryl gets the Best Timing award, for driving in from the other side of the slide, and rolling out of the Highland Way parking at the exact moment we rolled by at the beginning of our ride. Doron and Nazim both get Purple Hearts for broken bikes and long hikes, but should be back on the trail soon, if not already. Jill gets the Survivor award for getting spit out of he middle of the group, missing a turn, then orienting and figuring exactly where and when to meet us at the top of Braille the first time around. John and Caroline were no doubt the subject of some kind of envy as we continued up Tractor, heading deeper into the forest, and they were on their way out on the last climb.

I’m sure that all of us, though, would look forward to doing it all, or some version of all of it anyway, next Presidents Day if not sooner.

Shoot an email out to info at Passion Trail Bikes to get onto our mailing list for notice of future rides, in shop events, and our big Anniversary Celebration next month.

We are hiring (again!)

Patty — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 01:20:00 +0000

We have two positions open starting soon:

Mountain Bike Mechanic and
Mountain Bike Customer Service and Merchandise Specialist

for details, clicky on the linky below.

Mountain Bike Customer Service and Merchandise Specialist

We are thriving! This important new position in our sales department offers an exceptional opportunity to help a young business grow, if you are a motivated, self-directed, problem-solving person.

We need someone with a combination of bike knowledge, customer service, sales, and visual design skills.

Bike knowledge:
This position requires that you know a lot about mountain bikes. Some mechanical aptitude is required; you should have the ability to make fitting adjustments, minor tune-ups, assembly, etc. You should be adept in discussing both big-picture topics such as different riding styles and ride characteristics of different bikes, as well as the finer points of various mountain bike suspension types, pros and cons of various parts, accessories, equipment, and clothing etc.

Customer service skills:
You should be able to intelligently talk with avid mountain bike enthusiasts to determine their specific background, goals, needs, wants, budget. Your job will be helping people select and buy the right bike, the right gear. You will need to be able to manage the sales floor and work as a team with other sales and service department staff to satisfy customer service and sales needs.

Visual design aptitude:
This position also requires that you have excellent visual merchandising skills. You will be required to identify opportunities to improve our merchandising and execute amazing visual displays. You will design and update our point-of-purchase fixtures and signage.

Other:
We have a lot of other needs. What skills do you have?

Bicycle Mechanic/Mountain Bike Mechanic

The mechanic position has been filled.

We offer competitive compensation and benefits, and opportunities for training and advancement. These are full time permanent positions.

To apply for either of these this positions, please email your resume with a cover letter to Charles at Passion Trail Bikes dot com

Vote for Marilyn Price & Trips for Kids

Patty — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 21:15:00 +0000

Marilyn Price is a finalist in $25,000 Volvo for Life Award

Your vote online may help Trips for Kids receive $25,000!

“

Marilyn Price of Trips for Kids writes: I am honored to be a finalist for the national Volvo for Life Award. Your vote of confidence will help Trips for Kids win $25,000 – a huge boost for our youth cycling programs! ”

Please take a moment to vote for Marilyn on-line and spread the word to your friends and colleagues.

THANK YOU for supporting Trips for Kids.

Got Trike?

PeterD — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 18:24:00 +0000

San Francisco weirdness for a good cause. Involves trikes and drinking. What more could you want…

Take me to the site for this craziness…

I am not sure what it is with San Francisco and tricycles. Back on easter, I went to watch the annual Easter Day Bring Your Own Big Wheel race down Lombard. Below is a short video clip I took of that one…

Not as many hills in the Castro, so I suspect it won’t be the same…