Saturday Fatter-day Charity Bike Ride to Benefit Utah Food Bank

On Saturday November 29 Epic Biking will be hosting the Saturday Fatter-day Charity Bike Ride. The ride will start at 7:30 AM at Epic Biking in Saratoga Springs and go to the top of Traverse Ridge and back to Epic Biking, about 27 miles round trip. Riders are asked to bring non-perishable food or a cash donation, that will be donated to the Utah Food Bank as an "entrance fee" for the event.

We celebrate three days of Thanksgiving. Thursday is of course Thanksgiving which is followed by Friday Pie-day where we spend all day eating left over pies. After Friday Pie-day is Saturday Fatter-day which needs no explanation. The Saturday Fatter-day Charity Bike Ride is a great way to burn off some of those Thanksgiving calories, and help someone else in need.

Can a little bike store compete with the big guys for Black Friday?

Can a little bike store compete with the big guys for Black Friday?

I've been told no, but I can't resist trying. So here is the offer:

Two day sale, Friday Nov 28 and Sat Nov 29, 2008
Up to 20% off 2008 full suspension or carbon fiber bikes.

For example $400 off on a Giant OCR C2.

In addition - - -

Free Cat Eye computer/light box set with purchase of any bike with 24" or larger wheels.

Box set includes a Velo 8 computer, EL210 headlight and LD120 taillight. Value $39.99

Or a Free Animal Horn with purchase of any bike. Value $10.00

Limitations: One free offer per bicycle purchased. While in stock supplies last.

This can be combined with our Simple Layaway Program: 10% down holds the bike. You don't have to hide the bike, or put it together on Christmas Eve. And we don't charge any fees for layaway.

Fear vs Living

I got a reply to an email about the bike park requesting to be removed from my mailing list. Of course I immediately removed him from my list but something in his email just got me thinking. He said, "I didn't want the ... park in my nieghborhod [sic] and I don't want it rubbed in. I feel that there will be too much traffic and a hazard to inexpearienced [sic] riders."

Things have changed a lot since I was a kid. We never wore a seatbelt, or a helmet. I now wear a helmet when riding my bike and my seatbelt when in a car. I am sure I would be dead had I not been wearing my helmet when I broke my nose. His comment though made me consider what it would be like if we hid inside, living our lives vicariously through movies or video games, so that we don't risk injury. A very sad thought but practically true for some.

Anyway, I have decided I much prefer living an active life, than sitting around being scared I might get hurt.

Moon Rainbow

Thursday night just as I got home, I saw something I have never seen before, and not sure if I will ever see again. The moon was full and there was a rain storm coming in from the west. Looking at the clouds there was an arc of white in the clouds. I thought maybe it was a rainbow caused by the moon light, so I had my family come look at it. When they all came out, the rainbow was better defined and you could tell it was a rainbow, except the only color you could see in it was the whitish moon color.

The digital camera was sitting on a tripod in the family room so I rushed it out and took a 15 sec exposure picture. It was amazing. In the picture the colors of the rainbow revealed themselves. It may have been the best picture I have ever taken. However there was no memory card in the camera, so after displaying the picture on the preview screen the camera then tossed it to bit heaven.

I ran back into the house and found the memory card, but by the time I got it in the camera the rainbow was gone.

Thinking about it, the only time you could see a rainbow like this would be to have the following:

• It must be late enough to be dark
• There must be a full moon, or nearly a full moon
  
• There needs to be rain on the opposite side of the sky as the moon

I did some searching on the internet and found a few pictures of moon rainbows using a waterfall. Cool, but not quite the same as a rainbow made by rain and the moon.

I found a new trail that looks like it is trying to get to the top of Lake Mountain. I guess I need to bring my camera and GPS next time I head out on this trail. So far it only goes a short distance, but I'm sure if I keep riding it someday it will reach the top of the mountain.

On the way back down I went down the northern down hill trail that I guess people are calling the Flintstones trail.

They have added a few wood features to it. The first one caught me off guard so I didn't ride it although it was mild enough I could have. There was one wood feature that I did actually ride over, but it was the widest and easiest feature on the trail. You sure can tell a lot more people are riding this trail than the south trail which looks like it hasn't been being used at all.

There were a couple of the corners on the Flintstones trail that look like they are holding puddles and were just a tad muddy. I need to bring some tools with me next time so I can help improve the trail.

Juniper Trail

I rode up the Juniper trail in the Eagle Mountain bike park on the way to work. The trail is designed to go from the south end to the north, but of course I went the opposite direction. The first hill from the bottom is climbable, but I guess I just haven't been doing enough climbing and had too much weight in my backpack, so I only made it as far as the last turn before having to put a foot down.

After getting to the start of the Juniper trail I continued out towards Lake Mountain. I would like to figure out a trail from the Ranches to the top of Lake Mountain, so I took a shovel with me to clear stuff from the trail and try and make it more ridable, and thus the heavy backpack.

On the way back to Epic Biking I went down the North most trail that Cougar and Darin made. It looks like nobody has been using that trail, maybe because the drops are just a bit extreme for someone like me.

Eagle Mountain Bike Park

After working on the Eagle Mountain Bike park last Saturday I decided to quit riding the road bike into work and to use my mountain bike and detour through the bike park on the way in.

I am so excited about the bike park. The trails that have been built so far are great, and will be even better as more features are added. The pump track is starting to take shape, and the down hill run has been cleared. It was great to see so many people out working on the park.

I have been riding the road bike to work most days and the more I ride the bike the more I don't like cars. They are loud obnoxious things. However after finishing the detour through the bike park and getting back on the road to get to work, I couldn't help but feel sorry for the poor people imprisoned by glass and steel, while I was out in the open air enjoying life. Sometimes I can't believe how great it is to be making cycling my career.

Question: On a road with a dashed yellow line down the center, when you pass a bike should you see if you can squeeze your car between the center line and the cyclist without hitting him with your mirror? of should you move left to the empty lane? It is amazing how many people get this question wrong on a daily basis.

Greatest Customers

I think I have the best customers in the world!

So far I have had two scary problems. The first was where I accepted a large check for some bikes and then had the check bounce. We had the phone number written on the check but the copy the bank gave us blacked out the phone number (bad copying process) and so I didn't know how to get in contact with the customer. I did have an address and was thinking I would drop by his house. But instead he showed up in the store apologized for the check bouncing and repayed me.

Then a couple of days ago I sold a bike and accessories. The total on the bill came out to $575.00, but when I typed it into the credit card machine I didn't include the 00 so I ended up charging $5.75. Again I didn't have a phone number and I was worried I had just lost $500. Then he called this morning saying he noticed that the charge went in for $5.75.

It sure makes you feel good when you have honest customers that will do what is right! THANKS!!

The store is open

I have been working long hours to get my store open, and have had it open for about a week now. I still need to do some painting work. Most of my bikes are in still in boxes, and about half of the bikes on the floor still need a final assembly. I still need to build up my parts and accessories inventory. I also added a link to my estore on my website. The website needs a lot of work but I have so much to do and so little time to do it all in.

Anyway stop by the store and say Hi.

Store Website

75.4 MPG in a Prius

Well, I had a long drive but plenty of time to do it so I decided to see how good of gas mileage I could get on the Prius. As I started my trip I was headed in to a blizzard with terrible head winds, so the first half of my trip didn't go so well on the mileage experiment. But then when I refilled in Winnemucca I reset the mileage and then proceeded on the back roads to see how high I could go. It seemed that the trip from Winnemucca to Oregon was mostly up hill. Somewhere before I got to Klamath Falls I realized I had to give up the experiment if I was going to get checked in to my room in time. So I stopped and got a picture of the results, 75.4 MPG.



I figured the rest of the way my mileage would go down real bad as I had to go over a mountain range and I had to drive fast to get there in time. However when I got to Ashland my over all mileage was still over 73 mpg.

Moving

I have been planning on opening my store, Epic Biking, in a building to be built North of SR 73 in Saratoga Springs. However, it was taking too long to get the building built, and a better location, that I was told was not available last year, is now available. So I have moved to the Crossroads Plaza.

That was about the easiest move I have ever done since I didn't have to physically move anything. Still, it will be the most expensive move I have made due to some commitments. Anyway there is the new home of Epic Biking. In a couple of months I hope to be open. Then you can all come to my store (or my estore) and give me your hard earned cash. :-)

Pump Track Day 4 & 5

I think I now have the top corner low enough. Now I just need to adjust the rest of the track to match the new level, and then smooth everything down. I took a bunch of the dirt from digging down the top corner a put it on the bank of the bottom corner. I will add pictures to the pump track log at http://www.epicbiking.com/pumtrack.html this evening.

Pump Track Day 3

It must be getting close to spring. The roosters were out fighting today.

I did some more digging on the pump track. It still seems like it will be hard to pump from the bottom of the track to the top. I think tomorrow I will lower the top of the track another foot. http://www.epicbiking.com/pumptrack.html

The snow is melting fast. It is probably a good thing I started working on the track before the snow melted. I had to shovel all the snow off so that I could start digging. Now as all the snow melts there is no snow on the track making it more muddy. It is almost dry enough to ride a bike on. I did test it with my son's bike. It still needs to dry out a little, and I need to smooth things out.

Pump Track Day 2

I put some more work into the pump track today and updated the pump track web page. http://www.epicbiking.com/pumptrack.html

After working all day I decided I really didn't pick the best spot for the track. Down at the bottom of my hill, before it drops off into the gully there is a nice flat spot that would be perfect for the pump track. Maybe when the snow melts I'll build a second track down there. It would be a lot easier because that area doesn't have rocks. The area I am working in now is very rocky.

I guess though two tracks are better than one. The upper track will dry out sooner, and the lower track will be easier to expand.

Pump Track

What does a mountain biker do when the snow is too deep the temperature to warm making the snow melt and the trails a mess, and the roads are too wet for the road bike?

How about build a pump track! It looks like riding a pump track would be a great upper body workout, and great for building core strength. So I headed out to the back yard with a snow shovel, a shovel and a pick. Before long I was digging away in a t-shirt while huge snow flakes were falling all around.

After about 6 hours of digging I was a muddy mess but I had two of the three sides roughed out. My initial track will be triangular and then I plan on building an alternate route that will make it squareish. My track is on a bit of a slope so I will have a nice fast down hill section, and then some rollers to pump your way back to the top.

I posted some pictures on my store's website at:
http://www.epicbiking.com/pumptrack.html

Robot Opera #2

My son and I have seen balancing robots on the internet and decided to try and duplicate the feat for his science fair. After 100's of hours of failure and giving up on the idea that it would ever work my son built a new robot. Then in classic science fiction style I changed a + to a - in the program and voila, it worked!

So we made a video of the project and put it to the sound track from Vitas' Opera #2. After getting permission from Vitas we posted it on YouTube.

Footprints in the Snow

One snowy day I was biking along the mountain with my bike.
Many spectacular scenes flashed before my eyes.
In each scene I noticed bike tracks in the snow.
Sometimes there was a set of footprints,
other times there were only bike tracks.

This bothered me because I noticed
that during the steep parts of the trail,
when I was suffering from
anguish, sorrow or defeat,
I could see the set of footprints.

So I said to my bike,
"You promised me, bike,
that if I cared for you,
you would give me the ride of my life.
But I have noticed that during
the steepest, snowiest parts of the trail
there have been footprint
with the bike tracks in the snow.
Why, when I needed you most,
have you not been there for me?"

My bike replied,
"The times when you have
seen only bike tracks in the snow,
is when I carried you.
These were times that made the footprints worthwhile!"

Daniel Burton with apologies to Mary Stevenson

Kokopelli Trail

A couple of years ago we took some older scouts on a mountain bike trip on the Kokopelli trail. Now that I have a server set up I am working on getting some slide shows up from past trips. The Kokopelli trip is now available in the slide shows at www.epeakbiking.com