Omaha Craigslist Deal of the Day

Front loading cargo bike for sale. Buy it and haul your stuff...

Or throw some coals under it and have a cook out. You decide.

I signed up for the Tour de Cure

I will be participating in the 2011 20th Anniversary Tour de Cure. As the number of Americans diagnosed with diabetes increases, the mission of this ride is to raise money and awareness to prevent, cure and improve the lives of those affected by diabetes.

This event is scheduled for Sunday, May 22, 2011. If you want to help me meet the sponsorship goal please visit my Tour de Cure Web Page. I will be on the 50 mile ride.

Also, check out these guys up in MN on their Mukluk and Pugsley bikes. Looks fun!.

Cheatin Winter

Sunny, no wind, and packed snowy trails, this would be enough to make for a great ride this morning. Then out on the horizon I see two more riders. So I rode the south creek backwards and met up with Dave and Linda. Wow this ride is getting better. They must have sensed it would be good today to get out. Not 2 minutes after taking these pictures we heard Greg whoop it up coming down the south hill. Great winter ride today. Last year Old Man Winter kept us off the single track. We like cheatin him so far this winter.

Monday Night Urban Ride

Photo borrowed from The Biking Fools (great shot Mike).

We were not out late enough to see the lunar eclipse last night. But an unexpectedly large group of riders stayed off the sloppy singletrack and rode paved trails. Ryan and Roxy showed with skinny tires. Adam from Colorado joined the ride on his single speed. He brought his bike back for the holidays. He had ridden Tranquility last summer and showed up for the MNR. We found some slick conditions on the West Papio on the way to Lake Zorinski. Eric came through with a great plan to ride back on the 144th trail. Super nice holiday ride.

Sometimes I just need to take pictures of the food I'm about to eat.

I took Pete for a walk, scraped ice off the driveway and worked up an appetite. There was left over chili, crescent rolls and hotdogs in the refrigerator.

Manawinter

Martin called a 10AM Manawa snow ride. I wasn't sure I could make it over that early but things worked out. Turns out I was Dale's 9AM wake up call. He was coherent enough to say yes to the ride so I went over to pick him up. We loaded up and headed over to Iowa. We met Bryan, Dan and Martin to get things going right at 10AM.

At first I was concerned the snow was a bit deeper over there but once we were riding where others had been it was great.


Martin fine tuned the pressure in my tires and then it was even better. By the second lap the trail was getting good and packed. We came upon a big buck that was downed and frozen right next to the trail.


It was fantastic to see the THOR artisans left their mark on this downed tree.

It was getting close to 1PM so we decided on a Mexican carb reload at La Mesa.






The winter riding conditions were outstanding. Some wind would have made it too cold. Warmer temps would have been sloppy. On the way home, Dale and I discussed how glad we were not to let this opportunity get by.

Snowy Trail Ride

Last year the snow got deep fast. This left plowed gravel and urban trails the only winter riding experiences. Last Wednesday we got some ice pellets followed by a little snow. Most of the trail at Tranquility has just the right amount of snow to get packed down by MTB tires. With temps just right for winter gear I headed out to pack the trail. There were already tire tracks. I expect those were made Wednesday night. I did not use my snow tires today. Just rode some aggressive knobbies with just over 20lbs of air. It was perfect! There were just a few spots a bit tough to ride because the snow was a little deeper. It was a fun ride and I'm planning to do it again tomorrow.

Everything is good and frozen right now. Get out there and ride some snowy trails!

Winter Tranquility Kiosk Update

Looks like the temps won't get much above freezing for a while. Pass the word along. When the ground freezes at night and thaws during the day the trail becomes a greasy mess. In this state they are not fun to ride and get damaged if ridden.

Ride it when it's frozen, early in the day, or wait till the temp stays way below freezing throughout the day.