Bundling up, strapping on helmet lights and heading out to once familiar trails which seem so much more foreign.

Cruiser Ride

Over the years, lights have changed, from my original BLT lights with halogen bulbs and a heavy water bottle shaped battery pack, to new rechargeable LED wonder lights with more brightness than many car headlights. Night riding now is better than ever!

Moe's Misery

Trails take on a completely different view at night. Gone is most of your peripheral vision. Instead an increased tendency to look up, and ahead, helps your riding style immensely. Additionally trails that can be boring during the day can add much adventure in the darkness.

Night Rides

Riding in the quiet of the dark forest at night also has one side-effect. Adrenaline! Not much can get your hair standing up or your heart pumping more than the sound of something crashing away through the forest… especially when you know bears and cougars frequent the forests you ride in.

Most shops will have a test set of lights to let you try out the fun and excitement of night riding.

So don’t let the dark of winter keep you from enjoying the fun of two wheels!

Just shy of 10 days, 2900 km’s of road and 170 km’s of singletrack later we are home and back to our normal life.

We focussed on Oakridge, and Bend, with plans for Hood River, but were diverted by forest fires.

Check back over the next week as I take you on our journey.

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I’ve seen a few floor racks for bikes and some hanging racks. Hanging would be fine but the garage door would hit any more than a couple.

I’ve come up with an idea based on a recent hitch rack by Arbutus Racks. A raised front wheel slot holder.

Basically it’s a series of wheel slots, but raised up 3 feet. Bikes will sit with their front wheel up in the slot bringing the back wheel much closer reducing the overall bike footprint. Alternating the double sided design means each bike will fit within 12 inches. Should be able to fit 10+ bikes in a footprint of one car, while keeping every bike accessible and maintain access to the workstand and tool box.

More to come when we get back from our road trip!

Anyone else have ideas for garage bike storage?

Epic birthday cake!

A few different activities were thrown around but we kept coming back to mountain biking. We hired local mountain bike tour guide Martin Ready of Island Mountain Rides to make easy work of the transport to the top of the hill and enjoyed two top to bottom rides on Forbidden Plateau.

If you’re coming to the Comox Valley and don’t know the trails, check with Martin, his rates are reasonable and you’ll be sure to get the best bang for your buck!

We finished off the day with a bbq and kept up the biking theme with this awesome ice cream cake!

Here’s a quick vid of our day.

The entries came fast and furious, and both Teresa (aka mtnbikinggirl) and I posted up respective blogs and entered the contest.

Moonraker Trails - Golden BC - Sept 2009

A couple of months later a final eight were chosen to become the first “Specialized Trail Crew.”

While both of us were a bit disappointed with not being called up for this amazing adventure. I think it was Matt Hardinge’s unboxing video that was hardest to watch, although I was happy to see another rider so stoked on his new bike!

August 2010 in Sun Valley Idaho

It was fun to read the stories by the members of the Trail Crew, and probably spurred us to enjoy our own road trips, exploring new trails.

Knowing it was a year long process, people started asking in the fall if there would be a new Trail Crew for 2011? We didn’t have to wait long. While not surprised on who stayed and who went, the new riders and different bikes meshed with our feelings on what the crew was all about.

This year the Trail Crew meetup rides in Moab and Fruita haven’t occurred, instead the riders have become more involved in their local community, participated in more events and connected with more riders.

That’s really what the Trail Crew was meant to be. Connecting at a social level with the riding community.

So this brings us back to the Canadian Trail Crew for 2012.

I think I fit the bill of your average rider. I like to ride everything on the hill, enjoy the ride and try to share with friends. I love to organize races, offer my time to various events, create trail maps and maintain our local mountain bike info site. Most of all I look forward to my annual week of mayhem that is working on the BC Bike Race medical team.

Just another day at the BC Bike Race

Specialized has offered up two positions for the Canadian Trail Crew in 2012 and this is where I find myself torn. Teresa joins me in most of these endeavours, and she is my best riding partner, she’s a great rider and empowers both girls and guys to experience mountain biking for the first time.

If either of us would be chosen, we’d be more than stoked, but we would love to see three positions, one Eastern member and two Western members in Teresa and myself. Our ride reports and road trips would be more engaging with both a male and female perspective of the great bikes that Specialized produces. We can extend your bicycle budget by riding Enduro and Stumpjumper EVO’s instead of the S-Works carbon models. These bikes are very fitting with the style and adjustments common on bikes in British Columbia.

The perfect BC all mountain trail bike!

Fashion sense out the door...

Too low

Too shaky

Too dark

One watches many a mountain bike movie thinking “I could do that!”

The you buy a camera, in this case a GoPro and spend countless hours working with the various attachments trying to come up with good angles and fun views.

We’ve ridden lots of trails, climbed and descended countless hills and at the end you have small segments a few seconds long to put into a movie.

Beep beep beep beep…… Beeeeeep

Ah – must be out of memory.
Swap memory card

Start filming again

Beep beep beep beep…… Beeeeeep

Ah… battery is dead.

Another notch in the learning curve.

Next is editing and rendering!

At least my time lapse vids are looking ok!

Relaxing on the couch of the Riding Fool Hostel in Cumberland BC with BC Bike Ride and the Mountain Biking BC tour, Andreas Hestler told Seb Kemp and Nicolas Teichrob of the great loop of Bear Buns, 42nd Street and Off Broadway.

“It’s a shame we missed those trails today” he added.

The group had been busy, their trek beginning in the Whistler valley, onto South Vancouver Island, and now into the Comox Valley, splitting the time between Cumberland and Forbidden Plateau trails. One can spend days on each area, but this quick tour was looking for the best of both sides of the lake. Tomorrow they would leave at 7:30am for the ferry to Hornby Island.

“Who’s up for a dawn patrol?”

The sum total of four people stepped up and decided to go for it. The ride should take about an hour and 15 minutes, and we have to be back by 7am… So we’re pulling out at 5:45am!

Considering it was approaching midnight already and some were planning a forray over to the Waverley Hotel, it was time to call it a night and head for bed.

A quick pack job at home making sure all the important stuff was ready to go, it was lights out.

5:25am

I had coffee ready to go and after a short 10 minute drive arrived at the hostel looking for signs of life.

Seb was first, followed by Nic and Dre.

Great morning for a ride

The air was still and the temperature was just about perfect. There was some dew on the ground, the official sunrise was 5:45am and we were on the trail 10 minutes later.

@sebastiankemp: Rode three of the funnest and most imaginative trails today. All before 7am. Today will be a good day twitpic.com/5xp2ks

We rolled back to the Hostel just shy of 7am. Smiles all around. A quick stop at the Kumberland Grind for a fresh coffee and we headed to our respective offices.

It may not my first dawn patrol, but by far one of the most enjoyable!

Time flies when you’re having fun! What started as a dream 6 years ago has become one of the premiere mountain biking stage races in the world! Built on trails in my back yard, it has evolved from a point to point race to the current format of finding the best singletrack at each location bringing the most enjoyment and challenge to all who participate.

Volunteering may sound like an easy way out, but for the medical team it’s a full time job.

I’ve been practicing chiropractic for 10 years and have had the opportunity to expand and join my interest in mountain biking and chiropractic into a week of epic proportions. From the hundreds of feet of Rocktape, to the many sprains and strains to working out stiff joints, I spend my days on my feet and my evenings at my portable table.

Our team is epic, the friends you make and the people you meet world wide makes the 5:00 wakeups and the 11pm trailer packing all worth it.

If you have’t put BC Bike Race on your bucket list, it’s time to rethink your list!

2012 registration is going fast, so be sure to get signed up soon! www.bcbikerace.com

The 2011 Team - medical in green

Here’s a vid that puts the week in perspective!

Here’s a great sample ride.

Finding freshly built singletrack can be a challenge at the best of times. When you start late into the evening and it’s still springtime, it’s near impossible! The only saving grace is I have an impeccable sense of direction and have spent many days hiking the area we are in.

Beautiful view but getting dark quick...

We decided to check out a few new trails called Iron Horse, Goat’s Head and Dustwitch. Located on Forbidden plateau, these trails add to the XC / All mountain offerings available. The ever busy Ryder has been doing a great job adding to the network of trails in the area with such trails as Cabin Fever, Gecko, Slither, Catnip and more.