Showing posts with label adventure. Show all posts
Showing posts with label adventure. Show all posts
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Can You Say Road Trip??
Back from my desert vacation (which was wonderful, thank you!) just in time to learn that the US Bicycle Route System project, which has been not much more than a vision for the past four years has become a reality! For more information about this advocacy triumph check out www.adventurecycling.org/usbrs . (Nice to read about something uplifting for a change...) Just think, if this project is fully executed we could have as many as 50,000 miles of an interstate cycling route network. How's that for a road trip?!?
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Happiness Is.....
You just gotta give yourself a treat and watch this video. Humans are pretty cool after all!
Thank you, Matt Harding....
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap080722.html
Thank you, Matt Harding....
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap080722.html
Wednesday, August 06, 2008
Bond Broken
Be forewarned that this is one of those stories that will really crank off many of our readers... its a story about an occurrence that's just wrong, wrong, wrong....but it does highlight the importance of being sure you're careful to use the right type of security for your bike or motorcycle, considering the value of your stuff that may need to be replaced, not to mention the vehicle when its stolen. I do have to say, these two have a much more generous attitude toward the thief than I would have had!
http://www.registerguard.com/rg/Home/story.csp?cid=126107&sid=1&fid=1
http://www.registerguard.com/rg/Home/story.csp?cid=126107&sid=1&fid=1
Thursday, April 03, 2008
The Perfect Storm
by Rob Zuraski, Director New Product Development
The planets seemed to align this past weekend to create the perfect storm this past Friday and ideal conditions to snowmobile up in northern NH. I was also surprised to come home after riding 90 miles Sunday morning to find perfect weather for an evening ride on the motorcycle.
Driving conditions were a bit rough on our trip up north and I had a first experience as a passenger in a powerslide in a truck towing a 4 place trailer after going through the Notch in northern NH. Luckily my friend Brad was able to recover after seeing the trailer on both sides of the truck. Whew!
If you are into snowmobiling or snow sports and need to get your last run in for the season there still appears to be plenty of snow up in NH but check the forecast before heading up. Here are some pictures from our trip!
Trail on way up to Stub Hill Pond
Stub Hill Pond
Perfectly groomed trails!
Unmanned gas pumps in the middle of no where just for us!
Perfect day for dog sledding too!
Devin, Brad and Tony
The planets seemed to align this past weekend to create the perfect storm this past Friday and ideal conditions to snowmobile up in northern NH. I was also surprised to come home after riding 90 miles Sunday morning to find perfect weather for an evening ride on the motorcycle.
Driving conditions were a bit rough on our trip up north and I had a first experience as a passenger in a powerslide in a truck towing a 4 place trailer after going through the Notch in northern NH. Luckily my friend Brad was able to recover after seeing the trailer on both sides of the truck. Whew!
If you are into snowmobiling or snow sports and need to get your last run in for the season there still appears to be plenty of snow up in NH but check the forecast before heading up. Here are some pictures from our trip!
Trail on way up to Stub Hill Pond
Stub Hill Pond
Perfectly groomed trails!
Unmanned gas pumps in the middle of no where just for us!
Perfect day for dog sledding too!
Devin, Brad and Tony
Tuesday, October 09, 2007
Hiking, Climbing and Camping My Way to Interbike
by Eric Anastasia, Eastern Regional Manager
This was the fourth year that I boarded a plane in route to Las Vegas for Interbike (international bike tradeshow). The conventional way of traveling to Interbike for me is to board the plane at Boston’s Logan Airport and disembark in “Sin City” Las Vegas, Nevada.
This year was different. I did leave from Boston but I landed in Denver, Colorado, then traveled out to Vail to link up with a good friend of mine. He had planned a little journey for us; well over a thousand driving miles, 2 State Parks, 5 National Parks and countless miles of hiking all in 4 days. One of the days we hiked over 11 miles in under 6 hours, a little less then half of those miles where done in a river. The remainder was a 1400’ vertical hike with steep zig-zags though the mountain. (Zion N.P.)
The River
The Summit
Capitol Reef National Park
Goblin Valley State Park
Bryce Canyon National Park
Zion National Park
This was by far the best Interbike I ever experienced. We already started talking about next year's trip and the route we are going to take.
This was the fourth year that I boarded a plane in route to Las Vegas for Interbike (international bike tradeshow). The conventional way of traveling to Interbike for me is to board the plane at Boston’s Logan Airport and disembark in “Sin City” Las Vegas, Nevada.
This year was different. I did leave from Boston but I landed in Denver, Colorado, then traveled out to Vail to link up with a good friend of mine. He had planned a little journey for us; well over a thousand driving miles, 2 State Parks, 5 National Parks and countless miles of hiking all in 4 days. One of the days we hiked over 11 miles in under 6 hours, a little less then half of those miles where done in a river. The remainder was a 1400’ vertical hike with steep zig-zags though the mountain. (Zion N.P.)
The River
The SummitI could go on and on about the incredible sights we saw but I will give it to you simple.
Arched National Park
Capitol Reef National Park
Goblin Valley State Park
Bryce Canyon National Park
Zion National Park
And finally, Red Rocks
This was by far the best Interbike I ever experienced. We already started talking about next year's trip and the route we are going to take.
Thursday, September 06, 2007
A Family Ride
by Don Warren, Kryptonite Category Manager
We had planned on doing a ride on the holiday weekend and my wife came up with the idea of going on the Minuteman Bikeway trail that goes from Bedford to Cambridge MA. So we gathered the 4 bikes, made sure we filled the tires with Air, wiped the cobwebs off my wife’s and mine frame. We didn’t have a rack for the 4 bikes, but its amazing what these minivans can hold and so all fit in the back with room to spare. Then we needed to find our helmets – it’s been awhile. Kids were no problem to find as we always have them ride with one no matter, but ours took a little more searching. Now we were ready. We loaded the kids into the mini-van and we were on our way. It was about a 25 minute drive to get there from our house.
We all got out our stuff and made sure we had water bottle filled because it was a warmer day. The kids had fanny packs to put their water in because their bikes are too small for water bottle brackets. My youngest daughter, Erin (5), has a 16” bike she got from Big Sis, but we added training wheels with some “bling”. My oldest, Katie, is 10 and has a 20” bike. Since the last time I watched her ride, I found I needed to raise the seat an inch! The kids do a lot of riding around our neighborhood but were on a busy street so they don’t get to do longer rides. This summer we just didn’t get a chance to do a lot of trekking out together because we are usually so busy as a family, going in different directions, like most families. Where did this summer go??
The trail is an old railway line that has been converted with very smooth pavement. Yellow stripe in the middle separated the path. It was busy that day – we met up with other cyclists and some inline skaters along the way. During the ride, we taught the kids to stay to the right and when you are passing someone you pass to the left and tell people your doing so no one gets jolted. My youngest decided at one point to just stop – but didn’t let anyone know she was going to stop. X&*#$, boy there were some fast stops behind her.
As the trail winds down there would be a few traffic lights or stop signs where the trail crosses roads, we used those as stopping points for water bottle breaks and getting our bearings. Our goal was to search for the ice cream place that used to be along the trail. This is what drove the kids, so we went through Lexington – the historic town green area where the British battle occurred so many years ago – and watched a lot of other bikers taking a break on the green with us. We thought the ice cream place was there….but it wasn’t. After a short rest we continued on towards Cambridge in search for soft serve gold.
We kept at our pace which to my surprise had seen Erin keeping up with riders that were older. Fun to see her spinning the cranks so fast while being kept upright by the outriggers – One incident to report was when Erin ran off the road one time while riding too close to the dirt edge (tricky training wheels) kinda like a Paris-Roubaix hazzard, and scraped her knee a little bit, but she got back on after a little touch-up. As we continued along Katie and I decided we were getting a little sore from our hard saddles – about 5 miles down. Mom had the nice Sport Gel seat and was doing fine. Erin still was keeping up the whole way – no need to pull her along thank goodness and not sure she would care if your saddle was to firm! Alas we got to a point in the ride that we decided that ice cream wasn’t looking like it was very close so we decided to turn around and start our journey backwards since we had to go the same distance back to the car.
Along the way we met other kids, bikes and trailers and a couple of people who had small dogs in their backpacks as they were riding. The kids enjoyed that and it made their ride a little more enjoyable when they got to pet the dogs. Back through Lexington…I realized I needed to stand up off the saddle a little bit more and crank the peddles this way so the insuing pain didn’t hurt quite as much. I know I looked forward to the ‘finish line’ aka the car but the kids didn’t seem to mind as much. They had a bit of the energizer bunny in them. We still told them we going for the gold.
Some enterprising kids had a stand along the trail where we stopped paid a buck and had 2 cups of lemonade for the kids. It was interesting to see that the entrepreneurs were even recycling the cups!
Got back to the car and the car seat never felt so comfortable; I didn’t remember the van seat being that comfy before.
On our journey back I took the opportunity from there to take the kids on a magical mystery tour and show them areas of Concord and Lincoln that were also a big part of the American revolution. We even went by Walden Pond, too.
As our prize, we found a place called Dairy Joy in Weston that gave us what we were really looking forward to – ice cream! When we got home we realized it was a lot of fun and we should do it a more often, but with saddles that are more comfortable. We’ll be doing that soon so we can get out on the trail again very soon!
We had planned on doing a ride on the holiday weekend and my wife came up with the idea of going on the Minuteman Bikeway trail that goes from Bedford to Cambridge MA. So we gathered the 4 bikes, made sure we filled the tires with Air, wiped the cobwebs off my wife’s and mine frame. We didn’t have a rack for the 4 bikes, but its amazing what these minivans can hold and so all fit in the back with room to spare. Then we needed to find our helmets – it’s been awhile. Kids were no problem to find as we always have them ride with one no matter, but ours took a little more searching. Now we were ready. We loaded the kids into the mini-van and we were on our way. It was about a 25 minute drive to get there from our house.
We all got out our stuff and made sure we had water bottle filled because it was a warmer day. The kids had fanny packs to put their water in because their bikes are too small for water bottle brackets. My youngest daughter, Erin (5), has a 16” bike she got from Big Sis, but we added training wheels with some “bling”. My oldest, Katie, is 10 and has a 20” bike. Since the last time I watched her ride, I found I needed to raise the seat an inch! The kids do a lot of riding around our neighborhood but were on a busy street so they don’t get to do longer rides. This summer we just didn’t get a chance to do a lot of trekking out together because we are usually so busy as a family, going in different directions, like most families. Where did this summer go??
The trail is an old railway line that has been converted with very smooth pavement. Yellow stripe in the middle separated the path. It was busy that day – we met up with other cyclists and some inline skaters along the way. During the ride, we taught the kids to stay to the right and when you are passing someone you pass to the left and tell people your doing so no one gets jolted. My youngest decided at one point to just stop – but didn’t let anyone know she was going to stop. X&*#$, boy there were some fast stops behind her.
As the trail winds down there would be a few traffic lights or stop signs where the trail crosses roads, we used those as stopping points for water bottle breaks and getting our bearings. Our goal was to search for the ice cream place that used to be along the trail. This is what drove the kids, so we went through Lexington – the historic town green area where the British battle occurred so many years ago – and watched a lot of other bikers taking a break on the green with us. We thought the ice cream place was there….but it wasn’t. After a short rest we continued on towards Cambridge in search for soft serve gold.
We kept at our pace which to my surprise had seen Erin keeping up with riders that were older. Fun to see her spinning the cranks so fast while being kept upright by the outriggers – One incident to report was when Erin ran off the road one time while riding too close to the dirt edge (tricky training wheels) kinda like a Paris-Roubaix hazzard, and scraped her knee a little bit, but she got back on after a little touch-up. As we continued along Katie and I decided we were getting a little sore from our hard saddles – about 5 miles down. Mom had the nice Sport Gel seat and was doing fine. Erin still was keeping up the whole way – no need to pull her along thank goodness and not sure she would care if your saddle was to firm! Alas we got to a point in the ride that we decided that ice cream wasn’t looking like it was very close so we decided to turn around and start our journey backwards since we had to go the same distance back to the car.
Along the way we met other kids, bikes and trailers and a couple of people who had small dogs in their backpacks as they were riding. The kids enjoyed that and it made their ride a little more enjoyable when they got to pet the dogs. Back through Lexington…I realized I needed to stand up off the saddle a little bit more and crank the peddles this way so the insuing pain didn’t hurt quite as much. I know I looked forward to the ‘finish line’ aka the car but the kids didn’t seem to mind as much. They had a bit of the energizer bunny in them. We still told them we going for the gold.
Some enterprising kids had a stand along the trail where we stopped paid a buck and had 2 cups of lemonade for the kids. It was interesting to see that the entrepreneurs were even recycling the cups!
Got back to the car and the car seat never felt so comfortable; I didn’t remember the van seat being that comfy before.
On our journey back I took the opportunity from there to take the kids on a magical mystery tour and show them areas of Concord and Lincoln that were also a big part of the American revolution. We even went by Walden Pond, too.
As our prize, we found a place called Dairy Joy in Weston that gave us what we were really looking forward to – ice cream! When we got home we realized it was a lot of fun and we should do it a more often, but with saddles that are more comfortable. We’ll be doing that soon so we can get out on the trail again very soon!
Tuesday, September 04, 2007
My first experience with mountain biking
by John Joy, Kryptonite Engineer
Back in India I used my bike for transportation only. Getting from point A to point B. But this was something totally different.
Neil and I went to the Blue Hills on Friday after work. I thought it would be soft trails, maybe some mud. Something easy to do. Not rocks. The first bit, there was a clean road – I thought it would be easy and it was. That was the beginning. After that we went up a trail, that was easy, too.
Neil then asked if I was comfortable and I said, ‘yes’ and he took me to a steep, steep trail! I got launched twice! Gravity took over. One time, when I got launched, Neil was at the bottom waiting to see the fun. But, I didn’t really get banged up.
We cycled for more than an hour and it was fun! I loved it! Now I need to get my full gear. I didn’t have all the right gear so my feet were slipping a little bit, but it was a good experience. A good start.
Neil and I went to the Blue Hills on Friday after work. I thought it would be soft trails, maybe some mud. Something easy to do. Not rocks. The first bit, there was a clean road – I thought it would be easy and it was. That was the beginning. After that we went up a trail, that was easy, too.
Neil then asked if I was comfortable and I said, ‘yes’ and he took me to a steep, steep trail! I got launched twice! Gravity took over. One time, when I got launched, Neil was at the bottom waiting to see the fun. But, I didn’t really get banged up.
We cycled for more than an hour and it was fun! I loved it! Now I need to get my full gear. I didn’t have all the right gear so my feet were slipping a little bit, but it was a good experience. A good start.
*photo by Neil McDaid
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Giant Chairman Cycles Taiwan for "Adventure"
I read a piece on the Bicycle Retailer website this morning about the founder of Giant Bicycle company touring Taiwan on a bicycle. This might not be so fascinating to you as you'd be thinking, "well he is in the bike industry so he's probably a cyclist". Sure, but he's 73 years old!
King Liu, chairman of Giant Bicycle, took just 15 days to cycle 576 miles in Taiwan. 15 days? That would take me 15 months and, although I'm not a spring chicken, I'm not nearly in my 70s, thank you very much. What a great accomplishment, but he didn't do it for the 'accomplishment', he did it for the thrill of the journey.
“Driving is too careless, walking is too slow, and only through cycling can you truly experience the beauty of this island and have this once-in-a-lifetime adventure,” said Liu on Bicycle Retailer.
This is just a great story to me. Not only because of Mr. Liu's age, but because he is truly evangelizing his brand by living the lifestyle - not because he has to, but because he believes in it. I cruised over to the Giant site today to see if I could read more about Mr. Liu's trip. I didn't find anything, but what I did find was their current campaign slogan, "Ride Life. Ride Giant". I'd say Mr. Liu "ride's life" to the fullest.
Good for you, Mr. Liu! You are an inspiration.
King Liu, chairman of Giant Bicycle, took just 15 days to cycle 576 miles in Taiwan. 15 days? That would take me 15 months and, although I'm not a spring chicken, I'm not nearly in my 70s, thank you very much. What a great accomplishment, but he didn't do it for the 'accomplishment', he did it for the thrill of the journey.
“Driving is too careless, walking is too slow, and only through cycling can you truly experience the beauty of this island and have this once-in-a-lifetime adventure,” said Liu on Bicycle Retailer.
This is just a great story to me. Not only because of Mr. Liu's age, but because he is truly evangelizing his brand by living the lifestyle - not because he has to, but because he believes in it. I cruised over to the Giant site today to see if I could read more about Mr. Liu's trip. I didn't find anything, but what I did find was their current campaign slogan, "Ride Life. Ride Giant". I'd say Mr. Liu "ride's life" to the fullest.
Good for you, Mr. Liu! You are an inspiration.
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