Sometimes things get busy. After that he needs a nap.

Always watching.

When he wants something he breaks out the secret weapon, and he always gets his way.

Come by and meet Cody.

Go for a ride; and remember.

We gathered at the La Quinta motel in Wilsonville,OR at the unholy hour of 3:30am to register, receive final instructions, and be ready for a  prompt 4am departure.

This is the earliest departure I’ve ever experienced, but it proved to have it’s merits, as later in the day it was almost as if the early morning hours had never happened. It was also pretty rad to be 110 miles into the ride before noon!

The course took us southwest, primarily on Highway 18, till we passed the casino, then cut up at Grand Ronde Rd, and connected with Highway 22 to take us the rest of the way to Neskowin and the beautiful Oregon coastline.

Hebo, OR Hwy 22

From this point on the ride would prove to be a collection of one of the most scenic, lightly trafficked, and quiet rural roads I’ve experienced in Oregon yet. Little Nestucca River Rd, and Siletz Highway, just after Lincoln City, being two of the real stand outs.

First glimpse of the coast at Neskowin, Siletz Hwy, my favorite new sign in Monmouth.

A succession of farm roads led us into Salem for a few miles of urban terrain and services, then back out into the farm roads of Willamette Valley and home. Good lights were crucial on this ride, as was carrying ample food and water, as there were quite a few long rural stretches without services. Gorgeous roads, a bit of climbing, endless rollers, and even a gravel section made for an epic and gorgeous day. I’ll be back again next year for sure!

My computer died about 12 miles from the finish, so all in all it was a 250 mile day. I signed in at 10:49pm, making it 18hrs and 49 min total elapsed time, probably 16hrs and some actual ride time. I ended up having to make an excessive amount of stops due to some nagging gear issues, but still pretty satisfied with my time overall. In the randonneur’s world it is all about finishing, not the time, afterall. Thanks to Oregon Randonneurs and RUSA for another great ride, and I’ll see you at the next brevet! Any more questions about randonneuring, routes, lights, gear, etc. for longer rides please feel free to stop by the shop, or call in, and also visit the links above for tons more rides and info.

Welcome to the first, final, and only update for this year’s running of the Oregon Stampede! We’re working hard getting our spurs polished and the beer lined up for the big day.  However, before we get into the details, let me tell you what this is NOT.  This is not a bike race, bike event, or anything similar.  It is a fully self-supported ride.  We are not responsible for you whatsoever, either before, during or after your ride.  You are riding as an individual.  That means YOU are responsible for YOU.  No one else is responsible for you, especially not us.  If you get lost, hurt, can’t finish, or your bike breaks down, you must take care it yourself.  Under no circumstances are we responsible for helping you out, rescuing you, etc.  You should have an emergency contact who know where you are going in case you do not return.
Note: Because this is not a race, event, etc., there is no registration.  Just show up if you want to ride.

RIDE DETAILS

ROUTE

We found out recently that the convenience store in Grass Valley is closed.  We do not know if it was seasonal or permanent.  If it turns out to be permanent, we will do a slight re-route through Moro.   I will NOT be creating a new cue sheet or GPS route (I’m too busy these days), but it should be a pretty straightforward re-route.  We will provide an update and the re-route details sometime to week before June 1st.

Otherwise the route is the same as all previous editions.  See details above, or check find out more about the route here.

PLEASE NOTE:  We do not bring copies of the cue sheet or maps for you.

CAMPING

Once again we’ve reserved two group campsites at the Deschutes River State Rec Area for May 31st and June 1st.   We have group sites C and D again, giving us room for 50 people each night.  If you want to camp with us, you must email me your name/s and which night/s – we’ll give preference to folks camping both nights.   I’m fine with non-riding friends and family camping with us as long as it’s not a big group.  Camping with us is $5/night per person.  Donnie@velodirt.com

The 50 person maximum for our group campsite is not negotiable.  If we get enough folks beyond 50 who want to camp we’ll reserve another group spot.

If you want to camp but don’t really like us, there are still plenty of other spots currently available at the recreation area.  A link to camping reservations can be found here.

Details:

*  Group spots C & D down near the end of the park road

*  There are very nice, free showers along with sinks, drinking water, etc.  The showers and flush toilets are over in the RV section.

*  Parking is IN the group spots, along with all our tents, etc.  We are going to have a full house, so please pack in accordingly and carpool to the extent you can.  They are picky about where/how you park and where you set up tents, so you may be asked to move.

*  Bring firewood if you’re camping.  We will appreciate it, so will your neighbors. Don’t rely on someone else to do – you’re the someone else…

*  They usually sell ice and firewood at the campground.  I assume they still do, but if not, Biggs is only 5 miles down the road.

*  There are fire pits in the group sites, but I don’t believe they have grates for grilling.  Feel free to bring a grate or full grills, etc.  I know lots of folks would appreciate it if you did.

*  The spots under the willow trees are reserved.  Those are mine…

RIDING IN THE DARK

The sun sets at ~8:45 p.m. on June 1, 2012.  If you plan on taking more than 13+ hours to complete your ride, bring appropriate lights.   The final descent down Gordon Ridge and Fulton Canyon is not fun in the dark.

SELF-SUPPORTED

II want to remind everyone that this is a completely self-supported ride.  So the following apply:

*  You are totally responsible for yourself.  Under no circumstances are we responsible for anything you do or anything that happens to you before/during/after the race.

*  This is not a bike race or bike event.  This is just a bike ride. There will be no one associated with VeloDirt to assist you at anytime, whatever your circumstance.  There is no sag wagon; there is no mechanical assistance; there is no medical assistance.  In some cases, there is not even cell phone coverage in the event of an emergency.  Just as if you rode this route all on your own (which you are doing…) – you have to be able to get yourself out of any jams you get yourself into.

*  There are commercial services available at mile 40, 65 and 95.  Bring money – that shit’s not free.

*  Bring spares, patch kits, pumps, etc.   Know how to use them…

BEER

And last, but not least – BEER.   We will of course have our customary keg-o-beer at the finish line and tap into it the night before as well.  If you have a beer hook-up in Portland and want to help us help you out, drop me an email with details.

-Donnie
donnie@velodirt.com

We finished this nicely appointed flat-bar Surly Pacer custom a couple weeks ago but got so busy with our spring sale that I haven’t had time to share some pictures.

This is another simple, relatively budget-conscious build that came out looking very dialed.

The client for this project wanted a very simple, clean look for an urban  road bike, and I think we really nailed it on this build. It’s a 1×8 drivetrain with a single downtube shifter to keep the lines clean and simple, with nice touches like the Tanaka aluminum fenders, Brooks saddle and grips, and rack, stem and pedals from Velo Orange.

We went to the extra trouble of mounting the fender to the underside of the rack, and let me tell you this bike has zero fender noise.

Simple, clean lines with all-silver parts.

After taking these pictures we actually stripped off all the Surly logos for the customer in order to make the visual presentation even cleaner.

I’ll leave you with one more picture.

The inaugural edition of the soon-to-be-famous Rickreall Gravel Classic hit the roads of the mid-Willamette valley this past Saturday and despite weather ranging from drizzly to deluge smiles adorned the faces of every rider in attendance.

I was stoked to break in the new shop demo, a Salsa Warbird Ti.

The day began on a farm outside of Salem with a rare bit of sunshine, just enough to make some think about removing their jackets.

Right out of the gate we hit gravel, and the rolling hills that were to characterize much of the course.

Climbing and descending in turn we were greeted by miles of mostly empty roads with the exception of a few short legs on highways.

Before long the skies opened up and heavy rain began to fall. Luckily the temperature hovered in the low 50s so it wasn’t terribly cold as long as you kept moving.

One of the highlights of the route for me was the rolling terrain through the Basket Slough National Wildlife Refuge. The rain had turned to a mere drizzle and migratory birds were out and about in every field and copse of trees. There was even a bit of sun as I rolled out of the fields and into the Eola hills, climbing up to the top of Yampo and Skyline roads before the beautiful descent on the paved Eola hills road back to the Salem side.

Of course, what goes down must go back up, and the return over the hills to Rickreall was punctuated by the brutal gravel climb up Eagle Crest road.

I had to jam back to Portland, so I missed out on the festivities at the farm but Jake Tong of The Wolf’s Mouth was there to document the whole day and I’m sure he’ll have some great pics up in the next day or two.

Hope to see you out at the next events in the gravel calendar- Velodirt’s Rapture and Stampede rides will be killer. Plus we’re bringing out the BBQ fiesta for the post-rapture campout on Cinco de Mayo eve. See you May 4!

As far as vintage bike stuff goes, little has as much wide appeal as classic Campagnolo parts. The hallmarks of classic Campy are solidly built parts with Italian flair in form and decoration, the sort of bits that make a jaded bike mechanic put down the allen wrench and take notice. 

We see a fair bit of nice old Campy coming though, and I thought I’d share a couple of examples.

First up is Aric’s bike. In addition to knowing a thing of two about coffee, he knows how to put together a classy bike. His porteur-style bike has a Campy drivetrain complimented by a Brooks saddle and grip combo. Style for miles.

Another recent gem was a Pinarello with Record featuring pantographed Pinarello logos. The pics are in our Instagram #21stavebikes feed on the front page.

Last up is some pretty but delicate/dangerous drillium work on vintage Record chainrings. The whole group was on a bike that we failed to get shots of, but it was something else with full Record and a chromed frameset. 

After moving back to Portland from LA last year he started coming out on shop rides and quickly grew to be one of our favorite regulars around the shop. He’d been experiencing some hand and knee pain in the winter weather and didn’t come out riding all though January. We were floored when he through in February with the news that he’d been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis.

In addition to his other endeavors, Aaron is one of the founders of the Further Faster Forever community of athletes. He used to write it on his bars to remind himself to hunker down and dig deep on long tough rides, and the mantra has been an inspiration to many others.

The folks at FurtherFasterForever.com have come out with a t-shirt design for Aaron and will be donating 100% of the profits from these t-shirts to Aaron to help out with his medical bills. Shirts are on sale through March 24. Please check out his story at FurtherFasterForever.com and consider purchasing a t-shirt. Thanks.

Bday had the honor of breaking in one of our new Disc Trucker rentals. (more on that coming soon) We had a few last-minute tweaks to the bike, and then ready to roll.

Parked outside Domino’s in the Dalles, waiting for the ride to start. Tim brought out the CX bike, Nick was on the road bike with 28′s and Bday was on 26×1.5 touring tires. Pretty much no way to go wrong with 20 miles of good dirt roads and 40 of pavement.

Donnie from Velodirt thanked everyone (more than 150 riders in the parking lot) for coming out and then everyone hit the road.

After a little bit of cold and ice it warmed up quickly. However; I double flatted hitting a big square rock while putting away my camera about 20 seconds after taking this picture. First two of the day.

We crossed the bridge at the Dalles and immediately began climbing. It warmed right up and views were stellar.

Then the road climbed some more,

and some more, coming to a small pass in the hills and dropping down a great descent with views of Mt Adams and Mt Rainier. No sweet landscape pictures were taken as it was too much fun riding (except for my second 2 flats- don’t use 20-28 tubes in 700x28s on a rough dirt road, people.)

After dropping down Hwy 97 by Maryhill, we crossed back into Oregon and immediately hit gnarly headwinds. Thanks for the double paceline, team Ironclad. Turning onto Old Moody road by the Deschutes, we hit the steepest gravel of the day.

A few riders were forced to walk, but team 21st gritted our teeth and rode it out. From this point we were too busy battling headwinds to get too many pictures, but the rest of Moody was pretty fun even riding into a gale, and descending back into The Dalles on 15 Mile and 8 Mile roads was a blast. Back in the parking lot we had some recovery beers to chase the deliciously salty Juanita’s chips and Guacamole waiting for us in the van, rested for a bit and then pointed it back to Portland. Good times. We’ll see you at the Rickreal Classic and the Rapture.