team velodirt

(photo courtesy of Matt Haughey)

• Saturday June 2, 2012
• 127 miles
• ~9000 ft elevation gain
• 60% dirt

It’s that time again folks - albeit a bit earlier than usual. Because the big day comes in a few short months, we’re opening up registration as of today so that everyone has plenty of time to get ready by June 2. At this point most of you know the rules, but I’ll recap for your convenience:

1. This is NOT a bike race or bike event.
2. This is just a bike ride. As such, 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 is exactly what you’re doing…), you have to be able to get yourself out of whatever jams you get in.
3. 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 your ride.
4. If you question whether you can do this ride, don’t - or have a solid backup plan.
5. There are commercial services available en route. These will be your only source of food, water, etc. We provide nothing.
6. The course is primarily made up of good quality gravel roads and pavement. However, one 4-mile section of the course consists of an unmaintained dirt road. This road contains steep grades; sections of loose shale; sections of loose baby-head to goat-head sized rocks; small rock drop-off and ledges; loose sand; and at least one water-crossing. This section will require significant bike-handling skills to navigate safely. In addition, this section of the course is remote and sees little-to-no traffic. If you get injured or suffer a mechanical, you will have to rescue yourself. Cell phone coverage is poor/non-existent in this area. You’ve been warned.
7. We will organize camping again. Our space is limited is 50 people. You are welcome to arrange your own camping or not camp.
8. PLEASE, Please, please don’t sign up unless you’re serious about riding. The biggest time suck on our end is dealing with dropouts and it potentially screws others out of riding.

Signing up:

Priority goes to anyone who rode the Stampede last year. Everyone else gets put in a pot and we’ll randomly select folks for the remaining spaces. As usual, we’ll have a waiting list. Know that most folks who get on the wait list eventually get in. Registration will stay open until the end of the day March 2, no exceptions. I’ll post the start/wait list on March 3.

Ok, now that you’ve sat through the details, here’s the link to register.

Velodirt

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Nick, Alan & I spent a cold-ass weekend on the eastside getting after it with the fatbikes. We’d originally set the weekend aside for something bigger - an overnighter on the coast or something south - but the weather and time constraints left us with few options. We made the best of things by heading east to familiar territory. We camped at the Deschutes Rec Area - the best winter/spring camping spot around (note: no running water available in winter) - and day tripped into the White River Wildlife Area and Dalles Mountain.

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I know you’ve all been waiting with bated breath for me to put this video together… Well, wait no longer…

All I’ll say about this video is that I hate making videos. The amount of work required to make even a poor quality video like this is overwhelming. And if you really want to do it right, it’d take way more work in the field filming it properly than I’m willing to put in. So I’m officially hanging up my director’s hat and going back to still photography.

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Visit your friendly neighborhood 21st Ave. to get one…

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Pros

• Inexpensive @$20
• Versatile - tarp, bivy sack, ground cover, emergency blanket, rain jacket
• Love the hood
• Built-in grommets
• Local company (PDX)

Cons

• No attachment points if using as a bivy and too short for full bivy sack use
• Kinda heavy. Poler tells me it’s 12oz.

Poler’s Magic Tarpit, or as I’ve been affectionately calling it - the “poor man’s bivy sack” - is a versatile little piece of gear. On my first trip I used it alternatively as a rain jacket, ground cover for my floorless tent, and a place to organize my gear up off the cold, wet sand. Had the situation presented itself, it would have also served as a tarp for sitting in the rain. I love gear that serves multiple purposes and that’s why I love this thing.

For those that haven’t seen one of these before, it’s basically a space blanket with a hood sewn into it. The addition of the hood is genius as it makes it much more practical than a typical space blanket. But it also serves typical space-blanket duty - it’s waterproof, thermo-reflective, and durable.

I think the place where the Tarpit would really shine is as a primitive bivy sack. A sleeping bag fits perfectly into it, and if there was a way to keep it wrapped around you (buttons? velcro?), it would work just fine at a fraction of the cost of a traditional bivy sack. And because it’s thermo-reflective, you could carry a lighter sleeping bag than you would otherwise. Obviously it wouldn’t protect from getting wet in the steady downpour, but all bivy sacks suck in the rain. The only other problem for using it like this is that it is a foot too short to fully cover your bag (notice my feet sticking out of it on the above photo). That’s ok though, because it allows you to walk around in it when using it as a jacket without dragging it on the ground.

And here is poor photo of it being used as a ground cover for my floorless tent:

Velodirt

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I wanted to make a few announcements and talk a bit about the future of Velodirt. Because this post contains a bunch of words and no pictures, I won’t expect it to keep your attention for long. However, if you’re curious about the 2012 event calendar, our new team member, and future comings from Velodirt, read on.

2012 Event Calendar

Things will change a bit for next year, although nothing terribly significant. We will continue to run the very informal Dalles Mountain 60 in early March. I may change the route ever-so-slightly to include a couple more miles of gravel, but if you’ve done it before you should expect more of the same. It’s a great early season ride and a good introduction to riding gravel for you newbies.

The biggest change this year will be moving the Oregon Stampede from September to May. I likely won’t set a formal date until after the first of the year when the new OBRA calendar comes out; however, I plan on scheduling it for right around the same time as the Rapture was last year ~the end of May. This should (hopefully) eliminate the risk of extreme heat like we had this year, avoid cross season training conflicts, and also stay away from Euro and Interbike. I think the change will be for the better and I’m excited to ride it myself this year.

I don’t anticipate doing the Rapture route this coming year. I originally wanted to keep that as an annual event, but moving the Stampede into its’ time slot won’t give us enough time to get the ride in before summer/logging season starts. We may do an informal running of the route if folks are interested.

I’ve got a couple ideas for a fall-ish route near Mt. Hood that will probably interfere with cross season - hence the name “The Anti-Crosst”. It all depends on if we have enough time to finalize the route next summer. Doing three events a year is about perfect, so I’m hopeful that we can pull it off. Alternatively, we may move the Rapture into the fall after logging season ends. We’ll see.

If you want to stay updated on these events, sign up for the mailing list - we send out 2 to 3 email updates a year.

New Velodirt Crew

I’m proud to announce that Alan Gunn is joining the Velodirt crew. Alan epitomizes what we’re all about here at Velodirt and we’re excited to see what he brings to the table. Also, with his anticipated packraft purchase, expect several major trips this coming year tying together fatbikes, packrafts and lots of bushwacking. Alan will also be reviewing some of his favorite gear on the site, so stay tuned.

21st Avenue Bikes

It’s been a real pleasure teaming up with 21st Ave. This is especially so now that they are adding a focus towards bikepacking and the Salsa theme “Adventure by Bike” at the shop. Expect them to start carrying a selection of bikepacking gear and bikes. They are even talking about doing a few guided intro-to-bikepacking trips this spring. If they do, we will likely be involved on some level. I think it’d be really cool to help introduce to more people the sport so I’m particularly excited about this part. While it can seem intimidating, bikepacking is really pretty easy to get into and the most enjoyable riding I do. More details coming soon!

Musings on the Future

I’ve been thinking a lot about the future of Velodirt lately. I feel like the website is almost to the point I originally envisioned. However, I’m not sure where we take it from here, if anywhere different. Obviously we will continue to put on our low-key gravel events and post about interesting trips. But at the same time I’d like to move the focus more towards a general resource for bikepacking, fatbiking, etc. in the Pacific Northwest. The big challenge will be keeping the website simple and easy to use while adding significantly more content to the mix.

Six to Twelve

As a few of you know, I recently went under the knife for some off-season hip surgery. Fortunately I have an amazing surgeon and equally amazing physical therapist, so recovery is already going great. The unfortunate side of things is the recommendation to take 6-12 weeks off the bike. I’ve been given the green light to get the sea kayak, packraft and skis out, so I don’t anticipate much down time, but it’s going to be a rough couple months without riding.

Thanks,

Velodirt

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Finally! After much talk and little action on my part, we finally put together a trip down to the south-central Oregon coast to check out the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area. The area held the promise of miles of uninterrupted beach riding and remote beach camping, both a rarity in Oregon. Ultimately, it was even better than I hoped and we managed to stumble on our own little fatbike heaven.

I’ll admit that I’m not good at describing much of anything. My go-to adjectives like “awesome” and “great” only go so far. I’ll just say that this is one of the best bike trips I’ve ever done. I’d like to think that means something given the riding I’ve been lucky enough to have done the last couple years. If you have a fatbike and live anywhere near here, this area should be high on your list. If you don’t have a fatbike, go get one. It’s the most fun you’ll have on 2 wheels. Seriously. [click to continue…]

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Pros

• Perfectly suited for bikepacking
• Reasonably priced @ $1,649
• Woodchipper handlebars are fantastic
• Fork mounts for bottle cages and Salsa everything cages
• No hassle custom frame bag ordering through Revelate
• All Revelate bikepacking gear fits well
• In stock at 21st Ave

Cons

• Heavy
• Gearing could be a touch lower/higher
• Wheels are poorly built
• Thudbuster seat doesn’t allow for much seat adjustment
• Thudbuster seat not compatible with traditional seatbag

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• 95 miles
• ~8,000 ft elevation gain
• 50% dirt
• 3 days, 2 nights
• Start/End: Dufur, Or
• Services: Dufur, Tygh Valley, Wamic
• ~ Route map

I don’t think I’m one to hyperbolize - so hopefully I’m not exaggerating when I say this is some seriously good riding. As noted in more detail below, several of these roads are on par with the best riding I’ve done in Oregon. [click to continue…]

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