Sausage Suit ITT

Date: May 5th, 2013
Location: Dufferin Forest - Upper parking lot
Time: Depends on 15 or 30km race

Just a reminder that if you have not registered for the Sausage Suit ITT, you should do so, so you can select where you want to start.... whether it be at the front, middle or back...

http://www.eco-race.com/eco-race/Sausage_Suit_ITT.html

Current Weather forecast is 22C and sunny!!!!!!

We need to support Dan, and also have a strong Team Van Go showing.

Upcoming Ride Guide

Hi All,
Below is a quick overview of the upcoming rides.  Feel Free to come out to any of them, as the more the merrier!

Date: Monday April 29th, 2013
Secret Training Ride
Location: Dufferin Forest upper lot
Time: 6:15-6:30


Date: Tuesday April 30th, 2013
Fun Teaching / Touring Ride
Location: Dufferin Forest upper lot
Time: 6:15-6:30


Date: Wednesday May 1st, 2013
Sausage Suit Course Pre-Ride
Location: Dufferin Forest upper lot
Time: 6:00


Date: Thursday May 2nd, 2013
Fun Teaching / Touring Ride
Location: TBD (Either Rail Trail, Albion, Palgrave or Mansfield)
Time: 6:00


Date: Sunday May 5th, 2013
Sausage Suit ITT
Location: Dufferin Forest
Time: Depends on the distance - SIGN UP IF YOU HAVENT

Weekend Ride Report

Date: Sunday April 28th, 2013
Location: Toms Forest / Shaws Forest

Don organized a big group ride up near Hardwood Hills which was a great spot to ride... About 12 riders, including Tyler, Bernie, Mike and Don.

Great to ride sections of trail that you have never ridden before... Being a little cautious as you are unclear what is around the next corner, but at the end of the day, that's what makes the ride fun!

Weather and trail conditions were perfect!! Sunny, and Dry trails!!

Covered about 17km overall with no real issues!!!

give Mike credit for being so awesome, riding the day before with Johnny, Ian, Ralph, Wendy, Mark, and Karen which from what I'm being told was a bit of a good run as well!

All in all another great weekend of Riding!!

Beer Review: Hockley Valley Black & Tan

As the ride pictures and posts are slowing down a bit, why not add some more beer reviews!!! This gives me the opportunity to drink more beer and think of analogies to review them.... Also people should be going out and trying different local beers as well....

First Impressions: At the end of a good bike ride, Mike handed me the beer which was fantastic!! First because mike is awesome, and secondly the beer was cold and will become very thirst quenching!!

I never poured the beer into a glass so I'm going to assume that the beer colour is Black with a hint of Tan... or Tan that is black.... either way it was tastey!

The first sip was more of a gulp than a sip... as I was still thirsty after the ride..... but it was very very smooth...  no hint of hops but more of a malty flavour.... i'm not really sure what I would compare this beer to... 

The scores and ratings below will be bias as always, more because of my thirst level at the time of drinking the beer!!

Would I buy a case of this beer: Yes I would... a great after ride beer for spring rides..

Did it taste good: Yes! I still am trying to find a beer that doesn't taste good...

What was your initial thought when you drank the beer: Mike is awesome.... because he gave me a beer..

Was the beer Hoppy: No hops, more malty sort of roasted flavour.... 

Score: 4.6 out of 5

Secret Training Ride

Date: Thursday April 25th, 2013
Location: Dufferin Forest

Last night Tyler and Mike braved the elements and a little bit of rain to fit in a secret training ride... conditions in mansfield were perfect! rain only lasted to about the pine forest on the stick, and then we were off to the races...

extended the loop a bit by heading over to the outdoors centre trails which were in great shape after the Homage to Ice....

Looped back onto the stick and finished the ride... bout an hour and a half of hard riding... great to shake some of the cobwebs back out of the legs and lungs....

I'll try to give more notice for the upcoming secret training rides....

Weekend Rides

Ride #1

Date: Saturday April 27th, 2013
Location: Dufferin Forest
Time: 11:30 am

Hi All,
The first weekend ride will be at Dufferin Forest.  Johnny will be heading this one up.  Probably plan on going to the North of 20 trail, see what needs to be cleaned up over there.

There will be breakfast before at the Country Cabin at 9:30am.  Please let Johnny know if you plan on doing breakfast so he can get a table booked. If you dont let him know you may not have a seat for breakfast, so better to be safe than sorry.

Skinny Tire Trail Report

Date: April 23rd, 2013
Location: Dufferin Forest

We had a huge turnout for the "Fake" Wednesday night ride.... Trail conditions were great!

Group split into 3 smaller groups, depending on who was riding, and what they wanted to ride.

All in all a great first big group ride of the season!

Many more to come for sure...

Sausage Suit ITT

Date: May 5th, 2013
Location: Dufferin Forest (Upper Parking Lot)

Substance Projects Eco Race

Hi All,

The next race/ride on the schedule is the Sausage Suit ITT put on by Dan and Substance Projects.  We did this last year and was a complete riot!!!

When you sign up, do the 30km, and under the club affiliation of "team van go".

We need everyone to come out for this event to support Dan and what he does for the sport.

Below is the link to the web site, and you can sign up through it....

http://www.eco-race.com/eco-race/Sausage_Suit_ITT.html

See everyone out there!!!

Fat Bike Retired

Oh yes, the fat tire bike season has finished..... No more, Fat Tire Trail Reports, no more complaining about no suspension, no more comparing Tire sizes..... We are back onto full squishy bikes!!!!!

Cheers to a great winter riding season, and to this years riding with all the new and old friends.

Upcoming Ride Guide

Ride # 1

Date: Monday April 22nd, 2013
Location: Mansfield (upper parking lot)
Time: 6:30pm

Little later start time.. just a good tour, doing a shakedown on the freshly rebuilt heckler.....



Ride # 2 

Date: Tuesday April 23rd, 2013
Location: Mansfield (upper parking lot)
Time: 6:00pm

As per Johnnys email, this is replacing this weeks Wednesday night ride... Wednesday weather looks crappy, and Tuesday looks good... so everyone should be coming out for this ride... we will probably have 2 groups as a lot of peoples first rides of the season...

See everyone out there!!!

Homage to Ice: Race Report

Date: April 20th, 2013
Location: Mansfield Outdoors Centre
Weather: Snow!!!

Results
http://substanceprojects.com/sites/default/files/H2i%202013%20XCMarathon%201%20Results_0.pdf


Team van go had a good turnout for the Homage to Ice 2013, Senn, Johnny, Tyler, Bernie, Don, Karen, Sue and Jenny respectively represented team van go!

Conditions were perfect for the 25km race... a bit chilly with the snow and the wind, but once the horn went you warmed up quickly.

Tyler and Johnny had the tunes cranked to keep everyone upbeat... Sweet Caroline to start the race, then into some Tom Jones really gets a crowd of people ready for a race...

Tyler, Johnny, and Don rode the fat bikes. for the last time this season, and what a way to finish...

Dan set up a great course, the first half had what felt like a lot more climbs then descents, but the 2nd half made up for it.... At the mid point Tyler and Johnny stopped at the aid station to enjoy a nice refreshment... Heineken and Barking Squirrel..  For some reason nobody wanted to join us...

With another act of good Karma, Johnny and Tyler came across a girl walking her bike... you cannot leave a girl stranded in the forest... johnny made quick work breaking the chain and pulling the rear derailleur just so she could at least coast the downhills.....

Tyler grabbed a stick, and johnny grabbed her behind... or seat... and started pushing / pulling her up the singletrack... Johnny yelling "On your left" as we passed 3 people... yes we passed 3 people while pulling / pushing a another rider.... We did have to leave here as we came into some uphills....

The flying finish was a great way to end the race, with 1km of downhill....

Everyone rode awesome! Credit goes to Senn for a great ride and being the first team van go finisher, and to Don for riding Mikes fat bike and withstanding the punishing 25km on no suspension!!!

All in all a great way to finish the winter biking, and great transition into spring / summer riding!

Homage to Ice - Saturday

Date: Saturday April 20th
Location: Mansfield Outdoors Centre
Time: 10am (Pre registration)

Hi All,

The weekend ride will be a ride/race with Substance Projects. The ride will be 25km in length, should take around 2hrs or less....

This year Dan has King Brewery on board, so that will be the beer to drink after the ride.

http://kingbrewery.ca/

We will see everyone there!

Fat Tire Trail Report

Date: April 17th, 2013
Location: Dufferin Forest


Well this will probably be the last Fat Tire Trail report.... after the race on Saturday the Hecklers come back out to play!!!

We had a big group out for the great ride last night.... Senn, Tyler, Johnny, Ian, William, Jenny, Karen, Bernie and Max were out for the almost 19km ride.  Conditions were great.

We headed out and hooked into the race course for a bit.... should be a fun weekend race for sure.. tried to figure out exactly where on the course we hooked in, think we figured it out...

we followed the course for a while, then started to double back on the lollypop... everyone seemed to have an issue falling on their first ride of the season... Ian decided to lean against a dead tree, which didn't hold at all.... Senn had an issue unclipping on the doubletrack, william and bernie both decided to throw their bodies infront of their bikes to save them from scratching....

Jenny and Karen both rode great too!! riding over all of the logs that will be on the race course.... and a few that weren't on the course...

All in all a great ride, and the countdown begins to more singletrack rides....

Fat Tire Trail Rating: 5 out of 5
Skinny Tire Rating: 5 out of 5

Beer Review: Hop City: 8th Sin

Another edition of the beer review... This time the beer review comes from the Pub in Creemore... They had a seasonal beer from Hop City. The beer was called 8th Sin, and was a dark lager. It was a perfect finish to the day of great riding.....

First Impressions.... The waitress that gave us the beer was good looking and she was holding our beer so the first impression was how much I liked her at that moment!

The beer came in a very cool glass, with the logo of the beer on it... a nice touch.  Inside the glass was the beer.  the beer was dark in appearance, with a small layer of dark head on it....

The smell was similar to that of the Muskoka Double chocolate cranberry stout.... it had a bit of a cocoa scent to it... oh yes cocoa....

The first sip of the beer was an interesting one... it wasn't what i was expecting... the taste itself i would classify it between the Muskoka stout and a Kieths dark ale... there was a hint of hops to the taste as well but not overwhelming.... all in all I drank the entire beer, as it was cold and infront of me.....

Would I buy a case of this beer: Yes but only a 6 pack... I could see myself being very gassy if I drank a whole case at one time.....

Did it taste good: Yes! It is beer mmmm.

What was your initial thought when you drank the beer: That I do enjoy drinking beer and sitting at a pub after a great ride with friends made it much better....

Was the beer Hoppy: There was a slight hop taste, but not overwhelming.

Score: 4.5 out of 5

Wednesday Night Ride

Date: April 17th, 2013
Location: Dufferin Forest
Time: 6pm (ish) - If you are gonna come out and are running a bit late, let Tyler or Johnny know, we will wait!

Hi All,

This Wednesday night we should have almost everyone out for the Wednesday night ride!! Conditions are pretty much perfect at Mansfield.  Also, this is the last tune up ride prior to the Homage to Ice on Saturday, so if you are planning on doing the race might be good to shake the rust off the legs.

Also, if you have not registered for the Homage please do so, lets get a good Team Van Go showing for the race.  There is going to be a FAT-CAT category, a demonstration category, so if you can get your hands on a fat bike do so, and when entering your team name, just add the word "FAT" to the end of it.

http://www.xcmarathon.com/XCMarathon/Homage_to_Ice.html

See everyone there tomorrow night!

Fat Tire Trail Report

Date: Sunday April 14th, 2013
Location: Dufferin Forest

Well folks, we are getting to the end of the fat tire riding!!! Tyler, Johnny, Ian, Bernie, Mike and Max rode, and Karen did a run.  Weather was perfect and the trails were in great shape!!!

There was still a little bit of snow on the trails, but say less than 10% overall, and the 10% that was there was rideable for skinny and or fat tires.

We started on the stick, then headed to do Ken's trail then Steve's trail.  Both were in great shape.  It's amazing how much you missed singletrack until you are leaning a fat bike around the corneres.

After the bottom of Steve's trail we hi the trail to nowhere and then looped back into the lollypop.  Some new trees down on the trail to nowhere which are all completely rideable!!! Overall some debris and trail maintenance while we were riding, but nothing too crazy!!

We doubled back on the lollypop and hit some of the ridge trails, which again were in great shape! On the fat bikes, once you get them rolling on singletrack they get some sweet momentum and you can keep it rolling through a lot...

After a long season of riding, now being able to notice the difference from snow to dirt is worth the crap we went through this year.

We finished the ride in fitting fashion, back to team van go's clubhouse which we have now named it.... enjoyed some boneshaker in some other peoples glasses who weren't there.... hmmm... it was tastey!!

Comment of the ride/day: Karen "once you go black you never go back" refering to the dark beer we were drinking at the pub...

Fat Tire Rating: 5 out of 5
Skinny Tire Rating: 4.9 out of 5

Wednesday Night Ride

Date: April 10th, 2013
Location: Mono Cliffs
Time: 5:30pm

Hi All,

William will be riding mono tonight for anyone who is interested.
5:30pm ride start time.

Everyone should go out and ride... a little rain never hurt anyone...

Fat Tire Trail Report

Date: Tuesday April 9th
Location: Dufferin Forest

Johnny, Tyler and Max did our first full SINGLETRACK ride of the year!!! Yes Dufferin forest has about 90% clear singletrack!!! There are a few sections where there is some snow/ice on the trail, but these sections are few and far between, with it being rideable for both skinny and fat tires alike!!!

We started the ride off by heading out the stick of the lollypop. it was a sign of things to come.  little sloppy in sections with some standing water on the trail, but nothing the fat tires didn't plow through...

It kinda helped that it was raining so we were already wet, so splashing around in some of the puddles was alright.  We continued along with doing the entire stick then out to the lollypop...

Did some trail maintenance... There were skinny tire tracks on the loop, and mysteriously some logs pulled off the trail... well they are back on the trail again...Not big logs or nothing, just new ones to bounce over...

The overall trail itself didn't need much maintenance as there wasn't a lot of tree fall or stick fall on the trail... We finished the lollypop the back tracked a bit to head over to the ridge trail...At this point Tyler started to lose brakes, a mix of the water muck was not helping... We rode a section of the ridge trail, and did some other singletrack before heading out... Tyler had no brakes at the end, front or back, nothing was slowing the bike down... made decents interesting / sketchy.....

All in all it was a fantastic ride, and this should be it for the crappy rides... I'm ignoring the forecast for Thursday.

The weekend ride this week is sunday at noon, so it will be a perfect opportunity for everyone to come out and start to ride singletrack!!!!!!!!!!

Comment of the Ride "Let's go back through the puddles......"

Fat Tire Rating: 5 out of 5!!!!
If skinny tires rode: 4.9 out of 5 (-0.1 for the small snow sections)

**** UPDATE *** TUESDAY Night Ride

Location: Dufferin Forest

Date: April 9th, 2013

Time: 6pm ride start

Hi All,
We will be riding Dufferin Forest again TONIGHT, ride start around 6pm.
With the rain we had yesterday, and the warm temperatures should make tonight hopefully good....

Current weather looks wet... but warm..

Come on out tomorrow night.

see everyone there.

Fat Tire Trail Report - Homage to Ice Edition

Date: April 7th, 2013
Location: Dufferin Forest

We had a good team van go showing for the Fromage to Homage to Ice.... over the day we changed the name of our ride... Tyler, Don, Mike, Johnny and Max rode, whereas Jenny and Karen did a run.

The start of the trail was icy.. and muddy.... really a mix of both... we headed down the main double track, and were able to jump onto some single track which was wide open!!! a sign of good things to come for sure.. For some reason every place we jumped onto single track it was at the bottom of a hill....

We also were able to do a small section of single track up the sandy hill... Tyler had a small mechanical... it's amazing what a little maintenance can do to a bike... apparently if you dont lube your chain it will start to get a little bit of chain suck... hmmm... luckily Johnny had some lube on him... yup, the jokes were just flying around at this point...

From here we continued along the double track back to where the yellow cross country ski trail was... was is the operative word.  From Wendesday to Sunday all the snow that was on the trail is 90% gone... It's crazy how quickly the snow melted over the last few days...  With a little rain the remaining snow will be gone and singletrack days will be here again...

We continued along on the double track jumping onto any singletrack we could find.... We ended up on the stick of the bernie loop, and were able to ride a fair amount of the trail. there was snow on the trail but the fat bikes powered through as far as we could... we then double backed and rode half of the lollypop... pretty much all the way to the big log and the old ramp...

It was great riding over the big log again, but for some reason it doesn't seem as big anymore..... still fun though...

At the end of the day we had a great ride, trails are so close to being good to ride on all bikes!!!!

Fat Tire Rating: 4.9 out of 5 (0.1 off a perfect ride because we were teased by singletrack)