Fat Tire Trail Report

Wednesday Night Ride
Mono Cliffs Park
January 9th, 2013

We are still able to ride the full loop at Mono! Tyler, Johnny, William, Mike and Max did the trek out to keep the dream alive....

With the warmer temperatures the snow was a little softer than it has been, which made it a lot harder to peddle the bikes through but we managed...

Similar to the previous weeks you definitely needed to stay on the snowshoe / hiking path to ensure you stayed on your bike.  This was the case for fat and skinny tires alike....

Everything was pretty much rideable on the fat bikes for sure, poor William had a bit tougher of a time, with the bike sinking in the snow...

The wind was quite strong last night so the stops at the lookout and at the end of puke hill were short lived.

We attempted the upper loop again.. The strong winds created several drifts, but as long as you stayed up on plane you were able to plow through the majority of them.  After the drift and when the front tire dipped off the trail you either stopped dead or the bike decided it wanted to go a different direction than you wanted to go.
After the climb on the upper loop the trail became a lot nicer and the end of that loop was great.

With the warmer temperatures, we were able to enjoy a nice sociable after the ride...

Comment of the ride: "It's like gay pride with all the different colours of bikes"

Fat Tire Rating: 3.8 out of 5

Skinny Tire Rating: 2.2 out of 5 


It's not the size of the tire, it's the Girth!

FrostBike

Hi All,

Something to look into for the Family Day weekend.

The Frostbike Race

This race is down in Port Colburne.
10km loop, you can do 1 or 2 laps, and the fastest time between the 2 is your time.

Starts at a Tavern so it is a very laid back race.

Mini Time Trial start, 6 riders at a time.

Wednesday Ride

Hi All,

We are still riding Mono Cliffs Provincial Park Tomorrow (Wednesday January 9th), 6pm ride start.

See what we can do there, hopefully the snowshoer's and hikers packed the trails down enough to ride...

Hopefully with the weather lately the trail should be packed down really nicely.

See everyone there.

Fat Tire Trail Report

Sunday Afternoon Ride
Mono Cliffs Park
January 6th, 2013

Able to get a back to back ride in at Mono, Tyler, Jeff and Chris were able to do the Mono Cliffs loop.

Compared to the trail the day before it was night and day difference.  The little bit of hiker, skiier and snowshoe traffic packed down the sections were there were snow drifts to make the overall loop completely ridable on either skinny or fat tires.

Tyler was 2 feet away from making the rocky climb to the lookout, stupid root!!!
Chris cleared the bridge with no effort.  Some of the downhill were a little bit tougher if you got off line with the skinny tires which in turn created oversteer and then a body mark on the ground.  As Jeff called them 'Impact Angels'.

Felt good enough to go up and try the upper loop.  not as much traffic on that loop so the climb up took a lot more energy and there were a few snow drifts to contend with, but like the rest of the ride was doable.

After the climb came the flowy sections where everybody was having issues staying on the trail and on their bikes.  Impact angels appeared in a lot more places then what was necessary  but still made it and had a lot of fun riding it.

The weather was perfect, 2 layers seemed to be the best, with +1C temperatures and a some nice flurries falling on us.

With the wet brakes, hikers could definitely hear us coming down the hills with squealing breaks....

sorry no pictures on this ride so please use your imagination.

Comment of the ride: "I made the corners you didn't by not following your tracks"

Fat Tire Rating: 4.1 out of 5

Skinny Tire Rating: 3.8 out of 5 (If you weren't wearing glasses 2.8 out of 5 on the downhills)


It's not the size of the tire, it's the Girth!

Beer Review: Lake of Bays Mocha Porter

The second edition of the beer review is another Lake of Bays beer.  I have been given some and also bought some over the holidays.

I’ll give my forewarned warring that I am bias, and please go out and try this and many other beers as they all are good in their own special way… except for coors light, that really is just water in a brown bottle….

Another one of Lake of Bays seasonal brews, The Mocha Porter (which you can also find as Old North) is a dark coffee roasted beer.  When poured into a glass it comes out very dark, with a nice white head.

First impressions, after the beer was poured, the beer looked very nice and was calling out, drink me….  The smell test came back with a coffee/chocolate aroma, which is nice for a winter beer….

Taking the first swig of the beer proved that the coffee smell translated into the tast as well.  Also a hint of hops as well… overall impression on the taste of the beer was a very nice heavy beer.

I would consider this to be a great beer for drinking while having dinner or relaxing.. This is more of a sipping beer than a beer for after a ride.

Below is the ratings that I would give this beer.

Would I buy a case of this beer: No, I'd buy this beer one bottle at a time. 

Did it taste good: Yes

What was your initial thought when you drank the beer: It was a very smooth beer, and the bottle was too small.

Was the beer Hoppy: A hint of Hops, but not overpowering at all.

Score: 3.45 out of 5

Fat Tire Trail Report

Wednesday Night Ride
Mono Cliffs Park
January 5th, 2013

Another great ride on Saturday, Tyler, Johnny, Jeff and Max made the trek out into Mono Cliffs park.  Mark Train cross country skied, Chris, Illona, Emily, Tracy and the boys, and Karen hiked/snowshoe.

The weather as probably everyone is aware of was perfect, 0C, partially cloudy and not a stitch of wind.... 

The normal Mono loop was surprisingly in great shape, there were a few spots where the snow drifts did dump a lot of snow on the trail, but overall trail was still in great shape. Over the last week the amount of snow shoe, hikers, skiiers etc has packed the trail down to the point where everything on the loop is ride able.

The rocky climb to the lookout is almost smooth now...

The bridge rideable for both skinny and fat tires alike!! The bridge does not judge on the size of the riders tires.

As for the switchback... probably the best part of Jeffs ride, and not the best part of Tylers..... below is the step by step on how not to recover a snowy corner on a fat bike.... I'd say the snow was soft, the rock/root that was under the snow on the other hand seemed to be a tad harder...

Who put the snow on the outside of the corner.....

The upper loop seems to be ride able, which will be tried on Wednesday's ride.... Unfortunetly Tyler's leg was a little too out of sorts to add the extra section in....

Overall impressions, skinny tire bikes can ride the loop, as long as the temperatures and the hikers keep doing what they are doing... Same as last Wednesday, if you veer off of the packed trail your front tire is either going to stop or make a funky turn whether you want it to or not.....

Comment of the ride: " You just need to commit to the corners"


Fat Tire Rating: 3.9 out of 5

Skinny Tire Rating: 3.4 out of 5 (5 out of 5 when Tyler fell on the corner and Jeff made it)

It's not the size of the tire, it's the Girth!

Fat Tire Trail Report

Wednesday Night Ride
Mono Cliffs Park
January 2nd, 2013

Overall the ride was amazing on the fat bikes.  Johnny, Tyler, Mike, and Max made it out to keep the Wednesday rides going. 

The snowshoe/hike traffic from the previous few days packed the trails down enough to give more than enough traction as long as you stayed within the edges of the packed trail.  The trail was packed enough that skinny tired bikes would have no problem on the trails.

Once you did move off of the packed trail it did get a little bit sketchy, but if you didn’t over steer / over correct you were somewhat okay.

The snow was nicely falling on us, and felt like we were in our own little snow globe….

All in all it was a fantastic night of biking! 

Fat Tire Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Skinny Tire Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Weekend Ride

Just a reminder:
There is a snowshoe happening at 1:30 at mono at the same time as well, and I think a cross country ski too.

This weekends ride is going to be the following;

Date: Saturday January 5th, 2013
Location: Mono Cliffs Park
Time: 1:30am start

Current weather for Saturday: -1C, Partially Cloudy

Similar to last weekend, if some people want to do a snowshoe/hike at the same time please let me know.

Beer Review: Lake of Bays Spark House Red Ale

This is the first beer review, so figure pick one that I can remember drinking from New Years Eve....

Please be aware that my reviews will be bias to what I enjoy, so really just take the below with a grain of salt and go out and try all kinds of different beers.

This beer use to be know as Rousse Ale, but has now been changed to Spark House Red Ale.   First impressions were that the box looked really nice, as I was given a box and not an opened beer.  Once I tapped into the bottle the beer reminded me very much like a Alexander Keiths Red Ale.  The Spark House seemed to be a bit smoother I found.  There was not really strong tastes, or any after taste for that mater.

I would consider this to be a good after ride beer for Spring rides.

I could go into detail on the beer's appearance, or how fizzy the beer was, but I wont, because really I dont' think that matters on whether the beer tasted good.




Below is the ratings that I would give this beer.

Would I buy a case of this beer: Yes
Did it taste good: Yes
What was your initial thought when you drank the beer: It was a really good beer, and that the other 5 in the case will go down just as smooth as the first one.
Was the beer Hoppy: The beer wasn't hoppy at all.

Score: 3.95 out of 5

Wednesday Ride

Hi All,
Still going to try Mono Cliffs Provincial Park tonight, 6pm ride start.

See what we can do there, hopefully the snowshoer's and hikers packed the trails down enough to ride...