Dirty Divas 2010 Mountain Bike Clinic

Hey ladies! Do you want to mountain bike, improve your skills, or just hang out with some like-minded folks? If so, please come to Harbin Park this Saturday for the seventh annual Dirty Divas Mountain Bike Clinic. The women of Reser will be out in force and Jess will be wrenching and holding down the Reser Tent--stop by for some tasty treats, maintenance advice and help!

Register at: http://www.bikereg.com/events/register.asp?eventid=10964

$50 for registration includes breakfast and lunch! Raffles will be held, so bring some cash for tickets that will support CORA's work to improve mountain bike facilities in our region.

Join us for a day of fun and fitness at our annual mountain bike instructional clinic for women. All riders from first-timers to advanced are welcome, and all fitness levels. Whether you’ve never ridden on a mountain bike trail, or you’re just looking to polish up your off-road handling skills, we have a great day in store for you!
At the CORA Dirty Divas Clinic, you will:

• Learn the basics of mountain biking, even if you’ve never ridden off-road
• Master your skills if you’ve already begun riding
• Discover proper technique for conquering hills, making tight turns, clearing obstacles, and more
• Challenge yourself
• Gain confidence
• Have fun!

New this year! The Dirty Divas clinic will feature only IMIC (International Mountainbike Instructor Certification)-certified instructors.

BMC Trailfox 01

The Trailfox is appropriately named. This bike lives for trails. I don’t say that because it has knobby tires, and 140mm of suspension travel, I say that because this is a bike that is at home on the trail. It has an active suspension, without feeling bouncy. I didn’t bother using ProPedal at all, and felt no real ill-effects. If I was faced with a very long climb, I would probably use it, but only to try to eke out every last bit of efficiency. This bike carves the corners and flies up hills. Taking corners I felt very confident leaning into the turns, the frame is quite stiff and allowed me to really push the bike and try to squeeze out as much speed as I could muster down the trail. Climbing was a point-and-shoot kind of affair, with the suspension actively hunting for traction without an annoying bob.
Descending was very smooth. While the trails I rode lacked in a slow technical descent, there are a few fast, rough hills that let me test the bike’s lofting capability, and I found the Trailfox to be very responsive to steering inputs and weight transfers, allowing me to loft the front wheel over rough sections quite easily, which made it able for me to place the front wheel wherever it needed to be in order to continue along with my chosen line.
I did notice that the bike didn’t behave well in the air. The rear suspension would kick off the trail and send the rear wheel higher than the front. It wasn’t difficult to control in the air, but it is a bit frightening to have the rear wheel kick up when you’re not expecting it. This may have been due to my suspension set up, or to my technique, but it would be something to keep in mind as you set out on the trail.
Overall I found the Trailfox to be a very capable bike. It made me feel faster on the trail without feeling fragile like a race bike can. The rear suspension soaked up bumps quite effectively and still allowed me to put power down either in the seat or standing up. This is a bike that is definitely at home on dirt.

Rocky Mountain Altitude 30

This may be the most beautiful mountain bike I have seen. It has a deep metallic blue paint over a flowing set of tubes, I almost wanted to hang it up as art instead of riding it. Notice I said “almost”. Riding the altitude was almost like watching a romantic comedy. You know what will happen in the end, but you also know that there will be some bump in the road that will be resolved somehow.
The bump in the Altitude’s road was the spec tire, not offering good traction when encountering wet roots or the muddy side of a water crossing. But when the tire slipped, the bike stayed upright and stable, and once you found traction it continued climbing. This bike is the epitome of balanced. It has a very natural feel to it, is easy to hold a line, and very easy to control going uphill, down, or on flat ground. This bike also takes to the air very well. On small jumps, like the kinds found on local cross country trails, the bike stays very level in the air, and absorbs the landing very well. It pedals very well without the need for ProPedal, which is good because the lever is mounted near the bottom bracket making it hard to reach while riding. I left the shock open the entire time and experienced no ill effects of a lack of platform. This bike definitely rewards smoothness, asking that you stay in the seat and spin rather than mash the pedals and yank the bars. I did both, and can say that it does prefer the rider to stay seated, standing and manhandling the bike produces results too.
The bike felt a bit short in the top tube. I’m 5’11” on a good day, and I slid the seat all the way back on the 18” frame I rode, and still felt a bit cramped. The front tire also had a tendency to lift a bit while climbing in the seat, but it was easily controlled and brought back to the ground. Overall I would call the Altitude 30 an excellent bike for someone new to riding, or looking for an upgrade bike that performs well no matter how you ride it. Or you could pick it up just to stare at it, this bike is stunning. Don’t forget to wipe off the drool when you’re done.

Yeti 575 Review

When I first grabbed the bars of the Yeti 575 I noticed a few things that I thought I wouldn’t be able to adapt to, the high seat height caused by the high bottom bracket, and the wide bars. I was pretty sure I wouldn’t be able to get used to either. I was very wrong. The seat doesn’t feel high as soon as you start going, and the wide bars offer good hand placement for control and leverage for climbing. Riding the 575 is an awesome experience. The rear suspension is super plush, while not being too soft to pedal. The particular bike I rode had the Fox RP23, and with ProPedal engaged the bike accelerated and climbed even better.
Riding this bike did a few things for me. It initially made me want to hit every single root, rock, jump, and drop I could find. As someone who doesn’t particularly enjoy flying down hills, jumping, and drops, the 575 gave me the confidence to go a bit faster, and let the wheels leave the ground a bit more. Climbing was efficient whether ProPedal was on or not, but the suspension will bob if you’re standing and torquing as opposed to spinning an easier gear. The other thing this bike did is make me want to be a better rider. The bike provides the platform for a skill set above mine, and the more I rode the bike, the more I wanted to elevate my skills to the level of the bike.
The first time I rode this bike I was limited to a short ride by only being able to carry one water bottle. And the cage location is right below the shock, which makes taking the bottle out, and flipping the ProPedal lever a bit of a chore. Not that that is a big deal, especially since many people have gone to the backpack hydration packs, but for those of us still in the hydration dark ages it would have been nice to have space for multiple cages, and also to have them in more convenient locations.
Overall, the 575 is a solid bike, an awesome climber, confident on the descents, and despite the large look to the frame, it is very lightweight. The bike is very stable both at speed and when picking and choosing a line.

Devou Park Back-Country Trail

Construction has begun on the new back-country trails just outside downtown Cincinnati at Devou Park in Covington. The whole project has been accomplished with very little tax dollars and a lot of volunteer work from KyMBA, CORA, Give Back High and Give Back Cincinnati, as well as residents at large!

The first of several trail heads is at the old Ludlow City incinerator at the bottom of Sleepy Hollow Road. Volunteer days are weekly and can be found on our calendar.

National Bike Summit 2008

This week was the National Bike Summit in Washington DC. It's where the cycling community can come together to learn how to get more people on bikes.

I attended and so did several others from the region, many of which I had collaborated with or typed-to before, but some I had never met face-to-face. There were several from Kentucky, but it was surprising that out of over 500 attendees, only 3 were from the Greater Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky area (Steve Magas, Ralph Mitchell and I)

What did we do? We listened to presentations on everything from making a Bike Friendly Community, Complete Streets Policy, and Safe Routes to School, to the National Parks Centennial Initiative and making off road trails part of the transportation system of a community.

There were some great speakers: Congressman Earl Blumenauer, Humana healthcare Chairman David Jones from Louisville, the Director of the National Park Service, and the Mayor of Washington DC. There were also "breakout" sessions with smaller presentations given by experts on many different issues in their respective fields.

With all of my new knowledge, I went up on the Capitol Hill and walked from office to office meeting with our congresspeople and their staffers with the others from Kentucky. It was great, they were all very kind and seemed to really get our message. In fact three Congresspeople agreed to join the Bike Caucus!

The biggest benefit was that we gave our Senators and Representatives a cure for some of our nation's biggest problems with a solution that reduces reliance on foreign oil, reduces air pollution and decreases road congestion all while promoting health and fitness which in turn reduces health care costs. We got a lot of support as livable communities with Bicycling and Pedestrian facilities are a win/win cause.

So now I'm fired up and ready to get some people riding bikes!

PS - You can add comments to anything written on our website- if it suits ya.

BMC donates $10 from each bike to IMBA

The US Distributor for BMC bicycles has announced that it will give $10 to IMBA for each bicycle or frame sold. Hooray! The International Mountain Biking Association (IMBA) has been an important part of the changing landscape of mountain biking, advocating trail access as well as teaching techniques for sustainable trail construction. The techniques taught by IMBA have helped out in the recent routings of virtually every local trail, as well as access to new trails like AJ Jolly, England Idlewild and Hamilton County Parks.

Tank Bike & Ride

All TANK buses are now equipped with bike racks for easy on-easy off bike loading. TANK's Bike & Ride program offers you another way to get around Northern Kentucky while getting some exercise and saving on high gas prices. Bike & Ride allows you to combine bike and bus travel offering more travel options. Just load your bike on the racks provided and you're all set to go.

For those wanting to take a mountain bike adventure without the vehicle, TANK is a great option. From Ohio you can even ride a METRO bus to downtown to pick up the TANK.

The Route Map shows that the 29-Express (Schedule out to EI, in to Cincinnati) will take you to within 2 miles of the England-Idlewild Trails. Bus routes 11 and 16 takes you right to Tower Park, and 26-Express takes you to Race Track Road, just a mile from the AJ Jolly Trails.