A recent obsession with mountain bikes

I got bored, mid season cyclocross racing last year I was bored, same scene not too motivating yeah. I decided to change things up. Its been a while, in fact Kentucky since I have done some real mountain biking, I declare :-

 2011 is year of the mountain bike.

I got my shit together and decided what I wanted. Something fun, something to take a few small jumps and large bumps, yet something I could race on. A sort of of do all. Yep in most cases that means big compromise, but I think I chose a generally fun bike setup at the expense of pure speed, but FUN which is what mountain biking should be about. Ordered some stuff up and about mid Jan,

Lets build a bike
Joy, Joy, happy joy... here she is. A new MTB frame, soon to be lovely and dirty.

Add some components, wheels and a little elbow grease:-

Add a sweet fork from Fox 150mm of travel

Built up she looks like this. not yet ridden- super fun Trail bike , full suspension 5" of travel front and rear and weighs about 28lbs. Not superlight, not superheavy:-

click here for more bike images

A nice mountain trip with bikes
A trip up Syncline with some pals. Lots of climbing and some great descent (of which I dont have photos)

Click here for more images

And a little snow:

I was also fortunate that last week we had a little snow in town. Just about 3" on my regular commute. Why not ride your mountain bike to work, I hear you say, well I did.

Bend and Central Oregon for New Years

Went South for this New Years... you would think south would be warmer, but not when going to Bend.... chilly!
Bend is an outdoor mecca for rich Californian's who have nothing better to do than play outside all day. Bend is a 3hr drive South East of Portland, really really small town but has cool outdoor stuff to do around there. Good mountains, good paddling and lots of mountain biking in the summer.
Bend is cold in the winter but with bright sun and doesn't get as much rain as Portland.

So, we ate at a fancy restaurant, did some snowshoeing blar blar, pics below (click the link to take you to more of my snow pics and some silly NY pics)

(click the link to take you to more of my snow and silly NY pics)

On the subject of Central Oregon, a local advert consultancy here in Portland made this for a local brewery. Take a look it's brilliant and captures a lot of what I love about Oregon.