November and Sunny!!

For those of us lucky enough to live on Colorado's front range, we have been blessed with another great fall. With the mild days of late summer lingering on, there has been plenty of time to enjoy the great outdoors before they are carpeted with the chilly white layer of winter. Thanks to sunshine and temperatures in the 60's and 70's, mountain biking this fall in Fort Collins has been what I would call ideal. With the addition of a new Yeti 575 to my quiver of bikes, riding lately has been eye opening and every day on the bike is a new adventure.



We have been riding bigger lines, as well as enjoying the scenery around Fort Collins, from turkey and deer, to blue sky's and endless views.





Here are a couple short clips of me and my buddies riding, there is Brad Teets making a tough turn on Spring Creek, as well as Tod Castor and yours truly ripping down a technical section on Sawmill.

More Bike For Your Buck!!

For those that may not know, Fort Collins, in September, became one of only 10 US communities to be given the gold mark from the League of American Bicyclists. "This award reinforces the City's reputation as a leader in environmental stewardship and creating healthy, vibrant communities. Fort Collins strong biking culture, including miles of bike trails and lanes, is often cited as an important component to our quality of life and our communities ability to retain and attract quality employers and employees." Said David Kemp, Fort Collins Bicycle Coordinator.


So for any of you that live in Fort Collins and want to know more about bikes and the great city we live in check out this link to the Fort Collins city bike page. Either click on the title to the post or the link is: http://www.fcgov.com/bicycling/

Also be sure to check out the new 2008 city bike plan, it's an impressive 150 some pages and details a ton of great stuff about the Fort and bikes!!

New Belgium's Founder Goes Energy Neutral

Here is a great link to a new posting on New Belgium's Blog, "The Tinkerer" which talks about the easy things every one of us can do to help get closer to being energy neutral. The exciting thing about Jeff's ideas here are that they are things that everyone can do. He is not talking about installing wind turbines on the roof, or a hydroelectric dam in the canal in the back yard, but just about the everyday things we have plugged in that actually take a lot of energy even when not in use. So have a look, and walk around your house and think about all the things that you may be able to unplug! Not into sustainability for environmental reasons, just give this a shot then and see how it impacts your wallet when that next utilities bill rolls on in! The benefits can be huge!!

As usual, just click on the title to this post or you can cut an paste this: http://news.newbelgium.com/?p=322

Bummer Man!

So the fine people over at NBB decided to go with another candidate for the position I was up for, and I am pretty bummed out about it!! The upside however is that there was over 170 applicants and they only interviewed 10 people, so that in itself is a pretty darn good achievment. Also I got the chance to get to know two more people a little better, thanks to the opportunity Dave and Tyler gave me. So thanks guys and I am sure I will see you the across the table the next time something opens up!!

(This is an abstract view of my devotion to become part of NBB)

Well Its Been a While!

So for any of you that have been following along I know its been a while since I have posted anything new. Life in Fort Collins has been busy, I am entrenched in the middle of the fall semester here at CSU trying to whittle away the credits needed for my masters degree. Exciting things have been happening however, I got the chance to interview over at New Belgium Brewery and have my fingers crossed that I will be able to take that path soon!! Also, a new chapter of mountain biking has began for me with the purchase and evolution into the full suspension world. Until now I had been adamant about my hardtail and finally was persuaded to upgrade. I went with 2008's Yeti 575, and so far love how this magical machine has transformed my riding. I'll post pictures from my next ride, which hopefully is soon since its been in the 70's here this week. Other than that things are just rolling smoothly into the winter season. Here are a few random pictures from the fall so far, I hope you enjoy and there will be more to come!!








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Second Stem

Here is a picture or two for those of you that were wondering how I lowered my handlebar bag and made room for all my other stuff! Well first of all, I had my main light on the front of my front rack, as well as frog lights on the drop bars. This alone cleared a bunch of real estate up front. Then I designed this second stem idea and cut down a pair of old handlebars to give myself another purchase for anything I might need to mount. I decided to mount my handlebar bag there, which lowered it into a much better position. This of course made plenty of room for my bell, and computer without mucking up the whole flight deck.

I hope that is clear enough, here are some pictures of the contraption!!


Thanks again for stopping by Ronto's Folly!

Well we made it to another year in the New Belgium world of bikes and beers!

Every year New Belgium Brewing hosts a number of extravagant get-togethers all over the country called the Tour De Fat. These annual shindigs are a celebration of the ingenuity of the bike and of course the beer, that we as non-carbon producing fanatics have adopted as our mascots and penciled in on our own coat of arms!

This year, 2008, saw the eclipse of what most thought possible with what seemed to be over 10,000 participants, all dressed up, or down depending on semantics, paying tribute to the ideology that propels people to continue to ride bikes. Bikes, by the way, were invented in France in the 1860's and have stood the test of time, and as new technologies like the internal combustion engine, and better soled shoes have come and gone, bikes still stand as the ultimate in personal transportation!

Of course New Belgium Brewing was at the head of this folly, leading the way with pride, and providing the masses with that delicious golden nectar that lubricates and loosens the soul. Along with booze came plenty of entertainment, from live music, and tasty local food, to magic tricks, knife juggling, and even a funeral for a Cadillac Escalade! There were those lucky few that didn't run flat tires, I am not one of them, those that enjoyed one too many beers and, of course a winner to the yearly giveaway of a new cruiser!

In the end, the festivities turned out to be another great day spent in the open embrace at New Belgium's beautiful home here in Fort Collins, Colorado, and as we pedal away we all get a little excited with the thought of what next years costume may look like!

Here are a few of the pictures and clips from our memorable afternoon, enjoy!!






Thanks for tuning in to Ronto's Folly, if you want more info about New Belgium or the Tour De Fat, go to www.Newbelgium.com, or just click on the title to this posting! Thanks for stopping by and come back soon!!

Capes and Inland Routes

As I promised I would be back to talk about the things that are going on now and random ideas from the trip that I wanted to revisit.

First, things on the home front have been great, I am relaxing and taking advantage of summer break. As a student again I have come to realize that the lifestyle I want is perfectly embodied by the schedule of a college professor. Lucky for me I am on the right road, anyway lets get to the point here, which is of course the torture of Capes and Inland Routes!

To start a cape is defined as a piece of land jutting into the sea or some other large body of water, which I always believed to be true until this trip. What we found was every cape we encountered turned out to be a mountain of a hill. A better definition would be massive amounts of upwardly angled land that jut so far into the ocean one would rather struggle to climb over it rather than go around it. Truth is struggling over these steep hills on an 80 pound touring bike was a touch more difficult than cruising them in ones auto. These capes ventured inland of course instead of following the seaboard which leads to the second dreadful sight on a map, the inland route.

Inland routes are the simple occurrence where the route leaves the cool temperate climate of the marine layer, and turn inland, in our case, east. As soon as you leave the coast temperatures soar and can be over 40 degrees hotter than just a few miles back, we of course were tortured by these heat waves being especially used to the ocean breeze. At one point in southern California my thermometer read 22 degrees, which is actually 122 degrees, however my thermometer was not built to travel to hell and back so there were only 2 digits, where we obviously needed 3.


The point of this thought is that in planning this trip I would have never thought of these occurrences or the pain they would lead to, and although we made it over every cape and through every hot spell the inland heat could throw at us, next time we will take the coast, no matter how short the alternative route may look on the map!

Thanks again to everyone!!

We just wanted to thank everyone who tuned in on the ride for your support and energy. We had over 2500 hits on the website in the 4 short weeks we were on the road, so thanks a ton!!

Also I wanted to thank New Belgium Brewery here in Fort Collins for setting Molly and me up with some great gear and support, as well as Spire USA for hooking up some great messenger bags and laptop protectors, and lastly Thrill Head Creations which unfortunately is no longer around, but thanks for extending your Chaco deal to us, otherwise we would not have had any shoes to ride in.

All in all the trip was amazing, and we appreciate everyone who contributed both material and energy to our cause, thanks again!!

Check out the websites of our sponsors as well, here they are:

www.newbelgium.com

www.spireusa.com