If you took that intro sentence, and substituted ‘hiker’ or ‘equestrian’ for ‘biker’ – I believe the paragraph would describe the joy that those user groups find and look for in our treasured parks and open spaces.  When it comes down to it, we’re all humans pursuing the same joys.  Escape from our urban confines and routines.  Connectedness to the sacred spaces of nature.  The feeling of the wind in our hair and sun on our faces.

Yet there continues to be such conflict between these groups that share so many common goals and interests.  And it’s not just limited to those who choose to recreate on trails.

The problem is everywhere.  In the ocean, the shortboard surfer disdains the longboarder, the longboarder disdains the boogieboarder.  On the slopes, Snowboarders are disdained by skiers, and vis a vis.  In the skatepark, skateboarders mock the rollerbladers, rollerbladers who glare at the bmx riders who dare encroach on their sweeping canvas of undulating concrete.   So it is with us trail users, hikers, mountain bikers, equestrians all, where one group resents the others, when each one is simply pursuing the same goals by different means.

This is not to say that there is no reason for conflict.  Different modes have different styles.  A pair of skis creates different patterns, different routes and grooves in a slope than a single board.   And lets not ignore the fact that mountain bikers tend to have a penchant for velocity.  Whereas 60 year old hiking and plant observing enthusiasts perhaps do not share the same. I’ll admit that there is a type of riding that is best suited to mountain bike specific trail networks.  Jumping 10 foot gaps and collecting butterflys are not uses that are exactly, well, compatible.

What should be said, however, is that the conflict perpetuates itself on the sense that different uses are wholly incompatible and wholly different.  The conflict insists that one group should have all access rights over another, that because of one form of use, skateboarding over bmxing, shortboarding over boogieboarding, or horseriding over mountain biking, is ‘better’ or ‘more desireable’ than the other.

In any of these situations, groups need to look not at what divides them from one another – those distinctions have already been exposed and bloated until they have become impossible to ignore.  Instead, we should turn our focus to what we share.  The joy of the outdoors experience.  The feeling of exploration and freedom and sacred sense of being surrounded not by man’s creation, but Earth’s and God’s.   Though building downhill racetracks and a place for people to quietly walk and reflect on the shape of things are likely non-compatible uses for a hillside, more moderate voices in both camps will recognize the ability to build earthen trails to provide use, joy, and benefit to both parties.

Without a doubt, changes need to be made.  In all camps.

Mountain Bikers encountering hikers and equestrians should slow down not to a moderate speed, but a speed slow enough to make eye contact with the hikers or horses, and say hello, and greet them.  Not as an other.  As a you, an us – another person enjoying the same world, just in a different way.

And I would hope that hikers and equestrians would be able to return the greeting in the same fashion.  I strongly hope that hikers and equestrians stop demonizing the mountain bike as some sort of earth-destroying monster machine – claims which I hear all to often in use conflict debates, claims which have no scientific validity, and are perpatuated by angry old men.

Most often, in all these types of conflicts, it’s user type A who becomes upset at user type B because B caused A to get off the trail/slow down/wait/go around them/get off their bike/shattered their sense of solitude etc.  I’ve seen some situations get pretty ugly due to those causes.  People getting upset over these things proves that the older we get, the more we remain not child like, but childish.  We need to remember that we’re all incredibly lucky to enjoy the outdoors as we do.  That everyone enjoys it in a different way, and if you didn’t go as fast as you would have liked due to so many people on the trail, or you didn’t get to escape into your Thoreau like mindstate because a mountain biker came up behind you with a creaky chain – that we are all still incredibly lucky.  That your day, so shattered by an ‘other’ on the trail, is still a beautiful day in a beautiful place.

We’re all able to take our lesiure time and explore pathways into the known and unknown of our pristine and beautiful lands.  Give thanks, and smile at the others as you see them.  Know they’re different, but find your similarities.

It’s such a simple concept, to focus on what we share, and not what makes us different.  I think I’ll try.  I hope you will too. But for now, I’ve got to step off this soapbox and go for a ride.

Ergon Grips.  Ergon Grips work.  I can’t exactly make any claims about the grips making me a faster or stronger rider.  I’m sure there are lighter grips out there.  But the feel of riding on those grips for any length of time, from a short commute within the city to an endurance race across a mountain range is superior to just about anything else I’ve tried.

The experience recently came when my body decided to raise a complaint against mountain biking.  The complaint came in the form of sore tendons running across my hand.  After a weekend of mountain biking, it hurt to grip drawer handles, use a pencil or pen, and a myriad of other minor daily tasks.  That was on traditional grips.

I’ve recently put Ergon’s on all my bikes, and haven’t had a day of pain since.

Now lets talk about more things that work.  Like bar ends.  My first mountain bike, back in ‘99 was an old schwinn homegrown with some generic bullhorn barends.  I loved those things.  Every time I tried to race my friends up a hill in Wilder Ranch, my hands would go straight to that vertical position, pumping away and allowing me to motor on up the hill.

Then I got riser bars, and my senior colleagues at Sprockets Bicycle Shop told me, ” Oh, dude, you can’t POSSIBLY run bar ends and riser bars.  That’s totally lame.” I didn’t know enough then to question, as I was still learning how to adjust a rear deraileur.  So off they came.  Only with Ergons have they come back, and since, I’ve sat waiting at the top of Miwok trail, waiting for my bar-end-less friends, wondering why I waited so long to put them back on.

Let function create the fashion. I challenge anyone who likes to ride a bike distances, and occasionally feels the need to beat their friend to the top of the hill to try out bar ends again.  Ergons are likely some of the best looking.  I think the old fellas already know what I’m talking about, but its us silly young bucks that have wandered astray.  Barends+Riser Bars – somebody might laugh at you – but just get rad, fly your ergons high, and laugh right back.  Here’s to antlers, or any other goofy arangement, just so long as it works for you.

Unless it gets you mentioned in a certain reputable blog.

Here’s what you’ll need:

-Bottle of Stans or similar sealant: 25$ (this quantity should keep you in sealant for at least 3 sets of wheels…)

-2 20″ presta valve tubes (or schrader, if your rim is drilled for schrader valves): 10 – 15$

-Scissors: free, if you dig around your desk and drawers of random stuff.

Here’s how you set up ghetto tubeless:

Fillet the tube open, cutting along the seam opposite of the valve core, so that you have a flat, circular rubber strip.

Lay it into the rim.  You can lay it in with the rim naked, with electrical tape covering up spoke holes, or with your original rim strip in place.  I’ve seen success with all methods, but I’d recommend leaving the rim strip in place.

Make sure the strip is centered on the rim, with equal amounts flapping up and over the edge of the rim.

Mount one bead of your tire (you don’t have to use a UST tubeless tire, but their larger beads do make life easier once you need to seal the tire up.)

Pour the appropriate amount of sealant (see bottle’s instructions) into the open tire, and mount the other bead onto the rim, being careful not to drag the tube back into the rim.

Once the tire is fully mounted, ensure the tube is hanging out of the rim on all sides. If the tube strip has pulled back inside the tire anywhere, simply pull up the tire w/ a tire iron and fish the tube out until it is again draping over the sidewall of the rim.

Pull up on the tire, pulling the bead into the hooks of the rim.  Pull up the rubber up and away from the hub to help it seat into the bead hooks.  Doing this evenly around the entire wheel will help the whole tire seal when you finally pump it up.

Now pump like hell or fill up with a compressor.  Floor pumps that push more volume than high pressure (big, thick diameter pumps) are better here.

It’s likely that you will have leakage, and you just have to rotate the tire around to swish the sealant over the small leaks. Put your ear to the intersection of rim and tire to hear where air is escaping. .   Once you get the leaks stopped, and it may take a couple tries – you have a tubeless wheel, all for the cost of a couple tubes and a couple minutes.  Some tires work better than others, and you may have to repeat the pumping, sealing, swishing process a couple times to get it right.  But the cost and the benefit of never getting a pinch flat again are so, so worth it.

Now go get tubeless and get rad.

This is what I always say the recipe is:

the starting point

It’s the above or it’s the version from Joy of Cooking.

That’s how the cookies were made, that’s how it was done where I grew up, kinda.

But then I realized,

they aren’t in charge of my cookies anymore.  I’m an adult!

I get to make cookies like I like ‘em.

And I like my chocolate-y chunks.  In fact, I like pretty much any sugary-chunk, and I want more, in my cookies.

And since I like oatmeal, a bunch of that goes in, too, and a lot of it.

I think there are others like me, so I make enough to share.   If people don’t like , well, it’s pretty clear what the “win-win” solution is to THAT problem, isn’t it?

But now this isn’t my recipe any more, it’s yours.

you can see the chunk madness, and see inspiration;

you can see the healthy additions and see rationalization;

or you can just freak out at the amount of processed sugar I am putting in them.

My dentist is Dr. Carmine Vicino.  415-563-1070.  totally great guy.  Just for the record.

But no one, yet (emphasis on yet) has made a movie to mountain biking what this film promises to be to skateboarding.  Now if I could only figure out where to see it.

I awoke this morning, to a storm quite dreary

Rain and wind and cold there were a plenty.

My home was warm as was the office, but the space between filled with rain and wind.

I thought of the bus, somewhere I could sit and read a book comfortably within.

Umbrella overhead, I pushed out to the stop.

Then the bus pulled up, passengers bursting out the top.

I saw the stinky and sweaty san franciscans all piled high in the wheeled box,

I lifted my hands to the heavens and felt the cool raindrops.

Back to the garage, out came the slicker,

Tires and basket and rear facing fender.

From head to toe I was covered in gear,

keeping out the wet, the warm in here.

Off I strode through the city a mess,

everyone with faces bundled and wind blown dress.

I was invincible, a tower of comfort, cool rain running down my walls

I observe the cold, the soaked cotton garb, listen to their wailing calls.

My observatory is pleasant in this city upset,

Of missing the bus I have no regret.

Take heed good scholars and buy some duds

That can keep out the rain, let you dry your buds.

I don’t know what that last line means to say

But I do know I’ve written a poem at lunchtime today.

dc

Take a good, long look at that picture.  That little bit written in white at the bottom.  This brand spankin’ new sign is one that prohibits cyclist from accessing this newly paved trail in the Presidio.  Is it eight feet wide? yes.  Does it decend at no more than a 3% grade? check. Does it connect to one of my favorite pieces of trail in the entire presidio? Right-O.

This is why it is our responsibility as mountain bikers to organize and work together to create coalitions that will prevent these type of bone headed decisions to be made in our parks.  Now, this case in point is not too big of a deal.  Don’t tell anyone, but the other side of the actual trail in question does not have a no bike sign, and long may it be that way.  Lets leave alone the fact that they felt the need to pave a path in the woods, which in this man’s book detracts that much from the feeling of actually going to the woods.  Lets look instead at the need to prohibit cyclists from a pathway that, placed anywhere else would be a multi-use path.

If you’re reading these words, I thank you.  It means you care enough to check into the SF Urban Riders website.  And we’ll do our best to keep you abreast of the issues concerning San Francisco, and what you can do to help out via trail building, letter writing, or any other means.

Mostly though, remember to be a grand advocate of MTB when you cross paths.  In the words of a certain allhailtheblackmarket.com author, when a hiker, equestrian or anyone else is blocking your path, intentionally or otherwise, “get rad, not mad”

And on that note, I’ve got bermed turns to find and lean into.  Enough of this typing a blog-o-thingo.

“If I can’t ride my bicycle, what can I do!???”

Well, for one thing, I could actually fix all the bicycles I have broken over the last few weeks. Broken spokes, bent wheels, snapped seatcollars, and a variety of other ills require this doctor’s bike medicine. And a bicycle cleaning. See, I’m not one of those people that is very good about cleaning their bicycle. I try to keep a clean chain, but if the seatstays and downtube develop a three inch thick plastering of mud and other earthy detritus, than so be it. It doesn’t affect the functioning, right? t

Ahh, I tell myself that until I actually go forward and overhaul and completely clean my bicycles. Not sure what it is, but seriously, the only thing that rides smoother than a perfectly tuned bicycle is a perfectly cleaned and tuned bicycle.

Ok, but what if clean isn’t clean enough? That dirty blue paint has been bugging me for some time. So I will dedicate this upcoming rainy day project to an interesting MTBR thread I came across recently.

http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=286711

It makes me wonder how far I could take the raw aluminum aesthetic… I wonder if I’ll have time to take off my fork’s lowers…

Alright lets hear it for projects, and I’ll see what I can dig up that’s worth broadcasting here in the near future.

Pack Less: No matter how well you organize your goods, two weeks of four people living out of one car gets chaotic.  Its better to have less to sift through, less to carry around.  I could have brought fewer tshirts, fewer shoes, fewer strings, rubber bands, tripods and shovels.  (yes, I actually did bring all that crap. No, I don’t know why).  Recent studies show it’s not as gross as you think to wear your tshirt four days in a row. (just don’t ride in the same one 4 days in a row)

Carbon Soled Shoes are EVIL: When going on adventure mountain bike rides, one at times finds oneself climbing up steep sections that are unrideable.  In the single speed worlds, these are pre-requisite parts of the course.  In Durango’s SSWC course, they threw wall after wall at the riders, which would have been tolerable had I not had the Specialized Pro Carbon Torture shoes on my feet.  Now, these types of shoes are just fine for sprinting through Mt. Sutro, down to Bender’s, or racing your friend down the tower trail of Twin Peaks.  But try to walk up a mountain in them, and your feet will HURT!   Today, I buy some flexible soled shoes.  Today, I say adieu to blisters and more blisters.  This advice may come in helpful in cross races, too.

Off Road Recreation Area = ATV playground.  Sure, it sounds nice, after all, we’re all about recreation in the dirt.  However, the no-holds-barred lands known as Off Road Recreation Areas tend to be spiderwebbed with hick trails, fueled by gasoline and hootch, going everywhere, making the provided map all but useless.  To make matters worse, an Off Road Recreation Area gives mountain biking the worst element of road riding: No, I’m not referring to an amateur roadie’s over inflated ego, but rather to being passed by cars (and ATVs, and Motorcycles)

Never ask for MTB routes at Action Sports, Bakersfield.  See above. (it was his “favorite” local mountain bike trail)

Be an Ambassador: Because it was the Single Speed WORLD championships, it was arranged for me to pick up an Austrailian on the way out of town.  This man endeared himself to everyone he met through being an all around good natured fella, a hell of a bike rider and basketball player – and he brought cheap tourist trinkets with him.  It’s a good trick.  The plastic ‘ro, riding in my ‘ru, down the road brought about many a laugh and a story.  The children in Durango smiled new smiles when he handed them clip on Koalas.  The Aussie diorama can still be referenced on my car’s dashboard – currently located on Fulton & Arguello (until the damned dpt comes ’round)

Other Lessons: Make new Friends. Lean into the turn. Explore.  Dont’ use the Map unless you have to. Relax. Let it Ride.  Go Ride.  Draw Pictures.  Take time. Make time. The sound of silence is a beautiful one. Don’t be traffic.

man, I sometimes wish I was still on the road.

Next year is New Zealand… anyone want to take a trip?

We’d love to hear and see from others in this city and beyond. Got some good images of riding in the city, on or off trail? We’d love to publish them. Got some good stories of fun rides, trail adventures, or general musings? We’d love to hear them, and we’d love to publish them.

I’d like this site to become more of a community hub, were we post our ideas for improved city rides, our routes for improved adventure rides, our ideas for designing new bike components, our dreams of just getting out to endless singletrack beyond the city, or whatever else you all have in mind. I’ll do my best to keep some semi regular updates going here – got some that I’m stewing on, but if anyone is interested in helping maintain/update this webpage – lets hear from you. Lets talk, lets hear your ideas. Because we need your ideas. For the rest of this post, I’m flat out of them…

email dayton at sfurbanriders dot org with submissions.