Many people have been checking out my test site for pmbc.org. Since I did that work, I’d put the project on the back burner as I’d been busy with the past school year. I’ve also since been looking at different software packages on which to run the site. The site currently uses 6 (plus another 2 or 3 for admin stuff) packages for the various functions.

Every time one package needs an update, it needs some customizing to work with the site. And to revamp the site would mean I’d have to customize at least 4 of the packages. People who have visited the test site have noticed that the gallery, blog, message board, and classifieds (the biggest 4 pieces of software I use on the site) aren’t part of the test site.

Rather than continue the hassle of a very difficult to maintain concoction of packages, I’ve been looking at various Content Management Software packages such as the Nukes, Geeklog, Mambo, and some PHP packages. I’ve found that Geeklog, with the addition of a couple of plugins, combined with our existing Gallery can provide all the functionality of the current site. Plus, it has the benefits of a unified system which will only require one login for our users and administrators.

Look for a major site update in the next month. The old content will still be accessible as an archive. Maybe Martin will have sold all his shoes by then since we’ll be using a new classifieds system. I’m currently working on the layout templates, and the good news is that one template will apply to the entire site, including the gallery, so site mods in the future will be much easier to pull off.

The biggest benefit to this is that members will be able to actively participate in the content of the website by commenting on posted information, adding content of their own, and being able to customize how the site appears to them.

Consider this to be a week’s notice of the upcoming change. If I get started and then make rapid progress on customizing the site, it’ll be online before August. If you have comments/suggestions/concerns, please e-mail me.

After all this time of no riding, I finally hit the trail. Last weekend’s Beginner Ride was held at the Arroyo, as usual. It’d been a while since I’d been there and I discovered it’s losing its beginner rideability. The recent rains took quite a toll on the water crossings, making them not-so-crossable. Our next beginner ride will be at Marshall Canyon in La Verne, unless I hear that it’s not doing so well also. Even though it was a challenging morning out, it was still worth being out there. Sure beats doing the stuff I’m supposed to be doing, and more relaxing, too.

The site’s still chugging along fine. Forrest’s doing a good job of adding pictures to his gallery. The boy’s been busy. Our newest buddy, Brian Coleman has a new gallery, as well as a profile in our Members section. You’ve just gotta check out his Toolproject website for the cool creations Brian’s been making. I’m hoping he makes a downhill version of his surround cycle. It looks like it could be made to corner well. But go check the site for yourself. He’s gotta have an awesome machine shop tucked away somewhere. Speaking of Brians, Brian Jehue’s profile will be posted next month. Tune in next month to learn about another Brian.

Hardcore training is not just a catch phrase. Most weight training programs involve core stability exercises. This is because it is almost unanimously believed that strength building begins with the stability and force from your CORE. Your core consist all the muscles in and around your lower back and abdomen. Now many of you have bought cycling shoes shortly after you purchased your bicycle. Besides having the ability to use a clipless pedal system, you have gained force in your pedal stroke. The force exerted by the muscles pushing the pedals is not wasted by the flex of your shoes. Well, the same type of thing applies with your core. A strong “Hard” core is the base of your muscles force. Therefore, training your core will provide more force per pedal stroke and improve your power output which will result in more speed. The connection is mind boggling but the mind happens to be where you start. Start your core training by making that mind muscle connecting and gaining the ability to contract your core muscles. You can lay on your back as if you where going to do a sit up then contract and hold you abdomen inwards. Try to keep it contracted for 20, 30, or 60 seconds. When you have completed a few sets you can move to the next positions – standing, then on all fours. Once you have mastered your core stability base positions you can then incorporate that locked core base into more effective abdominal and lower back exercises. Core strength exercises commonly include exercises like crunches, leg lifts, six inches and stability ball routines. I can be more specific with the types of exercises but I will save it for another article.

Last month seemed to sneak by me. The good news is that I’m working in Pasadena now, so I don’t have so much of a commute. The bad news is that new jobs tend keep one extra busy for a while. It’s been almost two months and I’m just now feeling like I’m up to speed.

March didn’t get by completely unnoticed. My dad and I did make it out to the LA Marathon bike ride with Ray, Eddie, Bob, Jonathan, and a few thousand others. It seemed lighter out this time around. It was a great day for a ride, and it felt comfortable for all of us. My dad turns 79 this month, and he still keeps a pretty good pace. I bet we’ll be doing the next several LA Marathon rides. Next year he’ll be “almost” 80, but after that, he’ll officially be in his 80’s. You don’t see too many ancients out on a bike, but they’re out there. And some of us thought we were old.

I’ve been working on a redesign of the site that I started before I got my new job. The redesign’s on hold, but a sneak peek of it is at http://test.pmbc.org. I expect to finish it once summer comes around.

I also learned about a new form of Internet slime. We all know what Spam is like, and sometimes we see spam posted to message boards, and such, but now there’s something called Referrer Spam. Most websites don’t make their visitor logs public, but some spammers think it’s worth filling logs with bogus requests that look like someone visited a site by following a link on the spammer’s website. PMBC.org probably gets more hits from Referrer Spam than by legitimate users. I’ve just about got this latest scam blackholed, but if you find some odd behavior when trying to visit the site, drop me a line.

Speaking of Spam, if you’re getting tired of it in your mailbox, members can get POPmail accounts here at PMBC.org that blocks a hefty amount of spam, or one of us Gmailers (John, Martin, myself, and maybe others) can send you a Gmail invite. Just let us know if you’d like a relatively spam-free email account.

Tomorrow’s the Pancake Breakfast at Millard Campground. I’ll be there. I’m already craving pancakes. If I’m lucky, I’ll come home with a full stomach and some schwag. See you there!

Is America having a fitness crisis? Sometimes it seems that way as more and more Americans are obese. Obese is having a BMI of 30 or more. BMI is your weight in relation to your height. Data from the National Center for Health Statistics indicate that prevalence of obesity has increased from 12.8% between 1976 and 1980 to 22.5% between 1988 and 1994, and jumped again to 30% between 1999 and 2000.Do a Google search and you can find numerous BMI Calculator sites. Now don’t be too critical on yourself, my BMI is 26 and this means I should lose 27 pounds and only weigh 133lbs.
So what does this tell me, we need to exercise more and eat less, in fact that is what our government has done. Here is a recently released Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2005, a joint project of the Departments of Health and Human Services and Agriculture, outline the need for Americans to limit calorie consumption and get more physical activity
• To manage body weight and prevent unnecessary weight gain, engage in 60 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous intensity workouts most days of the week
• Consume a sufficient amount of food groups including: two cups of fruit, two and a half cups of vegetables, three or more ounces of whole-grain products and three cups of fat-free or low-fat milk (or similar milk products) per day
• Keep total fat intake between 20 to 35 percent of calories
So ride your bike and work out as often as possible, then think about how you are fueling your body.
Doug Sullivan,RN, AFAA

Happy 2005.
I know it’s already February, but this is our first E-mail newsletter of the year and my first chance to spout. First of all, the fact that we’re sending an Email newsletter is something to mention. We figured that sending something short and sweet to the members, that includes the ride schedule and other important upcoming events, would be cool, so expect them occasionally. If you have any ideas for what you’d like to see in the new E-newsletter, let us know.
Sending something to the club members means that you should actually be a member so this is also a reminded to renew your PMBC membership for 2005. In case you missed it, we are back on a calendar year membership instead of a 12-month gig and the dues have also been reduced to a paltry ten bucks a year! There should be no excuse for not being a part of this stylish organization. Just the PMBC discount at Pasadena Cyclery should make up your lousy ten bucks in your first visit to the shop.
The other big news this time is the return of the Mount Wilson Pancake Breakfast. Pasadena Cyclery is coordinating this fundraiser for the benefit of local mountain bike trail-access groups. They have set a tentative date of Sunday, April 10 at Henninger Flats, the traditional home of the Pancake Breakfast. Unfortunately, the recent rainstorms caused a major slide on the Mt. Wilson Toll Road that may not be cleared up by that date. Keep checking the PMBC site for updates on date or venue changes. You can also call Pasadena Cyclery at (626) 584-6391 for details.
Some other dates to mark on your calendars are the LA Marathon Bike Ride on March 6, the Solvang Century on March 12, and the Sea Otter Classic in Monterey on April 15-17. Also don’t miss our whole month of Sunday rides led by long-lost club member, (he lives in NorCal now) Lloyd Miller, all March long!
That’s all I’ve got for now.
Later,
Martin

I don’t get out riding much these days, so I look forward to the times when I can get out and ride. Last weekend, the Altadena Mountain Rescue guys invited me out to a Brown/El Prieto ride. I like riding with them knowing that help is right there should I crash. Well, maybe. They’re pretty fast, even when they claim to be out of shape, making them pretty hard to keep up with.

To prepare for my bi-monthly ride, I checked weather reports and trail reports and all looked good. I was even excited about riding El Prieto since it’s been a long time since I’ve ridden it and it looked like there’s been quite a bit of work done on it.

Come Sunday morning, I loaded up my bike. There were a few sprinkles, but that’s not enough to stop me from going out for a ride. On the way over to the meeting place, I went through some heavier drizzle and some rain. I wasn’t going to bail out just yet since I said I’d go, and I was hoping the weather was better at the trailhead. It was sprinkling when I got there, so all looked pretty good. One of the guys even had a shiny new Jeckyll he was itching to try out. It’s a beautiful bike: mondo Lefty fork, a bunch of travel, disc brakes, a single pivot, and adjustable geometry. Unfortunately, the rain picked up a bit and it was getting uncomfortably wet.

At this point, hitting the trails didn’t seem like such a good idea. As I said, I don’t mind riding when it’s sprinkling, but when the rain really picks up, there’s just a lot I don’t want to deal with. Mostly, trails get pretty torn up when people ride on them when they’re wet and/or muddy. Knowing what El Prieto is like, I’m sure parts of it softened up with the rain which isn’t going to hold up under heavy riding. Then there’s the issue of how dirty a bike gets. I don’t mind cleaning my bike, but I try to keep mud and water out of my hubs and bottom bracket; they’ll last longer that way. I left them with my regrets and made the drive back home, through some heavy rain, and then light sprinkles when I got home.

A bit disappointing, but at least I dragged myself out to ride. It’s hard sometimes to get motivated to go out for a ride, but once I’m there, I’m set. I’m just thankful I have riding buddies who will drag me out for a ride. And that’s what we’re here for – to be riding buddies who make you want to go out and ride.

I’m writing this as I’m looking out at today’s rain and thinking about the ride schedule. Tomorrow’s a Brown/El Prieto ride which I can’t make, but I hope it stops raining so Van Der Veen and everybody else can enjoy the bumpy ride down El Prieto. If not, there are always other days to ride. Like next weekend when Brian will be leading the same ride, or any of the other rides we have coming up.

March is going to be Sundays with Lloyd, and some other rides, including Ray’s annual L.A. Marathon bike ride. My dad and I will be there again. Ugh, I wish they’d schedule it later in the morning, but it’s not too much to get myself out of bed and to the starting line long before sunrise. If you want to do the Marathon ride, e-mail Ray for details, such as good places to park and where we’ll be meeting.

Last, but not least, there’s the Pancake Breakfast in April, but you knew that already, right?

The club’s first electronic newsletter went out last night. If you’re a 2005 member, you got one. If you did pay your 2005 dues, but didn’t get a newsletter, email us at our membership address and let us know. We’ll send one out to you.

We’ll be sending out a new newsletter in a couple of months, so anybody who joins or renews now will be on the list for the next round of newsletters. If you renew right after a newsletter goes out, we won’t be sending you any back issues, but you might be able to suck up to an existing member to get them to show you what you missed.

Now that all the rain’s gone, it’s beginning to look like a great new year. If you’re looking for suggestions for New Year’s Resolutions, why not drop $10 to improve your social status by being a member of the Pasadena Mountain Bike Club.

“What if I don’t mind being unpopular?” you ask. We’re okay with that, but if you ride, you need stuff for your bike, and when you need stuff for your bike, you need to spend money. If you spend the $10 now, Pasadena Cyclery, our esteemed sponsor, will knock 10% off the price of goodies for your ride. They’ll even knock the same 10% off the price of goodies for yourself, such as clothes and accessories. If you’re the type who spends $100 per year on stuff, like most of us (tubes, tools, and parts really add up quickly), you’ll more than recover the $10 you spent to join.

“Ok, but what if I don’t need stuff?” you ask. We don’t believe you, but we will think you need some more prodding to join the club. We’re going to start shooting out electronic newsletters exclusively for our members. They won’t be on our website, and there won’t be hardcopies at Pasadena Cyclery. It’ll be in color, and it will have content you won’t find on the site. You’ll get one every month or two.

We can see you’re convinced that you need to join the club. We can also see that spending $10 won’t kill you. Think of it as less than a dollar a month. You spend more than that on gas to drive to the trailhead and back.

If you’ve got that $10 handy, you can bring it to any of our meetings, held on the first Wednesday of the month at 7:30pm, usually at Fuddruckers in Pasadena. Or you can go to our Join page to either make a PayPal payment, or print out the membership form and send it in with a check. Remember to include your e-mail address if you’d like the electronic newsletter. We promise to protect your privacy by only using that e-mail address to send you the newsletter. That’s the only reason we ask for it. We use your street address to send you a membership card.

Thanks for listening. Now back to the music…

Looking at the Blog, I see I didn’t write this month. I try to write every month. Heck, that’s more often than I ride. I get the feeling that when I ride again, I’ll look like this.

Out with the old, and in with the new. The old was: Too busy with work and school to ride like I used to. Now I’m getting fat. The new will be: Still too busy with work and school to ride like I used to, but I’m going to get off my butt and get some sort of exercise in, and eat better, to boot. I have about 6 hours to allow myself to keep getting fatter. Good thing the neighbors are having a New Year’s Eve party. But I’ll try to refrain from excessive pigging out. After all, if you’re going to commit to something like a New Year’s Resolution, it’s silly to procrastinate. If you’re going to feel guilty about eating that burger, then don’t eat it.

So I say to my bride, “I have a New Year’s Resolution for us.” I’m gonna exercise more, go out to eat less, and run the LA Marathon. She didn’t quite laugh in my face, but reminded me that the LA Marathon is in just over two months. That’s not enough time to train. Whew! Now I have an excuse to postpone the misery. I’ll aim for the Santa Clarita marathon instead, plus, it’ll allow for me to bike the marathon again this year. It’s $25 to register, and registration is open. I don’t register online because the DoItSports.com bastards keep spamming Katrina and I and don’t include an unsubscribe link, and ignore my unsubscribe requests. I hate them. So I’ll snail-mail my registration in and feel better about myself.

Back to the running thing. I’ve never been too fond of running because it’s pretty hard on the body. But a) I know people who have been jogging forever, injury free, and b) running is darned good exercise, and c) I can start running from my front door and can travel lighter than when I want to bike. I’m hoping it’s a more convenient and efficient form of exercise, because while I love biking in nature, I’m really lazy.

Once the weather returns to California normal, I’ll get in some Beginner Rides, and hit the trails more when I’m in better shape. In the meantime, it’s the gym, and the street.

If you’ve read the FAQ, you know we’re big on the social aspect of riding. I was reminded of this on our last Beginner ride that I led a couple of weeks ago.

Other than myself, four other people showed up for the ride. Four complete strangers. With nothing in common. Oh, except that each of us brought a mountain bike. Ok, so we had one thing in common.

It turns out that this “one thing” we had in common was our love of mountain biking. We had varying degrees of riding experience, but the same level of enjoyment of riding. With a smallish group, each of us was able to get to know every rider, their background, and their other interests in life. One is a member of the Coast Guard, one a TV commercial producer; no two alike, except the guy who teaches in Glendale who’s farther along in his teaching career than I.

The bottom line of this experience for me is that riding with others is where it’s at. Whether it’s someone you’ve never met, or someone you’ve known for years, the ride is much more enjoyable when it’s with others. I had such a good time socializing with the other riders that the ride itself became secondary. It was a great day out, and I’d much rather hang out with people on the trail than in a bar or coffee shop. I really need to get out more and ride with others, because I had a really good time, and I’m all for having a really good time.

I’ve been on a roll with working on websites. It started with a big school project I wanted to do for my “Computers in the Classroom” class. Then I started tweaking my mom’s art website.

In the midst of it all, I started tweaking this website. This site is made up of many different modules, all of them with their own default style. It’s a bit of a challenge to get the menu to look and behave the same in the different modules. Plus, it had a tendency to break the Master Calendar module, as Ray found out a month ago.

My solution was to make a common navigation banner that I could use at the top of every page. It’s an Image Map, it’s centered, and it’ll look the same on every page. Now that I’ve got a concept that works, I can further tweak the layout of this site, and not worry about how the menu behaves.

My next step is to add the Google search back at the bottom of every page, as well as a logo/link to Pasadena Cyclery since they’re our very supportive sponsor. After that? Who knows, but redesigning the site in the future should be easier now.

If you have comments or suggestions, please let me know.

Don’t read this if you haven’t voted in the current poll, or haven’t viewed the results.

Not surprisingly, everyone so far has voted to ride Anywhere They Can. Duh. I didn’t put much thought into the poll, other than my effort to make sure that people know that a forest closure isn’t the end of the world. As Martin mentioned, the Verdugos are a viable alternative, as well as the other places I mentioned.

As I recall, the last time the forest closed, it didn’t open until about January. So we’ll be without some of our favorite riding spots for a few months. But those aren’t our only favorite riding spots. I’m very fond of Marshall Canyon, as well as Chesebro. Then there are places such as Bonelli, Fullerton Loop, Chino Hills, and Turnbull Canyon. We’re just spoiled with all the great local riding we have in our own back yard (ANF). There’s nothing we can do about the closure, except to hope for rain, and hope that nothing burns until then. This is certainly better than having our mountains burn up.

If you’re still sad about the whole thing, maybe a trip to Interbike will cheer you up. It’s for industry folks, so if you can schmooze your way in with a friend in the industry, you can spend your week in Vegas lusting after the latest in bike gear, hitting all the evening social events, and riding the local trails on demo bikes. But, again, you’ll really have to schmooze your way into this show, and probably sell your soul, or something equally demeaning.

So it’s not all doom and gloom. There’s still TONS of riding available to you, and we’ll still be out riding every weekend. If you can’t make a ride, but are still dying to ride and need trail suggestions, go ahead and shoot our mailbag some e-mail and we’ll spill the beans on some of our other favorite places to ride. Just remember, a forest closure is no excuse to not ride.

In case you missed Scott’s link regarding this, the Forest Service has stated that they intend to close most of the Angeles National Forest on Monday the 27th. This puts a serious monkey wrench into our ride schedule for the rest of the year as well as our plan to revive the Mount Wilson Bicycling Association’s Pancake Breakfast that was to be held on it’s traditional date on the first Sunday in November (the 7th). Pasadena Cyclery was putting that event together with us and the CORBA people so we’ll have to get together with Al and Tom at PC and see what the next step is. It probably means rescheduling it for sometime on the spring before mountain bike racing is in full swing.
That’s all I have for you. Just don’t be surprised to see a lot of PMBC rides happening in the Verdugos, Santa Monicas and in State Parks in the near future. Oh yeah, start praying for rain.
Check out the USFS closure link: http://www.fs.fed.us/r5/angeles/news/2004/news-2004-09-23-use-restrictions.shtml

I’ve just installed a new Classified Ads system. It’s a Do-It-Yourself deal, so you’ll have to register if you want to post an ad. Remember, if you’re not a PMBC member, you can’t post an ad. Ads stay posted for a year unless you delete it. Please keep the ads bike related. I’ve already copied the old ads into the new system.

I’m still prettying the section up, so don’t get too worked up if something doesn’t look perfect for now.

It’s been really hot and I’m sure you must know to drink water. Well waiting until you are in the baking sun climbing up the mountain may be too late. Everyone should have a full Camelback, 2 full large water bottles or some type of (70 oz- plus) hydration pack for these hot days. If you show up for a 2 hour ride with just one small water bottle you are sure to run out. I use this example because most of the club rides average 1 to 2 hours. Now here are a few suggestions for dehydration prevention. Plan your ride, and drink lots of water the day before. Your bodies cells can be pre-hydrated. What I mean by this is most of us are a little dehydrated anyway and by drinking alot of water the day before you will replenish your cells to their maximum capacity. Now for those of you that eat a low carb diet,EAT CARBS! Carbohydrates will allow you to store more water and energy and you will probable burn more fat because of the added energy. Since this is not a fad diet, BLOG…back to the water. How much water? Try to drink .75 to 1.5 ounces per pound of body weight, the day before. Then during your ride,drink a few ounces every 5 minutes.Waiting until you are thirsty is too late. When you stop and rest, try to drink more water (6 to 8 oz), and if it has been an hour of riding, you should eat a snack. What about Gatorade, Cytomax, Poweraid and all those other electrolyte replacement drinks? They are great, and work well to sustain energy. Just try them out before your epic ride. Remember you can never have too much water so drink up and ride!

At our last meeting this past Wednesday at Fuddruckers, we got the run of their banquet room thanks to the absense of the Oldsmobile club that usually meets the same night we do. With all the Gomezes, it’s good we had the extra space. Aside from Martin’s family, Katrina and I were there, as were Ray, Forrest, John, Martin VDV and Cathy, Bob, Alan and his wife, and a few more.

Top item of note is the imminent closure of the Angeles National Forest due to the high fire danger. We’ve made a few switches to the September calendar, and we’ve got most of the October schedule worked out. The updates will hit the site any day now.

With the closure of the ANF in mind, our ride choices are limited. If you’ve got any cool trails you’d recommend that aren’t in the ANF, drop us a line at mailbag@pmbc.org and let us know which trails you like to ride.

In addition to the usual scheduling talk, we always get to hear bike industry gossip, read motomags courtesy of Forrest, and get cool vacation ideas courtesy of Bob. Missed out? Drop by next month and get some more bike tips, or if you just can’t wait, we always go through our mailbag, so send any questions our way.

Please pay a visit to the Mt. Wilson Bicycling Association’s website for important information regarding the Forest Service’s proposed designations for the Angeles National Forest. They have links to the USFS website explaining the proposals as well as ways you can let them know what you think about the proposals.

I’m sure many of you watched the Tour de France or a least read about it. Why is Lance so strong? Well I’m not Chris Carmicheal, Lance’s trainer but I’m sure it has alot to do with Lance’s consistant training/riding. Consistancy is the key, I’m a true believer in this theory. You may not have time to ride your bike 3,4 or 5 days a week so here are some suggestions. Get a Cycle-Trainer, Rollers or Spinning bike. The Trainer or Roller are great because you can use your own road bike or mtn bike with slick tire. This is an advantage because it’s more reality based and you can ensure your bike is set up right for your next ride. The spinning bikes have a weighted wheel which gives them a solid feel and taking a spinning class makes the workout less mundane. These suggestions should always be your second choice. Nothing replaces real cycling and you should always look for ways to get on your bike. Here is what I try to do stay consistant. Never miss more than 1 or 2 days of riding or spinning. Always try to plan my rides or spinning to be specific type of workout. This could be a recovery ride, a max effort ride, or an interval ride. There a many workouts to choose from and sometimes I just get of my bike and ride how I feel. In my previous BLOG I mentioned the Polar HRM. The website has a log for your workouts along with a suggested riding schedule with target heart rates. Now this may be a little over the top for some of you and me too. The main thing is to just be consistant and enjoy riding your bike!

Now that ClubMTB.com is charging for their services, we’ll try to move some of its features over to our own site. For now, we now have the new Forums section. To keep the seedy elements out, you’ll have to confirm your existence via e-mail. We won’t go around telling people your e-mail address if you don’t, so don’t worry about losing your privacy just because you registered.
Right now, there’s just one message board for announcing rides and looking for riding partners. We can add new message boards if need be. Take it for a spin, and let me know if you run into any difficulties with the new message board.

If you weren’t one of the 20 or so of us at the last meeting, you missed out on burgers, dogs, and some of Ray’s yummy leftovers. Oh, and some of the cushy bikes that tend to show up, such as the Foes La-Z-Boy. It might have a real name, but it was so cushy, it makes any trail feel like a riding a waterbed.

Ray was taking pictures like a madman, so look for those to hit the Gallery soon. In the meantime, check out Martin’s pictures from this past weekend’s Fullerton Loop ride here.

We do this every Fourth of July, and once or twice at other times during the year in the Pasadena Cyclery parking lot. We also planned out the ride schedule for August. If there are any rides you’d like to see us lead, drop Ray a line, or even let him know if you’d like to lead a ride on any open days or some day in the future.

Any other tidbits or questions for us? Drop us a note in our mailbag. Hope to hear from you soon!

It’s that time again. Time for our almost-annual trip to Mammoth for fun-filled days of fishing, riding, and way too much BBQ-of course! The dates are for me, August 8-15 (Sunday to Sunday), and the rest of the gang will be there from Thursday the 12th through Sunday the 15th. We are staying at the Discovery 4 condos. They are close enough to ride to the mountain and convenient for getting to the lakes for fishing. Lodging is getting tight already so call ‘em quick if you want to join us there. The number is (800) 538-4751. Talk to Patrick. If they’re sold out, I’m sure there’s other condo rentals and motels to find since it’s not a racing weekend. Be there and bring your XC and DH bikes if you have them but you can still downhill on your XC rig.

HRM? Have you heard of that? That means Heart Rate Monitor. The bike shops have them and so do a lot of sporting goods stores. Well they may not seem to important to you because you don’t really care what your heart rate is. Let me tell you this, you may not need to continuously monitor your heart rate but you should be aware of your fitness level. That is why I recommend you have a HRM. I bought the Polar i710 from Pasadena Cyclery when they first came out and I love it. Those of you that want to lose weight or raise your anaerobic threshold then a HRM is an essential tool. This is why, it allows you to evaluate you workouts to see what HR zones you are in. This will let you plan your rides to achieve your fitness goals. Did you know that going easier actually burns more fat? Well it does, it just needs to be done for a longer duration. Sprints and going to hard burn more calories but the fat % is lower. I can not go into too much detail for this Blog so just email me with any questions. I the meantime start shopping for a HRM and visit the polar website www.polarusa.com.

Well folks, I’m back and I will not be too busy with school to write for this blog section anymore. I just passed my RN program! As many of you may know I have been a LVN and fitness advocate for many years.
I took up mtn. biking 10 years ago because I had allowed myself to get out of shape. Well it only took me one year but it was because I have been in shape most of my life. Let me tell you this, it’s not that easy to get in shape but it is a lot easier to maintain. That’s what I continue to do on a daily basis. I believe this ” If you do not strive to improve your health, you are allowing your health to get worse.” So ask yourself, what is more important than your health? Nothing right? We I think you will also agree that going mtn. biking is a fun way
(although it may be too time consuming to 3 to 4 times a week) to get in shape. I suggest xtraining with other types of cardio. Now, what do you eat? Are you eating with your brain or do you just pacify your desires. Get used to making the smart choices and it gets to be a habit. Now stop procrastinating and start making steps toward your fitness goal.

Last week I sat in on one of the Forest Plan revision meetings in Glendora. In case you don’t know what that’s about, the Forest Service revises how they manage all of the National Forests every 15 years or so and decides what kind of recreation, protection or resource removal they will allow depending on the local situations. The Sierra Club and other mountain bike haters are using this opportunity to try to close off more of the forest to your use. They claim that they have nothing against bikes (although they believe we should stay on fireroads only and the yahoos that cut trail and scare hikers are only helping their cause) but will accept no other designation for protection in the forest besides the Wilderness designation. There are other lesser protections that do everything the Wilderness one does-except they do not prohibit mechanized, non-motorized (say bike) access. If it’s not about the bike (and the original wording of the Wilderness Act does not prohibit bikes it just limits access to self powered users which I believe we still are) then why not take the lesser coverage and have the hundreds of thousands of cyclists in the country on their side too? We are not the tree destroyers and land ravagers and mountain bikes (but maybe not their riders) give off no harmful emissions. Trails and fireroads themselves are not natural features of the forest so our riding on them doesn’t really do damage to the ecosystem. The reality is that they just want the forest to themselves even though most of these chest-thumping supposed protectors hardly ever come out and do any trail maintenance. They just want the government to give them the only access because they are somehow more privileged than the bikers and OHV driving riff raff. Unfortunately, their organization, money, and political power give them the opportunity to make themselves the gatekeepers of the forests and keep everyone else on the outside looking in. If you value your sport and your right to recreation in the forest that the government has mandated the USFS to provide to all users within reason especially in the LA area with it’s incredible number of people who are supposed to be provided this access, then you should find out the facts and different options the Forest Service is looking at. Don’t leave it to people like me or the undermanned and maybe undergunned IMBA people to keep your favorite trails open. Go to the meetings and see what’s up. At least check out the info on the USFS site: http://www.fs.fed.us/r5/scfpr/.
You can also get some great info from our friends at the Warrior’s Society on their site: www.warriorssociety.org
Chris from the Warrior’s Society has sent me a bunch of good info that I’d be glad to forward to you. E-mail me and I’ll pass it on.
The meeting held in Glendora during the last round of public comments apparently turned into a shouting match with the Sierra Club and Center for Biodiversity people running rough shod all over the heavily outnumbered-and never organized-mountain bikers in attendance. The Sierra Clubbers had their usual tables outside and were rallying their troops and passing out
“Protect and Restore the Forests” stickers to the faithful-and I mean that literally because it’s religion to some of these people who are zealots who run on faith in the cause and not necessarily on the facts. The tables rallies and stickers are obviously meant to intimidate the USFS staff and all who oppose them too. I snuck in early this time wearing an REI shirt to keep on the down low. They were showing the different alternatives for managing the forest going forward. It was peaceful while I was there probably because the bikers and OHV guys were incognito like me or just decided to go to another less hostile place to see the plans for themselves. Plan 1 is pretty much how the forest is maintained now. There were other alternatives and the one the USFS prefers for the Angeles is Plan 4. It is similar to how things are now but adds more opportunity for motorized use on fireroads and adds some Wilderness in the Mt. Baldy area. Strawberry Peak and Condor Peak as well as the Devil’s Punchbowl-which were all in jeopardy earlier in the process-are not being changed as far as bike access in this plan. Plans 5 and 6 are the most extreme. Number 5 shows way more areas open to OHV use. I’m not opposed to those guys having more places to drive. In fact, I might be inclined to do more off-roading in my truck if I didn’t have to go so far to do it. These users also need to have their recreation needs represented by the Forest Service. Plan 6 is the one the Sierra Club is pushing for and the one to fear. It makes more than half of the Angeles National Forest into Wilderness and means you are denied! Check out the plans on the USFS site above and make your comments to the Forest Service online. The plan that is implemented may change from these options and so your input on specific parts of the plan and places in the forest will be taken into account. Do not miss your opportunity to voice your concerns! This is too important. We are so lucky that the Angeles has been managed the way it has over the last 15 years and that we are not in the same situation that other places like Marin County are in where most mountain biking is limited to the fire roads. That’s all my rant for now. Get involved.
Later

I am sorry to hear about El Presidentes’ loss of his Rocky Mountain trailer. It seems that Rocky is cursed with its trailers (see link)

It makes it harder to swallow being that it was someone in a Volvo, those pesky Swedes.

So I got I got shat on today on the way in to work by some bird. I felt something hit my arm and there it was a sizeable looking dooky. No prob, a little squirt of water and the mess was all gone. I was lucky it didn’t land in one of my helmet vents, now that would of sucked.

Lately biking life has sucked. I bent my bottom bracket on my Davidson. No biggie, just ordered a D/A replacement and off to ride the cross bike. I take the bike out of storage and the rear STI shifter doesn’t work. I had left the shifter under tension for too long and the spring just was too weak. So I am out of an 8-spd shifter as well. Can anybody say upgrade? I guess that the Davidson is going 9spd.

For all of those interested VDV, Jack, Eric and I are doing those 5am rides from Trader Joes. You are welcome to come along. I still can’t climb though.

I just got the latest IMBA newsletter, and guess what! Americans are fat! According to the CDC, 65% of U.S. adults are overweight or obese. Statistically speaking, PMBC is an accurate sample of the population. Another figure (pardon the pun) they throw around is that obesity costs our nation $117 billion annually in medical costs, loss of productivity, and bike purchases by people who think it’s the bike that’s too heavy.

The good news is that mountain biking burns 500 calories per hour. That’s almost the equivalent of a Quarter Pounder with Cheese. Go for another hour and you can burn off the large fries you ate. Theoretically, you don’t have to burn off that Diet Coke’s zero calories.

The bad news is if you’re fat and just burning off the calories you just ate, you’re not going to get skinny. Try eating less and biking more. Do as we say, not as we do, and be like the other 35% of U.S. adults. IMBA knows this is difficult. That’s why they still sell their jerseys and t-shirts in sizes up to XL. Glad to see they draw the line at XXL, though.

Hey all!
Don’t miss Pasadena Cyclery’s Demo Bike event at Hahamongna (Oak Grove) Park in Pasadena this Saturday, May 1st. I’ll have my Rocky Mountain demo bikes available for anyone with a driver’s license to take out for a spin in the dirt to see why they rule. Oh yeah, the Trek guy will have some bikes there too. It’s from 8 AM to 4 PM I think. Call PC at (626) 584-6391 or check www.pasadenacyclery.com for details and directions if you need them. I’ll also have bikes to ride at the State Series MTB races at Bonelli Park in San Dimas on Sunday the 2nd too. Get info about the Bonelli race at: www.teambigbear.com
It’s a real close race so if you’ve ever thought about racing your mountain bike-and you’re not just a fat boy, female bike messenger stalker, who boasts about being fast at his weight but will not race, it won’t get much more local than this.

I also wanted to invite you all to our club meeting and Cinco De Mayo BBQ at Ray Herrera’s on Wednesday May 5th. We should have address info and a map on the ride schedule page soon. At Ray’s we’ll be having some Carne Asada and doing the usual ride scheduling and probably talking about stuff like the Big Bear NORBA Nationals next month and seeing who will be going and sharing a condo. E-mail Ray (ray@pmbc.org) to see if he wants you to bring anything. I think we should fork over some cash at least to cover the grubbage.

We’ll also be discussing the return of the Mount Wilson Bicycling Association’s Pancake Breakfast. After a couple of year hiatus, it’s back! We, the Pasadena Mountain Bike Club, as well as members of CORBA, the South Bay Mountain Bike Club, Pasadena Cyclery and pretty much whoever else we can shanghai into this, will be putting on the Pancake Breakfast for the MWBA boys’ benefit and for other worthy trail organizations. It’s pretty much Alan Purnell from Pasadena Cyclery’s big idea and will be coordinating it. We’ll just be rounding up the schwag until then and providing some manpower for the grill work. Mark your calendars now. It will be on Sunday November 7th at Henninger Flats up the Mount Wilson Toll Road. The same place as almost always and the first Sunday in November like it usually was too. If you’ve never been to one of these, it’s a great event that was put on by the oldest mountain bike access group in the country. It used to draw over a thousand mountain bikers and other friends of the MWBA and it was covered by the bike magazines almost every year. The pancakes are great and taste even better after the short but steep hump up the Toll Road to Henninger. Save your money for the schwag raffle because it was always good and people left with many cool bikes and lots of great gear over the years. Be sure to tell Dave Arcaris too. He usually bought over a hundred bucks worth of raffle tickets every year to help the cause-which was to buy supplies for the MWBA’s trail work projects over the next year-but he did always drag home a bunch of loot including some of those bikes. I’ll keep reminding you all because it never fails that some people will ask the week after the breakfast about when it’s going to happen-even though it’s been the same weekend at the same place almost every year it’s been held.
That’s all this time.
See you at Ray’s and at Henninger in November!

I don’t know why I’m even wasting time to do this but I wanted to respond to The Peck’s continuing shots at my vehicle and the amount driving I’m doing versus the time I’m actually riding a bike, by saying that yes, I do drive the big old honking Ford but need to first point out that anyone who actually knows the 9-0-9 would realize that my truck is puny in comparison to even most of the Inland Empire Soccer Mom’s lifted Excursions with their 40-inch tires! Also, those of you who’ve been around a while would remember my old 1991 Toyota 4X4 that I was perfectly happy with for more than ten years and 140,000 miles. When my second kid came around, two car seats in the old Extra Cab just would not fly-especially if it meant the wife having to sit in the rear jump seats. Now I have three car seats and a fourth on the way so even the Supercrew won’t be going on any family vacations after this September. We’ll have to take my wife’s Expedition (that is not lifted or even four wheel drive by the way). The full size pickup is also almost a necessity for my job as an outside rep for the fine Rocky Mountain Bicycles brand that requires me to drive around with quite a few bike samples, many of which are through-axle front ends without quick releases. The full size crew is the only thing I could find to handle my ever growing Catholic family and the bike business. As far as his quips about me needing to ride more, they are absolutely correct. However, since I am a road rep, my job description means I’m driving a hell of a lot (a full tank and 350 miles or so every other day) and so there’s no way I can ever surpass my time in the truck seat with time in the saddle. That’s the nature of the beast but if the Peck can find a way for me to cover Southern California and dropping kids off at school and day care while sneaking in as much riding as he thinks I should be doing, I’d be glad to hear it.
I know the Peck’s trying to be funny and he’s trying to make some point mostly about the riding and not the fossil fuel thing AGAIN (and again and again) but it just sounds like someone else should just keep his mind on catching the hottie messenger chick and seing if he can actually engage her in any conversation before she drops HIS substantial ass!
Later

Thanks to the wonders of modern technology, I discovered a way to have a second CSS stylesheet for all you poor souls stuck using Microsoft’s non-standards-compliant Internet Explorer for Windows.
The site should look better now, but you’re missing out on some coolness with the menu that everybody else in the world gets to enjoy.

Last Wednesday night was our monthly club meeting. This time, it was held at Pasadena Cyclery. For those who complain about expensive burgers at Fuddrucker’s, Alan Purnell put an end to that by providing free pizza. You really missed out, TONY.

Most of the usual people were there, with most of the usual talk, including rumors of an MWBA Pancake Breakfast that might actually happen this year on November 7th. Watch the MWBA website for details.

We also have a ride schedule planned for next month that should show up on the site within the week. Thursday Night Rides are also headed for a comeback, with the possibility that there will be three active TNR’s to choose from on any given week.

Sea Otter is this coming week, and Fo and Martin will probably be there. If you get lost during the event, try to make your way to the Rocky Mountain booth/trailer, and Martin will call your mommy to pick you up. He might even have stickers. If you’re really nice, he might even let you take a RM Bike for a spin.

Those with keen eyes have probably noticed that the menu items are in a slightly different order, and there’s a new entry called Gallery.

In addition to the existing Photos section, this is a place where some of our picture-taking members will be posting pictures from rides and other interesting sights. Keep checking in on the Gallery for new pictures.

We were offline for a few days, if you didn’t notice. On Friday, the server the site’s on started acting flakey, so they had to move everything to a new server. Being the weekend, most of the work had to wait until Monday so parts could get shipped, people are available for support, etc. I’m sure the people who host this place learned a lot in the process, so I expect a more robust future.

It’s possible we lost a Blog entry of Tony’s, since the last reliable backup was from Thursday morning. Sorry, Tony, if that was the case.

This past Sunday, my dad and I met up with Ray, Bob, and Ray’s friend, Eddie, plus another 14,994 people (any claims of 20,000 riders is highly suspect, as we didn’t see any bib numbers greater than 14,993). You’d think that a 6:00am start time would discourage people from showing up. No, not in the least. Well, Martin and Tony weren’t there. Maybe it was too early for some.

You’d think that at this hour, people are too groggy to notice much, but many people noticed Eddie’s chopper, a GT Dyno. Or maybe they just noticed his ear-piercing air horn. Pictures from the ride are here. I didn’t see anything really out of the ordinary. Even a unicycle doesn’t seem odd for an event like this. No big dogs on trailers. Maybe the biggest oddity was the absence of biking Elvises. Maybe people have more taste this year.

The weather was amazing this year; maybe even a wee bit too warm. For a 6am start, it sure got light and warm fast. This was a far cry from the ride three years ago when there was substantial rain. The ride really was a casual uneventful ride for us. None of us crashed, or got a flat. The only mechanical work we need was a refill for Eddie’s air horn, and that cost him a well-spent fiddycent.

This was the tenth year of this event, and with its immense popularity, I expect it to continue to be held every year. If the weather’s this nice next year, don’t miss out on the action. You’ll get a whole different view of the streets of LA from the double-yellow line. My dad sent me some stats on the ride. I’ll spare you the details on how long it took us to eat breakfast, but here are the numbers:
6:00 - Ride starts.
6:25 - Our group jumps on the back of the pack to start riding.
6:35 - We actually cross the starting line.
8:38 - 22.79 miles, and 2:03 later, we cross the finish line, unscathed.

“Your group is way ahead of you”, is what a Senior hiker lady hit me in the face with on El Prieto yesterday (Sunday, 2/29). I had to explain that I was right behind my group before I stopped to let her group of lollygaggers go by. That’s partially why I lost contact with Chris and his buddy in front of me on the singletrack-not that they wouldn’t be dusting me anyhow but I digress. Now, lately I have had plenty of wake up calls to tell me how out of shape I am, but how do you like them apples? To top that off, I just had a hateful time climbing up to Brown Saddle before the verbal abuse on El P added insult to injury. At the top I realized that it took me more time to get to the saddle than it used to take to get to the top of Brown Mountain fire road. I’m not talking about waaaay back in the day when I was a little faster and closer to 150 than 200 pounds like I am now. No, I mean like last year even.
Another painful side effect of my last couple of months’ let-up in riding is the deterioration of my already sorry handling skills. On El P I missed more switchbacks than I cleaned and half of them were full-on bails not just the usual dabs or palsies. That also is truly pitiful-but I won’t dwell on that too much longer for fear of stealing material from the Peck’s fine blog.
Needless to say, my tip for you today is to never let up on your riding or you will rue the day when some old lady rolls you under the bus! I guess Granny thought she was giving me some (unneeded) info and was just being helpful? Whatever. She really should be nice us usually polite bikers who are trying to keep some other people from scaring her off the trail on their drop-off runs. At the least Grandma should just hike on by and leave me to suffer in quiet…unless she’s got some cookies for me.

You’ve probably noticed our new dues rate structure. This is mostly due (no pun intended) to the migration of our newsletter content over to the website. Now that we have the Blog, Photos, For Sale, Rides, and Join pages, that covers all that was included in the newsletter.

Now we can pass the savings to you, our valued members and soon-to-be members. In addition to the traditional method of filling out a form and mailing us a check, we’re now accepting PayPal payments.

As always, we’d love to hear from you regarding any questions, comments, or suggestions you have about the club. You can contact us at mailbag@pmbc.org.

If you’ve made it this far, then I’m sure you’ve noticed that things look a bit different.

Gone is the Johnny Cash look. (I was listening to Mark & Brian this morning). I’ve adopted a sunny disposition for the site. Hopefully making it easier on the eyes. That’s the main thing.

I’ve also updated the code to be the latest and greatest in XHTML and CSS. HTML is a thing of the past. XHTML is where it’s at, baby! If things look REALLY ugly at your end, it’s probably because you’re using a 20th century browser. Really. Netscape 4.7 doesn’t cut it. I *highly* recommend people take a look at the new Mozilla, or Mozilla Firefox (aka Firebird). Personally, I use Safari because it’s so pretty and is darned quick.
This is all 100% legal XHTML and CSS code. If it’s not rendering properly on your latest and greatest browser, it’s because whoever wrote that browser did a lame job. Get a real browser.

If something here really rubs you the wrong way, drop me a line. If you want to make my day, let me know if you like the new look.

Welcome to the newest section of PMBC.org. This is where the writers in the club can post their thoughts and adventures.
You’ll have to excuse the ugly colors and layout. I’m still working on the look.
[Updated: it’s not so ugly anymore, but I’m still experimenting with the color scheme]