Beyond the Minuteman: Arlington's Great Meadow

The Great Meadow is neither great, nor a meadow.  It is, however, a pretty good place for some smooth singletracking right off of the Minuteman bikeway.

All Your Trailers In One Place

Labor day is gone and there's a chill in the air.  That can only mean one thing.  Ski movie season is here.

Freeskier Magazine has been collecting all this year's ski movie trailers in one place.  Check out these four pages for a fairly comprehensive list of ski porn for 2011-2012.  Thanks Freeskier!

Big Time Trailer List

North American Trailers

European Trailers

Best of the Rest

Buying a Full Suspension Bike

After ten minutes of internet research, the inside of my brain kinda looked like this. 

So you’re thinking about buying a full suspension bike.  Maybe you’ve been riding a hard-tail for a few years now, and have worked up the courage to conquer some drops, dips and other more technical terrain.  Maybe you’ve decided you have way too much money lying around.  Or maybe you’re just tired of coming home from Leominster feeling like you’ve been kicked in the ass all day long.  Whatever your reasons, if you’re like me, you probably need a road map to navigate what seems like a foreign language of parts packages, bike names, and bike styles.

The Green Mountain Showdown

If you like mountain biking and photography, boy do I have something for you.

Last weekend, before the unwelcome arrival of Irene, five photographers duked it out for the right to be the winner of the First Annual Green Mountain Showdown.  Okay, maybe it was less of a fistfight, and more of an artistic display, but you get the picture.

Each photographer was charged with putting together a portfolio of work to represent Vermont bike culture.

While only one winner was named (Bear Cieri), we all kinda won with five stellar collections of mountain bike photography.

Check out the stunning final slide shows here.

Thoughts on Road Biking in Boston

I think I see Massachusetts plates.

If you haven’t figured it out yet.  I can’t stand road biking.  It’s not the lack of suspension, thin tires, awkward body positioning, or spandex shorts that I can’t stand.  Frankly, the ten pounds you shave off a road bike is worth these indignities.  I can’t stand road biking because it takes place on roads, where inevitably I will find drivers.... Boston drivers. 

Kingdom Trails: Numbers (August 21, 2011)

Cowpath or Bike Trail? 

Four hours. Three thousand feet.  Thirty miles.

Those are the cold hard numbers that can't begin to convey the more meaningful experience of exploration, exhilaration and downright joy that I found on my third trip to Kingdom Trails this year.