End of the year 2009 Bike Patrol Party at Avery Tasting Room

Another great year comes to a close. We ended up having 27 folks show up for the end of the year party including Amanda and Ed from the various rep areas! I think a good time was had be all. Thanks to Avery again for giving us a great place to meet up each month. We ended up with a record number of hours and miles this year--details to come.

MK and David S. talk serious stuff!

Chip and Bruce enjoying the great Avery Beer!

Chuck, Jon A., Ken, Jake, and John D. all relaxing and enjoying the salad and pizza.

Thanks again for making this such a great year for the trails in Boulder County and the Bike Patrol!

LED bike lights

Seems some people on the patrol are interested in the latest on bike lights. Well we all know that LED lights are getting better and better and less expensive.

The latest rage is the 'Magicshine' LED light.

It appears to be a knock off of a $400+ light from Lupine called the 'Tesla 4'. But only costs about $80. Its what happens when a product gets made in China.

You can get a basic light here with free shipping.

dealextreme

I've ordered several items from them and had great luck. I hear the quality control can have issues so one might have to be prepared for that. I haven't had a bad one though.

If you want more security of ordering from someone you can deal with for a slightly higher cost, there is

geomangear.com


They have the magicshine for $85 plus shipping but also sell parts such as spares and even a helmet mount adapter.

Walker Ranch closed for wild fire

Walker Ranch has been temporarily closed due to a wild fire nearby. Info here...

http://www.bouldercounty.org/openspace/Walker_Loop_Closure_Notice.htm

Check here for updates...

http://www.bouldercounty.org/openspace/

New Patrol Reports are up and working!

Ok patrollers, we now have 3 separate report forms for the 3 different agencies we volunteer for. City, County and USFS. Please fill out the appropriate form after each patrol with the according agency. This will be a BIG help to each agency and the patrol in keeping track of your hard work out there.

You can access the forms here at the main patrol site...

http://www.bma-mtb.org/patrol/

Questions? Contact John or email me directly... nick.lasure [at] gmail.com

Performance Bike Steps up to the plate!

100 tubes for the bike patrol! Incredible. Steve really hooked us up this year!!!

Wild Turkey seepage and bad rider habits...

Well, did a patrol yesterday from Longmont and there is a lot of seepage from the water table right now on top of the Heil Knoll. So, there are a few sections on WT trail that have been affected and folks should not try to ride around them--serious damage has been done as you can see from the pics.

Mike Rutter preparing the trail for the Trail Day Saturday

The other side of the switchback--deep ruts up to 8 inches deep and some 3 feet off the trail--gotta love it. There is actually a tire track four feet to the left you can see. :( This is the turn just below the dirt road that you cross on WT. Repairs will be needed here for sure. Either ride through the deep middle rut or turn around.....

Another spot just up and you can see again how folks run off the trail to avoid and then just create more of a mess. No doubt here, bikes did this. Maybe we can use these pics as a tool to help out? Mike Rutter was pretty bummed about it but said they will work on it--no way to know it would seep where it did and get so wet. He wants to the patrol to help out with mini crew days--3 or 4 of us go up during an evening and work on this type of repair. Stay tuned!

Commuting by bike to training Saturday?

There has been some interest to meet up in Boulder to commute to the training on bikes. There are folks for the am all day session and also some meeting around 11:15 or so to get out there for the scenarios. Either respond here or send me an email to coordinate. Thanks, John

Bike Patrol Weekend Training Rescheduled!

If anyone still does not know....training this Saturday, May 2nd. Same Place, Same time.

Bike Patrol Training Cancelled for Saturday!

Breaking news...

The training for tomorrow Saturday April, 18 is postponed due to the snowstorm! Keep checking back here and the main patrol website for updates.

Bike patrol signups and 2009 training!

Thanks everyone for coming Monday night--hope you enjoyed yourselves! Here are some links for the patrol information and the details about the training for the 2009 season.

Bike Patrol Web site

To signup for the patrol (new patrollers only!) follow this link below and fill out your basic information. Training signups will happen when we follow up with you.

2009 Bike Patrol Signup (new patrollers only!)


There are two training sessions this year to hopefully fit your schedule. You only need to attend one session but must attend in order to complete the training. The first session is two nights, the second session is one Saturday. Again, you will be able to sign up for these after you fill the signup form out above and you are contacted. There will also be optional day of first aid and CPR training within a few weeks that will be free to bike patrollers.

Session I:
April 8th, Wednesday and 9th, Thursday from 5:30pm to 9pm in Boulder. Dinner will be served each night.

Session II:
April 18th, Saturday from 9am to 4pm in Boulder. Light breakfast and a lunch will be served.

Thanks again! John

Some Bike Patrol Kickoff Party Photos

The place




The people











Some door prizes

Short-cutting the log steps at Marshall Mesa

The city put in a couple extra logs at the marshall Mesa intersection North of Greenbelt plateau a few months back. Those extra logs make it really hard to get up compared to the past. So it seems as a result people decided to short-cut them.

I did some impromptu trail work here today on my patrol. The results are shown below. However, this looks to be an unsustainable fix. I'm worried people will continue to bypass the logs in some form.



Otherwise, it was an excellent day to be out riding.