Holiday Hootenany

Christmas is here! The children at Rigid are full of sugarplums and the Christmas tree is fantastically bedazzled, looking like an alien spacecraft ready to blast off from our 1950s era fallout shelter. I have been getting in a few rides here and there, but with low temperatures and lots of rain most trails have been too wet to ride.

How about a little update on the PTAG annual volunteer appreciation day that took place on December 10th? I would like to be able to say that over that weekend hundreds of folks got together to laud the accomplishments and celebrate the long list of trails that have been improved or maintained by PTAG over the course of the past year. There definitely was a quick mention of that. But mostly we just did what I end up doing every other weekend. Which is a lot of this:

Although there was some fun freeze-thaw mountain bike feats of skill like this:

Well that basically wraps it up on this end for 2011. Rigid Bicycles will be taking some time off from regular posting and will return with updates on January 6th.

Have a great holiday everyone. In the meantime enjoy some video of Johnny T in the 1990 Cross Country World Championships from Durango.

Weak-kneed Weekend

Another week has slipped through the cracks.

Sometimes time slows down and a week can go by in a crawl, as if it were a slow slog up a long gravely fire road.

Other weeks go by a lot faster. This one feels like it's just getting started and it's already Friday. Have a great weekend.

Tomorrow, Saturday December 10th, the Pittsburgh Trails Advocacy Group will host their annual Volunteer Appreciation Day event, with mountain bicycle rides, hikes, and trail runs in beautiful North Park. Get in if you can fit in.

Clever Title Referencing Someone Getting 'Punk'd'

As announced last week, the folks at Dirt Rag magazine hosted the annual Punk Bike Enduro for the twenty-second time; and here at Rigid, after a weekend of unseasonably warm temperatures, we're still trying to pick up the pieces. Saturday was a longish jaunt on the cross bikes which I thought might have prepared me for the lots of standing around and the 12 bicycle stages of the Punk. It didn't.

Sunday morning rolled around, lots of people gathered at the spot,and world class athletes from around the nation checked tire pressures and put on their ultra fast racing suits.

First off was the foot-down rodeo, which, because of the large attendance took a long time and finally ended when The Beer Monkey started grabbing onto (other riders') handlebars.

Then came a lot of other stuff that involved bikes and mud.

Thanks to the entire staff at Dirt Rag magazine. Now it's time to go back to work.

Kicking off December: Off Season But Not Off the Mark

Here is a last ditch reminder about this weekend's Dirt Rag Punk Bike Enduro. I was wrong about the posters: they do exist and will be awarded to the riders with the highest blood alcohol content most Punk points at the end of the day.

If you happen to be anywhere near the western Pennyslvania part of the globe this weekend, then jump on it. This event reminds us that off road cyclists like to do weird things in the off season like drink beer and ride their bicycles in inclement weather. Roadies, on the other hand, are up for far more creative ways of spinning the two wheels. Johnny Hoogerland gives us an example. You will remember Hoogerland was made famous this year for getting knocked around and severely lacerated after he was hit by a car in the Tour de France, which, if you are unclear, is in fact, a bicycle race

(In the future we will be able to put videos in parentheses)


Well now the Dutch Hoogerland, aka the "Bull of Beveland," is getting even more famous for his off season antics because he recently competed in a horse racing harness race, as a cyclist.
Guess what? He won.

Harness racing with infield bicycle competitions is the next cyclocross.

Have a great weekend and welcome to December.