It’s been a really really busy year here at Rodeo. Working on bikes, kits, forks, wheels, rallies, and the Roundup has taken a huge bite out of miles ridden. They say if you work in the bike industry then you can expect to ride less. They may be right about that but we aren’t going down without a fight. We started Rodeo because we loved riding bikes, with friends, in the mountains, and we’re going to keep doing that until our legs have no pedaling left in them. The bike industry can wait.
Monday was a government holiday so Monday was a day for riding bikes. Geoff had a new Traildonkey that he hadn’t yet fully put through its paces and he had some time to burn. He extended an invite, I accepted, and into the hills we ventured.
Come ride one of Denver’s longest and most historic stretches of gravel with us… at night!
The Highline Canal is a gorgeous, serpentine gem of a route that cuts diagonally through Denver from Waterton Canyon all the way out past Aurora. The route is almost completely flat and promises to be a great time.
Details:
We’re riding south to north, meeting at Mineral Station in Littleton at 8:30pm.Feel free to ride down to Mineral station to the meetup just hop on the light rail and pop off to join up.
Josh is the ride leader on this one. His cell is: 303-807-6776.
Front and rear lights are a must. Perhaps a mid-ride stop for a quick beverage. Some general shenanigans along the way. And of course we will stop for every possible photo op imaginable…
The full Highline route is 75 miles with 1,400 ft. elevation gain, but with so many places to join or exit as needed you can tailor this ride to your ambition.
This is a “come one, come all” style rally. Speed isn’t the priority.
Extra style points for anyone dressed in rodeo-themed attire…
Planned for Oct 14, 2017, CO. Come rally with us in an entirely new area of Colorado. We’ve scouted the roads and conditions and views are more than prime. Check out the planned route after the break and stay tuned to this page for updates.
Come join us for 110km (67 miles) of mixed terrain riding through Colorado’s high country during peak fall color.
Two route options will allow riders to keep things mellow and sublime on a route consisting primarily of gravel and paved backroads, or to chose a route that adds some of Colorado’s finest flowing singletrack into the overall mix.
This will be the first year of the Bailey Grind so we’re keeping it simple.
Registration
Please RSVP here so that we can get a sense of attendance. Registration is free.
We need to cap this ride at around 60 people per insurance and courtesy to other trail and road users. If registration fills up we can’t force people to stay away but it would be best to stagger the start.
The Basics
The Bailey Grinder starts at 9:00am on Saturday, Sept 30th.
This ride is not a race. It is not timed and there are no prizes.
This ride is self supported with water / food available at the start, at the lower parking lot of Buffalo Creek (bring a little bit of cash to donate), at the store where we join Platte River Road, in Deckers, or at the finish near Bailey. Plan on multi hour stretches before refuels!
The course will not be marked but GPS files will be provided and cue sheets can be printed if you follow the maps below.
This is a day to ride bikes with friends, challenge yourself, see the aspen trees turning, and sample some of Colorado’s best offerings.
Bring clothing for inclement weather. Conditions change very quickly up high. A sunny morning can change to thunder snow in the afternoon with little warning. Consider bringing a headlight just in case.
A cyclocross bike, gravel bike, or mountain bike will be suitable for this ride. A road bike might survive but isn’t really ideal, and definitely not on the route option that includes singletrack. A mountain bike will survive but might feel a bit sluggish out on the mellow road sections.
The start / finish area is the same as the Bailey Hundo and has been generously donated by private owners. Be sure to be courteous and respectful of ALL private and public land that we ride on the 30th to ensure that we can continue to do this event in subsequent years with the good graces of the entire community that shares these lands and trails.
We aren’t tracking starters and finishers. Cell phone service will be limited or completely unavailable. We won’t be out rescuing people on the course if they have a bad day so be prepared for anything, be self sufficient, and bring a friend to ride with you.
Route Options
To download maps or cue sheets click on over to Blackriver.cc below.
We start in Bailey and take gravel roads towards Wellington Lake before descending through the Buffalo Creek area into Sandy Wash. The donation supported tent provides an opportunity to fill up on water and fuel before continuing out along the Platte river where the road surface varies between degraded blacktop and gravel. Mellow, undulating roads arrive in Deckers, CO for another opportunity to refuel before heading up hero dirt roads and gravel to the Hayman Burn area. Continue climbing and descending through quiet backroads and increasing stands of aspen before climbing up and over Stoney Pass. Hang on for the ripping fun dirt descent to Wellington lake and onwards towards the finish. After ride food options in Bailey will refuel tired legs and bodies.
We start in Bailey and take gravel roads towards Wellington Lake before dropping onto a section of Colorado Trail Segment 3. Wipe the grin off of your face then climb up some of Buff Creek’s finest singletrack before descending the main North Side singletrack descent. Re-join Sandy Wash to the Buff Creek parking lot. The donation supported tent at the lot provides an opportunity to fill up on water and fuel before continuing out along the Platte river where the road surface varies between degraded blacktop and gravel. Mellow, undulating roads arrive in Deckers, CO for another opportunity to refuel before heading up hero dirt roads and gravel to the Hayman Burn area. Continue climbing and descending through quiet backroads and increasing stands of aspen before climbing up and over Stoney Pass. Hang on for the ripping fun dirt descent to Wellington lake and onwards towards the finish. After ride food options in Bailey will refuel tired legs and bodies.
Can you do Route 2 on a CX or gravel bike? Yes! We do all the time. It takes some finesse (and as big of tires as you’d like) but rewards the adventurous rider with an incredibly fun route where even the climbs are fun. Less experienced mountain bikers may need to dismount certain sections but there is plenty of flowing singletrack on this option.
questions? contact us through the site.
Here is a sampling of what conditions may be like on the ride. The route for this year is completely unique and not identical to these videos, but these both show the Bailey, Buff Creek, Pine, Deckers, and Stoney Pass area.
Don’t expect rugged hike a bike conditions on this ride. This one is all rideable and we were careful to make it so.
I’m not going to lie. It’s been a nail biter around the lab the last few weeks. Or if we’re really honest it’s been a nail biter since early January.
At the turn of the year we found ourselves waiting. The Lab was stocked with boxes of parts allocated to two new prototype framesets that were overdue. We nervously answered emails and tweets kindly requesting a status update on the project. We set up meetings with videographers anticipating the coming need to show what we’ve created. And still… we waited.
Straight away we started reading and listening to peoples’ reactions and impressions about what we’ve created. Some people were all-in from the start, with the first order coming in no less that five minutes after we launched. Thank you!
Other people were more skeptical. What is so great about our bike? Why should anyone pay attention? Could anyone trust our claims that a single frameset can be suitable for road biking, gravel riding, cyclocross, city riding, or trail riding?
Skepticism is fair. No harm no foul. But as I read through the comments one comment struck me.
“Yeah you can build a mountain bike with it, but is it a GOOD mountain bike?”
Sometimes the best rides come together last minute. This is one of those rides. The invite went out late in the day Saturday for an early Sunday departure. I didn’t know if anybody would be able to come. I didn’t even know if I wanted a big group or not. I was heading east because nowadays east is where I go to clear my head.
Sometimes you put out a ride invite and optimistically hope that only the right people show up. The “right” people are people that want to ride about as fast as you, that don’t mind stopping when you want to.
The right people are also easy to talk to, they laugh at your dumb jokes. You laugh at their dumb jokes too. The right people consider dumb jokes to be an art form.
The right people don’t mind wind, don’t mind flats, don’t mind washboard, and don’t mind getting up early.
Tom, Josh, Geoff, and Patrick were the right people on Sunday. I’m really glad that they showed up. It was a great ride.
We promised we’d do this on January 31st, so it is time to spill the beans on the production spec Flaanimal 3.0 adaptable frameset.
Let’s start with an overview and recap. The Flaanimal adventure bike project has always been a bit of a younger sibling project to the Traildonkey. Insomuch as we never intended to release a carbon adventure bike, and then we did, we also never intended to release a steel adventure bike, but now we are.
Work and travel limited my holiday riding and delayed my start in 2017. Because of this, the first adventure of the new year had to be a memorable one. Riding through the Corrizo Gorge, along twenty-two miles of abandoned railway, was the perfect kick-off to the year of the Trail Donkey.
This particular stretch of the San Diego and Arizona Railroad has been dubbed “The Impossible Railroad”. Extreme temperatures, mountainous terrain, and damage caused by earthquakes and flooding make this a gnarly region. These tracks have not had a train pass in forty years, which has created the perfect location for adventure. The ride surrounds you with the beauty of wilderness, starkly contrasted by defeated machinery. An ever present reminder that the Corrizo Gorge could not be tamed.
Today is almost exactly the three year anniversary of when we started Rodeo Labs in 2014. On that day Peder Horner and myself had some beer and ate some pie at Denver Bike Cafe while dreaming up the beginnings of this circus. We scribbled some names on some paper and laughed a lot as we considered the possibilities that starting from scratch allowed us.
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