Have you ever seen a SylvanSport GO trailer? They look exactly like the one pictured over there on the left (yes, that’s one trailer). Considered the “Swiss Army Knife” of trailers, the GO is truly a spectacle to be held.

Now imagine one of those things loaded with $14,000 worth of loot from the likes of Niner Bikes, SPOT, Burton, Jackson Kayaks, Yakima, Kelty, Ground Industries and WNC Outdoors. Now keep your eyes closed and imagine all of it being yours. That’s a lot of booty, with which you can have an awesomely adventurous time.

But day dreaming about it as you sit in your cubicle isn’t going to make you the owner of all that stuff. Instead, SylvanSport is making it interesting and challenging for you by making you enter the Cache Me… If You Can contest. SylvanSport has hidden this Transformer-like treasure chest of goodies somewhere in the world, and the person who finds it will claim it as their own.

Once you register for the contest, you’ll be privy to weekly video clues, which will contain geo-caching coordinates and a verbal clue pointing you in the direction of where the X marks the spot. You’re going to have to use your skills, creativity and sense of adventure…and likely some friends…if you want to win.

But that’s not all! In addition to the materialistic windfall this contest will bring to someone, SylvanSport will be throwing a lot of support to LiveStrong/The Lance Armstrong Foundation.

Remember: you can’t win if you don’t…enter.

Got a story about adventure? Let’s hear about it in the comments below!

Last year we had a great time at the Cascade Bicycle Club’s Bicycle Expo in Seattle. Read more about it here, here, and here, and look at pages of photos here. For 2010 the event moves closer to town into the Smith Cove Cruise Terminal 91.

Seattle is a very pretty town, and I think you should visit if you are in the area:

Anyway, stop by the Dirt Rag/Bicycle times booth and visit our fearless leader fresh off the plane from the Bike Summit in Washington, DC.

Sign up for a subscription and get yourself a premium gift from one of our sponsors. This stop sponsored by Panaracer and Klean Kanteen.

Beer. Bikes. Big Wheels.

Three awesome things, aren’t they? Especially when they come together, as they will for this year’s installment of New Belgium Brewing’s Urban Assault Ride.

As in years past, the Urban Assault Ride series will roll through thirteen cities around the United States between April and September this year. If you don’t know, the Urban Assault Ride is part party, part competition, part effort to “promote sustainable bike-loving lifestyle” and all fun!

Participants will pair up to form teams setting out across the city on bicycles in a scavenger hunt-like competition…sort of like an alley cat, but more fun, with more cool prizes and with less attitude. There will be various checkpoints throughout the city, at which you’ll be required to complete some zany obstacle courses. The team that completes all of the checkpoints in the shortest amount of time wins.

But we’re all winners because as you finish the race, you’ll dismount your bike and stroll right into a “massive celebration of bikes and beer” with music, plenty of tasty suds from New Belgium Brewing and all of your friends having a good time.

If you attend the Austin, TX Urban Assault Ride, you’ll also get to trade stories and share drinks with some Dirt Rag & Bicycle Times staffers. That’s right. We’re the media sponsors this year, and the Austin event is one of our World Tour stops…you’ll be hearing more about that (and a cool contest) in the weeks to come.

For your planning purposes, here are all the dates for the New Belgium Brewing Urban Assault Ride Series (along with our humble plea to bring the series…and the beer…to the northeast sometime soon):

4.18.2010 – Tuscon, AZ
5.2.2010 – Berkeley, CA
5.16.2010 – Seattle, WA
5.23.2010 – Portland, OR
6.20.2010 – Charlotte, NC
6.27.2010 – Austin, TX
7.18.2010 – Ft Collins, CO
7.25.2010 – Denver, CO
8.8.2010 – Minneapolis, MN
8.15.2010 – St Louis, MO
8.23.2010 – Des Moines, IA
9.12.2010 – Chicago, IL
9.26.2010 – Madison, WI

(Thanks to Urban Assault Ride for the photo!)

Have you, or do you plan to, attend any of Urban Assault Ride events? If so, leave a comment below and tell us about it!

We have some fantastic news coming out of the National Bike Summit in Washington, DC this morning. The League of American Bicyclists is reporting that Google Maps has finally added a “bike there” option to the choices of directions between to locations.

According to the press release from the League of American Bicyclists:

“This new feature includes: step-by-step bicycling directions; bike trails outlined directly on the map; and a new “Bicycling” layer that indicates bike trails, bike lanes, and bike-friendly roads. The directions feature provides step-by-step, bike-specific routing suggestions – similar to the directions provided by our driving, walking, or public transit modes. Simply enter a start point and destination and select “Bicycling” from the drop-down menu. You will receive a route that is optimized for cycling, taking advantage of bike trails, bike lanes, and bike-friendly streets and avoiding hilly terrain whenever possible.”

If you’re reading this article, chances are you’re as excited about this as we are. Not only is this a great tool for planning rides and commutes, but it also gives yet another example of the visibility, impact and importance of cycling. Like Andy Clarke, President of the League of American Bicyclists says, “It is a game-changer…”

You can see all of this in action, along with a cool little video and some instructions here.

Are you excited about this? How will this impact your riding and/or commuting? Let us know your thoughts by adding a comment below.

Philadelphia-area mountain bikers of all shapes, sizes, experiences and abilities will again have the opportunity to fraternize, ride, eat and buy stuff when the Fourth Annual Rally in the Valley goes down on April 17th in Wissahickon Park.

The Philadelphia Area Mountain Bike Association (PMBA) is putting on the event, which brings together riders, local shops and national sponsors. In addition to guided trail rides rides through Wissahickon Park, a swap meet, music and food, participants can also look forward to skills clinics, a kid’s course and door prizes. You’ll also have the opportunity to demo some new bikes on the best trails that Wissahickon Park has to offer. That’s what we call fun for the whole family.

It’s also worth mentioning that proceeds from the event go towards trail maintenance days in the Wiss and mountain bike skill clinics throughout the year.

Rally in the Valley may be the premier event for PMBA, but the group is also an active voice of advocacy in The Wiss, as well as other trails in, and around, the Philadelphia area. They have many other events through out the year such as trail maintenance days and donation drives for organizations like Neighborhood Bike Works—a local non-profit that uses bicycles to increase opportunities for urban youth. As I’ve mentioned before…be part of the solution and join PMBA…and maybe donate to Neighborhood Bike Works while you’re at it.

Practical Info:

• Wissahickon Valley in Fairmount Park
• April 17th 2010
• 8:00am to 2:00pm
• Register online www.phillymtb.org
• On-site Registration 7:00am to 10:00am
• Registration and parking at Northwestern Ave (near Chestnut Hill College)
• $25 (adults over 19); $10 (kids 8-18); Kids under 7 are free
• Helmets are mandatory for all participants

Planning to attend the Rally in the Valley? Leave a comment below to see who else is going.

The good people over at Bikes Belong recently showed us 55,000 reasons why they’re so cool. Several cycling organizations and projects (catering to those who love non-paved as well as paved cycling) have just benefitted from the award of $55,000 worth of grants.
Of particular interest:

• Moab Trails Alliance will get $10,000 to help complete a paved path between Moab’s Lions Park Trail and Transit Hub with Arches National Park and all of the off-road trails to the north. It’s hoped this trail will reduce the number of automobiles in the area by 200,000.
• $10,000 grant to the City of Redmond, Washington to help fund the design and building of the Redmond Bike Park.
• Watauga County Tourism Development Authority won $5000 to help develop a mountain bike trail system in Rocky Knob Park outside of Boone, North Carolina.
• $5000 grant to the Chequamegon Area Mountain Bike Association (CAMBA) so that riders in and around Cable, WI can see the completion of 28 miles of continuous singletrack.

The remaining $25,000 will be split between the Ohio River Trail in Cincinnati that will link downtown with the airport; the City of Middleton, Wisconsin to help build a mountain bike park adjacent to a golf course; and the Cuyuna Lakes Trail Association in Minneapolis to build two sections of paved trail to connect a variety of public areas in an effort to complete the 39-mile Cuyuna Lakes State Trail.

For complete information, head on over to Bikes Belong. And while you’re there…be a part of the solution, and join.