The Rails to Trails Act of 1983 may rank as the best thing to happen to American cycling in the last 25 years. Technically section 8(d) of the National Trails Systems Act, this landmark legislation greases the skids for the conversion of abandoned and unused railroad corridors into recreational trails. According to the Rails-to-Trails Conservency, America’s rail-trail count currently stands at 1,534 open trails for a total of 15,346 miles. It’s refreshing to know that even Congress can occasionally knock one out of the park.
A few weekends ago, I treated myself to a 69-mile slice of America’s juicy rail-to-trail pie, as a participant in an organized charity event know as That Dam Ride—which cruised along the scenic Yough River Trail from Boston, PA to Confluence, PA.
In “Little Boston” you drop off your camping gear, and eager Boy Scouts and their leaders load it and truck it 69 miles down the trail to Confluence, where it’s waiting for you upon your arrival. Rest stops stocked with food and drink keep you smiling and rolling along. A home cooked pasta dinner at Confluence recharges your batteries. You wake up the next day refreshed and ready to pedal 69 miles back to Little Boston, where you pick up your gear, and call it a weekend. That’s the short version.
The long version begins in 1991, when my imagination was captured by the notion of a proposed rail-trail connecting Pittsburgh, PA and Washington, DC. A tiny newspaper article told of a local group, calling themselves the Mon-Yough Trail Council, that was forming to work on converting a stretch of abandoned railroad in Allegheny county, as part of the larger Pitt-to-DC trail vision. I showed up at one of their first public meetings. One thing led to another and I ended up on the organization’s Board of Directors, and became their first newsletter editor/publisher.
Those were heady days, starting an organization from scratch, ripping out old rails and ties, removing decades of accumulated trash dumped along the trail, raising funds, and finally laying down a crushed-limestone surface for generations of trail users to enjoy. I’m proud to have played a small role in the creation of this fantastic national asset.
Alas, I’ve since relocated, and it’s no longer geographically practical to participate in the Trail Council, nor pop over to the Yough River Trail for a spur-of-the moment ride. I do keep up my annual membership, and trail-based events such as That Dam Ride give me a great reason to make a pilgrimage to ride my favorite rail-trail.
Every time I hit the rail-trail I’m refreshed. I see the future of cycling in the person of kids out for a ride with their parents. I see hordes of bicyclists who’ll never shred on singletrack, who’ll never enter a bike race, who wouldn’t know titanium from plutonium—but bicyclist just the same. I see bicyclists who sit on town councils, bicyclist who own local business, bicyclists who contact congress and tell them that they want more bicycling infrastructure. I see butchers and bakers and candlestick makers. I see hordes of examples of why the Rails to Trails Act of 1983 may rank as the best thing to happen to American cycling in the last 25 years. I see hordes of people on bikes.
Now, back to That Dam Ride. I suspect that you’d rather look at some pictures than read about me pedaling 138 miles; therefore, I offer the following photo-journal from my trip. Just click on a thumbnail to view a larger image. Enjoy.
The beginning of the ride winds through suburbia, but on the trail it’s easy to forget the hustle and bustle.
There’s even a ghost town a few miles from the Boston trailhead. The Elizabeth Township Historical Society maintains this Methodist Cemetery (est. 1824) as the only artifact remaining from the town of “Old Dravo” that once stood at this site. Adjacent to the cemetery, the Apache Springs campsite offers weary travelers spooky overnight accomodations in this ghost town.
Forty miles into my journey, I rolled into the town of Connellsville, which, despite it’s rather sleepy demeanor, was a rip roaring “coal and coke” boom town in the early 1900s. While I ripped into the roaring lunch that the ride organizers had waiting there, I admired the wide variety of rigs that that were along for the ride.
While the overall grade of the trail from Boston to Confluence is relatively flat 0.5%, the 17 miles from Connellsville to Ohiopyle State Park is steep enough to give the legs a bit of a challenge. The reward is a spectacular bridge crossing, high above the ruggedly beautiful Ohioplye gorge—a spot where the whitewater attracts boaters from far and wide.
During the final 11 miles to Confluence, a town located at the confluence of the Casselman (left in photo below) and Youghioghenny (right in photo below) rivers, I was motivated by thoughts of camp sweet camp.
After collecting our gear from the Boy Scouts, we riders set up camp adjacent to the base of the Youghioghenny Dam. The sound of the water rushing from the bottom of the dam provided perfect white noise, not that I needed any help falling asleep after a long day in the saddle.
But before I filled my sleeping bag with my tired bones, I filled my belly with a home-cooked pasta dinner, courtesy of the fine ladies at Confluence’s Trinity Lutheran Church. All included with my registration fee. Umm, umm good.
After a good night’s sleep and a quick breakfast, it was time to reverse course and pedal back home. On the way I took a slight detour in Ohiopyle to snap a few photos of the Ohiopyle Falls, and stumbled upon some guys with RC offroad vehicles who had set up a trials course on the rocks on the riverbank. They seemed to be having a great time, and didn’t mind me photographing their action.
Before I wrap up this report, I’ll spill the beans on a semi-secret swimming hole, known to the locals as Smithton Beach—a great spot to cool off during summer months. Beach access is via a dirt doubletrack that’s directly across the trail from the Smithton trailhead parking lot. There is no signage, and the entrance winds down the riverbank, such that you can’t see the beach from the trail, keeping this cool spot somewhat of a secret.
I just came upon a good article about Smorgabord Cycles, and long-gone east coast frame builder. It gives a good background and some insight to what the company was, and where it came from. Check it out here!
Ok, so it’s not really “live” per se. But we do have eight interviews right from the halls of the Sands Convention Center from Interbike last week. We spoke to industry insiders about the effect of current economic conditions on the bike industry, interesting products from interesting people and humanitarian aid with the help of bicycles. Much thanks to Interbike and CyclingTV for providing the opportunity, studio space and production assistance!
You can see all of our interviews on YouTube. Here’s a list of them, with links!
And we are back from brutally hot Las Vegas, Nevada. (Not Las Vegas, New Mexico… and no, we’re not located in Pittsburg, California, thanks for asking.) It’s been another brutally hot day – sorry to keep commenting on this, but we’re constantly amazed that anyone would willingly live here. Anyway, they’ve at least got some good trails, specifically in Bootleg Canyon, where the Outdoor Demo is being held.
One theme emerging from the wares available for riding at the Demo is a theme continuing from last year: long travel getting longer. We saw plenty of all-mountain bikes add an inch, like the Diamondback Sortie series (going from 4″ to 5″) and the Kona Dawgs (increasing from 5″ to 6″). Meanwhile frames are still getting lighter and more finely tuned in concert with shocks, so that all that travel has good manners. Some amazing stuff.
Some of the biggest news is that Chris King has come out with… drumroll please… a bottom bracket. It’s not the most crazy thing out there, but if you remember, as I do, the King catalog page from ten years ago where they talked about how they’re hard at work developing the perfect bottom bracket, it’s pretty big news. Since they started work on this project, mountain bike bottom brackets have gone from square-taper to ISIS to external bearings, but the King masterminds haven’t leapt to follow trend, but rather continued on their monkish path to perfection. The result is a rather unassuming-looking external bearing BB that is compatible with Shimano-style cranks and comes in the familiar King anodized colors, ten of them now (more on that later). But look closer and you see the grease injection ports, find out it has a five (5!) year warranty, and feel how absolutely perfectly the King brand cup-removal tool fits the cups. Of course the cranks feel smooth like buttah both on the countertop and on the handful of demo bikes with the BBs installed. Going for $130 starting immediately.
It’s kind of sad when new colors count as news, but fashion is important among us bike geeks whether we admit it or not, and when it’s a company whose colors are as iconic as Chris King’s, it’s pretty cool. So King has come out with a full range of parts in a nice rich chocolate brown. Mmmmm, chocolate…
Titus is in the process of “taking over the world” (according to Justin), or at least just offering more options. Their two new models, the FTM and the X-Frame, will replace the beloved Moto Lite and RacerX respectively. But don’t worry, kids, the Moto and Racer X aren’t going away, they’re just dropping in price – down to around $1695 each. The $2295 FTM will have an aluminum front triangle (made in U.S.A.) with a carbon rear end (made in Taiwan, home of the new carbon experts) with 135mm of travel. Its similarly-priced sister the X-Frame (shown below) has a more svelte 105mm of travel with carbon seatstays.
In addition to giving the Sorties some growth hormones, Diamondback is making a new limited-edition model, the Sortie Black. This trick-looking bike has a Fox Float RLC fork using the new 15QR quick-release thru-axle standard, a Float RP23 rear, and Mavic Crossmax SLR wheels. Total weight is an amazingly light 26lbs., for a hefty price of $5200. It is still strange to see parts that were formerly the exclusive property of XC racer geeks show up on 5″-travel bikes, and be perfectly at home.
We saw and rode a lot more stuff. Click on over to the Gallery section for photos and brief bits, and check back here for more on what we rode and what we saw. Now I hear there’s a reconnaissance mission to the Pinball Hall of Fame forming…
One of my favorite things about mountain bike festivals is the opportunity to ride a variety of different bikes that I would normally only see in magazines. Enter Crankworx Colorado, 2008, Winter Park resort and the Commencal Furious. The nice gentlemen at the BTI booth had the entire Commencal lineup on hand for the shredding, thank you Preston and Mike. BTI, Bicycle Technologies International, is a distributor based in Santa Fe, NM and they are the Commencal distributor here in the United States.
Commencal, pronounced Co-Men-Sal, is a mountain bike company born out of passion for the sport in the mountains of Andorra—a mountainous region in southwestern Europe, located between Spain and France. The people of Andorra are reported to have the highest life expectancy of any other place in the world. This might have something to do with the seemingly endless recreational opportunities available there. Andorra is home to Commencal team rider and world champion mountain biker, Cedric Gracia. The Commencal Furious was designed with CG’s input to be his exclusive slopestyle and hucker bike. Having always been a fan of the rowdy Frenchman, this was the bike that I had to ride.
The first thing one will notice about the Furious is that it is a female. That is to say, there is an opening in the top tube, towards the rear end and in front of the seat tube. This femininity serves to allow the Marzocchi Roco coil over shock to move freely up and through the top tube. It also just really looks cool. With the 180mm of rear travel handled by the Marzocchi Roco, the front is lead by a Marzocchi 66 ATA, also sporting 180mm of buttery smooth travel. The Furious utilizes a 1.5″ head tube, which adds extra strength and beef, and is a spec that is becoming more and more common on big-hit bikes. The parts pick on this bike contained a healthy mix of Race Face, Commencal house brand parts, Avid and SRAM. As always, the SRAM Shifters were on-point and the Avid Code brakes kept me in control. Maxxis Minions, front and rear, held the rubber side down, and oh how nicely they drift in the oversized berms that Winter Park’s Trestle Bike Park is becoming famous for.
Let’s talk about the ride. The Furious is much lighter than other bikes in this category, weighing in at 39lbs as tested. This was very noticeable in the air, as I was overshooting many of the jumps on my first run with the unfamiliar steed. However, I am used to my 46 pound sow. By the second run, the lighter weight was a welcome change. The Furious is definitely made for rhythm sections and jumping. This is evident in the geometry which is slightly steeper than many other bikes in this category. The head tube is 66° and the seat tube is 72°. I attribute the steepness to the fact that this is more of a slopestyle, big-jump bike and not your standard downhill rig. Personally, I feel more comfortable in the bike park with a slacker head tube. Yes, this bike wants to jump, it felt like being on a BMX bike with suspension. The seat tube is 15″, and with the low bottom bracket height it is easy to hit the eject button or throw a can-can; that is, if I could do a can-can.
In summation, the Commencal Furious is a bike that wants to go fast and be in the air. I would like something a little slacker for downhilling, but if you are a 4X racer or a slopestyler in need of a new sled, I would give the Furious a serious look.
After one lap of the course, on which I consumed two beers and a shot, I decided to bail on the next two laps in favor of continuing the party. I decided to film some of the festivities, and have put it all together here in this video. Enjoy!
A few weekends ago, I treated myself to a 69-mile slice of America’s juicy rail-to-trail pie, as a participant in an organized charity event know as That Dam Ride—which cruised along the scenic Yough River Trail from Boston, PA to Confluence, PA.
I showed up at one of their first public meetings. One thing led to another and I ended up on the organization’s Board of Directors, and became their first newsletter editor/publisher.
