MTBGuru blog

Time to get the blog out of hibernation! We’ve been silently making upgrades, adding new features to the site and testing them out, and there was not much time left to write about it here.

More about that below, but first a service announcement: I’ve created a new home for the more bike and riding oriented stuff I want to write about (and did so here in the past); it’s called Canyon Fever, go check it out.
This place (blog.mtbguru.com) will then be focused on MTBGuru.com support and announcements.

So here’s a quick recap on what’s new on the site, and I plan to elaborate on some of this in subsequent posts…

• Google Earth in the browser

Google recently released a browser plugin as well as an API that enables us to run Google Earth within the browser (only Firefox and IE on Windows are supported at this time).

• MTBGuru for Mobile

We’ve been getting quite excited about the possibilities the latest generation of mobile devices offer (iPhone, Blackberry, Nokia’s NSeries); this is a work in progress, more to follow!

• Integration of the Garmin’s Communicator browser plugin

This allows you to automatically download or upload data from your Garmin devices, rather than by transferring the .GPX files.

• Support for Garmin’s Training Center format

This format is required to upload course files to the Garmin Edge and Forerunner series, which become increasingly popular for biking and running activities; so we made a little exception on our .GPX/.KML centric policy.

It’s the time of the year to make plans… as in MTB race plans. Someone posted a great calendar of mountainbike endurance events in the US on MTBPath. As it’s so handy, I’ve inserted it in an extended post, in slightly reformatted version. Follow the link below to make the jump.

When I find myself suffering through these endurance races, I often can’t help but think how much more fun they were during the planning stage, so I’d say enjoy them now! Though after they’re done they generally tend to turn into great memories…

This calendar focuses on the US, but I know there are plenty of amazing events organized all over the world. The Grand Raid Cristalp for instance is one I’d love to do some time…

(more…)

A wonderful and happy 2008 to everyone and of course, we wish you many exciting trips, rides and new discoveries.

And check out this MTBGuru-calendar (pdf) - that’ll let you plan your rides. Granted, it’s a bit SF Bay Area-centric, but hey, that’s where we do most of our riding, and we shot these pics.

Looking at these photos, and looking back at the year, it seems this was the year of Henry Coe to me (Jan, Feb, Mar, Aug, Dec pics); indeed, I never get tired of it, it’s an amazing and inspiring place, with plenty of rough, unpolished and epic riding potential.

Other personal highlights were dream rides in Chamonix and Sedona, the local delights of Demo Forest, Annadel, Tamarancho, Santa Teresa and the great riding in Auburn and Tahoe. And I won’t forget my first attempt at the E100 in Park City any time soon either. I hear the Park City singletrack calling my name again already. A final mention goes to Arastradero, as I could and can ride to it from work, and enjoyed many a training ride and jump session there, some together with interns dragged along from work.

Cheers to all our riding buddies throughout the year for sharing the fun and may 2008 bring more goodness to everyone.

A happy holiday to everyone! No white christmas here in the San Francisco Bay Area; though it’s rather chilly, it actually looks like we have perfect mtb conditions (forecast is sunny, trails are tacky-dry).

MTBGuru’s Santa brought some Virtual Earth / Live Maps support as mentioned in the previous post. To view your trip there, you can follow the link that we’ve put underneath the trip map.

We’ve actually brought a number of links together in that spot (’map links’), so you have all the trip essentials in one space without need for searching or scrolling: links to the GPX and KML files (for download, or to open in Google Earth), the link to Virtual Earth and the one to Google Maps:

Google is of course not the only game in town - Microsoft’s Live Maps and Virtual Earth have made a lot of progress. The latter will even run in 3D from within your browser; only on Windows PC’s though.

Virtual Earth features some nice 3D models (for instance, the Golden Gate bridge, see the example and comparison with GE below) and the fact that it runs in the browser (IE and Firefox) is compelling, though I still prefer the user experience and overall feel of Google Earth (and the vast amount of content available in the latter).

Thanks to the fact that Live Maps/Virtual Earth have recently started to support the KML format, we’ve implemented a way to view your MTBGuru trips in them: look for the links to Virtual Earth right underneath the trip map and in the ‘Share your trip’ section.

Golden Gate bridge and Marin Headlands in Virtual Earth

Golden Gate bridge and Marin Headlands in Google Earth

You may have noticed the new ‘Terrain’ feature on the trip and home maps. Under this name Google Maps is now serving pretty cool looking shaded relief maps displaying physical features. This has also become available through their maps API, so we’ve enabled it on MTBGuru: now you have yet another way to visualize your trips!

As an example, this is how an Amasa Back ride in Moab looks like in ‘Terrain’ mode:

When I first moved to the Bay Area from Europe and started riding the trails here, I didn’t believe it when people told me about park rangers setting up speed traps for bikers, writing tickets with huge fines for riding after dark etcetera. Needless to say, I’ve come a way from there.

The situation here is now such that mountain biking is used by some public agencies as a quick and effective way to raise funds or overcome budget shortcomings, by means of writing out ridiculous fines for such gross offenses as riding a trail half an hour after sunset or exceeding 15mph at the bottom of some fireroad descent (usually not on singletrack, where speeding actually could present a real hazard to other trail users).

These funds are subsequently used to acquire more land or build and maintain trails *closed* to mountain bikers, as for instance is the case here with the La Honda Creek Preserve.

This is where trail advocacy comes in - a concept which I couldn’t grasp and appreciate while living in my bike-crazy home country - and the great people that spend their precious spare time and efforts to ‘further our riding causes’, attending endless meetings in an environment often very hostile to them. But also small efforts and contributions can make a difference - I’d urge everyone to sign this petition, or attend the public hearing tonight in La Honda (even though it’s held at 4pm on a Tuesday) - more info in this thread on MTBR - bring a bike helmet!

To get you warmed up, check out this recent example that should get your blood to boil: FC from MTBR was on a short after-work ride, riding from his house to the park, only to be intercepted (at 7pm) and presented a +$300 ticket by a ranger who was driving a truck around in the park, burning fuel and spoiling the air with exhaust gases and spitting out CO2 for the sole purpose of catching offenders whose ‘crime’ it is riding a bike on a trail after dark. Two words come to mind: ‘absurd’ and ‘Kafka’…

Here in Northern California it looks like the Thanksgiving weekend will bring primo conditions for riding, hiking and other outdoor endeavours: the October rains nicely wiped most of the dust off the trails, and look at this weather forecast for San Jose:

There’s hardly any snow in the Sierra’s now, so while the skier and boarder in us needs to exercise some patience, it also means it’s still a big riding, hiking or climbing playground out there, to be enjoyed while possible.

It may feel like late summer here, but elsewhere other seasons have definitely set in: check for instance this this geocaching trip in Hungary on MTBGuru and its gorgeous winter-wonderland like quality:

Places in Europe near the Mediterranean on the other hand seem to enjoy eternal spring - so it appears looking at the pics of this MTB event in Portugal:

Fact is it is late fall on the northern hemisphere - see how that looks like in the Canyonlands in Utah, on these nice pics another user shot during a hiking trip:

It’s always great to discover new territory, and seeing these trips, photos and reports from all over the world appear on the site is a real treat. Thanks (yes, it’s almost Thanksgiving here in the US ;)), and keep ‘m coming.

And of course: a happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Last friday there was a full moon and Halloween was approaching: it was time for some craziness.
Enter the Henry Coe Moonlight Madness ride! Our plan was simple: leave at midnight, ride through the night on Coe’s best trails, arrive at the Hunting Hollow parking lot early in the morning, in time to greet the big MTBR gathering that would take place that saturday.

The full moon lit things up quite nicely but we had to make good use of our combination halogen (helmet) and HID/LED (bar) lights to make it through the night and the often eerie and dark descents in the remote wilderness (for Bay Area standards at least) that Coe is even during daylight.

We didn’t run into too much wildlife, except for some deer, and lots of toads on the trail. We got pretty beat by this ride and the often brutal climbs, and dawn came as a great relief. It re-energized us and inspired us to do a last tough climb (Serpentine) such that we could zip down the fantastic Middle Steer ridge descent. Stats: about 37 miles with +8000 feet ascent.

A month after the big fire Coe is recovering and still an awesome place to ride. Perhaps we should make this Moonlight Madness ride a tradition, every last full moon before Halloween…

Technorati Tags: Henry Coe

What beats riding Moab?

Riding more Moab, and this weekend the participants of the 24 hours of Moab will get to do plenty of that. The course - a single lap - is shown below. Here are GPX and KML files.

The GPS track is based on the Google Earth image overlay provided by the Granny Gear website, combined with DEM data we got from the USGS to generate the elevation profile.

One lap is a good 14 miles with about 1400 feet of elevation gain. In 2005 someone was able to do 18 of these in 24 hours - totally amazing.

During the race last year we were in town to witness rather apocalyptic conditions: there were enormous downpours during the night - this year we unfortunately won’t make it but we’re looking forward to read the reports.