“Anyone can ride in the warm sunshine!”, a fellow cyclist once triumphantly yelled to me as we slogged through a downpour.  He certainly had a jovial spirit, but internally I’m thinking “only us idiots are out riding in this kind of weather!”. Winter riding in Colorado can bring about the same sense of “why am I out here”. Ultimately, it’s always great to be riding – no matter the circumstances. A winter ride often brings a heightened sense of pride and accomplishment.

Bundled up with the right gear, including leggings, arm bands, shoe covers, and ski gloves, I can comfortably withstand temperatures down to about 30 degrees.  When it gets in the 20s, the wind-chill factor on a bike starts to really kick in – and my eyeballs literally start to freeze.  I suppose I could try ski goggles to match the gloves!

A full schedule of summer rides and tours helps provide motivation for those cold winter rides.  And I’ve got some great rides planned for 2018.  This year I’ll kick off a coast-to-coast ride with a 9 day tour from Astoria, Oregon to Boise, Idaho.  To train for this 700 mile jaunt, I’ll be riding the Santa Fe century in May, and a popular local ride in early June called the Elephant Rock.  More on all these in future blogs.

For now, the goal is to sneak in those cold winter rides when Mother Nature allows, and rejoice with a few other crazies out joyously freezing on our bikes.

Happy Riding,  ~Dan

(originally posted December 30, 2017) Donning ski gloves, shoe covers, and a bandit-worthy balaclava, I rolled out into the December cold today to log a significant milestone before the close of 2017: reaching the 40,000 mile mark on my Bianchi Imola bike. This trusty steel steed has dutifully carried me all over Colorado and beyond, without once complaining. Well, maybe a few squeaks and clicks, but no formal complaints (except for that popped spoke near Chugwater, Wyoming – but that’s another story).

Riding along a favorite city bike path, I pulled over when the odometer clicked 40000 and celebrated with a cold water bottle shower as some puzzled Canada geese looked on. The aptly named Bear Creek Trail follows Bear Creek from the foothills hamlet of Morrison, CO to its confluence with South Platte river in Denver – and the “BCT” served as a gracious host for the occasion, especially since many of those 40,000 miles were accumulated on this very path.

Purchased in 2002, my Bianchi has held up beautifully – thanks in large part to the friendly mechanics at Turin Bike shop in Denver. Virtually every component has been replaced or overhauled at least once, but the black-and-celeste frame remains solid and true (with just one battle scar from a tangle with a downed tree branch – but that’s yet another story!).

15 years, 40,000 miles, and countless memories. Here’s to one great bike!

For many of us, the fun of bicycling starts as a kid. The adventurous independence of biking around neighborhood streets, wobbling on winding sidewalks to school, or bouncing along rutted dirt paths criss-crossing through open fields.

For me, those neighborhood streets and open fields were in Arvada, Colorado.  My early biking adventures took me to Weber Elementary School (home of the Eagles!), to a nearby dirt trail that circled a small lake, or to the homes of my childhood pals.  I would later hone my cycling skills with a newspaper route, awakening before sunrise to balance bulging canvas bags over my front handlebars and chuck papers in the general vicinity of front porches (or sometimes at bike-chasing dogs).

Those were good times on two wheels.  But as years passed, I would eventually give up the paper route, move on to high school, and advance to the four-wheeled pursuit of delivering pizzas (slightly more lucrative than newspaper delivery… and with fewer dogs chasing me).  The lake and it’s wondrous dirt trails would be overtaken by a housing subdivision.  The boyhood magic of bicycling would fade.

Bikes were still a part of my life – an old 10 speed for dashes to college classes, a cheap mountain bike for an occasional weekend ride.  Nothing overly adventurous.

Then, in 1998, I plopped down $1,000 on what turned out to be a life-changing investment.  A sleek new Bianchi Eros road bike, with 27 gears, shiny components, and clip-in pedals.  The magic of cycling was rekindled for me, and I rode that bike all over the place… feeling like a kid once again.

This blog is a celebration of that spirit of cycling.  I hope you enjoy this chronicle of biking adventures past, present, and future.

~Dan