welcome to our new website
Tinker Creek Cycle is a small bike shop located in Tinker Creek Manitoba, just a few miles south of Morden. We service bicycles and sell Rocky Mountain Bikes in the local community, but really we're more about getting out and enjoying the incredible mountain bike trails right out our own back door.
Take care, James
Spring ritual – PUNISHMENT
So, not sure why, but every spring I manage to find my self on an “easy” ride with a friend or two. Sunday afternoon I went for one of these “easy” spring rides with a good friend JP. Last March it was DJ, the year prior Hal and Chris H. Now, the term “easy” seems straight forward, but obviously I need to learn to use the SAME tire/bike setup as my riding companions.
Stating the obvious
Apparently there is a HUGE difference in rolling resistance between road bike tires and low quality cross tires. Last year DJ was polite enough to allow me to keep my HR around 160, while his was much, much lower. On Sunday, I didn’t wear my HRM, but could barely talk most of the ride while JP was “recovering” at 120 BPM, unclipped, on a SS road bike… Just glad he didn’t start pulling wheelies. It was just about ALL my early season lack of fitness could handle. I was really glad the sun still sets early. But don’t get me wrong, I still had a great time (time trialing).
Back 40 race sponsor number 1
The generous folks over at NoTubes are Back 40 race sponsors again for 2010. Those who don’t us Stan’s Sealant, what are you waiting for? Another FLAT?
Thanks again Cindy!
Another “Jeff” Update
I’m not sure exactly what the protocal is to post something up here but since KB gave me access I guess I can post (almost) whatever I want.
This last weekend me and some friends went out to Asessippi Ski Area near Russell, MB to shred the slopes and have some fun.
This is actually at Frostfire Ski area near Walhalla, ND.
The plan was to go there for 2 nice days of skiing (for me) and snowboarding (for everyone else). We stayed in some log cabins near Russell which were very nice and cozy. They were basically out in middle of nowhere so it didn’t matter if we made a little extra noise. There was a Ukrainian dance crew staying in one of the other cabins which was very interesting because they were mostly my age and their full time job was to put on Ukrainian dance shows. Anyway, the skiing was lots of fun and I had a blast hitting the huge jumps in the terrain park. Near lunch time one of my buddies hit one of the bigger jumps there and lost control in the air and landed on his side from about 10 feet up. He was okay but he could hardly walk by later that afternoon because everything was so stiff.
Finishing a 180 on a small jump.
I managed to stay out of trouble till the infamous “last run of the day”. I was attempting to “grind” on one of the rails that they have in their terrain park when things starting going south. I have grinded rails before on my skis no problem and I do have twin-tipped skis which let me land backwards when coming off a rail. But this rail had a seam of plastic puckboard along the middle that hooked on to my ski and caused me to fall off the end head first. I smashed my head on the ground pretty good and my head was buzzing a little. I didn’t get a concussion luckily because I landed more on my side and I didn’t slam my jaw/teeth together. Needless to say, that was the end of the day for me. We were planning to go out again the next day (Sunday) but because 2 of us had already gotten hurt we decided we would just leave early and watch the Canada-USA gold medal game.
Sidney Crosby. Full photo credit goes to "Harry How/Getty Images"
We got away later than we planned the next morning and ended up stopping in a random bar in Neepawa to watch Canada win the gold. What a fitting guy to score the game winner! Crosby is and will be the face of Canadian Hockey for years to come.
Have a good week,
Jeff
ABES Rule!
Just when you thought it was safe to go outdoors…the ABES in Altona pull out plans for a huge bike fest this Saturday. Check it out!
Silk purse
Nothing Tinker related what-so-ever in this video, just swiping it to add to the litternet. Considering that Winnipeg river trails will be flooded til July again, this may be the only way I can see a Winnipeg trail til then. This guy did a great edit job, great angles, making an OK trail look really good. Good job whoever you are.
New TCC jersey in time for spring thaw
Cigars, beer and women?? Excellent win last night. Check out some of these Globe & Mail posts…
SanL
Feb 26, 2010 | 8:04 AM ET
They are apologizing for giving up months of their lives with little or no finanical support to win a gold medal while representing their country and celebrating it….are you kidding me. Only in Canada. They did not go out on the streets, they did not cause any property damage, they were not drinking and driving. Good job girls, I would have had a beer or two myself. Just enjoy the moment. The people that should be apologizing is the US team, they won a silver medal which is a great achievement and something to be proud of. Most of them sulked and looked ungrateful and miserable while receiving their medals. Not very good ambassadors for their country or the sport.
JETSOLVER
Feb 26, 2010 | 8:01 AM ET
Really, the first post should have been the last. Gold looks good on our ladies!
ChangeForADollar
Feb 26, 2010 | 7:54 AM ET
What do we have to apologize for? We won the gold! To the victor go the spolis, including having a drink after the game. And if you are playing at home that includes at centre ice or anywhere else in the buliding you’d like.
VladdyPoutine
Feb 26, 2010 | 7:40 AM ET
Associated press reporter? No doubt an uptight, bitter sucky American-based reporter — that’s where AP is based. @mwn1959, the only intelligent thing you said is that Joannie Rochette is worthy of our nation’s pride. As for the rest, you’ve earned a Gold Medal in the Stupidity Slalom. Egomaniacs? Those women are more down to earth than you could possibly imagine. ONLY women’s hockey? Ask the North Calgary Junior men’s teams who played the women in Olympic preps. Those gals are legitimate, high calibre athletes who can keep up with men at appropriate comparative levels. And I dare you to tell Hayley Wickenheiser she is isn’t fit to play with pro men like she did in Scandinavia a few years ago. Tarnished the image of your country? You tarnish it with moronic remarks like 99% of your post.
SPN
Feb 26, 2010 | 7:36 AM ET
I believe that consuming alcohol by minors is allowed during religious ceremonies. This is Canada and it was a gold medal ceremony. ‘Nuff said.
Biking (mostly) without snow in February!!
Riding a bridge over a mucky area beside a creek.
Hey everyone! I hope you have been enjoying the lovely winter so far and have been keeping this off-season a time of relaxation and re-charging for the next year of biking (and racing for some). As most of you probably know I’m currently in school at the University of Manitoba finishing my Agriculture Diploma and I graduate in April. So…because us university kids always get a week of school off in February to do some something called “Reading”, I, together with my parents, took a road trip down to Oklahoma and Arkansas to hit some warmer temps and the plan was for me to do some biking down there at the same time.
4 days of riding rocks will make you fall in love with your dual suspension bike!
We left last Sunday on our way to Tulsa, Oklahoma. We hit some nasty snowstorms on the way down through South Dakota and Nebraska but we finally got there on Monday night. The next morning we checked out the Tulsa Zoo and the temperature was a windy +5 to +7 C. So Tuesday afternoon I went to the Turkey Mountain Park to shred some of the trails there. The park is only about 2 miles square but locals said they have at least 50 miles of trail packed into that small area. It was some incredibly technical riding through rocks, roots, mud, more rocks and then even more rocks, steep downhills and uphills covered in rocks and roots, with more rocks thrown in for good measure! All you hard tail holdouts (ahem..Gerald and Lincoln..) would have gotten a decent pounding from how rocky it was. When I say rocks and roots I don’t mean a section here or there, this was non-stop rock drop-offs and rock gardens with roots coming across everywhere for the entire trail, there were no flat out big-ring sections. This trail (actually all the trails I rode) was NOTHING like the stuff we have here in MB when comparing how technical the riding is. I got nice and muddy and it was a blast to finally put my Racer-X through its proper paces for a total of about 27 km of riding. In the evening we found T-Town Bicycles and I stopped in there to get some more chain lube and stock up on gels and shot blocks.
At Turkey Mountain. Less than 1 km into the trail.
The next day (Wednesday) was a driving day and we left Tulsa to head towards Hot Springs, Arkansas. The road we took was very scenic with lots of curves and switchbacks going through the Ouachita National Forest. We stopped in Mena, Arkansas at a small hiking area to stretch our legs so I got out my bike and did a small loop there for about 3 km. We then drove the rest of the way to Hot Springs.
Catching some air at Cedar Glade Park in Hot Springs.
Hot Springs is a town with lots of history and actually has natural mineral hot springs running down the side of the mountain right into town. We found Parkside Cycle that Thursday morning and talked to them about getting directions to The Womble and Syllamo trails (two of IMBA’s Top 50 Epic trails in North America). Since it was almost lunch time when we got there and getting to the trail would take at least 1.5 hours yet they recommended that we ride their local trails right in Hot Springs and head out to the longer epic Womble trail early the next morning to make sure I had enough daylight. They also recommended not to ride the Syllamo trail (near Mountain View, Arkansas) because there hadn’t been anyone taking care of it the past year or two. So we took their advice and went first to the Cedar Glade Park trails in town where they are hosting a 6 hour race next weekend. The temperature was a beautiful, sunny + 14 C. This trail wasn’t quite as technical but there were still rocks and roots everywhere. It was mostly through pine trees with some super fast downhills that were sorta scary because they were littered with golf ball sized rocks. I did 2 laps of the race course which was already marked out for a total of 34 km.
Suiting up for The Womble trail after replacing my chain.
Then came Friday, time to find out what designates an epic trail as a truly epic trail! We headed out to Lake Ouachita (pronounced Oh-ah-Shah-tah) from Hot Springs to the trailhead of the Womble trail. I loaded up my pack with several gels and energy bars and a spare tube of course because I could see down the trail that it was going to be rocky again. I set off at 11 am to find that the trail started off with a 1.5 mile rock and root covered climb along a ridge to the top of the mountain with spectacular views down to the bright blue lake on the one side. The first section of the trail had some unbelievable terrain that you have to see with your own eyes to truly appreciate.
The Titus on the Womble trail over looking the end of Lake Ouachita.
After the big climb the trail rolled along the side of the mountain connecting with several different mountain ridges via switchbacks. There weren’t as many rocky sections along here but the trail was a small shelf cut into the side of the mountain that was no more than 2.5 feet wide (no exaggeration). Since I was on the north side there was still some snow around from a storm they had had 2 weeks earlier but the trail was totally clear with only some damp spots from the melting snow above it. Riding on this “shelf” went on for several miles till I came to a long downhill leading me to a valley area between mountains.
The "shelf" I was riding on.
The valley area section crossed several beautiful creeks without bridges, most were ride-able but not quite deep enough to get the feet wet. This went on for several miles again until I came to a sign that had two red “up” arrows on it saying that Mauldin Mountain was coming up. I think they should have put twenty “up” arrows on that sign because that was a punishing climb if there ever was one! About 2 miles of steep uphill with washed out switchbacks and of course rocks all over the place once again. I cleaned the whole thing in record time! (Haha yeah right..) I’ll admit it, I didn’t clean one of the uphill switchbacks because it was too steep and too rocky so I took a little breather right away too. So then the trail flowed along the top of that mountain for sometime before dipping down along the other side into the same type of narrow “shelf” trail as before.
I found out oak leaves roll much faster than pine needle covered trails.
Again there were some crazy fun downhills and rocky switchbacks and beautiful views all over the place. The trail eventually levelled out a little more and led through some super neat rolling forests with, of course, more rocks and creek crossings than you can imagine. After going 36 km my “winter legs” caught up with me and I was struggling to keep a quick pace. So I settled into a slower than average trail ride pace and kept going. I eventually ended up at North Fork Lake at 3 pm where the trail ended and my parents picked me up. It was a total of exactly 40 km that took me 3 hours of actual riding time and 4 hours total on-trail time which included time for taking pictures and taking in the view while eating gels, clif bars and shot blocks like a starved caveman.
Riding on pure rock!
After finishing the trail we drove back to Hot Springs and went to sit in one of the hot springs mineral pools which was the perfect way to cap off the fun (but also difficult) day of trail riding. That night we started heading back home and got back on Sunday after lunch.
So in total I rode 104 km over four days of riding. My goal was to at least do 100 km on this trip so it worked out perfectly. Also, now I know what defines a truly EPIC trail and its too bad I couldn’t share the joy of riding it with someone else. Of course riding new trails is always so much fun because you don’t know what to expect around the corner but I gotta say, guys we may not have any designated epic trails in our backyard but that doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy the ride just as much on our trails as any other trails out there.
Rocks, roots, and a creek. This one picture sums up almost the whole trail.
I’ll be uploading lots of the other pictures that I took onto my Facebook profile so for those of you that have Facebook you can look for them there. I’ll try to post them without privacy restrictions there so that anyone can view them and I’ll put the link in here later on. If you have questions or want more detail on something, or if something I said doesn’t make sense then ask away in the comments!
The trailhead for The Womble trail. 40 km of fun lays ahead!
Hope you enjoyed my long winded recap,
Jeffrey Elias
Don’t panic yet!
OK, yesterday’s hockey game was disappointing, that’s obvious. But let’s not panic yet. If we were going to lose a game, that was a good one to lose. Hopefully that will be the wake-up call we needed. A few things are clear, Pronger no longer has “it”, Babcock can’t leave the lines alone (scrambled eggs) and Luongo probably needs to go back in.
Glad we have a game against Germany to hopefully get some lines going and some systems worked out. It’s not over yet!
In other Olympic news – just watching the downhill ski jumping right now. Anyone know how much lift those guys get from those “skis”? Some crazy long jumps going on. Very cool.
Mandatory Cycling Content Below
I went for a 2 hour gravel grind on Saturday and loved every minute of it.
Addiction
I have to admit my new addiction (well not new actually) but I am watching WAY TOO MUCH Olympics. Even got it going on my computer right now, some female XC skier just skied off course and fell into a ravine. Anyway, I will watch almost anything, snowboarding is awesome, downhill skiing, even XC skiing & curling, pretty much anything, I have very little self-control.
Obviously I was watching the Men’s Hockey yesterday. Babyface Toews looked like one of the best forwards, all over the ice. I was wondering why #19 was so slow the first few shifts, then I realized that was Joe Thorton, once I realized Toews was wearing #16, all made sense. It is also a treat to get to watch some of those Canadian players we just don’t see much during the season, like Rick Nash, wow.
Anyway, I do have my limits of what I will watch and yes, you guessed it, figure skating. Ah, no thanks.
If only I could muster the motivation to set up the trainer every evening to burn some calories while I burn my brain cells.
June 6th, 2010 we will be hosting the Back 40 Mountain Bike Race check out all the details 