Weekend adventures make mountain biking the soul-affirming sport we love, optimizing time with friends, the beauty of nature, and that escape from daily life. Being able to wring the most enjoyment out of a brief stay is the trick, so here’s how to live large for a weekend in Salida, CO.

#1: Know when to go

In order to ride the high-altitude trails that give the area its draw, you’ll need to wait until all that snow melts. Going after the 4th of July is usually a safe bet, although after heavy snow years you may have to wait even longer. You can easily check trail conditions here. Shuttles With luck, you can also visit throughout most of September, although shuttles to the famous Monarch Crest trail may be done for the season, as each shuttle company has a limited number of permits annually.

#2: Go Prepared

Bring your bike in to see us a few days before you leave. We can easily do a safety check to make sure your brake pads have plenty of life for the trip, and your bike in good condition for some big days of riding. Also, pack for the high country! Salida locals are baffled by the people they see at 11,000 feet who’ve brought no water, food, or warm clothing. Mountain weather is highly unpredictable, and can run the gamut from intense sunlight to rain, snow and hail during a single ride. Make sure your group has some knowledge of backcountry safety to help extricate anyone who might get hurt. And finally, call Absolute Bikes or High Valley Bike Shuttle well ahead of time to set up your lift to the Monarch Crest. The shuttles fill up quickly in the summertime and you don’t want to get left out.

#3: Plan your rides

On Friday evening, roll into town and enjoy a sunset ride on S Mountain, on the trails otherwise known as the Arkansas Hills Trail System, or Tenderfoot Trails, since that’s the real name of the mountain with the big “S” on it. Referencing these trails on MTB Project is very helpful and easy to navigate. The system is right out of town, so you can do a brief ride to shake out your legs and see how you’re feeling. Since these trails are mostly exposed, riding them late in the day will let you beat the summer heat.

On Saturday, ride the Cottonwood Trail, found here on MTB Project. This ride can be kept short with a shuttle or ridden as a big loop using Forest Service roads and another fun singletrack, North Backbone. Parts of Cottonwood are technical (it’s rated black diamond on MTB Project) so keep that in mind for your group. If you don’t already live at altitude, you can use this ride (at about 8,000 feet) as a litmus test of your ability to handle the thin air. If you’re suffering, cross the almost 12,000-foot Monarch Crest off your list and plan something a little lower.

On Sunday put plenty of food, water and extra clothing in your backpack and meet your shuttle for Monarch Crest, found here on MTB Project. This is the big day you’ve been waiting for. Although there are several different ways off the Crest, the traditional Silver Creek descent is hard to beat. Plus you can add on the Rainbow Trail at the end for extra fun — but be warned, that trail is not all downhill. Make sure to review the Monarch Crest elevation profile. Despite being a shuttle ride, there is still 2,000 feet of high altitude climbing on this 36.2 mile ride.

#4: Eat and drink!

Breakfast: Still the most important meal of the day, especially when you’re riding. Patio Pancake: although there is no patio, you can get breakfast all day long. Also check out the Farmer’s Market, located in Alpine Park. The market is open Saturday mornings, June 1 through Oct. 19th, 8am to 1pm. The market is a great place to buy some fresh local food and enjoy live music.

Coffee: Howl Mercantile – coffee and tea combined with a funky selection of gifts and gear.

Lunch/Dinner: The Fritz – small plates, unique options and an outdoor patio.
Amicas – popular pizza joint, gluten free crust available.
Little Cambodia – tasty pho, plus a great place to grab Vietnamese iced coffee or boba tea.

Night life: The Vic – traditional, old-school bar with peanut shells on the floor, shuffleboard, darts and cheap beer.

Other things to do: Salida is also known for its whitewater culture, so bring your kayak. If you’re not already a paddler, you can still get some water time by renting a tube, inflatable kayak or standup paddle board. You can even book a raft trip. P.S. There are also fun trails in nearby Buena Vista. Better start planning another weekend!

He experiences that with his own son, who’s 12. “We’re able to ride together more often. It’s lowered the barrier for him to go out, because he’s not going to be forced into so much suffering. Not everyone is built to suffer on a bike, and there’s so much emphasis on that in bike culture. There’s something to be said for being outside, enjoying the experience and being able to share that with someone else.”

Additionally, he often finds that the e-bike removes the need for driving to trails from his home in Golden. “I’m more likely to ride from my house to the trail, and not go in my car, because now I can do that and still get my ride in the allotted time.”

In spite of the benefits, electric mountain bikes have not had an easy road in the U.S., even though manufacturers were probably hoping for the quick adoption seen in Europe.

Here in America, there’s no question that eMTBs have posed a new challenge for land owners, which can be seen from the variety of regulations enacted to deal with them. As eMTB sales began to grow, signs popped up quickly on popular trails in Boulder County, Fruita and Moab, banning eMTBs from most or all of the singletrack.

“From the consumer point of view, it’s a shame that land managers struggle to figure out how to deal with e-bikes,” said Morgan Lommele, Director of State and Local Policy at People for Bikes. “They’re not appropriate in all places, but there are plenty of places where they aren’t a problem. There needs to be a middle ground between banning them everywhere and allowing them everywhere. It’s just a long game.”

What, exactly, does it mean to be a “Functionality Driven Rider”? As a broad generalization, it means a rider who is already aware of at least one technical aspect, be it travel length or wheel size, that he or she is looking for in a bike. Functionality Driven Riders know what they want to accomplish on the trail. With that in mind, we have prepared what is essentially a primer to your spring demo plans.

The most important thing we do with our MTB demo fleet each season is select best-in-class bikes that will match performance and/or technical expectations.  In fact, our 2019 fleet has been designed particularly this purpose.  For example,  when you visit the shop you’ll find the bikes organized according to travel length and wheel size rather than grouped by manufacturer.

Each of the following formulas is a set of weekend demos designed to provide a thorough experience in four distinct product – or functionality– categories:

Long Travel 29’er

The Functionality:  

Anything. Everything. Enduro courses, big and/or technical terrain.  Pedaling still matters, but it’s arguably more about the descent and rollover.  There is no doubt this product category has had the most attention, if not the most product releases, during the past two seasons. Also referred to as “Enduro 29’er”, ranging between 150 and 165 mm rear travel.

The Formula:

• Santa Cruz Megatower –  160 / 160
• Yeti SB 150 – 170 / 150
• Pivot Firebird – 170 / 162
• Rocky Mountain Instinct, B.C. Edition – 160 / 155

Photo: Pivot Cycles

Classic Enduro – 27.5

Functionality:  

Doing anything, everything, and the big terrain like their upstart 29” brothers, but favoring a playfulness and quickness traditionally associated with the tire size.  These bikes literally established the sport of Enduro racing. But the following models are anything but relics. All have had frame and/or spec upgrades within the past 18-24 months, most recently the Santa Cruz Bronson.

The Formula:

• Santa Cruz Bronson –   160 / 150
• Rocky Mountain Thunderbolt BC Edition – 140 / 140
• Pivot Mach 6 –   160 / 155

Photo: Santa Cruz Bikes

All Mountain 29”

Functionality:  

The all day ride, including backcountry. For the rider that wants to  (and will!) ride it all. Needs enough travel to handle plenty of technical terrain, but knows that climbing is a significant – if not the most significant – part of a long ride. Many bikes with this functionality are referred to as “mid-travel”. This category is often charged with living up to incredible expectations as “the quiver bike”.

The Formula:

• Pivot Trail 429 –  130 / 120
• Yeti SB 130 – 150 / 130
• Rocky Mountain Instinct C70  – 140/140

Photo: Rocky Mountain Bikes

Down Country

Functionality:  

Backyard single track, cross country races favoring more singletrack, including a growing recent trend towards more technical courses. Bikepacking and long rides. In our estimation, there are two clear leaders in this category, which blends traditional short travel cross-country with a more aggressive fork and head tube angle.

The Formula:

• Yeti SB100/SB100 Beti – 120 / 100
• Rocky Mountain Element – 120 / 100

Photo:  Yeti Cycles @annegalyean

Four “Best Practices” for a mountain bike demo experience:

1. Pick the bike up on Friday, bring it back on Monday (or Tuesday to Thursday):  Give yourself plenty of time to get in a few different rides on each bike.
2. Make at least one of your rides the exact same trail for each bike that you demo.  For example, if Hall Ranch or the Betasso Preserve is your backyard ride, make sure to hit that on each bike.
3. Don’t rely too heavily on Strava to tell you which bike is fastest:  there are too many variables that contribute to ride quality that Strava can’t account for.  For example, have you already put a lot of miles in that week?  Did you have a more stressful day?  Did you eat Coco Puffs for breakfast for the first time in 30 years?   The important barometer than Strava is which bike puts the biggest smile on your face. Seriously.
4. If you’re not in a hurry to start, consider using Front Range Demo Day as a way to narrow the field – Friday’s VIP event will be capped at 100 riders so you can get on as many bikes as you like.  We don’t want you to necessarily use Valmont Bike Park as your only proving ground (unless that’s your backyard ride), so use FRDD to narrow your selection of bikes down to the two or three “finalists”, and then book your weekend demos at the shop.

Quick Calcs for Length of Travel: Metric vs. Imperial

Unofficially, December was my official time-off-the-bike. I entered the month with Lenten passion, always assuming some new balance will be discovered in my legs, hips, or obsessions. Marking a decade as a mountain biker, 2018’s time-off-the-bike seemed significant, though I knew not why until we yielded to our teenage daughter’s annual appeal for a surf trip to Mexico. You see, I forgot what it feels like to be a beginner.

We first surfed Riviera Nayarit in 2013, and though we return semi-regularly, I am decidedly a beginner surfer. When you surf once a year at best, you learn just enough to bring you back to the board again. I know enough – academically – to be dangerous: how to arch my back when I paddle, how to position my feet on the board, and how to avoid being pile-driven in the impact zone, for example. What stands between my knowing those skills in an academic sense, and my body knowing those things in an intuitive sense, is about six months on a surfboard. It takes time to become a surfer. It’s not easy. I’m literally drowning in my own lack of skill. Mid-set, I thought to myself, “Is this how I felt when I was learning to mountain bike?!?!”

Of all the skills we acquire as mountain bikers, the ability to step into the beginner’s mind is the most underrated at every level of the sport. In November, 2015, Professor Victor Ottati from Loyola University of Chicago reported in The Journal of Experimental Psychologythat “self-perceptions of expertise increase closed-minded cognition.” Translation: the better we think we are at something, the more close-minded we are. It is our beginner’s mind, not our expertise, that makes us more willing learners, more empathetic buddies, or wiser advanced riders. “With a Beginner’s Mind, you will be more open to possibilities and more creative. You will also form closer bonds with others in your life as they experience your interest in them and your appreciation for their thoughts and ideas,” reports Professor Ottati.

At the beginning of a new year, it is worth considering our own self-perceptions as riders. Should someone ask me for advice about a “beginner” trail, through what eyes do I look at the map? Should someone ask me for advice on how to ride a challenging trail, how do I advise scaffolding his or her learning experiences to reach that goal? When I ride a challenging trail blind, what do I take for granted about my body’s intuition?

The Pacific Ocean, on it’s gentlest of days, will leave a beginning surfer’s shoulders and neck exhausted. I come to the ocean to be humbled. To forget everything I have ever known about mountain biking…and to get a very serious saline sinus flush. I love helping new mountain bikers develop skills and confidence, but only remember while surfing what it actually feels like to be a beginning mountain biker. I respect the ocean. And I need to remember to respect the trail.

If you are not already a surfer, and if improving your riding by facing the humbling power of the Pacific Ocean interests you, we highly recommend contacting Risa and Diego at Surf It Out in Sayulita, Mexico. They are a husband wife team like Sports Garage.  Tell them Brad and Elorie sent you. They’ll know what you’re there for: time off the bike.

Note: The author is NOT a beginner street taco consumer. We encountered these seriously technical taco features at Tacos Itacate in Sayulita.

Elorie Slater, Co-Owner

In January 2018 Sports Garage hosted the U.S. launch of the women’s Ergon saddles – SR and SM for road and mountain respectively – with an evening of education, demos, and networking. Following pelvic reconstruction, Amy had some of the most thoughtful and challenging questions in the crowd. Among her posts from the ROAM festival in Sedona last week was the following review:

Amy: “My Year on a Women’s Ergon Saddle”

Product review update (warning long post)! I’ve now ridden on this Ergon Bike SM Women’s MTB saddle since late January. I also have the SR Women’s saddle on my road bike.

To date, I’ve logged 360 hours and 4,360 miles between the saddles. The majority of the hours have been spent on the MTB saddle and I’ll focus my comments on those since mountain biking is very dynamic with constant movement on/off saddle.

I only had two rides on the saddle before we rode 5 hours on it in very hot conditions in NZ (early Feb). I did not have enough chamois cream so things were more irritated vs bony sore. Since it was early season, everything hurt after that ride. That’s not necessarily a fault of this saddle. Pretty sure I’d have been sore regardless. We continued to ride for several days and while the next two were skin-wise (lady parts) sore, the other bony parts got significantly better as my butt got used to riding long hours again.

My pelvis is super sensitive to changes after my pelvis reconstruction so it did take most of NZ to not feel the saddle anymore. I usually find a saddle and never change it. But I was intrigued to try these and (full disclosure) the Beti Bike Bash is supported by Ergon. Plus the Berry color was a perfect match for the 2018 Yeti Cycles SB5 Beti. With rides as long as 7 hours, I had very little discomfort- lots of other body parts hurt but not my sit bones or surrounding lady parts. Notably I had just one sore late in the season which I’m sure was insufficient chamois cream for a 3 hour ride.

It’s incredible to see so much R&D put into designing these saddles. 20 years ago a women’s saddle or chamois barely existed. I spent a little time with Karen Jarchow this last weekend as they demo’d saddles [at the ROAM festival] and I only heard positive comments immediately post ride. I would like to see them offer titanium rails to lighten the weight a tad for my XC rig, but overall this will be the same saddle I ride next year. The saddle still looks new and the trail bike saddle does have a few scratches after crashes but for all the abuse, they’ve held up well. If you’ve had issues in the past, definitely give these saddles a test ride.

We demo Ergon saddles too, both SR and SM. The women at Sports Garage have been on these saddles since January, and are happy share their experiences. The price point relative to the effectiveness of the technology is mind boggling (SR and SM each $69.95, SR Gel and SM Gel each $89.95). Christmas is coming. Hint, hint. Contact the shop at sales@sportsgarage.net or 303-473-0033 for additional information about Ergon saddle demos.

Recently, unsolicited reviews for two of Sports Garage’s contemporary pieces of equipment organically popped into our field. Both friends of SG, we asked Lee McCormack, founder of Lee Likes Bikes, and Amy Thomas, founder of the Beti Bike Bash, if we could share their respective reviews.

This is the best kind of information to pay attention to: savvy riders – who have not been asked or compensated in any way – having an exceptional experience significant enough to share it with others.

Lee: “Two Rides on a Pivot Shuttle”

Lee popped in one day a few weeks ago and asked to take a quick spin on our Pivot Shuttle demo. We encountered this review, which we had no idea he intended to post, later on the Lee Likes Bikes Facebook page.

Thanks to the folks at Sports Garage Cycling in Boulder, I just enjoyed a pair of adventures on the Pivot Cycles Shuttle.

BIKE BASICS

Pivot Shuttle: Trail/enduro bike with Class 1 e-assist. That means the motor feeds power only when you’re pedaling, and the motor power stops at 20mph or higher.

Shimano STEPS E8000 motor: It has three modes: eco, trail and boost, plus a walking mode.

27.5×2.8 Minion tire in front, Rekon in back.

150mm Fox 36 Performance Elite fork, Fox Float Performance Elite DPX2 shock. DW-Link rear travel is 140mm.

Shimano XT brakes and XT Di2 drivetrain, which is integrated into the motor control system.

Retail price $9,999 (not an unusual price for a high end bike, but this one has a motor).

Weight is reportedly 46 pounds without pedals, which makes this a very light -ebike. It feels heavy when I’m loading the bike in my van, but not when I ride it.

RIDE #1
Riding time: 10 minutes. Very short and quick, but I really wanted to try the bike.

Easy dirt road climb and smooth, bermy, pumpy, jumpy descent.

This downhill is very familiar to me (as a matter of fact, I used to have a top Strava time on it). I’ve ridden it on DJ hardtails, slalom bikes, trail hardtails and trail bikes.

The Shuttle instantly felt like, uh, a really nice bike. It turns and pumps and jumps very well. What I mean is, I’m carving hard, manualing easy and jumping as big as normal. The bike does not hold me back.

Compared to a regular bike, the whole system feels quieter, muted and planted. I think that’s because the motor adds weight low in the frame.

Then you pedal. And the Shimano motor feeds power. Within 3-4 cycles, I learned exactly how to edge a turn and accelerate — much like rolling throttle on a moto — with just a few well-placed strokes.

I carried tons of flow and speed down the hill, so much so that I kept pinging over the motor-assist speed limit. I quickly learned to keep the bike just under that speed. My heart rate was still very high, but that was more from managing fun and less from pedaling hard.

The climb? Wow.  At the boost motor setting, I was easily climbing at hyper speed. My heart rate was the same as normal; I was just climbing a lot faster. And that speed allowed me another lap before it got dark.

Initial impression: Compared to a pedal-only bike, climbing is a whole other world, and a world that I like. Descending is just like riding a high-end bike, but more planted and, I think, faster in many places (up the 20mph line). You can, of course, sprint above 20 mph, but 20 is plenty.

RIDE #2

Riding time: 1 hour 22 minutes. This is usually over two hours.

Big, steep, rocky, loose climb. Most people, including me, walk long sections of it. Equally big, fast rough, steep and technical descent. This is proper mountain biking.

The climb begins smooth and mellow. I started in eco mode, which allowed me to turn a healthy cadence, rather than grind unpleasantly. I was hovering around level 2 effort, which is working but not hard.

As the climb got steeper and looser, the motor helped me stay on the bike in sections where I usually walk. In the crux sections I upped the motor to trail mode. In the main toughest section, I used boost. My heart rate hit threshold, but I was able to stay on the bike and recover quickly. Back to trail mode for the rest of the climb.

Last time I did this climb, it took me an hour and 10 minutes of misery. This time took 40 minutes. It was still work, but it was a lot more pleasant (and I had more juice left for the downhill).

Descending the same way. Fast with lots of loose rocks and a bunch of rock rollers. Carrying full coast/pump speed, plus some pedaling. The bike felt easy, controlled and planted, yet awake and fun. In a couple tricky corners I carried way more speed than normal.

I think that’s because of the tires (a 2.8 Minion is a hungry beast), the low-slung weight and an effective chassis/suspension package. I could have gone faster, but I had fun at my speed, which was fast enough.

Peel off to a flattish, rocky traverse. The faster you ride this section, the more fun it is. I laid down some motor-assisted pedal strokes and dove in. Braaap braaap through the corners, bap bap bap across the rocks: skimming and pumping and jumping like normal (usually on an Enduro Coil), but taking straighter lines and not worrying about the details. Again, I think the heavy frame, with its weight low down, gives you a sense of OK-ness.

And then the main bit of gnar. This singletrack has some easy flow, but it’s mostly very steep with some interesting rock/drop/turn combos — plus exposure. While I did have the KOM on this a long while ago, I’m never in a hurry. I’m more interested in being smooth and safe.

On this day, I was smooth and safe. The bike worked great. Fun in the fun parts. Controlled in the parts that need control. Totally composed in the steep rocks. Totally hooking up in the loose turns. Totally fun.

When I got back to the dirt road to go out, I had time for more riding. Motor on boost, blast up the road, enjoy a short new-school DH trail, repeat. I was climbing at threshold heart rate, but something like 3X my normal speed. What fun.

Curious note: While I was scrubbing speed before corners, I felt like I was using every bit of the XT brakes. That almost never happens, and it gave me an idea of, despite how controlled I felt, how freaking fast I was riding. It also indicates that, if you’re really pushing this bike, you might want some Saints.

I got more than 2,500 feet of descending. At the end I felt energized rather than beat down.

Impression: Holy cow, this is a fun bike. If you’re blasting a short ride, you can climb incredibly fast. If you’re doing a longer ride, you can use the motor to keep your effort reasonable (and increase your speed and range). Descending is awesome. Just like a high-end mountain bike, but with a heavier, more planted feel that a lot of riders will enjoy and some will use to push harder and faster.

After this ride, I was thinking: I already have some great mountain bikes. If I was going to buy something new, I’d want an e-bike.

Before you judge, try one. If you’re near Boulder, you can demo this bike at Sports Garage.

Though you will not find any information about the Pivot Shuttle currently on our website, we have available medium and large Shuttle demos through the end of this year. As a shop, we have not fully authored any “official” stance on e-mtb, but we are deeply engaged in learning about the equipment, the experience, and our responsibilities as an independent bike shop.  Contact the shop at sales@sportsgarage.net or 303-473-0033 for additional information about Pivot demos.

Few things are more inspiring than the high country during summer’s peak. Snow recedes, trails re-emerge, and for a glorious window of time, we ride high. The experience is about more than sucking thin oxygen and muscling through: we love the surprises. While riding the Government Trail from Aspen to Snowmass, we entered a dense aspen grove and were surprised to find ourselves ripping through a patch of Jurassic-ly proportioned Queen Anne’s Lace blossoms. We were surprised to discover that Monarch Crest, when socked into a dense fog bank above the tree line, has an eerie beauty not previously noticed under bright blue skies. You will not, however, be surprised by the level of adventure in the following three suggestions for Riding High this summer:

Tackle a 14’er

It’s been three summers since Ian Fohrman and Whit Boucher proposed to mountain bike all of the Colorado 14’ers legal to cyclists. There are eighteen. The Bike the 14’ersproject spurred plenty of dialogue about trail use, like this 2015 article from Bicycling.com. The Adventure Sports Network, around the same time, offered this well thought out advicefor tackling a 14’er with your mountain bike. The Barr Trail on Pike’s Peakis an excellent (almost) backyard trail for tacking your first 14’er.z

Shuttle a point to point

Earlier this winter we were given two separate gifts: a weekend in Tempe, and later a sunny day with dry trails. Elorie used both of these gifts to spend time with Pivot Cycles.  

I never thought that my local lunch loop would double as a test track. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great ride from downtown that includes a warm-up road climb, some flowy singletrack – that you can either pay close attention to or let-your-mind wander through – and a fun and fast AF descent. It’s just that. . .I always ride it. So, given the two bikes I needed to test, I also believed that I knew which one would do what. Short travel race bike = climb. Long travel 29’er = descend.

Partnerships and relationships.

Focus.

Service.

Expertise.