The postcards arrived late last week and they look even better than we’d hoped (thanks Brad! Turns out you’re not just good at pet photography - www.bradchisholmphoto.com).

So far you can find them at: Pedalhead Edmonton, MEC Calgary, Bow Cycle Calgary and the Bike Shop Calgary.

Tell your friends and go check them out!

The weather in these parts has turned a page at last it seems. The weekend started off a little cloudy but by Sunday Calgary was basked in warm sun beams. The wife and I took full advantage of the spring-like conditions by spending most of Sunday outdoors. The day started with a jaunt to our favorite coffee locale – Beano – followed by pancakes en plein air and a little sun bathing which turned into an afternoon of bike tinkering for me. I switched out the old Hayes Sole brakes on my wife’s xc bike for a pair of new Elixir R’s (just a minor upgrade),  swapped the brakes around (right is NOT rear) on my brand new Norco LT 6.2 and started to build up my wife’s Giant Glory 0 (there seems to be a trend here…).

With 18C forecasts for Monday and our xc bikes tricked out for the new season, the inaugural ride was calling our names. The Federal Election and our civic duty came first but after casting our ballots we headed to the NW of Calgary and the trail locally known as Sideshow Bob. We’re not (perhaps yet) massive xc’ers over here at Descend Inc. favoring the downhill for the uphill but this trail certainly does the trick when you can’t get out to the gnarlier descents of the Rockies. Sideshow traverses the north side of the Bow River extending from Home Road all the way out to Tuscany. The skill level varies from beginner to advanced and encompasses a variety of terrain. My memory from last season was that the uphills were just long enough to challenge you and make the downhills that much more satisfying but not hard enough that they made your lungs burn or heart feel like it was inching up your throat…

I was wrong. The  months spent pent up indoors over the winter definitely showed their colours on Monday as I huffed and puffed my way up even the smaller sections. This was not the joy and ease I remembered from last season. How could I have not spent more time (anytime!) on the trainer over the winter? The trail was still wicked fun, don’t get me wrong, and it felt good to get the first ride of the year under my belt. Like Sheldon over at Bikeridr said in one of his recent blogs, “I don’t get paid to ride, I pay to ride”. Pay I did – with a leg cramp straight out of the gate, quivering quads on the climbs and the appearance of long forgotten muscle aches the next day. I have a faint memory that this experience repeats itself every season. I never learn and stick to the game plan over the winter but every year I attack the challenge of getting back into riding shape with the same vigor. All I wanna do is ride and this is just one more reason to get out there.

Now tell me, what can be better than two days of early season riding? Nothing, that’s what!

With a massive snowpack covering the west this year most of the mountains were still open for skiing this past weekend while Descend headed out on the open road – Kamloops bound! I had the pleasure of ripping wicked, buff single-track all weekend with a group of 9 solid dudes. We left the city Thursday after work, reached Kamloops in the wee hours and hit the hay to rest up for what would be most guy’s first day of riding this season. The weather gods most definitely shined on us and we woke to only a slight chill in the air. By mid-day temps would reach the high teens (a good 10C higher than any of us in Calgary had seen in quite some time) just as we were settling into lap four or five of Rio (made famous by Matt Hunter in the epic ‘Seasons’ film).

You could see there were some nerves on the first run out, everyone getting their sea-legs back after a long long winter off. I’d love to say it was smooth sailing the whole time but on only the second run of the first day, Chris Pilling took a big crash trying to clear a road gap on Rio. His back tire came up short and he was tossed pretty hard. The end result was a broken clavicle and fractured shoulder blade. Unfortunately, injuries are a part of this, or any extreme, sport to at least some degree. Full face helmets are the bare minimum required to ride while I encourage full armor from knee and elbow pads to body armor. Riding within your ability, never riding alone and taking calculated risks all help limit the number and severity of injuries. There’s a video kicking around of Chris’ crash, it’s pretty tough to watch though so I haven’t posted it here – what I will say is it ends with Chris smiling into the camera.

After getting Chris to the local hospital and making sure there was nothing else we could do, we headed back out to Rio. First run – and now first crash – nerves out of the way (thanks for taking one for the team Chris!) everyone started finding their groove again. Another rider on the tour, Rainier was rippin’ it and definitely deserves the award for most improved rider. Clayton pumped his dilapidated bike hard as always while Manrique and I crisscrossed through the trees. By the third or fourth run we were all freight-training it the whole way down.

After a long day of riding, we were all wiped and headed back to town to shower and find some grub. The night was pretty mellow and we headed in early for some kip. We awoke on day two to the same blue skies and beautiful riding weather and made our way over to Savona about 30km west of Kamloops for a half dozen or so runs. The trails there were faster and flowier than Rio with some technical off-camber turns. Warmed up by day one, we ripped it hard pushing each other as we rode. It’s never long enough but after two wicked days of riding in the interior of BC the trip had come to a close and we headed back to pack and regale the storiea from the weekend.

Early Sunday morning we loaded 8 indestructible bikes and 9 happily exhausted guys into the Descend-mobile for the trip home. You know that feeling you get if you spend a day on a boat – hours later you might find yourself closing your eyes feeling as though you are still being gently rocked by the waves? Well as I drove a van full of weary guys back to Calgary, I could still feel my arms pumping, my quads shaking and my heart pounding. I could feel the nerves of the first run, the pace of the second, third and fourth and the sheer pleasure of them all. I live for these weekends and yearn, already, for the next. Check back soon to see when we head out again!

A recent trip up to the ‘chuck to pull a shift at Pedalhead meant it was Christmas at the ol’ Ellis household this weekend. Pour moi: some brand-spanking new World Cup Boxxer’s, candy apple red Crank Bros Mallets, a pair of 2011 Shimano dh shoes and new grips (and a now beat up suburban, but that’s another story). Pretty sweet, n’est pas? And, all in time for Descend Inc’s inaugural 2011 trip!

This coming weekend, instead of scratching my head wondering how a carpenter came back from the dead, I and seven other like-minded individuals will be booting it out of Calgary with it’s snow and dismal weather for the more temperate climate and buff trails of Kamloops, BC. We did a similar trip this time last year and everyone had a blast (even before we ate greasy fries and burgers at a pub sitting next to Matt Hunter).

The trip is a steal of a deal, all transportation plus shuttling and accommodation for three nights for only $250. I’m basically giving it away!

That’s all I’ve got time for tonight mates, I’ve gotta go build the rest of the rentals and polish my bike. As they say, a clean bike’s a fast bike and I plan to rip it this weekend. Check back after the long weekend to see how the trip went. Until then, ciao!

We simply couldn’t take this winter any longer. Being cooped up inside for the past six months had started to take it’s toll not only on my mid-section but on that squishy grey matter between me ol’ lug-holes. So, the wife and I packed up the Descend-mobile, a couple of xc bikes, some cold beers and a map of BC and headed out on the open road. We figured our best bet for warm weather and dry trails this side of the 49th parallel was Kelowna. We left late after work Friday so only made it to the booming bastion that is Sicamous the first night. After a nice kip on the side of the road overlooking the water, we headed down highway 97 through scene after scene of Deliverance.

We headed first to the un-daunting Knox Hill for a warm up. It’s a fairly brutal climb (for beginning of the season legs) up a paved road (used more popularly for the Audi Volkswagen sponsored Hill Climb) ending in some stunning views and some pretty decent singletrack leading you back to the parking lot. Our feet got wet, so to speak, but we weren’t exactly grinning ear-to-ear.

Cue day two. It started off as any good day should, with a strong cup of java from the local indie joint enjoyed while partaking in the age-old sport of people watching. This time though we headed a little farther afield to Myra Bellevue Provincial Park. This park is absolutely crawling with trails and when we reached the trailhead and saw  five or six cars with xc rigs plus a dude getting shuttled we were pretty sure we were in for a good day of riding. We maintained a pretty low elevation to avoid what remaining snow there was and basically ripped loop after loop for the next couple of hours. Every trail seemed to join back up so you were never too far from home and there seemed to be endless trails to choose from. Ripping down ‘Middle Bench’ with my wife pedaling her heart out in front of me, I couldn’t help notice I was smiling, had been smiling in fact, for most of the ride. I wouldn’t say Kelowna provided the best conditions ever or that the trails were the best I’ve ridden, but to back on the bike, on a beautiful day, my wife whooping in front of me after a long winter… it’s the closest thing we’ve got here to a little piece of heaven.

We’ve been back from Costa Rica (sigh…) now for about three weeks. I feel like we disembarked the place in Calgary and hit the tarmac running – life has been extraordinarily busy since we returned. I don’t know if it was just the shock of no longer having endless hours in a day to do whatever we felt like or if it was the fact that work was busier than normal, there were taxes to do, blogs to write, spring skiing to fit in now that Ace is FINALLY cast free or the ever-consuming bathroom renovation. An average night these days seems to entail: rushing home from work as early as possible, picking up groceries/dry-cleaning etc. on the way home, trying to fit in some form of physical exercise then attacking the never-ending tiling/grouting/painting until Ace inevitably breaks down in tears sometime near midnight and I realize I haven’t stopped working in six hours.

Despite all this chaos that is usually so absent from our lives we have headed to Edmonton two out of the four weekends that we’ve been back (likely adding to the feeling that there simply aren’t enough hours in the week). Basically 10% of our waking-weekend hours have been spent on the scenic QEII: northbound three hours, about-turn, southbound three hours. So what is it that takes us on this thrilling sprint? Pedalhead Bicycle Works, of course. It’s hard to explain the appeal, the draw, the place this damn bike shop holds in my life. I’d like to think that anyone who has a ‘local’ bike shop (is that even a real thing?) knows what I’m talking about but I’d also like to believe that Pedalhead is so unique that no one else really understands. I’ve been affiliated with the boys at Pedalhead for about five years now. The love affair began in a bar, as so many of them do, with a drunken wheelie competition, as most of them don’t. What can I say, there was immediate chemistry and a few short weeks later I was working part time as a bike mechanic. I would spend 12 or so hours a week tucked behind the counter at the old location on Whyte Ave cracking jokes with whoever came back to chat, eating the donuts and beer provided by faithful customers and solving the world’s problems whenever things got particularly quiet.

And now, that many years later and 300km away, I am still drawn back to that place. I am an auto mechanic by day (yes, believe it or not my illustrious endeavor of Descend does not bring in quite enough to pay the mortgage. Yet.) and so my hands could really use the respite of evenings and weekends off. But the thing is, working at Pedalhead never actually feels like work. It feels like I’m hanging out at a really cool friend’s place; a friend who always has the newest and coolest gear and a funny story to tell. There may come a day when my life no longer permits these sporadic jaunts back to Edmonton to visit the boys so, in the meantime, I plan to get in as many visits as possible. Whether it’s to pull a full shift with grease up to my elbows and a wrench in hand or to simply pass a couple minutes on the always-welcoming stools petting the shop dog and making fun of the new grease monkey (can a Sepo ever learn to adjust a front derailleur?), this place will always be a part of my life.

Shameless promotion aside, if you’ve never been you have to stop by and say hi to the guys at Pedalhead (6604-104 Street Edmonton, AB). They can help you get set up for the impending (fingers-crossed!!!) bike season or just share a funny story, whichever you need more at the time.

This came as a pretty big surprise to most employees from the sounds of it, especially those who showed up to work a Race Face trade show booth in Taipei only to learn that the Vancouver-based company ceased to exist.

No news, or even rumors yet, if some mega-corporation will swoop in and buy the company or any of it’s technology so stock up on your favorite cranks and stems, it may be a while before we see another ‘grass-roots’ company rise to the ranks that was Race Face. Guess the love of the game just isn’t enough sometimes.

The garage is already full of bikes (2 cruisers, 2 xc and 1/2 a dh bike up on a stand) so the boxes were relegated to the basement (which is already kinda full of bikes when you consider the two road bikes on trainers…) where they remain, stacked in a mini labyrinth one must navigate to get to the laundry-room. I am suddenly especially keen on keeping our whites white as it allows me to make furtive glances inside the giant boxes of gleaming, brand-spanking new Norco DH bikes – 1 small, 2 mediums and 2 larges –  just begging to be rented and ridden (that’s what… never mind).

Moving to Calgary I was worried I wouldn’t get to build as many bikes anymore since I wouldn’t be working at Pedalhead. I’d say these five should more than satiated that thirst and keep me busy while I keep one eye on the melting snow.

Well, we’re back from vacation, back from the land of sweltering heat, beautiful beaches, gallo pint, friendly locals, lizards, monkeys, and ice-cold Imperial that is Costa Rica. Our trip was fantastic to say the least (if you were interested). As promised, we scoured the country for all things bike-related and were not to be disappointed. From spotting a kid on a hardtail with triple crowns mere minutes after embarking on San Jose to renting battered and bruised cruisers in Mal Pais, we were never all that far from the world of bikes.

Every city/town/hamlet/village/conglomerate in Costa seemed to have various establishments proudly proclaiming: CICLO AQUI. Bikes Here. Like a homing-beacon these usually hand-painted signs called to us. To our disappointment, the true bike shop in San Jose was closed because it was a Sunday and every other sign was a little misleading.  The sign should have read something more like: We have a Kenda banner and some Park Tools and one road jersey (even though no one actually rides road bikes around here) and we may be able to fix your bike but more than likely we won’t have the part or would have to ride your bike (because we don’t actually have any other bikes here) across town to our competitor who probably doesn’t have the part either. Or whatever the Spanish translation would be.

Still, it was cool to see that even some 5000km from home a bike shop is still a bike shop: the smell of rubber instantly hits you when you walk in, there’s some greasy kid behind a counter tinkering with a bike, the place is littered with half-empty coffee cups and some dude is standing at the counter wasting everyone’s time.

We were really hoping to return from Costa Rica to the first signs of spring but, alas, Calgary is stuck in a deep freeze and the snow looks solidly in place. It’ll be a couple of weeks before the trails are rideable I imagine but at least we got a taste of being back in the saddle, even if just for a day, pedaling a rented bike along a dusty road.

Well fellow riders, it’s Tuesday again which means time for another post!

As predicted, a Chinook blew through town last week providing a bit of respite from the winter blues. With the warmer evenings, I headed out to the garage to prepare my wife’s (no, that is not a typo) new dh ride for the season – a Giant Glory 0 (don’t tell Norco-Tom). Though here at Descend we are die-hard Norco supporters, my wife is a bit of a munchkin and I just couldn’t pass up the deal on this XS rig. As it was the end of the season when we got our hot little hands on this bike, Ace was only able to squeeze one ride in at the free shuttle day on Moose Mountain. I’ve since stripped the bike of it’s 2010 parts and have slowly started to replace them with  brand new shiny 2011 components. This is going to be her lightest, sweetest ride yet. True love, I’d say.

In other news, the Descend duo is heading to Costa Rica this weekend. We checked out a cool site called RideBig that offers dh trips to CR but as we’re heading there mostly for the surf (and because Ace’s broken wrist is still healing…), we had to pass on this one. Still, worth a look as it seems like it’d be a wicked time.

So, probably no riding for us when we hit the land of the Tico but we’ll let you know if we scope anything cool.

Until next time…

P.S. There most likely will not be a post next week but this should not tarnish my two-for-two record to start the season since the excuse is really really good – I’ll be lying on a beach somewhere sweating my … well, you know. Peace.