Matt's Bike Thoughts

tl;dr: Tools needed: Drill Saw Dye Sandpaper Paint brush for dye/stain Supplies needed: 2" x 8" x 16' board (or two 2" x 8" x 8' boards) ($15-300 depending on wood) 20 2-3" wood screws ( $10 ) Three fat bike hooks ($20/ea) Three skinny bike hooks ($20/ea) Acrylic sheet What you get: The Long Post I like bikes. I have a good number of bikes. When I only had one cheap commuter, it was really easy to store it - just toss it on the balcony. But then I got two, and the second was a little nicer. I decided I wanted to keep them inside, so I got one of those two bike stands. This worked out OK, but the bikes took up a huge amount of horizontal space. Wall-mounting stuff is the best way to take advantage of storage space in an apartment or small space, and this took up way too much. I also got my hands on a bunch of extra wheelsets for increased versatility, and I needed a way to store them too. I designed a...

This past weekend, I did the  Bikepacking.com Family Bikepacking on Aspen Ridge  loop with the  Front Range Bikepacking  meetup group. It was a blast, and we had a ton of fun! This post is going to give our ride impressions and some tips to have the most fun on this adventure. The Crew If you haven't done a Bikepacking.com route before, the difficulty of 6 isn't something you want to underestimate. It's hard! The ride starts with a 15 mile climb on steep, loose, and rocky gravel and jeep roads. It's super exposed and hot for the first part, though you do eventually get into the trees. Check out the whole photo album here. The Route Here's my impressions of the route: 0-12: pavement transitions to relatively gentle gravel, and ending with a bit more chunky rocks and sandy sections. Exposed. A hell of a climb. 12-18: The climb gets pretty chunky and rocky. At around mile 16 it tapers off, and you start getting a really nice combination of rolling de...