Moronacity Cycling Journal » Mountain Biking
Mountain Biking Is Better Than Prozac
I was one of many who needed the help of Prozac during the first half of my twenties. Now, Prozac has the reputation of being the “happy drug,” and having been on the maximum dosage for a while, I could attest to that, at times. I think it was simply the “happy drug” towards the end when things were simply getting better, my viewpoint was changing, my social network greatly improved, and I … Read entire article »
Filed under: Mountain Biking
Riders of the Grand Rapids Bike Park – A Photo Essay
The following are some fun photos that I did not use in any of the previous posts about the Grand Rapids Bike Park and the Midwest Mountain Bike Summit. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Mountain Biking, Photo Essays
Midwest Mountain Bike Summit at the Grand Rapids Bike Park
This beautiful mural was created by Erwin Erkfitz. This was the last year the Midwest Mountain Bike Summit was held in Grand Rapids. Tradition has it that each host city holds the summit for two years in a row. The MMBA Western Chapter did a remarkable job bringing together all kinds of mountain bikers to listen to some wonderful speakers and to enjoy one of Grand Rapids’ newest crown jewels: the Grand Rapids … Read entire article »
Filed under: Mountain Biking
Flowing, Flying, and Stopping Dead on the Vasa
On Sunday, August 29, Ali guided me through some of the Vasa singletrack. One word: cool. I rate the singletrack as a beginner trail. The 25k would be an intermediate. It is relatively flat and not really technical, although it was particularly sandy in spots when we rode it. Ali gave me the impression that the degree of sandiness was unusual. Ali also took me on some of … Read entire article »
Filed under: Mountain Biking
Return to Tech
Having arrived in Houghton on Tuesday, I had to take the mountain bike out for a spin. After two hours of packing my belongings and loading them into the U-Haul, I decided to leave my downtown-Houghton hotel to ride up the hill to Michigan Tech’s Student Development Complex (SDC) where I could pop into Outer Loop at the Michigan Tech Trails. Michigan Tech’s Outer Limits is one of my favorite singletrack trails in the entire … Read entire article »
Filed under: Mountain Biking
Return of the Mountain Biking Examiner
I decided to quit writing for Examiner.com a while back because the pay became next to nothing. It was a no-brainer to write for other companies. Examiner has made some improvements, so I decided to start promoting MMBA events. It’s the perfect news. I don’t want to exclude other events, though. After all, this is the Michigan Mountain Biking Examiner, not the Michigan Mountain Biking Association Examiner. Therefore, I set up a form for people to submit their events to be featured in my online “column. If you are a race promoter, have at it: click here, dude. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Mountain Biking
Conquering Brighton
I don’t have pictures. I am sorry. I called for a group ride at Brighton, last Saturday. The first trick was getting there. Between the map and the instructions that I had, things were not jiving and there seemed to be some holes – missing information – for example, the part where I turn on a certain road, or take a certain expressway, or whatever. After a wasted half-hour of trying to find my way sprinkled with some road rage, I arrived at the Brighton Recreation Area mountain bike trailhead 30 minutes late. I thought my fellow riders would be gone, but I also knew that they were likely to do a short ride and return to the trailhead in search of me. After … Read entire article »
Filed under: Mountain Biking
The Bike Toss
Tuesday was great for one reason: I got to see Glen throw his bike. Ali, Glen, and I rode Burchfield in Holt on Tuesday. The parts that were raked were greasy and difficult to ride. The parts that were untouched were fast and in great shape; however, Burchfield has many stunts, and some of them don’t seem to be strategically placed. This has never been one of my favorite trails, but it is worth visiting. There are some features that are fun. There is a great piece of singletrack along the Grand River that has some fun, technical features. Some of the technical features are more like freeriding stunts, though. It would be nice to see a tech loop at Burchfield that was … Read entire article »
Filed under: Mountain Biking
Highland + Beer + Mexican Food + Friends = The Perfect Day
I love Highland. The Highland Recreation Area has some of the best mountain biking trails in Lower Michigan. In fact, Ali placed it in her top five in her blog post, “Loaded.” It is four loops of technical, climbing hell. I love technical. I love that I can climb fast when I am in shape, which is most certainly not the case at this point in time. I don’t love climbing. Ali, Glen and I met at Highland with the plan of doing all of the loops on Monday. In the past, it would take me three hours to ride all four loops. Not only were Ali and Glen a little fatigued from Saturday’s Barry Roubaix, but I … Read entire article »
Filed under: Mountain Biking
How to Get Women Into the Sport
I originally posted this article on August 20, 2009 for my Michigan Mountain Biking Examiner column, a column which I have given up due to low returns for my efforts. I figure it’s best to put my energy into my blog when it comes to cycling. I will be publishing my Examiner articles on this web site. Those that are time-sensitive, Fat Tire Festival reviews for example, will be posted under the … Read entire article »
Filed under: Mountain Biking
