This week's Topics:

1. Wednesday Wrides: Hawaiin shirts, kickin back, & hangin' out
2. About twilight; transitioning from summer to autumn's social, ride, & trailwork calendars
3. Female Friday is Sept 12th
4. Ridge Trail Cruz Sept 20th
5. Interbike Sept 22-26
6. Take a Kid Mountain Biking Day Oct 4th
7. Day of the Dead Halloween Candelight Costume Party Saturday Nov 1
8. Downieville trip is full


1. Wednesday Wrides: Hawaiian shirts, kickin back, & hangin' out

Sunset is at 7:33pm this Wednesday 09/03/08. Twilight ends and darkness falls between 8:00 and 8:30. Launch Times change next week.

We hope your weekend was as big as ours! We think this calls for a recovery day. This week we will be dressing for the weather and relaxing wherever possible. Pull out your luau dress and come hang with the PTB crew. Patty reports she has a craving for teriayaki and pineapple, so the food should be tasty! The FBG ride is going to be especially sedate, and might make it as far as Twin Pines park, but not Waterdog. Max mileage will not be more than 4 miles guaranteed, and no hills. The White Socks ride will hit the dirt and might split into an easy group and an easier group. The other rides will also have a mellow vibe to them. Come spin a bit and work out that stiffness from your weekend!

Please remember to put a light on your handlebar and have a blinky ready for the ride back to the shop! CA vehicle code requires it. Don't get caught out on the streets in the dark! Also, a reminder that we need to be super conscientious about stopping at stop signs and lights, yielding to pedestrians, and operating our bikes predictably and responsibly while on the roads. Belmont PD was kind enough to let us know about a complaint from a motorist a couple weeks ago, and while we are not the only cyclists out there we are certainly the biggest groups and the easiest place to lodge complaints. Let's be safe and kind out there.

We have completely revised our Weekly Wride page to shorten this section of our weekly mail. We now have the longer descriptions of each ride on our website. For all the details about what makes each group unique, please refer to this webpage. If your questions aren't answered there, you can also email us for info at info@passiontrailbikes.com.

There will be the usual variety of rides on the twisty narrow singletrack that makes Waterdog famous. All rides start pedaling from the shop: Passion Trail Bikes, 415 Old County Road, Belmont, CA 94002 650-620-9798

The EARLY ride will go out at 6:00 PM. Next week 5:45
The FBG or Fat Bottomed Girl ride will go out at 6:05 PM. Next week 5:50
The WHITE SOCKS ride will go out at 6:05 PM. Next week 5:50
The RIDICULOUS ride will go out at 6:13 PM. Next week 5:58
The REGULAR ride will go out at 6:15 PM. Next week :6:00
The STRAGGLERS ride goes out at 6:30 PM. Next week 6:15

All groups will meet back here at Passion Trail Bikes shortly before dark (up to 30 minutes after the sunset time listed above) for the usual story telling & beverage enjoyment. We will have stuff for the BBQ along with some carbo laden side dish, chips and fatty snacks and EANABS to pair up with the Devil's Canyon Brewery's Full Boar Scotch Ale, Silicon Blonde Ale, and Backpack Babe Root Beer. We will hang out until about 10pm, so come on down, even if you can't make the ride! Passion Parties are better with YOU in the mix!

back to table of contents


2. About twilight; transitioning from summer to autumn's social, ride, & trailwork calendars

Twilight is a pretty interesting phenomenon. It's the time of day when the sun is below the horizon but it is not yet fully dark. In the summer, the sun approaches the horizon at an angle, and continues moving north skimming below the horizon for about an hour or more, and as the light bends through our atmosphere we still have a lot of usable light for a long time after sunset before it really starts to get dark. As fall arrives, the sun approaches the horizon at less of an angle, and so twilight is shorter. Many of our rides return to the shop during twilight, and as the year marches on we make the best use we can of this time to squeak in a ride after work. Here's a really informative webpage that tells you a little bit about twilight, including the different phases we go through as we transition from daylight to full darkness (civil twilight, nautical twilight, and astronomical twilight).

Here's the website we use to look up when sunset is; it also can tell you when twilight ends, and when we have a full moon and when it rises.

Right after Halloween on November 2nd we will also experience the "Time Change" when Daylight Saving Time ends and we turn our clocks back. This puts sunset at 5:07 and doesn't leave any time to do a ride after work, unless you can punch out early. We will stop doing our Wednesday Night Wrides and instead switch to indoor social activities like movie nights, slide shows, or parties. We will transition instead to organizing weekend rides and .... drum roll please.... trailwork. We are really looking forward to completing the Lake Loop realignment at Waterdog Park, and putting in time in a number of other places as well to tend the trails in the off season.

Keep an eye on our Community Calendar for the latest scoop on what's happening.

back to table of contents


3. Female Friday is Sept 12th, 5:45pm


Charles has posted some great pictures of last month's Female Friday on Flickr. OMG the captions are funny! Save the date for this month: September 12th, 5:45pm . . . and tell your girlfriends.

back to table of contents


4. Ridge Trail Cruz Sept 20th

The third annual Ridge Trail Cruz, a super fun ride and hike to benefit the multi-use Bay Area Ridge Trail, will be coming up on September 20th. Riders can join the "Cruz a thon" and raise funds for each mile they ride to benefit the Ridge Trail. We hope to gather a group of customers for this fun and supported event up on Skyline. For more info, and to register, please visit the Ridge Trail website.

Mountain Bike Rides: Two bike rides are offered. Both are challenging and have a mix of fire roads and singletrack riding. Please choose your ride based on your conditioning, experience, and skill level. Arrive 9:15 a.m.
Intermediate ~15 miles/~1500 feet of climbing. Out-and-back route with moderately technical section of trail (possible to skip)
Advanced ~18 miles/~2500 feet of climbing. Loop route with long 1300 foot climb and challenging techinical sections
Bonus loop for bikers: Available to both bike rides, this loop continues along the Ridge Trail and loops through nearby preserves, adding ~10 miles and ~1000 feet of climbing. You do not need to sign up for this, but may decide the day of the Cruz to continue.

back to table of contents


5. Interbike Sept 22-26

Every September we have a week where the shop is a little short handed, when a bunch of us head east to Lost Vegas for the annual bicycle industry trade show, Interbike. Our agenda there includes checking out all the new products for 2009, attending seminars and technical training, networking with others in the bicycle industry, and getting sunburned and dehydrated. If you are curious you can check out the Interbike website but note that admission is limited to people who work in the bicycle industry.

back to table of contents


6. Take a Kid Mountain Biking Day Oct 4th

We won't have the trail around Waterdog Lake finished by October, but we would like to do something for kids on October 4th. We are open to suggestions. Coastal Trail in Half Moon Bay? Waddell Creek in Big Basin? Fir Trail to the Tafoni formation in ECdM? Let us know what you think, and if you'd like to help.



back to table of contents


7. Day of the Dead Halloween Candelight Costume Party Saturday Nov 1

OK, last year was awesome. We still have photos up on Flickr for you to check out. So save the date!

back to table of contents


8. Downieville trip is full

Our next trip on the shop calendar is now full. We are looking forward to sampling some awesome Sierra singletrack, assisted by some elevation gaining shuttles provided by Yuba Expeditions.

back to table of contents


To contact us, email us at info@passiontrailbikes.com, or call the shop at 650-620-9798. Happy Trails, the PTB crew
Charles, Patty, Berry, John, Bret, Sterling, Daryl, Daniel, Peter, Reba and Buster