Happy New Year! We hope that everyone had a great holiday season and that visions of mountain bikes are still dancing in your heads. Just a reminder that Overland membership runs from January 1st - December 31st, so renew or join for 2015 by clicking here. You can get your new 2015 membership card, continue receiving discounts at our rewards partners and avoid the rush at the season kick-off meeting in early March.
Many of you may remember the presentations about the Larimer County Ballot Issue 1A — Help Preserve Open Spaces sales tax extension, that we had at two of our club meetings this season. After careful consideration, the Overland Board of Directors decided to join with many other organizations and businesses and officially endorse the measure. We believe that the measure is inline with the Club’s mission and we encourage our members to learn more about the measure and support it on Election Day. You can read the recent Coloradoan article about the measure here or visit the Help Preserve Open Spaces website.
This year we will be moving our Season Finale and Awards Night to the new Snowbank Brewing location at 225 N Lemay Ave, Suite 1, Fort Collins, CO 80525 (map). We start at 6:30pm. We encourage riding, but for those who drive, there is parking around the building.
The Season Finale is where we wrap up our riding season by wearing costumes, giving out awards, drinking beer, eating pizza and weather permitting, holding a "costume crawl" ride to various local establishments. Our friends at Snowbank Brewing have been gracious enough to provide us a nice meeting space, will have a great selection of beers on tap and hinted that there may even be some special seasonal beers available. It's always a good time so mark your calendar.
The Overland Trails Committee has been working diligently over the course of the season to increase Overland’s supply of tools so that we can now outfit a crew of up to 50. To accommodate this increase in the number of tools, the Trail Committee will be making modifications to the Overland trailer to make it capable of carrying all of these tools to our trail days. In addition, the trailer will be modified to be more useful for our other, non-trail events. The modifications will include removing the little used desk, moving the cabinet to the front of the trailer and adding collapsible or removable tool racks (anyone who has banged their head on the current racks will appreciate this). The old trailer will still look the same on the outside, but will be much more functional and usable on the inside.
Due to the earlier sunsets and commensurate lack of riding time, we will be holding our last "official" Singletrack Social ride of the season this Wednesday, September 24th. We will meet at the usual meeting spot in Spring Canyon Park parking lot, just past the dog park, at 5:30pm to be riding by 5:45pm. This week, the after ride will be held at Kenny Bearden's house (check calendar for the address). Please bring food and snacks to share. The club will provide drinks.
The ride will continue in an unofficial format in October for those who can start earlier or want to ride past sunset with lights. We encourage everyone to keep riding as long as the trails are in good condition and can be ridden safely.
Those of us who ride at Curt Gowdy know what a great trail system it is. It doesn't get that way by itself. It is maintained by a dedicated staff and volunteers and this is your opportunity to give back.
Sign Up Here
This Saturday, September 20th, we're holding our annual Curt Gowdy Trail Day. We will be meeting at 9:00am and working until around 3:00pm. We will meet at the Camp Russell Group Shelter (map), just south of the fee booth at the north end of the park. Overland and the good folks at Wyoming State Parks will provide a simple breakfast to start the day and the Bicycle Station in Cheyenne will provide a nice BBQ after the event.
Let's have a great turnout, knock out a bunch of work and maybe get in a ride followed by a cool beverage. Bring plenty of water, sun protection, gloves, glasses, sturdy boots, long pants, and a good attitude. Email Paul Gritten if you have any questions. Plan to carpool up.
It appears that Mother Nature does not like us...well, not really, but we can't catch a break with the weather for Take a Kid Mountain Biking Day.
We just received word from the Ranger at Lory State Park that the trails will be too wet and sloppy to hold the ride tomorrow. Because of this, we are reluctantly canceling the event.
We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. We really wanted to hold the event, but once again, the weather has not cooperated.
We hope to reschedule the event to a future date. Lets hope for a dry period long enough for us to do so. Please keep an eye out for a rescheduled date.
Got Kids? Ready for some late summer fun? It's Take a Kid Mountain Biking Day at Lory State Park! Come join the fun at one of Overland's signature events as we travel the trails with our young bikers. At this free event, they'll learn mountain biking skills and trail etiquette, get a little swag, and tuck away some great memories. Parents are welcome to ride with the kids or cheer them on from the sidelines.
Register your kids here
If you have friends, family, co-workers or acquaintances who have kids that like to ride bikes, please pass this notice along to them. We want lots of kids to come out and have a great time.
Volunteers are what make events like this happen and it is always a good time and very rewarding experience. If you can help out at the event, we need ride leaders, photographers, folks to check in kids, set up and clean up, and aid station help.
Volunteer to help at the event.
Again, the event is Saturday, September 13th from 9:00am to 1:00pm and at this point, the forecast is for a nice day (keep your fingers crossed!). We meet at the Soldier Canyon Group Area. All riders need to have serviceable bikes and must wear helmets. A pizza lunch will be provided. Parking passes for Lory State Park will be provided for participants and volunteers.
If you have any questions about the event, please contact takmbd@overlandmtb.org.
We had a record setting event - Thanks to all of the volunteers and attendees!
Friday setup is full (thank you), but we still need lots of volunteers for the main event on Saturday, August 30th to help with wristbands and token sales, parade registration (if you have a smart phone that can run the Square card reader app, you can be part of the elite "Square Squad"...just put that in the registration notes) and beer pouring. If you can't decide which shift you would like to volunteer for, become a floater or help out at the end of the event by signing-up for clean-up. If you want to do a shift with your friends or family, just let us know and we will do our best to put you together. As always, for volunteering, you will receive two beer tokens, a TDF t-shirt and the undying gratitude of New Belgium and all of the benefiting organizations.
We are just over a month away from our most important, unique and arguably most entertaining event of the year and we need your help to make it bigger and better than ever. It is all about celebrating bike and beer culture and you can help all of the attendees have a great time and support Overland, Bike Fort Collins and the Bike Co-Op by volunteering for the event.
In addition to receiving the coveted TDF t-shirt and two beer tokens, volunteering for Tour de Fat gives you an inside look at the event and a sense of contributing to the Fort Collins cycling community that cannot be had in any other way. From helping to set up the event on Friday, to registering parade participants, to pouring beer, to helping clean up the venue, it's all a great time. Sign up now to make sure you get the spots you want.
Not interested in volunteering? Then consider participating in the parade. It is the biggest parade of its kind in the world. You can register for the bike parade here.
