Perfect Day

What do you need for a perfect Bikeday?
Take a great mountain scenery, blue skies, cover the mountain peaks with some
fresh snow (just for the looks!) and ride your bike there with a friend.

The summit Martin and I did on this day is not a famous one, not a really high one
and hasn´t a spectacular downhill. But it offers a great view, including the highest
mountain of Austria - the Großglockner.
On our way down we often grapped our cameras to "memorize" this perfect day.

Sometimes it´s not all about the bikeride, on a day like this it´s about being there
at this particular moment.

Dolomites

It´s always exciting when you explore a new area, a new trail. Even after some research
on maps and the internet, you are not sure if the trail is rideable and worth hours of walking up.

Right from the parking place the trail is steeply rising, leading us trough a narrow valley.
After 2 hours of walking we can see "our" summit high above (marked with the arrow).

It took us 4 more hours till we reached the top. The scenery is so amazing, you can understand why some
people say, that the dolomites are one of the most beautiful mountains in the world.
Tired but happy on our way up: (klick on the pic, it´s 1600 pix wide)

Wolfgang and me posing on the rocks. ;-)
If we would jump of the cliff, we would "land" on the meadow you can see on the first picture!

The trail comes all the way down from the left side to the saddle in the middle of the picture.

Some well known mountains in the background: "Tre Cime di Lavaredo"

After more than ten ours we are back at our cars, tired but happy!
This time our exploration was a complete success!

Eurobiketour

Martin and myself are on our way to the Eurobike trade fair in Friedrichshafen.
We make a stop in Tirol for two rides, thanks to Thomas for shelter and guidance.

The first day we have to carry our bikes most of the time till we reach the top of
the mountain. Weather is perfect - as you can see on the photos below.
The downhill is mixture of (slick) rocks at the top and loose gravel in the midsection
of the mountain. To avoid the boring final downhill we make some extra altitude,
walking up to a smaller summit next to the main one. The reward for our effort
is a long singletrail with lots of flow down to our starting point.
This is one of the best rides I had this year!

On our second day we already start at 2000 meters above sea level. First part
was easy on a paved road, after that our bikes are mostly on our shoulders.
We are not reaching the summit, the last part is very steep and also there are to much
hikers on the trail, which is not a good thing when you are trying to ride a section
and always have to wait till the hikers have passed. (Here in Austria 99.9 % of the
trails are illegal to ride with a bike, so you always give way to a hiker)

The first 5 photos are from day one, the last 2 from the second day.
(Photos shot by Martin and myself)

Psychotrail

This is one of the most demanding trails in my area.
I gave him the name "Psychotrail" because there are several sections
which are a "No crash zone" because of the steepness of the mountain.
Not only a challenge to ride, also a mental challenge.
I took my 24" back wheel to slacken the headangle to be safer on the
steepest sections.

Tales from the woods

After a typical April weather here in Austria with lots of rain finally some sunny days.
So I took my camera and started filming my favorite hometrails.
As with most of my videos I´m mostly filming the slow & technical stuff because
it´s not that time-consuming as filming a fast trail and also this is the stuff I do most of the time.
This video shows 3 of the most technical trails around my area, some with handbuilt
lines over rocks and trees.

Video Crumbs

A video clip with various parts from 2011 and winter 2012.
The beginning is from autumn 2011 me riding a technical trail in the Alps.
It´s a mostly "No-Flow" trail, with lots of demanding sections.
The second part shows my kind of winter training - practicing trial moves.
First I try to learn them on the hardtail, then move to my full-suspension bike
so I`m able to ride trails like you´ve seen in the beginning.

Enjoy!