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!

Golden Autumn Days

This tour was planned 3 years ago, the reason I didn´t ride it earlier is that in this area

the hunters and land owners don´t want any bikers there.

(A problem mostly here in this province)

The trip offered everything from good trails to wide views over the neighboring mountains.

After 5 1/2 hours of riding I was back at my car, tired but happy!

Carinthia

3 Days, 3 Rides ...
just some photos.
In order of appearance:
View towards Slowenia
Wolfgang in a steep, rocky slope
Me
Mihi climbing

Good Days

Last year I thought that the Seekofel was the toughest decent I´ve ever done,
but this one was even harder. Even though it was described as an easy 3000 m
mountain, trying to make it with a bike was a challenge. I did this trip together with Mihi,
on the first day we made the first 800 meters of uphill till we reached the hut.
On the next day we had to walk another 800 meters in altitude, finally reaching the top.
On my way up I was insecure, most of the path are only rocks in all sizes, so it was like
a big, natural trial track. To be honest, I wasn´t able to ride everything, but in the end I
managed to do about 90 % of it.
From the top till the hut it took us about 3 hours, mostly doing this kinda trial-biking!
I never was that exhausted and tired, both my body and my head.

Special thanks to the innkeeper of the Arthur von Schmid hut, he really appreciated our doing,
he even wanted a photo of us (with bike) on the summit!

Thanks also to Mihi for doing most of the film work.

This is not a mountain you will do often, but the emotions after such a ride are very special!

Here is a video in a (short) Banshee-only version:

Good Days (Banshee only version) from Lizard on Vimeo.