The Magazine of the New England Mountain Bike Association June 1999 Number 44 SSingleingleTTrackrackSS TTrailrail MojoMojo BikingBiking inin BajaBaja PennyPenny D!D! NEMBAFest:NEMBAFest: BeBe ThereThere JuneJune 27!27! GetGet youryour KidsKids onon thethe TTrailrail 2 1999 NEMBA Events Calender Festivals MTB Skill Clinics June 27 NEMBAFest on the Cape TBA NEBC/Cycle Loft/NEMBA Beginner Skills Clinic, 978-251-3176 TBA Wompatuck Festival October 3 Blue Hills Mountain Bike Day Party Trips Oct. 24 Fall Fiesta II Rides and Party, CT NEMBA 860-676-9721 July 29 -Aug. 1 Wachusett NEMBA VT Trip, 800-576-3622 Sept. 12-19 NEMBA Durango Trip, 508-583-0067 NEMBA’s Save the Trails Maintenance Series CT-NEMBA / Cannondale Trail Maintenance Series Come to any CT NEMBA work day and your name will be entered into a hat to win a 1999 Cannondale SuperV! June 19 Nashehegan State Forest or Nepaug S.F., Burlington/New Hartford,, 860-653-5038 August 21 Huntington State Park, Redding, 203-778-9265 Sept 15-18 IMBA Trail Care Crew, (events to be determined) October 23 Gay City State Park, Hebron, 860-870-8748 November 6 Penwood State Park, Bloomfield, 860-653-5038 NEMBA-Merlin Trail Maintenance Series Merlin and the Massachusetts Chapters of NEMBA are joining forces to save the trails! Come work the trails and get entered to win a Merlin Mountain frame! Come to three or more events and you''ll be entered to win Merlin's new Fat Beat full suspension frame! You can check these bikes out at http://www.merlinbike.com. The Merlin Series encompasses all of Massachusetts NEMBA chapters! Blackstone Valley NEMBA Merrimack Valley NEMBA Sept. 12 Callahan SF, 508-877-2028 Sept. 18 Lowell-Dracut SF, 978-453-9212 Nov. 6 Noanet Woodlands (w/ TTOR), 508-651-7075 October 17 Lowell-Dracut SF, 978-453-9212 Cape Cod & Islands NEMBA SE MA NEMBA October 17 Sandwich 508-564-4807 Sept. 12 Wompatuck SP, 781-925-2512 November 7 Mary Dunn 800-233-6155 October 24 Wompatuck SP, 781-925-2512 November 21 Otis 508-564-4807 December 12 Trail of Tears 508-477-4936 Pioneer Valley NEMBA (formerly Shays NEMBA) June 26 Skinner/Holyoke Range, 413-772-0496 Greater Boston NEMBA July 31 Outlook Farm, Westhampton, 413-527-7427 June 19 Great Brook Farm SP, 978-369-5597 June 26 Lynn Woods, 781-231-1497 Wachusett NEMBA Sept. 11 Lynn Woods, 781-231-1497 Sept. 12 Leominster SF, 800-576-3622 Sept. 18 Fells, 978-657-0557 Oct 17 Leominster SF, 800-576-3622 Sept. 25 Great Brook Farm SP, 978-369-5597 Sept. 25 Belmont, 617-924-4539 October 9 Lynn Woods, 781-231-1497 October 16 Fells, 978-657-0557 Check out WWW.NEMBA.ORG October 23 Great Brook Farm SP, 978-369-5597 for more information (Keyes) (Watson) (Keyes) 3 SSingleingleTTrackS June/July 1999, Number 44 NEMBA, the New England Mountain Bike Association, is a not-for-profit 501 c 3 organi- zation dedicated to promoting trail access and maintaining trails open for mountain bicyclists, 10 and to educating mountain bicyclists using Trail Building School these trails to ride sensitively and responsibly. NEMBA takes Trail Maintenance to the next level SingleTracks is published six times a year by at our weekend course. By Philip Keyes the New England Mountain Bike Association for the trail community, and is made possible by a commitment from member volunteers. ©SingleTracks 13 Dirt Tested IF Deluxe Editor & Publisher: Philip Keyes Our resident crash test dummy hammers Singletracks Committee: Bill Boles, Krizstina Independent Fabrication’s Deluxe Mountain Bike Holly, Nanyee Keyes and Mary Tunnicliffe to see if it stands up. By Alexis Arapoff Executive Director: Philip Keyes Letters/Submissions: SingleTracks PO Box 2221 18 TM = Trail Mojo Acton MA 01720 NEMBA’s spring season of trail maintenance has Phone: 800.57.NEMBA flourished in many parks throughout New Email: [email protected] England. Read about all the ways mountain bikers Board of Directors give back to the trails. By various trail gurus Krizstina Holly, President Mary Tunnicliffe, Vice-President 26 Dan Murphy, Treasurer Michael Good, Secretary Kids on the Trail Mark Bialas, Merrimack NEMBA There’s no better family time than riding with your Norman Blanchette, Merrimack NEMBA kids on the trail. Here’s how to make it fun for Bill Boles, SE MA NEMBA Bob Croston, Public Relations everyone. By Mary Ann Martinez Brian Croteau, Seacoast NEMBA Richard Donoghue, Wachusett NEMBA John Dudek, Pioneer Valley NEMBA Erik Evensen, Greater Boston NEMBA 17 Biking in Baja Jeff Gallo, Blackstone Valley NEMBA Adventuring in Mexico: good trails, great food and Tina Hopkins, Rhode Island NEMBA Mark Jenks, White Mountains NEMBA good times By Rob Follansbee and Stacey Van Ed King, Cape Cod & Islands NEMBA Schaick Ken Koellner, Webmaster Rich LaBombard, Pioneer Valley NEMBA Christie Lawyer, SE MA NEMBA Departments Rob Roy Macgregor, VT NEMBA Deb McCulloch, Cape Cod & Islands NEMBA Chain Letters -6 Jon Pratt, Wachusett NEMBA Events Calendar -3 Jason Record, Seacoast NEMBA Brian Smith, CT NEMBA Treadlines -7 Dan Streeter, North Shore NEMBA SideTracks Andy Thompson, Blackstone Valley NEMBA On Patrol -14 John Turchi, CT NEMBA Ruth Wheeler, Berkshire NEMBA Off the Trail -23 We are also dedicated to having fun! Dr. Chainsnap -28 NEMBA, P.O. Box 2221, NEMBA Interview -24 Acton MA 01720 800 57-NEMBA High Tech Trails -27 Chapter News -29 WWW.NEMBA.ORG NEMBA Rides -33 Members Page -37 3 OFF THE FRONT What a Ride it’s Been! t seems that NEMBA has done more to take care of the If you build it, they will come. With racing on the decline trails this spring than all of last summer combined-- and recreation riding on the increase, NEMBA is playing Iand last summer was amazing! Can't you feel the posi- an ever increasing role in promoting a holistic mountain tive energy? Can't you sense all the great things that are bike experience. Our new chapters are growing fast, we're going on with NEMBA? It's like we all on a wonderful building new trails and we're setting up new programs to downhill run, an get more people involved. In short, we're becoming a avalanche of mountain community. We work hard, we play hard, and we're bike energy, pouring enjoying life to the fullest. back into the trails and Summer has not really even begun and we've already held back into this great two trail maintenance clinics, two patrol training session sport. It's all good, and and an advanced trail building school. We've sponsored it's all a result of you hundreds of organized rides and dozens of trail mainte- all. I hope you're as nance events, and very soon will be offering a wonderful proud as I. festival --NEMBAfest on the Cape. Renaissance /Rebirth. If you only do one event with NEMBA this year, make sure Recreation/Re- it's the Fest! NEMBAfest will be unique among festivals Creation. More than because it will be as much for the hardcore rider who ever, I'm convinced want dozens of miles of incredible singletrack as it will be that mountain biking is for families with kids and non-riders. There will be swim- inherently good for the trails and intrinsically good for the ming and picnics, music and games, as well as some of spirit. We may still be the new kids in the woods, but the best singletrack that New England has to offer. more and more mountain bikers are getting it: To recreate, you must re-create. It's a relationship between you, your Be there: the great ride continues! bike and the trail. This triad --this trinity-- is key, and mountain bikers are realizing that they not only need to work on themselves and their bikes, but they have to work on the trails as well if they are to better themselves and their experiences. 5 CHAIN LETTERS Nervous Ticks Thanks for the Trails! Thanks for the info on the Lyme disease vaccine! I was really I stopped by Great Brook Farm State Park yesterday and what a dif- excited when I heard about it, so I did a little more poking ference. New trails, rerouted trails, bike friendly people, etc. My around. A lot of people are getting the vaccine, but I haven't thanks to you, NEMBA, DEM etc. This is a prime example of a place decided about it yet, because it's not so cut and dried! that could have just been ridden into the ground and abandoned. Here are some negatives I found from a recent Newsweek arti- Keep up the good work! cle and a doctor. Some were not mentioned in the article, so I Neil P Sullivan, Worcester MA thought I'd pass them along to readers: Ed Note: Thanks should also go to the DEM’s Ray Faucher who - in some people, the vaccine can cause flu-like symptoms for has made this park a model of multi-user harmony! 2-3 days - you will test positive on most Lyme tests for the rest of your My Aching Back life I am writing to thank Philip Keyes for helping me out of the woods - it could cause problems in people who may already be the other night after I got up close and personal with a huge pine infected and not know it tree and broke my back. I have been riding for 9 years and this is - it's only 70-80% effective (could give a false sense of securi- the first time I have been hurt.