Mountain biking and Cars

Last weekend my dad and I headed out to Detroit for the North American Auto Show for work. I figured if we are driving that far east we might as well hit up Ray's for some mid winter riding. I talked to Darren at Mongoose and he hooked me up with a Nugget to ride. I think Ray's is the best example of "you build it and they will come" I have seen. It is in the biggest abandoned warehouse Cleveland has to offer, and by the looks of things the entire neighborhood still hasn't found work since it closed. I didn't see any signs and we drove through a few parking lots and alleys until we came across a car with a bike rack, we drove toward it and then more cars parked with an open door down on a loading dock. As soon as you walk in you forget it is snowy and cold outside! Ray did an amazing job using every last inch of his portion of the warehouse.

It took some time to get used to riding with flat pedals and getting used to not having any earth under my tires. But after a few runs the jumps were getting smoother and easier to clear.
The pump track was something else I was not used to it took a lot more upper body than I was expecting and was a great work out in it's own way. We were only there for about 4 hours, enough time to develop 5 blisters on my hands, but not enough time to manage any really good crashes - mission accomplished!

From there we jumped back in the rental car and headed to Detroit to see what or if there were going to be any new cars for the coming years. I have been to Chicago for the past few years and this was similar but bigger and more concept cars. The American car companies were showing off their muscle cars and trucks while the over sea's companies were showing off their small cars and hybrids...and for some reason we keep asking ourselves why the American auto makers just can't seem to sell any cars. In all though I was glad to see the number of diesel cars that were being introduced or were going to be coming in the next year or so. Hybrids are coming along, some are done good and some are just putting an electric motor next to the engine in order to fill get a car in that market. The Audi R8 is still the best looking car on the market. This VW is a production concept, we should see it in a couple years - and yes it is a TDI.


Unfortunately Cathy wasn't able to go so instead she started on a project that could quickly spiral out of control into a full addiction - quilting. My mom gave her some material for Christmas and is showing her how to get it all cut and sewed together. They got about half of it done over the weekend and she is going to try to work on it again this weekend. I will get some pictures of the progress up here soon.