Or should I say “not-so-wintery” winter deals. This year has been a little more gray than white, but we’re keeping things fun with sales! Right now we’ve got:
Hats and Gloves are now 20-40% off
Winter Outerwear for Men and Women is on SALE at 30% off
Men’s and Women’s Casual Clothing is 30% off
Winter Sport Apparel (including XC Ski and Running clothing) is now 20-30% off!
Winter Baselayers (including Patagonia and Smartwool) are 20-30% off!
And, there are tons of great deals on Telemark and Nordic Skis, Boots, Bindings, and more winter equipment! Even Snowshoes are on Sale until February 1, so stop in and brighten up your week!
| February 25, 2012 |
| 10:00 am | to | 1:00 pm |
Saturday, February 25th, 2012 10:00am
The Morse Farm Ski Touring Center – Montpelier, VT
Onion River Sports presents the 9th annual Maple Onion 15k Freestyle Race. Ski through scenic maple-filled woods and open meadows on rolling terrain at the world-class Morse Farm Ski Touring Center. Prizes awarded to overall winners; all racers have the chance to win raffle prizes. Entry fee includes post-race lunch at The Morse Farm.
Pre register at SkiReg for $15 or $20 day of race. $5 for high school racers. Proceeds benefit Onion River Nordic.
For more information email thefolks@onionriver.com or call us at 802-229-9409.
Thanks for the great footage, Jon! Can’t wait for the next race!
With winter finally here…ummm…in spirit only, those of us who normally populate the backcountry glades of the Greens now find ourselves having to seek out alternative snow-sports. A moderately popular one: winter trail riding of the mountain bike variety. No, not all the usual summer trail systems are winter-riding friendly, but a number of them are, and some of our favorite summer trails that are often soggy, are now rock-hard, more durable and ride like a completely new trail!
Something you’ll also probably notice about this totally new riding experience: it’s slippery. Studded tires are a winter-biker’s gateway to safe, blissful trail-riding. While there’s little competition for the traction provided by a pair of Nokian WXC300 studded tires, they’re also well over $100…each. Tap into a little Vermont do-it-yourselfer ingenuity, however, and we can get out there on the trail with a pretty good alternative at a fraction of the cost.
To prepare for the seriously icy conditions I’ll encounter during our upcoming January Frozen Onion winter mountain bike race, I decided to stud up the front 29″ tire of my commuter 69er bike (26″ tire in the rear, 29″ tire in the front). This will give me better cornering and braking ability to go along with the traction provided by my Nokian W160 factory-studded rear tire.
My 69er steel Hardrock--a trusty friction 5-speed steed ready for action.
First off, I’d recommend taking a look at the amount of clearance your tire has so that the studs won’t make contact with your frame or fork. Since my bike is kind of jury-rigged (as they all are), I have very little clearance in the fork (the 29er tire is a custom addition to this bike; I had to keep the axle-to-crown height as low as possible so that the front end wouldn’t be “choppered-out” and adversely effect handling). The center knobs were out of the question, so I went with alternating middle knobs.
Tight clearance! Using the mid-center knobs gave me the most clearance and still provided adequate straight-on and cornering traction.
Mark the knobs you want to stud. I chose alternating knobs to save time. I'm also lazy. Nice, gentle pressure will get'er through.
Remove the tire from the rim, grab a drill, a small bit and we’re ready to make that tired, old tire an ice-shredding machine! Drill each knob you marked. Be careful not to drill into a part of your tire that gets folded underneath.
Nice, gentle pressure will do.
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This was originally printed in the latest edition of the Catamount Trail News (Volume XXVIII Number 1). If you’d like to be the first to read Kip’s reviews, we recommend you hightail it over to www.catamounttrail.org and become a member!
Gear Review – Skis, an Option for Everyone
Step into any well-stocked Nordic shop these days and you’re bound to be overwhelmed by the multitude of colors, shapes, sizes and brands of skis that fall under the “Nordic ski” umbrella. Gone are the days when you could wander in, proclaim to the sales attendant that you’re “looking for a backcountry ski” and in a few short moments, you’d walk out the proud new owner of a pair of 210 cm Karhu Kodiaks, trusty leather Merrell XCD-Legend boots and the requisite Rottefella “rat trap” 3-pin binders. We’re now faced with a plethora of options: touring, light BC-touring, backcountry and cross country downhill, just to name a few of the seemingly ambiguous industry-coined ski categories. Enter the well-trained sales attendant to guide you through the dense underbrush of the backcountry ski-shopping world.
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