Author Alex Hutchinson

BREAKING NEWS... We are very close to the green light on building new off road trails. Our Poker Run is a fund raiser to help pay for tools & signage. Come have some fun while helping Sarasota County off road riding. Sponsored by SCORR (Sarasota County Off Road Riders). Come ride beautiful downtown Venice's byways. Off road bikes are strongly recommended. $10 to participate, best poker hand wins the $100 grand prize. Send us an e-mail at Scorrider@gmail.com to sign up. All funds go to our trail building efforts. Don't forget to wear GREEN! Facebook Event Page

The 12th annual Boca Grande 5k took place on February 23rd, 2013. A thick fog settled down on the island as 305 competitors assembled at the Boca Grande Community Center for the start of the days festivities. An official announced that this was their largest race gathering ever! Their community center is the perfect place to hold an event like this. With wide open lawns, rooms for registration, clean bathrooms and an outdoor stage area, it was well suited for this spirited crowd.

Have you seen the flood of bikes on the streets and pathways around Venice, Florida lately? This little city is fast becoming an attraction for anyone who loves to spend time on two wheels. This is in part due to the Legacy trail. The Legacy trail is a rail-trail that starts in Venice and runs all the way to Sarasota. It is surrounded by beautiful scenery, with multiple rest stops with passes over and under major roads. I rode part of the Legacy Trail last year and it turned out to be quite an adventure ( See my Trail Review Here ). Since then I have learned that the use of the trail is reaching epic proportions.

Photo by FL Dept of State Historical Resources The best adventures are often spontaneous and sometimes you are unaware just how close the danger was until moments after it has passed. It is February and here in the Sunshine State it has finally gotten cold. Granted 57 degrees in midday is nothing to shiver about but it is enough to force Floridians into coats and pants. It is also cold enough to force larger animals into the open to hunt for food. It is not often you run into a large cat in the wild but I have unusual luck. I was out for a mountain bike ride and decided to explore some trails in an area I had previous avoided for just this reason. I don't want to name the area because it would be better for all involved if the cats remain undisturbed. Also, I didn't have a camera on me so I had to steal these random photos from organizations that look out for big Florida cats. Here is how my ride unfolded.

I love Ebay but I cannot win a bid to save my life. Every time I step up the plate someone snipes me at the last moment and the I lose the deal. The only time I get the product is when no one else notices it. This is where you can sometimes get lucky. I was scouring Ebay looking for a mountain bike for my wife when I stumbled on the 2011 version of the Jamis Durango Femme. It was used and being sold by a pawn shop in Idaho who clearly didn't understand its value. I put in a bid and crossed my fingers, a week later it was delivered vacuum sealed in a pile of bubble wrap the size of a car.

I love riding new bikes. The sharp lines, gloss paint and cutting edge technology is always fun to play with. My brother Kevin, Terri and myself have test ridden bikes from Specialized, Rocky Mountain, Scott and Kona so when Jamis announced that it was doing a Demo at the T. Mabry Carlton Reserve, we marked our calendar. It was a chance to learn about the latest craze in mountain biking. Remember two years ago when 29ers became all the wonder and suddenly top pros were winning World Cup races on them left and right? Terri and I even went to a talk with Gary Fisher where he predicted that the 29er would take over the world of mountain biking making the 26" irrelevant. He was almost right. 29ers did catch on with all the major producers but what Mr. Fisher did not see coming was the rise of the 27.5 inch tires otherwise known as the 650B.

Schwalbe has an excellent reputation for putting out stellar, high quality MTB tires. The up side has been their grip and superior compounds, the down side has been their prices, that is until now. The New Rapid Rob follows a long tradition of tires named with the alliterative double R, like Racing Ralph and Rocket Ron. Not a bad tradition to be a part of. So, what is different with the Rapid Rob that we haven't seen before? I bought a pair of 26 by 2.10 and put them on my bike to find out.