Honey Bikes at Kingdom Trails

With over 100 miles of flowing single track, free form double track, and even a pump track, riding The Kingdom Trails in Burke, Vermont feels like a amusement park for bikes. The drive from Boston, MA is close to 4 hours, but many would argue the travel is worth it. The trail systems that Kingdom fronts are absolutely unique and thrilling. You can spend hours connecting trail system to trail system, each with it's own distinct features, and not feel like any time has gone by at all. This 2014 calendar year has flown by for me. Before I knew it, October was here and my usual Summer weekend trip to the Kingdom was out of the question. I felt like I wouldn't make it to my favorite trails this year and was feeling pretty devastated over it. I had to go, especially since I was just refitted on my Honey and knew I was riding better than ever this year.

After scrounging the calendar for a spare weekend day, I found a Sunday and a friend, and loaded my beautiful Honey 26" hardtail into the car around 6am. My goal was to truly seize the day and ride as much as possible.

Something that is so rewarding about mountain biking is being able to see your improvement on trails you have ridden before. Nailing turns and jumps or other technical aspects of a trail that you weren't able to land before is instantly ego boosting and means something new is working for you.

This was my first time on Kingdom Trails on my Honey mountain bike. The fit on my Honey was remarkable to me after having a series of ill fitting and ill equipped bikes. I can honestly say I was able to take on trails more confidently than I ever had before and was able to ride for a longer period of time without body aches and pains from a poor fit.

The drive was of course worth the ride for me. Aside from feeling really proud of myself for such clean riding, and feeling excited about my great bike, it was PRIME leaf-peeping season in New England that weekend. The splendor of the red and gold tree lines in the mountains are something that will always take my breath away even more than sweet single track.

Honey 100 Instagram Contest

The Honey 100 heading east this year through some of the rockiest terrain we have seen. It also featured stunning road riding and mixed paths. As always it was an adventure ride and not a race!

This past Honey 100 we held an Instagram photo contest. One of the things we love about Instagram is the way it can act as a photo journal of adventure. Each rider has their own unique view and ride. We wanted to see what each rider could capture so we could all relive the ride through their perspective.

The route took us on some very interesting and challenging features. One thing about the Honey 100 — you never know what awaits you around the next corner. It could be a wall that you have to hop over to find the next stash into Gnarnia. Or an amazing road descent that looks like its in Umbria not Saugus.

After 3-4 hours and 50 or so miles changing flats can get pretty dark. But that is what makes the Honey 100 so much fun. No one is ever on their own. We all ride as a group and take care of each other.

A well earned lunch break! A gourmet lunch awaited us at the mid-way point. Burritos, cookies, mochas...it was amazing.

The bikes people choose to ride on the Honey 100 are as diverse as the route itself. I was lucky enough to ride with a good friend on his fat bike! We had touring bikes, singlespeed mountain bikes, singlespeed cross, touring bikes and of course lots of Honeys!

Thank you to all who took part in our Honey 100 Instagram contest! Congratulations to the winners! It wasn't easy picking winners as all the photos were so fantastic! Get out and ride! You all inspire us daily to find new routes and adventures!

New England Builders' Ball

 

On Friday, October 3rd Honey was a part of the New England Builders' Ball. This was our second year at the show and it was a huge success. We were very excited about last year's Ball which was held at the Biltmore in downtown Providence. The Biltmore was a great venue for a Ball. It is a classic old hotel with great architecture and ambience. But it had its challenges. The space was pretty small and getting to and from the Ball posed a challenge for a lot of people. This year's Ball was moved to Roger William's Park, the venue that hosts the Providence Cyclocross Festival. The Providence Cross Festival is one of the biggest cross races in the United States drawing world class competitors and grassroots racers from all over the country. The race itself is a UCI C1 race which features racers from Europe, Canada and the US.

Richard Fries and Eric Weiss created the Builders' Ball to showcase the top bike builders and artisans and show them off to a legion of bike racers. It has been a great format. Moving the ball right to the race course made an already fantastic event that much better. The new space at the Botanical Gardens offered exhibitors and visitors the opportunity to really spread out. The noise levels were much better so you could have conversations without shouting. This year's Ball was a who is who of New England bike building Legends. Honey was very proud to spend the evening in such lofty company!

We had a great spot in the Botanical Gardens. Right by the DJ and a nice water fountain. It was so great to see so many friends both old and new. We were very excited about the launch of our new Fat Bike! The Off Trail has been in the works for the past two years. We targeted the Builders' Ball for the launch as we knew it would be the perfect place to show it off. It was so hard to keep it a secret in the days leading up to the Ball!

We have so many friends who ride fat bikes. What drew us to fat bikes was not just their application for winter riding (although we are very excited to ride them in winter!) but how versatile they can be. Riding the Honey 100 with a good friend who happened to be on a fat bike showed just how much fun you can have on a fat bike in the woods even when there isn't snow and ice!

It was a great night and we thank Eric Weis, Richard Fries and their staffs for putting on such a great event that celebrated handbuilt bikes, cycling culture and cyclocross.

The New England Builders' Ball is a benefit for the East Coast Greenway Alliance. All the photos in this post are courtesy of the ECGA and were taken by Constance Winters of lovelybike.blogspot.com

Second Annual Honey 100

The Second Annual Honey 100 was held on Saturday, Sept 13 in Lexington, MA. The Honey 100 was created with the spirit of the less ridden path. We are lucky in New England to have such a diversity of open space and riding. There are so many secret trails and paths hidden from plain sight. There is nothing we like better at Honey than finding some new trail or path and sharing it with our close friends.

The Honey 100 draws just as unique a crowd as the roads and paths we ride. For this rendition we headed east. Its not a direction most in the metro Boston area think of when they go on a ride. But we found some true gems. What always impresses us is that the riders who show up for the Honey rides are literally up for anything. This route would travel through some very challenging terrain. The Fells is one of the more technical areas to ride a mtn bike. And most of us were on slick 700 x 33 tires. Sure there were a few fat bikes and some legit mountain bikers but everyone was up for the challenge.

This was my favorite route to date. I loved it for its raw urbanness and its highly technical nature. Garmin GPS devices make these rides possible. Without them it would be very difficult to navigate without getting very lost. Even with the devices it takes some real mental energy. Its not a race. Its more like hide and seek. Trail heads are hidden behind rock walls or chainlink fences. You ride through what seems like an office park and voila you step into gnarnia.

Our group set out towards the end so we could sweep the course and make sure everyone was having a good time. The Honey 100 is a very well supported ride with numerous rest/check points and a full lunch! The lunch has to be seen to believed. We joke that no one goes hungry on the Honey 100 and it is true. Our group had some adversity early on. We hadn't even gone five miles before one rider broke a chain and another bloodied his knee. But those stops gave us a chance to talk and meet people. Some farmers in a field yelled to us "ARE YOU ON THE HONEY 100?!" Why yes we are we all yelled back!

We had friends from all over the area join us for the ride. Friends travelled as far away as Philadelphia! Our little band of Honey/Lone Wolf Cycling riders meshed together so well. It always amazes me when you can pull together a group of riders who haven't seen each other in months and then they just blend together and ride like one.

Some of my favorite moments included bumping into Lucky the dog at the end of the Saugus rail trail. We spent a good 15 minutes talking with Lucky's owner. He was blown away that we had ridden all the way from Lexington. He gave us directions to Lynn Woods (I didn't have the heart to tell him we knew where we were going!) and wished us godspeed. Lunch in Peabody was also a favorite. After riding for 4 hours sitting down to a real meal in the woods is something that has to be experienced to be appreciated.

After lunch I got a bit separated from my main group as I was sweeping looking for a few wayward riders. The nice thing about sweeping is you get to meet lots of people and share their stories of the ride. As we rolled back into Lexington and the Ride Studio Cafe a light rain started to fall from the sky. It was a welcome shower to wash away the grime of a long day in the saddle with good friends both old and new.

LWC FLD OPS X Honey Trail Wizard Raffle Winner!

The Trail Wizards at Lone Wolf Cycling picked a raffle winner this morning on a secret Dawn Patrol ride in the woods of Philadelphia. The lucky winner is Jonathan Sainsbury of Boston! Congratulations Jonathan and thank you to all who participated! We will document the process with Jonathan in the coming weeks!

We hope all of you are spending time in the woods searching for your own inner Trail Wizard!