Peak Cycles – BikeParts.com Blog

Are you looking to get up to 14,000 feet on a bicycle? Consider riding up to Mount Evans. At just under 100 miles round-trip from Golden and over 10,000 vertical feet of climbing, this ride is definitely not for the faint of heart. Nonetheless, it is a very cool ride that can be done in a single day. According to the Forest Service, the Mount Evans Scenic Byway climbs over 7,000 feet in its 28-mile length, reaching an altitude of 14,130′ feet. Idaho Springs serves as the starting point to the byway, which is the highest paved road in North America! The road offers scenic views of the Continental Divide, mountain goat and bighorn sheep herds, marmots, birds and alpine wildflowers, and the Rocky Mountain Bristlecone Pine trees. Plus, you can take a short walk to the top of your first 14er overlooking spectacular views of distant mountain peaks, alpine lakes, and glacier valleys! 

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you can’t but help have noticed the waves of young kids riding around on small bikes without pedals. Either in your neighborhood, local park, or maybe even a pump track: balance bikes have turned the cycling industry on its head when it comes to bikes and training wheels. Traditionally, kids would learn with training wheels until they felt comfortable enough to go on their own. At best, kids could make the transition from training wheels over to two wheels fairly quickly and without much injury. At its worst, you’re grabbing the first aid kit and slapping on Band-Aids as soon as the training wheels came off. Balance bikes changed all of that and we’re here to tell you why.

Teaching Balance

Do you remember the first time you felt balanced on a bike? That floating or flying feeling? At least that is how it felt to me. With a balance bike, kids can learn that feeling faster. Why? The bike and the kid have more freedom to find balance. With training wheels, the bike is restricted from being able to tilt side to side. Kids will often rely on the training wheels, tilting back and forth as they pedal, to find balance. Unfortunately, between the weight and the narrow window of finding balance, this makes for a challenging way to learn. With a balance bike, kids feel that balance every time they pick their feet off the ground. Balance after all is the hardest or scariest part of learning to ride a bike!

Leveling The Playing Field

On average, kids learn to ride a bike at 5 years old and the average 5-year-old weighs about 45 pounds. A traditional bike with training wheels weighs 18-26 pounds, which is about half the weight of your average 5-year-old! Relatively speaking, this would be like an adult 150-pound adult learning how to ride a 75-pound bicycle, much heavier than even the heaviest of electric bikes. Imagine trying to pedal around an electric bike with the battery turned off. Not easy! Balance bikes weigh much less than a kid’s bike with training wheels. A Strider bike only weighs 6.7 pounds!

Why Lighter Is Better

The weight of a balance bike is a huge advantage over a traditional bike with training wheels. A lighter bike is easier to handle and maneuver, which creates a big advantage when it comes to learning. When kids feel like they can control the bike, it gives them the confidence to keep going. The light weight of the bike also causes less fatigue, which means kids can ride longer. After all, the best way to learn is by spending time in the saddle! This has also enabled kids to learn how to ride younger than ever before. Strider advertises that kids can start as young as 15 months old. Your average two-year-old weighs about 25 pounds, the same weight as your average kid’s bike with training wheels!

Getting Them Started

Whether you want to start your kids on a bike with training wheels or a balance bike, the important thing is to get them started in the first place! It is hard to deny the low cost and effectiveness of a balance bike, but if you are still unsure about the best option for your kid we are happy to chat! Shoot us an email or give us a ring.

Golden Colorado is known for many things including Coors Beer, Colorado School of Mines, and well cycling of course. Separated from the urban sprawl of Denver by North and South Table mountains and flanked by the foothills of the Rockies to the west, there are mountains in every direction. For mountain bikers, Golden has a little bit of everything to offer. While the majority of the trails lend themselves better to intermediate and advanced riders, there are certainly beginner-friendly options out there.

From downtown Golden, you’re only a few miles away from several riding zones including Lookout Mountain, Apex, White Ranch, Green Mountain, Dakota Ridge, and North Table Mountain. Did we mention that Golden is a cycling Mecca?

For Beginners | Bear Creek Lake Park

For beginner riders, your best bet is going over to Bear Creek Lake Park. There are over 32 trails to choose from, 27 of them being rated for beginners. The majority of the trails in Bear Creek Lake Park are single track, with the longest trail clocking in at 7 miles with 645 feet of climbing. Getting to the park is easy from Golden but you do have to pay to park. Aside from mountain biking, there are other activities to do in Bear Creek including swimming, paddle boarding, hiking, and picnics.

For Intermediate Riders | North Table Mountain & Green Mountain

For intermediate riders, we recommend checking out North Table Mountain, which has a challenging trail that goes around the perimeter of the mountain. At the top of North Table Mountain, there is a fun trail called Rim Rock that is worth checking out too (Rim Rock is closed from February 1 through July 31 2020 to protect raptor nesting territory and ground-nesting bird habitat). On the east side of North table mountain, you will find New Terrain Brewing and the Golden Bike Park which has a fun jump progression line to work on your skills. There is even an area where young kids can work on skills with their strider bikes.

Another great area well suited for intermediate riders is Green Mountain, which is just south of Golden. One of our favorite trails in this area is Rooney Valley, which was newly constructed in within the past few years. It is a multi-directional trail, but if you ask us it’s best ridden down. The trail is smooth and flowy, featuring swooping berms over a couple miles of mellow single track. There are plenty of options for advanced riders too, including the Box o’ Rocks Trail which was built by the Colorado Mountain Bike Association. It’s a short rock garden trail that is fun to hot-lap over and over!

Advanced Riders | Lookout Mountain, Apex Park, & White Ranch

For advanced riders check out Lookout Mountain, Apex Park, and White Ranch Park. These three areas have some of the most technical and difficult mountain biking that Golden has to offer. On Lookout Mountain, Chimney Gulch is a fantastic descent that goes from the top of the mountain all the way to the town of Golden. It offers 1,800 vertical feet of chunky and fast single track, but note that this trail is very busy on the weekends with hikers. In White Ranch, Connecting Maverick with Longhorn Trail is another challenging and technical descent. Steep, rocky, and fast, you will be peeling your hands off the bars by the bottom. Lastly, Apex Park is home to Enchanted Forest which is arguably the most popular trail in the area. Unlike the rest of Golden, Enchanted Forest provides some shade and woodsy type riding. It is a classic!

Whether you are visiting Colorado or live in the front range, Golden is definitely a mountain biking destination worth checking out. Much like the rest of Colorado, the trails here are both dry and rocky. Having a full suspension bike is definitely an advantage, but you can certainly get away with a hardtail too. If you’re used to riding in wetter and more foresty terrain, the dry and loose single track will certainly be a noticeable difference. We hope you found this article helpful. If you’re coming out here to ride, swing by the shop and say hello!