Author Archives: Troy Rarick

It was several years ago that I had the pleasure of riding and hanging out in Tuscany with Andy Hampsten and Scot Nicol; I was traveling with Ed and Kevin and we met up for some road miles and some awesome tuscan dining. It was on the end of the long ride that we passed the vineyards of all 3 of the super tuscan god father winery’s. Ornellia, Gaja and the original Sasicia (sorry about my spelling). That eve we shared a bottle of Ornellia Bolgheri and it was the most amazing wine I had ever experienced, I was hooked, unfortunatly they are a bit :out of reach" for the wine drinking habits of a bike shop guy and it was all I could do to buy a bottle of wine that was "new" and thus less expensive right there in Italy. Still about $200 and one was all I […]

Home last night from the Sea Otter Classic in Monterey; where if you read my other post you know that I did a ton of great "networking" with my beloved industry peers – friends – family. I got home last eve and stopped off with the locals for tacos and margs at Nathy’s. By the end of dinner I was feeling a bit like I had conquered the world and now it was time to sleep. Maybe for a whole day to make up for the wacked out social schedule I have been keeping since the Otter… Pub Crawl… Cruise… Vegas.. whatever, I guess I should stop looking for the end, I never seem to find it, heck I never seem to accept it. No wonder people like me die young, its the only rest we get. As I was feeling rather excited and accepting of my long night ahead; my Palm […]

Im sitting in my hotel, its afternoon on Saturday here in Carmel Valley. I have just come back to change clothes and shower and replace my contacts and such. Its another Sea Otter and another adventure in my somewhat wandering life. I come out here to netwrok pretty much; I have some really great friends in the Bike world and many of them I only see a few times a year and this is one of those traditional opportunites. We pretty much "meet up" here without even having to plan it out. We have a bar; the Crown and Anchor that we always go to and if you do not know what’s up or where to go, head to the Crown and things will pretty much shape up from there. I did that on Thursday afternoon and things definitely took shape from there. I shared a few drinks with Derek […]

It rained here all night, darn near, and was still dripping into the AM hours. Made for some sad folks as their ride trips were called short or at least interupted. As I write that it makes me a bit sad to know that some packed up and left even though now its sunny and the most awesome day outside. But, its what happens when it rains. As any of you know if you read my stuff here that I love the life metaphor as they so often rlate to our outdoor passions. Its pretty obvious on this one as we all know that the rainy days of our lives all too often cause us to pack up in our heads and "go home", we arent really too much for durability sometimes, believe me, I know! I can hear one bit of news from my inner circle and get all […]

I just did a great ride yesterday; one that made me giggle and smile and forget about all the stresses and concerns of event planning and business concerns. It struck me as I was riding another of the many life lessons I have found while on a bicycle. I was approaching one of the many optional moves on this trail and was pretty convinced I was going to do it. Its a big rock that you can ride around or if you choose; take advantage of its perfect ramp like shape and launch yourself several feet in the air and return yourself to the trail without a trace that you had ever left, kind of a coll move. What makes it even better is that the shape of this rock allows one to go up the ramp and "huck" off the flat top or use the ramp as a jump […]

Cruisin’   I’m Sitting in the bar aboard the Norwegian Gem cruise ship. Drinking a Belgian beer in my favorite bar; staring at the seas of the Atlantic Ocean and pondering, as I often do. I sat down to write something to put on the website and found myself pondering the way we travel and the reasons we choose the means by which we do.          Over the Edge exists in places that people travel to ride and without those people; you people, we would have a very different business than we do. Of course we have our local communities and so does the ship; here they’re called “crew” and they have a community of a thousand folks who live and work here and earn a living bringing me beer and wine. The other ¾ of the population here are the travelers. People from all over the world and the […]

Just weeks ago the snow finally left the trails around Fruita. I was out riding for the first time on the wonderful Singletrack of Zippety Do Da in the Bookcliffs trail system north of town. The euphoric feelings of rolling down the fresh trail at speed and hearing the tires carve the newly narrowed tracks was an elation to my soul. It was probably that feeling that kept me hungry for more speed and more of the feeling of flowing with the bike over the twists and turns and steep hills of the north Fruita desert. As we dropped down the final steep ridgeline it seemed that there was nothing to do but let the wheels roll and save the brakes for the parking lot. If you’ve ridden the Zip trail you know that a full brakeless run off any of those big hills will leave you with a fair […]

 Well its official; Fruita Mountain Biking is joining the Dinosaurs and gold miners in the archives of Colorado history. Today the story of Fruita Mountain Biking will be told into the archives of histroy as Troy tells the story of Fruita Mountain Biking for the official record of the histroy of western Colorado at the Museum of Western Colorado in Grand Junction. Kinda crazy, makes me feel a little ancient, I’ll be sure to tell the Anasazi hello while Im there. Apparantly I sit in a little room and get interviewed (I sure hope its not a cold turkey "OK Talk") and they record the utter BS I will spew forth… scary… for them; Im a really good spew-er   Should be fun and interesting and I hope I dont forget the best parts of the story… singletrack built for the mere joy of it… a Fat Tire Festival… dog […]

So; after 11 days on the road we find ourselves in Hurricane Utah in a nice rental house that was provided for us (Thanks – this house is available to rent for groups and its cool). We left Las Vegas this morning and said goodbyes to our friend Jason Grove, El Camino Fab, after a great breakfast at the Peppermill. Our last ride all toghter was at Red Rocks west of Vegas near Blue Diamond. Awesome rides for a week and a half and more than that a bunch of great time with great people. Thanks to all who shared in our aventure this year. The entire OTE USA Staff – Timoni, Noah, Max, Robbie, Dave, Quentin, DJ, Clayton, Troy Paul Aieta-MRP, Paul-makes a yummy snack- Frinak, Gordon Reinert, Bryce Pratt, Meagan Polino Flag, Anne Spalding GJ, Stacey Laplante Angry One clothing, Steevy-Broakland, Nod sedona, Joe Murray – Voodoo, Chewey […]

We are one fantastic week into our annual staff trip. Started in Moab on Friday the 9th riding the musical rocks trail among the Chili Trails selection off of Hells Revenge Jeep Trail. After a fanstastic run in Moab we drove south to Flagstaff and a night at the Monte Vista. Our first day in Sedona on Saturday was perfect; a meeting in the Huckaby parking lot with Kevin and Ross and a few Sedona locals and we set off for the Damifino saddle above the cowpies. Such a great climb with managable tech riding and spectacular exposure and views the entire way. We optioned out of Damifino and duck out left on the super exposed ”Hangover” Trail. One of the best rides anywhere if you get off on super flowy and semi steep singletrack in the most unlikely clif side setting you cannot imagine. Sunday we met up with […]