River Valley Cycling

Supporting Cycling In and Around Fredericton

Getting Ready to Ride Series – 2023

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Hey riders!

This four-week series is aimed at adults interested in building cardio and conditioning so when the single track trails dry up, we are not suffering every climb. Our rides will start with gradual climbs and slowly advance to longer, steeper climbs. The ride loop each week will select great trails to introduce beginners to mountain biking.

Every Sunday morning for 4 weeks beginning April 30th the group will tour a new trailhead beginning with Killarney Lake. Meeting spots and ride starts will be shared via RVC’s Facebook profile. Expect a good introduction to climbs and descents, cornering, and navigating trail features (rocks, roots, bridges, ruts, sand, gravel).

This early season series will be hosted by volunteers Heather and Michel who will share their excitement for singletrack.

Here’s what you need to join the ride:

  • A mountain bike (knobby tires) that’s in good working shape.
  • Your RVC Membership. Join here!
  • A pump, tire levers, and spare tube so you can fix a flat.
  • Clothes appropriate for the cool spring conditions, a bottle of water, and a good attitude!

Youth riders are welcome to join but we’d ask that they be accompanied by a responsible adult on trail.

Here’s what a few riders who just went through the program had to say about it:

Jo Sto: “This group has helped me climb higher, go farther, descent faster and go on adventures I never dreamt possible.“
Noortje Kunnen: “I always thought mountain biking would not be something I would enjoy. When RVC announced a beginner group, my husband convinced me to give it a try. Under the leadership, encouragement and patience of Heather and Michel, I have come to love the sport. They gradually introduced us to various trails, building our confidence and skills and making new friends along the way!“

Carole Ouellette Volpe: “Joining the RVC Getting Ready to Ride group challenged me and helped me get comfortable with Mountain biking. Each week, we explored beautiful new trails and learned new skills. This group is welcoming, dynamic and encouraging!“
Debbie McCluskey: “This beginner group has been such a great way to get into the MTB scene. I am in absolute awe of the Trails we have available to us.. definitely something for EVERYONE with a cherry on top! After riding with this group, pushing ourselves a bit with each ride, I feel very proud to add another way of describing myself… I AM A MOUNTAINBIKER !“

Join the conversation and get the details for this ride series each week by following RVC on Facebook.

River Valley Cycling’s 2023 Membership Launch

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If you’re like us, you’ve been staring at your mountain bike for weeks now, just itching for the word that the trails are dried up and ready to ride. The big spring thaw can feel like it takes forever even though this year we were lucky enough to have excellent winter conditions right into the first week of April. We’ve been taking the last few weeks to get ready to launch RVC’s 2023 season… and this post is about what we’ve got in mind.

If you don’t feel like reading you can just skip right to our registration page:

Join RVC Now!

Trails

  • We’re hoping for a big year of trail building. We shared some exciting plans for Woolastook at our AGM and we’re looking forward to getting Dig-In back to finish a new trail early this spring.
  • We have a lot of trail maintenance/improvement projects in mind all over the network including Odell and Penniac. Volunteer trail days posted through our social channels. Get involved!
  • RVC will continue to advocate for access with landowners. We’ll champion responsible trail use, etiquette, and we’ll work hard to maintain relationships we’ve built.

Riding & Events

RVC Membership

  • Club membership is important. Your support keeps our singletrack in top shape.
  • For 2023 we’re offering a simplified structure
    • Individual membership – $45 / person
    • Gold membership – $125
    • Platinum supporters / sponsors – $200+
  • All youth riders under 18 years are free with a guardian/parent membership of any level.
  • We’ve built a slick new check-out with an option to auto-renew your membership!
  • For 2023 we’ll make it easy to show you support RVC with bike tags. Show ’em off proudly!
  • The price is up… but consider the value. For <$7/month you access 5 supported trail networks!
  • Gold and Platinum options are there to offer ways for individuals, families, and businesses to really give back and invest in our cycling community! These options allow you to add all the riders in your household. Last year we had dozens of riders choose these options. Incredible support!
Join RVC Now!

RVC 2023 Winterbike Wrap-Up

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We were nervous when there was no snow in early January… but looking back we had nothing to worry about. The winter of 2023 delivered some spectacular riding.

With the rain on the way we’ve decided to call it a season and look forward to riding dirt. We wanted to send out a huge thanks to everyone who made RVC’s winter riding memorable this year:

  • Thanks to the shoe-to-ride army who anonymously made a point of breaking trail after every storm in Odell Park and the other trailheads that depend on deliberate foot traffic for riding.
  • Thanks to Michel C. and Heather O. who always made sure there was a group ride that was fun and fresh every week.
  • Thanks to the 161 Winterbike 2023 members and especially our 16 gold-level supporters – your money is what makes this all work!
  • Most importantly, we want to thank Dan B., Andy M, Tim D., Jeremy M., Mike H., and Christian C. – who donated their time and effort to keeping the riding in Fredericton top-notch for the last 2 months. We did the math… and this team logged ~1,075 km of grooming this winter! So much thanks to you guys! We see you!

So, with the seasons in transition the next few weeks may still yield some great riding on the packed snow base as it melts out. Put your ice-spiker tires on! This year we don’t expect any trails to be open for dirt riding until May so look for RVC to launch our 2023 summer membership campaign then.

2023 Annual Members Meeting

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Mark your calendars and plan to join us at the Grimross Tap Room on March 27th for our annual meeting. This is your opportunity as a club member to learn about RVC’s plan for the upcoming year, and to engage in the conversation. We’ll plan to share some exciting news. Hope to see you there!

Snowshoe Grooming Fatbike Trails “Shoe-to-Ride”

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RVC grooms with machines that drag grooming gear at MVP and Woolastook – but that’s not what we’re going to talk about here. This is all about ‘shoe-to-ride‘ – the way fatbiking started in Fredericton.

If you are just getting started with winter riding you’re probably just learning about what kind of snow your fatbike can handle. We spent some time discussing that in our post about tires and air pressure if you’re interested. A fatbike can cut through about 5 cm of fresh soft snow – any deeper and some purposeful grooming is needed to make a ridable surface.

Some of the best riding is on snowshoe groomed trails.

Grooming transforms snow through working it. We want to pack it down in a way that makes a level tread. When snow gets adequately compressed and is given a chance to ‘set up’ (i.e. re-freeze overnight), it can support a rider. Snowshoes make a great riding surface and we rely on snowshoe traffic to ride many winter trails where the terrain is too rough to groom with mechanized equipment – or we don’t have the permission to do so. Odell Park is a prime example.

Amazing snowshoe effort at Odell Park. Very wide.

Sometimes it can take a lot of traffic and set-up time to get a good result – depending on the type and amount of snow that the weather brings. Five centimeters of high-moisture snow might be directly rideable right after the storm ends but 30cm of dry powder is going to take a lot of work. Sugar snow and ice pellets tend to be the worst. It’s typical for Fredericton to get 10-15 cm of snow during a winter storm and if you’d like to help us get trails into shape here’s what you should know:

  • If you’re the first person to break trail at a popular place like Odell Park you’ve got a big opportunity. Your job is to show the masses where to go while they are out for a walk behind you. 99% of snowshoers and walkers will follow along an existing trail that somebody else broke in. Cover as much single-track distance as you can and stick to the middle of the trail. Hopefully you know the trails – cause if you go the wrong way – eveyone is going to follow you!
  • If a narrow trail is already broken in, make it wider. A single-file line of snowshoe tracks (i.e. two shoes wide) can be really hard to follow on a fatbike, particularly if it takes sharp curves and zags around corners. A track that’s 3 or 4 snowshoes wide makes for a much faster ride with way more flow. The masses of walkers and snowshoers that follow you will tend to pack the full width of the broken-in trail so don’t worry too much about packing the snow down. Just plan to cover lots of ground and try and expand the outside edge wherever you are curving around a corner of the trail.
Before and after – three shoes wide and strait between the trees. Perfect!

New riders tend to underestimate just how much snowshoe traffic is needed in order to make a trail fatbike ready. One or two passes with snowshoes isn’t going to cut it for a typical 15 cm snowfall but five or six passes can work wonders. After that – nothing makes better winter trails than fatbike traffic!

RVC would love to have a few committed snow-farmers who can lead up some purposeful snowshoe grooming at Odell park and other trailheads. So, if you love fatbiking and snowshoeing beautiful trails freshly after a storm we’d love to hear from you. This is just about the easiest way you can help maintain winter trails.

If you’re psyched about fatbike than remember to support RVC Winterbike with your membership!

Proud Members of: Velo New Brunswick

Canadian Cycling Association

International Mountain Biking Association