Was hiking Walnut on Sunday and found a pretty nice, intact and working bike light.  Anyone lose or know someone that lost one out there?

Okay, this is a bit of a shameless plug, but it's worth a try to drum up more support for this amazing young local talent...

My daughter has learned and subsequently taught dance at a local Indianapolis dance school for the last 13 years. The network of dancers and their families associated with this school have become pretty close over the years resulting in many lasting friendships.

One of the dancers - Valerie Rockey - reached college age and went to IU for a year or so, but then decided to head to LA last fall to try to further her dance career. Recently, she auditioned for the new season of "So You Think You Can Dance!":



She ended up with a "ticket" for Hollywood Week (where they whittle it down to just 20 contestants).

On last week's show (6/25/2014), the show pruned it down from 150 dancers with tickets to just 20 (10 guys, 10 gals) who will be contestants on this year's show. Valerie made it!

On this past Wednesday's show (7/2/2014), Valerie (& Zack) did a tap number that was simply remarkable:



Here's a cute little 1-min video from the show featuring Valerie:



Valerie and her family are good people. I've known her since she was about 6 years old and have watched her get better and better over the years. On the show, she's so unique, talented and her enthusiasm is so contagious. Please give her a shot and see if you agree...

You can follow Valerie's SYTYCD arc on Facebook (I know, I know) here:

https://www.facebook.com/Dance11Valerie

Valerie is really representing Indy well, please check it out and send your votes her way!  The show airs on Wednesdays at 8E/7C with voting open from the show's conclusion until 10am (E?) the next day.

Thanks!

Ron

... do we all experience "one of those days"?

I've been riding BCSP once or twice a week all summer gearing up for my Breakdown goal, so I've gotten pretty decent at riding the place.  I still fear Schooner, so I never go down there, but I've ridden Walnut all year with little issue.

Sunday I go out, and I'm just not feeling especially focused or balanced on the technical stuff.  First noticed on the log hop on Green Valley where I nearly ditched it to the right but managed to stay upright.

Next, I'm crossing the stream on the way to Aynes just before the old foundation and the bike suddenly disappear out from under me and I'm kneeling on the ground.

Then I'm navigating the notched log on Walnut and landing especially roughly on the other side, but managed to keep stay upright with some small body-bike bumps.

Next, I'm climbing the first rocky tech section on Walnut (north to south), I hit a rock wrong and teeter over the very steep hill to the right.  Managed to get my feet spread and catch some dirt to prevent a long downhill slide.

Then on the way back on Walnut (south to north), I managed the gnarly technical root nicely, pull the bike to the right and proceed to not get my weight back in time for the next exposed root thus plummeting off my bike (more of a side-o than an end-o fortunately), but landing hard on my arm and leg on the roots.

This combined with multiple near misses along the way made for a highly unusual ride for me.  Reminiscent of my beginner days where if I wasn't sporting some major bumps and bruises, I hadn't been riding.  My legs and arm are going to be sporting some good color in a couple more days.

I hate to say it for fear of sounding like a masochist, but I still enjoyed the ride.  Just got really frustrated with myself and what little skill I thought I'd built up this year.

Who would be your go-to person/shop in the Indy area for starting a mountain bike purchasing adventure?

I've been riding for about 7 years and still very much enjoy my 2005 Specialized Stumpjumper FSR Expert 120 that I had no idea what I was doing when I bought it.  However, my 18yo son is outgrowing his smallish Trek pretty badly.  His performance is suffering, and I can see why - we switched bikes for a short time a couple of weeks ago at BCSP and ugh...  He LOVED my bike.  I didn't like his much.

I'm looking for someone knowledgeable that likes to discuss fit (expert fitter a plus), style, components, etc.  Custom is not out of the question, but I'd need a lot of hand-holding there.

Ideally I'd find a bike that I like even better than my current Specialized.

So, if you're inclined, please "sell" your expert to me....   

Any way to get my hands on the GoogleEarth files for the BCSP maps as depicted in the "Green Valley Info & Map" thread?

I downloaded the GE files from browncountymountainbiking.com, but they are outdated and have a bunch of double-line errors (no offense to whoever put them out there, they just mess with my engineering mind).

Tech question - what causes the double-line & loopy errors?  I'm assuming this map was created by someone riding their bike with a GPS unit on it.  Is GPS really prone to that much error? (I have never used GPS, but had it in my mind that it was pretty darned accurate).