Tuesday Ride, 2/24

South Boulder anyone? Bike shop at 6, leave around 6:15ish and we'll be at the Marshall Mesa parking lot right off of 93 (by the food store) around 6:45. Should be good and look forward to riding with you fine folks on another dry Tuesday!

in the stand - just finished a fun project

We had a fun project come in recently. Scott, a local and old Schwinn team fast guy had us (re)build an old Raleigh Technium a few years ago. It was the first mountain bike he raced on back in the day and wanted to get one running again for nostalgia's sake. We used the original bb, XT crank, and XT front der and updated it with a few new things as well as his old SID and some other bits. It was a cool bike, but had a limited lifespan.

Scott dropped it off last week. His black and bassboat gold Homegrown had been rocking as a singlespeed for the last several years but it was time for the Raleigh to become wall art and time for the Homegrown to grow some gears. All was good until we found this:

There were not one, but two cracks int he headtube of the frame. One on top and one on bottom, opposing sides. Scott was now without a frame and not wanting to go back to the Technium.

Fortunately I had an even older (than the Homegrown) nice, triple butted steel Schwinn Moab frame in hanging my garage. I think it had maybe been ridden once or twice ever then torn down. It may have been a catalog bike used in a photo shoot at Schwinn. I've always wanted to see it built up so we moved all the parts onto the Moab.

The result was pretty fantastic. Light at 25lbs with pedals, too. The only funky thing we had to do involved the rear brake cable. Since this was a pre-V brake bike, the rear brake housing only had one cable stop up by the head tube. From there, the bare cable ran down the top tube and thru a steel brake noodle welded to the seat tube. The brake noodle wrapped around the back of the seat tube to line up the cable for cantilevers. We ended up using the rer der cable stops for the rear brake so we could run a V brake. We then ran the rear der thru the front der cable stops, leaving us to get creative with the front der housing. We ran full housing from the left shifter all the way to the last cable stop for the der, the one right on top of the der. The housing was then zip tied to the frame and the other cables. Turned out great.

I can't wait for this baby to see dirt! Thanks Scott. :)

2nd Annual Rocky Mountain Bicycle Show

I just received this from the fine folks that put on last Falls 1st ever Rocky Mountain Bicycle Show...


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FOR PUBLICATION ON FEBRUARY 16th, 2009 or immediately thereafter:

Registration is now open for the Rocky Mountain Bicycle Show 2009. RMBS 2009 will be held in Denver, Colorado at the National Western Complex on August 22nd & 23rd. Exhibitors already committed to the show include: Anvil, Argonaut, Bikekulture.com, Black Sheep, Chris Kopp Bicycle Works, Civilian Bicycle Company, Courage, D2Shoe, DaVinci Designs, DEAN, Edge Composites, Ground-Up, hudz, King Cage, Longbikes, Microbac Laboratories, Moots, Paketa, Primus Mootry, Rene Herse, Tiemeyer Cycles, Victoria Cycles, Yipsan, and Zinn.

RMBS 2009 will once again feature the finest custom bicycle builders, and innovative bicycle components and accessories. Also included in this year’s show will be energy foods and drinks. With the new venue at the National Western Complex we will also be including a cycle art gallery on Saturday, a classic bicycle Concours d’Elegance on Sunday, as well as a weekend-long beer garden providing samples of craft-brewed beers to show attendees.

Register now to show at RMBS 2009; or plan a last summer getaway to Colorado for a fun-filled weekend as we kick off the bicycle industry’s show season.

RMBS is open to the public. Admission is $10 at the door, children under 12 are free. A portion of the proceeds will benefit Bicycle Colorado, Colorado’s leading bicycling advocate.

Exhibitors register before April 30th to take advantage of discounted rates.

For more information visit: http://www.rockymountainbicycleshow.com/ and join the RMBS Facebook group for show updates.

A Little Video I Made

I cant get it to display on here but just click on the link. Its short, but we had fun. Enjoy.

http://www.pinkbike.com/video/60843/#top

crossin with swobo. yo.

I've been riding with Swobo wool knickers and a Swobo wool jersey lately. Man, this is good stuff. I've definitely grown accustom to being a personal apparel snob after working at Pearl Izumi for 7 years. I appreciate good quality apparel and have a tough time with poor fitting or poorly functioning garments. Swobo is definitely the real deal.

For instance, wool knickers. They're a wool/lycra/poly blend that gives all of the good properties of wool (temperature and moisture control, comfort) with the stretchiness of lycra. They fit awesome and even have a really nice Swiss Eschler chamois in them. That's apparel talk for a really expensive, comfortable, anti funk pad. Thumbs up. They are the best short color ever (black) and are very subtle, save the Swobo logo on the left knee. So far, I've had them out on blustery cold days with baggies over and relatively warm days by themselves. The highly functional and old school hi tech of natural wool does an awesome job at repelling the wind and letting my sweat pass thru so it can evaporate on the outside of the short to keep me dry.

The jerseys are extra styling, too. Since I quit racing, I generally don't want to look like a billboard when I go out. If you like stylin' but low key apparel, this should be right up your alley. From an apparel snob standpoint, the wool fabric is excellent, construction is top notch, and the fit is spot on. The 3 pockets in the back are stretchy enough for lots of stuff, but have good elasticity to keep your stuff safely in place. A lot of woolies have pockets with crappy elastic on the top, so this is definitely a good thing. The collar fits amazingly well, too. Tight enough to not let air in, but stretchy enough to not feel constrictive on my neck. I should also mention how soft this shirt is. I mean, really, really soft. Not scratchy wool, but nice supple, super soft sheep from New Zealand wool. It's comfy enough that I want to wear it all the time. It's that good.

Swobo. Good stuff from good peeps. Check it out.

I'm not a billboard.


Got out a little on the cross bike today, too. I just headed east of town and decided to go wherever the bike led me. I think the bike is wired like me. Even if I go out on the road...

It always seems to point me towards dirt. You know, the nice and smooth buffed out type of trails that are perfect for spindly rigid forks and 35mm wide tires.

More on the road. There's good sites to see if you keep your eyes peeled, too.

Lots of good dirt road riding around Lyons, too. The dirt was perfect today as well. Little bit of snow here and there, but otherwise perfect traction. I didn't want to turn the bike home it was so good.

Looks like I'm going to have to bail on the Tuesday night ride, too. Sorry folks. I had some last minute biz come up that I've got to take care of. I'm happy to help spin the wheel of rides, though :)

Picture Rock was good today

Chris L and I were able to escape for some late day bliss on Picture Rock. Conditions ran the gamut from dry trail to cold damp trail to slime to snowpack. Fortunately, slime was the most minimal condition. Great ride, and thanks for getting me out there Chris.




Tuesday 6pm at the shop. Maybe wheel o rides time. hmmm...

Intense Spider FRO frame with Fox F100rlc, $2375

Intense Spider FROs are on sale. For a limited time, Intense Spider FRO (For Racing Only) frames are on sale and packaged with Fox 100mm forks. $2375 for the whole package. The Spider set the bar high as an xc race bike. Then the Spider FRO came along and decimated that bar. If I was xc racing again, this would surely be my rig of choice.

tips

Thanks Aaron. One of the best tips I've received here at the bike shop!

Classic!

Just got this beauty in for a tuneup and some fork loving. Not too many of these Daggers were produced, but that doesn't stop it from being a classic.


Can you say AMP? This is the ORIGINAL Horst Link. Brought to you by Mr Horst Leitner of AMP Design.

They built them light over stout back then...

Marzocchi 888 recall

Got a Marzocchi 888 fork? Better read this snipped from the CPSC recall...

link here

"Description: The recalled bicycle forks were sold for installation on mountain bikes. The recall involves certain 2008 model year 888RC3 and 888RC3WC suspensions with date codes beginning with T07D07, T07D08 and T07D09. The forks are white or black with red and black artwork on the legs."

If that fits yours, you should get in touch with Marzocchi, or a dealer that can take care of you.

thanks Mark!

trails are good

I got out yesterday and today both. Yesterday was great - an evening effort at Hall Ranch.


Again, just the deer and myself.

I was lucky not to get blown away today. I snuck out of town to hit a trail that I'd not been on in a couple of years. It was in the fold and forested enough that I was able to stay out of the wind. Good stuff you see on the trails less traveled, too.

tuesday ride

How bout North Boulder? We haven't been there in a while. Bike shop at 6 on Tuesday. We'll meet up at the parking lot off of Neva road around 6:30ish. See you there!

redstone builds

I was playing around with Photobucket. Check it out- Here's a bunch of the bikes we built or helped put together in '08.

4th Annual BMA Gala Banquet

It was a good night last night. I mean, every night when we get a babysitter is a good night but last night was really good. A great night for the Boulder Mountain Bike Alliance. We set sails for the St Julien Hotel in Boulder last night for the 4th Annual BMA Banquet.

Local celebrity announcer, Dave Towle, was MC for the packed audience.

Ed Peralt (left) from the USFS on stage bragging about how great our local Bike Patrol is. Here is is awarding Mtb Mike Barrow with most hours patrolled last year. Mtb Mike raises his hands and proclaims that, yes indeed, he is the man.

Unique auction items. From super pimpy pimpin ladies apparel


to blingy blingy wheels from Crank Bros.

This year BMA definitely had more auction items than I've seen at all 3 other banquets combined. There was even a trip to the Galapagos Islands that went for more than $5k. That's a good chunk of change donated to BMA.

After hours in the St Julien bar, BMA officers say "thanks."

Intense production update

I spoke with Intense about production today. Here's the breakdown...

Pre 2009 bikes - 5.5s are sold out. I think there are 1 or 2 more 5.5 FROs left. Pre '09 Uzzis are long gone. Just a couple more 6.6s remain.

2009 bikes - Tracers in colors/sizes are in good stock.



Spider 2s will be late March/early April.

The new Uzzi VP will be late April/early May.

We're taking preorders on both bikes right now. Give us a shout or email if you've got to have an Intense :) 303.823.5810/dave@redstonecyclery.com (and don't forget the 10% blog reader discount!)

A note of thanks for all advocates and volunteers

I'm tired. Tired in a good way, though. In just a week I went from riding about 1.5 times per week to getting 8 hours of riding in over the last 5 days. I cannot believe that it's been so super nice this early in February. Guess we'll have to ride this one out to see what happens.

My good streak started on Sunday. The shop closes relatively early and I sneak out of Redstone as close to 3pm as I can. Gotta maximize daylight, after all. And the days are getting longer, too. Anyway, Sunday was Superbowl Sunday, a date that has always mixed well with riding. It's a day when most folk are prepping for their Bowl party and no one is out on the trails. Antelope was my choice to climb. After riding up the rock garden for years and years, I still appreciate the variety that Antelope offers and I'm thankful for its construction I rode Hall Ranch completely solo that day.


I mean really solo. I didn't see another soul until I was down in the parking lot. I rode from home up Antelope, did one loop, and came back down thru the rock garden. It was great. I was even lucky enough to hook up with Keith in the parking lot to ride back thru town. Keith had to get straight home, but it wasn't quite dark yet. I opted to detour about 2 miles up into Picture Rock. Because I could. Again, more variety of local singletrack. Again, not a soul.

Just me and the deer out enjoying the bliss.
Monday was good, too. I decided to settle unfinished business so I headed from home again. This time to Picture Rock and Heil.



Rode up PR, right on Wild Turkey, Ponderosa Loop clockwise and back down Wild Turkey North and Picture Rock. Again, nary a soul. I did encounter 3 people, though. Guess it was kind of busy. Wild Turkey, especially the north section, is really good, too. I like the way that it is wearing in.
Have I mentioned lately how much I'm loving my Intense Tracer VP? I'll have an in depth review of it up shortly. I promise. Really.
For our weekly Tuesday nighter, we met up in South Boulder at the Marshall Mesa trailhead. GB Matty and I used to ride that all the time 10 years ago when all that was legal and open was Community Ditch and lower Doudy Draw. Now with more trail opened to bikes and more trails built recently, it's actually a pretty good network of trails.
We were thankful to need a map. None of us had ridden down there and we just had to doublecheck that we knew what we were doing. South Boulder has really blossomed into a great riding area. It's only going to get better, too.

Today I was able to sneak out for a quick lunch lap with OBs Chad and Jeremy. We left town heading up 36 for a quickie. Up Antelope and down the Rock Garden and back to town. As we rode out on 36, I couldn't help but recall how crappy that road used to be just a few years ago. It was narrow, no shoulder, and nowhere to go off the side of the road due to a close in cliff. Now we've got a wide on street bike path and a crusher fine trail right beside it. Much mo better now.
So what's all this have to do with Advocates and Volunteers? Without them, none of this wouldv'e been doable. Antelope Trail was a gift from the BLM that stipulated multi use recreation. BMA stepped in and helped get it built. Likewise with Picture Rock and Wild Turkey at Heil. You can thank BMA for those babies, too. Without their persistent lobbying and selfless trailwork dedication, we probably wouldn't have either of those trails in our local aresenal. Ditto that on South Boulder. Same with the bike path on 36. If Lyons pro trails folk had not lobbied for it's existence, CDOT never would've built the road bike friendly. So thanks all Advocates and Volunteers that had a hand in all of this. Mountain biking in Boulder County is alive and well. And flourishing.

Pink Hope Mono Minis

Wow, anyone seen these yet? Pink Hope Mono Mini brakes, complete with flowers laser etched into a 160mm floating rotor. They're on closeout, too. $175/wheel. Not too many left either. Just thought you'd want to know...

Do Not Watch the Arc

A lot of folks ask me what I like about Intense Cycles. Why I ride them and why I choose to sell them. Well, the answer is simple, really. They are great riding bikes and Intense is a solid crew that builds everything themselves.

Check out Jeff Steber from Intense's latest video and see why there are so many die hard Intense loyalists...

SSWC

Chad's Going. Watch out Durango.

Tuesday Ride 2/3

South Boulder! It's about time, too. We finally have the right combination of weather and trail conditions to go hit some new night legal terrain in the Marshal Mesa universe. Bring lots of battery power because we need to cover some ground. Singlespeed friendly, too.

Meeting at Redstone at 6 so we'll be down there (Marshal Mesa trailhead right off Hwy 93) around 6:45 or so.

Bmx?

So, I decided to have a couple of friends over today. I knew they were good, but they still managed to blow my mind with their bmx trickery. Matt Cordova, winner of the Lyons Outdoor Games Dirt Jump Competition, and his friend, who I didnt get many photos of, Garrett Drier, brought their bmx bikes and their bag of tricks to the Sam Powers Compound and tore it up.

Matt thought it would be fun to try out my custom painted Children's bike. It worked out pretty well.

Here I am, just trying to keep up.

Matt, throwing a tuck no-hander.

Tailwhip!!!

And here's Matt and Garrett. Matt looks to be fine-tuning the flat black 16-inch. Or, Dave thinks that Garrett is saying, "Mine's bigger than yours!"

Hope Pro 2 Stan's Flow 29er bling

Aaron's been waiting anxiously for these babies to be completed. Check them out. What a great looking wheelset.


These wheels are red Hope Pro 2 hubs (135qr disc rear, 20mm disc front) laced up to Hope 29" Flow rims, DT Comp Spokes, and red aluminum nipples. They were built in a standard 3 cross pattern for strength and durability.
Light, too. Especially for a bombproof 29er wheelset for a big boy.

They laced up and tensioned beautifully as well. Stan's Arch and Flow rims, despite being non eyeletted, are quickly becoming some of my favorites. Especially for the big wheeled crowd.