Riding High

I went to Palmer park in Colorado Springs for a mountain bike ride at dusk last night. IT WAS FUN. So, much fun that I had to put it in CAPS. I went with one of the leaders of Ride Against The Machine, our team of fun-loving-but-not-snotty racers.

We went up and down and up and down and up and down. Then we stopped because the trail ended...



So, we turned around and had a blast going down. Palmer park is one of the most fun biking spots in all of Colorado. It is friendly enough for newbies, but can be challenging enough for the seasoned veteran. The only thing that sucks is all the High School kids smoking pot (everywhere). As a tip to the police, ride your bikes through Palmer Park at dusk if you need to bust some kids for marijuana. As a tip to cyclists, be aware that these kids have no trail etiquette. And it is okay because it is fun to scare stoners.

It is hard to leave Palmer Park without a smile on your face. We left sad that we had to leave, but the sun was gone already.

Bike Review: Jamis Dakar XAM (which we have a demo of for you to ride): Fun. Fast. Comfy. Great Climbing. Heavy (steady). Easy on the eyes. Great parts spec for the money. Faster than you would expect.

At 4 years of age

We are 4 years old on Saturday. And for our birthday, we are giving away some stuff. What stuff? Well that has to be a surprise. If you are on the mailing list, you know some of the surprises, but you don't know everything. (By the way, feel free to share the "password" with friends who aren't on the mailing list yet.)

Come by the shop and celebrate with us from 10am till 7pm!

This is a thank you to everyone who has sent a friend in; To everyone who has come and shared their Sunday morning with us; To everyone who came out to the July 4th Bicycle Swappy Swap; To people who we love and who love us back.

When this business opened, people told us that if we lasted 1 year, we would be in the upper 75% and we would have made it. When we turned 1, "they" said it would take 3 years to be a sound business that would be around for a while. At the 3rd birthday, "they" moved it right up to 10 years. What are they gonna say at 10 years?!? 25? 40? Haha...

We are honored that Denver has responded to Salvagetti in this way. We plan to continue to make Denver a better place to live.

Join us.

This is how it should be done!

This is nutty. Just keep watching. It is worth it.

French Bottom Brackets and the like

Please note that Salvagetti Bicycle Workshop is here for the greater good, not to pick fights with people who have strong opinions about weak products.

We see lots of cool old Peugeots and Motobecanes at the shop here. Some of them are rare specimens and some are run-of-the-mill-but-loved-all-the-same. The trouble with French bikes is that the French felt (and who knows if they were right?) that they knew more than the rest of the planet about bicycles. In addition to the geometry being for a select few types of people (oh wait, am I saying they may have been wrong?), the stem and bottom bracket are completely proprietary. This means that the French would have needed to keep making the correct parts and tools in order to keep their good name alive.

And.
They.
Haven't.

And those who love the old French bikes are in for a few interesting discoveries which I will list quickly:

1. The geometry is entirely too long for most folks to ride comfortably.
2. The stems and headsets work together and must be swapped for similar spec'd (and not available new) parts. This limits severely the ability to fit bicycles to their owners.
3. And lastly (for now), the bottom bracket is its own thing all together. Phil Wood does make one but...

You cannot *easily* get the tools to repair any of the French threads. If you find old tools, you are lucky, but not necessarily set up, to get things done.

We recently ran into this problem with several bikes and we are searching out alternative solutions that don't involve a RIG*.
So, the lesson here is that if you MUST get a French bike then you MUST ride it and you MUST get it checked to see if it is something that will work out for you.


*Rigs are using something that isn't made for something else for a different purpose that is gonna probably FAIL!