The Taste of Dirt

I remember the first time by brother really actually hurt me. We were playing catch with a tennis ball and he got very confident that I could catch anything he threw at me, so he launched one. I got hit in the nose. So hard, that it just fell cold and blood started gushing out of both nostrils. His immediate response was to *sort of* compliment me by telling me how cool it was to get a double bloody nose. I have to say, I felt pretty proud of it; even though it hurt like crazy. And I went to tell my mom on him.

The taste of dirt was on my nephew's lips on Thanksgiving. We went to the Lake Arbor dirt jumps. He doesn't know what to be scared of yet and he sure did rip through several jumps for about an hour. Then comfort set in... and.... POW! His bars turned to the side on a landing and his face stopped him from skidding. I watched his head bounce on the ground (with his helmet) and the pause before the scream. I tried to pull the complimentary comment out: "That was a great wreck! Wow, I'm impressed!". Aidan looks at me with dirt on his mouth, a little bit of tears and lots of rage in his eyes and says exactly what I first thought when I had a double-bloody-nose. "I DON'T CARE!".

He got back on the bike within 10 minutes and was doing the same jump within the half hour.

"Gotta get back on the horse"

Aidan: Giant STP 125
Carl: Bridgestone MB4
Andres: Mountain Cycle Hardtail
Scott: Brooklyn Park Bike

Three Sisters walk into a bar

We rode Three Sisters today. Everyone wrecked atleast once. Everyone will be sore tomorrow. And everyone ate too much food afterwards. It was a blast. I can now endorse the follow items whole heartedly: 1) The Giant Trance (Holy Crap) 2. Adidas El Moro Shoes #3 Rock Shox Reba 100mm (Zero Problems) 4. Chickening out of hairy sections (5) The Louis Garneau Gemini Jacket (Just right on everything).

Please enjoy the photos and come along on the next ride.

The Race I Want

I want there to be a new kind of race. It will be a race to not make cycling companies more money, but to have the cycling companies make better bikes. I want a race that will be fun for everyone involved. It will have a little mystery and a little flair. Here goes:

Racers gather at a destination with a properly tuned bike and tires selected. This is where the race gets different. They don't know what kind of race it will be. It could be road followed by a downhill course. It could be a short track cyclocross style course followed by an uphill scramble. There should be 4 or 5 different variations, but only 2 used. Perhaps, even the list of events could change. Maybe for the final race of the series, you just have one event. Or maybe all of them! Fun.

The reason this could draw some attention is because the cycling giants that be would have to produce a bicycle that could work on the road, in the mud, on downhill rock gardens, in the air, etc. The industry needs the specialization to keep it going financially. This would be the jack of all trades bike. It would change the whole market if it were successful.

My prediction about the winning bike would be this: 29" wheels, front suspension, maybe a soft tail. Tires would be somewhat tacky, mostly slick. Super light tough wheels, probably Mavics, and the rest doesn't make enough difference to comment on.

I hope this race happens someday. Maybe I will have to put it on.

Denver Film Cycle

I should've posted this a long time ago. Sorry DFC...

There is a film festival today and tomorrow in Denver specifically for bicycles. Pretty cool idea from some great people. If you are interested in finding out more, go to http://www.eleventooth.com/dfc.html. Lots of good stuff happening. I will be speaking on the physical happenings of a wheel at 6:30 on Saturday in the Science Building.

I believe this is going to be an overwhelming success and there will be more people than seat by a 3 to 1 margin. All of this goes to benefit the Derailer cycle co-op. Derailer is a bunch of kids doing the right thing and getting pushed around by the man (mostly because the man is cross-eyed and gun happy)

See you there.

29ers 29ers 29ers

This may be an obvious post, but I want people to know about this.
29ers are 700c mountain bikes. The tires would be like 700x60s. Big tires. Big rims.
The 29er technology is finally catching up to the frame builders who reached their stride really quickly. If you haven't ridden a 29er in the mountains, you need to.
Advantages:
They roll over things more easily.
The foot print that the larger tire makes is much larger (25% and up)
Climbing is easier because of the last 2 listed
Because of the size of the tires and wheels, suspension is much less necessary for the rough stuff.

Disadvantages:
Still not much of a selection on tires and forks
In tight singletrack techy sections, you may find you need to go slower to clear quick turns.

All in all, if you are over 5'7" you may be a candidate to go faster with less effort. We are getting in Kona Unit 29ers for demo and I would love to show off the ti black sheep that gets parked at the shop. We believe that if you go on a familiar trail that is not ski lift style, you will go faster. The builder for Black Sheep went about 15% faster on his favorite loop in Fort Collins, on his first ever 29er ride. That was enough for me to be impressed.

Favorite 29 tires: Maxxis Ignitor
Favorite 29 frames: Black Sheep
Favorite 29 rims: Salsa Delgados (I hear rumors of Mavic soon...)
Favorite 29 fork: Black Sheep (lots of healthy flex)

Have fun. Go ride.

Snowy Ride in Buffalo Creek

3 of us went to Buffalo Creek because we *heard* it was dry... it wasn't.
As we drove up, we realized that the insider info was wrong. Lots of snow.

(This was the first ride on the new demo fleet of Giant Anthems)

We parked at the ranger station and started our climb. On the for road up, there was a bunch of puddles that were coated with ice. The fire road soon turned to ice and snow. Not the easiest climb I've experienced. The bike was fish tailing all over the place. We finally found the entrance to the trail. It was a hike of about 200 yards in snow at least a foot deep to get to a ridable place. For about 6 miles, that was what we faced. Sections of snow that we hiked and sections of sort-of-trail that we rode. Both Chris and Scott flipped over the bars twice during the ride. Both times landing in snow with a large eruption of laughter. No broken bones or bikes, just bruises. The descent was decent. We all got really wet and muddy which was fantastic. At the bottom of the ride where we had crossed over from puddles to ice, we stopped and defrosted our frozen feet in the sun. After a good 15 minutes we were refreshed and warm, so we moved on. The last section of the trail was a little tiny loop before the car. It was easily the fastest most fun part of the day. Lots of scary icy and snowy turns with pine straw for added uncertainty. Fun fun fun stuff.

Dave - Surly Cross check
Chris - BlackSheep FS Ti
Scott - Giant Anthem (1st ride with)

Researching a bike

Mountain bikes are starting to sell again. Mostly because people are buying more than one bike for different riding. They are starting to follow a trend toward simplicity on one side and over complexity on the other side. Examples are single speed 29ers and Santa Cruz's Virtual Pivot Point (VPP). These two machines can be compared only a little and contrasted everywhere. The main thing that they have in common is that given the right person on the right size, these bikes are FUN. People are getting so caught up in the technology and weight and over-toughness that they are losing sight of the thing that matters: riding the bike. My advice to those who are considering a fully rigid bike because it appeals to you is to ride one. See what you think. The same goes for people who want suspension. Go ride one. What will happen is what I call the "at home factor". If the bike feels at home, you will enjoy riding it. If it doesn't feel right, you will not enjoy it. You cannot expect to have the feeling of "at home on a bike" if you have not ridden many bikes. My advice to the new rider is pick out 3 bikes that appeal to your sense of what a bike should be and go try it. Buy the one that feels the *most* at home so that you will have a great bike to start with. When you are ready to buy a new bike in a few seasons, you will have defined your needs and wants because you will have a vocabulary of what you like and don't like. And all that time in between you will be having a blast without doing all that insane research. Research what trails you want to explore instead. Look up the trail photos on Google Image Search.