Well, we planned a shop ride, and it went off without anybody from the shop. Fortunately Danny showed up, just a little late, and managed to save face for us and reeled in the riders. Normal north foothills loop, there was a handful of guys riding and fun was had by all.
Then leftovers, along with beer, tequila, and rum, was consumed in quantity:
We were smart enough to hang a hammock precariously high off the ground that day:
Nobody was having any fun:
We received a fantastic gift this week, a masturbating monkey necklace that Richaround acquired somewhere and new it belonged here:
The holidays are here. The shop is slow, the weather is cold, it's our season to goof off a bit. Getting very excited about a day of snow cat snowboarding in Monarch that we are beginning to plan. Ohhh thats going to be good.
And lastly, something bike related. Just finished installing a bunch of XTR parts that were purchased on Pricepoint, and brought to me for installation, which as many people know, is quite a pet peeve for those of us at the local bike shop (as Rule #58 states: Never buy bikes, parts or accessories online. Going into your local shop, asking myriad inane questions, tying up the staff’s time, then going online to buy is akin to sleeping with your best friend’s wife, then having a beer with him after. You may as well go into your local shop and spit in the owners face. Online is evil and will be the death of the bike shop. If you enter a shop with parts you have bought online and expect them to fit them, be prepared to be told to see your online seller for fitting and warranty help.)
I was looking at Pricepoint with a customer, who was using the website to shop for stuff and then come in here to buy from me, which is awesome. I noticed the headset he was referring to was listed with a $90 suggested retail: Iodine C headset at Pricepoint, and is on sale for $70 at 22% off (such a deal). Then I got onto QBP's website, the biggest bike parts distributor in the US, and found that same headset with a suggested retail of $70. ZING! Pricepoint is here to make money too, and they aren't your friend! $70 is what every LBS should sell this for, at most.
So, there's that. I'm done now, typing one handed totally sucks.
Firstly, a new fun event is happening Saturday. I know, this is last minute notice, but don't pretend like you are so organized that you already knew what you where doing Saturday anyway.
We don't know exactly how it's going to be run, but I'm pretty sure it's going to be fun.
Secondly, many of you have heard by now, but there is a recall of the infamous Magicshine light battery, check out details here:
I find this kind of satisfying, as the Magicshine has irritated me since the day I heard about them. Blatant rip-off of the Lupine Tesla light, the Magicshine promised unbelievable lumen output for hundreds less than their competitors. At 24 Hours of Old Pueblo last year, I started hearing rumors of the chargers and batteries not being UL rated, and of things catching on fire while charging. This all came from a sales rep for another light company, so I didn't think too much of it, but found the info entertaining. Well, 8 months later, I guess some other people have had similar problems:
What should I do with my battery now? We recommend that you store them outside in a safe, protected place. Your recall notice will give more information.
Outside in a safe, protected place? Are things exploding? Spontaneous combustion? The thing that bothered me most about the Magicshine was their astronomically false claims about lumen output. Our un-scientific tests comparing the Magicshine to similarly rated lights from Lupine and Light and Motion, in the shop bathroom, led us to believe that outputs were exaggerated by at least double, if not triple the actual amount.
So, while your Magicshine battery sits in your back yard, in a cement bunker, come on by and check out some of the lights we have from Light n Motion. Made in the good ol' USA, passing all sorts of pesky safety regulations, subject to irritating EPA regulations, these things are extremely reliable, have extremely bright output, and are a good value to boot. How about 25% off any Light and Motion light if you trade in your Magicshine. We'll take all the batteries, pile them in one place, and see if anything burns down or explodes.
That's all, I'm done gloating about the Magicshine.
Lastly, we're working on a regular night ride again, now that it's getting properly cold. Tuesday night seems to be the best night for many. We leave from the shop as early as possible, usually that means at the trailhead by 6:45 or so. Hopefully we will be out this coming Tuesday, probably north foothills from Ebudito trailhead, so keep it in mind, and I'll let you all know if we're gonna make it or not soon.
Awesome, thanks for reading, and thanks for coming into our shop and buying stuff and letting us fix your bikes and allowing us to live the dream and play with bikes for a living.
We've never been open on Black Friday before (the Friday after Thanksgiving), but we've got plans for this year!
So, meet up in the foothills, top of Montgomery Embudito, for a morning group mtb ride, 9am. We'll do a mellow turkey burner ride.
Then, back to the shop to open at noon. Everybody come on by, bring leftovers, a chair, and of course the beverage of your choice (as long as it's not Fat Tire, Blue Moon or Corona, yeah we're picky bastards). We are going to have a leftover potluck, watch bike movies of all sorts, drink plenty of beer, and generally try to work as little as possible.
That's our idea. So while everybody else is battling to the death for $12 laptops and $18 washing machines, come hide out with us, eat, drink, watch movies, and talk some trash.
Yesterday Danny and I (Lucero) participated in the Day of The Tread century, on our new tandem. I was on the back. The bike is a bit small for a 6 foot tall stoker, so I had a face full of Danny's bony back for the entire 100 miles... at least we have a good looking jersey.
We approached the ride with some trepidation, having both raced ourselves into the ground on Saturday's cross races, and also due to the fact that we had logged about 30 minutes on the bike so far. But everything went better than we could have hoped for, the weather was great, we had a big tailwind on the long climb up to Placitas, and the bike worked flawlessly.
The bike we rode is a San Rensho tandem, a beautiful and rare bicycle that received many complements along the ride. It was the first time I had spend more than a couple of minutes on the back of a tandem, and although the experience was intense at times, I'm happy to have done it, and I'm sure we'll be out terrorizing another century sooner than later.
The ride took us four and a half hours. We rode the whole time with our friends John and Brad, who were also on a tandem, and looking suave with matching Bikeworks jerseys (thanks guys).
Beyond that, we've just been knee deep in Cross season. Getting out to as many of the New Mexico Cross series races as we can. The races have been an absolute blast, well organized, fun courses, great atmosphere, what more can you ask for (except maybe free beer at the finish, but that probably won't happen until Bikeworks organizes a cross race). I encourage everybody to come and check it out.
I leave you with this, which was obviously written about our dear Swinton:
We had a crew of 7 head up for a South Boundary adventure on Sunday. Parked at the bottom, and shuttled ourself up to the Palo Flascado pass, to do Elliot Barker portion of the ride.
It helps to have a big truck every so often.
Unfortunately, we weren't 10 miles in to the ride when Scott "got all Scott" on his wheel, and broke it in a very unfixable way:
Thats Marc and I making a valiant attempt to re-hab a blown up freehub body, but it was to no avail. Pedaling the bike was useless, as it would just freewheel forward.
So, rather than doing the logical thing and turning back, hiking for maybe an hour and spending the next 4 hours waiting in the truck for us to return, Scott decided to "harden the f*ck up" and just finish the ride anyway:
We took turns helping him push the bike up hills, we towed and pushed each other along the flat sections, and then on the descents, Scott would hop back on his ride and proceed to school us as usual.
The leaves were changing, and the views were fantastic.
Danny was looking lovely in the most worn out, stretched out, gnarly pair of shorts I've seen in a while:
And Charlie was looking lovely because he is Charlie, and is always looking lovely:
It was so much fun.
I have a GPX file for the ride, if you are interested in going and checking it out. I don't think the route we took is the most common one, but according to my sources, it is the best way to go.
Researchers at Granada University in Spain have come across a discovery that will undoubtedly please athletes and sports enthusiasts - a pint of beer post-workout or match is better at rehydrating the human body than water.
Professor Manuel Garzon, a member of Granada's medical faculty, made the finding after tests on 25 students over several months. Researchers believe that it is the sugars, salts, and bubbles in a beer that may help people absorb fluids more quickly.
The subjects in the study were asked to run on a treadmill at temperatures of 104F (40C) until they were close to exhaustion. Once they had reached the point of giving up, researchers measured their hydration levels, motor skills, and concentration ability.
Half of the subjects were given two half pints of Spanish lager to drink, and the other half were given just water.
Garzon said that the rehydration effection in those who were given beer was "slightly better" than those who were given only water. He also believes that the carbon dioxide in beer helps quench thirst more quickly, and that beer's carbohydrates replace calories lost during physical exertion.
The average person loses around 1 liter (33oz) of water for every hour of exercise in sweat. Rehydrating after a workout is crucial, as a lack of hydration is more likely to make one feel tired, fuzzyheaded, and suffer from headaches.
Based on the results of the study, researchers recommend moderate consumption of beer as a part of athletes' diets. "Moderate consumption" for men is 500ml per day, and for women is 250ml per day.
So that explains why Babe Ruth was so good. His method of training was nearly 100 years ahead of its time.
That explains why everybody who comes and hangs out at Bikeworks after their ride is so fast!
And our buddy Chris, who never misses anything cool and bike related that pops up on the interweb, gave us a heads up about Commencal's new Supreme DH pics that Dirt had pics of:
First thing I thought of when I saw the new design was my old German freeride bike, Der Fusion Whiplash, that I aquired whilst at Manitou (they aren't imported into the U.S.) Shock placement, rocker placment, and shock mounted to the chainstays are all similar:
All winter long we do night rides in the freezing cold, working hard the whole time to stay convinced that we are having a good time. Then we talk about how nice it will be in the summer to do some night rides, getting out late when it's finally cooled off from the day, and riding late into the night. Then summer comes, and we don't do it. Well at least I don't do it. My lights get put away after racing in February at Old Pueblo, and they don't come out again until I start thinking about racing Old Pueblo the following winter.
So last night I got out for what may have been my first late night summer ride, and it was freaking awesome! I met Charlie and Richaround at about 9:30, which was the earliest I could make it up to the foothills after getting my boy to bed. It had rained earlier in the day, the trails were as grippy as the north foothills can be, but not a spot of mud anywhere. And as an added bonus, there was a full moon (or very close to a full moon). The air was cool with more humidity than usual, of course we didn't see anybody else on the trail, and we had a great time.
As we finished the ride and rolled up to our cars, it started to rain again. We had timed our ride perfectly. A post ride beer sitting in the battlewagon, watching the rain fall on the windshield, BS'ing and reminiscing about causing trouble as kids and the assorted things that were chosen to be thrown at vehicles in the search for entertainment (eggs, water balloons, dirt clods, and of course pastry dough).
It was one of the most fun rides I've had in the North Foothills, and completely worth sacrificing a couple of hours of sleep for. So from now on, the after-the-kids-are-asleep ride will no longer be a thing of myth. I'll give a heads up next time we're planning on getting out late, and maybe some of you will join us.
In shop news, almost all or our sponsored racers are up in Crested Butte this weekend, racing their little hearts out just because they love Bikeworks so much and want to make us look good.
Our boy Alex will be there racing XC and trying to follow up with his Super D win at Angel Fire a few weeks ago
He did the race on our Transition Covert demo bike, and has borrowed it again for this weekend. I hear in Angel fire he beat 2nd place by something like 20 seconds. Beefcake! Clearly, it was because of the bike.
In other racing news, Swinton took a win in the A race at the Tuesday Night Crits this week. He was there supposedly to help out our buddy Bradner, who is currently leading the points race for the TNC's and should be in good shape to take the win for the series. However, Swinton being the glory stealing attention whore, took off solo with three laps to go and solo'd for the win, leaving Bradner to fend for himself. We're very proud of Danny though, congrats.
This coming Tuesday is the finale of the Tuesday Night Crit Series. I believe we will be there in Bikeworks style (i.e. BBQ and beer) to cheer on our racers and heckle anybody who looks like they are taking things too seriously (it is a training race, remember). So come on by and join us. Hopefully we'll have a jersey or two winning a race or two, and if not, we'll at least have grilled meat and beer.
That's about all I've got. Going out to Tunnel, meeting our favorite Doctor at 8am if anybody is interested in watching me flog myself around Otero on my singlespeed. Now I've got to go check out Bike Snob, haven't checked his site all week, I've got catching up to do.
A sweet little pump track jam went down on Sunday at our buddy Gerhardt's place. Thanks to Gerhardt, Commencal, and of course Bikeworks, some sweet prizes were to be had. And thanks to Long Nguyen, some sweet photos were taken. Check it all out over at Long's blog:
Hopefully more of these events will happen in the future. It seems like pump tracks are popping up in yards all over the city lately. Soon we'll have enough to potentially have a series of sorts.
This is a Commencal Skin, full carbon 26" hardtail. Built with Sram XX Gruppo, and Edge rims on American Classic hubs with DT Swiss Aero spokes. Also, we took a 150mm DT Swiss fork with a 15mm thru axle, and shrank it down to 130mm. Also, he is trying out Hope's newest lightest Race something or rather brakes, which have an unbelievable amount of machining on them and seem pretty sweet. The bike came out at just over 21 pounds, with some fairly heavy tires on it (700 something gram UST WTB's). With some lighter tires, it'll be under 21 lbs easily. Not the lightest carbon hardtail in the world. However, we have no concerns with putting a 200lb powerhouse like Charlie on this bike, so all things considered, it's pretty freaking light.
A staunch believer in the "more bikes is better" mantra, Charlies other other new bike rolled in the door the same day I was building his Commencal:
A few weeks ago Lynksey put a notice up on their website that they now had a Lefty compatible Pro 29 frame available, complete with BB30 bottom bracket. Well, it was just ridiculous enough to get Charlie to bite. It came in yesterday. The lefty is their second lightest one made, at just under 3 lbs, it's all carbon-y and lopsided looking and stuff. We haven't quite settled on how this is going to be built, or if it's even going to have gears or be a single speed (the frame is equally adept at both). I say "we" because clearly this isn't up to Charlie, but more of a group decision.
German makers of ridiculous bike parts Tune recently unveiled a Lefty compatible hub, that weighs just 86 grams. It currently has my vote for this bike. Of course, he would have to get their new rear hub to match:
This rear hub has one moving part, has magnets in the freehub body (instead of spring, I think), and weighs just 150 grams. How much does it cost? No idea. But it sure looks radtarded to me.
Busy day at the shop. Drinking beer and watching the Lobos play. At least the beer is good, because the game is disgusting.
I don't think anybody hates Daylight Savings more than Swinton. Seriously, most everybody I know finds it stupid and annoying, but I wonder if Danny might get violent over it some day. He has become convinced that the next Governor of New Mexico could be elected on an Anti-Daylight saving platform, and nothing else. Fortunately, we have returned to the reasonable side of the deal. More light in the evening, when normal people who have normal jobs and lives are awake, as opposed to more light at 5 am, when sane people are still snuggly in bed. I rode home this evening from work with my sunglasses on. It was fantastic. The only downside of the "spring forward" change? Trying to convince my toddler that it is bedtime despite the fact that the sun is out.
Bikeworks regular Donovan found a new good reason to own a Maverick fork this evening:
We loaned him our flatbed bike trailer so that he could tow a bike home that was at the shop for repair (he is one of the more dedicated commuters we know). As we were about to load a bike onto the trailer, Donovan noticed that the frame of the trailer looked awfully close in size to the axle of the Maverick hub. Sure enough, it wasn't the exact size, but the fork clamped onto the frame with minimal adjustment. Being a bunch of giant bike nerds, we found it endlessly entertaining.
If you are one of the many people planning on racing the San Ysidro Dirty Century next weekend, keep an eye out for Donovan. He'll be out there sporting a Bikeworks jersey, and probably putting the hurt on a few people. As I understand it, there is a 74 person limit, and 68 people are now registered, if not more. Quite the popular event.
Well, I'm going snowboarding in Taos tomorrow. Just a one day trip, as much as I'd like to stay and eat fancy meals and ride for a few days, it's just not in the plans. So if you were planning on coming to the shop tomorrow and admiring my general awesomeness and stunning good looks, you'll just have to wait til Thursday, or make do with Danny and Tony for the day.
So it was beautiful out yesterday, which didn't do me much good as I was stuck in the shop. Then it was very nice looking early this morning, when I was awake, but didn't want to be awake (the toddler decides when it's time to get up, as many of you know). Then, about the time of morning that I start thinking about going for a ride, it was suddenly snowing and very crappy looking out. Then, a couple hours later, bam! Sun is out again. I quickly got my things together, went and picked up Paul, and headed for the south foothills. I was a little surprised at how few people were out there today. I was expecting there to be a swarm headed up to the trails as soon as the sun popped out, but it was actually pretty low traffic. Paul and I got in a typical South foothills loop, which is getting a little repetitious after such a long winter, but it was particularly satisfying because it felt like we had cheated the weather. Not long into our ride we could see some serious clouds looming over the West Side. And not long after that, the clouds had made their way to us. We finished our ride, got in the battlewagon, and were pulling out of the parking lot just as raindrops began to fall and the wind really began to howl. HA! Take that you stupid never-ending winter! You give me 3 hours of sunshine, and I will make the most of it. I was pretty proud of myself.
As we drove away, I had this song in my head....
BRAIN DJ! BOOYA!
I would like you to notice that the above video has a 5 star rating, with 4,706 votes, and has been viewed 2,514,471 times in the past couple years. What does that mean? I'm thinking it's time for Sir Mix Alot's comeback and world tour, personally. This song has a tendency to come on one of the Pandora stations we often listen to at the shop. And when it does, it has a tendency to be awesome and get stuck in my head for at least the rest of the day. The only downside? No Albuquerque shout out.
So I haven't been posting as much lately. Mostly because of Mario Kart. I have been playing the hell out of some Mario Kart lately, and my "posting on the website" time and my playing Mario Kart time are the same time of the night. Sometimes you have to make priorities.
For at least the past week I've been meaning to get some nice pictures posted of the shop, now that it is all put back together a pretty. It really is an amazing difference. However, I have not taken those pictures. If you haven't been by yet, you should come by and give us lots of compliments about how awesome it looks, because that makes us happy. And while you are there, you should help us drink out beer. Last week we picked up a keg of Marble Brewery's Triple IPA. It is a big mean beautiful beer, and incredibly strong, which means it will probably take us a while to get through the whole thing. So do Dan and Dan's livers a favor and come drink a couple with us.
One of our regulars just dropped off two external hard drives, both full of music. Nearly a terabyte of music, he said. That's approximately a bazillion songs. That is going to be fun for a while.
It seems like most everybody who rides a mountain bike headed up to Sedona this weekend for some good times. Apparently the Sedona "Spring Fling" mountain bike gathering is a regular thing, although to the best of my knowledge I've never really heard of it before. Perhaps I'm just not cool enough to get invited along.
Have you all heard about the 24 Hours in the Enchanted Forest Race yet? http://www.24enchantedforest.com/ New Mexico finally has it's own 24 hour race! It's looking like the plan is a casual, 4 or 5 person Bikeworks Team. My goals will be a successful first camping trip with my wife, son, and new baby (coming in May), and a camp fire with beer flowing for the entire race. I think that sounds good.
Well, I'm trying to think of what other awesomeness has happened lately, but mostly I just want to put the computer away and get on with some serious Mario Karting.
So tomorrow evening, I'm thinking we conduct the same test on Danny, but with a beer. Of course there's no shortage of beer around the shop, so maybe we can get 2 really special beers. Or maybe the whole thing would be better with food. Like a breakfast burrito test in the morning, except the first burrito has to be small enough that it will certainly not be completely satisfying. Hmmm, there's a lot of potential here.
Richaround made the mistake of mentioning that he brain-dj'd himself at 4am yesterday with the Shaun The Sheep theme song (i.e. it was stuck in his head and he couldn't fall back asleep). I feel it is my obligation as his friend to take advantage of this information, and attempt to get it repeatedly stuck in his head as often as possible.
Never expose your weaknesses in the bikeshop, they will be exploited. Bwah ha ha ha!
In Beer news, our empty keg situation has been remedied in the form of a keg of Marble's Double IPA. Consensus has been good so far. It is definitely a strong beer. I am personally surprised that it is as light and crisp as it is, considering that it is a "double" IPA. My first thought was that it reminded me of Il Vicino's Wet Mountain IPA, a beer with which I am extremely familiar. I might be completely wrong here, but I'm guessing they are both using a common strain of hops, perhaps Cascade hops, giving them both that extremely hoppy and slightly citrus-y distinction. Like our previous keg, this one seems to be a bit of a sleeper. It's listed at about 9% ABV, but you wouldn't guess it after one sip. After two pints though, you might believe it.
In other beer news, I learned about a local beer blog which I became enamored, and then grew angry with, all within a few hours. The site is www.abqbeergeek.com It is a local guy keeping tabs on Albuquerque's beer scene, something which I can definitely appreciate. He's calling crappy sneakers "bobo's", which I know Danny can appreciate. He's catching Sunflower Market in severely marking up beer to create the appearance of sale prices while still over charging, which I appreciate knowing about as well. Just when I have bookmarked the site, I come across some unwarranted cyclist bashing:
I also have a problem with the "Fat Tire" bicycle. I don't like those super heavy, junky looking old-style bikes, and people who ride them look like dumbasses. They could possibly be at top of the list of idiotic looking bike riders, surpassing people on tandem bikes and people dressed for the Tour De France. Ever see a whole family on a bicycle for four, complete with the little yellow trailer with the youngest kid attached to the back? Ever wanted to unlatch the trailer as they ride by? Later, Aidan! And what's with the full cycling regalia (sponsor jersey, padded spandex, aerodynamic helmet, etc.) these people wear? You are riding past a strip mall on Eubank Blvd., not through a mountain pass in the Pyreness.
Bummer that the dude wants to kill cyclists' kids riding in bike trailers. I was considering sending him a note to let him know that we'll be getting another keg of Gordons on the way soon, and that we'll be giving it away for free (as far as we know, you can't get Gordon's on tap anywhere else in the city). It's not even a funny rant about cyclist, it's just a little bit contrived. And I'm gonna guess when he said "tandem" he meant "recumbent". It must be tiring when something as simple as a person wearing lycra makes you angry.
Well, I've been off the bike for 2 weeks now due to a sore back. I'm not really convinced I'm going to be up and running for Old Pueblo any more. Two weeks down, not much improvement on the back, and just five days left to get feeling better. I'll still go out either way, worst case scenario is that Marc takes my place on the 2 man team with Danny. Then I'll go out on my own possibly, see how many laps I'm good for. Maybe it'll be fine. Or maybe one lap will kill me, and then I'll have no choice but to drink heavily for the next 22.5 hours. I guess I kind of win either way. Hmmm, maybe I need a bigger cooler for this trip...
Dang. That was from the first FOO ride, when we were trying to keep trails from getting closed out at Otero. We all rode out to the fire tower and hung some banner and took a pic.
Paul wanted to know how old the pic was. I'm gonna say 2002, or 2003.
This was shortly before I got as cold as I have ever been in my life. We got caught in a wicked hail storm right as we left the fire tower, rode down the canyon hub deep in a river filled with hail, got hypothermia. Danny got a flat and wanted to leave the bike in a tree and run for it.
Every day I see guys getting stoked in the shop, and that of course, gets me stoked.
(warning, there is a handful of f-bombs dropped in this video. I know, you can't believe we would associate ourselves with offensive language, we're sorry.)
We finished off the keg of Gordons yesterday. It was a sad moment, the end of a glorious keg. I felt inspired to write a poem in it's honor, but a Haiku, not a regular poem, because I didn't want to try too hard.
The Gordons is gone It was a glorious keg Gordon will be back
Man! I'm a freaking poet!
So we ran out of beer, but we are in good hands. Our beloved customers have delivered a 12er of Dales, a 6er of Stone IPA, and a growler of Marble Imperial Stout in the past 2 days. And our friends over at Marble just informed us that the double IPA is now on tap regularly. Perhaps that should be our next keg? I had been thinking that we would limit our beer to one keg a month for this year, you know, in an attempt to control spending and all. Fortunately, the new month starts awfully soon.
Managed to hork my back this week, so I'm not going to be riding this weekend. Fortunately the mountain biking is extremely limited at the moment, so it won't be so hard. Resisting snowboarding however, that's getting a little tough.
I just finished building a Lynskey Pro29 for a certain doctor customer friend of ours. It has some stinky light Stan's wheels, a Sram XX drivetrain, a few light bits here and there, and it is wicked sweet. It weighs in at a whopping 21.75lbs with pedals, sealant in the tires, and Kenda Karma tires. Not bad at all. I should put a pic up to accompany, but I'm not, because I don't feel like it at the moment. So there.
Well, that's about all this poet has to share for now. Unfortunately, the growler of stout has been finished off while I've had my back turned, typing on the computer. Life is so unfair.
