Race results from the weekend:

At the National Champs races this past weekend in Sol Vista, CO. Bikeworks had a large contingent of team members racing.
Pictured above are Jake, Tone, and Sean (left to right).  Jake finished 2nd in Cat 2 4X, Tone finished 5th in Cat 2 DH (25-29), and Sean finished 1st in Cat 2 4X and 5th in Cat 2 DH (19-25).  Looking good fellas.

Furthermore, Bikeworks racer Matson Hunter is the Cat 1 4X National Champ, taking 1st in the 19-25 age group.  The boy will be pro soon.

Locally, Bikeworks racer Alex Leonard took 2nd Place in Cat1 19-29 at the Sandia Crest race.  3rd place overall in Cat 1.

In other racing news, Bikeworks is the new sponsor for the UNM Lobos cycling team.  We are excited about it, and they are excited about it. So everybody is excited, and that is good.  

Speaking of UNM, there is a new race this year that the UNM Cycling team is putting together.  It is the "Back to School Special", taking place on August 28th and 29th.  There will be a XC race on the 28th around Oak Flats, and a DH race on the 29th going off from Cedro Peak.
For more info, call or come by the shop. We have flyers with all the info, but I'm not sure those details are up on the Interweb anywhere yet.

And if anybody from the Bikeworks crew was out racing, and I've left you out, send me a note and let me know.

Pajarito Video, Commencal Supreme DH Prototype

Our buddy Larry put this video together of the Pajarito Punishment DH race that went down a few weeks ago:


Pajarito Punishment DH 2010 from lawrence atencio on Vimeo.

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:

http://dirt.mpora.com/news/world-exclusive-commencal-unveil-prototype-downhill-team-bike.html

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:

http://www.fusionbikes.de/pconf/product-configurator.htm?id=8

Although it's all about the details, and I'm sure the Commencal is going to have the details all worked out.

Love you, bye.

Late Night Riding

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.

Love you, bye.

Dawn 'til Dusk; a success story!

Last September I found myself in Vegas with Tony and Danny for the trade show.  Wandering along the strip with bottles of Crown in Coke in hand, we stopped at the big crazy fountain show in front of Caesars palace, which is impressive no matter how many times I see it. 
I'm standing there, thinking about the how incredibly powerful the water jets must be, that there must be a crazy maze of pipes and pumps and compressors underneath the pool.  Danny, I believe, was thinking about how hungry he was, and how a whole bunch of Crown and Coke on an empty stomach may be a bad idea.
Tony then let us know what he was thinking... that he wanted a house with a pool the size of the one in front of Caesars, so he could ride jet ski's in it.

The point of my story is when Tony goes for it, he goes big.  So for his first ever XC race, naturally he decided that soloing a 12 hour race on his singlespeed would be a good choice.
Well I've received some text message updates that things at the race have gone very well.  The weather was very warm and calm, a relief to all who attended last year.  Bikeworks had what is likely our biggest showing of racers at an event so far.  Tony completed 5 laps, I am told, and Danny's Duo team with Guy Tan finished in 7th place, I'm guessing with 8 or 9 laps.  We also had Scott Spangler, Alex Leonard, Paul Trotman, William Lujan, and Donovan Womack all racing in Bikeworks jerseys, representing!

I haven't heard any more than that, but I am sure there are some worthy details and stories that I will be filled in on in the days to come, which I will share with the world if they include anything painful, embarrassing, or painfully embarrassing.

We were proud to be the main bike shop sponsor again this year for the race.  For our part, we donated over $600 worth of schwag, and also orchestrated the donation by National Distributing of a sweet New Belguim "Ranger IPA" cruiser, to be awarded to the winner of the Karaoke contest.  I know how badly Tony wants that cruiser, but is it enough to get him singing his little heart out?

I've been told that thank you's are in order for all the friends and family of the Bikeworks racers who were in attendance, providing hearty cheering and support.  As Tony reported, they all "killed it". 

In return for my incredibly responsible-ness of staying behind and dutifully operating our business while my partners raced, I requested some pictures when they returned, and nothing else.  So hopefully I'll have some pics to share soon.  And if not, that's it, I'm walking out, quitting forever.  Maybe Performance could use a new mechanic....

In other news,  I rode Cedro yesterday morning, and it was 99% dry and completely ride-able.  I suggest getting out there ASAP and remembering that there is more to mountain biking that the Foothills. It has been a long winter.
I have also been told that Otero is starting to look pretty good, but there are still plenty of muddy areas.  Guesses of 2 more weeks have been thrown out there, which sounds good enough to me.  Anybody know otherwise about Otero?

Thanks for reading
- Lucero

One more weekend of racing down the drain....

Well, we're back in the shop after another weekend of shutting down and racing bikes.

Danny and I finished 7th in the mens Duo at 24 Hours of Old Pueblo.  One place lower than last year.  Didn't quite perform as well as we had hoped.  At around 8:30 or 9 in the morning, we were both completely cooked and called it quits.  At that time we were comfortably sitting in 3rd place.  Unfortunately, the allure of standing on the podium wasn't quite strong enough to overcome the pain from some serious saddle sores that developed on lap eight, in case you were wondering. 

The success story of the weekend was Bikeworks' racer Scott Spangler, and his 2nd place finish in the men Duo.

That's him on the left, with his hand 14 feet up in the air.  After months of talking trash back and forth, Scott showed us up, putting in ten laps, while his partner got 9.

To peruse all the lap times and results, check here:
24 Hours of Old Pueblo Results Page

The race itself went pretty smooth.  We avoided any mechanicals or wrecks this year.  I almost hit a cow, which was a new one for me. 

Tony's race report was very succinct.  It turns out, not riding downhill bikes for several months is poor preparation for a downhill race.  On the positive side, he is now properly motivated to get trained and prepped for the upcoming season. 
Furthermore, he has registered for Dawn 'til Dusk in April, so he's got his first ever XC race to get ready for. 

The positive side of Danny and I quitting the race early was that we were able to pack up, rest up, and get out of the race venue by 12:30.  We caffeinated and made the entire drive back to Abq, rolling into town at about 8pm, much to the delight of our wives. 

On the way out of town, we were gassing up at a Circle K in Oracle, the closest town to the race venue.  While waiting for the worlds slowest gas pump to fill the tank, we were entertained by a gaggle of local Harley riding biker types.  I looked over at one guy just in time to watch him completely drop his bike on it's side, from about 1 mph, sending both he and his wife tumbling to the ground.  He jumped up immediately (impressively quick for an older, very over weight guy) to try and lift his hog and investigate the damage.  Two other guys came running to his aide.  Eventually, once the bike had been put upright, one of the helpers happened to look over and notice that the guy's wife was still laying on the ground, waving for help up.  He went over and helped her up, she limped around a little, but it seemed she was okay.  The husband had still not even looked over to check on his wife at this point, but was on his knees inspecting any damage to his ride. 
Danny and I sat in our car watching in amazement.  Happy Valentines day honey!

Just as we were laughing about the whole scene, we heard a sudden spraying and splashing sound.  Turns out, not only had I found the slowest gas pump in America, I found one that does not automatically shut off.  Gas was every where.  Awesome.

Well, that's about it.  If anybody has any cool pics from the race you want to share, please send em my way, over to bikeworksabq@gmail.com  I didn't really take any photos the entire weekend.

Ughhhhh

Wait.. what happened? Where did September go?

As you might have noticed, from our steady stream of announcements of not being open, this has been a whirlwind of a month for us.

But, we've gotten through the most of it, all the busy crazy-ness, and we're back to business as usual.

Danny's wedding was a treat for us all.


That's a pic of Danny, as dressed up as you will ever see him, and his father.

Then Dan was off on a honeymoon for a few days, and shortly after his return, I took off to participate in the mayhem that was the 2009 Single Speed World Championship in Durango.

I did a poor job of documenting the fun, as all my pictures are from the Friday night before the race.

We stayed at the Durango Hometown Hostel, which was far nicer than we anticipated, and I would completely suggest it for anybody looking for inexpensive accomodations in Durango.

After unloading our bikes and dumping our bags, we quickly rode into town to find registration, with just one stop at the liquor store in between.


It rained, and we hid out like hobos in the park drinking. That's a pic of Paul in front of Durango Cyclery, which is a cool shop definitely worth checking out while in town.

We went from visiting some friends of Rich's (and getting fed pizza) to the official kegger in the woods party organized for the race via the "Test Tracks" trails, that run along the west edge of town. These trails are a blast, and it's unbelievable that they are so close to town. If I lived in Durango I'd be finding excuses to head north/south across town on these every chance I got.

The pre-race party was huge.

There was partying.....


And food and beer was plentiful and cheap.......


And live music to rock your face off to....


It was definitely a fun event. So much fun was had on friday night, that I didn't manage to get my camera out for a single pic on Saturday. I was in rough shape, to say the least. I did manage to line up pretty far towards the front amongst the 1,000 plus other racers. And despite being incredibly hung over and wondering if I might throw up at any moment for the first half of the race, I actually raced well and held my position amongst the masses.
For the majority of the race I was working like hell to keep up with a local badass gal named Sarah ( I learned her name because absolutely every spectator knew her). She was battling with a couple other gals for 7th, 8th, 9th place or so, and I was caught in the middle of it. And it was sweet.

The race was 2 1/2 hours or so of punishment for me, and I loved every minute of it.

Besides all the beer stops, everybody seemed to enjoy the bacon and twinkies stop. Nobody seemed to enjoy the bacon and twinkies puke 20 yards down trail though.

Here's some links to some recaps of the race from people who didn't forget about their cameras:

Article from Mountain Flyer Magazine (best bike mag ever, and also noticed editor Brian Riepe listed as a top 20 finisher in the race, which is bad ass).

Bike Snob NYC's account of the event (Notice the guy in his pics with the blond hair wearing a "Bud" jersey? That's Greg Herbold. So if we can get HB to remember who was behind him for the hike-a-bike, the Snobs secret identity will be totally foiled! Also, I totally finished in front of HB, and therefore also beat the Snob, you know, just so you know, because clearly he took the race very seriously).

"official" SSWC09 Blog

After the race I was actually feeling pretty good, until I drank my finish line congratulatory beer, and then I felt absolutely miserable again. I needed to either not drink at all, or drink way more than one beer.

Being a married man with child, and accompanied by a married man with children and another man to be married within the next 24 hours, we split that evening and missed out on the after party. Which was okay with us at the time.

Then I was home for one day, and split again Monday morning for Interbike. We did two days of Dirt Demo, riding and abusing other peoples expensive bikes for a change, and one day at the show.

I'm not going to bore everybody with another "bike dorks trying to get their party on in vegas" story. Instead, I'm going to go ahead and pretend I am Stevil, and let you read his account of the event, because it's way cooler than mine, and can't actually get me in trouble....

All Hail the Black Market's Stevil goes to Interbike and gets it done.

And if you want to know who reinvented the wheel with some unbelievable new doo-dangle, inevitably made of carbon, there's plenty of places to go for that (because quite honestly, I didn't hardly see a thing at the show, somebody was a little bleary-eyed):

Velo News blah blah blah

Cycling News blah blah blah

Singletrack blah blah blah

and dont forget to check out Bikefix.net for coverage of the show, as Marc and Charlie will certainly have sifted through all the lameness and found something sweet to show you.

Okay, kiddo is bound to wake up soon, my lap is beginning to get warm from my new - used Macbook that I just picked up from Long (wicked photagrapher, but probably sold me a totally crap laptop, check out his site: http://longnguyenphotography.com , seriously, this thing is like lava), and also I have a special limited edition S.F. Brewing Yippee IPA bomber in the fridge that I've been working hard not to open since 12:01, but I think the time has come.

Thanks for reading. If you's got any photos from SSWC or Vegas that you'd like to share with our little Bikeworks brethren, I'd be appreciative.

Miss Me?

I've been a delinquent updater once again.
Not a whole lot to talk about though.

Last weekend, Danny and I and our lil' families went up and race cross country in Taos. It was good times. It's a very fun, and extremely hard course. Up some of the steepest dirt roads that I have ever seen. And some very tight single track up around 12,000 feet.

The course was very complicated, doubling back and crossing over itself a number of times, with a slightly different route for each of the three laps done after the big fire road climb.
Fortunately, it was extremely well organized, with a ton of volunteers to steer you in the right direction at every intersection, and everything ran smoothly.

Danny, true to form, pinched a tube, and then proceeded to blow up his chain. This worked well for me, because it slowed him down to the point where I could catch him. So we rode the final 1/3 of the race together, coming across the finish line as team Bikeworks.

My age group (19-29) was actually faster than Danny's (30-39), which is unusual, and the same finishing time resulted in a 3rd place finish for Danny, and 4th place for me, in our respective age groups in expert (cat 1).

And then it was back to work with us. Our final week without Tony, Danny and I were certainly feeling a little worn down. The shop is just a little difficult to run with two guys.

I've procured a couple of new rides for the stable lately. First was a Swobo Crosby.

This bike is bad to the bone. The frame is nicer than I anticipated, with some details that you can't really see on the picture. The downtube is six sided, with a huge interface with the head tube, and then is rotates and has a hug connection with the BB. A carbon fork that gives a much smoother ride than I anticipated. Sliding dropouts, disc capable, gearing capable, solid parts spec out of the box, and the most rad color scheme I've seen in a while. Even the tires are perfect for our foothills.
It also comes with the Sram Torpedo hub, which looks vaguely like a coaster brake hub, and can be converted between singlespeed or fixed gear with 5 turns of a small flathead screw. The screw sits inside of the axle, and is accessed via the driveside axle nut, which is open on the end.

And the bike retails for $1,000. This thing is a lot of bike for the money.

I also just replaced my Soma Rush frame for another of the same, except this one is my size. Also, it's white, and awesome, because white bikes are awesome.

If anyone is interested in a 55cm black track frame and fork, this thing is a beaut, and it'll go for a good price.

And with that, I'm going to go pay bills on my day off, because it'll be nice and quiet at the shop, and I haven't paid bills in a number of weeks.

Blah blah racing blah blah

So Danny and I got out on Sunday and participated in the Bonanza Creek road race (better known as the Prison Loop). It was good times. Saturday afternoon saw us wavering a little on commitment to go race, me more so than Danny. It was hot, we'd been working all week, and the beer was calling my name. But Danny persisted, and in the end we were off and running towards Santa Fe at 7:30 am (early by our standards), spinning the bald tires on Danny's Saturn for everything they were worth.

The turnout at the race was impressive. Danny had about 60 guys with him in the Masters race, and there were maybe around 30 in the Cat 4,5, which I participated in.

The race was three laps totaling 55 miles. It was kind of hilly, but no real elevation change. The race started out rather casually, and despite my best efforts to stay calm, I was getting pretty anxious towards the end of the first lap. I spent more time at the front than I knew was wise, but it was just too fun to chase down the couple of small attacks that got away.

In the end it was a pretty large group finishing together. I positioned myself very well, but new I had already spent too much energy to be any good in the sprint. I was already fighting off some minor leg cramps, which is something I'm going to put some effort into figuring out, since that was my main problem last weekend as well. Perhaps a combo of nutrition and stretching?

Anyway, around the 1km mark I knew I was going to get blown out in the sprint (I'm no sprinter anyway), so I told our buddy Nick (who rides for Cafe Guiseppe, a small but very successful team that we sponsor) to follow me in, and I attacked off the front for about 500m until I was cramping and useless. It paid of though, as Nick told me afterwords that he took the sprint and won the race, I was pretty excited. I managed to hang onto the back of the pack across the finish.

It was my third road race in about as many years, and it was by far the most fun I've had so far. Definitely able to play a little more strategy than at the Crest road race, which really comes down to just suffering as much as you can until your at the top.

Danny also finished in the pack of his race. I think he was happy with this, as he had been pretty much off the bike for the past couple of weeks, mostly recovering still from his nasty spill at the State Crit race. He's still got an ugly bruise on his leg, which must be 4 weeks old by now.

It was a very fun race. There seemed to be plenty of support to keep things running on time and to keep the roads safe. It wasn't even as hot as I was expecting, considering we finished around noon. It's amazing how much cooler Santa Fe can be than Albuquerque during the summer. I will definitely be planning on attending again next year.

And that's about it. We've got a condo rented up in Taos for next weekend so that we can race up there in the Frazier Mtn. Madness. Looking forward to that race and a little vacation day in Taos afterwards.

I have to say, we are definitely enjoying our new schedule of being closed Mondays. Starting to understands why everybody else gets so excited about the weekends. It's sweet having two days off in a row! You spend too many years working retail and you forget that.

Racing is fun. Lets do it again!

We all took the weekend off, closed up shop, and headed up to Angel Fire to participate in the Chile Challenge race.
It was sweet. We all love out little bike shop, but it certainly is nice to get away once in a while. Got back yesterday feeling rejuvenated and sassy.
Danny and I raced the Cross Country, and we had several other friends out there representing Bikeworks in the Mountain Cross, Downhill, and Super D events. It was a good time all around.

If you want to check out results, they can be found here:

Angel Fire Results

In fact, we had so much fun not working, we're going to close up shop this weekend and do it again! This weekend is the Pajarito Punishment race, at the Pajarito Ski area outside of Los Alamos.
Check it out:
http://nmmtb.org/#

The Cross Country race is on Saturday, which Danny and I will participate in, and the Downhill race is on Sunday. We are a major sponsor of the DH race. Tony has been busy getting all kinds of sweet prizes to give away, and we will be raffling off a frame from Transition to one lucky racer.

So, we encourage you to come up and play with us. It's a beautiful mountain, even if you aren't inclined to race, and is a great place to spend the day outside.

In other news, Charlie once again has a new toy:



Perhaps his best looking bike yet. This is a Maverick / Spot collaboration. One of only three Maverick hardtails around. Originally this bike was a one of a kind project for Interbike

http://bikemag.com/gallery/interbike_08_9er/

But Charlie and one other lucky Maverick fanatic bike shop owner convinced the guys at Maverick to make them one. And the original ended up in the hands of Dale, of Dales Pale Ale.

Who's bike is this? Oh, it says so on the headtube:

It says "Charlie" on the right, and "LE 29er #3" on the left.

The frame is made to work with the belt drive, but Charlie isn't going to use the belt for now. Why you ask? Because as he puts it, he "has a Chubby for Chub hubs."


We will be lacing these hubs up to some Edge Composite carbon mountain rims for ol' Chucky, and it will be ridiculous. Unfortunately for now, the Chubs are only available in freewheel configurations, which means no belt drive, but we have been told cassette hubs will be available later this year, in both geared and SS versions.

In other bike porn, we have recieved our first Carbide SL frame from Tomac:


With 90mm of rear wheel travel, this carbon fiber wonder weighs just over 4.5lbs on our scale in a size large, with the rear shock. It's a beautiful frame, and just plain satisfying to hold in your hands. This bike has been getting some serious attention from the press lately:

http://www.pinkbike.com/news/tomac-carbide-sl-2009.html

Speaking of Tomac, there were a few pros out in Angel Fire this weekend showing off what the Type X is good for; going crazy fast. Taking 1st and 2nd place in the mens Pro XC, and 3rd and 4th in the Short Track XC, the Type X frame is quickly showing itself to be an extremely capable race machine.

http://tomacfan.blogspot.com/

And last but not least, a bad ass old Yeti ARC frame converted to accept a belt drive.






That's it, back to fixing bikes. Thanks for reading.

A few Old Pueblo Pics

Marc sent these along to us. You can also check out his review of the race at www.bikefix.net , the bike gear review site that Marc runs.


We had limited space in the RV, as there were six of us and gear. Sacrifices had to be made; extra socks were left behind, the keg came with.


Danny getting ready for his first lap. A little better spirits than last year, as there was no snow on the ground this time.

Getting ready for my first lap out. Taking things extremely serious.

Lucky enough to have lots of shelter to hide in through the race, courtesy of Jen and co.

Some pics of Old Pueblo

Here's a few pics from Old Pueblo. Still have my fingers crossed at getting some more, as I noticed some of our friends with cameras out a lot more than I did (Marc, I'm looking at you).

We got us a wicked new banner. It's kind of huge. This picture clearly demonstrates how Bikeworks ABQ is now a bigger deal than Kenda.

The start is always a mad house. It's the only time you really get to appreciate just how many people are at the event (it's a lot of people).

Plenty of costumes were to be found.

Here's the first man through the start. Homeboy must have flown through the run. He probably ended up 15 minutes up on people who got tangled in the masses behind him.


This is the one pic I took of my friends from that trip. It's Scott and Ken, keeping it real RV style. These guys, along with Ian and Matt, took such good care of Danny and I. They were the only reason we were able to keep riding through the night. If I had been in charge of feeding myself at 4am, it would have been all over. Thanks again guys.

Race Report: 24 Hours in Old Pueblo

Well, we're back, and alive.
A pretty successful weekend for Danny and I, with a 6th place finish in the Male Duo category. We were in 4th place for a good bit of the race, and finally got bumped down to 6th during the last 2 laps. We got a total of 18 laps in, 9 each, with about 145 miles each during the race. That is about three times as many miles as I've ever ridden my singlespeed before, so I'm pretty happy with that.

The race went smooth. We switched off laps every other lap, which we had decided was the faster way to do it (as opposed to double laps) based on previous results. The downside was that meant no sleeping for either one of us.

Luckily our buddy Scott decided to purchase an RV last week, and he took us to the race and supported us with style. I can't imagine we would have done nearly as well, or stayed motivated or awake, without the warm RV and food being cooked for us. Thanks Scott, Matt, Ian and Ken for helping keeping us going during the race.

Only one mechanical during the race, which was a complicated double flat for Danny, combined with a makeshift replacement rim strip, borrowing a tube, running some distance of the course, and a burnt out light, which put about an extra 30 minutes into the lap. Otherwise, everything went perfectly, surprising as this was our first go at a two person team (we've both raced 4 man teams in the past).

We were pretty beat up at the end. Once again, the RV came to the rescue and we slept the entire drive back, in style on big comfy beds. Danny was asleep before we pulled out of the camping spot, woke up for long enough to eat In N Out, and then right back asleep until we were parking the RV.

Some of our camping cohorts, Jen and Marc, placed 7th in the Duo Co-ed class. Like us, they were racing singlespeeds against geared bikes, you know, just because. I'm not sure how much time we actually gave up by racing on singlespeeds, if any, but I do know that it is a very fun course for singlespeeds, and I love my bike and my hot new wheelset.

Speaking of my bike, I can't believe how many strangers stopped me while cruising around the camp to tell me how beautiful my bike is (my Spot). There were a few other Spots out there as well, far more US built customs than Taiwan completes like mine. Sadly, Spot wasn't there with the big rig and copious amounts of free beer. I was really looking forward to chugging a couple of Dales Pale Ales at the end of the race.

Well, that's my quick and dirty race report for now. I've got a few pictures that I'll get up soon, and then I've been promised some pics from some other friends, which I will share. Not surprisingly, once the race started, all thoughts of taking pictures quickly exited my brainium, so the only pics I have are from before the race.

Tony has also promised me pics from his big racing weekend, so if you don't see those posted up in the next few, bug him for me.

Cross Season is on like Donkey Kong

Isn't it fun to say that things are "on like Donkey Kong"? I find it sickly satisfying, perhaps because I know it's bothering somebody out there to no end.

I also like doing the double-post. I won't put a single new thing up for a week at a time, so when I actually sit down and start typing, I make it worth my while and get in a two-for-one.

Anyways, the New Mexico cyclocross race series started today. Just had a look through the results and saw that there was a pretty good turnout. Check it out for yourself:
www.nmcross.com

I've definitely got the hankering for a cross bike lately, since I sold my previous one over the summer.

Well, that's about it. Mostly, I just wanted to plug the nmcross site, since I recently noticed that it is one of our top referring sites, and thanks to Mike for putting us on there (I think we earned our spot yesterday with Danny doing some last minute bike surgery to Mikes cross bike). Everybody should try and make it out to one (or several). It's definitely good old fashioned low key local bike racing fun. Don't worry if you don't have a cross bike, any old mountain bike will get the job done.

Bikeworks Wins Team Category @ The Burner

So Tony, Vince and Scott won the team category of the Burner Saturday, completing 29 laps in 12 hours.
They beat the BTI team, who got 2nd in team, by a whole lap.
Our friend Chris Boice took second, getting beat by a mere 31 seconds by privateer Waylon Smith. Boice reportedly had the lead for the first 28 or so laps, but lost time once the sun went down. I bet next year he'll show up with some serious lighting strapped to his helmet and bike.

I'm impressed that after 12 hours things were that close. I know that's how the 24 hour cross country races often turn out as well, but in a DH race, I just didn't expect guys to be able to keep it that together for so many runs. I can't imagine what their arms and hands felt like that night.

Danny kept things together for our racers out there, which clearly made all the difference between the guys finishing first and last.

I haven't been given any photos of our own from the race yet, but our friend Long was there, and I hear he was taking photos like a fiend, so I'll post them when I get them.
In the mean time, I have a few links:

official results

a small selection of photos

forum link for ridemonkey.com

Good job guys.

We've been freaking busy!

Haven't been posting much lately, as we've had all sorts of stuff going on, and the shop has been busier than ever.
Starting with last weekend, we all went and raced the La Tierra Torture on Sunday in Santa Fe. It was a good time. We had myself, Danny, Charlie, Marc, and Travitron all rocking the Bikeworks jerseys and racing singlespeeds. Danny got second place, Marc got third, I got winded trying to keep up with them, thought I was going to die, and then wisely slowed way down. It was a really fun race, a challenging course, beautiful weather, and a great way to spend a Sunday.

Then on Tuesday, we had the Rocky Mtn. demo tour van in town, and we all went to the Tuesday Night Crit. We brought our BBQ, handed out several dozen Sausages and beers, did a giveaway for a Polar heart rate monitor and bike computer, and generally hijacked the race and used it for our own promotional purposes. In the end, everybody seemed to think it was cool (mostly because of the free food and beer, I think).

Wednesday followed with our Rocky Mtn. demo day up at Elena Gallegos. It turned out to be another beautiful day, and we had a pretty large turnout. I got to ride a little on an Element 70, which was a bad idea, because now I want one. The whole event was a great success, and I'm pretty sure we're gonna sell a couple of bikes because of it. Thanks to Rocky for offering such an awesome service for it's shops.

Thursday was just a busy day at the shop. It was Danny's last day before he went on vacation, I think he went alligator hunting in the Bayou or something, so there was a lot of odds and ends to wrap up. We were pretty nervous about being away from each other for more than one day at a time, as we've been spending 6 days a week together for quite some time now, but I think we'll find a way to get through it.

Yesterday was another very busy day, largely thanks to Tony, who has already had an impact on our sales volume, and now here I am, Saturday morning, talking about the shop, before I go to the shop. When I get home tonight, I'll undoubtedly continue talking about the shop, and maybe on Sunday I'll pop in for a little while to get some things organized.

I've been working six days a week, but like Tony told a customer, as they sat on the couch drinking beer yesterday afternoon, "my job is way cooler than yours."

Busy Weekend

We had a nice and busy and fun weekend.
First off, Dan and Charlie (and Guy) went off to race Friday evening in Gallup. Charlie, in his first race ever, posted a very respectable 6 laps (something like 80 miles of singletrack in a day, I didn't know Charlie had it in him) which earned him 14th out of 27 racers in his age group. Just missed top half, sorry Charlie.

Dan and Guy were in the Duo Men race, and finished 6th place out of 22 teams, with 10 laps completed (5 laps each). Not bad for a couple of roadies, racing on 10+ year old hardtails. They certainly beat the pants off the other Albuquerque shop with a team out there, who came in last.

Looking through the results I noticed our friend Frankie Flats coming in 3rd in the 80+ combined age duo category. Nice going Frankie.

While Dan and Charlie were out playing, I was slaving away at the shop. I enlisted the help of Marc for the day, as running the shop solo on a Saturday isn't exactly awesome. Marc has a knack for retail, and merchandising, and making a bike look good, and all sorts of stuff like that. So after staring at our wall of bikes for a day, he had some suggestions for us, which resulted in a sweet brown medium Maverick Matic being built up for demo.



It's still brand new, and I could sell it for $3300 right now. Our demo program is $50 for a day, and that money will go towards any bike that you buy. As the bike goes out for demos, the price will be reduced accordingly.

Our other demo bikes include a large Maverick ML8, a Large Maverick Durance, a 19" Rocky Mtn. Slayer SXC 90, a 56cm Serotta Ottrott with full Campy Record build, and a 54cm Serotta Legend with full Red build. So basically, we have some sweet bikes to demo.

Another really good looking bike in the store right now is a 55cm (top tube) Langster London edition we have on consignment.



It has approximately no miles on it. we also have the rear brake and lever that it originally came with. We like this bike, it is very good looking. Fortunately it doesn't fit any of us, so we can actually sell it rather than keep it for ourselves.

On Sunday, Dan and I participated in another local alleycat. This one was organized by Jesse, who won a couple of the past ones, and sponsored by us, The Coop, and some other shop. It was a good time, with around 40 participants. The theme was Our Lady of Guadalupe, and the course took us to various shrines and churches around town, hunting for candles with stamps affixed to the bottom. Dan and I came in 2nd and 3rd, following Chris Downs who took the win. Chris and I were chatting about collaborating on a race in early June, as it's definitely our turn to organize one of these.
The finish included a number of prizes, as well as copious amounts of beer and pizza, a large grassy lawn, and a perfectly sunny lazy sunday evening spent with a bunch of bike dorks hanging out drinking. All in all, it was a great way to spend a sunday.
I seem to have lost my pics, thankfully I'm better with bikes than computers.

And that's about it. Time to finish my beer and be getting on home.

Crank 2 Alleycat

Sunday was the Crank 2 Alleycat, and it was good.
Primarily sponsored and organized by Gerhardt (owner of Heart & Soul Salon and notorious fixed gear aficionado), the event was a big success, with 58 riders signing up at the start. This was more than anyone expected, and probably the biggest turnout at an alleycat in Albuquerque to date.

We started downtown, with six stops around downtown as well as along Rio Grande, mostly at parks. The farthest stop was at the Montano bridge, which is conveniently located right along the Bosque bike path.

I rode primarily with Marc, and the two of us rode for brief moments with Danny, until he would inevitably drop us. However, pure speed isn't everything in an alleycat, as Marc and I came in first and second, with Danny rolling in behind us. Towards the end we got separated, and Danny got slowed down when he was unable to find one of the smaller, more obscure parks off of Rio Grande.

At each stop, there was one of those raised letter sticky labels stuck to something, that had to be found and then a crayon rub was preformed to take it's impression and prove that you were there. At the end of the race if you didn't turn in the paper with all six crayon rubs, you didn't technically finish. This required the racers to kind of keep their head together while frantically racing, as you had a few things to make sure you didn't loose after each stop. Danny unfortunately managed to misplace his sheet after the sixth and last stop, thereby nullifying his third place finish. He acted like it was an accident, but I'm going to assume he did it on purpose, knowing that Marc and I had already taken first and second, and feeling that maybe it was bad politics for him to take third. That's what I'm going to assume anyways. It might also be that he wasn't zipping up his backpack, and he was freaking out because he realized that despite his repeatedly crushing me the entire race, I had managed to get ahead of him at the end.

Gerhardt also decided to teach us a lesson that many hadn't been taught since grade school : READ THE INSTRUCTIONS!
Along with a map, crayon, and the manifest sheet, there was a short set of instructions and hints included. These were promptly ignored by more than a few participants, and included crucial information such as where to finish, and where in the 4 story parking garage we might find the label. At the finish (which was at NYPD pizza) I heard more than one person mention that they went to the start first (about 7 blocks away), got confused (I think I won, nobody else is here!) and then get pointed in the right direction.

At the finish, we were all treated to copious amounts of pizza and numerous pitchers of beer. This kind of blew me away. After participating in numerous traditional mountain and road bike races, with entry fees usually around $40, all I've ever received for my participation is a T-shirt I don't need and maybe a free powerbar or two. Then at a free local event I get a good lunch and my buzz on afterward for free.

The prizes were rad as well. Including a selection of messenger bags, cool top tube pads, several gift certificates, and a complete bike raffled off for all the finishers. The fastest three men, women, BMXer, DFL, as well as others all received prizes.

Thankfully there were no reported crashes, which was a concern for many with the recent tragedy in Chicago of a young man getting killed while racing in an alleycat. These events are beginning to get a bad reputation, and it doesn't have to be that way. With all the participants riding respectfully and carefully, we have no negative impact. We were all encouraged to be safe and courteous at the start, and I think everybody listened.

There was some bike carnage though.


Amazingly the young man riding this bike managed to not loose his face when the fork gave out. He was reportedly riding in the parking garage, and layed it down gingerly. He seriously didn't appear to have a scratch on him, which is unbelievable. The fork cracked just below the lugs, and flexed back until the tire was rubbing on the top tube as it gave away.

Another rider also lost a crank arm, and reportedly rode quite a ways one legged to finish (luckily it was the left arm, and not the right).

The press even came out to play. There was a reporter and a cameraman from the Albuquerque Journal. They said there will be a piece in the paper soon, as well as some video on their website. I managed to get them a Bikeworks business card, let them know that I'm an owner at the shop, and that I won the event. Hopefully a little free publicity for us.

And that's about it. It was a great way to spend a sunny Sunday. Thanks again to Gerhardt for organizing such a fun event, and to NYPD for putting up with 60 smelly kids and their bikes, and everybody who volunteered and helped run the event.

Race report:: 24 Hours in the Old Pueblo

24 Hours in the Old Pueblo has come and gone, and the Dan's are definitely glad they attended.
It has been five years since I last did this race, which was the one and only other time that I have participated in a 24 Hour race. It seems that 5 years is enough time to forget the suffering that an event like this can cause.

The whole trip was an adventure from the get go. We loaded up in the battle wagon and got out of town around 12:30, about two and a half hours later than I had hoped to. It was a long hectic morning of packing and tying up loose ends at the shop.

The battle wagon seemed to be running fine, and we made it to T or C before needing gas. That's when I discovered that somebody managed to loose the gas cap while I was gassing up on our way out of town. So we embarked on an hunt through the exciting little town for a gas cap. In the end we had one that worked more or less. This turned out to be a very good move, because the rest of the drive consisted of foul weather, and we surely would have ended up with gallons of mud and water in the tank.

The weather turned on us at around Hatch. Raining on and off. Once on I-10 we could see the storm we were headed for, the one that was supposed to be out of Arizona by then. It was a little foreboding, but it did make for a beautiful sunset.


We picked up our team mate Travitron in Tuscon, who flew in on account of being very important and having a grown up job and all. At this point it had been raining on us for a few hours. The city of Tuscon was soaked, as it had been raining there for a couple of days. Debating whether or not to get a hotel room and drive out to the race in the morning, we made a call to Marc, who had been at the race site since thursday. Marc informed us that although it had been raining, it was now quite nice. This seemed a little improbable, as the race is only about 40 miles outside of Tuscon. But, we decided it would be better to be there earlier rather than later, and decided to forge ahead.

Marc assures us that it had been nice when we talked to him, but that only lasted a little while, then the rain returned. Then the rain became snow. This happened right about the time we hit the 10 mile dirt road. The road was reportedly smooth and fast, driveable at 50mph on thursday afternoon. By friday at 10:30 however, it was barely manageable in the battle wagon. We creeped up it averaging about 1mph, constantly fearful of parts jiggling loose, or falling completely into one of the many giant puddles.

We landed at camp about 11:30, and it was still snowing. We were lucky to have friends already there with a spot for us and camp set up, complete with an awesome propane heater, because it was cold and miserable. The energy in the place was pretty low, everybody wondering what happened to the 70deg and sunny they were expecting, and not looking forward to what could be a very miserable next couple of days.

The rain did stop during the night, and we woke up to an overcast and soggy morning.


We set about getting organized and prepared for the 12:00 start, keeping an eye towards the slowly ascending cloud coverage.

Danny was elected to go first and suffer through the 400 yard LeMans start, on account of his gazelle like running abilities. He was working hard to get his game face on all morning.


With a reported 1600 plus racers participating, we knew that getting out in front early was crucial. Danny came flying through the start in the first 30 or so runners, I handed him his bike, and he was off and riding before the huge crush of racers hit and the traffic jam slowed to a complete stand still, with racers walking their bikes.


We knew Danny had done well, and there was much rejoicing.

He ended up finishing his first lap at 8th place as far as I could tell, which was very exciting.
Travitron was off next. The first lap was reportedly a complete mud fest, making it difficult just to stay upright. By the second lap, however, the rising temps and trail traffic had turned the mud to a peanut butter like consistency, making it difficult to simply keep your wheels rotating.
Ryan went third, and by the time I headed out around 5:00, the trail was perfect. The ground was just moist enough to give that super-hero traction, and dry enough that it didn't slow you down or stick to your tires. By the end of our first round, we were sitting in 7th place.

Then we kind of fell apart. The night wasn't so kind to us. We decided to switch to double laps as Travitron headed out for the second time. He unfortunately managed to tweak his back on the first lap, and by the end of the second lap had aggravated it to the point where he could barely move, let alone ride a bike. He informed us that he was out, and we were sad.

Down to 3 men, our hopes of doing particularly well were thrown out the window. Then Ryan hit the wall hard on his 3rd lap, and not having any food on hand, just sucked it up and pushed through to finish what must have been a very difficult lap, finishing at about 1:30 am.

Danny and I both went out and did our double laps, with Danny finishing his at around 7:00 am. I knew he would be finishing around then, and actually woke up around 6:30 wondering if I should go out again. After giving it about 3 seconds of thought though, I decided it would be a lot better to just stay in my sleeping bag, seeing as how it was all dark and cold outside, while my sleeping bag was pretty warm and soft.

With nobody waiting at the exchange tent to meet him, Danny came back up to camp to rally us. He reportedly attempted waking me up, and I responded with "rmflehumflerumf" and rolled over and back to sleep. Ryan, obviously being much tougher than I, got up, got ready, and headed out for what had to be another very challenging lap. Thanks Ryan.

When Ryan got back, I had finally made it out of bed, and was waiting for him in the exchange tent. The plan at that point was for me to do 1 lap, 1 for Danny, and 1 more for me if we hustled and could get out before noon.

I apparently hauled some serious booty on my lap, returning to the tent before Danny had arrived, expecting me to be 10 minutes or so slower. Not wanting to waste time, I headed back out again, hoping to come in before noon and have Danny waiting in the tent for one last lap.

I was feeling good and turned out another respectable time, coming around the finish line around 11:30. Then right near then end was Danny and Travitron, waving me down as I approached, beers in hand. They had decided to cut our losses, skip the last lap, and get out of camp quickly and miss what would certainly be an epic traffic jam.

In the end I believe we finished 14th, with 16 laps completed.

It was a great race, very well organized, friendly racers, great atmosphere, and a very fun course. We'll probably make it out again next year, perhaps a little more organized and in a vehicle that can go over 50mph in a head wind.

Thanks everybody for putting up with our goofy short business hours, it was the only way we could get out an play.

This cactus was made from old bike rims, and it was cool.


This bike had 36" wheels, for those of you with 48" inseams.

I guess it is difficult to slow down those big wheels.