Julian's ready to ride.

Julian got his first helmet. It fits pretty well. He seems excited about it. He melts my brain with his cuteness. I know it might cause problems later on in life, but I'm kind of hoping he never grows any teeth, because the toothless smile is really where it's at. He also has a newfound skill of crawling around backward on the hardwood floor, using his arms to push and sliding on his big tummy. It's pretty rad.

Crank 2: Sunday

Another Alleycat in 'Burque this Sunday. The prize ante has been upped, with the winner taking home a complete bike!
I think it's safe to say that good times are guaranteed.

White Mesa Adventure

We went out and rode White Mesa on Sunday morning. We knew weather was supposed to be on the way, so we met at 9am, hoping to get finished before it hit.
When we got there, the wind was already blowing. In these pics along the ridge, we look like we're trying to hammer, elbows out and chest down. In reality, we're doing like 5mph, and we're just trying to stay on the trail, because the wind was blowing from left to right, with gusts that must have been 50mph.


That's me in the first pic, in the red jacket with the red pack (you can tell because of my enormous calves).
That's Papa Lucero in the second pic, in the blue jacket. It was his first time on White Mesa, so unfortunately he didn't get to enjoy it fully due to the wind, but he still had fun. We had him on Charlie's Maverick ML7/5, so that he could see the light about Mavericks and get one finally.


This pic is the closest evidence we've ever found to Charlie getting rad. It seems pretty clear that he is about to get rad, but as his rear wheel hasn't left the ground yet, he has not yet actually achieved radness in this photo. Oh well, maybe next time.

Back in town and making messes.

Finished up getting schooled on Tuesday. Very pleased with the entire class, we covered an incredible amount of material very thoroughly, and all the teachers were impressive. I was really impressed that there were 14 students, and we had 4 teachers most of the time, giving a pretty good ratio.
The other thing I found impressive was the experience of the instructors, which ranged from a PhD to an owner of a very successful local shop. These guys were able to speak on everything from the scientific reasons of why they recommend what they do, to logistical issues of offering bike fits in your shop as a service.
So I came back to the shop wednesday morning all jazzed up to allocate some floor space for our newly acquired Serotta Size Cycle, and get cracking on doing some fits. So yesterday I spent the morning making a scaled model of our shop (2D view from above) using high tech materials such as electrical tape, cardboard, and scissors. I'm pretty sure my engineering education helped a lot. Then Dan and I played "rearrange the store" with the model for a while before settling on a layout that we are pretty sure is pure awesomeness.
Then we began to tear the place up.
Unfortunately, the place is still tore up. It was one of those projects that everything got a whole lot worse before it will get better. We're still in whole lot worse phase, and I'm sitting at home playing on the computer instead of at the shop making the place functional again.
I'll post some pics soon of the revamped Bikeworks. Hopefully within a week or so we'll have the full extent of our plans finished, and we'll be all set up for a busy spring to hit.
Also, along with the rearranging project, I'm getting ready to box up some winter clothes to store until next fall. But I'd much rather sell the stuff than box it for several months. So, if you're lacking any cold weather gear, come by and see us, and we'll make you an offer you cant refuse.

1 Day of Serotta school down, 2 to go.

Spent the day today attending the Serotta Int. Cycling Institutes Personalized fit class. The whole day. We started at 8 am, on a Sunday, which I found a bit odd. It's been a while since I was anywhere by 8 in the morning. When I saw that the schedule had us there until 6pm, I was a little worried. The day was so interesting, and we were moving around, hands on exercises with all the new material, that it was 5 before I knew it, and then we finished about an hour early.

Today we covered the pre-fit interview, the range of movement assessment, some fundamental anatomy and physiology, body measurements, and how to use the Serotta size cycle. Tomorrow we learn a whole bunch more stuff, and then tuesday we learn a whole bunch more stuff, and take a quiz.

I found out today that in order to get the certificate / diploma for finishing this course, that I will have to do ten fits, and provide SICI with the numbers from the fit for their approval. I think that is pretty cool, as it makes the certificate that much more meaningful; I didn't just space out in their class for 3 days, I can actually apply what they taught (hopefully).

That means I will be looking for a handful of volunteers to practice my new skills on as soon as I get back. So let me know if your interested, send me an email or call the shop and we'll get you scheduled.

Been enjoying cruising around Boulder a bit, although I feel a little out of place without a North Face fleece on. I think they hand those out when you get a local drivers license, something about keeping Boulder homogenized law that they passed a few years back.

Went to Oskar Blues last night for dinner. Very cool place, good food, good beer, I would probably spend a fair amount of time there if I lived in the area. As far as my Dales on tap vs in the can experiment, I would say it's a pretty close call. I think it was a little smoother on tap, but I've always thought it's been an easy drinking beer to begin with.
Kristi was enjoying the Gordons IPA on tap, which is a fine beer as well.
During dinner, I noticed the people in the booth next to us were enjoying themselves the exotic beer commonly referred to as Coors Light, from the bottle. I found this pretty amusing, as we had gone there specifically because of their beer. On the way out, we were joking with the hostess about people drinking Coors, and she informed us that she doesn't like any of the Oskar beers because they're "too strong."
So I asked to see her manager, and then persuaded him to fire her. It made me feel better, but she was crying so loud that she woke up my baby, and that made me mad again.
Sometimes you just cant win.