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.

Racing Anitcs

We're getting out and doing some more racing in the near future.

Saturday is Dawn 'til Dusk, in Gallup. Charlie is racing it solo, and Danny is doing a 2 man team with our friend Guy. Why did Danny not want to go solo? According to him, he just doesn't like riding his bike for much more than six hours at a time (which would explain why he's always going so fast during centuries). According to Charlie, Danny is a giant wimp, and he's skeered.
I believe you can still get registered for the race, and would encourage everybody to go participate.

As we've mentioned recently, there is another alleycat going down in ABQ on Sunday (see post from a couple days ago). I would encourage everybody to come and join for that as well, I guarantee it will be the most fun you can have on a Sunday for $5.

On May 4th, Dan and Dan will be racing the La Tierra Torture. We're both doing singlespeed. It should be a very good time. I rode last week on a section of the race course with my old man and his buddy Tim. The trails were a blast, and should make for some good racing. The trails were already starting to get pretty dry and loose, and if we don't start getting more rain, it will be interesting navigating some of those hairpin turns in a race situation. I'm guessing more than a couple people will be blowing turns and going way off course.

That's the schedule for now.

Sunday Hours Update

While opening last Sunday seemed to be a good move, we will not be opening on any more Sundays until further notice.
Basically, being open on Sunday is good, but Dan and Dan working seven days a week is bad. Hopefully we will be taking on some weekend help on a regular basis soon, and then Sundays can become a standard thing.

More Alleycat Fun

Just received the poster for ABQ's next alleycat. The poster is pure awesomeness. Very impressive, and will possibly be available day of the even for the incredibly low price of a couple bucks.

We've donated a Chrome bag. Which Chrome bag, we haven't decided yet, so if you have any input, give a shout. Do you like the backpack better than the messenger bag?

We've participated in a number of local alleycats now, and one thing has always bothered me. Too many people aren't wearing helmets. I saw a blurb on Bummer Life today about an alleycat where everybody wearing a helmet gets a ten second head start. I think if Bikeworks puts on any events, we will do something similar to that. I'm not going to require anybody to do anything, but we can make some strong incentives. I wish some of the other local organizers would consider this as well, but I believe a couple of them are non-helmeters themselves, so I don't see it happening.

I just don't get the non helmet thing. That's an awfully big compromise to make in the name of fashion. Wearing a leather jacket in the middle of summer is one thing, but people get killed on a daily basis on bikes, and I'm all about giving myself better odds of staying alive.

Anyways, if any of you guys / gals are reading this, and are considering getting a helmet before the next alleycat, come on by and I'll give you a screaming deal.

And I hope to see you all out there next weekend, helmet or not.

Shop Hours Experiment

We're going to be open this Sunday, in an experiment to see if maybe we should be open on Sundays and closed Mondays. So if you've been meaning to come by and check out the shop, but you are like us and work every day except Sunday, this is your lucky day!
We're going to be in the shop during our normal Monday hours, which are 12-6.