I actually got to ride a bike!

Yes, it's true, I actually left the shop, almost for a full day Friday, and went out and played in the mountains.

I met Marc and Charlie at Cedro in the morning, and we proceeded to ride for several hours. We spun up the road to Tunnel, then we rode up tunnel, down to Otero, up Blue Ribbon, over to some other trail, and then another trail, then some new trail we hadn't ridden before, then at some point we got onto Turkey Trot, out to Mars Court, on the road to Oak Flats, then a whole bunch more Cedro trails until we were back at our cars.
I was pretty much lost the entire time after we left Otero Canyon, until we got back into the heart of Cedro. I'm not too good at navigating in the woods. I can navigate in European cities where I can't read the signs, and drunk navigate through Vegas Casinos like a madman, but get me out into the woods, when my life may depend on finding my way out, and I'm cooked.

I recently acquired a new-to-me Garmin 305 GPS compruter. Yesterday was the first time I had played with it on a ride. Hopefully I'll start to learn the East Mountains better with the help of some maps. Charlie's going to bring a map to the shop today and we're going to figure out exactly where those new trails were. The trails were pretty sweet, very fresh and needing to be run in, but nice tight technical singletrack that will be a great addition eventually. There was just one spot where a couple of more switchbacks were needed, rather than just shooting straight up the hill. We're not sure who built them, anybody know?

A switchback here would have gone a long ways.

We were testing out a few different products for Marc's site, Bikefix, including a new Pivot 5 inch something or rather that he got on demo from some other shop in town. So I was riding Marc's Maverick Durance, and we switched bikes back and forth several times during the ride. You can look for a full review from Marc in a few days on Bikefix, but my basic input is; The Pivot rode fine, a very nice bike all around, maybe a bit heavy, now can I please have my Maverick back? We were riding in perfect Maverick terrain, and still haven't found anything that compares.

As we were testing products, the conversation was pretty hardcore bike dork, analyzing parts and ride quality and blah blah blah.

I got to try out Marc's Ergon pack, which is a bizarre pack. He recently reviewed it on his site, and I pretty much agree with what he said. I think maybe next generation, a little more refined, and it will be seriously worth looking at. It really puts 99% of the weight onto your hips, it feels like a fanny pack that's giving you a hug, and could be very nice for guys like me with frail little upper bodies who's back and shoulders get sore when they try to carry anything more than 6 lbs.

Marc proceeded to get two flats at the same time, a direct result of there being tubes in the demo bike. Had it been set up tubeless, there would have been no flats. The lesson here is that tubes are stupid when you live in New Mexico.


We did nearly 30 miles of mostly sweet singletrack. It was a fantastic combo of trails. I sure like living in Albuquerque.

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.