Gigantic!

I have been putting off saying anything about this for a while, waiting for it all to be "official" and stuff, but I got an email this morning that looks like it is so....

We are picking up Giant Bikes for the shop. It was quite a big decision for us, as Giant is definitely one of the "big boys" in the bike industry, and that's a big departure from the brands we deal with currently, which with the exception of Rocky Mtn, are some of the smallest companies around.
But, Giant was shopping around for new representation in Albuquerque, and they actually originally approached us, which, quite honestly, we were flattered by. We were surprised that we didn't have to buy 5,000 bikes to get opened up as a dealer, and we were very impressed with the value and quality of their line across the board when we got to put our hands on them at Interbike.
Check out their website:

http://www.giant-bicycles.com

They have some of the best looking commuter and townie bikes I've seen, like the Transend Series, the Seek Series, and the more casual Suede Series. All those bike have some really nice style and design points, and generally beat out the competition on value for the dollar, something everybody can appreciate these days.

Of course we're also excited about their full suss mountain line, which is primarily based around their proven Maestro suspension linkage. They have a very complete line available, from ultra light carbon race machine to world cup worthy downhill race machine. I'm not saying that I'll be selling off my Maverick or anything, but you can never have too many bikes.

So that's our big news of the day. And for those of you who are thinking that we're gonna be taken over by this new brand and transformed into just another shop like every other one in town, don't worry, its not going to happen. Giant isn't like some of those other big brands that tells its dealers what they can carry, what they have to look like, and what image their shop has to have. If it was anything like that, we wouldn't have gone for it, because quite honestly, Danny Tony and I aren't very good at being told what to do.

I should have some new bikes in the shop in the very near future. So stop by, have a beer, and have a look at our new toys.

Thanks

When it rains it pours.

So we hadn't had the keg filled in a couple of weeks due to logistical errors. We did our best to make up for that with extreme beer deliveries via Charlie and numerous afternoon 12pack runs, but it just wasn't the same.
So yesterday we finally picked up our Cornelius from Il Vici, filled to the brim with IPA (what else). Then not ten minutes later, our friend The Jesus called and asked if we might be willing to help with a full, full-size keg left over from a party, this one filled with Marble IPA.
Being the good Samaritans that we are, we said yes, bring it on over, even though we definitely don't have the space in the fridge to keep two kegs cold.
So basically, if you are of proper drinkin' age, and fancy yourself a hoppy beer from time to time, I strongly recommend coming on by in the next couple of days.

In other quasi-news, I've decided that a one year birthday party for Bikeworks in on order. On Novermber 15th it will have been one year since we officially opened for business (take that economy!).
I've been shooting ideas around amongst my cohorts. One is to rent the group shelter up at Elena Gallegos, bring lots of food and beverage (early Thanksgiving?) and probably some fire wood and propane heaters (depending on the weather) and have ourselves and early winter bike and eating fest. Ideally we would be able to line up a bike demo and get one of our bigger brands out there with us with a fleet of test bikes, but we'll see.

Another idea would be to just throw something like a party at the shop. I'm not sure that it would be a whole lot different than any other day, other than hopefully there would be more poeple in there, we would not be fixing any bikes, there would be more food than usual, and we'd probably start drinking earlier (AM Ale anybody)? We'd probably have to give some stuff away, and maybe incorporate a booze cruise to one or more of our local watering holes to wrap things up.

If anybody has any suggestions or ideas, let us know, I'm kind of fishing here.

So on Sunday I got to ride my bike, for several hours, and it was glorious. In honor or Rich-around's b-day, a small group of us headed up to Tunnel bright and squirrely for a full day of sweet Otero action. We basically did all the singletrack that is legal that we could think of. In the end we had about 23 miles. Thanks to the rains on Saturday, we spend the majority of those miles with huge cakes of mud on our tires, so we were really earning it.
I really like Otero. It's amazing to have that many miles of good tight singletrack 20 minutes from the city. And if you get bored, you can just hop across the street and start checking out Cedro, which has a completely different terrain.
This was the first ride I had done on the ML8 since I returned from the Europe trip. I like my bike. Other things I like are my new Shimano AM 50 shoes, the bottle of Perpetuem I brought with which kept blood sugar level for all 6 hours, my new pair of Endura Singletrack baggies, and riding with friends on a Sunday.

The past few evenings, while chillaxing at home (dang, spellcheck doesn't even know what to think of "chillaxing", it's all like "what, I don't even know that word, it must be correct") I've been reading the new Mountain Flyer mag from cover to cover. It is by far the best bike magazine out there. The only one that makes me want to put down the magazine and get on my bike every time I read it (most other magazines seem only to want you to put down the mag and go shopping for bike junk you don't need).
If you haven't seen this magazine, you should pick up a copy next time you are in the shop. It comes out 4 times a year, and is a pretty new venture, as they are on issue ten right now. We have a little stock of #9 as well, so if you come get the new one, I'll give you the last one as well.

Well, it's time to be off to the shop. It's raining, so I'm going to go ahead and drive, because I'm from New Mexico and that's how I am. Didn't manage to eat any breakfast this morning, all this babbling on got in the way. Hmmm, I hope Danny's feelin' the breakfast burrito this morning, since he can't stand to get himself one without buying one for me as well. Yayyyy Danny!

We're Famous!

bikeworks will be on koat channel seven tonight sometime between ten thirty and eleven. so tune in and watch the wild and wacky antics of the bikeworks crew captured in a totally natural setting. i mean watch them crack into a million pieces live on camera... later skaters

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.

Stupid good-for-nothing rain.

I know we live in the desert, and we're supposed to be all happy when it rains, but seriously, when you put in a 6 day work week, and then it rains on your day off, it's kind of lame. My plans of a Otero / Cedro combo loop were squashed, and I pouted, for hours.

Did manage to get a couple quick hours in the south foothills today, which was quite fun because there was unbelievable traction. Riding the singlespeed by myself with headphones on, pushing my luck and testing my tires around every turn.

Ran into Painter Paul, who was breaking in his new ti Voodoo 29er singlespeed, which we sold him on Saturday. He was excited, to say the least. I predict that bike is going to have very, very many miles put on it in the near future.

Hopefully next weekend will satiate my riding needs for a little while, as we're planning a short but sweet trip to Durango to hit up Hermosa Creek. If weather doesn't permit, our backup plan is Gallup. Either way, I'm gonna get some miles in on some sweet out of town singletrack. Maybe we'll be able to hook up with the Turgeons, and then proceed to get our asses handed to us.

Things at the shop have been unbelievably busy still. I thought Septemeber would taper off, and it didn't. The first few days of October have been slammed too, with a selection of custom builds being picked up last week and more scheduled for the week to come.

Tony has expanded his riding resume the past couple weeks by attending the BMX races. I'm not sure which category he's racing in (or even how they categorize BMX) other than he's riding a cruiser, but I do know that he took home a sweet 2nd place trophy last week, and I think he might have scored another today. So if you come in the shop, look for the trophies sitting on top of the glass display case, make a giant scene along the lines of "DUDE! YOU GOT SECOND PLACE! SIIIIICK!" and I'll get you a beer for your hard work.
Beers can also be earned by asking Tony if you can pet his hair, or by saying "hey, how 'bout a beer."

Okay, that's it for tonight. I'm sitting here eating some kind of spicy cilantro something flavored hummus, drinking pretty cheap wine, and I'm starting to wonder if that combination was a bad idea.