SS in S.Fe

Well, I lied about getting out to the east mtns this weekend. I ended up going to Santa Fe instead for a little time at my vacation home that I keep up there. It's really nice having a vacation home in Santa Fe. I'm really generous, so I let my parents live there, and keep all their stuff there, and even decorate it, and pay the mortgage, but it is still my vacation home.

Anyway, I rode for a couple hours at the Dale Ball trails, which were perfect on Sunday. The muddy spots had just completely dried, and the dirt had enough moisture in it still to provide superhero traction like we don't often get in NM.
Of course we woke up to snow covering everything Monday morning, so the trail conditions might not be good for a while again.

Papa Lucero and I were both riding our Spot Singlespeeds. While Pops has been running the belt drive for several months now, this was my first ride with the belt drive. I had swapped it out for a traditional chain drivetrain when I first got the bike, as I was using it specifically for racing Old Pueblo and wanted more gear ratio options than are currently available. But with the race over, I happily got the belt back on there, and enjoyed the slightly easier gear ratio that it provides.

I was amazed with the difference I felt riding the bike with a belt vs. a chain, with all other parts staying the same. I was very surprised with how much smoother the drivetrain ran. I knew it was smooth, but I had only ridden one around our parking lot before. When I was out on the trail actually cranking on the pedals, I could really tell a difference.
The other thing that I noticed, which surprised me, was that I was suddenly aware of how much free play my rear hub has in between engagement points. (It's an American Classic hub, I knew that it didn't have the fastest engagement when I bought it, but I didn't care because of its incredibly low weight.) My theory is that with the super efficient and snappy feeling belt in place, the engagement of the hub is more noticeable. Very fun stuff.

I haven't had any Spot Longboards with the belt drive in the shop for a little while now, but I have another on the way, being shipped with Charlie's next new bike, a Ti US Made Spot 29er, with a custom Spot steel rigid fork, and canti bosses, that Charlie has some obscure plan to make a commuter of some sort out of. Not exactly sure what his detailed plans for the bike are, but I'm sure it's going to be cool. I'll post pics.

I also finally signed up for Dawn 'til Dusk on Sunday. I'm going to be racing the Mens Duo Masters 80+ with Old Man Lucero. The category stipulates that the combined age of the two racers must be 80 or higher. Papa Bear is 54, I'm 26, and it's on! There will be a large number of Bikeworks friends and family out there for the event, and I strongly encourage anybody who is considering the race to come join us. The course is a great one, and the event is exactly what bike racing should be all about. The entry fee even includes a post race dinner served at the post race party. Good stuff.

My Knees Hurt

So that last post was from Charlie, not me (Lucero). Although I do get a fair number of new bikes, the Altitude is not one of them. My next bike is going to be an Anthem XO, and it is going to be fast and light and I am going to destroy Dan Swinton with it at Dawn til Dusk. Bwa ah ah ah ah.

In other news, we've begun getting back out for wednesday night rides. Two weeks in a row now, both nights were jersey and shorts weather, which made things much more enjoyable than those very cold winter rides we had gotten used to.
Last wednesday my trusty old Niterider HID finally gave up the ghost after six years or so, and died on me about ten minutes into the ride. This wasn't my first time out without a light, so I plodded along riding off of everybody elses lights (cohorts included Richaround, Dr. Dave, Danny, Tony and myself).
At one point I managed to get in front of everybody, and then in a moment of darkness totally throw myself into the ground, via the over the bars route, with "all the grace of a frog falling from the sky" as Danny put it. Much skin was lost from my left knee cap, a deep nasty puncture wound at the top of my right knee, which proceded to spew blood all over the trail.
But I am impervious to pain, and very manly, and proceeded to finish the ride with nary a wimper.

Last night we got out with Charles in charge, Scoot, and Travitron. It was a significantly faster ride than our typical weds night jaunts, which I blame Travitron for.
I was using / demo-ing the Lupine Tesla light, which had been sitting in the shop for a couple of months calling my name. It made me happy, here's my mini review:

The Lupine Tesla is good. It is bright, super light, and it makes me happy.

After the ride, whilst getting things in and out of Charlies vehicle, a managed to completely rip the scab off my left knee cap by rubbing it against his fender. It hurt big time, but I didn't wimper, you know, on account of my manly-ness.
The gross part was 5 minutes later before we left I found the scab, stuck to the fender. I showed it to Charlie, and he took it and said he was going to save it forever. He's getting weird lately.

Hoping to get out to the east mountains sunday morning. If anyone wants to join, give a holler or come by the shop. I'm excited to ride something other than the foothills.

Buenobye

The new Rocky Altitude.

I received the carbon Rocky Mountain Altitude bike last week. We really didn't expect it this soon considering that they weren't even sure when we would get them. I'm glad it came early though because none of us went to Dirt Demo at Interbike, so we had no idea how their new frame design would perform. I wanted to get the photo up quick though cause it's a really fine looking frame and the build is pretty sweet too- Formula R1's baby, Yeah!!!! After three rides I can tell you it is a very nice riding bike and is unbelievably stiff. Look for the full review in the next few months at the bikefix website.

Totally unrelated to my new bike above is this FREE trail report: Cedro is fairly dry if you stick to Coyote, Sidewinder, Lone pine, and the roads. Mighty mule is still a bit nasty along with the top of Chamisoso, but they should be getting close to ok by this Sun. -Maybe. Placitas is riding great and there is a nice cafe across the street (next to the market) to have a beer in after the ride. I haven't heard about Tunnel and Otero but I'm guessing they will take a bit longer.

-Charlie

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.