Race results from the weekend:

At the National Champs races this past weekend in Sol Vista, CO. Bikeworks had a large contingent of team members racing.
Pictured above are Jake, Tone, and Sean (left to right).  Jake finished 2nd in Cat 2 4X, Tone finished 5th in Cat 2 DH (25-29), and Sean finished 1st in Cat 2 4X and 5th in Cat 2 DH (19-25).  Looking good fellas.

Furthermore, Bikeworks racer Matson Hunter is the Cat 1 4X National Champ, taking 1st in the 19-25 age group.  The boy will be pro soon.

Locally, Bikeworks racer Alex Leonard took 2nd Place in Cat1 19-29 at the Sandia Crest race.  3rd place overall in Cat 1.

In other racing news, Bikeworks is the new sponsor for the UNM Lobos cycling team.  We are excited about it, and they are excited about it. So everybody is excited, and that is good.  

Speaking of UNM, there is a new race this year that the UNM Cycling team is putting together.  It is the "Back to School Special", taking place on August 28th and 29th.  There will be a XC race on the 28th around Oak Flats, and a DH race on the 29th going off from Cedro Peak.
For more info, call or come by the shop. We have flyers with all the info, but I'm not sure those details are up on the Interweb anywhere yet.

And if anybody from the Bikeworks crew was out racing, and I've left you out, send me a note and let me know.

Soccer and Cycling, yesterday was fun.

I got to watch the World Cup final, watch the days Tour stage, and go for a ride yesterday. It was a pretty good day.

Of course most people know that the World Cup game was a bit of a stinker, but at least Spain won in the end.  However, yesterday's stage of the Tour de France was phenomenal.  Had there not been a sleeping baby on the couch, I would have been yelling at the TV.

Is everybody thoroughly sick of Versus coverage yet?  It seems like the first showing of the day is decent, and then every replay from there on out gets progressively worse, until prime time when you get Bobke blabbing about stuff unrelated to the race, 50% commercials, and all sorts of "special interest" crap that are really elaborate advertisements.
So my suggestion: go to http://cyclingtorrents.nl/  and sign up as a member, and download your tour coverage.  Yesterday there was the coverage from ITV4, a Britsh channel I believe, with the commercials removed. It was fantastic.
Also, if you are wanting to watch the live coverage in the morning, plenty of streaming options are available. I would suggest http://www.cyclingfans.com/ to find a nice video stream.

In shop news, I'm working on getting some new socks made, ones that will match our jerseys nicely.  What does everybody think about sock height? I personally have been liking my socks pretty tall lately, but I would hate to buy a bunch of tall socks and then hear everybody ask for shorter ones.

Awesome, bye.

Pajarito Video, Commencal Supreme DH Prototype

Our buddy Larry put this video together of the Pajarito Punishment DH race that went down a few weeks ago:


Pajarito Punishment DH 2010 from lawrence atencio on Vimeo.

And our buddy Chris, who never misses anything cool and bike related that pops up on the interweb, gave us a heads up about Commencal's new Supreme DH pics that Dirt had pics of:

http://dirt.mpora.com/news/world-exclusive-commencal-unveil-prototype-downhill-team-bike.html

First thing I thought of when I saw the new design was my old German freeride bike, Der Fusion Whiplash, that I aquired whilst at Manitou (they aren't imported into the U.S.)  Shock placement, rocker placment, and shock mounted to the chainstays are all similar:

http://www.fusionbikes.de/pconf/product-configurator.htm?id=8

Although it's all about the details, and I'm sure the Commencal is going to have the details all worked out.

Love you, bye.

Late Night Riding

All winter long we do night rides in the freezing cold, working hard the whole time to stay convinced that we are having a good time.  Then we talk about how nice it will be in the summer to do some night rides, getting out late when it's finally cooled off from the day, and riding late into the night.  Then summer comes, and we don't do it.  Well at least I don't do it.  My lights get put away after racing in February at Old Pueblo, and they don't come out again until I start thinking about racing Old Pueblo the following winter.

So last night I got out for what may have been my first late night summer ride, and it was freaking awesome!   I met Charlie and Richaround at about 9:30, which was the earliest I could make it up to the foothills after getting my boy to bed.  It had rained earlier in the day, the trails were as grippy as the north foothills can be, but not a spot of mud anywhere.  And as an added bonus, there was a full moon (or very close to a full moon).   The air was cool with more humidity than usual, of course we didn't see anybody else on the trail, and we had a great time.

As we finished the ride and rolled up to our cars, it started to rain again. We had timed our ride perfectly.  A post ride beer sitting in the battlewagon, watching the rain fall on the windshield, BS'ing and reminiscing about causing trouble as kids and the assorted things that were chosen to be thrown at vehicles in the search for entertainment (eggs, water balloons, dirt clods, and of course pastry dough).  

It was one of the most fun rides I've had in the North Foothills, and completely worth sacrificing a couple of hours of sleep for.  So from now on, the after-the-kids-are-asleep ride will no longer be a thing of myth.  I'll give a heads up next time we're planning on getting out late, and maybe some of you will join us.

In shop news, almost all or our sponsored racers are up in Crested Butte this weekend, racing their little hearts out just because they love Bikeworks so much and want to make us look good.

Our boy Alex will be there racing XC and trying to follow up with his Super D win at Angel Fire a few weeks ago

 

He did the race on our Transition Covert demo bike, and has borrowed it again for this weekend.  I hear in Angel fire he beat 2nd place by something like 20 seconds.  Beefcake!  Clearly, it was because of the bike.

In other racing news, Swinton took a win in the A race at the Tuesday Night Crits this week.  He was there supposedly to help out our buddy Bradner, who is currently leading the points race for the TNC's and should be in good shape to take the win for the series.  However, Swinton being the glory stealing attention whore,  took off solo with three laps to go and solo'd for the win, leaving Bradner to fend for himself.  We're very proud of Danny though, congrats. 

This coming Tuesday is the finale of the Tuesday Night Crit Series.  I believe we will be there in Bikeworks style (i.e. BBQ and beer) to cheer on our racers and heckle anybody who looks like they are taking things too seriously (it is a training race, remember).  So come on by and join us.  Hopefully we'll have a jersey or two winning a race or two, and if not, we'll at least have grilled meat and beer.  

That's about all I've got. Going out to Tunnel, meeting our favorite Doctor at 8am if anybody is interested in watching me flog myself around Otero on my singlespeed.  Now I've got to go check out Bike Snob, haven't checked his site all week, I've got catching up to do.

Love you, bye.

New Customer Appreciation Policy

Here at Bikeworks we love our customers.  In order to show our customers how much we appreciate them, we are implementing a new policy as of tomorrow.

Bikeworks ABQ Customer Appreciation Policy:
   When you leave our store, at least one owner of Bikeworks ABQ will say / yell "Thanks for coming by, Love you!" on your way out.  It will be our way of letting you know that we indeed love you, our customer.
   If you manage to leave Bikeworks without receiving a hearty "love you!" from Dan and/or Dan and/or Tony (and/or sometimes Charlie, maybe), upon your next visit you will be entitled to a "wicked high-five" and a Free Beer! (Must be of legal drinking age.  Under-age customers who do not receive a hearty "love you" upon departure will be entitled to two "wicked high fives," or one "up high - down low while walking past each other high five" a-la Top Gun.)

We began experimenting with the new policy in the store today, and for the most part had very positive results.  We received at least one "love you" in return,  a "good to know", a few silent responses, but no angry responses or threats to cause bodily harm to us.

We are currently considering expanding this policy to include phone calls as well.  For example, when leaving a message about a bike repair, you would get something such as:

Hey this is Dan from Bikeworks. Just calling to let you know we got your bike all tuned up and everything looked good.  You can come pick it up whenever is convenient, we are open ten to six Tuesday thru Saturday and our number is eight eight four oh three four one if you have any questions Love you bye.


Obviously this is something we are doing for you, the customer, and therefore we are very interested in hearing what you think about our new policy.  Please feel free to comment directly on this site, or email us if you feel you have more to say than what will fit in a comment, or call us if you feel that typing out everything that you have to say will take forever and it would be best if you just told us on the phone.

Thanks for reading.
Love you bye.