X Fusion Demo Ride, Sunday May 27,

John from X Fusion Shox is coming to Albuquerque this weekend, with a van full of demo bikes kitted out with their forks and shocks.
We talked about doing a demo day, but that sounded too much like work, and involved not riding bikes.
Instead, we are doing a group demo ride.

We will be heading out from Otero Canyon trailhead Sunday, May 27th, 10:30 am for an open invite group ride.  Feel free to show up and get set up on one of the demo bikes, and try out some of the sweet suspension that X Fusion is making these days.    We are going to try and start riding around 10:30, but if you are interested in getting on a demo bike, show up early (9:30 or later) to give us time to get everything dialed in.

We will probably ride for 3 or 4 hours, bouncing all around in Otero, riding the typical loops.

Some of the demo bikes available will include Turner 5 Spots, Santa Cruz Tallboys, Tomac Diplomats, Ibis Mojo HD's, and Specialized Enduros.


After we finish our ride we will be hanging out at the trailhead with a tent, beverages, snacks, and we will continue to send people out on demo bikes for the day.


Give us a heads up if you are definitely planning on attending, so we can start to get a head count.


So you don't know about X Fusion suspension yet?  They are currently making what is, in my opinion, some of the best suspension available today.  Such at their trail fork, the 140mm Velvet, which I am currently riding personally.  It retails for about half the price of a similar Fox, and I think it's the best riding fork I've ever owned. Check out the website...


http://www.xfusionshox.com/en/

Hope to see everyone out there this Sunday!

12 Hours in the Wild West Race Report

Last weekend was the second running of the 12 Hours in the Wild West race, outside of Ruidoso NM.

We attended last year, enjoyed ourselves thoroughly, and decided to go again this year.  It also seemed a good opportunity to close up shop a little bit and remind ourselves what a 3 day weekend was like (spoiler alert, 3 day weekends are good).

It began to rain and even hail angrily right as we were trying to leave the shop, load bikes onto racks, close up the trailer, etc.  The hail was an ominous start to the weekend, which had not been blessed with the most appealing of forecasts.  All week long the weather report had shown angry little rain clouds and even lightning bolts in Ruidoso. And the weekend promised even more rain clouds and lightning bolts, according to the Weather Channel.  So as we drove down a flooded Lomas Ave. amid a freakish heavy rain and hail storm, we were all anxious what the weekend held in store.

On the drive down, somebody in Charlie's car made the executive decision that we should pre-race dinner at Taco Bell.  Having been looking for an excuse to try out the new freakshow excuse of food I had seen on commercials, which consists of a taco made in a nacho cheese Doritos flavored shell, I happily followed my cohorts into "the Bell".  All I can say about the freakshow Doritos taco is that clearly "the Bell" has employed highschool boys who are fond of marijuana to create their new menu items, and if this taco existed when I was a highschool boy I would have eaten a whole lot of them.

We arrived at dusk to the race venue with angry tummies, to find muddy ground and rainy skies.  We quickly set up the trailer, awning, and a few tents.  But as my boys were soaking and covered in mud after just a few minutes, the wife and I decided to head into town and skip the soggy camping for the night.  We headed into Ruidoso and crashed with Paul (aka Taco Truck).  His family has a time warp cabin in Ruidoso, where you can find gems such as the worlds first microwave..

                     

Awoke Saturday morning to an overcast sky, and a little hung over (when the Taco Truck sticks a bottle of tequila in your hand, it's hard to say no).  But as we approached the race course, the sun came out, and miraculously stayed out for nearly the entire day.  The race was delayed an hour to let the course dry up a bit. The course was also detoured around the techy climbing section, which was reportedly very muddy. Instead we got a long boring and demoralizing gravel climb.  The sunny skies had everybody in good spirits.

The first lap of the race was just slightly muddy, but by the second lap the ground was getting more firm, and quickly turned to the super tacky superhero traction type of dirt that you rarely get to play on in New Mexico.  

Combining the awesome traction with the super smooth and narrow singletrack on the race course made for some serious grin inducing big ring descents.

My parents came out to spectate and help wrangle my kiddos so that I could get some more laps in. Here's a pic of Big Rick and Papa Lucero chatting. You can see Rick's highly refined solo 12 hour race diet of cold Chef Boyardee straight from the can, and orange gatorade.  My parents came out to spectate and help wrangle my kiddos so that I could get some more laps in. Here's a pic of Big Rick and Papa Lucero chatting. You can see Rick enjoying his highly refined solo 12 hour race diet of cold Chef Boyardee straight from the can, and orange gatorade.  

I took a long break from racing in the middle of the day to get my boys signed up for the kids race, which was awesome...

The Bikeworks contingent at the race was substantial, but in the end only Mike and Maggie got on the podium, placing second in the co-ed Duo category.

As the day drew to a close, everyone agreed that it was a successful venture.  A big thanks to the Zia Rides crew for putting together another awesome event.  It has really wet our appetite to get out and play again for the 24 Hours in the Enchanted Forest.

Thanks for reading!

Time to close up shop and go race bikes!

It's that time of year again...

We will be closing at 4pm on Friday May 11th,  and Closed all day Saturday May 12th.

We will re-open for normal hours at 10am on Tuesday May 15th.

We are closing so that we can go race the 12 Hours in the Wild West race near Ruidoso NM.
Can't live without seeing us for the weekend? Well then you just have to come to the race and find us.  You could even race, registration doesn't close until May 7th.

Go here for race info...
http://www.ziarides.com/12wildwest/

Smooches!

Race Report: 2012 La Tierra Torture

Sunday was the latest installment of the long running La Tierra Torture Mtb race in Santa Fe.  Originally I  (Lucero) had no plans to go race, having not given much though to the traditional XC format NMORS races this year, instead focusing on our 12 and 24 hour series.  However, Charlie's misfortune...

(pic of Charlie's grossly swollen ankle due to broken Fibula)

... became my good fortune, as he had registered for the race already, and was kind enough to give me his entry.  You see, I wasn't interested in paying money to go get my ass kicked, but I was more than happy to go do it for free.  Charlie had registered for Singlespeed, which works for me, as I tend to race better on a SS than with gears anyway.

Unlike some years past, the weather was perfect this year.  Slightly chilly all morning, things warmed up nicely as the race was starting, just barely warm enough to be comfortable with a normal jersey and shorts.
The turnout for the race seemed huge, I don't know how it compared to last year (and I can't be bothered to look up last years results and find out), but this must be one of the more popular races on the NMORS series.  It was fun to see so many people out, and to see dozens of friends and customers.  I guess I had kind of lost track of just how many of our customers show up to race XC.

There were 14 guys in the SS category, several of which I knew I had no hope of beating, let alone keeping in sight.  So without any hope of winning the race, I lined up free of anxiety or butterflies in my stomach, and was just happy to be out for a nice hard ride on a perfect spring day.

(a fine looking jersey on an even finer looking man)

Waiting for the start of the race, I was chatting up Mike "Chappy" Chapman (veteran shop rat, card carrying badass, and owner of The Broken Spoke bike shop in Santa Fe, dontchaknow).  He was also racing SS, and I happened to notice that the cog on his bike looked suspiciously small.  a 32 x 16 tooth gear ratio, on a 29er, to be exact.  It was clear that Chappy was either going to win, or get last place with a gear that big.   Well, big surprise, he took the SS win, apparently pedaling away from everybody at the start, never to be seen again (I say apparently because I sure as hell wasn't anywhere close enough to see it happen).

My personal race went well, I paced myself enough to keep from blowing up (something I tend to do), managed to pass a couple more singlespeeders during the race, and ended up in 5th place.  I was particularly happy to come in on the wheel of Chris Casey, somebody who has historically put pretty good time into me in Cat.1 geared races over the past couple years.  I was even in front of him for a short period of time.  I came up on him quick, and passed him, thinking that he had bonked.  But I think I just caught him zoning out, because he quickly passed me back, and then stayed in front for the last 1/4 of the race or so.

Here is a pic of me, making it look hard. Probably near the end of the race, based on how I look like I'm trying to fall off the front of my bike.  Thats the singlespeed position when you can no longer use your actual muscles to turn the pedals over, and instead just throw your bodyweight into every downstroke.  I did however, clearly just pass several people at once, just so you know. 

Actually, my only complaint was that the SS class was started 2 minutes behind all of the Cat 2 men, which was a huge number of racers.  It has been a pretty obvious trend the past several years that some of the fastest guys showing up are racing SS.  Chappy's race time was faster than any Cat 2 racer in any age group.  And my time, good for a 5th place finish, would have put me into 4th place Cat 2 in my age group.  There were 14 singlespeeders and 74 Cat 2's, most of whom I passed during the race.  Had we been put infront of the Cat 2's, worst case scenario is that a few of them had to pass a few of us.  But on the bright side, nothing like passing dozens of people to make you feel a little better about yourself.

Lastly, I know you have all been anxious to know who won in the Dr.Dave vs. Papa Lucero grudge match of the century.  Well, Dave dug deep and finished in 7th place, putting over 3 minutes into Papa Lucero who finished 11th (out of a huge field of 24 in the Cat 2 "Old Guy" class).  This should just serve to motivate Papa Lucero, and with his just being retired, he will have some serious time to get trained up for next year.

A link to an Excel file with all the results and lap times can be found here...

http://www.ttiming.com/?q=node/8

And now my brain has been emptied of all it's awesomeness. So I say farewell.

Ventana Mountain Bikes USA now at Bikeworks ABQ!

Have you noticed that Ventana has been getting a lot of press lately?  They redesigned all their models, and they are looking pretty awesome.  They even got a new website (it was a long time coming).

http://www.ventanausa.com/

After repeatedly drooling over the bikes, and wanting to be able to offer a made in the USA frame, we decided to get signed on with Ventana, and start selling some.

So far, we have sold just one, the El Comandante SS, a singlespeed specific aluminum 29er with swing out style dropouts, and a whole bunch of sexyness.

As you might imagine, the welds are immaculate, the frame has some awesome details, sweet geometry, and it's all together awesome.  

I'm excited to get an El Ciclon in the store, as soon as we have a few extra dollars to throw at some inventory...

140 or 150mm travel burly trail bike, lots of color choices, legendary stiffness and durability, and made in the US? Internal cable routing, sweet swoopy tubes, PF30 bb (takes any cranks you can imagine) and tapered heatube?  Sign me up!

Ventana makes their own bikes, in California, since 1988.  Original owner Sherwood is has been welding up the frames since the beginning, and if you want to talk to him, just call and ask. 

When you order your frame, it will be sitting there waiting, raw.  Pick your color (there are lots to choose from), and they will powder coat in that day or the next, and ship it out shortly.  Need custom geometry (because you have the legs of somebody 6'3", the torso of somebody 5'8", and your knuckles drag on the ground?), no problem, they will build you what you need for a surprisingly small upcharge.

Shazam! Lets buy some stuff made in our own country for a change!