In a stunning display of impulsiveness, Bikeworks has decided to move the date of our Monday closings forward from July 20th to Today, July 6th.
Thanks to all our customers in their patience and understanding about our desire to generally work less and ride our bikes more. We assure you all that we will be riding our bikes today (and also drinking beer and watching some Tour de France).
See you soon.
Monday, July 6, 2009
Monday, June 29, 2009
Good Reading
I came across this link on Drunkcyclist. It is one mans daily diary from racing the Great Divide Race a few years ago. It's long, but if you've got some time to kill, he is a very good writer, and its an engaging view into what it would be like to race your bike some 2500 miles in three weeks, off road, on a single speed, with no suspension, self supported.
http://www.carsstink.org/peterson/Turtle/TurtleText.html
I can't even begin to imagine. The whole thing sounds very lonely and frightening. That is some serious time to spend out in the middle of nowhere alone.
Speaking of singlespeeds, I finally got back out on mine yesterday. We had a crew of five out at Otero, with Charlie and I on SS. It was Charlie's first ride on his Maverick SS, and he was very happy.
It was my first ride on my wheelset, which is very similar to my old wheelset, Stans 355 rims, but with DT 240 hubs rather than American Classics. I also had some new tires I'm experimenting with, some WTB Vulpines. So far so good with the Vulpines. It was a rather tacky day yesterday thanks to all the rain, so I believe most any tire was going to hook up well, but it did seem to give better traction that one would think after looking at it. I am also running it tubeless, and despite its very low weight and 60 tpi thread count, it is holding air nicely, hooked up on the rim quickly, and never burped on me at 35psi, even with pounding it down Blue Ribbon, which is about as rough and fast a trail as I'm likely to ride on a hardtail.
Charlie mentioned that he felt his Edge / Chub wheelset was extremely stiff, stiffer probably than some of his 26" wheelsets. I'm wondering if it is more a result of the rim, or of the extremely large flange diameter on the hub, or a combo of the two.
I was jealous of his 2010 Reba 29er fork. He has the 80 - 120mm U turn model with a 20mm thru axle, and it just looked nice.
Danny raced in State Championship Crit race yesterday, which took place in the Alamed business park across the street from the Baloon Fiesta Park. His plan was to race in the Masters race, and then also in the Pro 1, 2 race. Unfortunately, he got taken out in the last turn during the masters race. Haven't actually talked to him, just a few texts back and forth, but he sent me a pic of his leg with a couple spots of rather deep road rash. I think he's okay though, and more importantly, his bike and his hot new wheels came out okay.
Speaking of crits, the final Tuesday Night Crit takes places tomorrow night. We're planning on making an appearence with our grill and a cooler of beer again. I'll race the C's, maybe I'll get lucky and be allowed in the B race too, but probably not. After the nasty wreck 2 weeks ago, they were very uptight last week about what categories were allowed to race which races.
Okay, time to go to work. I've got a Hammerschmidt to install today, which I haven't done before. Been told it's actually easy, but I always get intimidated with new things and reading instructions and such.
http://www.carsstink.org/peterson/Turtle/TurtleText.html
I can't even begin to imagine. The whole thing sounds very lonely and frightening. That is some serious time to spend out in the middle of nowhere alone.
Speaking of singlespeeds, I finally got back out on mine yesterday. We had a crew of five out at Otero, with Charlie and I on SS. It was Charlie's first ride on his Maverick SS, and he was very happy.
It was my first ride on my wheelset, which is very similar to my old wheelset, Stans 355 rims, but with DT 240 hubs rather than American Classics. I also had some new tires I'm experimenting with, some WTB Vulpines. So far so good with the Vulpines. It was a rather tacky day yesterday thanks to all the rain, so I believe most any tire was going to hook up well, but it did seem to give better traction that one would think after looking at it. I am also running it tubeless, and despite its very low weight and 60 tpi thread count, it is holding air nicely, hooked up on the rim quickly, and never burped on me at 35psi, even with pounding it down Blue Ribbon, which is about as rough and fast a trail as I'm likely to ride on a hardtail.
Charlie mentioned that he felt his Edge / Chub wheelset was extremely stiff, stiffer probably than some of his 26" wheelsets. I'm wondering if it is more a result of the rim, or of the extremely large flange diameter on the hub, or a combo of the two.
I was jealous of his 2010 Reba 29er fork. He has the 80 - 120mm U turn model with a 20mm thru axle, and it just looked nice.
Danny raced in State Championship Crit race yesterday, which took place in the Alamed business park across the street from the Baloon Fiesta Park. His plan was to race in the Masters race, and then also in the Pro 1, 2 race. Unfortunately, he got taken out in the last turn during the masters race. Haven't actually talked to him, just a few texts back and forth, but he sent me a pic of his leg with a couple spots of rather deep road rash. I think he's okay though, and more importantly, his bike and his hot new wheels came out okay.
Speaking of crits, the final Tuesday Night Crit takes places tomorrow night. We're planning on making an appearence with our grill and a cooler of beer again. I'll race the C's, maybe I'll get lucky and be allowed in the B race too, but probably not. After the nasty wreck 2 weeks ago, they were very uptight last week about what categories were allowed to race which races.
Okay, time to go to work. I've got a Hammerschmidt to install today, which I haven't done before. Been told it's actually easy, but I always get intimidated with new things and reading instructions and such.
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Custom Maverick Hardtail 29er
Here's Charlie's newest toys:
One of 3 custom Maverick 29er hardtails. Build highlights include the Edge rims laced to Chub hubs with DT Aerolite spokes, and Race Face Next carbon cranks, and Formula R1 brakes. Sooo dirty. The frame was built by Spot with True Temper OX Platinum tubing, and paint job by Spectrum Powderworks.
It was definitely a fun bike to build.
Also, Charlie has a new commuter bike:
A titanium Spot 29er freak bike. Rigid steel fork by Spot, Dura Ace scandium wheelset with tubeless Hutchinson cross tires. 2 x 10 drivetrain with FSA carbon cranks. A good old fashioned freak bike. Can be run as a single speed, belt drive compatible if desired. Geometry accepts a suspension fork, plenty of room for mountain tires if desired. I expect this bike to see a few different incarnations in the coming years. This bike is pretty fun.
One of 3 custom Maverick 29er hardtails. Build highlights include the Edge rims laced to Chub hubs with DT Aerolite spokes, and Race Face Next carbon cranks, and Formula R1 brakes. Sooo dirty. The frame was built by Spot with True Temper OX Platinum tubing, and paint job by Spectrum Powderworks.
It was definitely a fun bike to build.
Also, Charlie has a new commuter bike:
A titanium Spot 29er freak bike. Rigid steel fork by Spot, Dura Ace scandium wheelset with tubeless Hutchinson cross tires. 2 x 10 drivetrain with FSA carbon cranks. A good old fashioned freak bike. Can be run as a single speed, belt drive compatible if desired. Geometry accepts a suspension fork, plenty of room for mountain tires if desired. I expect this bike to see a few different incarnations in the coming years. This bike is pretty fun.
Shop Hours, Closings, and Blabbity blah blah
Okay, we're going to give this closing on Mondays idea a try.
Starting Monday July 20th, Bikeworks will be closed Sundays and Mondays, open from 10 to 6 Tuesday through Saturday.
We'll just see how it goes. Maybe it will stick, maybe we'll be out of business by August. Who knows. It will be a convenient time to start this experiment because Tony Baloney is leaving for an epic Whistler trip sometime shortly before that, and it will just be Danny and I in the shop for a couple of weeks or more.
Yea, I know what your thinking, "Tony gets to go to Whistler for a couple of weeks right in the middle of summer, when a bike shop is busiest?" And yes, we hate him too. But when he looks at you with those puppy dog eyes, you just can't say no. And somehow I'm pretty sure his trip will end up profitable for the shop. I'm not sure how yet, but I have faith in the powers of Tony.
Furthermore, we're going to be closed on the 4th of July, because we love America, and fireworks, and grilling red meat, and coolers full of beer on the patio. And we're also very fond of not working whenever we have a legitimate excuse.
You know when you drink a couple of cups of coffee in the morning without eating anything, and you get that fiery burning pit sensation in the bottom of your stomach? That's where I'm at right now.
I finished building Charlie's Spaverick (limited edition Maverick hardtail 29er, made by Spot) yesterday. Charlie promised to send me pics, since he whisked it away before I had the chance to take any. It's a pretty bike. I'm really excited to see what it rides like off road, because just around the parking lot you could tell it was something special, which I am going to attribute mostly to the wheelset. We love us some fancy wheels. Never underestimate the power of nice wheels.
And I'm out.
Starting Monday July 20th, Bikeworks will be closed Sundays and Mondays, open from 10 to 6 Tuesday through Saturday.
We'll just see how it goes. Maybe it will stick, maybe we'll be out of business by August. Who knows. It will be a convenient time to start this experiment because Tony Baloney is leaving for an epic Whistler trip sometime shortly before that, and it will just be Danny and I in the shop for a couple of weeks or more.
Yea, I know what your thinking, "Tony gets to go to Whistler for a couple of weeks right in the middle of summer, when a bike shop is busiest?" And yes, we hate him too. But when he looks at you with those puppy dog eyes, you just can't say no. And somehow I'm pretty sure his trip will end up profitable for the shop. I'm not sure how yet, but I have faith in the powers of Tony.
Furthermore, we're going to be closed on the 4th of July, because we love America, and fireworks, and grilling red meat, and coolers full of beer on the patio. And we're also very fond of not working whenever we have a legitimate excuse.
You know when you drink a couple of cups of coffee in the morning without eating anything, and you get that fiery burning pit sensation in the bottom of your stomach? That's where I'm at right now.
I finished building Charlie's Spaverick (limited edition Maverick hardtail 29er, made by Spot) yesterday. Charlie promised to send me pics, since he whisked it away before I had the chance to take any. It's a pretty bike. I'm really excited to see what it rides like off road, because just around the parking lot you could tell it was something special, which I am going to attribute mostly to the wheelset. We love us some fancy wheels. Never underestimate the power of nice wheels.
And I'm out.
Friday, June 26, 2009
Our Favorite New Product
This is a god send. Finally, finally somebody has answered all those requests for recumbent conversions:
http://www.cruzbike.com/conversions.html
Just when I thought recumbents couldn't be more awesomer, out comes the regular bike converted to a recumbent and totally blows my mind.
If anybody is interested, I'm sure Swinton will be thrilled to install your conversion kit at a very affordable price, especially if you have a Wal Mart bike.
http://www.cruzbike.com/conversions.html
Just when I thought recumbents couldn't be more awesomer, out comes the regular bike converted to a recumbent and totally blows my mind.
If anybody is interested, I'm sure Swinton will be thrilled to install your conversion kit at a very affordable price, especially if you have a Wal Mart bike.
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