Speed Concept

Trek has just released the fastest bike in the world (sorry ridley dean) http://www.trekbikes.com/us/en/story/sc9 check it out here and be sure to order in your personal best from us.

Maybe Mr. Armstrong can push for some airplane reform

Apparently South West Airlines does not charge to check a bike (note if you are taller than 4 feet your standard bike will still cost money). At first I thought this is awesome (my initial excitement was dashed on a very small box with my bikes very large frame).

As I follow the story

today Lance sent the following to the 2.4 million followers who read his "tweets/twits"

RT @LIVESTRONGCEO: Hey @southwestair - idea: SWA should be the first airline to take bikes for free! Bags are free. How about bikes?about 9 hours ago via UberTwitter
A short time later South West Airlines posted their policy non motorized bicycles. Please forgive this giant corporations grammar this policy can save you money.Here is our policy on bikes (scroll to non-motorized bikes) u can check bikes for free: http://cot.ag/2I9afw @livestrongceo@lancearmstrongabout 9 hours ago via CoTweet
Following the link they do have some severe restrictions that make this a free bike in name alone.
The box size has me some what concerned a length + width + height of 62 inches is pretty much impossible to do. My mountain bikes frame rear dropout to head tube, and bb shell to seat collar is 62" (42+20). A frame has to be very broken down (to base tubes or raw carbon) to fit in that space. A 2 foot by 3 foot box would suck up 60 inches (24+ 36=60) this will make for a very slender bike given the narrowest dropouts are 120 mm wide in the back. In fact 700c rims require 24.5" length and height just to fit with out tires. I believe to fit a bike in this I would need to have a frame that can be decoupled S&S style I do not even own a bike that could be much less afford the custom frame that can take the couplers. However a folding bike may fit I will have to measure ours at the shop Thursday.
Free bike transport could make them money. It gives you virtually every single ticket for a person with a bike. It makes you the airline which otherwise spits out millions of tons of CO2 look greenish which is good P.R.. Finally bikes like Ikea Furniture, flat pack. They are ideally suited to the cargo bay of an airplane where volume is at a premium. A careful cyclist can bring their bike narrower than a foot my bike into a 3X4X1 area this is 96 inches a 100 inch barrier is much more realistic.
What could have been a glorious day leaves me saddened as I do not think it is possible to squeeze my bike into the box SWA would allow to be on a jet plane for free. South West clearly missed the point the cycling world/Lance Armstrong was trying to make. Bumping the allowance for bicycles would be simple the box does not have to be much bigger than the 62" allotment. Which as of right now allows for a well packed wheelset.
Heres to realistic policies for bicyclesJohn Henry

Googling a more bike friendly way!

Google has added a bike route feature on Google Maps. So far Champaign has campus and and a trail just outside of the bike shop. This is a big step forward in showing the world that the bicycle is a viable way to get around town. Hopefully the routes will expand so people can see safe routes on the internet.

At the shop we offer maps of the area with all the routes deemed safer to ride by bicycle for the ultra low price of $1.

Hope you enjoyed the beautiful weather today!

John Henry

Handle Bars!

I am going to try and blog more to make this page more worth visiting. Two in as many days is a huge increase.

Today was a catch up day at the shop we have been so busy with last weeks spring rush today was a nice change of pace, kind of. We played catch up today Jason checked in the biggest pile of parts I have ever seen at the shop. In addition to that MOAR STUFF came in, including another shipment of bicycles. This weekend left some fairly serious openings in the bike shop floor and I had to get 7 or so bikes out of their boxes as well as rearrange some to make room for new models. For example there is a new madone 4.5 on the floor.

Yeah its not M'erican carbon fiber however is attractively priced at $1999. Which makes it the cheapest full carbon fiber bike we sell. Also it was redesigned for 2010 which makes it ride significantly nicer than last years 4series frames. (I would know I rode them both back to back, Its one of the perks of the job) This bike is a great upgrade from what ever aluminium bike you are riding on currently. It seems every bit as stiff as the 5 and 6 series bikes. However it does not seem as lively of a ride. That may be in part due to the heavier parts on the bike further testing needs to be done by an independent source.

Also this came in today. This photo does not do the bars justice.

Bontrager XXX lite bars

Weighing In at 114 Grams the packaging that comes with the bars is required in order to keep them from floating away. I am quite excited to see these on my Mountain bike. They are so choice. If you have the means I highly recommend it.

This is the first step in operation save weight on my mountain bike

coming soon to it

lighter SRAM X.O Shifter and deraileur and casette as that is worn out as well

Ligher and stiffer Shimano Deore XT Crank

A 1X9 setup

Some lighter new stem

Lighter weight seatpost and saddle

The Stans Wheelset mentioned in my last post

Turns out when its all said and done the bike will effectively be an aluminium Superfly. I cannot wait.

John Henry

Time to get out and ride!

If you had not noticed and judging by how busy Saturday was at the shop you have.

It is starting to warm up a bit. I would not be surprised if there is one more cold streak before winter finally throws in the towel but I am enjoying the nice weather. Indoor trainer rides have stopped at the shop and group rides are spinning up.

If you are like me you have not ridden near as much over the winter as you should. I am looking at the new Trek Madones to save me in the coming group rides at least until my legs come around. I however already have a fine road bike and perhaps more importantly have college to pay for first. Whats your excuse? Several 2009 demo bikes are still here. These bikes have been tried and ridden before, but still carry full warranties and guarantees not to mention they are hundreds of dollars below msrp at this point come check one out!

Unfortunately Kickapoo state parks mountain bike trails will probably be a mud fest until we get a good dry streak but I remain hopeful that there will be some days in late March April. Over the winter my Mountain bike did see some use as snow and ice made me leery. As a result I managed to wear out my drive train It now skips when I pedal hard. If your bike has suffered through a tough winter or just sat and collected dust its time to get repairs done!

On this front of the cycling world I am torn between Treks Full Suspension top fuel and fuel and the 29ers from Gary Fisher. I love the new Gary Fisher Superfly 100 the way parents love their children, meanwhile the Fuel and Top Fuel from trek teases the engineer half of me with every bit of tech and suspension jargon out there. The 2010 mountain bikes from Trek and GF are spectacular. Even the lower end models will let you go ride through nature with style and dare I say, grace.

New for this year we carry Stans/No Tubes product. This means that some of the best mountain bike rims period. are available to you. Just be sure to ask about their wheel sets. We keep in stock their sealants and conversion kits so all you tubeless fans can run tire pressures that make fresh Peeps seem firm. I cannot wait to get the White ZTR crest rims on my X-Cal they should take Pounds off of my bike.

Hope to see you soon.

John Henry

The retro grouch buys a bike

Most people wouldn't call me an early adopter. I like technology that has been proven over years of use and abuse, so more than a few have been surprised to see me riding a new bike for past month. Trek's Belleville may be a new model, but it is a resurrection of technology that has been around for decades.

Part of Trek's ECO line of bicycles, the Belleville is a 3 speed utility bike. Like all the bikes in the ECO line, the Belleville has been designed to minimize the environmental impact of the bike, from manufacture and shipping to usage and the eventual end of life. Trek is following the Okala method to minimize the footprint of their Eco bikes and this is visible all over the Belleville. For example, most bikes are shipped in a cardboard box stuffed with Styrofoam and plastic. The Belleville, however, uses biodegradable terry cloth and string to pack the bike. This in particular impressed me because it shows that Trek is dedicated to being more environmentally friendly, even in ways that the customer will never see, nor probably even hear about.

The Belleville comes stock with a Shimano 3 speed hub in the rear, a Shimano generator hub in the front, front and rear dyno lights, a chainguard, fenders, racks and a beautiful blue powder coating over the entire bike, including the racks and fenders. I've been riding my Belleville over ten miles everyday for the past month and find it is just about the perfect bike for my day to day city riding. The porteur style front rack can carry a large pizza and a case of beer without any trouble while the back rack supports panniers and a rear trunk that together can hold 2 weeks worth of groceries. The fenders work just as they should, though I would like to see some mud flaps on them to keep the splash down a little more. One of the best parts about the whole package has to be the dyno lights. They just work. Its really nice not having to worry about batteries or carrying lights everywhere you go. The front is bright enough to really see the road on those streets without lamps while the rear has a capacitor to keep it lit at stop lights, even when the bike is not moving.

I especially like the fact that Trek has decided to use technology in the Belleville that has been proven over decades of use. The cromoly steel in the frame is the same material used in my 40 year old road bike and the rear hub has the same design that Shimano has been using for 35 years. In fact, my only gripe about the bike is also the one substantially new design component. The integrated stem and handlebar, which is modeled after boutique custom bikes coming out of Portland, lacks the adjustability of standard stems. For the vast majority of people, this isn't an issue, but some people this may put the hands at an uncomfortable angle.

Aside from the one gripe, I am very impressed with the design of the bike. At $659, the Belleville is much more moderately priced than the competition, and with the racks, lights and fenders it is a great option for people who need a bike to replace their car.

Trek Demo In Palos

Hi all,

Never missing a chance to go try new bikes or a chance to shamelessly plug my on shops brands, I went up to Palos Forest Preserve to check out the trek demo there. Coming along with me was my long time friend and car owner Seth. The claim was that we could try all manner of new and exciting bike both road and mountain. The reality was beyond my wildest expectations. After the two crummiest weeks of weather I can remember (3 if you count those soy aphids) The weather cooperated and it was warm and the trails were quite dry. We could not have asked for better weather.

Here are the bikes I tried out.

Madone 6 Serises With Dura Ace 2 (electric) unfortunately no Super Record it was awesome

Gary Fisher Chronus Pro with sram red also awesome

Trek Top Fuel 9.8 awesome

Trek Fuel Ex-9 awesome

Gary Fisher Rumblefish II perfection

Gary Fisher Superfly 100 awesome

My favorite of the bunch was surprisingly not the superfly, Gary Fishers Rumblefish II was far and away the most fun you can have on a bicycle. It was also the best bike considering the conditions for the day. The bike was very plush surprisingly efficient exceedingly forgiving, laterally stiff and vertically compliant. It has treks latest collaboration with Fox Facing Shox the DRCV rear shock which is very plush and smooth and nice grippy tires for late fall slop. The bikes 29" wheels and 120mm of suspension made it easy to ROLL OVER EVERYTHING.

By the end of the day Seth and I were tired and hungry and happy then we ate Ginos East pizza (I miss chicago pizza so much) which was so good and the perfect cap to a great demo day.

Speaking of Demo bikes Some of our new ones are in

madone 5 series with DA lite which is full dura ace at least as close as most people ever look.

top fuel 8 the fastest aluminium 26" mountain bike period.

Fuel Ex 8 trail bike ready to float over the snarliest single track.

More bikes are coming as trek can build them. We will be getting a six series Madone some Hifis and even a triathalon/time trial bike. Feel free rent them for a day especially if you are thinking about buying a new bicycle as the rental fee can be used toward the purchase of a new bike.

Heres hoping for more warm weather.

Johnny B.

smell my chamois

Hi! It's Dan's and my last day at the shop! We are heading out on our trip to Portland tomorrow; you can read about it on our blog.

We've decked out a Trek 520 at the shop, so come check it out! You can join us on our trip!

Some random thoughts from the saddle.......

I've been thinking about cycling in Illinois and comparing it to my recent trips to New York and Minnesota and Illinois is coming up on the short end. Why is it that our state is so far behind when in comes to bike paths and trails? Surely it has nothing to do with the great leadership we have sent to Springfield. Then again?

Kudos and a thumbs up for......

-Big Jay for another excellent BJFAR (Big Jay's Fat Ass Race) a few weeks ago in Mahomet. When you host a race you might let someone else win.

-Wild Card and Verizon Race teams for an excellent weekend of racing. Nothing like a weekend of NASCAR style bike racing to get the blood going.

-Alex, Dan and Anona for the passion they have brought to the C-U cycling scene and the good work they did here at the shop. We will miss you and wish you all the best!

- Steve Nesbitt for a thoughtful letter to the News Gazette editors on this date regarding the state of cycling safety in C-U.

Excitement for the new Fisher road bikes for 2010 is high. Check out the recent reviews on cyclingnews. Look for the new models in the shop later this season. Also, get ready for the Trek electric assist bikes. It might be just the bike you need to hang with the "heavy hitters" at the Wednesday night fights.

Road magazine, an excellent source for the latest from the road scene, sings praises for fi'zi:k dual bar tape. It sounded so good that we now have it in the shop. (Take that, Dan Shunk!) Anona calls it "old man's tape" because it is padded. Regardless, it is comfortable, looks great and you can clean it when it gets dirty. Sounds like my retirement wardrobe.

Ride safely, see you on the road.

John A.

In Lieu of The Bicycle Race Tomorrow, A word on Tri Bikes and forgive my grammar

But First, A hearty hand shake and a pat on the back for Axel he is going on to the real world, outside this bicycling Utopia/cult we have here, I don't quite know why he would ever want to leave here. The red kool-aid was planned for next week. In any case we wish him the best of luck in the city of brotherly love.

Play him off keyboard cat.

Back to Tri's A number of folks come in to the shop with some combination of the following phrases "I want a bike to get into shape with to do some fitness riding" "and then maybe a few triathlons" "and do you have any tri bikes?".

The first bit about losing some unnecessary pounds and getting back into shape that can be accomplished through our fx series of bikes the 7.3 fx is an excellent example of just such a bike great for moderate paced rides up to as far as you care to go. That said for that third bit where you want to start training for triathlons and doing a few, I would be doing you the budding triathlete a disservice to put you on any thing less than a road bike. The reasons for this are numerous.

1 Road bikes are faster each pedal stroke sends you further down the road or up the mountain or toward the running leg of the triathlon.

2 That one road bike can be your training and competition ride for years of triathlons. They are adaptable for racing purposes but not so much for the day to day utility.

3 While they are more expensive they represent a significant investment in your self and as a result that can motivate you toward your goal of being a triathlete.

4 The higher quality parts on the bikes shift gears smoother and with less effort and will do so far beyond the life of cheaper flat bar stuff. This makes you more confident and life on the bike easier when you get out of the pool/lake/ocean and start riding the bike and you cant quite get your fingers wired to your brain properly.

5 Drop bars and clip on aero bars give you many hand positions so you can get into an aggressive stance on the bike or get upright for easier training rides and some people can sit in the aero bars all day long.

6. Peter loves this reason but The bike is the single biggest time reducing piece of equipment you can get for a triathlon (also a good one goggles that don't leak I swim regularly, used to competitively I hated swimming with cheap goggles). Why would you make your self less competitive with ill suited to the task equipment?

So if you say triathlon I am going to say road bike. Those are the rules and they are for your benefit.

The last question "Do you have any tri bikes?" the answer there is maybe in the future but now if you want one well order it for you it will come in a day or two. The tri bike is great for competition but are really race day only bikes. While fast in a straight line they are tough to handle even for the pros.

Tour De France 2009 - Crashes - Team Time Trail - Funny blooper videos are here

And those were just the crashes from this years tour.

Therefore a triathlon bike should not be your only bike as they are more dragster than daily driver. They put you in a position that is rather uncomfortable for day to day use and unsafe for rides any where other than a closed course. Additionally a triathlon bike frame is one of the last things a rider needs to benefit from aerodynamically. Its behind Aero bars, an aero helmet, aero wheels, a skin suit, cycling shoes, and clipless pedals. So when you have all those things first the performance advantages of a Tri bike may be worth while. finally all these things with the exception of wheels are cheaper than the bike frame and there fore a better value.

Finally I hope to see you (whoever you are)

all at the Crit today. The shop will be open during the race So if you need any thing in a pinch we will be glad to help out!

P. S. for those of us out there with bike seats that are not quite comfortable (my self included) count your blessings Harry Potter spends hours flying around on a broomstick. Maybe they have broomstick specific shorts.

New stuffs

I didn't do anything worth writing about this weekend, except perhaps cleaning my chain after riding through the poo storm on Saturday (but Sheldon Brown already took care of that). Nope, this weekend was specifically for doing nothing before the Champaign Crit and two weeks of racing (the aptly named) Superweek.

We've had some new toys roll into the shop in the past few weeks, including:
Triathlon shorts (men's and women's), for those of us for whom riding just isn't enough

Detours panniers (convertible backpacks!)
...and Planet Bike Superflash headlights (further testing planned)

Quadribents

I received a question via the shop website regarding Quadribents, which, if combined with a canopy, would probably be the hippest bike in the CU area. However, the e-mail address on the message didn't work, so here's my broadcast reply: we can order all of the parts of a quadribent and then assemble it for you. The EZ-1 (i.e. the recumbent itself) costs $775 for each, and the Quadribent kit is $799. Assembly is, as always, free.

Guess what John has in the stand right now

It's a 17.5". There's only one. It's my size. You'd better hurry.

Also, Dan and I have been jazzed up on GoPills (just kidding) for the last week trying to get the shop caught up on repairs. Happy congratulations to everyone here: we're scheduling 2 days out. In June. Last year we were 2 weeks out at this point). Cookies and popsicles all around.

Helmets

You may have gathered that John does a good job promoting helmet use by using his "Dad voice" with potential helmet users. (It's the same way he keeps wild children in check while working [please come back, John.]) I'm also a big fan of helmets--I've cracked at least 5 helmets in my day and am still able to blog about it. This makes me (and my mommy) happy. On the other hand, my libertarian side thinks that adults should be able to make their own decisions, even stupid ones. To reconcile this internal conflict, I present you with this video (movie? film?) to help you make an informed decision about wearing a crash hat:


Update from John:

Our luck with the weather ended today. 22 miles from the end of the day's ride and we could see the storm moving in behind us. We took off at a good pace with hope of reaching the cars before the storm caught us. We did not make it and rode the last five or so miles in the rainstorm. Even so it was a great ride. Mary upped her speed again and I was pushing 20+ to keep up with her and Brian. At some point near the finish, Brian gave Mary the front and she started pulling away from us!

We changed to dry clothes in a Dairy Queen restroom and warmed up with an ice cream cone. After some stops in a few tourist shops and the purchase of a Schwinn advertising sign we drove south to the Brainerd area. Tomorrow we ride to St. Cloud and the Lake Wobegon Bike Trail (where all the men are handsome, the women strong and the children are above average).

Thursday night we are going to the track races just north of the Twin Cities and I can relive my glory days as a young track racer.

Alex.... I have lots of "used jerseys" at this point in the trip. They do smell. I will check again for a hint of celery. I suspect I will detect the essence of pancakes and DQ and no celery.

I bet John's not sweating his ears off

Just returned from a race in St. Louis-land, where it was about 120 degrees. As an aside, I find really sweaty jerseys smell like celery after they dry--try it out. Now to our Fargo correspondent. How are the black flies, John?

We are within 100 miles of the Canadian border, camping for 3 nights on a lake with 140 miles of shoreline. Just got back to camp before the rains arrived. Second time we have dodged the rainin two days. To confirm, the Axiom panniers are rainproof, except for the ouside zipper pocket. The kept our jackets nice and drive during a tremendous thunderssorm sevral nights ago. Mary has regained her cycling form as the ride unfolds. Found myself pushing 18 mph to catch up with her today. We added an extra 15 miles today to get to a DQ! And, Dan I had some great donuts this morning and thought of you. See everyone at the shop next week. Speaking of shops I have not seen a good one since we left Minneapolis. Still looking for a road bike mirror to replace the one on Mary's bike that I broke. Oops.

Clearly...

...we all need fenders.

Here's another update from John.

So, the details of this bike tour in Minnesota are as follows. For a number of years a group of cycling friends have planned independent bike tours around the country. They have done rides in Alaska, the Rockies, Colorado, Nova Scotia, Minnepolis to New York City, etc. The group varies each year and it becomes a reunion each year to see old friends and make some new ones.

This year we are in Minnesota with about 25 people and are riding mainly on the bikes trails. we are here for 16 days and riding 14 days. Some days we are camping, some days we are in a hotel (like today), and we also stay twice in a friend's home. We are calling this ride the Minnesota Car Caravan Tour. The driving we do is usually less than an hour, either before or after a ride.

One neat detail that I want to share is what we call "Guard Out" ride routes. We do not use route sheets and when there are lots of turns, like riding in Minneapolis St. Paul or Duluth it could be hard to not get lost. With Guard Out that has not been a problem. We have several guards and when the ride leader says guard out one of them waits at a turn and directs all the riders through the turn. The guard then sprints back to the front of the group. Even with multiple turns, using several guards keeps everyone on route and gives the guards some interval training with lots of short sprints.

Today we are on the Mesabi bike trail and will ride by the huge open pit mines up here. The entire trail is paved and it is unique in that it does not follow an old railroad bed. It is an up and down trail with several climbs with 8% grades or better. I may get to use that low gearing on the Portland today. Cheers.

Now I have to go retake my place in the basement bucket brigade.

Mr. John Goes to Minnesota

So the shop has been bouncing off the walls lately, and we've been working like hamsters to try to keep up. As such, I've been neglecting the website as well as my duties as Making Things Look Pretty in the Shop Coordinator in favor of getting my hands dirty with the mechanics. We're currently scheduling exactly 1 week out, much better than 2 weeks like last year at this time, but Dan and I are going to burn the midnight oil until we catch back up to our goal of 3 days out.

It's also been race season, so when we're not having more fun that a barrel of monkeys at the shop, we've been out training (Anona and I at least). She's been having a breakthrough season, tearing up every race she enters. I'm adjusting to the speed of the Pro/1/2 fields, and my results have been up (5th) and down (someone riding over my face). We're all excited for the upcoming heart of the season, especially the Champaign Criteriums!

John and Michael rode their bikes to Chicago a few weeks ago. I one upped them and rode to the near north suburbs, so Michael put his foot down, borrowed my rechargeable headlight (Stella 200N by Light and Motion), and did a crazy 16 hour 240-something mile ride. I won't be chasing that until I'm done racing and do 1000 miles in 3 days. Some day. Anyway, everyone at the shop (except Peter and Larry) just ordered some of the last available 200N, which is the NiMH version of the Stella 200L. It's a bit heavier, and doesn't have quite as good long term battery life, but it's a great deal. If anybody's interested in ordering light that will literally make oncoming traffic pull over and stop, the blog special price is $139 while supplies last. I really enjoy having a stupid-high-power headlight, as at night it gains me instant street cred with motorists. I also use it for longer rides into the country, usually alone, which is exciting in a somewhat scary way--I expect an ancient swamp monster to stretch its tentacles out of one of the flooded fields and gobble me up. We'll see. Last time I rode through the middle of a herd of deer crossing the road. That got the adrenaline flowing.

I don't think the bathtub-rollers is going to happen. I assign this project to any and all readers.

If anybody from Mahomet has been in looking for Dr. Alumbaugh, he is on vacation up nort':

We are enjoying the touring options that Minnesota has to offer. Frankly, we have been very surprised by the sheer number of people enjoying their biking options in the Minneapolis area. Lots of paved trails into and around the city.

After a brief ride on last Friday to the Coon Rapids dam we declared our bikes ready to tour through June 27th. The new Trek Portland is a lot of fun and the Axiom panniers have made my bike the "pack mule" for the three of us. If we think we might need it, we put it in the bags. Brian is riding his new Project One Trek Madone 5.2 and Mary has her Trek Pilot 5.2. My bike is the heavyweight in our group. I will send a photo of my truck with our bikes and gear loaded for the trip up here.

We filled the day on Saturday by riding into the city and back using mostly the paved trails and saw THOUSANDS of people riding. Sadly, too many were not wearing helmets. Interestingly enough, those on road bikes were much more likely to have a helmet on their head. I always knew that roadies were smarter! Sunday another day on trails with hundreds of others on the trail before heading north to an overnight in Hinckley, Minnesota in a hotel with a DQ next door!

Tomorrow we are on to Moose Lake and back in the tents.

BTW, we stopped in a Minneapolis bike shop and saw the new Trek single speed with the carbon fiber belt instead of a chain (The District--ed.). Very cool in gray paint, orange trim and wheels. $925 and I could have ridden it out the door. Champaign Cycle will love this bike. Is it there yet? (They're finally starting to ship, and we may have ours in less than 3 weeks! Ditto for the new Soho--ed.). More later on the logistics of travelling through a city without maps or cue sheets and how we are moving up to the Canadian border.

Finally, watch out for the right hook--when a car passes you and then turns right, cutting you off. I've avoided this one a couple times recently. This is also a very common type of accident when cyclists use the sidewalk or ride in the gutter, out of the normal path of auto traffic. Note that Illinois law says you must ride as far to the right as is practicable, which basically means you get to decide how far is far enough--there's a grey line between being in the way and being visible.

But don't wear lime green jerseys--a concerned motorist informed me they blend in with the grass in these parts...?

Revisited: twenty nine inches.

Saturday (May 2nd) marked my new bike's virgin race. The race was a part of Winona Lake's annual Fat and Skinny Tire Fest. As usual they put on a great event. I signed up for the Cat 1 event along with Gene, my teammate.

Before the race I get about 20 minutes of warmup in to check out the trail and re-familiarize myself with my ever-evolving setup. After weeks of watching the weather I was concerned about how muddy the course might be, but to my delight the trail was in perfect condition. The course is mostly singletrack with some rolling hills and occasionally opens up to a field section or two. The fast guys usually post laps somewhere around the 35 minute mark so I'm expecting a sub-two hour race for sure.

I'm a bit late in setting up my feeding area so I get a bad spot in line. 3rd row, yuck. Luckily I make my way into the 2nd row when we roll forward to the line. Our race is a full 31 riders strong and the first few miles of trail are pretty tight with no room to pass. The start to a race like this is crucial and a bad start can ruin a race, so I'm getting a bit nervous. The official gives us the 10 second warning and eventually the gun fires. I get a good jump and weasel my way into 3rd before the first corner. I don't know how I managed that from my position. Perhaps everyone else is a little nervous with the season's first race too?

Mountain bike races always start out HARD. Everyone's intensity is capped when trying to put time into the rider(s) behind them. Luckily I get into a good group and quickly become reasonably comfortable sitting in third place. About 5-10 minutes into the race, the three of us had put about 10-12 seconds into 4th place, which is pretty good for the start of the race. Soon, however, I notice a rider bridging up to us and I want to go faster. I let the lead rider know that there was a rider incoming, but he was already pegged so I looked for a spot to pass. I found a nice little hill and attacked up the left side into first place. I hammered for about a minute and quickly got a comfortable lead. At this point I'm pretty toasted, so perhaps I went a little too hard? :P

In this situation there's only one thing you can do in a mountainbike race: settle into a rhythm and be as fast and efficient as you can. Now that I'm all alone, I can start thinking about my riding and not worry so much about other riders. As far as the bike goes, so far, so good. It's done everything I've asked of it. As with my initial ride, I definately still feel planted in corners and traction has never been a problem. I'm also getting more accustomed to the handling and don't really think about making the bike turn anymore, which is probably a good thing. However, a bad thing is the rider that was bridging is now in 2nd place and catching me fast.

At this point I'm nearing the field section, which is very similar to the kickapoo field section. It is somewhat rutted, with a smooth, main line about 6 inches wide and rough grass on either side. The surface is a mixture of dirt and pea gravel and traction is somewhat limited. The speeds are relatively high in this section so control and precision are key. I did this same race last year and distinctly remember having trouble keeping up with the leaders in it. The 2nd place rider catches me on a short uphill that I only tempoed up. I could have climbed it faster, but in a 2 hour races efficiency is key. I gambled and decided to save the energy. At the top of the hill he's obviously more gassed from bridging and climbing than I am, so I keep the heat on. We ride together for about 5 minutes and then I make a little test-acceleration. Gone. Cool.

Right after the field section is a long downhill followed by a series of the harder climbs in the lap. At the top of the hill my gap is up to about 15 seconds or so. My guess is the other guy cracked pretty hard; after all, the bottom of a hill is the last place you want to be in the red at. All alone again, I re-set the cruise control and race against the clock. Half of a lap in the books.

The next 20 minutes was mostly uneventful. I made a small mistake in a switchback downhill and had to unclip, but otherwise the lap went rather smoothly. I started seeing some Pro/Elite stragglers, so that gives me something to chase. Coming up to the finish line, I hear the announcer call my name (which is cool.) I check my time (39:23) and it's slower than I expected, but not by much. I grab a new bottle and prepare myself for (hopefully) a lonely 80 minutes of defending my position.

CHAPTER TWO: Disaster


Long story short, about halfway thorugh the lap I break my right pedal and am unable to clip in. *insert expletive assortment here.* Race Over. Last. DFL. Sitting on the side of the trail it's about 60 seconds before the next riders pass me. Double bummer.

I make the walk of shame up the officals booth and give them my number. Looking at the times I had a 53 second advantage over second place when I crossed the line. Results Here. After going back to the car I ended up being able to fix my cleat and acutally ended up riding two more laps, so at least I got my money's worth. Really, I couldn't have asked for a much of a better day. The weather was perfect, festival was fun and I got to eat some awesome food. As you can see, it doesnt take too much to keep me happy. Gene and I stayed in town and enjoyed ourselves for a few hours before making the trip home to Chambana. We even switched bikes for a full lap and I got to try the 29er vs. 26er back to back.

Conclusions:
-29'ers are still not slow
-26'ers are not dead.
-I still need to get a new saddle
-I am going back to foam grips
-Riding a hardtail requires a lot more standing
-I'm not as out of shape as I thought
-I am investing in race tires. The stock tires on the bike offer unlimited traction it seems, but I want something a little lighter and with a little less rolling resistance. I'm looking at the NoTubes Raven currently.
-The handling woes of a 29er can be overcome once you get used to it.
-My back currently misses my full suspension bike, but that will likely go away later in the season.
-My blogs entries are too long.

Hopefully I'll be back in full force in two weeks for a rematch. That's if I survive finals, though.

Holy 29er batman!

This past Sunday I finally got out my new moutain bike, a 2009 Gary Fisher Paragon. I was previously riding/racing a 26" full suspension bike so this was a big change for me. I rode at the bike at the Kickapoo state park mountain bike trails, a trail system with which I am intimately familiar. I was generally pleased with how the bike performed and definately came away with a few surprises, both good and bad.

First thing that I noticed was that the position of the bike was pleasantly familiar to what I have been racing the past 4 years. Although the bike is physically longer due to the larger wheels, the wheelbase is actually the same as most 26" bikes which I confirmed by meauring when I got mine. Once rolling, it is easy to see what everyone talks about with 29ers. Rolling resistance over rough surfaces is very noticibly reduced. So far so good.

Getting further into the singletrack, my initial excitement begins to tame down a bit. It becomes apparent that this bike definitely handles differently than my old race rig. Acceleration is admittedly not as snappy as my other bikes, espeially not my SS hardtail. Also the cornering is a bit more labored. I wouldn't say the bike corners slower (in fact the just opposite as I'll discuss shortly) but changing directions definately takes more rider input and during the first 30 minutes of riding I consistently found myself overcooking corners. As such, I would say the bike "feels" slow, if that makes any sense. Also the really tight switchbacks require more concentration to negotiate with the bigger wheels.

As I got more familiar with the handling of the bike I started pushing its limits a bit more. Now I'm having fun. For whatever reason this bike can corner HARD. There really is a traction increase over my old setup. I quickly found that the harder I rode the bike the better it responded. I simply cannot get over how planted it feels in the corners and the bike inspiress confidence to go even faster. If I can corner faster I have to accelerate less at the corner exit and will save energy and go faster. Cool.

Climbing was amazing with the new bike. I made it up all the climbs, including the new in the new downhill section (which is looking great. Good job KMBC!) I attribute this solely to the size of the wheels. In no other place is the benefit of the larger diamter of the wheels more apparent than on the slow, bumpy uphills. I'm not even in good shape and I climbed all these more effortlessly than I can remember in recent times. Double cool.

I don't have much saddle time yet, but I think this bike has the potential to be faster than my previous machine. Hopefully the handling woes go away as I get more experience with the new characteristics. I'm pretty sure I can save over a pound in wheel weight with a new set of wheels/tires which I'll want for racing anyway. This should help make it a bit snappier.

CONCLUSIONS:
-29ers are not slow.
-29ers are not superbikes, you still have to ride hard to go fast.
-I want lighter wheels/tires to make the bike snappier.
-I want a new saddle to make my butt happier.
-The benefit of a 29er will depend on the type of course and the skill/fitness of the rider.
-I'm still working out the bugs on my bike.
-I need to buy lots of tires and experiment with them.
-I need to ride more (out of shape).
-I don't think I'll miss my full suspension bike.
-I need to lube my chain.
-I need to help with a KMBC trail maintenance day. I was blown away at the effot put into the new section and I think they did a really good job with it.

If all goes to plan I'll be heading out to my first mtb race this saturday. I haven't decided if I'll do the DINO race or head down to Missouri. I'll follow up with my post-race impressions of the bike. -Nick

BIKE SETUP
19" stock paragon except:
-1x9 Shimano XT drivetrain 32t /11-34
-wheels setup tubeless.
-24psi front / 26 psi rear
-23.7 lbs w/o pedals

First!

Apparently someone is actually reading this blog--very happy news to the writers union, which had been threatening a strike. We enjoy having an outlet to discuss bikes, shop stuff, and cycling in general in a what we hope is a comfortable environment (e.g. your couch or big comfy desk chair). However, we would like to note that this is not actually a public forum, but an extension of the shop itself. We encourage comments, discussion, and critique (or criticism), but just as with the physical location, we will not allow content that we feel could be offensive, even if it was not intended to be. (The exception is for those who are offended by censorship, for whom the entire blog is now offensive.) Everybody cool with that? Ok, great. Moving on.

A young woman came in to purchase a pair of tubes last week, and while checking out at the front desk she chuckled at the 1(one)World2(two)Wheels pamphlets we have on display. What's funny about saving the world, you might ask. How about printing pamphlets about it. On 10(ten)% recycled paper at that. 2 (two) points to you for noticing that, madam. I'll give you a patch kit next time you're visit ;)

The Shower Test

Remember when "waterproof" meant "water shall not pass." Well wake up: it's 2009, and your contents may be hot after heating. Perhaps even "water proof" has been assigned a legal definition of which I am unaware. Anyway, a recent constructive comment regarding the water proofness of Axiom bags prompted a grammatical discussion that required three bike shop employees, a shower, and a cat to resolve (props to Michael for being on my side):

BTW, all reviews on the internet overstate how the Axiom Panniers are NOT water proof.

Since we handed down a split decision on the meaning of this sentence, we rented some time in the Shire Shower Test Facilities. This is the same test that Klaus was so kind to perform for me two winters ago when I was looking for a new messenger bag. (I bought a Bailey Works, and it changed my life.) It's simple: stuffed the bag with paper, put it in the shower for a few minutes (yes, with the water on), and inspect the contents. See photo documentation below:





























Results: After a nervous five minutes of spraying the bag from every, we ordered a cat scan, which came back negative for H2(two)O contamination in the main pocket. The small outer pocket, on the other hand, accumulated about 4 (four) cm of water (as shown), all of which entered through the zipper. Perhaps Axiom was trying to integrate a Camelbak for long distance desert touring. If so, excellent work. Regardless, don't put your wallet in there. Otherwise, Kitty says paws up.

Things we learned: don't believe anything you read online. Also, the Typhoon bags are waterproof (at least when like new...we'll see if that changes with use). Because they are made by Axiom, you cannot dispute this. Thank you, Axiom, for restoring a small, dry pocket of sanity to this wet and wild world.

Finally, Anona, Nick, and I had the day off, so we stopped by the shop to see if anyone showed up for the Tuesday night ride. Nobody did, but there was a full crew for the basic mechanical class. And the coolest thing was that 2 (two) people actually rode their bikes there! Good work, students. You're learnding!