Interbike 06 - Part 2

Welcome to the second installment.
It was a busy day to say the least, lots of walking around, lots of things to see.

I ended up talking with Jeff Steber of Intense for quite some time about his new baby, the Spider 29. This bike has been eagerly anticipated by many, and utilizes Intense's proven VPP (Virtual Pivot Point) technology, and gets 4.5" of travel.

The finished product is amazing. Everything at Intense is done in house, from welding to paint, and under Jeff's watchful eye, execution is perfect. Currently, only the medium frames are available, but there will be a large frame in a few weeks. There are many paint options too, so finding a ride that fits you style is easy.

We have been promised a bike to try out before the snow flies, so I'm anxiously awaiting it's arrival. Expect a detailed review to come.
Now that Jeff has been bitten by the 29er bug, he plans on developing the ever popular 5.5 for use with big wheels. The long travel 29er movement is propelling forward further than anticipated.
All very good news for us.
Jeff also plans on releasing some 29er rubber in the not too distant future. Intense is definitely going to be a major player in 29er land.

And, being that Jeff is a stand up guy, he tagged the stand the Spider was on with a Bike 29 sticker, on both sides. So anyone taking a picture of the bike, will also be getting picture of the B29 logo. I have a feeling we will be selling quite a few Spiders...

Manitou jumps in with their first 29er fork, the Minute, and it has the capability to be set at 80, 100 or 125mm of travel. It should be interesting to see who else has longer travel fork up their sleeves. Chris at Niner had a big smirk on his face, as he was withholding some pretty sweet top secret info. From what little info I tried to pry out of him, I have the suspicion that there may be a long travel Rock Shox fork in the works, and possibly a Fox. He would not tell me though.





WTB has a new tire called the Weirwolf LT. It is a high volume tire, with low tread (LT) that promises to roll fast and give plenty of traction. They claim it's a 2.55, but in actuality, it is much closer to a 2.3. When compared side by side with an Exiwolf, they are practically the same overall size.

It's what WTB didn't have in their booth that got me all fired up. They are working on 3 new tire designs in 29" format. They look absolutely killer. It is my hope that they make one or maybe even all of them in super sticky rubber. I'm calling for a tire that is so sticky, that it's only good for 30 days or so before needing to be replace. It would be the choice for our wet roots and rock.

So that's about all I have on Interbike. There was simply way too much info to really covey, so I decided to go with what I saw were the highlights.

All my countless wasted hours flying back and forth from Europe paid off on my return to the East Coast. I got upgraded to first class, and got to sleep it off in a nice comfy seat on the way back. Upon my return, I had to go right to the shop, but not before swinging by the post office to pick up something that I will be writing a detailed report on tomorrow.

Can you guess what it is?

Interbike 06 - Part 1

This is the yearly trade show, where everyone gathers in Sin City to show their wares for the following spring. This is always an exciting time for product junkies such as myself. You get to see all the new and shiny things that you dream about owning as soon as you can.
I stuck to my focus though, as I was there only 1 day.
I met a couple of my good friends from San Diego (German for a whale's ...wait, nevermind) that I haven't seen in a while. It was pretty funny actually, in that we stayed in the same hotel we always used to stay at when I had to go to the show in the olden days. We met a lot of the same people. Some things never change.
Well, there was certainly a lot of 29er stuff happening, despite the lack of representation from big companies like SRAM, who in my book, make one of the best forks out there, the Reba.

There were plenty of surprises too. Chumba racing has a 29er singlespeed coming out. And also in the Chumba booth, was a good friend from the "olden" days, "Evil" Dave. He had a rough bout of bad luck a few years ago, but has pulled himself back up, and is now Mr. Chumba. The bike itself looks pretty sweet. Great attention to detail, as everything is made in house in their OC facility. The paint is cool too, but tradeshow lighting didn't help me capture it.

Ventana had it's 29ers featured very prominently in the front of their booth. Beautifully made by hand by Sherwood Gibson, his bikes are a much coveted item. The machine work is beautiful, and the "Electric Sex" welds are the stuff of legends.




Big brands like Bianchi are paying attention too. They have added this very classic looking 29er to their lineup for 07.

Just another indication that 29er is real, and here to stay.






Even my old employer has also jumped on the bandwagon, offering the Evolve, a 4" travel full squisher. This is a very nice looking bike, with gobs of standover clearance, but he only intends on releasing a medium and large frames, which I think is a bit short sighted.
There are plenty of shorter riders that could benefit from a design like this.

Also in the lineup is what Tony calls a "Firm Tail", which is essentially what lots of other manufacturers are showing at this show. Aluminum front ends with carbon rear ends.
This is nothing new, road bikes have been this way for a long time, but this is the first year you are starting to see it on mountain bikes.
The main difference, is that this bike has unique replaceable drop outs that are either horizontal for single speeding, or have a derailleur hanger for a geared bike. These are made from magnesium. An interesting choice, as Mg is a soft metal that easily corrodes. I see these things getting chewed up and ugly fast, not such a good thing on a premium bike such as this. Also the carbon looked quickly cobbled together, there were a lot of sharp edges and flashing everywhere, but I would imagine that this is a pre production sample, which in most cases are very quickly thrown together. I would hope that the production model would not have blobs of epoxy at the critical joints, cleaner construction, and CNC'd dropouts.
The multi toned anodized finishes are beautiful though, and hearken back the days when Ellsworth used to make the FS2XC.

Salsa is expanding their already stellar 29er offering with the Mamasita, a scandium front mated to a carbon rear. This bike comes in a beautiful charcoal color, with flat scandium chainstays, and flat carbon seat stays. The rear brake cable guide is integrated into the carbon, which I think is pretty flashy. All the 29ers will feature new downtube which will eliminate the gusset on the current models, adding to the clean look of the bike.


There is so much information to process here, so I decided to hold back a little. Tomorrow I will post about some of the other stuff I saw. Highlights including my conversation with Jeff Steber of Intense, and my chat with the folks at WTB are well worth the wait!

See ya all tomorrow.

Trail Work

Every once in a while, the weather is just no good for riding of any kind.
It's times like these that serious trail work gets done.
And I mean serious!

Up in the Perry Hill netrwork, there are a couple of old decaying bridges that need help.
One such bridge spans a deep ravine. The bringe in question is 9" wide, and about 17 ft long, and at the highest point is about 15 ft in the air. The wet climate here has it's way of making structures like this unsafe after a few years, and because of where this bride is, we decided to really go all out and over build it.

We are replacing it with one that is twice as wide, and made with pressure treated lumber. Ponte spent a couple of nights working away on it, and Saturday morning was the appointed drap and drop.

A buddy of ours has one of the coolest things in the world, a Rokon. It's a two wheel drive motorcycle, and will pretty much go anywhere it can get traction. It was indispensible, as the bridge (we estimated that it weighs 500lbs or so) needed to be dragged about 4 miles to it's final resting place.


Getting the bridge up there was pretty tough. I can only account for the first 30 minutes, as I had to bail out and open the shop. Most of the way to the drop zone was double track, but it is a fairly stiff incline, and there are some big waterbars and some tight turns to negotiate. And then there is the singletrack portion. I guess it got pretty hairly at times.

They dropped the bridge just uphill of where it will finally end up, so that Sunday's organized work crew can get it into place.





Info on trail work can be found here.

While there is still much to be done on the trails here, we will continue to accomplish as much as we can before snow flies. Perry Hill has been seeing increased traffic, and is getting beaten up. We will be armouring the weak spots, and cutting a few re-routes off of private land, and more importantly, putting signage up on a few of the routes.

Important updates coming up, RIP 9 arrival and Interbike report.

Night Riding is Fun!

It really is. Nothing makes mountain biking more fun than sensory deprivation. Take away natural light, and the ante is upped. Tonight, we took on the Town Loops in Stowe. It is a very fun and flowy series of loops that I often use to test or break in new product, or, if I haven't been on a bike in a while.

We started in the pre-dusk grey, and rode out to where the loops start before turning the lights on. To me, this is the best time to be in the woods. It's almost like the changing of the guards for the forest creatures. Day creatures are settling in, night creatures are just getting started. You are there for the shift change as grey turns to black. And it is dark in the woods.

For me, this is the first ride in the dark this year, so it is always good to go where you are familiar with the trails. Lots of things can sneak up on you without the full light of the sun. The shadows play tricks on you. You can find yourself 4 feet in the air unexpectedly because you were too far tot he right, or you can be sliding on two wheels because you didn't pick out how the roots were angled away from you.

It always pays to ride as safely as you can, but sometimes, you can just outrun your lights. This is why I always use head and bar mounted lights. You can see around corners when your bars are pointed straight up on the backside of a bog whoopdeedoo.

The headlamp is also perfect for spotting bears. While I haven't seen any this year, we came across a momma and baby last year that scared the crap out of us. I'll try and get a picture this year. While the bears in VT aren't like the bears out west, they are still afraid of people, it is always a good idea not to piss them off.

It is said, that when one of your senses is impaired, the others kick in. Without light, everything is different. The smells are different, more intense, your hearing, more acute. The trail becomes elusive, something you must hunt for to stay alive.
You hear things in the liquid black, just beyond your sight.

It's surreal, and anyone reading this that rides at night knows,
it is one of the best ways to ride.

A Foggy Sunday Morning

Fall riding in VT is really fun. You have to catch it at just the right time to get the best of it, but it is always good. There is a very short window where you can ride through the woods and enjoy the fall colors when they are on the trees, and not all over the trail. I'd say we have two weeks tops, provided we don't have any big storms come through.

Today we rode Millstone Trails in Barre again. Lots of fun new stuff has opened since our last visit, and we spent most of the morning checking it all out.

We started the day in dense fog, which gradually burnt off. It wasn't that cold, so we ended up loosing the jackets quickly. The air was dead still, and the humidity made all the rocks, roots and old quarry cables very slick, so the danger factor was quite high. At one point, I was climbing up a short climb, seated, and spinning at a good speed, when all forward momentum stopped, and I slipped backwards about a foot at a 45 degree angle before I got traction again, all without breaking my cadence. An interesting experience to say the least.

One of my favorite scenic trails out there is the Capitol Quarry Loop, which is where the title picture was taken. The next two shots are Dave and I riding one section, where you squeeze between a big hunk of granite, and a rather large drop. It sneaks up on you quickly, and even though I know it's there, it gives me the willies every time. You are so focused on the trail before you get to it, that when the woods finally open to the beautiful vista, you momentarily break focus on you line to take it all in. Until you suddenly realize that too far to the left will really hurt, and there isn't much left to begin with.




































The fog was starting to lift as we climbed to the top of Imperial Lookout, which is one of many spots where they used to dump the large rocks that didn't pass QC. We got a quick peek at what fall has to offer, and I think it will be a colorful year for us. The light was just so, so I had to take a picture of Orange Bike.


And, now available, the Bike 29 T-shirt! Modeled by this handsome devil, these are preshrunk Anvil cotton T's, and so far, on cold cycle, do not turn any of your other stuff red. Sizes M, L, XL are available for $15.

Remember, Bike 29 encourages you to ride big wheels!

The Aftermath, and Kermit

This is what a big stick will do to a really expensive derailleur.

One of the reasons I have, and will always stand behind SRAM products, is the plain and simple fact that most of their stuff is rebuildable. And in this case, all I need is a replacement cage. If I had been running the "other" high end derailleur, I would be spending a lot more money to replace it.

Now, if I had been riding this bike, it wouldn't have happened at all.

One of my long term projects has finally come to life. This is a Kermit green Niner SIR 9 singlespeed, decked out with old school XTR cranks with a Spot Brand spiderless chainring.

The wheels are Industry 9, all black with Salsa Delgado rims, and the rear cog is a Niner Cogalicious. Gearing is 35-21, and is tied together with a SRAM PC-68 chain.








Stopping power comes from Avid Juicy 7s.

And then there is the usual Thomson bits, the obligatory King headset, and for a change, some On One Mary bars.

If you haven't had a chance to use these, you should give them a try. They are highly unusual, but very comfy.

The front wheel is held on with Niner's rigid fork, because simple is better (and lighter too). There were 3 at the Meat-up riding rigid singlespeed 29ers, and boy were they fast!

Total weight is 23 and change for this size large bike.
Want it?
It's priced very appropriately at $2900.

Meat Up

The weekend came and went way too quickly.
The Meat-up went off, in spite of the weather, which actually wasn't too bad.

I arrived on the scene late Friday night, after closing down the shop. The kids were all fired up about camping, and the adults were all fired up on Nat's 5 P.A.

I got a chance to meet a couple of the attendees before it became pitch black out, delivered a Fisher Rig to a customer who bought the bike just for this occasion, and made the final plans for Saturday's ride.


When Saturday morning came, it looked as if the sky would open up on us. After breakfast, we started out 13 strong, and by the time we got to the top of the first big climb, it was beautiful blue skies. Of course, I had already elected not to bring the camera, the last thing I needed at this point, was yet another expensive electronic device to crap out on me.

We rode all morning, riding Dead Moose Alley, and White School, and would up at the Burke General Store for lunch. Some of our riders would go back to camp, others would join in. We set out in the afternoon to the Darling Hill side, and blazed through some of the best trails the Kingdom organization has. The highlights were Toadies and Sidewinder. Both of these trails are similar, it is a lot like riding a big halfpipe on a snowboard, swooping in and out of the sides of a ravine. Sidewinder is BIG.

By the time we started heading back to town, the black clouds were gathering fast. We got back to the store just in time for the squall to hit, knocking bikes over, and sending any loose items flying. We called ahead to the camp site for a the sag wagon to come and get us.
It rained hard for a couple of hours, and as it started to get dark, the rain abated, so it was time to start the meat!

There was plenty of food and beer, as some folks had bailed because of the rain. They missed out on some good times. We had two birthdays to celebrate, lots of cakes and goodies.

While the raffle didn't happen, I am going to find a way to dish out the schwag.

After we all went to bed, the skies cleared, making for some chilly morning temps. Fortunately, the coffee was powerful. After we cleaned and packed up the camp site, we rallied for the last ride of the weekend, again on the darling Hill side.

We rode Poundcake to Fence Line, and were headed over to do Toadies again, when I had an unfortunate run in with a big stick. My SRAM XO derailleur lost the battle, as I twisted the hanger into the cassette, and vaporized the carbon cage.
It wasn't a very long walk fortunately.

Fall is coming, quick, RIDE!

With fall showing it's colors, we here in New England get an antsyness that can only be felt by someone that has experienced what winter here can be like. Basically, we sit around and wonder what happened to summer, wonder why it's dark at 6:30, and wonder if we will get a chance to ride in the woods again.

Of course the answer is always yes. While we have ridden offroad well into November in years past, it is not always guaranteed. Hunting season can also put a damper on riding in certain areas, and depending on how much wet late fall weather we get, sometimes we are done by Halloween.

One of the ways we can extend our season, is to bust out the lights. Just cuz it's dark, don't mean you can't ride.

Another way to extend the racing season, for those silly enough for such frivolry, is to race Cyclocross. It's a pretty intense sport, centered around riding skinny tired bikes in cold wet mud, punctuated with leaping over hurdles and running. And it is a actual sport, and not some twisted deviant's way of making people suffer. Sound like fun? No sir, I don't like it.
Several of my friends choose to spend fall/early winter this way. And for those that actually like this sport, there are special bikes, and no matter what you do or how you ride, bikes are always cool.

Especially this one.


This is a Van Dessel Gin & Trombones, named after the swinging secret excess that went on behind closed doors during the Prohibition. I like to think of it as the spirit of life and fun, surviving, inspite of the fun wreckers who dictate the rules. Maybe this is the spirit that compels my friends to punish themselves in this manner.
Oh, and it is bright traffic cone friggin' orange.

Also, in current inventory, are every available '07 Fisher 29er model. There are two more that will be available soon, and I'm sure we will post future updates as soon as we see them.

Meat-up is getting close...

Prepare for Meat!

Less than a week to go now for the big Meat-up. I have received several phone calls about the event, and have heard from several people who are attending. Plus have had rumors of the large "local" contingent of 29er sporting bike mechanics from other area shops. Cool.

I will be so pleased if we have a good turn out, as I have received several cool prizes to raffle off from Niner bikes and Twin 6, plus I'll be throwing a few things into the mix as well.

Things are starting to get really crazy with last minute detail type stuff. I think it is going to be a ton of fun. Banners are being made. T-shirts are bring made. Beer is even being made. How about that?

Hopefully, the weather gods will smile on us again this year, as they have every year we make our anual pilgrimage to Burke. Classic early fall riding, cool days, chilly nights, beautiful vistas, threaded together with buff singletrack and good friends. The leaves have already started to turn here, so maybe we'll get some of that famous color too.

More to come, along with an update to the Meat-up site.