New Stuff

Not only are there lots of new 29er specific products showing up, there are lots of new 29er only companies popping up. It seems that there might be a market for this after all.

While we are still shy a few extra fork choices, we do have some more frame choices.
One of these new companies I'm referring to, is Vassago Cycles. They are a 29er only company, with two frame offerings, a horizontal dropout bike called the Jabberwocky, and a geared only version called the Bandersnatch.

Both frames are made from 4130 CroMo, and are priced to be competitive against the ubiquitous Surly Karate Monkey.
Vassago has a unique take on frame geometry they call "Wet Cat Geometry". Essentially, they put your weight "in" the bike, vs. being "on top" of it, giving you better handling characteristics on those long uphill grinders.
I was instantly hooked when I first saw the site. My first Bandersnatch arrived today. I'm impressed. The paint is a cool grey color, almost a primer grey, only way better. It is also clearcoated, which was throwing some shine when I was trying to get shots of it. Once I have the camera settings dialed, and all of the lights adjusted, I'll provide more shots of the details that make this bike stand out above the rest.


Also on deck, is the new Niner M.C.R.9. Standing for Magic Carpet Ride, anyone that has spent time on Niner's S.I.R.9 knows, that this is the best description of how this Reynolds 853 frame rides.
Smooth.


The looks are familiar, it is the same tubeset as the SIR, only with a conventional bottom bracket. There is also a new cast Breezer style dropout, which helps to reduce unnecessary weight.
And the new color, A & W Root Beer...
Brown is the new black, and this particular shade is one of the nicest around.

Tomorrow, Stash Off pictures!

Business Improvement

You've heard of "home improvement" right? Same thing.

It's hard to believe that not one year ago, we were just beginning to figure everything out. Bike 29's e-comm site didn't really go live until March, although it existed in beta form. We didn't even have the logo.

A year later, and we are still figuring everything out, but every day, we learn something new.

One of my goals from the start, was to own every photo on our website. It is a huge undertaking. It requires money, time and inventory. And while we are getting better in the inventory realm, time and money are always scarce, especially for a start up.


OK then, why the photos?

It helps to make us even more familiar with the products we sell. It's no secret that we sell what we ride here. Our constant exposure to the slightest detail helps us help our customers when making those difficult purchasing decisions. And even though we exist in a digital landscape, it is my hope that the photos we use have an analog quality, real and tangible. Honest. Maybe even the odd mistake here and there. We aren't perfect, but we sure do try.
I've always been a fan of the analog. It has personality, and it's totally unique.

So after a good first year, we've invested in our own semi-pro photography equipment. What started out with a beat up old Canon Power Shot 4 megapixle digi cam, held together with duct tape, has blossomed into an army of digital still and video cameras. Yeah, video. We have some aces up our sleeve for 07.

On a completely different note, my friend Scott and I are wrapping up an experiment. What started out as a dare, and turned into a competition will soon be over. We challenged each other to a "Stash Off".
Anyone that has lived in New England in winter, knows it doesn't take much to keep us amused...
Inspired by Sam Elliot's moustache in The Big Lebowski, we decided to grow our feeble facial hair for one month, and create our "stash" of choice. The results will be posted on February 1, and I would like my readers to vote for their favorite. There is only 1 growing day left until the end of what we call "Manuary".

Now that is something to look forward too!

Things to do when you are bored

To offset the effects of Cabin Fever, Ponte is finding new and creative ways of getting traction during these cold winter months.

Starting with a Maxxis Ignitor, he shaved off about half of the knobs.
Essentially every other knob from the center and sides.
Now, with the help of little strategically placed set screws scored on ebay, he has a trail worthy winter tire.

The cool thing about the screws, is that they are so small, that they are encased in the knobs they sit in, allowing him to run a regular inner tube, without having to armor the back side of the tire.

The result is a tire that is still pretty light weight.

One of the problems with current winter tires in general, is that they are tanks. And at the moment, they are very skinny.
Not really suitable for off road riding.
Nokian has a couple of offerings for commuting style bikes with stud counts of 120 or 240. The rubber is harder to help them retain the studs. These are the same studs found in your studded snow tires. They are carbide tipped to help them last longer from being dragged across pavement.

An off road tire should have different traits. It needs to be wide for floatation in snow, and have a good open tread pattern to help it shed muck and snow.

The Ignitor isn't made from a hard compound, which should allow the little set screws to give into the tire when riding over rocks, but hopefully grab any ice with it's points. Removing half of the knobs may not have only just helped it to shed snow and muck, but it may have offset the weight of the added set screws.

While the tire's inaugural ride was a short one, limited to a dirt road, it did do it's job quite well. I think he's planning another ride this weekend, when he'll really put them to use.

While there is no "real" 29er winter tire right now either, I have it from a good source that next year we will see a 29er off road winter tire.

But if you have enough free time and motivation, you can pretty much turn anything into a studded tire.

Weight Loss

When it becomes so cold, that you loose any motivation to do anything outside, the mind begins to wander....
And constantly being around bikes always has me looking for some way to upgrade.
And knowing that it will take me an entire summer to loose 4% of my own mass, I decided that one of my bikes was looking a little porky.


And owning a bike shop, and being somewhat of a bike nerd, and having an already sweet bike, weight loss becomes difficult.
See, I like my things a certain way. And being in the "Clydesdale" category, certain products just won't work.

While skinny little sub 160lb guys like Ponte or Maggs can easily roll around on rigid single speeds hovering about 19lbs, tubbos like myself get to ride heavier bikes. At 2**lb and probably gaining, I can't use a carbon fork. I shouldn't use Ti anywhere on my bike except for the bolts that hold my bottle cage on. There are certain types of spokes I can't use for fear of my mass turning my wheels into a pretzel with the very thought of riding them.

So we now get into the sport of hair splitting.
How light can you really go?
Before your spouse starts to make fun of you. Or you run out of money.

Well, Kermit tipped in at 24.49lbs, with my pedals, Time ATAC carbons. I always weigh my bikes with pedals, because you can't ride without them. Certainly not heavy by any means.
As built, it is a large Niner SIR 9 frame, with a rigid Niner steel fork, King headset, Avid Juicy 7 brakes, Thomson stem and seatpost, On-One Marry bars, an old, tired, but true SDG cow saddle, old XTR (952s) with a Spot 35 tooth spiderless chainring, SRAM PC-68 chain, Niner 21 tooth cog, and a Bike 29 Royale Single Speed Wheelset, laced to Salsa Delgado rims. The tires are WTB Weirwolf LTs.

Pretty darn respectable really, considering that it has a steel frame and fork.

So what can be done to lighten the chassis?

I started with the wheels.

Why?
Well....
One of the key places to loose weight is in your wheels. Heavy wheels make for a heavy feeling bike, because you have these two big spinning masses that don't want to do much except spin and roll in a straight line. Great if you don't have any turns, and have a whole bunch of time and energy to burn getting them up to speed. Turning heavy wheels takes more energy, and making them change direction is work. Making them slow down is also more energy consuming, requiring more effort at the brake levers.

In short, heavy wheels are not so good.

I hated to do it, but for the sake of progress, I had to destroy a perfectly good set of wheels. Rims are always cheaper than whole wheelsets.

The old equipment:
King ISO disc front, King SS disc rear, DT Super Comp spokes front (triple butted), DT Competition rear (double butted), alloy nips, laced 3 cross to Salsa Delgado 32 hole rims, with Velox rim tape.

The weight:
850g front, 1070g rear, weighed without brake rotors, tires or tubes, QRs or mounting bolts.

The new equipment:
Same hubs, but this time laced to Stan's new ZTR Arch rim, using DT Competition (double butted) spokes on both wheels with the same ole' alloy nips. In place of the rim strips, I used Stan's Yellow Tape.

The weight:
830g front, 1000g rear.
A savings of 90g in just the wheels. That is almost a 1/4lb. A cheeseburger if you will.

Yeah, but there are still the tubes right? And the heavy tires that you like and...
Tubes? um, no. No tubes.
Or should I say NoTubes?

The tubes I'm using weigh about 210g each. What if I could just get rid of them?

Well I did. The Yellow Tape and Stan's rims are co-developed to provide an air tight seal, and the rims themselves are designed to hold the bead of the tire more securely than a conventional rim might. Tech can be found here.
The only thing keeping the air in the tire is the liquid latex sealant, that also must be added.

So, in the wheels, I really got to loose about 1/2 lb. Because of the tire I'm using, a high volume 2.55, I had to use more of the sealant, which unfortunately adds weight.

I also decided that I would pull out my old "light" brakes out of retirement, and put them back into service. The Magura Marta is a pretty light brake set, light enough for me to drop another 200g off the bike, just by switching brake systems. We have some alignment issues with these brakes, and we are waiting to see if I can even keep them.

I am going to put another few minor mods that might scrimp me a few grams , but really, this is as light of a bike that someone of my size should feel OK about riding.

Current weight, a bomb proof 23.53lbs. Final weight to come before riding season starts.

Fork Up!

After a very long wait, the new front end for the RIP is here.

Well...mostly here.

During the winter madness in the Plain States, this fork got to spend a lot of quality time in the state if my birth, Kansas.
Almost a whole week!
Severe ice storms in the middle of the country kept my new fork from being delivered on time. And while it is always better late than never, I am missing the upper crown and stem to this beauty.

See, this is only a part, albeit a large part, of a complete picture. This fork utilizes a dual crown, (one of which is missing) and a stem (also missing) that mounts directly to the upper crown.
When the picture is complete, we have a fork that weighs less than the ubiquitous Rock Shox Reba, with better tuneability, and more importantly, more travel.

The caveat, is that it is a rather unique and expensive fork. About $900. It also requires a rather proprietary 24mm front hub.

Is it worth it? We will soon find out. I will furnish more details on the complete fork, and the new wheelset that will adorn the RIP that will complete it's big 07 upgrade.

Winter is Back

And with a vengeance too. From well above average seasonal temps, we go back to our usual January program, of bitter cold and snow, thus putting bike riding season on hold. At the time this picture was taken, it was in the single numbers, with winds gusting up to 50 mph! I don't even have to say "wind chill".

Over the last few weeks, I have been trying to figure out what improvements can be made to the shop. The original set up was becoming difficult to deal with, and there were a few drawbacks to the overall layout of the store. Well, Friday night we pulled the trigger. We made a couple of big moves. The big bike rack is now in the back of the store where the work bench used to be, the work bench was split into 2 pieces, and shuffled to a spot on the opposite side of the store. Saturday was spent picking up the pieces, sweeping and cleaning.





























I found a lot of small parts that went missing over the last year.

So what's next?

I have 2 RIP 9s to ship this week, a new fork is on the way for me, and, in the not to distant future, a post on "weight loss".

Mike Like Bike

So I'm a little late with the post...

Here is the Godzilla Green SIR9 of Señor Maggs. We pulled all of the old bits from his Kona Unit 2-9. While the bike as it sits now is a force to be reckoned with, we still have a few things in store for Godzilla. We will be doing some upgrades this winter and early spring that will put this bike on a whole different level.


The first ride has been taken, and the report is good!


Depending how you choose to look at it, bike season has been put on hold for a bit. We are finally getting winter weather, and it looks as if it will be here to stay, at least for a while.

I got my second ride of the year in on Saturday. Not a big one, but a ride none the less.
Kermit and I charged Loomis Hill, which I have found takes you up 1000ft in just under 3 miles. Out and back was approximately 35 minutes, with a slight detour on the way down. Instead of doing an up and down (which is all I had time for really...) I extended the ride by taking a couple of side roads that were a much less steep (read: fast) descent.
See, it was about 23 degrees, and the sun was going down, and the temperature was plummeting. Climbing up was the easy part!
I froze, but I rode.

That's twice as much riding than '06 for me.

Upgrades - 1.0

I'd like to welcome another person to the fold of Niner SIR 9 owners.
Maggs.
Doing the right thing already, he decided that the Kona Unit 2-9 wasn't quite the steed it should be, and consequently upgraded to a SIR 9 in Godzilla Green. I swapped all the old components over tonight, including a very svelte Pace carbon fork.
And I forgot my camera today!
I'll get the shot tomorrow... I promise
tsk tsk tsk

Other upgrades include the addition of a reliable bench and hanging scale. I have no idea why I waited so long to get these, but I'm glad I finally did. I'll be correcting everything in the store as I can, and you can bet, that I'll be weighing EVERYTHING.
I know that Kermit weighs 24.5 with pedals right now...

There will be another couple of upgrade posts coming in the near future. Winter can be productive when it comes to getting the stable in order for the upcoming season.

The First Ride of 07

With winter refusing to make a serious attempt at showing up, I decided that it was about time to get the first ride of the year in the bag.
To say that the weather has been weird would be an understatement. 1 week ago today, we were sliding down the hill in my back yard on snowdecks and sleds in 6" of freshly fallen snow. A week of weather in the 40s and lots of rain has effectively plunged us into mid April riding conditions. Perpetual mud season if you will.
It was nice to get out though. Most of our local roads are unpaved, which meant for some serious resistance on flat ground. And up here, not much is flat. The climbs were grueling, and would leave you feeling drained. The downhills were tricky, because you could find yourself with the front wheel in one rut, the rear in another.
It all adds up to big fun.

Resolutions Raffle Winner

Thanks for all the entries into the Resolutions Raffle. Lots of inspiration out there. Some of the resolutions include:

• grow all my bike tire sizes by 3"
• Replace two stolen bikes with one 29er
• Visit Five Hills shop
• Finish last year of high school with a good attitude and high marks
• Play with kids more
• Play with bike more
• Ride bike to work more during summer
• Do more freelance to buy more toys
• ...

You get the idea. Our grand prize winner is .... Dave S.! Congrats, Dave. You'll soon be sporting a freshly inked Bike29 t-shirt, some Five Hills Bikes socks, and whatever goodies we have lying around the shop that you need to have.

Thanks to everyone for playing and stay tuned for the ride report from the my first ride of '07.