Irish Eyes are Smiling

Here we have yet another Bandersnatch, built to the hilt in all the right places. This bike belongs to one of our own, "E-Dog". It's his very first 29er.






I am proud to say that the Dog gave up a big flat screen TV for this bike. Good choice!







The Bandersnatch is the best bikes out there for the money. Nothing rides like one, maybe with the exception of a geared Jabberwocky.


Speaking of....
Something wicked this way comes....

Empty House

I am home alone. While some may rejoice at the prospect, it does come with a penalty. It is awfully BORING. In my "free" time I have taken to watering the garden. I'm pretty well house trained, so I do my own clean up, laundry and other chores on time, so I'm not living in the reckless abandon of bachelor life.
I still wake up at 6. Sure there are dogs to walk, and cats to help be on the right side of the door, but otherwise, it's quite dull.

It doesn't help that it's 98° with a million % humidity right now. No riding.

Lots of working.

I even turned on the relatively ineffective AC in the shop. One corner gets ice cold, then a ceiling fan moves the hot air into the cold air. The result is a slightly less uncomfortable temperature to work in.

I got to miss the Big Wheeled Ballyhoo, an event I quasi inspired with my Meat-up. I was really hoping to be able to go, but it was a long shot, and I fell short. The shop can be all consuming. It can be tough being the onliest guy at Bike 29.

We did put together this sweet RIP for a local customer this last week.


I've been building wheels like crazy (great!)
My baseball team got swept (ehh...)
My dog even ran away on Monday after an unfortunate gastronomical event (horrifying!!)
I don't have 4th, 5th or even 6th bowls of Cheerios to get for my boy (sad)

It's quiet.
Too quiet.
All that will change soon.
I have a Bandersnatch to build for a new convert. A RIP for another.
And before too long, my family will return, and life will resume it's ridiculous pace.


I'd like to givea big shout out to Guitar Ted, and Tim Grahl @ Twentynineinches for all their fantastic effort with the Ballyhoo. While I think that they are bike visionaries of sorts, more importantly, I think they are really cool guys I have only ever dealt with on email and blog. I'm most sad about not being able to play bikes with them in Decorah, put faces to names, names to rides and rides to stories after.

There is always Interbike...

Synopsis of Color

One of my most recent projects has been a Vassago Bandesnatch partial build. While it left the building today, it will always stick in my mind as one of the most vibrant builds I have done.

We didn't break the bank, rather, we spent money where it needed to be spent, and left the rest for future upgrades far down the road. We came out with a pretty nice bike with one of the coolest color schemes I've seen in a long time.

While avoiding high dollar drivetrain and brake components, we did manage to embellish a little. One of the beautiful things about the Royale Wheelset, is that you can either blow it up, or go totally stealth. We went big, and carried the theme over the entire bike.






And you know what? It works. My philosophy of bike building is, if you are going to be spending a chunk of your hard earned cash, have fun with it. Sure, all black looks as cool as Darth Vader's suit, but color is good too. Do things you wouldn't normally do. It's not like you are getting 3 brand new multi-grillion dollar bikes every summer.
Mix it up.
Live a little.
Do what makes you happy. We are here to help and expedite, not judge.

Have fun with it. It's a bike. It's made for fun. It's your bike.

Project Bandersnatch

The Bike
I was lucky enough to get three solid rides in this weekend, and still make good on my promises to complete my appointed chores.

My weapon of choice was the Vassago Bandersnatch. I originally built the bike up and got the initial ride in a few weeks ago, but I needed to make some component changes before feeling really comfortable on it.

The major change came with the wheelset. I had originally taken a disc only Bike 29 Foundation Wheelset from my Karate Monkey to build the bike. These are WTB Speed Disc rims laced to Shimano XT hubs. While this is a great wheelset, it is pretty basic.The XT hubs do not even come close to cutting it when you require instantaneous drivetrain engagement. I found myself in need of power more than a few times and having my legs move wildly until the Shimano pawl system caught up to drive the wheel. For my personal off road riding style, they simply do not work in our technical terrain. I replaced them with a mango and silver Bike 29 Royale Wheelset. Some may call this excessive, but once you ride on a set, you'll have a hard time riding anything else.

I changed the saddle after I found that my old white leather/red velour SDG was bent. I was pretty sad about that, it was my very first bit of free industry swag. It was replaced with a WTB Devo saddle. My aluminum bottle cage was replaced with a Bontrager Race X Lite carbon one. There is your excess.

After all was said and done, the bike went from 27.75 lbs to 26.6. Pretty respectable for a trail bike. Gearing is 1x9, a 32 front with an 11-32 rear. Tires are the IRD Fire XC Pro, run tubeless on Stan's Arch rims.


The Ride
I got a brief shakedown ride in on our Thursday night group ride. I had managed to overlook a couple of things during the build that really frustrated me. I had forgotten to tighten the plastic cable guide under the bottom bracket, which slipped, allowing the tire to rub against the derailleur cable. That just about drove me nuts trying to figure out what was making that weird grinding metal sound every time I put the power down.
When I finally found the problem, it was an easy fix, and the sound did not come back.

Now that the bike was in tip top mechanical shape, I was able to get down to some serious business. Even on my descent out of our local trails I found that I was riding tight and twisty sections that normally gave me trouble at speed. Not so with the Bandersnatch. This is one of the many great symptoms of Wet Cat Geometry. It was not my foul state of mind that powered me through the turns, it was by design.

Wet Cat
Anyone who has seen a cat on the tweak knows just how maneuverable they can be. The Bandersnatch is no exception. The basic gist of Wet Cat is an extended wheelbase, slack head and seat tube, low and forward BB. This all coalesces to put you "in" the bike rather than on top of it. It also has a very unique look, and even when standing still, you get the impression that there is something going on.

Cornering prowess is unexpected. The longer wheelbase keeps everything stable at speed, and mid-course correction is worry free.

The lower center of gravity minimizes the feeling of rolling off the back on steep climbs. This allowed me clean some pretty ridiculous stuff. My typical test etiquette is to pick the stupidest line possible without going overboard to see what the bike is capable of. The Bandersnatch always answered the call with a "Oh yeah? OK. What's next?"

I did have a couple of pedal stike issues, but these were mostly due to my poor timing. Because the BB is a little lower, I paid extra special attention to my pedal location when going over teh rough stuff.

Overall, I'm really impressed with the bike. For the entry level price tag of the frame of $359, there is nothing entry level about the performance. Custom powder coated finishes are available too, making this frame one of the hottest things going.

It's a keeper for sure.

A Weekend of Riding

Saturday's ride to Hyde Park was pretty fun. We included 4 trail systems in the 30 mile trip.
The first was Bear Claw, a trail that used to see a lot of use, but has since faded away over time. This is such a shame, as it is one of the more technical shorter rides we have around here. We found the tail to have a few large trees fallen in inappropriate places. After that, the trail became hard to read. Hopefully, the trail will get raked out this year.
We decided that in the best interest of getting the ride done in a reasonable amount of time, we would bail out of Bear Claw.
The next trail system was the perfectly manicured Stowe Town Loops. Always a great time.
Next up was two trails I haven't ridden in a few years, Tony's and Tamarack. They are best ridden the other way, but we decided to climb them. Tony's features some really excellent twisty and technical singletrack through pine and hardwood forest, and Tamarack takes you though hardwoods and rocks. Lots and lots of rocks.
The Bandersnatch handled it with aplomb.
Then there was a lot of road riding with a stiff headwind. we made the trip in just under 3 1/2 hours.


Sunday morning was spent at the Kingdom Trails in East Burke VT. We did a spectacular loop on the Darling Hill side, and rode Poundcake, Fenceline, Webbs, Toadies, Sidewinder, Old Webbs, Worth It and Kitchell. We really had to boogie as rain was threatening. By the time we got to Worth It, it was full on pelting down, even under the canopy. We couldn't of had the timing any more perfect. The ground hadn't yet become slick, we were on that fine balance of tacky and sloppy. It was pretty amazing, we definitely stole the best part of the day.


The best part of this weekend, is the time I've spent on the Bandersnatch.
Holy Cow! I really love the way this bike handles. Wet Cat geometry is for real.
I'll divulge more in the next post, which will be a detailed review of this frumious beast.

News and Goings on

With a good stretch of great weather, things at the shop have been flying right along. For a while I was maxed out, but things have settled down to a nice tempo. Albeit, a high speed high volume tempo, but manageable. I haven't had time to blog, but there are some cool things happening and coming up.

The Wednesday night races at Catamount start this week. This is the longest running race series in New England, with something like 200+ racers every week. Look for the Bike29mobile, and our new tent.

DA, Nat and myself were some of the lucky fools to have gotten signed up for the Vermont 50. This is a legendary race held in late September in southern VT. Registration for the allotted 800 riders was opened and closed in a record breaking 25 minutes. I believe Jay Pro got in too, but I haven't had a chance to find out.

Jerseys are hung up in customs. BOOOOOOO!

Memorial Day weekend is the unofficial start to summer, riding and BBQs. Today, we'll have a little of all of that and more. Some friends are having a BBQ up in Hyde Park, about 25 miles from the shop. DA and I are going to get our first training ride in, hitting 4 trail systems on our way there. Should be fun.
Sunday will feature a trip up to East Burke to ride the Kingdom Trails. Always a good time to be had up there. Anyone local readers thinking about going should meet us at 10am in the parking lot behind the KT office. We'd love to ride with you.
Monday (weather permitting) will feature a trip to Barre to ride the Millstone Trails. I love that place, and it is pretty convenient to get to if you want to change it up from your local trails.

There are lots of cool products to talk about, but I am going to save those for some upcoming posts. Project Bandersnatch is in effect, and will be my ride today and tomorrow. All I can say is that Wet Cat geometry is fantastic.

Look for exciting updates coming up!

Yay! Dirt!

So today was pretty awesome. I received word from a friend that one of our local trail systems was dry, and quite rideable. This proved to be absolutely true. With the exceptions of a few large dead falls blocking the way, the conditions were nothing short of spectacular. It doesn't get any dryer mid-summer.


So I took the opportunity to get to know the Bandersnatch a bit. I was really impressed at how well mannered it is in the tight and technical. It is a long bike, the wheelbase is a hair over 45", and it certainly feels long. However, it was able to thread the needle through the tightest technical switchbacks with the greatest of ease. I attribute that to the low center of gravity provided by Wet Cat Geometry. It is a charmer for sure.

Climbing was excellent. I was able to stay seated an power up rough climbs easily, the front end did not lift unless I asked it to. Since the frame is designed to work best with an 80mm fork, I felt the front end to be a touch low, but not twitchy. There was only 1 instance where I though I was going to roll off the front of the bike in a high speed berm , an that was purely related to my riding position.

Everything else about the way the bike handled was great. My only real gripes were component related, and those will be fixed as quickly as possible. As the bike sit right now, it weighs in at 27.45lbs with pedals. I will be updating the blog with every upgrade.

The IRD Fire XC Pro tires were exceptional. Not once did I break traction, and I managed o put them on just about every surface I could find. Roots, rocks, wooden bridges, pine needles, some mud, a couple of damp rocks, sticks, gravel, pavement, you name it. It was confidence inspiring.
Of course, the real test will be time, but man was the first real mountain bike ride of the year ever fun!

Weekend Washout

I was hopeful that the weather would cooperate long enough to get a good ride in off road, but alas. I was really excited to get a leg over the Bandersnatch, and to get a feel for those IRD Fire XC Pro tires.

Last week, we had made arrangements to go for a good long ride on Sunday. We didn't back down. We dodged rain drops for the first Five Hills Ride of the year. The 5HR is a silly local dirt road ride, with lots of climbing. The ride is centered around the store, and takes us up Barnes Hill, Gregg Hill, Loomis Hill, Perry Hill and Blush Hill in order, the five hills of Waterbury (and then some). You don't ever really get more than 5 or 6 miles away from the store at any given point in the ride, which makes it convenient to peel off in the event you don't feel like riding all five. Most of the winter and early spring, I'd do at least one or two of the hills to keep the legs and lungs in shape. I've been punishing myself on my singlespeed, and decided that yesterday would be a good day for Kermit and I to attempt all five in a row.

It wasn't even really raining, it was more like a hard mist. The temps were in the low to mid 50s made clothing choice interesting. It didn't really warrant full rain wear. I chose to wear my Endura Halcyon wool jersey and Endura HumVee knickers. (I also wore wool Argyle sox to complete the whole package)

I chose wisely!

I was not cold, nor was I too hot. Wool is good like that, keeping you warm against the elements while allowing your body to breathe.
I give two very hearty thumbs up to Endura.
Incidentally, Endura is a Scottish company, and as the saying goes, if it isn't Scottish, it's crap.

Well, if the weather is crap, then I'm wearing Scottish clothes!

The Frumious Bandersnatch

It was a project I was putting off for a while, mostly due to the lack of hours in any given day, but it is almost done. I say almost because there will be upgrades along the way. The Bandersnatch will be my new test piggie for all sorts of cool bits and pieces.

I had to decommission the Karate Monkey to build this beast, but I'm sure that the Monkey will rise again (it always does). I had a terrible time getting it together, most of the parts on the KM had been there all it's life, and did not come quietly. I had to reduce the travel on my Reba from 100mm to 80, and so it was also a good time to give a little love to the fork. It needed it.

The headtube on the Vassago is considerably longer than any of the bikes I've had the Reba on before, but fortunately, there was enough room for a Thomson stem, and nothing else. Amazingly, the cockpit proportions are almost identical to my other bikes, so it should be an easy time learning the ins and outs of the new bike. I'm looking forward to experiencing "Wet Cat" geometry first hand. I will be getting the Bandersnatch dirty on the trail this weekend weather permitting.

This weekend is the opening weekend for Catamount, where I delivered the first two of the demo 29ers that will live there this summer. I'll have some more details on that in a future post. In a nutshell, anyone who wants to try a 29er in the woods, will have access to a full size run of Gary Fisher 29ers.

Bandersnatch

Named after Lewis Carrol's mythical monster that travels the land at great speed, gobbling everything up it sees, this bike promises to do just that.
With a modest build, this machine weighs in at a respectable 26.5lbs. Not too shabby for steel.

The weather is turning. We still have a lot of snow on the ground, but it is melting fast.
We will probably have at least one more decent snow storm before all is said and done, but I'm OK with that.
I've had a pretty decent winter on the snowboard, and I will be sad to see winter go in that regard. I am really fired up for biking though. If only there was some way to keep all the snow at the mountain, and have everything else be nice and dry for mountain biking....