I thought I’d rant a little bit about my recent time spent in the various airplanes. I was cruising the blogosphere and came across a post that Misty from Vassago had posted about her recent trip to a bike race in AZ. Seems we had an equally awful time traveling, so I got inspired to share my own tales.

First of all, I hate flying. It isn’t necessarily the flying part, more than it is the entire process. When I travel, it’s normally for business, it’s been a very long time since I’ve flown anywhere on vacation. I’m pretty organized, and take the extra care to plan ahead, mostly so I can clear the obstacle course that is called “the security check point”. This little step is a huge hassle, and it seems to be that the TSA really get off on being jerks when it comes to shuffling the bovine masses through the metal detector.

What kills me, as that we all know it’s there, yet some folks have to go through 3, 5 even 6 times before being allowed to move on. TAKE THE METAL STUFF OUT OF YOUR POCKETS JACKASS! It isn’t like this is some new thing they are doing either, In my 30 or so years flying on planes, I’ve always had to go through a metal detector. And this relatively new thing banning toothpaste, pit stick and liquids over 2 oz? I call BS on that. It’s just another way for these folks to make life difficult, yet the only thing you can really do about it is to plan around it. Put that stuff in checked baggage, or don’t bring it. Buy it when you get there or something. After all, I’m sure it is really a big conspiracy hatched by Colgate to sell more toothpaste.

The check in desk is always a junk show. Fortunately, the advent of the self service check in has helped people like myself out considerably. I rarely check any baggage. If I can’t fit it in my laptop bag, or in my carry on (which is the maximum legal size) I don’t bring it. If I ever do have to check a bag though, this is typically one of the first places I start to boil. Getting stuck behind some moron who has brought way too much stuff to handle is practically guaranteed. Folks like this have wrecked it for the rest of us by bringing outrageously large suitcases and packing them to the gills. I do get a kick out of watching these folks jockey multiple 70lb suitcases and dropping stuff everywhere though. It sucks that the rest of us are now stuck paying for the bags we do bring. I can’t say I blame the airlines on that one.

I won’t even start on my feelings about air traffic control, who seem completely incapable of keeping any kind of time table. Airlines shouldn’t say “arriving at 10:30P”, they should say “arriving from 10:30P to 1:30A”.

So now for the saga. I arrived 1 hour early at the airport in Burlington for my flight to Vegass via Philly. Upon check in, I was informed that the flight from Burlington to Philly was going to be delayed because of congestion at Philly, and that they were working on the runway or something. But they did check me on to the next plane for my second leg, putting me at my destination around midnight instead of 8. Great. So I went up to the airport bar, bought a $6 pint of mediocre beer, and stared at the F16s on the other side of the runway. Those things are so cool.

I passed through security very quickly, because as I said earlier, I took the necessary and very easy steps to avoid confrontation. No belt, no metal in my pockets, laptop out, shoes off and a big smile. The plane hadn’t even landed yet, so I plopped down and cranked up the iPod. The plane arrived at the gate, at which point the agent announced that we were going to get on the plane as quickly as possible and sit at the end of the runway for the long shot that we could sneak out early. Oh well, sitting in an airport terminal or a plane pretty much has the same level of confinement to me, so what the heck. Maybe I’ll even get to see some F16s tear down the runway.

To my surprise we were tearing down the runway ourselves before too long. Alright! This is going well. Except that the stewardess was very salty and spoke down to everyone she exchanged sentences with. I suppose I would do the same if I had to deal with a bunch of imbeciles all day that can’t follow instructions.

Thirsty? $2 for bottled water. Exact change only. It is exactly the same as that commercial on TV where it costs $1 to use the call button.

We landed and got off the plane at the F terminal, which is about as far as you can get from the B terminal, where I still had 15 minutes to catch my original flight. Could I make it? I was gonna try, because the alternative was to stew in the Philly airport for 3 hours. A shuttle bus ride and a mile long sprint, I actually got on the plane right before they shut the door. AWESOME!

That is where the awesomeness stopped. I was in the aisle seat, the passenger whom I shared an armrest with looked and smelled like Jabba the Hutt in a red t-shirt and sweatpants with a scraggly pony tail and glasses. The stewardess assigned to our section of the plane had an ass the size of a VW Beetle, which, much to my dismay, was too large to really fit down the aisle no matter what way she turned. So every time she made the rounds, I, like my  other aisle seat brothers and sisters had an enormous polyester clad buttock dragged across my face. Ugh, I feel sick as I write this. I kinda think that she shouldn’t have been a stewardess at all, and that a career as a Walmart checkout lady would have been more appropriate. If you can’t even fit in the aisle? What if there was an emergency for crying out loud?

No entertainment, a $5 snack box that featured chicken salad (really?- mayonnaise?- in a snack box?), and a 5 hour marathon of personal space invasion made for a really fun time. The crowning moment was upon arriving at the gate, when Jabba decided that he needed to stand in the aisle and crawled over me, dragging his skin tight and sweaty sweat pants over me, so he could be with his girl friend or whatever she was in the next row over. Who goes out with Jabba in a red t-shirt? Turns out it was Sloth from the Goonies. Sloth loves Chunk. The final injustice of the flight had occurred, get me off the damn plane please!

The flight back was much better, Jet Blue has TVs which help pass the time. The flight crew was cordial and patient, and most importantly not overweight. I got to spend more of my free bandwidth observing the other passengers in my area. You know the kind, the ones that think the rules don’t apply to them? Sit in your seat with the belt fastened? Not these people.

It was our friends at air traffic control that screwed things up this time. We sat on the runway for 45 minutes in Vegas, and then for almost 2 hours at JFK. What gives here?

I eventually got home around 1 am, and promptly passed out in my bed feeling as if I had been run over by a pack of wild boars.

I hate flying.

Very few surprises at Interbike this year.

I had only one day, so I had pretty much allocated all of my free time to doing business, but I still managed to get some time to say hi to some folks and wander the show floor looking for “the latest thing”. Only, it seems as if the latest things were let out of the bag at Eurobike a few weeks earlier.

The only things that got my undivided attention were located at Niner’s booth, the WFO and the RIP. Wait, did you say RIP? You bet I did. I found out about the RIP first thing in the morning when I ran into Guitar Ted over at Salsa’s booth. 

So there is a new RIP in town. How can you make an already stellar bike even better? Niner managed to find a way. In fact, besides the name, the only thing the new version shares with the old is the seat tube and main pivot mount. The rest of the tubes have been replaced with big angular hydroformed tubes, giving the frame a very mean and “I mean business” look. We’re talking Darth Vader serious. The new frame features a tapered head tube, using a 1.5″ lower bearing, and the standard 1″ 1/8th top bearing, The rockers are now 1 piece, an improvement to the current 3 piece design. The bearings have been oversized and treated with the same mounting hardware as the Jet. All told, the bike is 135% more rad than the current model.

I’ll be featuring a very in depth review of the new bike in the not too distant future, where I will go in to much more detail on all the improvements.

WTB has a new 29er tire, the Wolverine, which should be available early in 09. It will be a 2.2, and should weigh in the low 600g range.

Besides that, there isnt really a whole lot to report. A number of people commented about the low attendance, and you could certainly feel the lack of enthusiasm. There “booth candy” was very subdued this year too. Probably a sign of the times, with travel being as expensive as it is, and the about to implode economy, folks just aren’t excited about spending money right now.

I say this every year, but I’m pretty sure I won’t go again next year.

This week is the yearly event many of us in the cycling industry dread. Interbike. While there are some folks that look forward to this dog and pony show of everything bike, I’m not so stoked. Interbike is held in Las Vegas, a place I hold with as much esteem as Obi Wan’s  opinion of Mos Eisley, where you will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.

Not only does it take a whole day to get there from the east coast, it also takes a whole day to get back. Then, because I can’t really afford to have the shop closed for a whole week, I try and cram everything in one day. Last year I tried to spread it out over 2 days, but it didn’t really work out. There was a lot of aimless wandering around. So I have scheduled a full day of meetings on Wednesday. Hopefully it will make the time fly.

It isn’t all bad though, you do get to see old friends, catch up, talk smack etc. I’ll hopefully run in to Guitar Ted, who is really good at the smack talk, and we share similar opinions of some things, which makes the rants really interesting.

Obviously the hottest news is Niner’s WFO, something I’ve had to keep my mouth shut about since June. I’m really looking forward to getting to see it up close and personal. I’ll give a detailed preview upon my return. For the most part, there hasn’t been too much else leaked to the general public in the realm of 29ers, the only exception I can think of off the top of my head is Turner’s completely redesigned line, now using the DW Link.

So that’s about it. I’ll be shipping out every thing I can on Monday, and will be out of the shop Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, and will be back at the grind again on Friday morning.

I’m scratching my head wondering why I didn’t get more of these. 

Of course, this is one of the first round of bikes to come available, and I’m sure there will be plenty when it’s actually bike selling season. I think that this bike will be the ringer for 09. The first one to hit the floor was sold almost instantly.

White seems to be the new black, and this is hands down the best looking bike Fisher has come out with in a while. The spec is relatively unchanged over last year’s model, with the exception of the stoppers, which are now the Hayes Stoker brakes. They have a really good feel at the lever, and seem to provide really good modulation and power right out of the box.

MSRP is $2749

With fall upon us, lots of folks are trading in their mountain bikes for cross bikes. Despite the fact that this can be the very best time to be in the woods on your 29er, no bugs, cool crisp air, night rides, etc. But some folks choose to suffer well into the winter. Some of these folks will even ride through mud, snow and ice.

We can relate. Sometimes you just have to ride, and sometimes you just gotta be faster than the guy next to you. This is called “Cyclocross Racing”. There are some in our little circle that get off on this, but we all know its really another way to have yet another cool bike.

The coolest thing about ‘cross bikes, is that they can be very versatile. In central VT, 90% of the roads are dirt, the other 10% are either I-89, crowded with cars, or may as well be dirt because they are in such poor shape. You can really see a lot of the secret VT beauty on a “road” ride, where a 23c tire wouldn’t necessarily be the wisest choice. Our dirt roads crisscross the area and take you into some really beautiful hidden pockets of the state. But, you could always drop a smooth road tire on there if you were planning on being on pavement, whereas a road bike may have trouble fitting anything larger than a 28c tire.

And how about winter riding? Smooth tires are not so good, but knobbies get the job done. And with the frame clearance for mud, ice or snow, you can get where you are going.

Commuting is a very viable option for these bikes as well, with their less aggressive geometry and capacity for larger tires (more volume, more comfy!), and quite a few manufacturers build rack mounting points right onto the frames.

How’s that for options?

Here at Bike 29, we sell what we like, we sell what works, and we know everything about what we sell. I’m proud to say that it helps set us apart from other “me too” outlets of bikes and it’s related paraphernalia. I’m also proud to say, that we like ‘cross bikes just as much as we like 29ers, and we are finally in a position to help others with the same mind frame. 

So without too much more prattling on, I’m pleased to announce Bike CX. It’s everything you’d expect from Bike 29, but with emphasis on ‘cross bikes. Look for some cutting edge tinkering this fall on the Bike CX Blog!

Keep in mind, the site is still under construction, so things will be added or changed as soon as we can get to them. Feel free to contact us with comments and/or suggestions.

Well, here’s an exciting development. I just took delivery of the first 09 Rebas, quite possibly the most anticipated 29er product since the release of the Fox F-29. The fork will ultimately be available in 4 configurations, the 80mm SL, 100mm Race with Pushloc, 100mm Team, and 120mm Team featuring the new Maxle-Lite, a lightweight 20mm quick release front axle system.

The spring is Rock Shox proven Dual Air, infinitely adjustable, and OH SO SMOOTH! Shock pump is included. Travel will be adjustable from 80 to 100mm (and vice-a-versa) with included All Travel spacers. To my limited practical knowledge, the 120mm Team will be adjustable from 120 down to 100mm, but I don’t have any conclusive info. 

The Team forks have yet to arrive, but I have several of the SLs and Race forks on hand.

Giddy Up!

If you can believe it, 09 models from Gary Fisher are already starting to show up. I have recently taken delivery of the new HiFi Pro and Plus models (plus a handful of 26″ bikes we don’t need to talk about here). It seems that Fisher has done their homework. For the most part the component spec over the 08 models hasn’t changed much.

Besides the new eye-catching graphics on shiny red paint, the Pro has the new Avid Elixir brakes instead of the Juicy 7s. The Shimano XT group remains to take care of the shifting, Bontrager Rythm Elite wheels take care of the rolling, and Bontrager Race Lite components are present to hold it all together. The MSRP* increases from $3019 to $3629, a fairly steep hike, but you will see this industry wide as transportation costs, as well as the cost of materials necessary to make bike parts is on the rise. 

The Plus has upgraded Juicy 3 brakes (G2 rotor instead of the BB7 rotor), a tubeless ready Bontrager Duster wheelset, but the single biggest improvement on the Plus, is the addition of a Fox RL fork. This definitely adds some value to the much larger price tag of Fisher’s entry level 29er FS bike. The MSRP* goes from $2089 to 2529.

The tires on both bikes are now the Bontrager Jones XDX which are also tubeless ready. It has the same fast rolling tread as the Jones Dry X, but in a higher volume casing.

I’m expecting the Deluxe model in sometime this week, so I’ll snap some shots when it arrives.

*A note on MSRP,: this is Fisher’s “suggested” retail price. Actual selling price of these bikes is bound to be lower.

I just received a grip of 18″ Vassago Jabberwocky frames. For those that do not know, “grip” is the plural of Jabberwockies, as gaggle is to geese. I’m still waiting for ODIS forks, hardware and a few other bits and bobs to come in, but I should have both black and white frames available after I ship out all the back orders. 

More are coming, we’ll have the full color and size run when the next shipment arrives within the next few weeks. 

Coming down the line much sooner, is a special Jabberwocky project that you will not want to miss.