Thanks to larger corporations that control services such as the internet, I am running at about half the capacity I normally do.

The reason: no internet at home. I do about 50% of the work I do in a day at home, and while the break is nice, it poses an unprecedented hiccup in the work flow of the day.

I’m told this will all be fixed by Wednesday.

Things to look forward to will be a new handbuilt Bike 29 I9 wheelset, 2010 Rock Shox Reba forks, plus a host of other additions and small improvements to the online catalog.

Keep checking back!

…a sworn abstinence from biking for a whole week, that just also happens to be the best week we’ve had weather wise this year.

The knee is feeling a lot better, but I am far from 100%. A mountain bike ride would most likely set me back even further, so I have to concentrate on getting better before I go on some sort of two wheeled singletrack bender. That leaves me with 2 other bikes that I don’t ride as much as I should, my Fisticuff and my Primero, hopefully I will get clearance to ride either of those bikes soon. I will most certainly not be racing tonight at Catamount…

New in the shop is this Salsa Dos Niner. I built this with some stuff I had laying about the shop, a Reba Race, SLX cranks, X9 shifters and derailleurs, Avid Juicy 7 brakes, Fulcrum Red Metal 29er wheels with (tubed) Maxxis Ignitors, and Salsa bar, stem and seatpost. It’s a pretty hot looking bike.

I went out and did fun stuff with my boy.

After all, it is FATHER”S DAY.

What did you do?

Well it seems that my desire to ride my bike is getting in the way of my knee recovering back to normal use. My efforts at Catamount threw my progress back about 4 weeks, and my knee hurts as bad as it ever did.

So, in an effort to be a smart person, I have decided to take a voluntary leave of absence, where I will not even swing a leg over a bike. I’m going to see how I feel in a week. At the moment, I can’t even really bend my knee without having some level of searing pain under my patella. Walking, getting in or out of my car, pushing in the clutch pedal, and even sitting on the toilet are all very difficult now.

I have to have knees that work if I plan on actually riding at SSWC09. And did I also mention that I was going to also do the VT 50 again this year? The 50 is the next weekend following SSWC. It is going to be a busy September.

I have mentally made peace with my time off. I have to do this. I’m going to use this time to do some of the other things that often get brushed aside when the weather is nice, like, clean and organize the garage, fix the trim that I ripped out when I drove Mandy’s bike into the garage, and maybe even deal with the enormous colony of spiders that live in our entryway. The list is long…

I’m also going to keep putting together sick bikes. Here is yesterday’s, an XL RIP9 in Raw.

It’s a new frame with old parts, and the customer is very stoked to see how this thing compares to his old bike.

Yesterday I built a set of wheels for a customer that I thought were pretty cool.

It’s a set of the new white Stan’s Arch rims laced to gunsmoke Hope Pro II hubs. Spokes are our standard DT Competition in black with silver alloy nips. Both Aaron and I thought they were pretty fly.

These wheels were destined for a Jet 9 that I finished shortly after the wheels. The frame is an XL, built up with a Fox F29, SRAM X9/Shimano XT drivetrain, Thomson seatpost and stem. The weight came in at a respectable 27.5 lbs sans pedals.

And speaking of Jets, I had a great race on mine at Catamount. Nat and I headed down for Wednesday Night Worlds for our weekly dose of punishment. This time the course was the Pink course, otherwise known as the dreaded Hill Side. There is a lot of climbing, power sucking open grass sections and despite some really fun and tricky singletrack, I really dislike this course. After a warm up lap, we got ready for the 3 laps that counted.

I’m really starting to like those Conti Race Kings. They held fast on the big sweeping grassy turns, better than I expected. Fortunately, the conditions were quite dry, allowing me to get comfortable with them on the first lap. 

I didn’t get passed by the 4 lap riders until that last grassy climb, which I was totally OK with, because it was just one guy, and he is fast.

I also didn’t see Nat, save for a few times when I looked back and saw him 2 turns behind. He has a great excuse though, he fell off a bridge last weekend, about 5 feet into 20″ of water. He was still very banged up from that, but he gets props for getting out there and doing 3 laps.

I ended up placing 4th in my race, and 9th overall. Not bad for someone who hasn’t gotten a good bike ride in in over a week! I’m paying for it today though… I feel like I’m about 80 years old.

A few months ago, I very nearly wound up with a new to me truck. I was all stoked for the infinite possibilities that a truck could facilitate. The demo bikes that could be hauled around, the stuff I could carry, the extra space inside the vehicle. Well, that didn’t end up happening.

Then for a brief moment, a new new truck looked as if it might be a possibility. The hunt was on again! Keller, the boy and the dog and myself spent a rainy Sunday cruising the lots looking for the “one”. Ever so randomly, we cruised the GMC dealer’s lot, and tucked up in the back was this:

Well, I thought, this could do the trick! While it didn’t have absolutely everything I wanted on it, it was 80% there. I think the days of getting absolutely everything you  want on a new car these days are long gone. Maybe I’m too picky, I have grown very accustomed to having things just the way I like them. Just look at the bikes I ride…

Well, that didn’t work out either. Then GM went bankrupt. My only question, is why do I not have a brand new set of truck keys in my hand right now. I mean, as taxpayers, we should all get one right? After all, our money went to bail them out…

So weeks pass by, making do with a Saab 9-3, now down one rack position due to my negligence. Then I find this:

Yeah baby!

So it isn’t pretty, but it’s the potential that counts. I had all sorts of visions of how awesome this truck could be. All pimped out with a winch on the front bumper, Rhinocoated diamond plate bed, sick stereo, etc etc… 

I could even afford to pay cash, maybe even dicker on the price. The reality is, that an antique truck such as this would take upwards of $6000 to get it remotely close to where I want it, plus where the hell am I going to get a windshield for the damn thing? I had to walk away. It isn’t like I could drive that thing down to Fool’s Gold in GA again for any less than it costs to fill a jet passenger plane with gas. It would be good for local use only, and as rad as it could be, it would still be as opulent as a Caddy Escalade that was fueled by burning $100 bills.

It was an amazing vision while it lasted.

Stupid cars.

So I’m gonna wait. See what phoenix is born from the big companies’ ashes. Maybe some cool new efficient engines? Some new fuel management technology that doubles the gas mileage on a full size truck. I’m really gunning for a diesel-electric hybrid of some sort. Run it on french fry oil. Or maybe, just maybe, we taxpayers will get those shiny new cars we payed for!

The weather has not been so nice to us this year. At least for those of us with cramped schedules that revolve around work and being a parent. I’m supposed to be riding right now, but mother nature seems to think we need more rain.

So I am here musing on a few things. 

First (and most seriously) I want to talk about these hot new glasses form Oakley. They are the new Jawbone, a cycling specific set of glasses that come with an extra set of lenses for different light conditions. This set is the matte black frame with black iridium lenses, with a set of high intensity yellow lenses for poor light conditions. Both sets of lenses are vented, allowing any fog that may form on the lens to immediately vanish once air is passing over them. The lenses are also hydrophobic, meaning that water will not bead up on them. Sweat will not stick to the insides, and rain or puddle spray will not stick to the outsides. Pretty nifty I think. Changing the lenses takes about 30 seconds, and it’s so simple, maybe even a cave man could do it. 

voila!

Second, and this borders on some kind of a rant, but it’s been a while. TV. What is up with TV these days? I mean, with the exception of movies, I traditionally only watch 2 things on TV, baseball and Clone Wars. When baseball is not on, or is held up by some act of nature, then the remote normally is relinquished, where I am subject to the worst kind of anguish anyone should bear. Reality TV. There is nothing real about it.

One of the favorite ones in the house is the “Real Housewives of ________”. Ugh. What total dross! Not only is it a poor representation of real life, it’s painful to watch the morally reprehensible behavior of these women as they flit about their shallow vapid lives, not having to worry about where the next meal may be coming from, spending their ape-like husband’s money on botox and other such frivolity and positioning themselves against the other cackling witches on the show.

Notice any similarities between these two pictures?

I’d much rather watch a reality show based on the life of the creatures in the second picture….

And the other one that really pisses me off is Millionaire Match Maker. I mean really? If the pursuit of riches makes you unattractive to the opposite sex, why the hell do you think you actually are attractive to what I would consider a normal person. By normal I mean someone that isn’t in it for the money. And so the twisted spiral of greed is revealed.

Besides having the natural ability to identify a potential trap, this lady has found a way to make her fortune off the people that have had the misfortune of making poor choice in life that have left them alone and otherwise uninteresting. And why the hell is this on TV? 

Do we really like the circus that much? Is this really entertainment?

Guess I could always just read a book instead…

Well, maybe more like a week in review, I didnt have the capacity to write and do all the other stuff that was happening, so I slacked until I had a few free moments to catch up.

Wednesday we had the Rocky Mountain demo fleet at Catamount, while races typically aren’t a good venue for demo, it is a good way to get some visibility, and let’s face it, trailers with logos always gather a crowd. It was also our night to host, so there were a lot of “last minute adjustments” to racer’s bikes. Sometimes I think the only time some of these folks actually ride their bikes is at Wednesday Night Worlds. Heinous bike maintenance atrocities were noted. I should bring the entire repair shop down, as it could be a serious profit center. As soon as we have 3G coverage out here, I’m downloading that credit card processing app…..

Thursday, we moved the demo to the Perry Hill trailhead, On a typical Thursday, there may be as many as 60 cars lined up and down the street. Due to the weather however, this was not the case. The doppler radar showed a giant blob of green, punctuated with lots of yellow and occasional splotch of red. While it never actually rained, the skies were ominous. Apparently, Burlington got pounded. It was no wonder that only a handful of cars were there, but we did manage to get some bikes under some folks.

While at the shop I completed a rad new Jabberwocky for one of our customers. This build was a painstaking process, but I feel the results were very worth the while. I hope he rode the crap out of it this weeekend.

Then there was all the regular shop shenanigans. This picture pretty much sums it up.

Aaron is working on a crappy old set of Shimano cantilever brakes, and I am working on a new Avid Elixir R brake that had bad seals in the lever. Sort of spans the ages as far as braking components go doesn’t it? I was really impressed with the design of the Elixir. Even “Mr Magura” Bilsing had to agree. 

Then there was the myPhone crash of 6/13. I had to back everything up and restore the settings, which is nothing more than a huge 1.5 hr pain in the ass. Then I get this weird text message that doesn’t show up in the text history or anything “I am a rooster illusion”. So I googled it. Urban Dictionary defines it as “A situation where one realizes that they do not know themselves as well as they think, shattering their grip on reality.”

Sort of apropos really… I mean, just what am I going to do without my iPhone? Those that read this and know what a cool little tool it is will back me up on this. Fortunately, I tend not to panic in these sort of situations, I just do what needs to be done to rectify it. That doesn’t mean I don’t get pissed off about it though…

Sunday AM was spent out in the woods working on our club’s latest project, Burning Spear. Spear used to be one of the most technical and flowy trails up on the Hill, but soon became the trail network’s door knob.; Everyone knew about it after a while, and it was getting eroded very badly. And when I say everyone, I mean everyone, including folks that really have no business riding out there on sub-suitable equipment and the lack of experience to safely make it down the ever deteriorating trail. 

Anyway, we were armoring some sections with rock, which basically means finding a nice schist outcropping and pounding the crap out of it with a sledge hammer, picking up the pieces, and pounding them into the trail tread. It’s hard work, but the results are fantastic. Fortunately, this area is pretty schisty, so we didn’t have to lug the smashed rock very far.

Now it’s time to relax and drink beer.

We’re pleased to introduce the newest addition to the Bike29 staff – Aaron Bilsing. Aaron knows his stuff. He comes to us with over 12 years of experience in the cycling industry.

 In fact, Aaron has traveled the World Cup and NORBA circuits providing mechanical and technical support for companies such as Magura, SRAM and Answer Products. Those years on the road in the US and Europe means that Aaron knows the ins and outs and ups and downs of current hydraulic brake technology, drivetrain components and suspension products.

After all that time on the road, Aaron now lives in the Mad River Valley of Vermont and five days a week brings his World Cup expertise to the Bike29 shop.

A convert to big wheels, Aaron rips up the notorious Mad River Valley terrain on his bright orange, rigid singlespeed Jabberwocky. He’s also contemplating adding a Niner RIP9 to his quiver.

If you call us up, say ‘hi’ to Aaron and know that your new bike is in the best of hands.

Where the magic happens

Sorry for the super short notice, but it only just occurred to me that there may be local folk that read this blog, but maybe not the others. Anyhoo….

June 10th is our night to host the Wednesday night series at Catamount, and we are bringing the Rocky Mountain demo fleet with us. For those that don’t know, we picked up Rocky this winter. They have a couple of sweet 29ers, one geared, and one single under the Hammer moniker, plus a nice looking squishy bike coming next year based on the Altitude platform.

June 11th we will be hosting yet another demo at the Perry Hill trailhead in Waterbury from 3-8. It’s open to anyone who wants to come, but be prepared to be solicited to join our cause for more and better trails in our area. You will be rewarded with hot dogs and beer, and ultimately, amazing singletrack.

Come both nights! It’s FREE, and you will get to experience amazing trails on some very well equipped bikes.