The Strip, Las Vegas, NV

On with the show. The Sands Convention Center, one of the most wretched hives of scum and villainy, and also free beer and tequila if you know where to look.

As I said before, I had sat out the last few Interbikes, I’m not really a fan of being cooped up indoors, breathing conditioned air with a bunch of people milling about and touching everything. I’m not a germophobe by any means, I just have little patience for annoying and deliberate gawking in artificial environments. There are also the constant interruptions when you are talking with people, the butt-ins, the “hey, real quicks…”. I find that to be especially annoying, and completely counterproductive. Especially because I have such a short attention span and I am likely to forget what I might have been talking about. I’m of the firm belief that if you are going to discuss serious business with someone, you give them 100% of your attention, and the hi-5s with passers by should wait until said business is concluded. Just an observation, and a bit of a rant. This happens all the time.

The purpose of my visit was very focused, I had a couple of “important” meetings that I had scheduled, and those took place away from the isles and potential interruptions. This ain’t my first rodeo… they were productive, and I came away from them feeling like it was a good thing I had made the plane ride. This left me with a lot of well organized free time to mill about and gawk.

Unfortunately, my point and shoot camera has decided that it is going to take mostly lousy pictures from now on. Most likely a result from being jammed in my jersey pockets on hot sweaty rides over the last few summers. It has outlasted all the others I’ve owned, so I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised. The flash does send up a puff of smoke when it is used, which is rather exciting.

want

Up first is this new crabon bike from Ellsworth. This bike fits in the trail category, along with bikes like the Santa Cruz Tallboy LTC, and the new Niner RIP RDO.

hey, isn't that Mike Maggs?

I didnt get any good pictures of the RIP RDO, thank you camera. So you’ll have to go here to see them. It’s a neat looking bike for sure. And I’m sure anyone glued to Facebook or MTBR last week has seen and read up on it already.

There wasn’t much in the way of awesome new tires out there. I, like The Dickness, feel that anything named for viral video sensation that was over long ago, lacks long term relevance in the market place. Besides, when the tire company in question actually has such tires in stock, it will be 18 months from now, making them even less relevant.
The only cool thing I saw was this:

white walls!

The white compound is supposed to provide a more supple ride. Whatever, it looks cool and I want them.

There are some new 29er suspension fork choices out there now.

"we'll never make 29er suspension forks!" oh, wait...

improving, updating and expanding

Then there was this. I really want one, just like this one. Anyone want to hook me up? It’s a damn good thing it was bolted to the ground…

double want

There were quite a few 650B bikes out there. They looked cool too, but reports coming back from the on dirt demo from trusted sources say that they either rode like 29ers or 26ers, begging the question, do we really need another wheel size?

Intense Tracer 275

The overall vibe of the show seemed pretty subdued to me, almost sleepy. There wasn’t much going on that had people buzzing. I think it might be time for the Marzocchi girls to come back…
Many of the regular players weren’t at the show, instead choosing to hawk their wares at the Outdoor Demo. Interbike is pretty expensive for an exhibitor, I imagine that hard choices have to be made as to which eggs are going into which basket, especially in this uncertain economy. I mean, you could literally do 5 or 6 events in a targeted environment, reach more consumers and have better results for the same cost of being stuck indoors at Interbike along with most of your competitors. There’s a reason why there is a Trek World.

That being said, I don’t regret going at all. It was great to catch up with friends, old and new, and making sure to enjoy some of the local “real”, off Strip flavor really made the trip for me. Vegas is no longer my least favorite place on the planet.

If you don’t want technology to move forward, and you fear change, then you may as well stop reading here.

Picture borrowed from the Hagoromo blog

The latest rumblings around the web are the new 20 and 30 speed mountain bike groups that have just leaked out. Shimano and SRAM reportedly have new groups coming out for the 2011 model year. SRAM has updated the once top of the food chain X0 to a sweet looking 2×10 offering, and Shimano has updated it’s XTR line with a 10 speed cassette, and a double or a triple (really?) crank option.

Picture borrowed from the Hagoromo blog

Maybe a little sour grapes for SRAM getting the 10 speed jump on them, “Oh yeah? Well we got 400 speeds!”, but it’s also rumored that 10 speed will might make it all the way down to the SLX level.

Back in the day, when things shifted to 9 speed, there was a huge outcry from the “retro-grouch” crowd, stating that 9 speed was ridiculous, unnecessary, and far inferior to the 7 and 8 speed drivetrains that preceded it. Blah blah blah… These are the same folks that refuse(d) to give up thumb shifters, cantilever brakes, square tapered bottom brackets and threaded headsets. Well, to each his own I say. There is no real right or wrong when it comes to stuff like this, although many people are more than happy to share their opinions on this subject with anyone within earshot, especially those that will tell  you that these sort of components have no place in mountain biking.

They are certainly entitled to their opinions, as are the rest of us, but I feel we are also entitled to draw our own conclusions as well. The fact of the matter, is that it is almost impossible to stop progress. New products and new technology are what drives this world.

It’s why houses are better than caves.

Why Bic lighters are better than rubbing 2 sticks together.

Why shoes are better than bare feet.

Why riding a bike is better than walking (or running or driving a car, for that matter).

Without progress, mountain biking would not be what it is today.

I was an early adopter of 9 speed. I worked at a shop back then, so it was fairly easy for me to make this jump. It can be an expensive proposition for a major drivetrain upgrade, which is a difficulty for some. But, as the technology gets refined, it tends to cost less to reproduce, and finds its way from the high end to the more reasonably priced groups over time. Ten years later, and there is no high end 7 or 8 speed componentry available. It’s all 9 speed now. And, as you can imagine, this makes some people angry. People love their bikes, and I guess that having the big companies force new technology on them equates to having their bikes unwillingly changed right underneath them.

Well, guess what, that high end train is calling “all aboard”, so you better start thinking about making that jump form 9 to 10 speed. Or if you haven’t even gone 9 speed yet, go directly to 10, because soon, 9 speed will be yesterday’s news.

OR

You can ride a singlespeed and forget all about that technology altogether!

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…

Down south I realize that a huge freezing rain event threw everything into total chaos, so the school systems in those towns and counties are excused from this rant.

So, we got about 6″ of snow overnight locally, and now school and daycare is closed for the day. I am not happy with this situation. Do I get to close today? No. Does anybody else get to have the day off? No.

I am OPEN.

 

It’s just snow people, not lava. And we all knew it was coming. There was plenty of time to prepare. I even went to the hardware store and bought a bag of ice melt and a shovel for the store, so that when I get to work, I can be open and no one will break their neck walking up the front steps.

We live in Vermont. It snows here. Everyone else is expected to get to work on time, so why are schools and daycare centers closed? I’m frustrated on many levels, both as a working parent, and as someone who got screwed out of going snowboarding before work this morning because someone thought a random 3 day weekend would be neat. Not cool.

And as a side rant, the 90 minute delay is inexcusable too. That little disruption is caused when the buses “won’t start”. PLUG THEM IN! There is an entire channel on TV that is dedicated to the weather. Extreme cold, snow storms and heavy rain don’t just randomly happen. 

To me, it’s a sign proving just how soft we are getting. Gone are the days of walking to school uphill both ways in a raging blizzard. I can count on one hand how many snow days we had when I was in high school. And guess what? I walked to school every day. 

And so it seems, I’ve become that grizzled old man preaching to anyone that would listen, about just how tough we had it when we were young, and how we had to eat wood and rocks.

Well, now I will have a little helper today, so I apologize in advance to anyone that calls in and gets interrupted with an update on Thomas the Tank Engine and what important job he might be doing at any given time.

It’s when people that don’t know how to work on bikes, but damn it they know how to use the internets!

This is a sad truth, that the internets makes us all dumber. 

Thank you Al Gore.

This is a reply I put up on a post I put up on a forum in reply to a very misguided set of very poor questions. It just sort of rubbed me the wrong way. You don’t smack talk one of my favorite bikes without having your facts in order!

I generally don’t get in on discussions like this, but I feel that there is some information that is missing here. Your bike is bobbing. Front and rear. It is disheartening, I know. However, it is important to know all the variables, such as – What are the settings on your shocks? Is your preload set correctly? Why are you out of the saddle? Suspension frames are designed to absorb bumps, each manufacturer has a different idea on how those bumps are absorbed. The great equalizer, is that all frames are designed to react a certain way without any other force on the bike. We’re talking straight up and down motion here. Now, here’s where it might possibly get interesting…. Let us pretend that you have perfect technique, with a perfect spin, and you can roll right over a bump on flat ground without losing any energy on your full suspension frame.

Congratulations! You’ve set your fork and rear shock correctly! So, part of this experiment requires you to remain absolutely motionless as you pass over this “bump”. You coast over the bump, and the fork and rear shock damp the bump, and you remain motionless as you pass over the bump.

Now, let us pretend that we are actually “mountain biking”. Not only do we lose the constant of flat ground, but we also add incline, decline, and the dreaded “compound bump”. A compound bump may be one or a combination of the following: rocks, roots, mud holes, logs, squirrels, chickens, goats, tourists, equestrians, hikers, the short bus, a car, your girlfriend, wife or your mom.

My point is, that these obsticales require effort to get over. You can’t just expect the bike to do it for you. So… some of these bikes will do their very best at absorbing as many of these factors as they can, but then you want to add pedaling forces too??!! Your whole body rolling around your bottom bracket? Some of the bikes out there will do a good job of dealing with both of these obtrusive forces. 

And here I am assuming you can do it all sitting on your saddle. What if you were out of the saddle, cranking through a section of tough bumpy mom trail?

And out of these few bikes, only some of them will do a really good job of dealing with these forces.

Not one of the many amazing full suspension designs out there in the world will do it all for you. You have to do some of it. And now I’m going to point out that the forks you’ve mentioned, that you think may be the salvation, are actually going to behave exactly the same (despite the fact the the 20mm QR versions are about as real as Tinkerbell or the Pope).  I’ve been riding a RIP9 since 06, and it is still my favorite ride.

I expect that my bike may not necessarily pedal well in certain instances, but it is in the way that I set it up that counts.

1} I never use the lockout feature. I paid for the suspension fork, I expect it to do it’s thing.

2} I am definitely not the smoothest rider in the world. Many external forces dictate my ultimate line, including big, ugly, square pedal strokes.

I set my RIP9 up soft, so it can deal with the horror I throw at it. I weigh 230 with gear, have my front shock at 80 psi, rebound at 8 clicks back from fast. The rear shock is set at 150 psi, normally set at wide open, but will flick the ProPedal on during extended boring climbs. The setting is “3″, rebound is 8 clicks back from fast. To get really detailed, I’m running Stan’s Flow rims, generally I have the tire pressure at 28-32 depending on the tire I’m running at the time. It works for me, I stand, sit, crank, and roll over just about everything that doesn’t pitch me off the bike.

BTW, Best Bike EVER as far as I’m concerned. You need to learn how to set up and use your bike dude. This forum is a great place to get info on how to do it… oh, and reach down and lock out your fork if you need to…

Here’s your video

RIPing it up

 

Maybe it was a bit too much. I never know…

It goes something like this…

A woman comes into the shop with a wheel. This wheel has a flat tire.

“I’d like to get this fixed please, it’s for our stationary bike. We can’t get it to work”

“No problem, it will be $4 for the tube, and $5 for labor”

“OK great, I’ll pick it up later.”

She leaves, I change the tube. She comes back later. She pays, all is well, no sweat.

About 15 minutes later, I get a phone call from the husband.

“Why did you charge my wife $5 to change the tube?”

“$5 is our minimum labor charge, just about all shops will charge you labor for this type of job”

“yeah? Well ***’s doesnt” and hangs up.

Two things get me to DEFCON 1 immediately, one is slamming doors, the other is being hung up on. And as the owner of this fine shop, I can’t exactly be rude to the guy. But I have this blog. So here is my statement to this guy, and others like him.

If you were smart enough to change a bicycle inner tube yourself, you wouldn’t have to pay the $5 would you? So why, if you can’t do it yourself. balk at a minimal labor charge, when I spend my time, use my tools, my electricity to run the compressor, and use my expertise to ensure that the tube is installed correctly. Isn’t my time worth $5 to fix your inner tube? When the valve of the old one had been torn off because the last tube had a presta valve rattling around a schrader sized hole. Probably something you didn’t figure out before which is probably why the wheel ended up in my shop anyway?

Well next time, pal, feel free to drive the 20 miles to ****’s Bike Shop to avoid this labor fee. While you are driving there, think about how much a gallon of gas costs. Think about your 40 mile round trip to save $5. Oh but wait, I changed the tube correctly. You won’t have a problem with it. And if you do, and it’s my bad, it’s covered. 

So in parting, I’d like to present the middle fingers of both of my hands and offer you a heartfelt “screw you buddy, you can fix it yourself next time”. 

Rant mode off.