After several years of not playing, I decided a few weeks ago that it might be time for me to go to the big dog and pony show. I am of course taking about Interbike.

Sin City

While the whole getting to the show is somewhat of an ordeal, the loss of a day to get there, the redeye back, the casions, the pure Vegasness of it all, I am actually looking forward to my trip. I think it might have been 3 or 4 years since I’ve been.

I’ll get to see a lot of my industry friends and colleagues I haven’t seen in a while. I’ve got some meetings lined up. I’ve got some futeristic plans, and some of the craziest schemes get cooked up at the show. So I’ll be gone all next week, but will hopefully have time to update from the road as my dance card allows. Part of me just wants to leave the laptop at home, and travel fast and light, and provide updates via the Book Face or the Twitters with my dumbPhone. Not sure what my approach is going to be, but in 1 week from today, I will be baking in the hot Nevada desert.

Oh yes, there will be cocktails.

 

I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it 1000 times, I love me a good project.

There has been much smack talk over the last few weeks and months locally about the awesomeness of bike polo. It is awesome. I got my first taste in February during my pilgrimage to Tucson. I feel privileged to have been able to play my first ever polo match  in a “regular” game played on the Mall at U of A, where such notable movies like Revenge of the Nerds was filmed. The Tucson guys are for reals serious, yet they welcomed me with open arms. I was terrified most of the time, having terrible hand-eye coordination, but I did get an assist for my team, which for a newb, is pretty baddass. We played polo for about 3 hours under the rising full moon.

night of funness

Hooked.

During the bike festival in July, we got an impromtu game going out on the grassy field, and got a few others hooked. Needless to say the rumblings of a regular game are getting rumblier. Except some of us need bikes.
I’m all set though!

stripped down, ready for rebuild

This is the “16er”, which is named for the amount of money it cost back in 1998, $1600, which is a pretty good deal for a Stumpjumper that had a mix of XT parts and a Judy fork back in the day. Of course, it is also a lot of money. Let’s just say, someone got in trouble when someone else told their mom how much it cost. Hence the name. 16er. Ha!

how they looked back in 98

Needless to say, the 16er was a workhorse for a number of years.

It divided the country in half

It was well loved until it’s retirement, and until recently had been hanging on a hook collecting dust. Having gotten the polo bug, I knew it would ride to glory again, and so deals were made, handshakes exchanged, and the 16er now sits in my stable.

the 16er, now a battle stag

I did make a few changes. Most polo bikes have only 1 brake, the rear, set up on the left side. I have been given crap about the 2 brake set up on this bike, but I’m ambidextrous, and I can swing the mallet equally as poorly from either side of the bike. So there. I also added my own personal little flair to the bike from my huge box of parts, including my old circa 1998 SDG Stars and Stripes saddle, and Mootsstem. The only thing I need to get on the bike are some wheel guards, which I will make out of some corrugated plastic. I’m also planning on putting a big “16″ sticker on the front wheel.

So the current idea is to rally on Wednesdays in Waterbury for a friendly game of grass court polo. There are several venues in town we can use, so if there are any local riders out there that might want to get in on this, contact me at the shop. We’re a couple weeks away from getting going, but I’m hoping we can rally enough folks for a game before the end of the month.

It’s what those big wheels were always about.

But what happens when that big old wheel grinds to a halt? What if all the bumps and hollows in the trail have been so numerous and severe and relentless that the wheel eventually rolls to a stop? It takes a little effort before it can roll again.

I’ve always tried to keep this blog fairly light, upbeat and pertinent to all things 29er, so lately, I haven’t had much to talk about. That isn’t to say that there is nothing going on, in fact, my life is quite the buzzing center of excitement. Only it’s not the sort of thing you’d really want to read about.

I’ve been off the bike for a while. A rather long while. I’ve ridden my bike more in February than I have July and August combined. I’m in the ugly process of divorce. It takes a lot out of you. I’m also in the process of running a bike shop all by myself, a webstore, trying to be a good parent and maybe having a tiny bit of a social life. On top of all that, there were the house guests, and let us not forget SSUSA. I’m le tired.

Oh, and I forgot to mention, I am injured as well. Not so much injured as incapacitated. Long story short, I had a pretty severe allergic reaction to a prescription med that rendered me practically immobile and reduced me to a crying pile of shit. Not kidding – I had to switch cars with Mandy because I couldn’t drive stick, just so I could go to work and writhe in pain behind my desk. A whole ‘nuther round of drugs later, and I might actually be able to ride my bike on Friday. Friday is my birthday. I’ll be 41. This getting old shit is becoming scary.

So I’m really trying to pull it together here. The big wheel is gonna turn again. I’m in good spirits, and even though I have hoisted the FOR SALE sign up, I’m still very stoked about the future of B29. We’re going places, so…

 

Sometimes, you get a project that is both challenging and fun.

Not that long ago, a piece of mountain bike history showed up at the shop, a very rough looking, late 80′s Gary Fisher Advance. This is what the bikes we ride today spawned from. Where most shops might overlook this bike as a POS with no greater destiny than to take up space in a landfill, I was able to see some potential.

diamond in the rough

Just look at that chain.

stripped down nekkid

The directive was to make the bike ride again, but also give it some flair. It wasn’t going to be a mountain bike anymore, so there was some latitude on how it was going to look when it was finished. After doing some research, I knew what needed to happen. After I removed everything but the headset and stem from the frame, I got busy cleaning and polishing. For a bike this neglected, the paint was in very good shape, save for a few tiny spots of surface rust.

The wheels were dead straight, but the skewers were rusted in place, and had to be discarded. The spokes had a bunch of surface corrosion, so I wasnt able to make the entire wheel shine, but I did make them look a lot better. The bearings were smooth, so there was no real reason to replace those. The tires were of course, nice and dry. We went with some white wall cruiser tires as replacements.

that's "mountain" LX

I was able to salvage the rear derailleur. Despite the surface pitting, it cleaned up pretty well, and had full range of motion after I lubed the linkages and exercised it a few times. The brakes were seized, and the pads dried out, so those went away after I finally freed them from their mounting posts. These were replaced with some inexpensive Avid linear pull brakes.

I really wanted to keep the thumb shifters, but they were just too manky to make work. Plus, they were mounted directly to the huge, and now incompatible, plastic brake levers, and I was unable to come up with an alternative mounting solution. For the time being, shifting is being handled with a crappy MRX level twister, until I can find a more decent 7spd trigger.

I cleaned and rebuilt the BB, and replaced the Bio-pace chainrings with a single 36 tooth middle ring and added a Spot bashguard I had laying around. Of course there was a new chain, but the cassette still looked good after I cleaned it up, so I opted to keep it.

The saddle was replaced with a classy looking brown leather Brooks knock off. The flat narrow bars replaced with an alloy cruiser style one, which were outfitted with the comfiest non-Ergon grips I know, the Oury, also in brown. White shift/brake cables added some zing. The rear rack was also a nice choice, and really brings the whole thing together.

ta da!

So after about a couple hours of work, a couple hundred bucks in parts, we have us a fully resurrected bike. It went from sitting dormant for years, to being ridden everyday. It has all but replaced a car for around town errands and commuting. Now if that isn’t a feel good story, I don’t know what is. This is by far one of the more fun projects I’ve taken on lately, and I sorta wish more folks would take this route with their old, forgotten bikes.

I realize I’m probably going to cross a line here, but I don’t care.

Once upon a time, there was a bike shop, and one day a young gentleman came in with a broken front quick release skewer.

“I need the cheapest one of these you have”.

The owner happened to be working, and quickly found a new Shimano steel skewer, much like the broken skewer that had been presented.

“How much?”
“$10″

Digging through wallet. “Would you take $8?”

“No, it’s $10″
“I have $8 and a Bic lighter”
“Sorry, the price is $10″

Customer leaves to go digging around in his car for $2, comes back with $8, a Bic lighter and $5 CAN in Loonies.

“I’m sorry, but I don’t take Canadian money. There is a bank across the street, and they can change it for you. The skewer is $10 US.”

Customer leaves again, and finally comes back with a $10 bill, plus $3 for the owner’s “trouble”, and promptly begins a line of questioning that could come across as slightly insulting, if not borderline hostile, to the bike shop owner.

“Are you from around here?
“Are you the owner?
“Well, I work in retail and… barter is an important part of the sale, and… hear bad things about the service in this shop, and…”

The owner quietly listened to the concerns of the young man who had to jump through so many hoops to get a cheap wheel skewer and thanked him for his feedback and bid him good day.

Now take a few minutes to think about this. Is someone in the wrong in this situation? Was the customer wronged by an unobliging shop employee? This story is not fictitious in any way, in fact, it played out before two other witnesses. This story was the defining interaction of my Monday. Now I did take the liberty of omitting some of the circumstances that might have changed the tone of this interaction, because, let’s face it, the customer is always right. Right?

Customer walks into said shop talking on his cell phone. Does not stop talking on cell phone after part has been produced and price has been established. Customer leaves in a huff to find “correct change”. Asks strangers in the parking lot for money to complete the transaction.

Now, let’s think about simple economics shall we? We are in retail why? To make money. And we all now there isnt much money to be had on the biking industry. We do this for love.

I present to you, exhibit A:

the skewer

Available from QBP at $9.22 wholesale.

$10-$9.22 = $.78, not much of a margin, but the customer did come in looking for a deal. And I was in a managerial position to oblige. Now think about what it takes to get that item in the store. It had to be shipped there, so there is some sort of shipping charge associated with it. I calculate that for the size and weight of this single item, it may have added another $.55 to the cost of the skewer. So really, it costs $9.77. You can’t really pay rent or really any other bill with a $.23 sale can you?  In fact, that isn’t really worth anyone’s time.

So let’s back up once again.

Customer talking on phone apparently did not hear me say, “these are $15, but I’ll give it to you for $10.”  Seems like a pretty damn fair price right? On both counts really…

But I can completely understand his frustration. It must have been humbling to have to leave the store not once but twice to get the $10 necessary to procure the necessary funds for the part. Every time I go to the Ford dealership and ask for one of these:

Raptor

they ask for $50K. I do not have $50K, and therefor no Raptor. I don’t even have a colorful Bic lighter to sweeten the deal. So I leave in a huff.

We have in this particular instance, reached the epic climax of this transaction. Customer needs the skewer, and is now so pissed at me for being so unyielding in my price, that not only has he had to battle the Hydra to get the missing $2, he also came up with a little extra, to toss me some “fuck you bucks” so he could in good concience buy my time and tell me how I should run my business. Question my fairness. Let me know how I have wronged him. To teach me a lesson on how retail and “barter” works. In front of other customers. Who he had asked for money from in the parking lot.

The last paragraph in the story is exactly what happened.

The owner quietly listened to the concerns of the young man who had to jump through so many hoops to get a cheap wheel skewer and thanked him for his feedback and bid him good day.

$10. I could have just said I didn’t have the damn skewer. Maybe I should have just said it was $15 and saved both of us all a bunch of harrumph. I wanted to tell him something else, and invite him to never show his face in my establishment again, yet I held my breath.

So, what is the moral of this story?

They aren’t glamorous. Nor are they frequent. But they can be the difference between a great day and a truly awful one. I had a day of small victories.

In the bike shop, some days you get beaten back three steps for every one you move forward. Other days, it’s as smooth as silk. Yesterday, I was winning. An otherwise insignificant bolt could have ruined everything. This bolt was part of a stem that needed to be swapped out for a repair, and it could have well been the difference between no repair and a surly customer, a bad repair and a surly customer, or me outsmarting the situation and making a good repair, thus keeping my customer happy. It took me about 20 minutes to address the problem, from beginning to end. The cool thing about it all, I kept my head, knowing I have the tools to deal with this sort of mechanical insubordination. I had that offending bolt out of the picture with no damage to the surrounding parts in a relative jiffy.

And I also had a complete resurrection go my way 100%. A rusty old bike that had been left for dead for 10 years is now rolling around as good as new. I felt really good after that one, like I flexed a muscle that has been dormant for a long time. While the war is far from over, it was one of those days where having a couple of things go my way made the battle a little easier.

Wow, we’ve just been having a run of good weather lately. It’s really hard for me not to just shrug off every responsibility and go for a ride, although nothing would make me happier.

uncommon blue for this time of year

I’m really trying to behave, both in terms of getting my work done, and resting the knee. There is still a long way to go until dirt, and I want to be in the game and not on the sidelines. Still, it’s really hard when you are presented with sunny skies and temps creeping up into the 60s.

rocking the roadies

This Sunday, Nat and I cranked out a mellow ride to Richmond and back, a short 27 mile ride that is relatively flat. I have pulled my road bike out of the trainer for the season, and am slowly becoming accustomed to it. It’s been a nice distraction while the dirt roads thaw out. I am anxious to get busy mapping the Grinder. With temps soaring into the 70s and maybe even 80s next week, should be long…

I hope everybody had a safe transition into the new year. For many it represents a time to make changes to their lives and routines, to make better choices, or to put the past behind them. It’s a manifestation of change. I think it is important to take a mental inventory of one’s experiences over the last 12 months, and figure out what the plans and goals for the next 12 might be. My “resolution” this year is a little different. I plan on getting FAT.

Yes, I’ve dabbled with these bikes before, but now I see just how fun they really are. It’s all about fun anyway right? The first demo Pugsly showed up on Friday, and was promptly built and ridden around the snowy parking lot. A few laps around the cemetery convinced me.

Fat bikes are their own beast, requiring special frames, special wheels and have a different set of rules when building them from the frame up. I’m going to learn all this when I put together the large demo bike this week. I’ve always felt that you get a much deeper understanding of how a bike is put together when you do it from scratch. And we all know how much I love geeking out on bike stuff…

It’s more than just another bike though. It is a vehicle for outside activity, when you could be holed up inside someplace wishing it was summer. They are a lot more versatile than you think too. The folks over at drunkcyclist took a trip down the Baja Peninsula on fat bikes loaded with panniers and gear. Talk about getting out there. The fat tires work well on a variety of terrain, making these bikes a lot more versatile than you would think.

I’ve always said “ride big wheels”, and well, these suckers are pretty big. I’m looking forward to spending some more time on 2 wheels this winter.

 

So only 1 question this week, but it was a good one, and comes from Team29 rider Chris Muddiman aka The Mutt. He asked:

Can you give us the history of how you ended up being a shop owner, and how that turned into Bike29? Not a real creative question, but I figured it would be a good story.

And he was right, it is a good story, for it all started about this time  6 years ago. I had been laid off from my last “job”. I wasn’t exactly surprised, as little input I put forth with the powers that be was ever actually acted upon, resulting in poor performance of the things I was in charge of. Basically I was slamming my head into a brick wall, and was not entirely bummed about about being let go.

It would take about 2 months of searching for another job in my field of expertise, which in VT was really hard. Nothing was coming up, and the supply of rocks to turn over and leads to follow were fast running out. Winter can be a cruel time of year here for the unemployed and unpurposed, and I had to come up with something. After much soul searching I finally came to the conclusion that I was not going to be satisfied working for others.

Over the course of the previous months, I had started riding my Surly Karate Monkey over my FS bike, and was beginning to get hooked on the 29″ wheel. At the time, no one was doing anything to support the big wheel platform, and the internet was a good and inexpensive way to sell to customers outside my zip code. However, big parts houses like QBP don’t sell to run-out-of-the-garage operations, which forced me into my next big decision. I decided to grab the bull by the horns and open an online and brick and mortar bike shop. Bike29 would be the online store, Five Hills Bikes would be the LBS.

I had no clue what I was doing, or even getting myself into, but it seemed like a good idea, and the only option at the time. I also launched this blog, which I have just spent about an hour peering through archived posts. I have literally built this whole thing up from nothing but tenacity, luck and the support of close friends and loved ones. The luck hasn’t always been good, but I have always managed to learn something valuable from the times when the odds weren’t in my favor. My perseverance has helped drive the ship through those tough times, and I’ve always managed to come out on the other side of the storm. And the business grew. It outgrew it’s original footprint in two quick years, and we ended up moving the shop into downtown Waterbury where it still lives today.



The good times are incomparable. I have had so many awesome experiences that I would not have had were I stuck in a cube someplace. There would be no Gravel Grinder. I would not have started what is now the VT Mountainbike Festival, I would not have met Fuzzy and Dejay, who have played a pivotal role in my life. I would not have gone to SSAZ, nor been talked into going to SSWC in Durango, no SSUSA, no riding amazing trails all over the southwest, southeast and Colorado. I wouldn’t have met all the really amazing people that I now call good friends.

Let’s not even get started on the bikes…

There would be no B29 Jersey, no Team29.

SSUSA would likely not be coming to VT in 2012.

These are all the things that I think about during the times when things are so rough I bitch and whine about wanting to get a job and work for someone else. There is no way I could have accomplished any of these things without the shop. I was going to say “stuck behind a computer”, but lets face it, I am sometimes stuck behind a computer. But at least it is a nice computer, that I own, one that I can take with me, and one that has allowed me to do what I do.

It isn’t an easy life, and it has certainly had it’s prices to be paid, but in the end I am in the driver’s seat. I am the master of my destiny. I don’t lament my decision to strike out on my own, and I would tell anyone that is considering making a break to chase their dream to just go for it. Life is too short to be stuck in a rut. I believe that nothing “worth it” is ever easy.

There are some extremely cool things lined up for B29 that I hope to be able to start talking about as soon as next week. And let us not forget, as a result of the things this shop has allowed me to do, SSUSA2012 is going to be in my back yard.

Literally.

So hopefully this sheds a little light on to what/how/why B29 is and how it came to be. Keep the questions coming!

 

Yup, it’s that time of year. Darkness comes quickly, and not everybody has the time or capacity for a daytime ride. This is where owning a set of lights can be a real benefit.

darkness approacheth

In 2007, I purchased a Niterider Fire Storm, which had a decent burn time and a ton of light. In fact, the light still works well but it is heavy, and the HID bulb burns with a blue light that washes the trail clean of any shadows, making everything look flat. Not too bad, unless you happen to be hurteling down a hurgy gurgly rooty descent, where misjudging the terrain can mean trouble.

Light technology has changed a lot in the last few years. Lights have gotten lighter, batteries have gotten smaller and most importantly, less expensive. LEDs have all but replaced incandescent bulbs, and the brightness that these little bulbs can produce is getting better. Best of all, these lights are getting cheaper.

LEDs are bright

I just picked up a new light system, the PowerLED EVO from SIGMA, rated at 900 lumens. I have no idea what a lumen actually means, but it is a unit of measure pertaining to the brightness of a light. 900 seemed like a good number, it was more than some of the other lights available to me at tha price, but not too far away from the much more expensive 12-1900 lumen lights. This light system retails for $250, weighs less than a pound, and can be mounted on a helmet without being too cumbersome.

headlight on the G-Train

On Sunday night I got a chance to see how the LEDs stacked up against my old turbo bright HID, and was pleasantly surprised to see that they did a fine job of illuminating the trail. The light quality is whiter, and it didn’t seem to eliminate every shadow, meaning I still had some depth perception. This was on the low setting too. The SIGMA has 4 settings, low/med/high and flashing, and I found that even on low, there was ample light for my needs. Burn times are rated at 5.5/2.5/1.5, which I find to be pretty satisfactory for a light that works so well on the low setting. I have yet to go on a social ride that lasted any longer than 2 hours, and let’s face it, night time is also time for beer drinking and football watching.

Now, if you were going to a 24hr race, you would probably want to get a more expensive system, but for an average Joe, this light gets the job done for post work weeknight rides without breaking the bank. I’m going to be trying out a few more lights this season, with the cap at $250. I feel that that is the absolute most anyone should pay for a system that might only get 5 or 6 rides a year. I’ll report back with my findings, or, see for yourself at the ongoing Thursday Night shop rides.

Meet at 6!