"What's new?"

Man, there is so much new 'round here that I don't know where to start! Howzabout we start w/ all the new stuff that we're gonna have here @ the shop for this winter and next season? Here goes............

Niner bikes in the house! As a group we'ven been struggling w/ the whole 29R thing all season. Ted absolutely loves his Salsa Dos Niner but I've been unimpressed to say the least. Rach got a Karate Monkey but doesn't have have a ton of miles on it, Doez is on my side of the fence and Lee, as per usual, wisely listens to everyone else and keeps his thoughts to himself. (He's kinda Zen that way) So...one of our major agendas @ the show was to ride as many 29R's as we could get our butts on, both to decide how we felt about 'em overall and to find the cream of the crop.
(By the way..........for those of you who may be wondering whatinthehell a "29R" is.......good question and I'm glad you stopped me. 29R's are mountainbikes w/ bigger wheels, the rim size is the same as a road wheel and the outside diameter, nominally anyways, is 29" 'stead of the standard 26. They've been around for about 6-8 years, neither catching on or going away. After the initial buzz wore off they became pretty much a niche...........kept alive mostly by smaller builders and single-speeders. And then lately........re birth!)
So, out in Bootleg Canyon we tested 29R's on the crazy, rocky trails out there outside o' Sin City. Cannondales, Salsas, (Salsas? Is that a word?) and.....Niners. The results were painfully obvious. All four of us felt that the Niner frames out-handled everything else we'd ridden, that day or ever. As a result.....currently there are 8 Niner frames hangin' here right in front of me. One of 'em's mine and I'm really lookin' forward to gettin' some real miles on it.

Here's a semi-funny thing and a small confession- I was hoping that we'd all like the Salsa frames the best. It'd be easy to be a Salsa dealer......we deal w/ their parent company every week and in a big way, I dig the names (Mamacita! Dos Niner! el Mariachi!) and we like the people behind the bikes. But..............why spend all that money to go out to the show, close the shop for 4 days and then try to ignore what we learned? How stupid would that be?! So............Niner it is. These guys have been makin' 29R frames since Day One and that's all they'll ever build. Great frames, great colors, the EMD 9 is only 500 bux and the AIR 9 is the lightest 29R frame on the market @ 3.2.#. We think that they're gonna rock!

What else is new? Well, despite still semi-reeling from the bummer news aboiut Burley we are more-than-excited to be doing more w/ Gunnar and Co-Motion! Look for Gunnar frames hittin' the doors in the next coupla months and Co-Motion tandems and frames right behind 'em. We'll be offering a variety of build kits for all our frames so we can offer you a better selectiojn of prices and features than you can possibly get when buying "off the rack". Can't wait!

The new wool L/S jerseys are ordered and might be here before Christmas. The new first-time-ever VCC jerseys-n-bibs are in the last stages of the design process and will be here sometime this winter as well. It's time for a new t-shirt too.

Another brand new and top secret project has us looking for a new Velo-Citizen as well. It's not your typical bikeshop job description and it'd be best to contact me if you are at all intrigued. Suffice it to say that it's a full-time gig..but not focussed on wrenchin' or talkin' to folks on the floor.

Another new thing that I am totally excited about are my new favorite rides. I've been doing a dirt road ride one night of the week w/ a group of duds in GR that call themselves the Crazy Bastards. Basically the idea is to ride on dirt roads after dark all winetr long. I have a complete bladt o both of the rides that I've been on and am plannin' on makin' as many of 'em as I can. Still..........it's kind of a drag to hafta go all the way over to the Cannonsburg area erevy week so Brother Davison and I are gonna start Crazy Bastard West rides on Tuesday Nights starting in November. Check @ the shop for details.

Don't forget the Pineapple Bob Ride comin' up here on the 29th! Always a classic!!! I'm off to do the JDRF Ride in Death Valley this Thursday...........we have a team of 38 riders! That's almost 3 times as many as in '05! What a cool deal!

So, sorry about starting this off w/ so much commerce. I try to keep the shop stuff a little seperate from the other stuff but sometimes....................it's just all balled up together y'know? There's so much cool stuff going on, so many rides and things to look forward to....man, I can't wait! It's been a great season here..........in every way. Sales were great but just as important....we had fun, got a lot of folks out on their bikes, got a couple of new projects off the ground and did good work. That's hard to beat!

Gotta go........talk to you next time. I will write about the Kokopelli, I promise!