All Goggles 25% OFF

Goggles 25% Off!! (another Steed Stocking Stuffer) from David O'Dowd on Vimeo.

Getting Tech

Classy not trashy. These Hope Tech V2 brakes have style and features without looking cheap. The Hope brand of disc brakes have always been a quality product, hand made in England. They show the hand made details, and in my eyes have always stood out from the crowd. They were one of the first brand to enter the disc brake market. You might have seen them on the old Giant ATX-DH bikes.
Hope brakes have always been known for their looks, excellent modulation of power, as well as durability.
These new Tech V2 brakes sure are easy on the eyes. There is no end to the detail in these hand made brakes. The Hope Products are all machined in house, in the UK. The machining brings a great degree of detail.
As you can see here, the details begin with drilled holes in the brake lever to bring added traction to the glove. Also there are detented knobs for lever reach, and bite point contact that are nicely machined and easily adjustable with gloves on.
The lever blades are stout, and of course machined aluminum, and feature a solid pivot point that is easily serviceable and free of play. One great detail is that the lever is not connected to the internals of the brake, so that in the case of a crash, if the lever is pulled outward it doesn't pull any of the important internals of the brake with it. The lever simply compresses a push rod to actuate the brake.
The caliper features two large pistons putting great amounts of power into their very durable brake pads. The caliper also has a handy centering-line etched into it to help when centering the rotor. With these brakes you have the choice of a nice and light floating rotor, or a vented rotor which is meant to keep the brakes up to 15% cooler for long descents. The floating rotors are much lighter and less costly and are still designed to keep the brakes cool, and prevent rotor warping. You can see the same technology on a high-end motorcycle brake.
Stainless steel braided lines, attached to stainless steel (reusable) fittings are a stock option. As I said, no detail is left untouched. The Hope Tech V2's offer huge power, with the excellent ability to modulate the brakes. They have all the adjustments that you can make use of on a brake, and they make them durable and easy to operate. To cap it all off they are fitted with all the finest hoses and fittings.
They are not a cheap brake, but they don't skimp on detail or quality. It's top of the line at its finest.

-Scott

Deck The Trails

As the song goes, " 'tis the season to be jolly..." well I agree. What's not to be jolly about? Ok so its cold out, but the riding is great at the moment. XC riding in peticular is great, because the trails are frozen firm and you can really rip along. Even the trails up the 7th switchback on Fromme are rideable, with little snow to run into. Exams that I have coming up next week are the only thing holding me back from riding my bike every day.

I went for a great ride with my friend Mike Tryon, and Kimbo. Mike and Kim both look to be running in next year's Knee Knacker 50km trail run. Both of them have knackered their knees in years past. You can count me out of this crazy idea.

Mike had built up his Santa Cruz Nomad that he has recently bought off of Branden at the shop, and is loving it. I think he's really impressed with how little it moves under pedalling loads, and how easily it rips down trail. Kim has been riding his Santa Cruz Blur LT Carbon for a while now. I thought he would have chosen to ride his Nomad on Fromme, which he still punishes us on the climbs with, but no, he chose the even lighter bike. I rode my Nomad as well, stuggling to muscle the new DH grip, DH rolling tires up the hill. Training, right? Yeah, training.

Not that the photo shows it, but besides the lovely decorations that someone decided to dress the trails with at this vantage point, the view is awesome! You can see all the way to the airport from here on a clear day, like it was.

Mike is taking a moment here to take in the view, and decorations. I don't know who would have dressed these small trees up? I doubt it was bears or elves, maybe some crazy trail runners. But, it was kind of a cool thing to have in the the middle of the woods. Great ride guys.

we'll do it again soon. Snow or no snow.

-Scott

Winter: a perfect time for bmx training!

Well its already a couple of weeks into December, so I figure its time to start getting off the couch and get my legs loosened up before downhill racing next year. I loathe riding a resistance trainer so I'd much rather go outside and 'earn' it.

What better way than to head down the road from my house, literally 2 minutes away, to the Bike Ranch and our own UCI BMX track here in Kamloops. Oh wait, did I mention its -6 degrees with a fresh layer of snow on the ground? Perfect!

My old '98 Free Agent Cruiser sitting atop the starting ramp, along with a broom just in case.

Since moving here in 2005, I never really trained for downhill. But having a huge BMX track here so close to my house, what a great way for working on my sprinting ability.

Fresh tracks! This section is very flat with an uphill at the end.

As long as its not -20 and icy, I'll be coming down here once a week to burn off a few laps. I will eventually have to shovel a path through the snow in order to ride, but if that's what it takes then so be it.

Here's a short clip. Yes, I really am going that slow.

It was at the end of my session and my legs are nicely toasted.

Next post of my winter training Kamloops style will be dirtbike riding in the snow. Stay tuned.

Christmas Stocking Stuffers at Steed

Steed Cycles Christmas Stocking Stuffers from David O'Dowd on Vimeo.

First Ride on the Trance X1

Now does that look like a nice day to ride your bike or what! The sun was out yesterday, although it didn't seem to add much warmth, it was nice to be in it.

Tristan and I rode up the Seymour Mountain road to access the trails. All along the sides of the road there were icicles formed, and where there was running water, there were pools of ice and frozen waterfalls.

Tristan pins it down a long fireroad to get to the next trail. The cold really picked up with speed, but we were having too much fun to notice.

This is one of my favorite photos that I took of Tristan through a hole in the root nest of a fallen tree. The trails were so good to ride! They were as dry are in the summer, but with the firmer ground rode faster, and had lots of grip, great for railing corners.

Stopping to take a shot of Tristan taking advantage of this unsuspecting corner, I saw these cool looking mushroom clusters growing out of trees. I don't know what kind they were, but they looked really cool sitting on their bed of moss. Maybe I did eat some of them and that's why I think they looked so cool? down the rabbit hole we go!

Tristan did his best job not to fall into the patch of ice crystals below him. He did this by tearing into this corner. Tristan is getting ready for the next downhill race season, where he has stepped it up a category, to pro. Good work Tristan!

No this wasn't Superman's fortress of solitude, although maybe if I had eaten those mushrooms on that tree... But you can now see why the ground is so dry, all the moisture is sucked out into these ice crystals. Its pretty amazing the things you see when you just stop and look around when you're on a ride.

The Trance X1 made it through its first ride with flying colours. It took a bit of getting used to from the Nomad, and I'll still have to set it up a bit, (change the stem length, maybe put my Thomson post on it, play with the shock pressures). The climb was nice and easy. I set up the Shimano XT tubeless wheels with some Maxxis Larsen TT, and Monorail Tubeless tires which rolled fast and hooked up on the wicked trail conditions. The shifting was smooth, and once the brakes broke in, I could stop. At 26.93 lbs. it sure makes going up a joy. Thanks to Scott McGregor for the hand-me-down time pedals, they work great.

The cold got its hands on my new frame, freezing all the dirt to the light aluminum tubes. It makes for easy clean up though.

So one ride down, many to go, on the 2010 Giant Trance X1. Hopefully I'll get it to the Chilcotins this summer.

-Scott

Winter Riding

Here's John looking very happy to have finished climbing up the old buck, and to look forward to a trail back down to coffee. Lets see how this goes...

Since I had my camera with me John had an idea to have me take a picture of him rolling up this side hill, and lofting off this rock. This is the photo of John doing what he said he was going to do, but just afterwards, upon landing, John landed on the loose rocks you see below. The landing was not as he expected. Inconveniently a pocket on his hydration pack, with tools in it, jabbed into John's side. Ouch!

John made it up, by carving his Nomad through the woods. The rest of the ride was good, until the adrenaline started to wear off.

So where better to go, than the coffee shop. We posed our nice new Nomad's outside Bean Around the World at parkgate for a refill. I ended up haveing 3 coffees that day, going on a DH on the Revolt later, and then washing it down with beers and ceasars, and prime rib at our staff Christmas party that night. What a day!

-Scott

Getting Back in the Game!

The riding has been great this past week, and with the sun out, but cold temps, you can throw on an extra layer or two and have a great ride. My buddy Kyle and I have known each other forever, and have been riding with each other for as long as I've been riding mountain bikes. But, he's been pretty busy with work, and had a broken collar-bone last year and hasn't ridden must this year. Well, with a bit more time on his hands and nice weather, we had a chance to hit the trails!

The trails have been in mint shape lately without the rain, and with cold weather sucking the moisture out of the ground the trails have been dry. When you stop and take a look every once in a while there are some amazing sights in the woods. Like this creek on the trail side.

The sun cracked through the trees to make for a great sight, and warmed things up a bit. We rode a pretty straight forward set of trails: Corkscrew, Pingu, and Pangor. Kyle started to get a feel for trails more and more after each trail.

Some cool, old trees on the side of the trail show burn marks from lightning, and lichen.

With the cold weather there was the typical North Shore mist. Pangor still had a bit or water running down the trail, and you crossed back and forth between water flow, and dry trail until the bottom.

Some rocks and wood looked wet and slick, but were still grippy. The ride was great. Kyle got out on his bike more, and I got out on my Evil, which has been taking a back seat to the Nomad since the bike park closed. Good times had by all. With the sun still shining the weather has gotten colder, but the bold are still out hitting the trails. I'll keep riding until the snow stops me. Don the wool and winter gloves, lets pin it!

-Scott

North Vancouver to Tijuana- Traslin Style

By Andy Traslin-
I heard that someone had ridden from Vancouver to Mexico in ten days. I saw a four day sunny weather window, I figured the further south I would go the weather would get better, using the fast and light approach; one North Face Spire 32 pack, on my Giant TCR. I wasn't interested in pannier's or Bob trailers. I wanted to enjoy the ride more and be able to giver on the downhills and climbs.

While riding riding the ferry over to Victoria I read about Lena Rowat who rode from Florida to San Diego on a cheap bike, and many other epics like ski touring from Vancouver to Alaska, along with the late Deep Cove original Guy Edwards. This gave me confidence that I could ride a $5000 bike down the coast. It couldn't be as hard as trying to climb a big mountain, where you have to freeze and carry all your own food. Riding through Washington was cold and I tagged the coast for just a few moments. Logging trucks were raging by, but they were pros and made sure to give lots of room when passing. They just scared the crap out of me when they drove by on the narrow shoulders. Entering Oregon the bike friendly area was a nightmare crossing the bridge into Astoria where I decided to wait for cars to pass.

A few people were doing the ride from all over Belgium, Seattle and Ireland. Some people had ridiculous loads,especially the guy from Ireland he attempted to hang his food in the tree from the rats, but they still got to it. I saw him that day passed out on the grass, he had long way to go. The best section was the Southern part of Oregon; epic beaches not too many people.
Clean and pristine. Entering California after many slogging days it was cold. I just noticed a trailer with a McConkey sticker on it. I figured it must be ski movie tour. After climbing another road off the highway I ran into Jackie who was part of the McConkey Poole Poore benifit ride from Seattle to San Diego, for injured and passed away skiers. It was fun to ride with the group for awhile and get rid of my green pig that was on my back. It turns out a few of the members were base jumping along the way off some of the high bridges.It would have been pretty cool to see these guys jump off one of the bridges. They were even jumping in their road cycling gear. I was trying to stay on my 100 mile riding day average so I left the group and took off for Sausalito.

I hooked up with the Mcconkey crew once again in San Francisco and it would be an epic road ride in the head wind but it worked well doing an echelon with Dave Steiner and Pep Fujas as we cruised into Santa Cruz, one of my favorite spots in California. A few years ago my brother and I did a training camp here on mountain bikes, eating Whoppers and Raman noodles. My brother even saved my K-car one day when after pumping the gas I left to pay and it started rolling back and my Mike came in and saved it.

The next day was a late start with the big crew who we're getting ready for the big climb up past Big Sur. A few people rolled out and I followed, but ended up on the highway. Cars we're freaking out so I headed back inland, and just started hammering. This was one of the most scenic sections of the California coast lines. The next day there was a wicked tail wind, which took us to a beach with hundreds of elephant seals. From here I cruised on my own for a couple of days and made it to Venice beach in the dark, too my surprise two hostels would not let me stay there with a bike. I was close to Los Angeles so I wasn't sure how safe it was going to be, but it worked out and I found and hostel and some needed rest. This stop would included the famous Venice beach, climbing the rope at the outdoor gym, swimming in the ocean, sleeping at the beach, scoping the hot California girls in bikinis, and eating whatever I felt like.
The next stage would be riding through and passing the famous beaches of southern California. A stop at Long Beach where I noticed a sign for West Coast Choppers. I was probably one of the few people to passed through there in there Euro trash cycling gear. Travel was great from here passing Huntington beach tail wind and flat terrain, until I arrived in Fort Bragg in the dark.

This is where the soldier asked me where I started and I said Canada. He said "No Thanks". I missed a turnoff, and was forced to climb a twenty foot fence in my cycling shoes, and haul my bike up and over. I was just to tired and sketched out so I had no choice. Some time you just gotta giver eh.

The final day was a great relief. I passed through beautiful beaches in San Diego before one more traffic filled section to the Mexican border; I crossed and didn't even realize I was in Mexico as no one checked my passport. A local mexican sent me to the highway where I was forced to walk and sprint to downtown, where I ate a bag of pastries, and had one deserved Corona from the local gangster serving beer. It was 6pm and time to leave and get back to the US,but it was a good feeling to be finally done chasing the finish line of the Mexican border.It's not about the finish but about the journey.Ya Doggie!

North Vancouver to Tijuana Stats:

1745.15 miles/2823 km
63460 feet of climbing
2 flat tires
3 tires
18 days riding to finish the route
1 rest day
10 100 mile plus days
Longest day 151.42 miles
2 days Sausalito mountain biking
2 days Santa Barbara road riding
2 days Venice Beach slothing,road riding
2 days San Diego slothing, road riding.

-Andy Traslin

Winter Meats

Winter is upon us. How did I figure this out before everyone else, without a meteorology degree? Eggnog is on supermarket shelves already. Mmm, eggnog.

I have had my Nomad for a couple of months now, and have logged a good number of rides on Seymour, and Fromme mountains. Though I've found with these pressing winter conditions that I would like a tire that could be run at a lower pressure without flatting or finding the tire acting skittish. A tackier rubber compound would be greatly appreciated, but if I could avoid it I would prefer not to have the weight associated with downhill tires.

I had a customer recommend the Schwalbe Muddy Mary in the snakeskin casing. I gave in and decided to give these things a try.

Out of the box the Muddy Mary's weighed in at a respectable 950g for one, and 930g for the second of the pair, (about 300g lighter than an DH tire). They are a medium firm casing, between a single ply and a dual-ply. However, the quoted weight from Schwalbe was 850g each.
As you can see, the tread design is aggressive and well sipped for added traction. The edging knob resembles a Maxxis minion, tres cool. However, the knobs are spaced fairly far apart which may cause them to make pedaling uphill as easy as pedaling vacuum cleaners door to door.
The I chose the 2.35 width, and Gooey Gluey compound. The tires measure 2.35 on the button, almost the same true width as a 2.5 Maxxis Minion.
This version is a folding bead tire, which in-part helps keep them light weight. The sidewall is called snakeskin which is durable, yet also helps to keep the weight down. The Gooey Gluey compound is the softest that Schwalbe offers.
All the nutritional information is on the box. I don't know if it meets the Canada Food guide, but it shows you what you need to know.
Enough yammer, how do they work on the trail? Well, I had my first chance to use them today. I pedaled my frosted-chilled carcass up Fromme to ride with Kimbo, and my buddy Mike. The first thing I noticed was how slowly these tires rolled compared to the dual-compound Kenda Nevegals that I was running, (stock tires). Once at the trail head, I dropped a bit of pressure out of the tires, and hoped for the best. I had a chance to rolled down some rocks, and the tires allowed for controlled breaking (plus!). And when the terrain opened up and sped through between rocks, the tires felt much more stable than the single-ply tires they replaced. The tires also dug into corners with the confidence of DH tires (plus!).

I will keep riding these Schwalbe's. They are definitely not gypsy tires, but they do roll like mashed potatoes. I didn't get them to be the fastest tires though. So, we will continue to test the out, mostly for getting down the mountain.

Peace, I'm gonna get an eggnog!

-Scott

Trails- GPS Tracker for iPhone

Trails- GPS Tracker is an iPhone/iPod Touch app’ that improves upon the unit’s built-in “Maps” GPS programme. After bashing around Eagle Mountain searching for trails and attempting (unsuccessfully) to log my route using Maps, I was looking for something slightly more capable without the cost of a full blown Garmin style unit. Cost? How does $3.99 for Trails-GPS Tracker sound? But does it work…

With no desire to repeat the 4.5 hour death march of my last upper-Eagle expedition, I chose to ride from the top of Plateau Drive rather than from home. The software interface, although slightly cumbersome at first, is deceptively easy to use. Add a new “track”, name it, and well, start riding. Trails- GPS Tracker plots your route with numerous trackpoints and the resolution (number of trackpoints) is adjustable via the “settings” screen. At any point in your journey you can mark waypoints with descriptions and photos (a junction or trail head for example).

I was looking for the ability to review a route post-ride and either compare it to previous routes or download and overlay it on mapping software. This does both, with the capability to review your route as you’re riding (say if you find a trail entrance/exit and want to compare it to where you’ve been) and to download or email files and open them in Google Earth.

The secondary feature (to me at least) is the recording of distance, time, average speed and elevation gain/loss. If nothing else this can be useful when planning future rides. About 90 minutes into my ride discovered yet another gem with this software: what ever database it pulls maps from already contains numerous trails, including many clandestine ones. When I stopped to review my progress the trail head I thought I’d have to search intensely for was already marked in Trails-GPS Tracker’s map, along with several other local riding trails.

Down sides? You can’t switch out of Trails’ screen without pausing the recording, although once reopened you can continue where you left off. Because of this I’m also not sure if you can listen to music while Trails is running. It’s pretty tough to find fault in a $4 program that works this well.

Unless you have a Garmin or don’t have an iPhone/iTouch I can’t really think of any reason not to download this!

Jonathan

Maxxis Tires on Sale

All Maxxis Ardent tires are on sale, regular $110, priced on sale for $59.99! This includes 2.4 and 2.6 sizing, as well as 60a and 3C compounds. This only includes the DH casing tires. Get 'em while their hot!

-Scott

Provincial Cyclocross Championships- North Vancouver!

How exciting, the Provincial Cyclocross Championships right here in North Vancouver! Check out the schedule and try and make it out to race or spectate. The course was designed by none other than Kevin Calhoun local racer and superstar athlete.

-kimbo

Welcome back Kotter....err, Parsons!

I’m stoked to be back riding and racing with the Steed Cycles squad again. After moving to Kamloops in 2005, then my wife and I had triplets soon after, racing bikes was the least of my concerns. Getting out for a short ride every other week was all I could manage.

I have been involved within the bike scene in Kamloops for a few years now, mainly co-organizing various events in town and at Sun Peaks. We put on a BC Cup race every year called Race the Ranch, which is held within Kamloops’ public bike park, the Bike Ranch. Our races range from a two and a half minute downhill, to a 6km cross country race. We have also done a Canada Cup XC race as well in sweltering 40 degree Kamloops heat. Our small team of race organizers have hosted the Cyclocross Nationals in 2007 right next to downtown Kamloops. Plus, we have done several BC Cups and Canada Cups at Sun Peaks over the past few years.

Now that family life is getting easier, I am able to get out on my bike a little more, but more importantly I am focussing most of my spare time on building and maintaining trails at the Bike Ranch. Earlier in 2009 myself and my race partner Henry Pejril, put in a proposal to take over operations at the Ranch with myself as the manager.

The city of Kamloops has been a pleasure to work with. Kamloops has the “Tournament Capital of Canada” status, so that means competition and training facilities are what the city wants to see. We are transforming a recreational bike park into a training center with the focus being racing and coaching. Of course not forgetting about recreational (non-racers) users and the trails that keep them coming back. I am busy building new trails and maintaining what is already there, like a new beginner/intermediate freeride trail called Rattlesnake which features smooth flowing lines and small, low consequence log rides. In addition to our regular DH race run, Tombstone, I am currently putting together a new more challenging DH course called Pale Rider. It will feature higher speed, bigger jumps, tables, step ups/downs, gaps, steep rock faces, and more technicality. Tombstone is the easier of the two and will stay that way, but many changes are planned for its reconstruction. Both courses share the same start/finish.

Huge rock garden on Pale Rider

The challenge for the past few years has been building trails on a glacial silt bed. Unless you have water on the trails most of the time, the silt simply cannot handle large amounts of traffic. Fortunately/unfortunately our last RTR saw 340 downhill racers. Second best attendance to date of any BC Cup… ever! Multiply 340 racers with an average of 10-15 runs each: that’s anywhere from 3400-5100 runs! My point? Now I can get heavy equipment in to 90% of the park, and along with my truck, I can bring in rock, wood, and better dirt to help armour the silt a little better. That’s the major challenge right now, building sustainable trails that can handle large amounts of traffic.

Unfinished road gap with trail up top

Snowy landing of the road gap, followed by a SmartCar sized rock,
a wedge jump, a gap, and more booters out of frame.
Looks better without snow.

My goal is to place permanent Freelap timing systems into the ground so anyone with a Freelap watch timer can time themselves at anytime. This is crucial if we are wanting people to train in the park. Considering that both downhill courses have the same start/finish areas, racers can time themselves on two different courses.

Old Downhill course, new section

We have many exciting plans for the near future. They include a World class dual slalom course, a revised UCI bmx track, a UCI cyclocross track, a slopestyle course, a pump track, an elevated Shore style freeride trail, a multi-use cross country climb, and an A-Line style jump trail but slightly smaller.

Thanks to Kimbo for helping out this salty old dog! I will keep updates about the Bike Ranch and some riding and racing in the Kamloops area. Keep checking back.

No rocks to be found, so you bring in your own!
More rocks with man-made roots.

Have Faith

The new 2010 Giant Faith was just built up for the floor. The Faith is a 7 x 7 free ride bike designed with the help of Giant Team rider Kurt Sorge. Kurt put this bike through its prototype paces in the Red Bull Rampage evolution to prove the bike's freeride capabilities. This bike is light, pedals very, and has more pop than a Wal-Mart Super Center. $3359.99 for this beauty, and $4599.99 for the Faith 0.

-Scott

Shimmy Shimmy Ya or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying About Having an Aneurism and Love Eagle Mountain

If you’ve spoken with me in the past few weeks you’ve probably heard me obsessing over finding trails on Eagle Mountain in Coquitlam. I was primarily interested because I love new trails but also because I live in the shadow of both Burke and Eagle Mountains. This minor interest in Eagle was transformed into a full blown fixation after watching a YouTube helmet cam video of several Eagle Mountain trails. After considerable research I had slightly more than a vague idea of how to access them, but all the written descriptions and Google Earth views had the potential to mean nothing when you’re standing in the middle of a non-descript logging road hunting for trail entrances.

When my riding partner backed out of the day’s plans, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to exploit a dry day and do some exploring on the Nomad. The first half of the accent was, well, nothing noteworthy. A long, paved grind from home to the top of Westwood Plateau is the Tri Cities equivalent of riding from The Shop to the top of the BP’s. From there the climb got properly hard; I normally interpret “hike a bike” in a climb description as “hike a bike if you don’t have a granny ring”… this however was about two kilometers of “ride 15 meters, hike 15 meters” up a loose, steep logging road. Two hours into my adventure I’d found nothing but the remains of a long extinct trail and was thinking that any trails had better be built with gold flagstones and teak ladders in order to be worth this climb.

And then… REWARD! Well, partly. I found the bottom of an amazing trail: phenomenal lines, structures built by Mike Holmes including drops and wall rides. It crossed the logging road and continued down, but I was determined more than ever to find the entrance even if it meant more uphill slogging. The road relented slightly (90% riding, 10% hiking) and after another 30 minutes I was there! Welllllll, not at the top of the aforementioned trail but at the top of another trail from the YouTube montage: Massage Therapy.

Oh baby I like it raw, and this was raw. Steep, steep, steep and fun! Being alone and tired I avoided some of the bigger stunts but damn, this trail just kept giving. What could top that? How about the second trail: Manhandler… incredible flow and incredible structures. Whereas Massage Therapy was a minor dose of posterior puckering, Manhandler was continuous “yeah, oh yeah, YEAH, oooooo, that was sweet, YEAH….”. Everything was so new, so loamy and steep, so well built… so raw.

This 2.5 turned 4.5 hour ride ended with Eagle Trail down from the powerlines to Bunzen Lake; no Manhandler but still an awesome trail. With my bloodsugar on “E” and my hydration pack dry I managed the 40 minute ride home buzzing about my new find and keen for some further exploration. More raw more better!

Jonathan

Remembrance Day Staff Ride

It was looking like we lucked out for our ride as the skies above showed signs of blue. We started riding from the Superstore on Mt. Seymour Parkway with 12 riders and met one other at the trail head. We were on a mission ourselves this remembrance day.

We gathered most of the staff, since we hardly ever get to ride together. Especially when its fall and the days are short. Today was looking good.

Out with the old, and in with the new. Jeff Bartel brought his Blur LT, which he has been looking to trade in for a new Blur LT Carbon and DOD is finally on a new ride! This was the blue Reign X1 with a couple trick extras, with more in the plans. Its currently sitting at 33.1 lbs size large!

We had Sean that used to work at the shop show up for the ride. He still swears his Nomad is the best bike that exists. Sean's always up for a ride.

Nik showed up as well which was awesome! It was good to see so many people come out for the ride. Little did they know the weather was soon to turn.

It was a typical foggy North Shore day when in the woods. DOD and Cody's faces explain how everyone felt after this gruelling climb up to the trails. Not too long after getting into the trails it started hailing. Combined with the wet trails we were a mess in no time.

Wet and rooty North Shore was on the menu today. With the right gear on, a rainy day can feel like any other. I kept warm in my Shimano MW80 Gore-tex boots. Sean is pictured here headed towards the wet roots. Before we headed into this trail Tristan and I saw a Bugatti Veyron tearing up the asphalt! This is a super rare $1.5 million car, with 1001 horsepower! I had never seen one in person before.

Branden coming into the same section, also on his nomad. Nomad's were plenty today, with 5 us choosing to ride them. It's amazing on a ride like this to see how the nomad is such a great all around performer.

DOD was loving his new 2010 Reign X1. At 33.1 lb. this bike was 4 pounds lighter than his old SX trail, which I heard him praising when climbing the hills. I heard him say how much he liked the bike many times during out ride. You can see him lovin' it here.

I had my turn down the greenery. What an awesome section of trail, I've got to say. Bright green moss, and ferns lining the dark root strewn trail. Great times! The North Shore in the fall can't get much better.

Not long after this section of trail we were on our way to the coffee shop. We gulped down the warmth of our Bean Around the World coffee, which I topped off with a tempting iced cinnamon bun.

After the coffee and filler, some of the group were on their way to the rest of their Remembrance Day. Steve, DOD, and I were off for another lap. We rode up for more fun, but it was not all fun and games before the day was done. Steve had his derailleur hanger brake. Lucky for him he had a trusty spare. Later on I had my chain brake for the second time that day, and the fourth time since I got my bike! I was so choked. I ended up riding chainless the rest of the trail and taking a page out of Kimbo's book with some cyclocross style dis-mounts and re-mounts.

At the end of the ride we had been out for 5 hours, I broke my chain twice, Steve broke his derailleur hanger, we had 13 people riding, we rode 3 major trail, were covered from head to toe in mud, and had a great time! Thanks to everyone for coming out for the ride, I was one to remember.

-Scott

Electra-fy your riding!

Hitting 80 kmph on the road bike, shooting a granly rock line, or schralping a loamy corner are all fun things to do on a bike but you can still have a great time just cruising along on a comfy cruiser bike. Electra is a new brand for the store this year. We just received a shipment of their bikes and have been trying to build them up to show-off as soon as possible. The bikes pictured above (from left to right) are a men's Townie Euro 24 (24 gears), and ladie's Townie Euro 24 (24 gears), and Delivery Cruiser. There are a large range of great bikes that are just a good time! Bikes like their Ticino range show great attention to detail. Ask to ttake of of these bikes for a spin, and try not to come back with a huge smile. The Electra bikes are all about a good time riding your bike!

-Scott

Muddbunnies 2010 Calenders a Great Gift Idea

The Muddbunnies are a local women's riding group on the North Shore. They have assembled a calender which they have done for the past few years as a fundraiser for their riding club. The lovely ladies from the riding group have posed as pinnup girls for 2010. The calender shows the women both riding as striking a sexy pose. These girls have some serious talent on the bike. I was really impressed with a lot of their photos.
You can pick-up a calender, and support the Muddbunnies riding group, from the store for $19.99. Calenders make for a great gifts for the holidays!

-Scott

Nomad- First Ride

This morning was my maiden voyage on my new Santa Cruz Nomad. This isn't going to be a review about how the "new carbon link stiffens the rear end by 12% blah blah blah" but rather why I picked a Nomad and what I love about it.
Although this is my first Nomad, I've ridden them before and always been impressed. The most recent experience was a week on Kimbo's 2010 Nomad while he was in Vegas, where I rode the bike everywhere I would normally ride to fully evaluate if it was the right bike for me. I was looking for an "all in one" bike to replace my 5 n' 5 rig from another manufacturer, and although I feel the term "all in one" or "do it all" is used to a fault in bike marketing, the Nomad is it for me. I don't race anymore, so weight wasn't a huge issue and I wanted an all mountain rig that I could use anywhere. That said, there wasn't much I couldn't ride on my 5X5, but some of the steeper stuff took considerable concentration, finess and involved frequent sphincter contractions. Although I'm not there every weekend, I also wanted a bike I could take to Whistler in the summer. While Kimbo was away in Vegas I put his Nomad through a couple of big rides on the 'Shore including all the climbing, a day at SFU and a full day at Whistler Bike Park. It performed amazingly well and before Kimbo was through customs I was ordering one for myself. Lets be clear: the Nomad does not climb like a Superlight with a SID, nor is it a full DH race bike like a V10, but it covers both climbing and descending remarkably well. When looking for an all-in-one for my stable, I was fine with erring on the side of big and plush. I have the fitness to ride almost anything uphill, and a bigger bike would give me a needed confidence boost on the steeps and drops. The best way to describe the Nomad's ride is smooth and effortless; you don't think about its weight or slacker angles while climbing and descending is more flowing that with any bike I've owned. It's not that I can ride sections I couldn't before, but now I just cruise over and through them without clenching, without hesitating and all with a huge smile.
Here are some details about my new ride and things you might consider. It's actually amazing how the bike's personality can be adjusted with some savvy fork, shock and parts selection. Kimbo's Nomad is fairly freeride oriented with a RockShox Totem Coil and Fox DHX Coil shock. I LOVED the fork (and the shock for that matter), but to all-mountain my bike slightly (read:lighten) I chose the Fox DHX Air shock and RS Totem Solo Air fork. To be honest, are you really going to notice the difference in weight between the Totem Air and Coil? Probably not, but I had the choice. I ordered my rig with the SRAM X9 kit, which was the right balance of slick parts and affordability. If this were my ONLY toy I might have considered the XO kit or even XTR but the garage has some other goodies that require funds. As for changes when I received the bike, I ditched the big chainring for a TruVativ bash guard (really the only thing I ever use a big chainring for anyway), bolted up a Blackspire Stinger chain guide, swapped the wider WTB Stealth saddle for a skinny Silverado model and upgraded the bars to a nice, 780mm wide TruVativ BooBar. Coming from a road and track background I've always ridden narrow bars and was hesitant to go wider, but a week with Kimbo's Chromag wide bars changed my mind forever: hello power and control!! The final duplication from Kim's ride was Shimano 647 freeride pedals. Again I've always ridden walnut-size SPD's but the 647's just have so much more platform and feel great both when your foot rolls to the side and when you don't quite click in but need the pedal NOW.

This morning's ride on Burnaby Mountain met and surpassed all expectations of my new bike. I know it's not exactly a 'proving ground' for a bike like Nomad, but it 1) let me objectively evaluate the bike because I ride there all the time and 2) let me test my ankle after 5 weeks of immobilization following a double break and severe sprain. The bike climbed amazingly and only took a slight change in technique over steep obstacles because of the slacker front end. On the descents... DAAAAAMN this thing is smooth. Even in wet, slippery conditions I was able to fly over terrain and the few bigger drops I normally creep and roll I was able to just loft off of. In spite of not going into details about the bike's new 1.5" headtube etc., hopefully this might make you think the Nomad is the "all in one" bike for you.

-Jonathan