Back to Reality

I'm back from Taiwan and all I can say is that it feels really good to be home. What's even nicer is the fact that I'll be home for a whole 2 weeks before I head off to the next event. Ater being home a total of about 10 days the entire month of February and not much more than that in March, 2 weeks straight is pretty awesome.

Being home means being back in the office; that's not neccessarily a bad thing since there's a lot of work still to be done to finish up our 2008 line. The Metro bikes are coming along nicely; I am really excited about this series of bikes. Spec is done, graphics are in the works, so we should have samples in house in a couple of months.

Jumping back to the subject of Taiwan and the Taipei Cycle Show, I really had a good time at the show. It's much different than Interbike in the sense of it's mostly attended by Taiwanese vendors. After attending the show, it really becomes clear that Taiwan really is the center of the bike manufacturing universe. Accept it folks...the vast majority of bikes and parts are coming is from this part of the world. Some manufacturers still manage to cleverly disguise the fact that their products (or at least a portion of their manufacturing process) are being made in Taiwan. It's really interesting when you tour factories over there and see whose products are coming out of the factories. When I toured factories earlier this year, there were numerous times I saw frames from brands I never knew came from Taiwan. It was very enlightening.

Speaking of enlightening, I thought you all might enjoy some "sneak peek" pictures of one of the colors the 2008 Mary SS frame will come in.

The color is called Carolina Blue; it has sort of a semi-gloss finish to it. I'm really stoked on how this frame color turned out. I think it will be a real winner for us. For those of you unfamiliar with our Mary bikes, these are our line of 29" wheel steel hardtails. Named after the CCR song "Proud Mary" (that has a line in about "big wheels keep turning"), we do both a geared and singlespeed version. They are super fun to ride.

Well, that's all I have for now. I'm going to try and make a habit of writing shorter posts...hopefully I'm off to a good start.

Hasta luego.

Cyclocross Sunday!

Wow, 2 posts in 2 days! Aren't you lucky. I guess I'm starting to really get into this whole blog thing. I'm sure it will be a lot more fun once I get some more readers; right now I think Tim "Masi Guy" Jackson is my only reader. And I'm not real sure if he reads because he's actually amused by my writing or if he simply just feels obligated to do so since he's been bugging me to start a blog for at least 102 years.


I really can't call today an R & D day because today's ride was a cyclocross ride at Lake Hodges on my Masi CXR. I have nothing to do with Masi other than just giving Tim grief on a regular basis. Much like singlespeeding, up until about 6 months ago, I thought cyclocross bikes were pretty damn silly. I mean, who would want to ride what's essentially a road bike on dirt? Well, my feelings changed pretty quick when curiosity got the best of me and I decided to kidnap one of Tim's demo CXR's and take it on a lunchtime ride at a nearby park that used to host some 'cross races. I had a complete blast. Much like a road bike on the pavement, the offroad speed is addictive. The CXR is light, nimble, and so much fun. Needless to say, I have added yet another bike to the stable by acquiring a CXR.

Masi CXR with flowers...yes, it's a chick thing.

Now I don't claim to be an expert on cyclocross bikes by any means. Hell, I have never been to a cyclocross race (that may change now that I have this bike). But I'd like to think I know a thing or two about having fun...and this bike is just plain fun. Sure, there are certain sections of rocky trail where it beats living snot out of me, but what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Lake Hodges is pretty flat and non-technical with lots of fireroad sections, so this bike is perfect out there. In fact, I had so much fun ripping around the fireroads, I even took the longer spur out through the San Pasqual Valley making the whole ride about 20 miles.

One of the reason why I was feeling so energetic may have been because my butt wasn't killing me for once. You would think 10 years of cycling would cure that, but it hasn't. I have the worst time finding saddles I like. Anyhow, I decided to try one of the Axiom H-Spec Race DLX saddles that my good friends up at Norco Bikes gave me (Norco distributes Haro in Canada and also distributes Axiom components).

Axiom H-Spec Race DLX

I was skeptical...like I am everytime I try a new saddle...but ended up being pleasantly surprised. This saddle is pretty sweet. Axiom has engineered their line of saddle to be use specific rather than gender specific. After examining different riding styles, they found that different riding styles and positions often creates different pressure points. For this particular saddle, the H-Spec Race DLX, this is a road performance saddle designed to be used on that type of bicycle where the rider tends to sit in more of an "aggressive" position, rather than a relaxed "upright" position. After 20 offroad miles on this saddle, I didn't have any chafing or other indications of pressure points.

For things that go bump on the trail/road.

The H-Spec Race DLX also has these unique elastomer bumpers that the rails slide into. It really seems to help soften the blows a bit. And this saddle weighs in at a respectable 280 grams. Good stuff.

I also met up with some cool folks on the trail; a group of guys, 2 of which were on Haro bikes. I think it may have been a father and son with Dad on a Shift R5 and son on an Extreme X6. They commented on my Haro jersey and started raving about thier bikes. Nice! I love stuff like that. Had I actually been using the grey matter between my ears, I should have taken their picture and put it on our website and here on the blog. I think I will make a point to carry my digital camera with me on all my rides just for stuff like that...doing a "fan sightings" section on the Haro website might be pretty cool.

Allrighty ya'll. Enjoy what's left of your weekend before the workweek starts all over again.

Happy trails!

Boy, I really love my singlespeed (Or Saturdays are R & D days, Part One)

I really, really dig my Mary SS singlespeed. Not that this is any big relevation or anything, but the poor thing has been out of commission for several months so I haven't been able to ride it. I finally got her put back together this past week, so I took out to Daley Ranch this morning. I can honestly say I had forgotten just how much I love this bike!

Ain't she purdy?

Several years ago, I was definitely one of those people who said, "Now why the hell would I want to ride a bike with just one gear?". I had heard people rave about how fun singlespeeds were, but still I resisted. I had friends who started riding them, many of whom ditched gears in favor of owning just singlespeeds. I thought they were nuts. Finally, one day my friend and co-worker, Wayne Doran (who is now one of the MTB Product Managers I work closely with), convinced me to just borrow his and give it a shot. I caved in, and became instantly hooked. As they say, the rest is history.

Singlespeeds are awesome because they are just so simple. Cosmetically, they have such a clean look. Fewer cable housings, less crap on your bars, and just a single gear graces the drop-out area at the rear of the bike. Performance-wise, it sort of makes you feel like a kid again. No gears to fuss with...you just ride and enjoy. Since there isn't a rear derailleur on the bike, noisy chainslap and derailleur slap against the chainstay is non-existant. It's so quiet.

Singlespeeds also rule because no matter what, you look like a hero on the trail. If you don't make it to top of some gnarly, technical, steep climb and are forced (or choose) to hop off and walk up, you just smile and tell your riding buddies, "Hey, I'm on a singlespeed". Or, if you happen to be in the mood to completely blow yourself up and make it to the top of said climb, it's perfectly acceptable to say, "Yeah! And I did it on a singlespeed!".

Today was also sort of an R & D ride as I decided the throw a host of new parts on the bike last week. Most notable was the Bontrager Switchbalde 29er fork.

Mmmm...carbon.

I really liked it. 29ers have this magical way of smoothing out the trail due to higher volume tires and larger wheel size, so suspension forks are optional. The Switchblade is a nice upgrade over steel; it's light and the carbon really dampens the trail vibrations. The fork has just enough flex to be compliant on the chattery stuff, but stiff enough to make me feel like I'm climbing like a rock star (even if I'm not!).

I also tried out this really cool adjustable stem that my friend Monie sent me. Monie's the man behind NVO Components and they do some pretty innovative stuff.

High, low, maybe so.

The neatest thing about this stem is it allows you to really fine-tune the fit of your bike without using a bunch of stackers. If you want to make adjustments trailside, it's easy accomplished with the twist of an allen wrench.

Although this really isn't a "new" product, I did try the Kenda Karma 29" tires for the first time.

Up close and personal with my Karma

These worked great on the type of terrain out at Daley. Low knob height roll smooth on the fireroads, but there is just enough bite for cornering, climbing, and some of those sand traps out there.

I threw these funky grips on last week.

Get a grip.

They are actually a grip we use on some of our beach cruiser type bikes, but I thought they look neat. They worked surprisingly well...super comfy and had more "grip" than I thought they would.

I also tried out a new hydraulic disc brake from a famous brake manufacturer who will remain nameless since I signed on of those non-disclosure dealios. All I can say is they rock and will be getting placement on several of our bikes for 2008.

OK kids, try to get out and ride your bikes this weekend. It's supposed to be about 85 or 90 degrees here tomorrow, which means Sunday will likely be another R & D day. I just might have another equally amusing post for you tomorrow.

Hasta luego!