Destination: Interbike Part IV

One of the biggest problems we have when selling tandems is fitting a couple to the right size. This could be a husband and wife or an adult and a child. Co-Motion Bicycles has a new concept they use in their tandems. The concept is called Periscope. It allows you to maximize adjustability for the stoker from a child to an adult. You will still want the heavier rider on the front of the bike but this system allows you to have a tandem that will work with more riders. When looking at tandems, flexibility is always an issue. The back end of this bike is very stiff. You will be able to trust it while riding at 20+ mph. Watch for one of these at Spoke-N-Sport this spring.

Ergon has a new backpack that is almost as cool as their grips. This backpack is a little on the heavy side but it feels so much better than some of the other backpacks out there. It also allows you to move quite freely. Look for it at Spoke-N-Sport some time this spring.

Kyle on another tri bike.

The Cannondale Scalpel is brand spankin new for 2008. The Scalpel has a patented Zero Pivot technology in its back end. The system has 100mm of travel, no hardware, bushings, contraptions, bearings or bars. Just a really simply set up single track racing. This was definitely the most favored bike by the Spoke-N-Sport staff. I liked that it wasn't super twitchy like other XC race bikes.

Gelato really has nothing to do with bikes. It has a lot to do with Italy. Just like Fizik saddles. They have some new ones. Expect to see them in the store when they are released at the beginning of next year.

2008 Tour de France Route

It seems like "Different" might be a theme for the 2008 Tour de France. The route was announced last Thursday by Christian Prudhomme. In the last couple of years there has been a leader emerge in the mountain stages that has taken the yellow jersey through the rest of the tour. 2008's route looks to change up some of the competition and hopefully allow some breakaways to stay broken away. You can see Velownews story here

Destination: Interbike Part III

Interbike is the bike industries biggest product expo. It is held in Las Vegas at the Sands Convention Center. The two days before Interbike are the Dirt Demo at Bootleg Canyon in Boulder City, NV. At the Dirt Demo we were able to test ride the newest mountain bikes and road bikes by many different vendors. Here is what we rode:

We spent a lot of time at the FELT booth. They were the first booth inside the front gate of the Outdoor Demo. For cruising around town the Crubside will be an excellent choice. It has lots of Argyle on it.I am not going to try and explain it. I'll just let you read about it. The suspension platform used on the Compulsion and the Virtue (Equilink) works incrediably well. We had a chance to talk with the designer of the system and found out that he has also designed award winning bikes for GT and Specialized.

Everyone knows that Kyle loves Tri Bikes. Kyle spent his time riding aond comparing over 20 different tri bikes. He rode bikes by Cannondale, Specialized, Giant, Trek, Kuoto, Cervelo and Felt just to name a few. If you have qustions please don't hesitate to ask.

One of our favorite bikes of the show was the Felt Z series. This bike is more of a century or marathon bike. Geared especially for Tour de Kota or RAGBRAI, this bike can handle the finish line sprints and the back road hill climbs more comfrotably than any other bike we tested.Even the good guys get flats. The trials in Nevada are full of sharp rocks and thorned plants. If you go there be sure to pack extra tubes.Sram has lots of new offerings for 2008. This is one of the coolest products they have created. This is the cassette for the new Red Groupo. If you are familiar w/ cassettes you will notice that this one is made differently than the rest. Someone is thinking out side of the box.The double tap shifter for the Sram Red Groupo.

Newly refined Sram XO shifter and derailleur. They worked flawless earlier and now they work flawlessless.

Destination: Interbike Part II

A friend of mine has been inviting me to come biking w/ him in Salt Lake City. There are lots of cross country trails there but I have never been able to ride the lifts up and let gravity do it's thing on the way down. After checking with resort schedules, Snowbird was the only place that we could get to. Once we got there we headed up the tram to almost two miles above sea level.


At that elevation it's pretty cold. I think it was around 40 degrees. The only clothes I had with me was a long sleeve jersey and a Bagel Boy t'shirt. I'm hoping they can use this picture for their new Xtreme Bagel.


I think the last flat i had was almost 6 years ago. I ended my streak at Snowbird.

After the run down the mountain we ended up at Alta. In case you were wondering it's just up the street from Snowbird. Originally we were going to have helmet cam footage of the the decent. Because of some technical difficulties it didn't happen.


While there I did see David Zabriskie finishing up a morning ride. I really have no way of confirming it was him other than a local saying it was him. I didn't want to interrupt my driving to take a picture cause i was using my camera as a phone when we passed him.

Destination: Interbike Part 1

Interbike is the bike industries yearly product expo. It is held in Las Vegas at the end of September. It is at this expo that we get to see a lot of the new products for the upcoming season. On the front side of Interbike is the Dirt Demo. It is two days of test riding bikes and gear at Bootleg Canyon in Boulder City. On September 16th I climbed in my car to get some biking done on the way to Las Vegas. The first stop was Spearfish.

In Spearfish I met up w/ a friend of mine to do a bit of riding. We chose Crow Peak (pdf) which is a 3.5 mile climb on the outskirts of Spearfish. It is a fairly technical trial that goes up...and up. It does come down eventually. It could blow your socks off if you're not careful.



I should add that the trail does come back down. Depending on the bike you are riding. I rode the new Giant Trance XO which has 5" of travel. I think it took us about 20 minutes to get down. If you have a DH bike you might get down quicker. The trance handled it very well. The only advantage a DH bike has is going to be longer travel and slacker headtube to soak up the rough stuff. I was very impressed w/ the Mavic CrossMax ST wheels. Very light and very strong.