The Gourds

Friday night after closing the shop up Brian, myself, Bret, and Shrek journey'd up north to the big city of Missoula to catch the Gourds , if you've never seen these fellars in person then i'd highly recommend that you catch them the next time they come through as they put on a really kick ass show. They kicked off around 10pm and played hard until purt near 2am, came back out for three different oncors and genuinely loved playing instruments and entertaining the crowd.

After the stellar performance we headed back out and rounded up the rag tag bunch of junk bikes that we brought up from the shop. Brian was spinning around (as i'm sure his head was on a PBR provoked spin too) on an old Huffy cruiser, Shrekie took the Schwinn C5 and i was on a jalopy of sorts that began life as a Schwinn Jaguar, our missoula good buddy Bret G was on his own pile of rust and i've gotta admit now that we're talking about Bret, he's got to be one of the most comical fellas i've ever met. He had us in stitches all darn night. Between his early eighties dance moves, Tom Sellick hairy chest display, and his ability to power slide and pitch his bike out from under him...it was always purely comical. One display of abilites did bite him in the arse last night as Bret took a nasty tumble....he came over this crest of a riser and came into a section of gravel where he decided to give the old coaster brakes another test. DUST,DUSt, Cough, Cough and when the cloud resided we found bret in a contorted position that had him twisted man and bike. It took two of us to dislodge him, all the while laughing hysterically. Shrek and i were in stitches but felt a little bad about it once we did an inventory check on Bret's body. Scapes and blood from damn near every joint. He managed to scrape up his face pretty badly too but he got up, wiped off the dust and said al'right...let's go (but next time dude...you're wearing the fullface) ! And off to the Oxford we went, the only place open at 2:30am that'll serve a heap of greasy eggs, bacon, and hashbrowns. You shoulda seen the doorman's reaction when he took a glimpse of Bret, concerned but you could tell he's seen worse. A place like the Oxford....i'm sure he's seen much worse. The ride home was a little slower after eating and of course snapping my chain or having a buddy in bandages doesn't help speed things along much. Good times and thanks for the tow Brian !

RL's Sultan

Turner Sultan with XTR shifter and derailleur, Formula K24 hydraulics with matching 180mm rotors, King hubs laced to Stans Arch rims, and a Maverick DUC32 up front. Pretty darn nice.

RL's Turner Sultan

spring ride

Headed out for a true spring ride today. True in the regard that inevitably the ride starts with beautiful 60d temps and warm sunshine which allowed us to savor the best part of the ride, the singletrack. But in true spring fashion just as we were ending our singletrack leg the clouds moved in and dumped a ton of rain down on us as we made our way back over the lick creek pass. Not only did it begin to rain but the temps dropped a good 20 degrees, my pale legs turned a purple hue and my cheap rain jacket soaked the rain up like it was a sponge. It was a good thing we had such a long climb back to keep the internal fire stoked or other wise my skinny arse would have froze. It was still a damn good ride and i'm happy spring is finally here.

Como loop

a little wet on the way back

when i stopped to take the above picture is when i noticed the rainbow beside me and my bike, purdy cool picture i thought. And damn good timing.

TwentySix

I just recieved an e-mail from our good friends in bozeman, Tyler from Twenty-Six Components has gone mad....Here's a picture of a set of titanium brake levers that he's recently created. Anyone need a $200 set of levers for a $150 brake system ?

anticipation

much to be excited about, the Knolly Endorphin is due next month. Check'um: KNOLLY

meet Aaron

Introducing the newest member of the Red Barn team, Aaron is joining us for the upcoming spring/summer season....i'd recommend that you either come on in or call and harass him. All in the name of conditioning : )








Aaron, born and raised in our lovely Hamilton and currently going to school at the U of M for Exercise Science, has always been an avid cyclist and in the most recent years he's found an enjoyment for road racing and triathalons (but don't hold that against him). Here he is servicing a Rock Shox Reba and resetting the travel setting.

King Components

holy sweetness

Happy St Patty's

welp, i hope everyone had a stellar St Patty's celebration because i sure the heck did. First off it was a bea-u-tiful saturday afternoon and the shop stayed pretty darn busy because of it. The weather must have been rubbing off on the customers because everyone that came in the doors had a smile. A few left with bigger smiles and that's always a plus too. Eventually the goodness trickled back into the shop as our good friend and loyal customer Cynthia came in with a KHS Flite 2000 road bike that needed a couple of items checked out, mostly just air in the tires a good wipe down and a little chain lube. So we quickly got her bike on and back off of the repair stand. As she was making her rounds around the shop she soon settled in on the Susan Komen Felt Cruiser. So as i'm wheeling her KHS back out to her she comments on how beautiful the bike was and how much she'd like to have it. Sure thing. So Cynthia started to tell me about this New Belgium cruiser that she won the year before at the RATPOD ride, which is a 160 mile cancer charity ride over in Dillon. hhhmmmmm, you don't say. You see, i've been looking for one of those damn NB Fat Tire cruisers for awhile (without having to pay an arm and a leg for it), so i say to Cyntia..." Bring it in and i'll trade ya straight across for the Felt (without even seeing it) " and her face just lit up (there goes that damn contagious smile again), and sure enough Cynthia drove straight home picked up the cruiser and brought it right back. She took home her new Felt and the checked over KHS road bike that afternoon. And me......i've got another set of new wheels....i seriously strutted around the shop for the remainder of the afternoon; ) Honestly, i don't know who had the biggest smile her or me.





So i rode the bike home, and started to make plans for the evening....good buddy and riding pal Joe (who is irish) was having a Corned Beef and Cabbage cook out and bonfire at his place. So my wife and i headed out on a pair of cruisers and peddaled our arses off and headed on over to Joes. Brian was already over there sip-ping on a tall boy, Shrek was there tipping back the New Castle. Joe looked lit as he was ending his 2 week long, self purification/cleansing BS, he was happy, content and lit but that's an entirely different story. So tracy and i settled on in, grabbed a cold one and a slab of flesh and made good conversation with friends. As soon as the sun went down the shananigans began, i played it safe and stayed out of the fire. Not everyone had that same agenda and the fire walking commenced. We hung around till late and evetually rode the cruisers back home on a very dark night...smiling all the way. Good times.

JW's new fixie

here's a couple of pics of Jim's refurbished 78' Motobacane, we laced up some new hoops, stripped off the shifters & gears, threw on some new rubber and wha-la, Jims new Fixie.

we also took the grinder to the double ring Sugino crankset and removed the teeth on the outter ring...wha-la, instant bashring.

Soma Fab has a nice line of economically priced components....here's their black fixed cog and lock ring..a very nice product considering the $15 price tag.

on the tuner today.

Karl Densons....Tiny Universe. Sax player, funk master supreme. Read here

spring tune

The Spring tune up rush is amidst. Bring in your bike NOW for $40 of loving care;

clean & lube

bolt torque inspection

bearing adjustments (and overhaul assesment)

brake adjustment

derailleur adjustments

trueing of the wheels

and a test ride.


With the change of daylight savings and the warmer temps that are now upon us now is the time to bring that dusty bike out of the shed and get it ready for the oncoming spring/summer. Cya soon !

NOS 04' Bruja

You can't take a tour of a facility like Ventana's and come home empty handed, it's just physically impossible. 04' Bruja painted matte black with matching rear swingarm. A last of it's kind.

headin' home

how do you know when you're heading home in the right direction....I15 North past the 12 pack of tall boys.

Day Three

Our last day in Cali and we decided a ride was a necessity. The 65 degree temps were just toooooo good to pass up since we'd soon be heading home for the frozen tundra, so we opted for a San Fran urban ride. We parked downtown and made our way out to the Golden Gate Bridge and then headed back south towards Lombardi street, which was a spectical within it's own right. After a quick tour we headed down to the Heights and visited a cool shop called American Cyclery...it was a hip road shop packed full of vintage and new, lots of eye candy here. It was on the way back towards the van when the fun began as we stumbled upon series after series of junkyard singletrack. Dirt found inner city and it magically took us back in the general direction that we needed to go, so we took it. We got back at the van just before dark...perfectly timed by a few fellas that were'nt really timing.

stuff that 26er tube in there..it'll fit. Dag Nabb'it.

damn good bike routes every where.

somewhere in SF

Day Two

the lunch break during the show gave us time to stroll around San Jose and we had an opportunity to check out this old shop down the road. Bike Shop Salvage.

There was an old sign hanging above the door that read " Enter at your OWN RISK " , i assumed they were referring to the condition of the building, but upon entering i soon realised that the building was the least of our worries; rodents, rust and hazards galore....frames piled high enough that they resembled gigantic spider webs. Stuff dedicated to the two and three wheeled sorts crammed everywhere . But i gotta admit.....it was a kick ass shop, a place i could easily waste an entire day in.

day two...the show

the fillet brazed and mtb variety

Day two....the show

practical art forms......practiced by craftsmen.....by torch, labor, and love. The 2007 NAHBS.

the lugged variety: