6 seater

just add beer keg and a bag of chips and let the good times roll.

other things seen in the barn

Raleigh for Rob M.

random pics

a fairly busy week here in the red barn which has drained my free time to enter new blog updates....Still trying to find time to ride though as we had a great wed. night ride down the Willow creek trail...generous elk steaks from J.B., brewski's and salad. This week we also finished Building up the remaining Ventana Demo/Rental bikes pics....Terremoto's, ElCiclons, ElReys, And an ElSalty so come and try out the fleet.

We also recieved a 2007 Chumba XCL with 5" of suspension front and rear, Sram X9 drivetrain, a DHX Air 5.0 rear and a Pike 426 U Turn, i think this bike will be the perfect fit for that $2500-$2700 price range. More info soon. Or check here for more Chumba details.

a few other random pics:

2008 Fox Talas 36 and their new 20mm quick release system...pretty darn trick.

Danger Boy

bar end plugs that fit directly on to your ODI lock on grips from Dangerboy...assorted flavors and graphics.

pic update

pic#1...somewhere in misoula, pic#2..bdiddy

in the middle of the season like this one of the most common questions i get is " Chad, don't you get to ride much ? " , welp....the honest truth is not as much as i'd like but trust me when i do get out it's not taken for granted. Sunday's stroll with good buddies...in the rain...mud....and 50d temperatures. Good stuff and Happy pappa day to all the fathers out there.


also.....i'll be away from the shop on wed. & thurs. so please feel free to call Aaron or Tim about any and all bicycle related ?????'s , Tim may even be able to help with any carpentry fielded subjects and Aaron with anything remotely on topic with exercise science. If you can't wait then i recommend talking to either of these two fine fellas. If it can wait......talk to you soon !


later, Chad

a purdy good deal

ocassionally we have some good deals that pass through the Red Barn doorway....today that deal is a sets of Avid Juicy 7 brakes...203 fronts and 185 rears at $115 per wheel. Get'em hot off the plate.

the BG

here's a couple of pics of my new roadie....it's been since 94' that i've last spoiled myself on a new road machine and i will admit that i do have a small sliver of love in my heart for those skinny tired types. My last road bike (and first real road bike) was a gift from Wayne Schaffer, the owner of the first shop i ever worked at and given to me as christmas bonus. Wayne operated a great store back in Lincoln NE, that had a mom & pop atmosphere and diverse base of customers. Wayne himself had a heart of gold and taught me the ins and outs of the bicycle business which also meant watching how the man carried himself day to day. He always quietly gave to others, quick to lend a hand, was honest, and also loving....all traits that i've wanted to simulate and naturally practice myself. I've always quietly prided myself for cutting my teeth in such a shop. So it was truely a sad day when the parts off of the old Croll road bike were sold and the frame hung in the back with the collection of my other have beens and pieces of my cycling history. It was hard to part ways with a machine that has given me so much joy and a ton of fantastic memories.

Well, that was until my new Bruce Gordon showed up : )

lugged steel

Formula Bianco

Chris over at Formula just sent us a set of the Bianco brakes with metallic pad compound. We installed them up on Jay's Titus Motolite since he's been looking to upgrade from his mono-mini's for quite some time....the original plan was to get him into a set of Magura Louise BAT's (you know how much of a Magura fan i am), but since magura could not provide us with the brake that we wanted we started to explore other options. Enter the bianco, a new brake for us but very familiar with their other fine braking systems (k18,K24, and the ouro puro) which have all been stellar performing brakes so it was only natural that we call Chris to explore Jay's next option. After a quick chat Chris without hesitation recommended that we tried out the bianco's WITH metallic pads....he went on about braking performance and power charts and why he thought one pad material was better than the other. And so on and so on.....the fella is truely passionate about braking systems. So we trusted his judgement for this case and ened up with a set with 180/160mm rotors.

Italian craftsmanship and flair

the installation was painless and took less than 30 minutes. Make sure you grease the threads on the new banjo kits. Nice stainless hardware too.

first impressions were good....their loadless travel adjuster allows for precise set up on the pull of the brake lever. First actual braking on a smooth road was incredibly strong considering there hasn't been any bedding in of the pads/rotors. And i do mean incredibly....easily one of the stronger one piston designs that i've encountered. And it's not like it's over the top either since the brake modulation felt really good. These are easily a one finger stopper. Over all.....we're very impressed. Way to go formula and thanks for the tee shirts Chris !

Green RFX

Granny Smith Green Turner RFX

Custom White RFX

i'll admit it....i'm jealous. 2007 Turner RFX

with 2007 Marzocchi 66SL1 ATA with 120-180mm of travel. Pic#1 is suspension fork at lowest setting and pic#2 is suspension fork at max travel. Versatility is a nice trait and having a fork that changes travel increment/head tube angle on the fly is a very-very nice feature.

Turner Sultan

tony's new Sultan

(29" wheels never looked so good)

Salmon

here's a few pics from the Salmon race. Conditions were hot, dusty and i'm severly out of shape but it's still a damn good time IF you have the right cheerleaders. Check ! I'm never without good cheers when traveling with the Devall clan...i just bring my own.

But anyway......i raced the 20 mile XC course on a rigid 29er. It was a rough and bumpy course but the bike served me perfectly fine. No issues, zero mechanicals. The singletrack was fun....dusty, kinda rocky and really fast.

The Downhill course was a very short 1.5 mile course with lots of man made obstacles. 50 yards into the course was a nice little double that dumped you intop a steep slope. At the bottom of the slope was a nice dusty berm that you had to stuff both wheels into by skidding hard. Pedal hard for a few cranks and then there was a nice little 3ft rock drop....if you could carry your speed well through this section it really set you up for a wooden ramp that took you over this wash out OR you could veer left and miss the danger. After this little jump there was a fun table that finally sent you into this nasty gulley with tons of man made ramps, bridges and a few more ramps built up and over some abandoned cars. I rode the course a few times and was enjoying the free shuttles.






And then to top the weekend off.....i met up with the Hamilton local crew to hit up a 28 mile shuttle ride that drops from the top of Lost Trail pass. About half way through this ride the fatigue really started to settle in, but it's easy enough to forget about all of that when you're out on primo singletrack and under warm sunshine.

Wild of the Rockies

And even more racing action for this coming weekend. So i decided to head down with the family this coming weekend to do a couple of mountain bike races. It's been way tooooo long since i've lined up for a bike race so i decided to not enter one but two........the XC race on saturday and then follow it up with a DH race on sunday. It should be a fun filled weekend in Salmon ID., here's the link to the race. And wish me luck.


have a good weekend !