Silky Sugoi - new arrival

I Just got a few Silky hand saws into the shop for those folks that like to help keep the trails clear. The Japanese made blade (360mm in length, 6.5 teeth per 30mm) is about the very best made, tears through logs faster than a hot knife going through butter. Saw and sheath - $79

wool cycling hats w/ earflaps

since it's cold and the season to wear warm hats.....Red Barn wool caps with earflaps, perfect under a helmet or alone. Here the remaining color options (just for J.P.), viewed from the rear.

Sam Braxton

Here's a few photos of Bill Sweet's late 70's Braxton touring bike that he's proudly rode for the last 30 years. A beautifully crafted bicycle by the late Montana pioneer Sam Braxton. Sam's bicycle shop ( also know as an Oasis for the cyclotourist) served as the pinnacle of quality service and advise to Missoula cyclists for almost 2 decades and while we occasionally see bicycles with the Braxton Bike Shop decal, it is a rare but pleasant sight to see his hand constructed frames walk in the front door. One of those is Bill's touring bike that you see here which was recently retired and now up for sale. A true piece of montana's cycling history.

If you have time i'd recommend reading a few of these links: this one
or this one or another picture of one , even a trail named after him .

Dt Swiss 36pt upgrade

here's a peek at Dt Swiss's 36 step star ratchet upgrade, which is a bit quicker than their old 18. 10 degrees quicker to be exact. Price for the new star - $35.

Sven Nys

Here's a very cool picture of Sven Nys sent to us from our very own Red Barn Riley taken during his most recent trip to Belgium. Seems he stumbled across one of the SuperCross events in Gavere so of course he grabbed a beer, some frites and made himself comfy in the 8" of peanutbutter thick mud. Check out Sven's eyes.....the man looks like he's pushed himself close to death. I suppose that's what it take to have those world championship stripes attached to his jersey. On this day he finished second to Niels Albert.

thanks for the killer picture Aaron.....make sure you stop on in with those infamous Belgium brewsky's. Seems the right time to do some training of our own sort.

BMC (Bicycle Manufacturing Company)

I recently had the pleasure of testing out the swiss made BMC Speed Fox (120mm of travel on both ends). Sent to us from the kind folks over at QBP who have turned North American distributor for the company. We've had the SF01 for almost 2 weeks now and since it's arrival i've ridden it pretty much exclusively on trail. Upon building the Sram X0 equipped bike and other top shelf Sram components it was appearent that fashion and style are important to these folks. They went to the measures to have all suspension linkage hardware to be anodized the same exact color as Srams Cash green ano on this years X0 gear. Everything looked fantastic pulling the bike out of the box. Also looking fantastic were the use of hydroformed tubing and boxed upper rocker construction, all which are anodized black. They also utilize a simplistic monocoque bottom bracket shell and main pivot area that appears to be manufactured to shave weight. Light it is....the bike came complete at 26 3/4 #

After setting the suspension up using BMC's unique sag adjustment indicator that cleverly assisted with initial set up and after throwing a set of pedals on the machine i tore off for a quick spin.....three hours later i had a pretty good grasp of what the bike could handle. In a nutshell the bike is very relaxed (thanks to 68d HA), yet very quick and efficient handling bike. Even with the Fox Rp23 turned to the off position the shock was only active when you hit a bump, meaning no pedal bob. The bike craves speed and regardless of how slow and out of shape i am the bike just wanted to go fast....up or downhill. Coined as an endurance race machine i think they did a very nice job of delivering exactly that. A bike that does well on either end of the slope.

BMC Speedfox 01

close up of linkage

for more info click here