solo bonus

sometimes rolling solo has major perks. You get to see things at what ever pace you like. You can also leave, stop and go anytime you like. In this case my ride down piquett creek was a success due to the fact that i scored some plump morel shrooms. The ride ended up short...... however, the outting was long as i had a very hard time leaving an area ripe for the picking. Morels rock ! Grilled on top of a steak, bathed in melted butter. A cold can of kokanee while tending the barbie.....yummy.

how bout' that front chainwheel

before shimano biopace of the late eighties they had:

happy b-day ride

yessir.....i'm officially 36 years young. My wife Tracy and i had the afternoon to ourselves and decided to invite the bikes along for a little celebration. Willow creek style.

12 mile dirt road climb that eventually leads to trail, but before we could ride trail....2 hours of fantastic hiking through very deep snow drifts.

the bday surprise....yours truely smiling at the thought of dry singletrack and a fantastic 7 mile drop

Tracy

chad

Tracy

weekend

This past weekend was quite interesting and also a darn good time. Friday after work Brian and i headed toward Dillon MT (with our mtbs) to volunteer our services as mechanics for the annual RATPOD road ride which is a 140 mile, single day ride around the Pioneer Mountains and actually up and over them. On our way over to Dillon we stopped at the May Creek trail for a short mtb ride along a nice slice of smooth and mellow singletrack. It was a nice cool evening for a ride until you stopped long enough for the mosquitos to settle in. Damn Mosquitos !! So with pests at hand we quickly loaded the Toyota back up and headed toward the big hole valley.....and of course you can't stop through Wisdom MT without stopping at Fetty's for dinner (and a beer), and finally further down the road we ended up at Jackson Hotsprings to soak (and drink another beer) and to spend the night in one of their more affordable rooms which also happens to be a singlewide trailer parked out (far) back in grass that was 2ft in height. The cheap bed seemed just about right for a weary head.

Next morning came very early and Brian and i were back into the toyoter as we were expected to be in Dillon by 6am.

there was an early morning buzz as 500 cyclists all gathered for the 7th annual ride for Camp Mak-A-Dream fundraiser. Brian and i soaked up the excitement until our assignments were handed to us and then we SLOWLY followed small groups of cyclist until a nice view obstructed our attention and then we'd pull over for awhile as cyclists passed by....hoping that one or another would need our assistance.

an early view from the rearward mirror:

a picture of Joe, Rick, Brett, and Rick.

early am cattle drive

scenery over Crystal Park

so all in all it was a purdy darn good afternoon. Brian and i reckon to have worked on approx 25-30 bikes...some easy and some not so easy repairs. After the ride the ride organisers provided dinner, good music, and handed out awards for the top fundraisers (which was $18,000!!!).

The following sunday afternoon, Brian and i rewarded ourselves with a mtb ride in the Pioneer Mountains and on a trail that neither of us had been on (you know....since we were in the area we kinda felt entitled). And it was purdy darn good too !

Phil's El Guapo

late coming....but still worth sharing.

Philips new Titus ElGuapo....we built up the ti frame using a Fox RP23, 36 Talas RC2, new XT kit, XTR crankset, King De-Evolution headset, Industry Nine wheelset, Formula ONE brakes, MAxxis Advantage tires, and thomson stem/seatpost. A super nice project that we were happy to be part of.

have fun with it Phil !!

sundays ride

sleeping child drainage....it's a fantastic slow speed, highly technical ride that seems to be always throwing manuevers at you in the ways of large, slippery pieces of granite....some covered by ground cover. Scree fields also litter the trail and demand mucho concentration if you're going to attempt to cross them pedaling. It doesn't see much usage at all so the vegetation growth always starts to take the trail back during the spring. Love it, most leave it. Here's a couple pics of Joe-joe showing us how it's done. I should also note that our good pal Rick started the ride with us only to have a sram X9 rear derailleur take a crap on him only 200 yards into the trail. Ride was pretty much over for rick at that point, but i must commend him for keeping his cool and not tossing the $75 derailleur across the stream.

Thomas' Ventana El Rey

Here's a nice picture of thomas' new El Rey and of course one picture of him taking it out on a proper initiation ride up Crazy Creek trail in the southern portion of the bitterroot mountains.

Chromag

Chromag bicycle parts are now available from your fine friends at the Red Barn

Products currently available:

Fubar OSX handlebars with25mm rise, 760 width, 8d bend and 5d upsweep

Fubar OS handlebar with 30mm rise, 710mm width, 7d bend and 5d upsweep

CNC'd Ranger stem in 90 or 70mm lengths (195 g for 90mm size)

Perforated leather saddles

Qucik release mechanisms with either aluminum or brass lever

kirks got'a new fork

the captain says he likes his new Ventana bottle opener.

Columbia Classics

Here is a fine example of a properly restored 52' Columbia Deluxe.....outfitted with all the cool trinkets of it's era, delta ray headlamps, Cadet speedo, Union expansion drum brake. Just a beautiful bike.

schwinn classics

56' Schwinn Cycletruck

Felt Racing

Here's a near matching pair of Felt B2 tri bikes that we recently built up for customers Jon and Wendy. We scrutinized everything and came up with a very solid build kit and a bike fitting aimed specifically at going fast in a straight line.

new beginnings

i've been looking forward to building up one of the new Titus Ti E.G.'s , here is the much anticipated naked canvas sitting patiently at 7.42#

i'll post a few more pics when we've got the project completed.

Canfield One

Here's a bike that we built up over the weekend for Cameron, who came down to the Bitterroot from Great Falls. This was the first time we've built up one of these bikes and i admit that i was pretty darn impressed with the quality (frame did need some prep work, but nothing past the ordinary facing & chasing of the BB shell). The ano finish looked quality and the suspension linkage looked like it could handle a little abuse....the 20mm lower pivots should fight off any inherit flex. I even managed to sneak it out of his hands to take it for a quick spin once we put the final touches to it. At a smidge shy of 30# the bike felt really quick when you stomped on the pedals which is a tough charateristic to pull off for most 7" travel bikes. The suspension felt as good as any 10minute parking lot test will allow you to check, it seemed to just float over the small bumps, almost made them entirely dissapear. I thought it pedaled pretty darn nice and i know Cameron was stoked to get it home for a spin on his local trails....i'm sure he'll be calling soon to let us know.

the One

a close up of the linkage....darn front derailleur was a little tight fitting, but we managed with a tradional clamp dual pull Shimano XT

re-inforced for large stoppers.

Griz Triathlon

Here's a pic from last weekends Griz Triathlon (i know i'm kinda late posting). Bdid and myself ran mechanical support for the 20th annual. Good times under blue skies and we even managed to find a few bikes that needed our services.

see blue tent ..... that's us.

Mike's new bike

Titus RX Carbon....

Mike was looking for a fast bike that he could use for endurance racing and came to us with a frame preference and a budget....we took care of the rest and sent Mike out of the door suited up with a super nice racer-x. First race on the new bike for Mike will be at the Leadville 100......good luck Mike and we hope you bring home one of those fancy Leadville belt buckles.

name that funk

so.....good pal and customer walks into the shop with a bike this past week and he wants to drop it off for a spring deluxe tune up (clean,lube and tune). As i'm checking the bike in something kinda catches my eye.....i point out what appears to be a large piece of flesh.....customer shrugs his shoulder and says he didn't notice it, but with one of those sheepish grins that seemed to say "good luck with that" . I put my nose to it and it certainly smelled funky and in a state of deterioration (rot is probably a more appropriate description).What is it ?? Your guess is as good as mine.

long time-no post

Welp....things have finally simmered down a bit after getting back from a nice family vacation. Most of you were aware that aaron was at the helm here at the shop while i loaded the kids in the VW as we took off on a road trip that took us through 5 different states....eventually we would spend a large potion of our time hanging out on the fine beaches of Carlsbad CA. Nice place there in Carlsbad......good mexican food at Pollo Marias, a nice place to rest our head at Seashore on the Sand (back door opened up to the surf), and a kick ass bike shop called Pacific Coast Cycles. Chuck and Gretchen who run PCC were nice enough to get me outfitted with a bike and enough details on the area to keep us fairly busy. What else do you need in a small town other than good food and bikes ? Here's a few pics:

hike in Zion

pic from Gooseberry

since we had to drive through Vegas i thought the kids would think the lights were pretty cool, so we timed to drive through on the strip at night. And indeed all three had their heads out the windows the entire time.

19 hrs of driving to Carlsbad....view from the room once we arrived.

Karate Monkey on the 101

Felt to race in the Tour

I rec'd some pretty cool info yesterday that Felt bicycles will be lining up with the best during this years 2008 tour De France. Team Slipstream/Felt coached by Jonathon Vaughters brings a talented team with recognizable names....David Millar, american David Zabriskie, Magnus Backstedt, and sprinter Julian Dean. The other rosters are unknown allthough Vaughters is hopeful to bring young US star Danny Pate. It should make for an interesting Tour this year with 2 american teams, hopefully we'll have a few americans to cheer on other than Montana's very own Levi.

Good luck in de tour Felt !!

week of pics

it's been a busy week with lots of bike repairs coming in. The feast after a winter of famine. Lots of really cool projects and a few happy new bike owners too.

Jean and his new Vassago Bandersnatch

Robert and his Felt Virtue

and here's a couple of pics of Don's super cool Masi road bike....Don wanted some new on the bar ergo shifters, easier gearing, and to get away from his old 27" tubular wheels.

my old VAR adjustable spanner helped me with the above project...one of my personal favorite tools.

and some really hot components.