Tour of the Bitterroot pics

welp, it was an exhausting weekend but we've pretty much got a wrap on everything. We had some fantastic racing action that included a Pro 1-2-3 mens race in a cold downpour, fortunately the crashes were minor, even though there were primes going left and right.

we also had a huge womens field by montana standards and a nice sized jr. field too.

the kids race was the highlight (at least for me)

and the red barn party a close second.

ready, set, go !

this picture pretty much sums what it's all about.

tomorrows festivities

boy-o-boy......it's been a week plus change since my last post and man has it been a hectic week. Between the coordinating for the tour of the bitterroot and building/repairing bikes it just hasn't left me much time for fun. Welp...tomorrow it ends as it'll officially be race day and the afterward festivities are lined up. The racing action downtown starts at 9am and the pro's will be sent off at 2pm. Following the race we'll be sending the racers, volunteers, and a bunch of Hamiltons finest to enjoy a catered dinner from our good pal Beth, live music from Blue Mellon, and a keg of my favorite IPA from Bitterroot Brewery. So i hope to see ya'll there bright and early.....i'll be easy to spot, just look for the guy with the broom making the corners safe and the guy with a beer in his hand and a big grin on his face at the party.

2007 Tour of the Bitterroot

join us May 26th-28th for the 3 day Tour of the Bitterroot. A competitive stage race consisting of a road race on the 26th, a criterium on the closed streets of downtown Hamilton, MT on the 27th (A kids race following the crit), and a Time Trial event on the 28th.

We'll also be having a little shindig at th Red Barn on May 27th. Food and beverages will be provided so just bring yourself and a friend. For more information check the Tour of the Bitterroot website or call Robin at 406-375-0956

foto share

just a picture that i wanted to share

Felt Nine Pro

Here's a few pictures of the new Felt 29er the Nine Pro which is their high end option with gears.....they essentially have three models to choose from the Nine Pro which you see here retails for $1900, the Nine Elite which sells for $1400 and the single speed option of the Nine Solo which retails for $1400 also.

sunday ride

blodgett canyon....slow speed, highly technical.....loose, big pieces of granite and a damn good time. Thanks for the ride fellas !

Titus's new offerings

Here's a couple of pictures from two of Titus' more exciting bikes from their full suspension range of bikes:

The El Guapo is their new 6" offering. We've been waiting for this beast for quite a while and we're feverishly awaiting the build. So for now....we look it over with a fine tooth comb.

and the XC dream machine....the Racer X Carbon:

ENO project

so we just recieved a set of White Industries' ENO hubs and one of their beautifully made freewheels to finish up a single speed project using one of Dave N's GT Xizang frames that were made in Boulder Colorado back when GT actually made GT's. Thanks for the hook up on the frame Dave ! The ENO hubs will be laced up to a set of Mavic 717 rim brake hoops. Stay tuned for the finished project:

phil wood bearing upgrade

Don't trash those old cups !!! Send us your old external bottom bracket cups and we'll replace the bearings with Phil Wood's 6805X bearings.....Bearings with an "X" have the same seals as those specified for submersible motor/pump bearings, so you know the bearings are filled with MUCH higher grade grease and the seals are also waaaaay better than the OEM crud.

$55 gets you a set of new Phil bearings in your old bb cups SHIPPED free.

Raceface oem bearing on the left. Phil Wood replacement to the right.

superdust

Another Pipestone pic

J.P. forwarded this picture to me yesterday and i kinda like it. Yours truely having a blast on the Knolly Delirium T.

La Bruja

semi-completed with cockpit adjustments needed. My new 04' LaBruja:

and i can't wait to go and get her all dirty !!

Lumfest Part Duex

A weekend getaway with the fellas is JUST what the doctor ordered so a few of us Hamiltonians headed on over to Pipestone to hang out with good buddies from Missoula, Bozeman, Helena, and Great Falls in part two of the Lumfest series (sorry if any of you called on saturday and i wasn't here). Camping, grilling copious amounts of sausage, drinking fine Irish Whiskey, and riding some of Butte MT's finest all in back to back days.

12 bikes, 12 people & 3 dogs

Pipestone

camp

Happy Friday

happy feet style

Soma' (green with envy) Delancey

I just built up one of the new frame offerings from Soma, the Delancey comes frame & fork for the affordable price of $425.00........this model is their fixed gear model and Soma also has a geared version with vertical drops. A decent quality tiawanese lugged steel frame for under 5 bills....that's purdy sweet.

I assembled this one with a prebuilt set of Velocity Fusion wheels, and with parts that were laying around the shop...170mm Campy Veloce cranks, Brooks saddle, and Nitto's comfy moustache handlebar. I had some brown cotton velox tape that was looking for a good home too. I booted it up with a pair of Schwalbe Stelvio's and wha-la....a fixie for under $700.

new bike

As the snow line receeds and starts to reveal more trail we're finding ourselves higher and higher into the back country. Here the wife is testing out her new Felt Virtue 3 on a shakedown ride at Como. Felt's new line of dual suspension bikes are promising, the bikes pedal very well and the linkages appear as though they can take a good amount of hard pounding. But i suppose only a good summer of hard riding in the bitteroots will tell, the rocks here have the tendacy of revealing weak points in a suspension design. On Tre's bike here we settled in on a 30% sag rate and she was all grins. I rode behind her after we dialed in the shock and watched the suspension in action. It was completely active but there wasn't ANY pedal induced movement what so ever. If you're after an efficient 5" travel dual suspension bike then look no further, Felt has 4 models this year and for 08' they plan to expand upon the design by creating a true all mountain 6" chasis. Things are looking fantastic for Felt. Nice work fellas and thanks for diving head first into manufacturing high end mountain bikes.

a bike deprived easter

No bikes for me this past weekend and i packed up, threw the kids in the van and threw Aaron the keys to the shop for five days. We headed on over to the Oregon coast for a little relaxation and hanging out in the small, quaint coastal towns. Sorry for the lack of bike content but here's a few pics i took while over there.

the Devall trio at Multnomah, the pooch, and the scenery

Felt DA

We recieved one of the DA bikes from Felt....an incredible piece of work aimed for the person interested in pedaling a straight line in a hurry. The bike was originally sculpted from clay while in a wind tunnel and it certainly looks like it. Check HERE for more info:

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 !