Minnesota... BRRRR

Frostbike was a blast. We drove around in a PT Cruiser convertible - but never dropped the top. Visited One On One Bikes in downtown, and got to see Caroline Yang's TDF '06 Exhibit... very cool. Also got to drinks some really good local brew and chat with the guys from Cane Creek. Our tour of Quality Bike Parts was very impressive, we are fortunate to do business with such a neat company.
--dB

Headin' ooot to Mini-soootah

Getting ready to head out to Minneapolis in the morning. The WX has been warming so should be a balmy 9 degrees when Wes and I fly in Thursday afternoon. Then it is supposed to hit a high of low twenties through Sunday - heck that isn't bad - it's about 28 here in Bleaksburg right now.
We will be doing the Quality Bike Parts Frost Bike Convention. My first, I can't wait!
--dB

UPdate - EC Retreat - Asheville, NC

Our shop retreat to Asheville started off Saturday afternoon, the WRX was overloaded with bikes, beer, guns and temps down in the twenties.Interestingly, the pic below foreshadowed some of the entertainment the weekend would provide...
'Trailer Park Boys' was in the DVD player in the evevings and several of us got our first introduction to Ricky and Randy.
We enjoyed a fine trip down to Trail's End near Lake Powhatan South of Asheville. The sub 4 hour drive was punctuated with the pungent odor of Cole's (hereby forever to be known as 'Stinky') feet. He ejected his socks out of the car somewhere along I-81 (thus the toxic waste disposal units had to be called), but it was to no avail.

You can see by these photos - there were some ill effects.

We only had to resusitate Mike twice during the trip.

Unfortunately I didn't take any pix on the trail or in the cottage. It was really nice though and we all had a good time. An early Sunday morning roadie ride with Cole and Frank took us up the Blue Ridge Parkway to Pisgah. The BRP was closed so we had both lanes all to ourselves. It was glorious, the temps even warmed a bit as we climbed in the rising sun. There was some seriously icey places in the tunnels - hazardous if you didn't know about them beforehand on the descents.

We returned in time for me to spend some quality time at the Trek Demo testing the new Remedy 66. Though I was pretty much fried from all the climbing that AM - I managed to take the Remedy all the way to the top of Ingles Field Trail to BOMB the descent. What a ride! 6" of suspension is quite a bit and twice as much as I am used to. The bike also climbed better than any long travel bike I've been on. Impressive.

The highlight of my trip though was had the next morning when Wes let me take his new HiFi Deluxe out for a little jaunt. I had done my homework and after breakfast took off to the yellow-green seasonal trails South of Lake Powhatan.

I tackled a variety of single-track that included steep climbing, switchbacks, fast banked turns, whoops - you name it. The bike has the new G2 geometry that Bontrager and Fisher developed with Manitou to improve the single-track steering of the old Genesis geometry. They changed the fork offset, decreased the trail of the fork and really made a huge improvement in how a Fisher handles steep switchback climbs, and tight single-track. It was like the bike read my mind in the tight stuff. Having 5" & 4.5" of travel didn't hurt on the descents either, but the bike climbs like a race bike - better than my 3" travel Fuel - EFFICIENT.

That was the amazing part - you could BOMB rough and rocky trails with no attention to speed, then turn around and climb it like you were on a XC racing machine instead of a couch bike. That suits me fine because I am no 'Shuttle Monkey'.

It uses Fox ProPedal dampening so there is no pedal bob. It climbs like a hard tail till you encounter a rock on the trail or a bump - then it sucks it up without you even feeling it. I can't tell you how fast it felt, it was also easy to fly it out over jumps and was easy to land.

The 8 hours I spent driving was worth it if only for the 2 and half hours I spent on that HiFi. The great pizzas we enjoyed at the 'Mellow Mushroom' and BBQ we chowed on at '12 Bones' as headed out of Asheville was a bonus.
--dB

Busy February!

Today we are taking a little road trip down to the Asheville, NC area for a 'Shop Retreat'. Should be about 10 degrees warmer down there than here in Blacksburg - we'll take it. Hopefully get some quality riding in. Looking forward to a Trek Demo on Sunday. I am anxious to get my hands on the Remedy and also put a Gary Fisher HiFi through its paces. I'm also bringing my new roadie bike for a little jaunt early in the morning up the Blue Ridge Parkway.

We come back Sunday evening, and then on Thursday I'll be hitting the road again with Wes for a convention in Minneapolis. Frost Bike... seems like an appropriate name. Last time I checked the temps up there were well below ZERO Fahrenheit! I'll love it though - kinda' weird that way I guess. Should find some good beer that needs drinkin' too and that is never a problem. I'm excited about the convention, looking forward to learning a lot more about the bicycle industry.