Decorah Time Trials = Fun!

Cranko Flow from Marty Larson on Vimeo.

So last weekend was the Decorah Time Trials. Its always a fun time. The crew in Decorah has built an awesome set of trails through the hills, in town! This is the first of two video's that I have composed. Ryan, Eric and I all took our Pugsleys over to through through the trails. There were certainly a lot of looks and sideways glances at the start line. We could almost hear the comments.

"what are these guys thinking!? Haven't they seen the mud?" "Don't they know its rained?" Those tires have NO tread!".

And to tell the truth, I kinda though that too.

Then I rode. And it was simply awesome. I love my Pugsley.

Listening to: The Noise Downstairs. //WIfes Band. It was awesome.

Singular Pricing and new toys in the shop!

Yeah! Here's the long awaited post, letting y'all know what the Singulars are going to cost. Those who've been so generous as to put a deposit down already have an idea, but this is definitive!

First a brief rundown of the models:
The Swift is the mountain bike of the bunch. 29" wheels, Eccentric BB for SS duty, Cables stops and hanger for geared duty. A nice versatile bike. And good looking to boot!


The Gryphon is much the same as the Swift above, but is designed specifically for drop bar off roading. The Gryphon is also designed to be run rigid, as can be seen with the short fork.


The Hummingbird is an interesting one. Nominally a 26" mate to the 29" Swift, but it can be run with a 26" wheels and a suspension fork, or as a 69er with the supplied rigid fork and a 29" front wheel. This MAY be able to accept 650b wheels too. We'll have to wait to see if they truely fit though. No promises there.


These three bikes come as a frame, fork, and Phil Wood eccentric module. The head tube is faced/chased before leaving the door, and the frame is JPWiegle'd.

Price? $465

The Peregrine is the true chameleon of the bunch though. Lugged frame, clearance for BIG tires, rack mounts, eccentric bb, Disc brakes, cable stops and hangers, fender room, drop bars, Nitto North's, flat bars...you name it. The best lable is probably going to be a monster cross. This is the one you want to take with you all the way.




Price? $635

Nice prices for nice bikes. Of course taxes and shipping apply where applicable and all that jazz. Check out Sam's flickr page for more shots of each of these bikes.

I've got a few wheels that can be sold with these bikes too. Just rolled in yesterday from the man in blue, Easton came through with 6 sets of the XC-1 29" wheels. Single speed specific, but enough room on the cassette carrier for at least 4 cogs if you float that way. Taking a set out here and playing with them gives a very nice first impression! Super smooth bearings. Seriously light. Perfectly round/true. I could give you the schpeal from Easton direct, but that's no fun. Since I just got 'em, I don't have any ride time on a set, but Cap't Bob over at 29inches has been riding a set, and seems impressed. Check it out!





Price? With a Singular: $490. Just want a set? $550.

First Century. Done.

Last fall, in a fit of questionable bravado, I signed up for the RagnarÖk 105. A decision that at the time, seemed smart. At the time.

One very long winter later, and April 18 has popped up kind of before I expected it. Sure, I've been riding some before the event, but not to the level that one would consider actually training. So I went into this thing, just hoping to survive, and maybe, maybe even finish.

To that end, the finishing part, Ryan and I went up with out a bail out option. We didn't have any kind of support crew. No one to bail us out. We started, and the only way we were going to get back was to ride the whole way. One option. One goal. It worked.




We rolled out of the sack at 6am, ran into the local bakery/coffee shop for a quick energy shot, and made it back to the start for the 7:30 roll out. There were no real nerves this morning like I get at short mtb or CX races. It was a super relaxed atmosphere. Untill Ryan decided that he needed to fiddle with his shifter..."I'm not getting all my gears!" he says...



I laughed at him.

The roll out was nice. Of course there were the rabbits, out to get the KOM points. The rest of us sat in and got ready for a long day.




on to the second section of gravel.









So the first half went by with out a real hitch. Ryan was off the front, riding strong enough that I couldn't really keep up with him. I rolled into the check about 5 minutes after he did. After a bit of fiddle farting around, eating and repacking, we took off again. This next section was the flattest, and also the hardest part. Miles 50 to 60 were fine, but 60 to 73 or so were the lowest point for me. Even though I'd been eating well enough, it obviously didn't matter. We stopped, pulled up the ground and I proceeded to stuff my face. I felt good the rest of the race, but Ryan never could really get over it.


This was a really nice smooth climb up a B road for 3 miles or so. Just a nice constant grade.


They take thier ferbuyfer's seriously here.


Aaaannnd that's what we rode.

From ragnarok

103.3 miles. 7:34 on the bike. 8891' of climbing. 13.7 mph average[I was going for 14, but that last hill killed me.] 47 mph max. 8000 calories burned.

So that's that. Follow the links for more pictures.

Listening to: Johnny Cash//The Big Battle via iTunes suffle function.

I'm silly. Silly for big miles. Tomorrow.

Last fall, after feeling good and strong, and doing well in the cross races I did[top 10, B's/cat 3/4] an anouncement came along the interwebs about this race up Minnesota way in April. It looked intriguing enough. I've been getting into the endurance thing on the MTB side of the bike, and doing ok[a couple top 5 placings in 6 hour solo efforts]. Sure, none of them totaled the milage that this little shindig will. The Ragnarok 105. Its still mountain bikey enough for my tastes, but will be held almost exclusivly on gravel. Yep. 105 miles of gravel tomorrow. Am I ready?



uh, in a word, I don't think so.


See, I had grand plans of riding all winter long on the Pugsley. While I DID ride it, it was generally so butt chillingly cold, than I chickened out and surfed the interwebs instead. Or ate potato chips and dip. Or drank healthy dark beers. This is all evidneced in my gut. Guess you could say I've got some on board energy suppliments.

So anyways. I got this thing tomorrow. I might survive. I might not. You can be sure there'll be pictures forthcoming.


Other than that, I've been super busy at the shop here. Spring has certainly sprung, and people want to get out and ride their bikes.

Trail building is going well. We have almost 3.5 to miles flagged out, and about half that cut/roughed in. We'll start hitting it hard in the next few weeks here, in the hopes that we'll have something ridable soon. I promise I'll update this here blog on a more regular basis too!

Breaking in the season.

We're getting quite busy here at the shop. I already have a TON of repairs to keep up on. Its been a little tough getting back into the swing of it, knocking out repairs, talking to customers, placing orders, paying bills, etc. I had such a good handle of that last year. I know I'll get it back, and soon. I love having stuff to do.

Been out riding too. Gotta get ready for the Ragnarok 105. At this point, I'm just hoping to survive. Plans were afoot to put in 60ish miles today - but radar is showing a cold rain heading this way. I don't mind cold, and I don't mind rain, but that combination? Hrm, not so much. I'll find a way to make it all up.


For Jason. Kinda hard to find a midwest photographer that doesn't like the old barn theme. Its amazing how much they say, with out saying anything.


The road ahead.


Rider.

We've got stickers on the way[bigish bumper style], and more Tshirts are coming too. I've been cleaned out in terms of clothes lately, so expect to see more shorts and jersey's in soon too!

We're also starting trail building sessions at Badger Camp. Last year, Ryan and I were out there doing a lot of marking, but little to no construction work. That's changed this year. We have enough marked that we decided to get out and start digging yesterday. And it felt good. We got between a 1/2 and 3/4 of a mile complete, ready to ride. We'll take the Pugsley's out to pack in the next few days, and BAM!, just like that some ridable trail. No pictures though, forgot the camera at home. I fail. Next time though! We're going to start up a regular work session day out there soon. Probably two Sunday's a month. I've got the email group set up, just have to emial all who were interested.

The season is just starting to get good, and I'm getting excited. Get out and ride!

Listening to: The Replacements//Let it Be

Things I like: the Cane Creek 100 Headset

Remember this? The first installment was on the Andrews King Cage, way back on like my third post here. I meant to keep it up more frequently than that. I think it'll just end up being one of those infrequent things that comes up when I find something that really impresses me.

Like these headsets! For a long time, if you wanted a quality headset, you had Chris King(no relation to the above cages!), then maybe highend Shimano or Campy. That was it. Nada. Sure there were upstarts back in the CNC era, but none of them really stood a chance against the King juggernaut.

Until the threadless era came about. Dia Compe(now Cane Creek) came up with a simple collar to aid in bearing compression. Everyone who makes threadless headsets licenses this split ring. Everyone save for King. And this is where King fails in my mind. Sure, nice headsets, they come in pretty colors, and they charge an aweful lot for them.

From new bikes

That green thing? Yep, thats the ring. Now integrated into my pick for the best headset on the market.

Why do I think its so good? Good enough to best the king of them all, King? King once had the market on sealed bearings. They were the first to really perfect the sealed bearing in this application. It took a long time to match thier quality. Welp, good for us consumers, sealed bearing technology has caught up. The bearings in the 100 are quite nice, moving effortlessly even under finger pressure.

From new bikes

From new bikes

The way the parts are machined are very high quality. Everything fits together just so well. Like any high quality part should. The spacers have nice collars machined into them, kind of like a nesting set. The taller one is even relieved on its interior. Nice touch.

I think my favorite part though is the fact that there's not a logo to be seen. Its a very subtle headset that doesn't scream how much you spent! Speaking of spending, that's probably the best part of this whole deal. For something with easily the quality of King(not to mention a better warranty), it retails for well under a $100! Heh, I could even have to your door for under $100.

Yep. I like this headset. A lot.

Listening to: KDEC, Decorah, IA. 100.5, www.kdec.com

Singular Swift = Ridden!

It was one of those rare moments we have this time of year here. 99% of the snow has been melted off, leaving dirt behind in the woods. Typically, this means traveling in the woods is not recommended as the temperatures are above freezing, but not really warm enough to dry things out.

Such is not the case today. As I type its 16°f. When I rode this afternoon, temps were in the low 20°'s. With last nights single digits, I was guaranteed a nice frozen trail to ride! So I slaved away at work, eagerly anticipating my first date with the Swift.

I wasn't disappointed.

The bike handles very well. Steering is easy, almost effortless. Changing direction happens quickly, but not so fast that you can't recover from any mistakes. There really is a remarkably light touch to flipping the bike through the trees. Nice! Sam did a really fantastic job in coming up with the geometry on this bike. I know he did some voodoo with the front end trail figures. Stuff that I really haven't been able to wrap my head around quite yet. What ever he did, it works. And well.



Climbing was another revelation. A while back, I owned a bike that many considered a benchmark for how it rode. Specifically, how it climbed. I could never get on with that bike. It left my stable pretty fast. This bike though. Night and day difference. Scampers right up climbs easy as pie. Standing and hammering suits it well. Positioning on the bike is spot on with a flat bar and short, flat stem. Seated climbing was much the same, but I didn't really get to test that part today.




Listening to: Iron + Wine//Boy With a Coin