Rocky Mountain Bike Show

This past weekend, I was showing a few bikes at the 1st annual Rocky Mountain Bike Show. Turnout was pretty good despite the super nice weather. Having shown at Portland last Feb, a local / regional show felt very home like. Most showgoers are from towns along the front range of the Rockies and Colorado being a state popular for cycling, I got to meet a lot of bike nuts.

Apparently, I was the only builder showing a 650b mountain bike and most were very interested to see the semi-translucent finish with the swirl pattern underneath.

Roger's 650b all road bike also received lots of attention, the bike is now in a box ready for its trip out east. I hope Roger will enjoy his new ride and show his bike off to fellow east coast riders.

I am currently working on a special bike, but I will not be updating build pictures for now. It is a special gift from Alex and I think it is best to unveil the bike when it is all ready. So, there may be no new pictures for a little bit, but it will not be too long.

Cheers,

Renold

Travis 29er

Travis had his bike assembled for a couple of weeks and we got together today to take some pictures. For all the shots, go here. He also took some pictures for me while I was working,  maybe I will upload some of them later. 

Fort Collins is GOLD

Wow, check this!

On another note, Peter's bike is done and I am happy how it all turned out.

Our trip to Crested Butte was a very pleasant one, we did some bike rides and chilled out playing Monopoly at night by the wood fire. The scenery there cannot be beat and I have attached a few memorable shots here.

Another impressive encounter was during our first day driving out to Salida. We stopped at the Safeway at Frisco for a break and some lunch and met a couple that inspires me much. I first saw Scott and Paulie right before we turned into the Safeway store, they were riding their bikes across the road. I noticed that they were older, and did not pay further attention. While we were enjoying our lunch, they returned, only after about 20 minutes. They actually stopped right next to us and this time I noticed Scott's bike has a bike rack at the back and was carrying an oxygen tank. It is connected directly to his nostrils. I was impressed and inspired at the same time, here we were at about 9000 feet altitude and this older gentleman is riding his bike despite the fact that he was using oxygen support. He told us he had been to Alaska this past summer and was advised by his doctor to use the oxygen for a while to acclimatise. Whatever the reason, it shows me that there are a lot of hardships in life but we sometimes make it bigger than it is. Here is a picture of Scott and Paulie.

650b rocks

The past few weeks I was working on a new 650b mtb and was quite happy with the result. This is built for myself and also for a bit of front end testing / experimentation. The pictures here shows a rigid fork from an earlier 29er, and an old Psylo XC fork is also ready for test in the near future.

A quick build into a single speed before paint promises the instant gratification in me and a test ride was had at Lory State Park the next day. The bike feels great, and there is no complain so far.

Leigh and I had a very nice long weekend, and I am ready to start building the next bike. A cross bike for Peter. I think this will help him in his college career and give him a foundation to win some races. Pictures to follow on Flickr for sure.

This is the best time of the year here and we are taking a short trip to Crested Butte in a week. Can't wait. 

A recent review

In the past few weeks, I have been busy building a 29er for Travis and also patiently waiting for a frame to return from paint. The frame came back and was prepped and shipped this Monday to TBE. It will be there for demo and display.

While the same time, I had one of my 650b road bike tested by 650b.com. The 2 part review is here and here. I am glad to read the positive feedback and accordingly there will be another part of the review that is more generic to the whole concept of road bikes with 650b wheels. 

This week I am starting another 650b bike, a mountain bike this time, no pictures yet, but will surely post them as they become available.

Have a good week.

A sad day in Fort Collins

It is a sad day in Fort Collins. I attended a memorial of a fellow rider, Rebecca Allen, who died after severe head trauma caused by a drunk driver hitting her and her riding partner from behind.

Her riding partner, Jennifer Garvey, is wife of my friend and colleague at Lee's Cyclery. She was injured but was able to attend. 

Many cyclists answered the call to attend the memorial and Lee's Cyclery actually closed both stores for almost 3 hours so staff members can attend the mid day service.

Be safe out there. But I am not sure how we can avoid drunk or unfriendly drivers.