jeremyridesbikes

Three US cycling orgs agree to merge

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 10:34:16 -0800

This is an interesting development. I hope they can come together and unite under one voice for us.

Bikes Belong, the League of American Bicyclists, and Alliance for Biking & Walking, hope to become one organization.

Leaders of the Alliance for Biking & Walking, Bikes Belong, and the League of American Bicyclists Leaders met in San Diego, on February 13-14th and have issued a joint statement announcing they are to merge.

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Click the link to read more from BikeBiz.com

QBP wages Web war at Frostbike UPDATE

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 10:27:57 -0800

QBP wages Web war at Frostbike UPDATE:

There was some updating done on the previous article from BRAIN. It makes more sense now. Also, check out bikehugger.com and the resulting Facebook/G+ conversations they had over there.

We live in exciting times.

FSA brings wheelbuilding to Washington

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 10:22:18 -0800

FSA brings wheelbuilding to Washington:

Moving assembly back to the states makes sense from a bottom line perspective. Could we see more of this in the industry?

+++

MUKILTEO, WA (BRAIN) Feb 24, 09:18 MT—FSA technicians will start hand-building a small number of Vision wheels at the company’s Seattle-area North American headquarters this spring with the eventual goal of assembling all the brand’s aftermarket wheelsets in-house.

FSA, which owns Vision, will start the project this spring with Vision’s new top-of-the-line Metron 81 carbon fiber wheels. Depending on how that goes, FSA would expand assembly to include all Vision and FSA wheels for the North American aftermarket, said Fletch Newland, FSA’s marketing manager. About 40 percent of Vision’s wheels are sold in the aftermarket.

“We have not had an assembly set up for our wheels previously so we’ll start off still sourcing some,” Newland said. FSA currently imports wheels assembled from the TH Industries’ factory in Taichung. TH, parent company of FSA, runs a dedicated carbon fiber rim production facility and also builds all hubs in-house. Spokes are sourced from a third party.

Shifting assembly to North America will reduce import duties, helping to keep prices competitive and potentially increase margins, Newland said. Duties on wheelsets are 10 percent from Taiwan. Hubs are duty free, rims are 1.8 percent and spokes are 10 percent, but more spokes can be packed into a container than complete wheels.

Future me? Someday….

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 10:00:05 -0800

Future me? Someday….

zendoughnut: Free Forest Park! Stickers will be available next...

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 17:11:14 -0800

zendoughnut:

Free Forest Park! Stickers will be available next week on the store.

Here at Zendoughnut we love our dirt.

Whether it be riding around in circles in the fall listening to cowbell and drums or flying through the woods in the summer listening to the bees. While it is great to drive out to Sandy or to Tillamook State Forest to ride we would really love to have something closer to ride. Forest Park in Portland is one of the nations largest city parks and covers an amazing amount of land (5100 acres). We want to ride it and enjoy it like the other trail users! There have been many attempts to open up the trails to cycling on multiple occasions. All of which failed due to random stalling or NIMBY’s blocking access.

This sticker is a venting and an awareness tool. We could just ride the hiking trails at night like los banditos. But in the end that just gets us cyclists bad press and actually works against the cause. A simple sticker won’t change the world, but can be an effective tool to affect change. One of the cores of ZD is to affect social change. Here is one way we can help.

75% of the proceeds from this sticker go directly towards the NWTA our local IMBA chapter. They have fought for and have built some sweet trails for us. Please help out and put a cool sticker on your car, bike, or dog. Or click on the link and donate to the NWTA directly.

Focusing on the doughnut,

Jeremy

NOTE: After the stickers sell through. I will donate the moneys earned to NWTA and then I will be releasing the image above as Creative Commons Commercial Use License so others can use it.

Free Forest Park! by Jeremy Schroeder is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

I pulled the trigger and ordered up a bunch of Free Forest Park! stickers. Check out the zendoughnut store to order. 75% of sales goes to the NWTA for trail building and access rights.

Please contribute and get a sticker.

Jeremy

note: Sticker are designed for indoor/outdoor use.

One of the things I use to say while getting radiation treatment was “Where the heck are my...

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 13:00:05 -0800

One of the things I use to say while getting radiation treatment was “Where the heck are my super powers?!?”

#random

Ever lose a fork on a crash? How about on a jump. Watch this.

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 10:00:06 -0800

Ever lose a fork on a crash? How about on a jump. Watch this.

Time lapse from ISS. Sit back and enjoy our planet. Kind of...

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 21:39:02 -0800

Time lapse from ISS. Sit back and enjoy our planet.

Kind of makes you realize how small we are.

First ride on the Titus FTM carbon WOW. I miss being on squishy...

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 15:32:48 -0800

First ride on the Titus FTM carbon

WOW. I miss being on squishy bikes. This bike is too much fun. I have been on a hard tail 29er for about 2 years now. There is something to be said about preloading before an obstacle and popping up over it instead of bashing straight through it. I know that has nothing to do with this bike, but it has to be said. It is almost like being a monk locked in a monastery for years and then visiting Portland on vacation. You’d be hard pressed to walk back in to the monastery.

The Actual Ride

It was rainy and muddy up around Saltzman and Firelane 5 this morning. It is to be expected for the end of February. It just means slow down a bit going around corners, and your wife will have a conniption if you bring those dang muddy clothes in the house. I figured I would ride down F5 and back up Saltzman, a short ride but being the closest trail to me it would have to do before the workday began.

Firelane 5 is all down hill and Saltzman is all up, unless you take them in reverse. F5 is mostly double track/unimproved road until the bottom section which is twisty singletrack. Saltzman is a road, err unpaved stretch of scenery. I’ve ridden all my bikes on it so it proves to be a good short tester.

The FTM, being a trail, bike eats this stuff up for breakfast. Having ample suspension both front and rear brings smiles all around. I found myself going a little faster and pushing a little harder through the techy stuff. I didn’t think about the suspension as I was making my way down hill. Which as you know from my previous posts this is a good thing.

The FSR type suspension has been around for a while and as I posted before, feels comfy to me. I know what the bike is going to do and it does it. The new thing to me is the Rockshox Monarch doing the business on the rear end instead of Fox. You have a couple settings (Rebound, Air pressure, and Floodgate) which make it dead simple to setup. A funny thing happened and I left the Floodgate closed this whole ride. I guess I didn’t need it.

I mentioned on twitter last night that I love the thru-axle. Having one on the front should be mandatory for longer travel forks. some may say it is a “nice to have” but once you actually ride with one on your everyday trails it really make them more fun. When you put the wheel somewhere it actually goes there with no complaints. My only complaint is now I will need a new fork, front wheel, and rack. ;)

The bottom line

I am not one to tell you to buy this bike or that bike. I think you are big boys and girls and can make that decision on your own. If you are in the market for a carbon trail bike I definitely would put this one on your list to check out.

Titus sells the frames online ($1199) or full builds (X9/Rockshox)($3299) at their location in Portland. Contact me if you are in the area and want to see it I may or may not let you ride it :)

Final note: The Crank Bros wheels are niiiiiiice!

Before getting her dirty

Taken at speed

The road out.

I now have a merino wool jersey, thanks to On-One/Planet X....

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 19:54:54 -0800

I now have a merino wool jersey, thanks to On-One/Planet X. Thanks guys, this will come in handy always here in the never ending rain.

The stickers are to give out to peeps at the trail building day on Sunday.

Initial photos and thoughts on the Titus Carbon FTM. I dropped...

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 19:15:52 -0800

Initial photos and thoughts on the Titus Carbon FTM.

I dropped by to see the folks at Titus today to pick up a new fun bike to play with for the week. I am planning on attending the NWTA tail build day out at L.L. Stub Steward on Sunday so I figured it would be fun to take something out there to play with after digging in the dirt. The FTM is Titus’ 135mm (5.31 inches) travel trail bike with 26 inch wheels. It comes in carbon and aluminum.

The medium sized frame given to me has a 13.25 inch BB height and slacker 69.25 degree head tube angle. The suspension is handled by Rockshox with a Pike on the front and a Monarch RT3 on the back. Shifting is handled by the workhorse XT line from Shimano and braking by Magura. Amazingly some Crank Bros Cobalt wheels were also on the bike. I have been wanting to test these wheels for a long time now.

My initial thoughts of the bike are that this thing would be the bike to sway me back from the 29er team. I made the move a couple of years ago and haven’t ridden a small wheel since. I am also really excited to be back on a FSR type rear suspension package. It is the last type of suspension that I actually felt comfortable with riding up and down trails. The frame itself is a masterpiece to behold with internal cable routing and inset graphics [Pictured above].

Internal cable routing and smooth lines

One more picture of the inset graphic.

I think I may sneak out early in the morning to get an early morning ride in on it. It is that type of bike, that makes you want to get up a 6AM to ride.

More thoughts to come as I put some miles in on it.

Jeremy

Titus FTM link. Online shop link.

Carbon FTM in the Element. Pumped

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 14:50:42 -0800

Carbon FTM in the Element. Pumped

Empty. Best $26 spent on a rack ever. I built this in 2008...

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 13:28:19 -0800

Empty.

Best $26 spent on a rack ever. I built this in 2008 when we got the Element.

There is an article in the WSJ today that reports on how our...

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 10:17:45 -0800

There is an article in the WSJ today that reports on how our clothes are bad for us. Especially you hipsters with the tight jeans. Here is my suggestion:

We as a planetary decision make the move to the 60’s style SciFi clothing.

After the UN resolution mandating a human fashion #2049 we can then move into Buck Rogers type fashions. I see nothing but a good fashion future for humanity.

QBP wages Web war at Frostbike

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 11:53:35 -0800

QBP wages Web war at Frostbike:

An interesting concept, but in a way it is kind of late to the market in my opinion. QBP should have been helping the LBS ramp up to this years ago. That is the reason they are “losing the war”, Amazon has had years of lead time on this.

I do like it that they are moving in that direction. I hope it goes well. More competition in the market creates a better environment for the customer right?

Quality Bicycle Products founder and president Steve Flagg minced no words in drawing the battle lines: “I believe that our industry is losing the war against the Chain Reactions, the Wiggles, the Amazons,” he told the crowd assembled for Friday’s VIP retailer dinner to kick off Frostbike 2012.

“We think that together with all of you we can address this problem.”

Launching QBP’s “Buy Local Buy Now!” campaign, Flagg sketched out the potential strategy:

Via mobile device, a customer in a shop could log on to a QBP service with access to its stores’ inventory and search for a specific product. A map would pop up indicating the nearest shops that have the product in stock or that will have it in a predetermined number of days.

If a retailer is selected for same-day pickup, the customer would pay for it online and then be asked if they want the product installed at the shop. Flagg noted this would play to local dealers’ key strength and offer what online competitors can’t: service, warranty information and deep product knowledge.

“I believe we have the capacity in 2012 to do this,” he noted.

Looks like Portland’s model is expanding to other major...

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 11:34:02 -0800

Looks like Portland’s model is expanding to other major cities. RE: Sunday Parkways

Families riding bikes, children on roller skates and barely a car in sight; it’s hard to believe this is usually one of the busiest roads in Mexico City.

It’s an eerily calm Sunday morning on the city’s Avenida Reforma, an avenue which is grid-locked on weekdays by tens of thousands of cars sitting bumper-to-bumper. The Reforma’s closure to to car traffic on Sundays in 2007 kickstarted the capital’s attempts to make life easier for cyclists. In 2010 a 17km-long bike lane through the city opened - and more efforts to promote pedal power are being unveiled in the coming few months.

Via BBC

Today was the maiden voyage with the @ruckuscomponent Chain...

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 20:10:15 -0800

Today was the maiden voyage with the @ruckuscomponent Chain Guard. The best thing one could say is the they didn’t notice the fancy new bike component on their bike. The reason this is a great comment is that it means the system is working as designed and they could focus on other things like getting lost in the woods or out-running honey badgers.

This is one of those items. I didn’t notice I had it on. Meaning my front ring is SOLID now. No tossing the chain to the inside and now no tossing the chain to the outside! I would have a chain mishap once every offroad ride with the 1x9 setup on the Karate Monkey. Now nothing. I didn’t even think about the issue at all today. That piece of mind is priceless in my book.

Riding Scappoose. I took the KM out to Scappoose today to clear...

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 19:52:27 -0800

Riding Scappoose.

I took the KM out to Scappoose today to clear the head and get a little dirty. I got up and tossed everything in the Element. One of the good things about breaking the roof rack (twice) is the bikes now go inside. This is the way it should be :)

All packed and ready to go.

Here is the deal with Scappoose: I get lost there every ride. I should know the trails pretty well by now, but everytime I go it is a different season and every trail looks different. I would say that I spend about 60% of the time wondering if I made the right turn, 15% walking or turning around, and 25% actual riding with intent. I love it though because every time I go I find a new route. One day I will learn to link them all and flow.

There are white markers that sort of point you in the right direction and they help out tremendously. Just look for them at trail intersections and go. I would like to thank the blessed soul that put them up over the last year or so.

One of those white markers

Playing find the Monkey [hint: standing in the dark]

I have come to the conclusion after riding today that I am not satisfied with my technique. After watching countless MTB movies and instructional videos I realized that I have become a lazy rider. That is probably the reason why I don’t crash as much as I use to when I first started Mountain Biking. In the late 90’s when I started I would come back from the trail every time either bloody or bruised. I think I need to step up my game a bit and take the next step.

After I fix my style issues.

I Wish Tumblr had a proper comment system

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 19:04:01 -0800

@cyclechick and @croitabhaile have some good responses to the...

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 19:00:03 -0800

@cyclechick and @croitabhaile have some good responses to the bad cycling kit i posted Friday. I won’t link to it, I’m glad it is off the from page. [TMS= Too much sausage]