New to ECBS

Hey this is Devin Perry and I'm new to El Camino Bike Shop. I started working last weekend and it was really cool working for something I love doing which is riding bikes. I'm a second year in college at Mira Costa after attending UC Santa Cruz last year and I'm really stoked that ECBS gave me an opportunity to work for them. I got a new fixie over summer and its probably one of the best things that has happened for me considering it keeps me in shape and saves gas. My buddy Aaron and I ride all the time together thorughout Encinitas, but we are getting kinda bored and want to branch out. If anyone wants to go riding sometime that would be awesome because were always looking for more people to ride with and new places to go. Thanks again ECBS
- Devin Perry

W5 breaks down and does not ride on Wednesday Night

After listening to the rain all day long, Dave Callender breaks down and calls off the Wednesday night ride. Team members Will, Joe and Jose all tell Dave that doing this will be the downfall of the Wednesday night ride.

Only the future can know if their dire predictions come true. For the near future it is true as the next two Wednesday are XMAS eve & New Years Eve and we will not be riding then.

So Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and See you all on Wednesday Jan 7th at 6:30pm with lights a glowing

Tory & Troy watch Swamis Get Dirty drink great beer

Tori and Troy joined us last night for a night ride. Half of the riders try out Demo Bikes from Tori's demo fleet. It was a nice evening ride with Troy, Will & Tory "duking it out" for first up the hill. I was back with Tori and did not see who came out on top. You will have to wait for Will to Blog on his Blog....

Back at my place we had the best post ride social in a while. Tori had most of her wedding cake to share with us, Joe brought his beer tasting glasses, and Will brought some "tasty" Holiday beer.

As you can see by the pictures Tori was very nice to us sharing her cake and after a few beers the W5 gang did not remember that Tori and Troy were watching us drink beer.

January 12 hours of Temecula

How about organizing a few teams for the next 12 hour of Temecula?

I am up for a 4 person "B" Team. We could have 2-3 teams with a few solo/2 person teams. Any interest?

Date: Saturday, January 24, 2009
Where: Vail Lake
Click here for info

Tori & Cannondale Troy Get Married

Tori came out last week to support El Camino Bike Shops Mtn Bike demo and what we did not know until she came out that while she was helping us out (And lending us some cool bikes for the holidays) is that she was also going to get married yesterday.

So after working all day at the Mtn Bike Demo on Black Friday, Tori and Troy took the Red Eye to go to the East Coast to meet the inlaws, few back Monday, got married yesterday and are going to ride the Wednesday night ride tonight.

Thanks Tori and Troy for showing us the REAL MEANING OF "W5"

W5 on Thanksgiving - Two Tower Ride

There were many choices for rides on Thanksgiving, but the pure of heart met with other like minded riders and arrived in San Elijo at 8am for the Turkey W5 ride. We ended up with a committed 6 person group, ready for a new adventure.

W5 manager Mike W was not up to the task of helping lead the group with Will S, so Will had to shoulder the responsibility alone. As you will read below, he bore the responsibility well.

Tori, Cannondale Troy, and I road to the start and it was a good thing that we did, as there was no time for warm up as Will started out on the ride he termed "The ride of the Two Towers". The towers are the two highest hills in the San Elijo area where the telephone repeater towers are located.

I was ready for anything as Tori had loan me a sweet 19" GF Superfly hardtail. Weighting in around 20lbs I wanted to prove I could keep up with the big boys (ie Will). The bike did not let me down as we climbed around 2500 ft in about 5 miles and stayed in the hunt as we road to the Two Towers.

The views were sweeping and the company first class.

12 Hours of Temecula Nov. 15th 2008

Hey look at me with my first blog. Dave I hope your happy. So we raced hard last weekend and finished 2nd again. Damn I really wanted to win this year. We raced a great race and had zero mechanical problems, but the Intense team had a "ringer" and they kicked our ass. Luckily for us we had a fast 13th lap or we would have finished 3rd. So here is how it went down:

We raced the hotly contested 4 man team category which had a record 24 teams this time. Out team captain and all around fast guy Joe Pusl started us off with the parade lap and a fast time of 52min for our first lap. I was up next and turned in a 51min lap and we were now 4 minutes in the lead. Then they hit us with the "ringer". Some clown on the Intense team cranked out a 48 min third lap to our 57 minute lap and it was the beginning of the end. Our 4th lap was ridden by Peter Plaisance who was standing in for a sick Mike Wiley aka "Wiley" of W5 fame. Peter rode strong and turned in a 58 min lap, but the Intense team rode a 52. Poor Peter came back a little dirty and bloody, but he was in good spirits.

We started to realize we had our work cut out for us with the Intense team. Joe was up for his second lap and he rode another 53 which was good, but we were still behind. I went next and did my personal best lap of 49 minutes after they had a slight course modification to eliminate a nasty down hill section where many people were getting hurt. I was stoked with my lap time, but the Intense team was still ahead and their ringer was up again and this time he smacked us with a 43 min lap. That lap turned out to be the fastest lap of the day regardless of category.

I wont bore everyone with the rest of the lap times, you can download them and check them out if you want. Sorry Joe, I really wanted to get you a 1st place medal to go with the two 2nd place ones you already have. Maybe next time.

Walking allowed @ 12 hours of Temecula

Shel and Dave... here are some photos my brother found online from the course. Love that the guy has posted a photo of me walking down this hill!!!!! It was so loose. Check out the crash photos....if I was going to have a spectacular crash like that I'd want it on film!!! This hill got SO loose as the day went on with hidden hard dirt patches underneath. Tricky with lots of people wizzing by you!

Swamis W5 race 4 person open @ 12 hrs Temecula

*Swamis W5* raced the "4 person open" category at the 12 hours of Temecula last weekend.
http://www.12hrsoftemecula.com/

Full results should be posted soon. Our "Swamis W5" team was composed of Will "El Camino Bike Shop" Schellenger, Geoff Doyle, Peter "Hair care" Plaisance, and myself.

We completed 13 laps, which is more than we had ever done in the past, but the Intense Cycles Team was too fast and we ended up 2nd of ~20 teams. One of their riders did the fastest lap of the day at 43 minutes. Our lap times ranged from 49 min to 1 hour. Other than that we had a great ride and we held off a hard-charging UC Cyclery team at the end to secure our 2nd place (by only 1 minute; Thanks, Will!).

-JP

The Moms go Solo @ 12 hours of Temecula

Carrie sent me this email -

Shelly and I both had a GREAT time at the 12T race! We both raced solo. The heat got to me early on and I ended up taking a break in the afternoon before riding 2 night laps. Shelly had a great race and charged hard all day and into the night. We both finished doing 5 laps and agreed we could have done one more had the time allowed. 50 miles and 8,000 feet of climbing ain't to shabby for the amount of time we train! We'll be doing the race again in January with a goal of 6 or 7 laps.

This course was a BLAST! One of the races where you don't feel like you are climbing the whole time...lots of fast, fun single track on ridges and rims... spectacular views, great folks out on the course. At times the wind blew hard from behind, then the side, then as a headwind... crazy. The trails got softer as the day went on in some sections making for sandy, loose conditions. We watched some spectacular endos and saw the trail eat a lot of tires and tubes. The one big injury (the one they closed the trail for) was a guy who went off the trail and got a manzanita branch thru the arm. Ouch. From the top of a ridge we saw the medics leaving code 3 with him in the back. I think that was the only serious injury... but lots of scrapes and bruises.

On my last night lap about 8pm Tony went FLYING by me up a steep climb and I didn't realize it was him until he had passed me and I yelled out to him. He was charging hard and I couldn't believe he was still going so fast at that time of the day. We only saw Will once in the staging area as he was waiting to head out.

We took our kids back out on the trail the next morning (we camped all weekend) and they had a blast riding the single track and seeing where their Mom's raced! FUN venue and great atmosphere!

That's our update! See ya soon!

Blue skies, Carrie

PS: NiteRider guy gave me a charger!

Minute by Minute @ 12 hours of Temecula

11 am Saturday
Just got a call from Joe Pusl. There are at least 4 "Get Dirty" teams out on the course:

Four Man Team - Will S / Joe P / Geoff D / Peter P (Pitch hitting for a sick Mike W)
Two Man Team - Tony Breunig
Solo - The Tony B
Not Sure what Team - "The Moms" - Carrie & Shelly

On Will's team - Joe P went out first - Came back in 3rd place for his lap out of 19 team. Joe told me that Will had a blistering lap after him and Geoff is on the course now. Their goal is to do 13 laps in 12 hours - It sounds like the competition is greater this year and they are going to have to ride a perfect 12 hours to make their goal.

2 pm
Joe called again for an update - Will is on his second lap and is going like fire....

Will's first lap was 51 minutes, Joe 1st & 2nd laps were 54 & 53 - Joe told me that on the first lap he had
to do an extra parade lap....Peter & Geoff are doing 56 minutes.

They are in Second place behind the Intense Factory team. Intense has one guy that is in a league by himself doing laps in the high 40s. The rest of the intense team is more like Will and the boys. So right now they are about 10 min down.

So go to church early today and pray for a mechanical on the Intense team

5 pm
Update #3

As of 5pm Team Swamis Get Dirty team is tearing their hearts out, but they are down to Team Intense by 34 minutes. The times are coming down due to a course change (Someone got hurt on another team so they by passed part of the route). This could be to Team Get Dirty as they may be able to the
Optimistic 13th lap.

Wed. Night Ride

Had a special guest at last weeks ride. Tori from TREK WSD showed up with a truck full of bikes for the ladies. Melanie got to ride a Top Fuel 9.8WSD & Maria rode a sweet HiFi Deluxe WSD

Here is a picture of a few of the guys with the Ladies of the night - (L to R) Roger, Melanie, Tori, Ernie, Will & Maria.

Dave picked up two new Nightrider trinewts at Interbike, so unlike other nights, we had plenty of light on Wednesday

Take a look at Melanie and the bike she fell in love with. This is the woman's version of the bike that Lance used to get 2nd place at the 100mile Leadville race.