Free Tubeless Tire Conversion Seminar @ El Camino Bike Shop

Wednesday April 29th from 6-8pm
Here is the link:
http://tinyurl.com/cyzomo

Join Our own 29ER Guy (Will S.) and find out how to convert your Mtn Bike wheels to tubeless technology. Bontranger & Stans conversions will be presented.

What you need:

• Very little mechanical ability to install.
• Your existing non tubeless wheels or tubeless ready wheels

What you get:

• Fun evening with the mountain biking gang - AKA Swamis Gets Dirty
• 29ER Guy showing you the secret ins & outs of perfect tubeless conversions.
• Your lightweight wheel set can be converted to a tubeless set up with only 56 grams of added weight per wheel. Saving hundreds of dollars over purchasing new wheels.
• You will be able to keep using your lightweight tires and not be limited to buying expensive and much heavier tubeless specific tires.
• You can lose anywhere from 100 grams up to 400 grams of rotating weight per wheel set.
• Lower the air Pressure of your tires for better traction and ride and not worry about the dreaded pinch flat.

Gary Fisher Superfly SS are all gone

Sorry - But there are no more Superfly SS frames available... They are all gone

Limited Edition Gary Fisher Superfly SS Available NOW!

You heard correctly! The famed carbon 29er is available in very limited quantities as a single speed. Will S our very own 29ER Guy has secured a very limited quantities of sub 18LB 29ER SS Framesets. Check it out here.

29ER guy has a nice write up on the bike here.

Gary Fisher Superfly SS - First Ride/Review

I unveiled the new ride this morning on the Friday morning executive ride. Mike M, Dave C and I met at 6:30 sharp in La Costa. I gave Mike the privilege of lifting the bike out of the back of my truck. He was in awe. He could not believe the weight (or should I say lack of weight) of the new ride. He commented on how it felt like a road bike.

Thanks to Mike W for dropping off a rear cog for me to complete the project. It was not the 20 I wanted, but a 21 proved to work just fine. I went with a White Brothers Carbon rigid fork for the front. I also added some nifty Bontrager Race-X-Lite carbon bar ends that I discovered the last time I was in Wisconsin at TREK. Shimano XTR brakes, Truvative crank and Bontrager wheels round out the package. I was very pleased with the maden voyage. No mechanical problems and no adjustments were needed. I was pleased to see how well the rear wheel held even with the horizontal dropouts. I had been concerned that it might pull sideways under a heavy load, but it was not a problem.

I think I am going to have a lot of fun on this thing. It acceclerates out of the swith back turns effortlessly. The rigid front fork is great for out of the saddle climbing and bar-ends are great for yanking on the bars.

And the best part we found out we can get a few more.... Check it out.

Superfly SS Still Not Ready For Prime Time

Us 29er guys have it hard. I am having a tough time finding a rear cog that will give me the correct gearing for my new ride. There are plenty of cogs out there for the 26" wheel guys, but I need something a little bigger to go with my BIG WHEELS. Some people have been asking me about the Superfly SS frame and how it works so I thought I would share a few more photos.

The frame has horizontal rear drop-outs that allow you to slide the rear wheel back and forth to get the correct chain tension without using a heavy eccentric BB or a hokey chain tensioner.
The frame also has a slick "sliding" mount for the rear brake caliper so that you can re-position the brake after moving the wheel. I have seen this on some custom made steel frames from small builders, but never on a carbon frame.
I wanted to ride this bike tomorrow night on the Wednesday Night Mt. Ride, but I am not sure it is going to happen. Stay tuned.

Superfly SS - FINALLY HERE

After 7 months of waiting the GaryFisher Superfly Single Speed frame has arrived. I ordered this frame at the TREK dealer show in Wisconsin last August. It is a limited edition "not for the public" frame based on the very popular carbon 29er Superfly from Gary Fisher.

I will be building it up over the next few days using various parts that I have picked for the occasion. What I can tell you now is that it is going to be extremely light. My Carver aluminum 96er frame was light, but this thing is silly light. I think the built bike will be around 18lbs. Oh yeah.

Predictions for the 12 hours of Temecula

As a now veteran of two 12 hour races at Temecula and having ridden the course for the upcoming race this Saturday I thought it might be fun to give my predictions.
First the Swami A team. I feel they have a good chance to win the 4 person open. Historically the January race has had fewer entrant's so the odds are with them. When we raced last November there were 24 four man teams. Last January only 6 teams signed up for the event. The event has been gaining popularity though so maybe this weekends race will see more four man teams than last year.
I rode the upcoming course last weekend with two of the riders from the Swami A team, Skyler and Jose and let me say they both are very strong. I predict Skyler to do a sub 40 min lap and perhaps even have one of the fastest laps of the day. Jose on the other hand has come a long way on the mountain bike. If his arms or (guns) as he calls them hold up he should be able to turn very respectable lap times as well. I have also had the opportunity to ride with both John Abate and Bob Winston and both of them can ride a mountain bike and should be able to turn sub 50 min lap times on this course. With a little luck I see this team taking home the first place medals.
Second is the Swami B team or Bee team as Dave Callender is calling them. Here is a team that has some experience, but they also have Dave. I predict that Dave will drive them all nuts with his rambling about blogging and twitter (you know I love ya Dave) or perhaps Jose will sabotage Dave's bike after the comments Dave made about Jose being the team mechanic to everyone and ultimately the team will implode before the 12 hours are up. Sorry guys 12 hours is a long time to hang out together.
Third up is the "fun loving" team of Ann, Mike, Mark Yap and Fred Muir. I think Ann has enough experience and grace to hold this team together long enough to end up on the podium. I know Mike Martin and Mark Yap are fit enough to compete so if they can keep out of trouble I see them in the top three.
The IBR team is an unknown for me and who cares about the single speed idiots. As for the people going solo, more power to ya, my back hurts just thinking about it. Good luck you guys. I look forward to following the race this Saturday.

Will

Epic Mountain Bike Rides

Epic mountain bike rides. That's the subject of today's post. I define an epic ride as one lasting at least 3 hours and having lots of climbing and beautiful scenery. A truly epic ride is one where you get in trouble with your significant other for not being home on time and you also have no energy left to do the things you promised them the night before. I had just such a ride this past Sunday on the San Juan Trail in Orange County. San Juan trail is off the Ortega highway about 45 minutes north of my home in San Marcos. It is currently my favorite ride. The loop I do is about 18 miles and has about 3K feet of climbing. My partners for the day were fellow ECBS guys Jose Quintero and Ernie Escobar.

Jose is trying to become a mountain biker, or at least trying to compliment his road miles with some off road training. For both Jose and Ernie it would be their first "epic" mountain bike ride. It was fun for me to be the veteran ATB rider taking the guys out for their first big ride. I warned them to bring enough food and water and come well rested with a good breakfast. It was a perfect day, sunny skies with cool air and the conditions were perfect. The recent rain storms and the sunny cool air combined to make what mountain bikers refer to as "hero dirt". For those of you who haven't heard the expression, hero dirt makes everything you do on the bike perfect. You can carve turns better, you can brake harder, and you can climb pitches that were impossible before, in short your a "hero". It was the perfect "epic" mountain bike ride.

29ER lore @ ECBS - Where did it all start?

Wow how lucky were we to have a garage full of 29er demo bikes for the month of January. If you have not had a chance to do a real off road ride on a "big wheel" mountain bike than now is your chance. This whole demo thing has got me thinking about 29ers and my own experience with them. Those who know me know I go through a lot of bikes. I do that for two reasons first because I can, and second because I enjoy experimenting. Every now and then I sell a bike only to realize months later that I really miss it.

The Gary Fisher X-Caliber was just such a bike. It was about 3 years ago that I owned it and it was my first 29er bike. The X-Cal was an aluminum hardtail with SRAM x-9 level components and an 80mm Rock Shox Reba fork. At the time I also owned a Titus Racer-X 4 inch travel full suspension bike. I still remember when I discovered the wonder of the big wheels. It was on a ride at Flight Line in Carlsbad (which is now closed those bastards). There was one particular rocky down hill section that I had ridden once before on my Titus, but it was quite difficult and scarey enough that I was hesitant to ride it again. I decided to try it on the X-Cal and to my suprise I found it easier. At first it didn't make sense, the Titus was a 4 inch travel bike front and rear and had a better fork, brakes, wheels and everything else. But what the Titus didn't have was 29" wheels. Thats right the 29" wheels made all the difference through the technical rock garden. I have since sold the Titus and the X-Cal, but I am sold on the 29" wheels. I will talk more about my current rides in another post.