Best Crash Award

Best crash award from last weekend's CX race. Guy won the $24 cash kitty. Nice.

Last teaser

Phone.

It's not working. I'll be getting one today.

If you need to, call 507 581 6198 to get a hold of me today. Thanks.

Fargos inbound!

With the early response from my bike, coupled with some pretty killer pricing from Salsa on XT speced 2009 bikes, I'll be getting a few Fargos in tomorrow. I have a Medium frameset in stock, and we will be getting a Medium and Large complete for stock as well. These will compliment our inventory of Fisher and Redline 29ers really well. It will also be nice to have bikes available for test rides. If anyone would like, my personal bike is available for more true to form tests. Stop in and I'll show you around the excellent local trails, or point you in the direction of some good gravel. This is one of those bikes you really have to ride to experiance, and it's all good.

Our Redline 2010 order should be arriving soon this week as well. On the truck are a nice compliment of Monocog 29ers, a D440 or two, and Some really nice BMX racing and trick bikes. Christmas is coming, stop in to shop for friends and family or yourself! We offer gift certificates in any amount as well. Let me know if we can get something going for you.

Happy Tuesday.

Fargo Morning.

With the promise of the best morning in weeks, I woke up early this morning. I've had the Fargo put together for a few days now, but haven't had a good time to ride. After stopping at the bank and grabbing a cup of coffee, I drove to the shop. Suited up at a little past eight, I headed out to the local trails.

Despite owning the shop for five years now, I heard of some new trails in town that I had not known about. I think it was a happy coincidence that my new bike designed for exploring new places would get to do just that it's first time out.

New trail enters along the Straight River. The trail is largely hidden from view, but is quit obvious once you're on it. It's been very well built. I'm not sure who built it, but I have an idea, and they deserve a big thank you. This is really well done and rather sustainable.
Lots of little exposed river bluffs. It's rather steep here and the Fargo's low and long stature really clawed into the hill. Climbing traction is really quite good. Turning around and rolling down is also quite easy and enjoyable. as the geometry would suggest, the slack head angle and lower slung stance really makes for a confident descender.

Lots of swoopy little loops match the Fargo's nature rather well. Rather than quick, sharp steering inputs, this bike loves to carve flowing runs through the woods. I love the color as well!

Old standby photo shot of the old cave tunnels. The artwork is always a little different and it's fun to see what the kids come up with. River side flowing single track.
This was a really cool place. Huge earthen walls on either side of this ravine lead to the coolest culvert I've seen in a long time. Views like this abound on this new section of trail. It's really one of the best quality trails for its size down here. A mangled old tricycle hangs above the trail at a highpoint overlook. Defiantly art crafted by time.
In short review, the Fargo is great. I love how it rides, the color and spec works rather well for how I'm going to be using it, and I just love the cruiser feel of it. It's a solid performer on all fronts. It's a true standout in terms of uniqueness and performance. I look forward to perusing some Rice County gravel on Monday on this bike. I'll update more on my initial thoughts then.

Components are a total parts bin mismatch, but work well enough for me. The wheels are 36h XT's laced to Flows with butted spokes and brass nipples. Brakes are road BB7's with Cane Creek Levers. Tires are XDX 2.1"s. The drive train is a mutt. 950 XTR cranks, Mountain LX 7 spd front der, XT 8 spd rear der, and a XT 9 spd cassette and chain round it all out. Believe it or not this all works quite well together. Shimano barcons really are probably to thank for the ease of use.

On a totally unrelated front, the St Olaf Back to School CX Race is tomorrow. Come on out and watch or participate in one the hardest, most unique races on the circuit this year! Cheers, have a great weekend!

Fargo

After waiting far too long to buy one, my Salsa Fargo will be here tomorrow. It'll take a bit to build, but here's a preview. I'm excited to say the least. It'll be a few weeks of new bikes here. Stop by and check them out if you can. Cheers.
Also, the debate for parts. Vintage LX/XT or 952 XTR? Discuss.

Gravel Tour Recap

Sunday's gravel tour was as good as I could have hoped for. We had a total of 30 riders from all over the Midwest. The day stated off a bit cool, with broken cloud cover. The sun broke through about 45 min into the ride, and the weather cooperated for the rest of the day. The roads were perfect, just tacky enough for there to be little dust. Many had been freshly grated and were near tar hard. All in all the whole day was as perfect as it could have been. The scenery was awesome, the company was the best, the food was great, and I'm sure there will be a lot of memories taken away from the weekend.

Many people need thanking for making this possible. First to Sean and Anna Virnig. Sean's passion for this type of riding and eagerness to share it are key to making stuff like this possible. Thanks to Anna for the wonderful lunch that kept us going up the harder second part of the ride. Thanks to Jim Wellbrock for being largely responsible for the wonderful route and help planning this out before hand. Thanks to my parents and wife Meg for putting together dinner afterward. Finally thank you to everyone who came out and rode. It really wouldn't have been anything without you. Cheers.

For a slide show of amazing pictures from the day check out www.GnatLikes.com Photos from Jason really capture the feeling of the day. More guys will have photos up soon, and I will post links to their pages as well.

Gravel Tour Tomorrow.

All's good to go for the tour. We are on to leave Dennison at 10 am. Come if you can and enjoy the day with us!

Plan again is for a 50 mile total ride. Lunch will be served in between with a light dinner and beverages afterward at Milltown Cycles.

Cheers.

New Tape

What color do you want?

Potts

It's done. That is all.

Gravel Tour

Everything is on for Sunday. We will plan to leave Dennison MN at 10 am. This is a tentative leaving time, meaning a 10 am roll out. Please be there and ready to go by 10, don't show up at 10 and make guys wait.

People have emailed and asked what to bring for the ride. We will have a lunch, and probably dinner afterward for food. There will be water fill ups half way through the ride, but not before. Basically, if you show up as you would for a non supported club ride you'll be well fed and in good shape. Things like riding snacks and water should be brought, but there will be food for meals provided.

I am needing a head count to get an idea of what to prepare for food. If you are coming or know people who are, please let me know here or in an email. This will help us avoid running out of food or being surprised. Remember, it's Sunday, so an accurate count for purchasing an appropriate number of adult beverages is needed as well.

I hope we have a large turn out. The weather looks to be good, the roads are in great shape, and the colors are still on a lot of the trees. If it all goes like it should, this should be a great little ride! Take care, please let me know of any questions you might have. See you on the dirt!

Pinwheel of Death

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6uKXBvLIkU

Pinwheel of Death and course vid. Cheers all. Hope to see you come out.

St Olaf CX Race

Jake and I are putting on the St Olaf Back to School cross race again this year with the St Olaf Cycling team. The date is November 8th, and it's going to be another good one. Notable features such as the Sledding Hill run up, and the infamous Pinwheel of Death will be making their triumphant return to MN CX racing. Come on out to race or watch, this is going to be good!

Trek and Fisher Demo Weekend

It's that time of year again, fall Demo season. Trek and Fisher will be holding demos this weekend at Lebanon Hills and Murphy Hanrehan parks. They will be out at Leb on Saturday 10-3 and Murph from 10-3 on Sunday. For those of you south of us, Friday 1-6 Trek will be having a demo in Lacrosse at the Human Powered Trails. Happy Monday.

Tom's Madone.

Tom picked up his gorgeous new Project One Madone yesterday. Colored in simple black with red decals, it's really sharp. The decals seem to jump off of the frame, and the depth of the black is impressive. The red is picked up as a detail on the Bontrager parts, making for a really balanced looking bike. The bike is speced with full SRAM Red components, Bontrager ACC 5.0 carbon wheels, and Bontrager Blade carbon bars. Weight as pictured is 16.1 lbs. With no weight limit or riding restriction on any part, this is a race level bike that Tom can easily enjoy for years to come. Let us know if we can build one of these for you. If you have any questions about it the Project One series of bikes, check out Trek's Project One Website, or give us a call. We'd love to help you get into one of these beauties. Have a great weekend, and enjoy the weather if you're around here! It may make it to 60 deg tomorrow, time to hit the gravel. Cheers.