Current Work

So this past weekend the folks at Lone Wolf Cycling (a start up clothing company) had an event that proved to be a rather large happening. I received a call early last week from a buddy asking if he could borrow my bike. I figured since I am lame and barely have time to ride no better way to become part of the action than lending a bike!

I also received a few ride reports from others and felt a need to blog about them. It is nothing short of a cut and paste but here are two reports and some photos to match:

Report one- "The trails were pretty soft and felt a little bad about going thru Pennypack though it wasnt much and it was early. I caught the main part of the group at the first beer stop. PBR...figures. From there it was on the road till some industrial shit, rail corridor with gravel and eventually atv trails. Thats when the mud started, peanut butter style. I manage to keep really decent balance for not being used to that bike. It felt great and everything worked flawlessly, that Shimano group is bad ass.

I ended up in a group that was cranking and we hit some train tracks thinking we were supposed to ride them...We werent.. they were live tracks we figured it out about 1mi or so in but not before i found ice to fall through with water that was about 10in deep. We reversed path and went thru some more trails, gravel roads and pavement.

From there it was biz as usual but riding down train tracks sucks. The course was pretty fun but seemed like it was designed to annoy at points.Got lost a couple more times didnt mind.

The final part of the course was gravel climbs opposite of the Pine Rd. lot finishing with a decent that was gravel and then grass with a 90deg right turn at the bottom. This is where I wrecked your bike awesomely with everyone watching trying to take the turn full blast. Both the bike and I made it through fine.

I attached a pic of the aftermath. Thanks for letting me borrow it. Its a really nice bike and changed my mind on Ti. It climbs like a beast. I could probably get used to the smaller tires even...you can whip it around things without even thinking. "

Report two: "I rode the Crazy Train ride this weekend. The bike kicked ass. I rode in the larger gear combo - I switched to it in the parking lot right before the ride started - it's a snap to do. After performing a single speed conversion in the field for a Bicycle Therapy rider (Angela) with a ripped off rear derailleur, and hearing about many more field SS conversions on the ride, I have even more appreciation for the commitment to single speed riding. The 38-16 combination is just about perfect, unless the trail gets so steep or muddy or technical - but then running it is totally a fine option. No technical issues whatsoever - the brakes braked, the drivetrain drove. It was icy and muddy and relentless slop that would dry on the road sections and just gunk up the works. People were chainsucking and seizing up all over the place. Not me! The tubeless tires were super important, especially riding on the railroad tie railbeds - they took a pounding for about 20 straight minutes of riding the railbed ties and, although it felt like I bottomed out the rim a coupe of times, no problems. Two of my biggest problems ... solved. Now I can ride more aggressively, faster and with more power knowing that I don't have to approach things so gingerly. I was able to clean ridiculous log overs and rock piles with all of the clearance and the brakes that actually braked permitted me to set up the technical stuff in a pack of riders that were bailing and clogging up the trails.

You built a good bike and I am finally realizing how good it is. My goal this year is to do an Iron Cross race and the SSCXWC race, at least.

Thanks Drew"

I really appreciate all feedback but these type of e-mails always make for a nice week and start to a year.

Thanks to everyone for all the support.

Cheers,
Drew