Couple Products

Well Sara left for Colorado this morning, so while I bide my time waiting for my trip out to see her in a month I'm going to have a good amount of free time on my hands. It's truly an awesome opportunity for her and I'm so happy for her but on the same token I'm going to miss her. But if you want to hit up a ride with me let me know. It will help me keep my mind occupied.

I did want to bring up two products that I feel need mentioning. They both are great products that I have found no faults and have worked flawlessly. The first is RoadID's. I got myself and Sara one as a Christmas presents this year. It's a great present not only for them but for your piece of mind. Knowing that your loved one will get proper medical attention and you will be notified will save you a lot of grief when your loved one is out on the trail. And since Sara will be in a new state it makes me feel better that there's still a connection to home when she's out riding. You can tell a lot of though went into the design with a watch-like clasp, which a 5 dollar bill can be folded and slid into so if you ever have to buy extra water, food so you can make it home after a bonk or a bribe for a farmer so you can borrow their tools to get your bike working again. I picked the red band for both of us, as it would be most visible, but a nice neutral color like black and you could wear the id all the time, so your always protected. A product I think every cyclist should wear if not for their own safety but for the piece of mind of their loved ones.

The second product is DZ Nuts. This is a Chamois cream which is made by David Zabriske of Team Garmin Transitions. Mid summer during the heaviest of my training and riding I developed a saddle sore. No other products or anything I did stopped it. I switched over to DZ nuts and in a week it had subsided. It's European styled so it has the cooling effect of Vapor Rub, but after some getting used to you won't want to put anything else on your nether regions. Since I switched I haven't had another saddle sore. Another selling point is everything is made from natural materials.I highly recommend this product, as it's made by one of my favorite riders, but also because it works. With news stories coming out that there will be a womens version, embrocation and leg shaving cream I'll be looking forward to check out the new products. Remember David Z only wants the best and so do I. Make sure you check out the video section on the website

A perfect bike?

Today I headed out to my favorite trail, Medina's Reagan Park, with my good friend Mike. We both pulled into the parking lot at the same time and saw a sea of cars. Apparently Reagan Park was holding a huge soccer tournament. We somehow found parking next to each other and got ready. After suiting up we headed over to check out a certain manufacture demo tent. They were at West Branch yesterday and were at Reagan today. We had planned this ahead of time, and planned on doing two laps and then demoing some bikes. When we approached the tent we learned that they had arrived earlier today at the prescribe location at Reagan Park couldn't find the trail head and no one was around so they decided to set up over at Huffman Park. Since it was already packed because of the tournament they were asked to move back to where they were giving permission to set up their tents. The representative was a little salty and was packing up things and generally complaining. I was put off by this attitude, since they had decided to set up in a spot they were not giving permission to do so. They decided to pack up and head home, instead of letting potential customers demo their bikes. I was also off put by the position they put me in, since I was in my CAMBA uniform. I was stopped and asked multiple times where the specialized demo was. It made us look bad because a demo was posted at one of our trails and was cut short. Generally, this situation left me feeling uneasy about the brand.

It also made me realize how great a representative we have with Bob Myers from Trek/Gary Fisher. Bob Myers is very professional, and nice. His demos are well planned and go off without a hitch. If you ever talk to Bob, you'll quickly see that it isn't about anything other than a true love of cycling.

OK now onto the ride. I decided to bring two bikes out today. I planned to start on my new Nashbar 29er and if my legs didn't feel good I brought along my Gary Fisher Piranha hard tail to switch to on the second lap. Two factors made me make this decision. First was I was unsure of the gearing on the single speed. I'm running 32x18 with heavy wheels, second was this was the 8th day straight of a hard training week.

The first lap was a medium paced ride. Immediately from the start the heavy tires showed their weakness, add on wide risers and the cornering could only be described as cumbersome. Every change in direction happened slowly. I would turn the handlebars and it would take a second for the bike to change directions. Climbing was also labored as it was hard to get the heavy tires to spin up. The wet conditions and v-brakes meant braking wasn't crisp.It wasn't a horrible ride but it was missing something. The only excitement came when on a steep muddy downhill my front tire lost traction and I went over the bars.

We went back to the car and I switched to my Piranha. I immediately felt a difference in the two bikes. The Piranha was light and stiff. The feeling I got can only be described as being on a bike but not having a bike under you. It almost felt like I was running and not on a bike. With this I became more aware of what I love about this bike. First was it's handling. Turn the handlebars and the bike whips to your input. There were times where I swear just thinking about turning made the bike turn. When I pedaled there wasn't resistance from the pedals or wheels. Getting the wheels spun up to speed was effortless. Climbing was easy, easily staying in the big cog up all the climbs. The brakes would slow you down with the slightest pull and the fork soaked up the bumps without letting you know it was working. Gear shifts were smooth and seamless even uphill out of the saddle without even a hesitation. This got me thinking, what makes this bike so enjoyable to ride? It took me a while but I think I finally figured it out. I love this bike because I don't notice it. It's not about the bike when I'm on this bike, it's about the rider. It's the rider not the bike that makes you fast or slow.

That whole second lap I was smiling and thoroughly enjoying myself. Can't wait to get back there tomorrow.

Here she is.

Since the Camba group ride got cancelled today I'm going to unviel it on my blog. Factory Rider Robert got a sneak peak at it today, and sorry Bob but it's not a Fisher. I wholeheartedly support the Gary Fisher brand and love their bikes, I own three, and those three Fishers will be my main bikes. This was definitaly a splurge, whim purchase. Don't worry Bob I haven't strayed far at all from the brand. But I will say you did have a part in this purchase.

So enough of this longwindeness, so what was in the box. Well here's what it looked like coming out of the box.

So this is my fourth mountain bike, and it's a rigid single speed 29er. I picked this particular bike because it's what my bank account could afford.I had been looking at the Fisher Mamba, and dreaming of a procaliber but knew I couldn't afford either of those for a while. I also wanted a rigid ss because I had a hardtail and full suspension 26er's already in my stable to handle all the race courses around the area. This bikes purpose is fun. All my other bikes beg to be ridden fast. I've set them up this way and each time I get on them I just want to go as fast as possible. This bike will be for the days where I just want to enjoy a ride through the single track and not worry about my training plan. To get back to my first few months of riding, before the racing bug bit me, where it was about the bike and the trail. No suspension settings or lockout, no gear changes, just myself pushing the pedals with a smile on my face.


The first thing I noticed about the 29er platform is how stable it is. Take your hands off and ride no handed and the bike feels like your hands are still on the bars. It's that effortless. Of course, it's harder to get the tires to spin up and doesn't have the snap getting up to speed, but once it's up to speed it's much easier to keep the pace. I feel more confident descending with the bigger wheels, higher handlebars and widers bars. Ascending is a small bit harder. If you have momentum the bike carries you up the hill, but if you lose momentum it's a lot harder to get the tires moving again.

Now to the actual bike, it's a little on the heavy side out of the box, at 25 pounds. A lot of this is in the wheels and fork. The wheels are definitly the weakest link of the bike. They are heavy, non disk (even though the bike comes with disk tabs) and the hubs are not that good. I may have another set lined up which will be much better. The fork is just heavy and I'll be looking to upgrade to a new fork. Maybe the Bontrager carbon rigid fork.

The good points, first disk tabs, other bikes in this price point don't come with those so it was a nice feature. It's also ready for gears so if I ever want to take it for an epic climbing ride I can add some shifters, gears and a read derailleur and I have a 1x9 pretty easily, for all those epic climbing rides. The frame looks nice and the welds seem nice. It's nothing special but it's going to do it's job of letting me enjoy the trails. It definitly won't be used the most but it will get it's fair share. Hopefully, I'll be out at West Branch tomorrow taking it for a test ride.

2009 Piranha Race build

So, since being accepted to the CAMBA racing team, I've been slowly building up my 2008 Gary Fisher Piranha to race specs. So here's the specs.

Frame: 2007 Gary Fisher Piranha 16.5"

Weight- 24 pounds

Fork-Reba Race

Wheels- Mavic Crossrides

Crank- Deore LX 44-22t (2x9)

FD- Alivio

RD- Deore

Cassette- 12-34t sram

Brakes- Tektro Levers/ Avid bb5's

Shifters- Deore

Handlebars- Bontrager Race flat

Stem- Bontrager Race 90mm

Seatpost- Bontrager Select

Seat- Bontrager Inform R

Pedals- Eggbeater c's

Computer- Trek Incite 8i (soon to be Garmin 305)

Tires-Will be Kenda Karmas or Nevagals have yet to decide.

I haven't ridden with the new fork, that comes tomorrow after work, but overall I like this bike. I hope you like the build.