In case you’re a roadie, and like wheel prn (I can’t spell it out or L’B’ gets a whole new class of web-searchers)… as I learned after I reported the “naked dude” winning the hill climb contest at the FatTire Fest.

Anyway, hows about a deal on these?

$899.00? NO WAY JOSE!!   More like $695! (While hub supplies last)

Get on ‘em here!

If you’re lookin’ for the roadbike upgrade to make a difference, it’s tough to beat this’un:

M5 Hubs (SP Front & Shimano/SRAM or Campy Rear)

KinLin XR-300, XR-270, or XR-200 Niobium Rims (You choose!)

DT Swiss Areolite bladed spokes

DT Swiss alloy nipples

Skewers? Included! Rimstrips? Included!

Set weights start at 1250 grams! (for the XR-200 set) <– Yummy!

Tim B. is a Likin’ Bikin’ customer. He lives in the land down undah, and rocks the XC scene there.

As one of our first MTB Tubular guys, Tim built up a set of DRC Tubolites for XC racing.

Tim’s build specs: 2 DRC Tubolites, DT Swiss 240s disc hubs, alloy nipples and Sapim Laser and CXRay spokes came to…. 1340g! (We got all that here… I’m just sayin’… in case you’re interested…hmmm?)

Well last week, at the 2009 Highland Fling endurance races, he killled the age classes and was even mixing-it-up into the Elite riders’ ranks!

Tim’s class: (by the way, only the first page of results is shown here. 223 riders finished the race in the class… 44 did not)

The whole field!:

Nice work Tim! Congrats and schwag earned!

…And so should you.

That’s right. At Likin’ Bikin’, we’re not just about the Misfits, we got plenty of luv for Geax too!

And we just got some more models in. Check out the new Geax AKA Tires. Get it?

BTW, how did L’B’ end up luvin’ Geax tires so much, anyway?

Story time!

Once-upon-a-time, a guy (let’s call him “Stan”) was holding a 320g  26″ rim made in Italy by a company called DRC (that’s a much longer story). This rim required a tubular MTB tire? Huh? “They make those?”, wondered Stan.

Well with that, Stan started lookin’ for more info on this MTB Tubular movement.  Stan found only a handful of tubular MTB tires, most of which were closer to CX than MTB. However one, called Saguaro, was different. It looked like a tire Stan, and Stan’s MTBin’ friends, would ride. But who was the maker of this ”Saguaro”? Geax? Instantly, Stan wondered, “what has THAT company been up to?”

So Stan set up an appointment to talk to this man from Geax over breakfast one day. He got to meet the supplier, and go over rest of the Geax line, as well as see some of what was on the way. And hey, to Stan’s delight, that non-tubular stuff was impressin’ the shiza outta him as well!

This was looking perfect! Geax seemed to be thinking the way Stan liked. With a sort of, “what if we made a Y instead of an X?” mentality.

Not only was this Stan’s way of thinkin’ too, but this Geax company was in northern Italy, a mere 25 miles from the factory making those DRC rims that started this whole search of Stan’s in the first place! This was too weird. It was a sign… kismet, if you will. Alright Stan!!!!

Well, that was then. Nowadays, Stan… er… L’B’ happily stocks more Geax Tires than we can shake a stick at. To see them all, here’s a good place to start.

Most recent additions have been the AKA (shown above), and the two you see below: The Neuron (of screamin’ DH awesomeness), and the Tattoo’s (sticky-street tires in black OR white)

While I personally run the 29er Saguaro TNT’s (below-left) on my own Misfit for ALL types of riding, Bri likes the super-lightweight Barro Race Folders on her’s (below-right).

Yet, for future 29er loose trail fun, we’re looking forward to the next addition to the line-up: The 29″x2.30″ Gato’s. These are sure to be excellent AllMtn performers, and will go bitchin’ with any rugged 29er build. AND will go even bitchin’er with the bad-ass 29er XD-280’s!

Some of our other available favorites… Booze Lt, LoboLoco, and DHEA.

Want tubeless? All Geax treads also come in 3 construction options.

1. Folding – Light, 2ply 120 TPI Nylon casing (Requires Tubes)

2. UST Tubeless – 2ply + butyl inner layer and tubeless talon (bead)

3. TnT (Tubes no Tubes) – As the name suggests, these can be run with tubes on standard clincher rims, OR tubeless on sealed rims. (120tpi casing, 2ply with 3rd ply sidewalls, and tubeless talons)

Note: Geax TnT Tires are best sealed with Geax PitStop… and we got plenty of that for ya too.

It’s finished – done – gone – finn’ito – wheww…

We arrived at the venue early Saturday morning, after a comfy night at the Wilcox house, and set-up the L’B’ home base.

This consisted of a tent for sleepin’, the car for power and heat, and the good ol’ Hoss tent for relaxin’, eating, decorating, accommodating trick-or-treaters,  and wrenchin’ on the bike (of which, by-the-way, the diSSent needed NONE – I’m convinced, it’s immortal)

3 hrs ’til race time, I attempted to inhale 6 pancakes. I managed 2/3 of them and felt “ready” for my planned 5 lap start…. which I actually did complete.

The start was “Wheel-Off-Le Mans” style. Go set your bike down with the front wheel removed. Foot-race it outta the gate to the bike, get that wheel on, and go! Costumes were encouraged, and about half of the racers Halloweened-up. Of course, Bri and I were pirates for the duration of the first lap. Yo-ho-yo-ho!

Now, 5 laps in and with the sun setting, it was time for the second set of nutrition-bombs… Cold pizza and this stuff?… a meal to which I give full credit for the stomach pain of laps 6, 7, and 8.

Thankfully, these were also the early evening laps, during which plenty of friends, visitors, trickortreaters, and general party’ers were there to greet, encourage, and just spread the spirit-liftin’-love!

After lap 9, it was time for more food, more layers, and more importantly, MORE rest. By this time, the temps were getting down to about 37degs. So I hopped in the car and ran the heater for a little while. Then, reluctantly crawled out, and shivered over to the timing tent from where laps 10 and 11 somehow developed.

After those, it was about 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning.. I think? And I was just gonna take a short break while NiteRider-Tom refreshed the charge on my lights. So those batteries went to him, and I went right back to that heated car.

I was in there for about 5mins, when the passenger door opened. Yes! I was happy to see my ever-amazing wife joining me. She must have heard the car start and left the snugness of her sleeping bag to come hang out… in the front seat of our car…in the middle of the night…with her husband who’d gotten her into this cold sleepless mess.

Well, we both nodded off for about 3 hrs. I woke up in a complete daze. It was still dark, and I had no idea what or where I was supposed to be. I jumped out of the car (extra freezing out there now), over to NiteRider, picked-up the batteries and just started pedaling.

It took about 2miles before I figured out what was going on. I stopped. Straightened the clothes I’d been sleeping in, fastened the all the straps and those little plastic buckles that had been dangling since battery pick-up, generally regrouped and rode on while watching the sunrise.

I knew I wanted to do 15 laps of this thing,  and that I was 4 laps from it. A mere 36 miles from my goal. (“mere”, ha!)

The rest is history.

After all was done, and in 25hrs, my trusty Misfit and I managed 15 laps (135 miles) of some lovely, pleasant, warm, pain-free, SS riding time. Ahhh… like a day at the spa.

Maybe not QUITE like that.

I do have to say, to all you’s out there solo racing these 24hr events, you’re sick. <– (period/full stop)

That said, whatta way to test yourself! I’d never been in the predicament of riding to the point of complete leg failure, and determining whether to rest for an hour (presumably to ride faster thereafter), or to keep slogging along at bare-balance speed for one more time around. It became a 25hr chronic mind-game of, “what should I be doing right now?” to gain what seemed to be the most important thing on the planet: MORE LAPS.

(Thanks SO much you Wilcox’, you all are the most thoughtful “race crew” a soslow SS rider could have!)

Photos!

And Daniel and Juan are already feelin’ it.
Night is approaching, then we strike!
FYI, “strike” = rest more.

Dang! Juan is lookin’ svelte! (That makes one of us)

Yes, the L’B’ do-it-all diSSent has shed it’s DH’y parts from last week’s Kernville shuttles and gotten all dressed up for racing this week’s 25hrs of Halloween.

This diSSent AL is now tipping the scales at a respectable 25lbs and ready to lug me around the Chamberlin course 15-18 times?…maybe?

25lbs? 25hrs? Yes… and Yes.

The 25lbs ain’t too shabby for having that 120mm Reba on there. The Geax Saguaro 29er TNT’s have triple-plied sidewalls which, especially when run with tubes, work awesome and provide loads of “the-last-thing-I-wanna-do-in-the-middle-of-25hr-race-is-change-a-pinch-flat”, but are more robust’ier than their weightwennie cousins, the Barro Race.

Then there’s the 8″ rotors for, well let’s just say that the weight of this particular bike’s rider tends to build-up lots of disc-scorching momentum on the descents.

Now, to rein that heavier stuff  into a respectable XC-like package, Juan has been embellished with some cool lightweight bits:

3T post and stem? – Yup, 3T isn’t just for Cancellara anymore. They have officially green-lighted the use of Arx stems and Doric posts for MTB’s.

3T MTB bars are not available just yet, but they will be soon… and a piece of that first shipment will be here. Meantime, carbon Ritchey’s will have to do.

Also, our good friends at Cadence Works provided Ti and alloy bolt kits for the stem, rotor, cages, brake levers, and top cap.

Of course, the lightweight SS Novatecs with DRC hoops are in place with the Misfit COD cog.

Sinz 175mm ISIS cranks + Sinz CNC’d ring + Sinz alloy ring bolts + Sinz Ti bottom bracket =765 grams

Then, the drivetrain is finished off with a Sinz hollow-pinned 3/32 chain.

And lastly, for 25hrs of comfort, THE’s Italian leather sofa of a light seat, the Ti railed LUX. And it’s quite lux!

Now, clearly THIS is the perfect bike for any overnight, solo, singlespeed effort. But what has the rider been doing to prepare? Um…. Other preparation has consisted of two weeks of shuttling. Oh, and I plan to have at least one slice of pizza per completed lap.

That should do it, right?

So until we get back….

Happy Halloween from Likin’ Bikin’ (and friends)!

Back to NH times now. Where was I? Ah yes, Highland!

As mentioned, the place is like MTB dreamland. Bri’s-Bro “Mo’-gun” and I headed over for some drizzly day riding that was SO good that, well we were late for dinner that day. (And dinner in New England ain’t something you want to be late for)

We arrived when the place opened. I rented me a bicycle, hopped on the lift and we rode non-stop until the place closed. Quickly forgetting about the chill, the day flew by… literally!

Earlier in the week, I had zip-tied the camera to the bars for a video (see below), and busted the LCD viewer during that run. So the Highland pics are a mess since we couldn’t see what we were shootin’. But here’s what we got.

MOgun went for a ladder run and was abruptly stopped when his front rotor met the immovable “log”. He didn’t seem to mind though. And some bending with a Leatherman got the disc rideable again… kind of.

My rental Trek was cool. It might have been the DHX Coil and the Totem that made it ride so well though. Kinda, just add linkage to those and and yer good, eh?

Highland also had a huge pumptrack… and we all know how much I love a good pumptrack.

We did ride it as much as the 8″ of travel would allow. It just wasn’t the same. Oh, what I would have given to have my Nummers there!

Now, we didn’t just ride at Highland. Bri’s parents live on about 90 acres of beautiful NH mountainside. So besides the four-wheelin’ there, several great trails were to be explored right outside the patio door.

Here’s a little look at the yaahhd:

So there you have it… our North East family. Who knows, perhaps someday you’ll witness the bi-costal expansion of The Empire!

Well this year’s Kernville Fat Tire Fest has come and gone, and the 2009 edition was as great as ever.

First off, the trail conditions were the best we’ve seen in all of our (3) years of attending this event. Last week (Wednesday) the sky above K’ville provided some badly needed rain to the whole area. Thursday was cool enough to allow the newly wetted trails to settle-in without the instant evaporation as normal dry socal style. <– This made for perfect, dust-free, tacky, trails during the festival’s cloudless and warm Fri, Sat, and Sunday. Epic!

Also, as tho the extraordinary conditions weren’t enough reason for crazy cheek-achin’ all day smiles, the founding Poobah of this shindig added a couple extended rides to the already classic menu of shuttle-me-ups.

First, on Friday only, a ride to the top of Sherman Pass. We were dropped off at 9,400′ for a little extra credit singletrack descending to the “start” of the legendary Cannell Trail… and the subsequent Cannell Plunge. Quick note here, this year I brought my Misfit diSSent to this mostly downhill event. And I couldn’t have been happier with the decision. “Juan” was absolutely hooking-up in the fast, flowy singletrack AND skimming trough the rocky stuff right alongside the big-travel bikes. And it’s always cool to have riders check the bike out afterward with comments like, “wait, you were doing all that on a hardtail?” Good job Juan!

Friday evening was Bike Rodeo time. I found my perfect technique to be completely ineffective in Wheel Bowling (an event brought to you by your favorite bikin’ site). However, new and natural talents were discovered in the Rim Toss! And as for the Bike Limbo? Even though I thought I’d have an unfair advantage on the limbo-stout Nummers, I just couldn’t get low-get low.

Friday night was all about the campfire. We had Christina, Dave, and Jason stop by for some dinner (stew ala dutch oven), beverages, and satelite searching.

Saturday morning brought more rides with full shuttles leaving in all directions. However I had been scooped into a 14 man plan to traverse a few of the regular rides, combining them into one loooong, all-day journey that would push all 14 of us to our technical descending and upward hike-a-biking limits.

(7hrs of riding and I got this single picture)

We all survived the 7hr ride, though not a sip of water remained in any of the 14 Camelbaks, and we were met at the finish by the very patient Kelly (we were 2 hrs late) and a van stocked with pizza and frothy-cold beverages! I love these MRA people!

Finally back to the campsite at 5:30 pm (we’d left at 9:00 that morning), we caught the end of the hill climb comp, where one daring climber went naked? I’m NOT sorry for not having photos of that.

After a shower it was time for the Saturday night fiesta! The MRA crew put together an outdoor party worthy of nightclub status. It was sponsored by New Belgium Brewing, so the FREE BEER may have played small a part in the huge success? But the dj, bike giveaway, food, and general pumpkin’ee decor made it a first class partaay!

Now during the Sat night “gala”, a sort-of talent show broke out. The winner of which received a New Belgium beach cruiser. The guy who won did so with a Red Hot Chili Pepper dance wearing nothing but a single sock… not on his foot. Again, glad to not have a photo for you. And for those of you keeping score, yes. That’s 2-0 (naked dudes to naked ladies) for the weekend. Sigh… moving on!

Sunday morning breakfast served-up by MRA and the “big give”. Everyone at the festival received a button upon registering. On the back of the button is a number. On Sunday morning, while you enjoy pancakes, John grabs a mic and… you get the idea. This is where we come in. We always add the usual t-shirt, jersey, shorts, water-bottles, tool,… but this year we also supplied 2 wheelsets. A lightweight DT Swiss 240 Disc set AND an All Mtn set by C-4 Components. I know, I know, we’re like Santa!

Sunday, after breakfast, Bri and I were spent. So the Mrs. and I waited for the shuttles to head out and then sneaky-sneaked off to go find our own ride. Just the two of us. Awwww….

After this ride, we headed back to camp, packed up, said our good-byes, went to lunch with some good friends, more good-byes, and reluctantly headed down the mountain for home, already talking about next year’s trip on the way… and SO looking forward to it.

After two days of perfect riding, it’s party time in Kernville. Dave and Bri chillin’.
Lots of pics and stuff when we return.

…But! No sooner had we unpacked, that we found ourselves re-packing for the Kernville Fat Tire Festival.

So, the NH stuff will have to wait. Here’s a preview:

New England MTB scene is alive, well, and just awesome. Highland MTB Park? Most other parks I’ve been to could take a lesson from this place. They have trails for everyone. Slope-style, DH, DS, DJ Pumptrack… even a combo DH/Half-pipe type thing.  Not to mention amazing views from the lift. Oh, and ladder drops everywhere!

Now back in Calif, we are heading right on up to the Kernville FTF… like last year.

We’re lookin’ forward to seeing our good  “bak-o” friends, enjoying some shuttling and downhill trail riding, and just relaxin’ outdoors at the MRA campsite.

Will update more from the fest.

Out the door now….