On Race in America

Watch as a City Bikes employee from Louisianna waxes about race issues in the Washington Post On Being project. I found it humbling. I'm with you Courtney.

From My Inbox: Floyd Is Rad

From the Pres of Saris Cycling Group. I consider Chris a friend and have known him for a few years. He was the first person I called when I heard about Floyd last year and I stand behind Chris standing behind Floyd.

===================================================

Dear fellow industry members:

I am writing this letter today on behalf of Floyd Landis, both in support and in defense of his character. Saris Cycling Group and I have supported and will continue to support Mr. Landis. Floyd has always been a man with integrity, one who has followed through with every commitment he has made to us. The damage done to his previously flawless reputation alone is cause for us to come together, and call attention to the injustices that have been brought against him. Over the course of the past eight months, Floyd has been fighting an uphill battle against WADA, USADA, the UCI and the people who have brought the lawsuits against him. In the United States, the law states that one is innocent until proven guilty. Floyd has been held guilty until proven innocent during this entire ordeal.

Not only do I believe Floyd's word, but also his use of our PowerTap during the Tour gives cold hard data to show that his performance was not out of the ordinary. All of his data from Stage 17 indicates that his performance fell within his normal training zones. Details can be viewed at our website: http://www.saris.com/athletes/PermaLink,guid,c6e3591a-1445-404b-a16d-bd1962ec8c2c.aspx

Many of his friends and supporters have abandoned him since the Tour, leaving him with staggering legal fees. A fund has been set up in his name, The Floyd Fairness Fund, http://www.floydfairnessfund.org/, with all proceeds going to help Floyd pay these fees. I am asking you to help out, not for the Floyd whose reputation has been tarnished, but for the Floyd who is dear to us. I have personally known Floyd to be a man with integrity, pride, and an obvious love and dedication to the sport.

Included are some links from the Los Angeles Times and Fox Sports.com. Please read these. They offer a bit more of an unbiased viewpoint.

http://www.latimes.com/sports/cycling/la-sp-landis23feb23,0,6092667.story?coll=la-home-headlines

http://msn.foxsports.com/other/story/6497808

Please forward this on to anyone you know that you think would be interested in helping Floyd.

Thank you all for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,

Chris Fortune
President
Saris Cycling Group, Inc.
cfortune@saris.com
ph) 608 274-6550, ext. 124
fax) 608 274-1702

Enduro SL Pics FINALLY!

I kept forgetting to take my camera to the shop. I got a few pics of the Sworks Enduro SL rolling chassis that we have in stock. Red gloss over carbon color. Hot. Note the front derailleur mount. I also got a semi-blurry shot of the fork. Big fork.

The rolling chassis includes front der, wheels, tubes, tires, fork, stem, seatpost, collar... am I forgetting something? Because they are using the 25mm thru axle up front, they include the wheelset. The rear wheel is a DT 240 hub and the front is some Specialized logo'ed jobby. Probably a taiwanese sealed bearing unit but I'll look into it.

You can clearly see the alternate shock mount in front of the lower shock eyelet bolt in this pic. Steep or slack, you make the call. Sexy little rocker link as well.

On the left, we have the Future Shock E150sl with direct mount stem. There are a few different options for length and rise, but they are all 31.8mm clamps. Right away you can see the huge diameter of the fork legs. Mr McAndrews is responsible for this design. He started with Specialized a long time ago, bopped around to Fox to get their entire fork program running then did some work for the mavericks at Maverick then got hired by Trek. As soon as Mike Sinyard heard that McAndrews would be working for his main rival, Mike made a play and kept McAndrews in sunny California and brought him back to Specialized. The circle now complete, we have his first project, the systems-designed Enduro SL. Thank you sir, may I have another... indeed...

Behind to the right of that photo on the left is the Enduro SL Expert. That bike is right in at 30lbs. 6" of super-fun travel at 30lbs. Gotta love it. The carbon bike will build up around 27lbs if you aim light.

These bikes were delayed a few months and we are preparing for issues so that it won't bug anyone. We'll see how they fly off the floor when the weather turns more nicer... Rumor has it that we won't see any more of these bikes until June or July and they will be 08 models. No word on what the improvements will be but I'll poke around to see what I can find out. I don't imagine there will be many external improvements, but maybe some revalving of the shock and fork. Who knows.

These are on the showroom floor and are looking for good homes. Stop by the Chevy Chase shop and check 'em out. I think I'll bring one to the MORE party tonite... That'll get 'em drooling.

That's a purty red, ain't it. If I had a few grand laying around...

Winter Finally Comes

After a balmy January, February comes in packing some serious Canadian cold. Special thanks to our Canadian sponsors, Darren and Erin...

Snow, frozen rain, sleet, cold, wind... we got it all.

Needless to say, I've gotten a lot of work done. It's easy to stay inside when the weather is like this. Of course, a lot of my friends made it out during the frozen parts of the day, but my schedule just didn't allow it. I was just too busy to get out in that stuff despite what has been called 'epic conditions' by many. Frozen snow that felt like pavement, off-trail riding, two inches off the trail... Oh well. I got some late-day road miles in with Shawn on Saturday (too warm to ride off-road).

We went up to PA to celebrate Susan's birthday (not saying which one) with some of our extended family and had a great time. Michael and Nicole were great hosts. Cakes, small friends, guitars, art projects, good food... It was a great trip, albeit a short one. We had Friday and Saturday booked as well so it was a nice end to a busy weekend for President's day.

Mtn bike race time is only a few weeks off now. We have the first of our 24hr races in 9 weeks at the Granny Gear Temecula race. I've started to round up some old friend for some help for the race. We're trying to do this on SOME type of budget and racing that far away from home is expensive real quick. Hell, this weekend is the SECOND TradeZone road training race in Upper Marlboro. I'm gonna try to make it down there. I've never done a road race before and Jonathan from Family Bikes won a race last year and recommended that I come out to ride. He said it's great when it's not dangerous, but that's the trick, eh? I sure as hell don't want to ruin my season by getting taken out by some knucklehead on a road bike. I would have to straight up kill somebody if that happened.

We are supposed to have 20-50mph gusts of wind through tomorrow and then some sleet on Sunday (race day). We'll see what Susan thinks. I'll see if she wants to bring the kids out for the 10:30am B race.

Sorry for the delay this month. I think the cold has frozen my blog-brain. Plus, staring at that Sworks Enduro SL hanging out in Chevy Chase has partially retarded me. If only I could afford that piece! It's purty.

March is just around the corner. Dust off those bikes if you haven't already. It's GO TIME!

Patapsco Skills Area Update

Ok, I have to come up with a name for this project. I'm going to TRY to stick with 'Skills Area' although I am taking suggestions. Send 'em along.

Here's a pic of (L to R) Jeff from BikeDr Linthicum, Eric from MAMBO, Daryl Anthony from DNR, Austin from MORE, Rich from IMBA Trail Solutions and Dan from IMBA Trail Solutions, MORE and DNR. Yup, he's sneaky. Notice how he's trying to lean out of the photo. He's so humble...

We met with the Dept of Natural Resources planning team last week to present our ideas and plan. Everything went well. At least I think it did. Our next step is a meeting on-site at the Norris Lane site to see what is out there and then over to the proposed Hilton site. No word on when that meeting will be scheduled. Rest assured that we are working on it. I hope we hear soon.

I got the final 'no way' from Whitetail regarding mountain biking for 2007. We got a 'come back and talk to us in a year' so we'll see how that goes. We have to regroup and come up with a new plan of attack. Here's hoping.

City Bikes Team Meeting

The DCMTB - City Bikes Mountain Bike Team had our February meeting last night at Temperance Hall on Georgia Ave (they have great beer). It was jersey order/team picture night. I think the pictures turned out really well. Thanks again to our re-elected team captain JoFo and our new co-captain MattyD.

It's easy to see the difference between JoFo's rad camera and fisheye lens (on the right) and my digicam. Thank goodness for JoFo. We gots to laughing pretty hard so the picture turned out really well, if you ask me...

Sponsors for 2007 (unofficial final list):
Metro Gutter
Whole Foods
Bell Helmets
Blackburn
Serfas
Serfas Optics
WTB
SRAM
Pedros USA

Special thanks to these great companies. You can find most, if not all, of these products at City Bikes in Chevy Chase and Adams Morgan. Mention the Mountain Bike Team with Metro Gutter for your home services and you'll get a super-special deal from them. Potentially saving hundreds of dollars, no joke. Kent is pictured second from right in their home page photo.

Looks like we'll be attending some events en masse: 12 Hours of Lodi, 24 Hours of Big Bear, SM100, Cranky Monkey, Wednesdays at Wakefield, City Bikes/RFK Criterium, Greenbriar and more! It should be a big year for us. More sponsors, more riders, more races. Here's hoping.