Come on, slow pokes!

It's the last day to register a team for the 2013 Luna Cycles Fantasy Giro d' Italia at Velogames. Entering is free. Just register your team and then enter our mini league by clicking on "Join a Mini League" and entering the code 30174912. You can compete for bragging or heckling rights for free, but if you want to be eligible to win a $50 gift certificate from Luna Cycles you'll need to pay a $5 fee. All of the money we are raising with this Fantasy Giro is being donated to Caldwell County Pathways for our Zacks Fork Mountain Bike Trail project. Drop off your fee at the shop or if you are out of town, send it via paypal to shawnmoore@lunacyclesnc.com

Good luck and may fortune be ever in your favor!

The Luna Cycles Fantasy Giro d'Italia is on!

by F. Gopp /
CC License: Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives

We're proud to announce that the 2013 Luna Cycles Fantasy Giro d' Italia is now accepting entries! Once again, Velogames is hosting the Luna Cycles Fantasy Grand Tour mini league within their worldwide framework.

Signing up on Velogames is free, as is joining our mini league. This year, however, we'd like to offer you the opportunity to compete in our fantasy grand tour for a chance to win a $50 gift certificate to Luna Cycles. For each team you enter into our mini league, you can pay a $5 entry and be in the competition for the $50 gift certificate that will be awarded to the overall winner of the 2013 Luna Cycles Fantasy Giro d' Italia. All the money raised by this will be donated to Caldwell County Pathways as part of our fundraising efforts for the Zacks Fork Mountain Bike Trail project.

The deadline to register on Velogames is this Saturday, May 4th. Once you have registered your team, you can join our mini league for free by clicking on "Join League" and entering our mini league code - 30174912. Then simply drop off or mail in a check (with the name of your team written on the memo line) made out to "Caldwell County Pathways" to be eligible for the $50 gift certificate competition. Deadline to register for this competition within a competition is Saturday, May 11th.

Good luck!

What mountain bike dreams are made of...

My instructions were simple: "Stand where I tell you and keep the flag on your downhill side." Simple. A child could do it. A reasonably intelligent monkey could do it. A stick could do it. And then it hit me - "I'm a human surveyor's rod." At first I said it to myself, but then I said it out loud and Jim Horton, of Horton Design and the trailboss designing the trail being put in at Zack's Fork, said, "Yeah, pretty much."

The job was simple and complex. As we tromped through the woods, Jim eyed a route that would take us from one section that had already been laid out, to a flag that signaled the start of another section that had been laid out. What the job entailed for me was to serve as the reference for Jim to measure incline of small bits of trail to make sure that he didn't deviate from a + or - 10 degree incline. This keeps the trail beginner friendly, insuring that no climb is too steep or descent too scary and maximizes the fun factor as you end up with a fun, flowy trail.

In a 3 hour long trail design tutorial, I got to see how an artist lays out a mountain bike experience upon the highly variable canvas of a landscape. Nuggets of wisdom like what trees to avoid routing a trail to close to (Pine trees with their wide spreading root systems that are right at the top of the soil require tons of work to route trail near as the routes have to be removed.), how a trail should maximize space but not be so stacked upon itself that you just go back and forth seeing the trail you've been on and the trail you're headed to, how trees are used as "choke points" to control rider speed going into S-turns, and much more. My favorite gem of wisdom was that dogwood trees basically fall over "as soon as you put a survey flag beside them."

Over the course of 3 hours, I got to see the trail that we have talked about and dreamed of for many years taking shape. Views emerged that I had never seen before as we tromped through the woods. I was struck by the idea of not only how much fun this trail will be, but by how pretty it will be as well. I simply can't wait now that I've seen the sketch on the ground!

Yesterday Golden, Owen and I went to explore the Boone Fork Recreation Area trails. Primarily horse trails, the potential for the area is incredible, but poorly designed trails coupled with neglect has made the need for trail maintenance very high. We, of course, chose to ride a route that is best avoided by mountain bikes at this time due to the incredibly damaged and poorly routed nature of the trails. We managed to stay clear entirely of the two trails that Jeff recommended to me (the green/white flashed and orange flashed trails) and opted instead for the blue/green flash (avoid), and the yellow flash (very fun at the end, but didn't make up for the tremendous amount of hike-a-bike).

 Owen got to perfect his steep descending technique with a tutorial from his mom. Hands on the brake levers, eyes forward, butt way back off the saddle, he dropped down some long, steep chutes and ruts like a champ. We sang songs ("I like big ruts and I cannot lie"), we dubbed sections of trail "rut-o-rama"s and generally had a great time. But this turned into a fairly typical Moore family excursion in which one of us (usually Golden but this time me) suggests some ride that is far more than what we bargained for. With Golden, it typically starts with something like, "Well let's just see where this trail goes. We've got plenty of time." What typically follows is some over the top route that takes us deep into the early set up of a survival tale and ends with us running low on water, or energy, or daylight (or some combination of these) and emerging way farther away from our car than would generally be advisable, but persevering and surviving nonetheless. 10 rugged miles and 3 hours later, Owen joined the family tradition by surviving with flying colors his first Moore Family Sketchy Backwoods Adventure.

Butt back, jersey unzipped.. pure focus.

The 24 hour vacation OR The Hunt for the Great White Squirrel

Spring break ended yesterday. For me, big vacations from school become opportunities to work more at the shop. Now that we are short handed*, being able to work more in the shop is more critical than ever, but it doesn't lend itself to taking advantage of one of the few perks of being an educator. Enter the 24 hour vacation. We decided to condense the traditional spring break getaway into one, 24 hour blast of fun.

Golden had a grad class Saturday morning, so final prep for the trip fell to Owen and me. Friday night I finished building up my new mountain bike which was integral to this trip since we decided to go ride Dupont State Forest as the focal point of the trip. So new bike in hand, Owen and I tackled all the other details while Golden got schooled.

Our first mission was to find someplace cool to stay and the +Sunset Motel looked to be just the ticket. Located in downtown Brevard, the renovated retro-fifties style beckoned us. With great amenities, reasonable prices, close proximity to restaurants and other downtown offerings, plus the all important WiFi for watching Sunday's live streaming of the Paris-Roubaix, we weren't disappointed in the least.

Second on the to-do list once we had unpacked the car was to get some food. I did a little searching and found a couple of candidate restaurants. Among them was a Mexican place called +El Ranchero . With a thumbs up from the guy behind the desk at the motel, we headed downtown for a mexican feast.

We sat down at an outside table beneath the crookedest tree Owen had ever seen and ordered some drinks. Checking out the menu, I found it difficult to decide while Owen immediately became intrigued by the "Mexican" cheeseburger and Golden chose the fish tacos (this was somewhat predictable given an in depth discussion of various ways to prepare fish tacos that we had listened to on "The Splendid Table" radio show while cruising down I-40). The waiter arrived with our drinks - apparently it was 1/2 gallon of draft Negra Modelo for $3 night (Score!) and I was now faced with entree selection crunch time.

I went for the Chipotle Chori which turned out to be a pork chop smothered with squash, onions and crimson chipotle peppers the size of a swollen thumb.

Then, quite possibly the world's worst mariachi band came out to serenade the diners. While the two guitar players weren't bad, the violin player sounded about on par with Owen after his first violin lesson and the trumpet player made up for his consummate lack of ability by steadfastly remaining wildly off key. After enthusiastically warbling renditions of La Bamba and Tequila, we decided to forego the remainder of the Mariachi Standards for Gringos playlist and wander around downtown.




In case you don't know, Brevard is a bit proud of their white squirrels. Lots of places in town reference the squirrels, which aren't albinos but are a white variant of the common Eastern Grey Squirrel (Sciuris carolinensis). We had never actually seen one and I kind of thought the whole thing was just a bit of local color ginned up for the tourist trade. So we walked along playing spot-the-white-squirrel in which Owen points out all of the white squirrels on shop signs, town banners, or the stuffed animal variety sitting in shop windows, when I saw a white squirrel run across a parking lot and sit on the stoop of a derelict building. I pointed it out and Golden and I both pulled out our phones to capture the evidence.

Behold! Definitive proof of the extant white squirrel! Add another weird squirrel to my life list which includes the Abert's squirrel (Sciuris aberti), the Kaibab Squirrel (Sciuris aberti kaibabensis), and the Mt. Graham red squirrel (Tamiasciuris hudsonicus grahamensis).









Our impromptu cryptozoological expedition over, we headed back to the motel, bed, and a night's rest before THE BIG RIDE. Morning came. Coffee and breakfast were procured from the excellent +quotations coffee cafe (Three words: blueberry french toast). We packed and watched Zdenek Stybar play human pinball on the final cobbles of Paris-Roubaix as Fabian Cancellara went on to win his third cobblestone trophy. With all of that out of the way, it was time to ride.

We play fast and loose with our family mountain bike adventures. While some plan things to the nth degree, we printed off a map of Dupont State Forest trails, drove off in the general direction of the forest and picked a random parking lot with multiple trailheads after driving by it and finding a place to turn around.

One of the unique features of Dupont is its slick rock trails, something better associated with southwestern riding meccas like Moab, Utah and Sedona, Arizona. We had ridden the Dupont slick rock several years ago, but hadn't been back on them since. As fate would have it, the random parking lot we had chosen was the access to the slick rock section of trails in Dupont. What followed was an all day mountain bike adventure that took in some of the best views on a trail anywhere.

My new Niner SIR 9 (with a suspension fork!)

The key to riding with kids is to constantly shove food
 in their mouths...

We got back to the car, feasted on triscuits, cheese, hummus and pears, and then loaded up to head home. We stopped at Tupelo Honey Cafe South (a restaurant that we eat at every chance we get) to fuel up for the drive home and then pointed the car east on I-40 and booked it to the casa. Our 24 hour vacation drawn to a close.

*Contact us about exciting opportunities in the fast-paced world of Bicycle Retail! Experienced mechanics needed. No freaks. OK, the no freaks rule is pretty loose.

Coming back to life

I went to a funeral Thursday. Funerals seem to make me contemplate the past. At least that's what I've noticed from the few funerals I've attended.

This time, I started thinking about my friend +Jason Darden and how he brought me back to cycling. I had drifted into a life that involved more partying than riding by about a 100:0 ratio. Jason meanwhile, had continued racing and had gotten on the powerful Chisholm Racing team as a Category 2 rider. He specialized in criteriums, which to be honest, was really about all there was to race back in the early nineties.

Jason showed up at my door in full team kit with a gorgeous red, white and blue Schwinn Paramount with a full Dura Ace kit and the first STI shifters I had ever seen. Jason said, "Get your bike. Let's go ride."

We had grown up on bikes together, Jason and I. Our houses were less than a mile apart when we were growing up and we lived right on the edge of the Ft. Bragg Military Reservation which was nothing but sandy pine tree scrublands in every direction. We had great country roads to play on and we took full advantage. We spent countless hours in the saddle together in high school.

I got my kit on and pumped up the tires in my bike. Fortunately, down tube friction shifters withstand a lot of neglect or else my bike would not have been functional it had been so long since I had ridden it. We headed out at a comfortable pace, out into the country roads that surrounded Greensboro back then. We road and talked and slowly but surely I emerged from the fog I had been living in. I will never forget us passing this exotic bird farm with all of these parrots living in breeding cages stacked up in transfer trailers. The end result of this one ride was the rekindling of my love of riding.

After two years of not riding, I got back on the bike that day and haven't gotten off since. If you haven't been riding in a while, then consider this your gentle reminder. And to give you a simple, modest goal to keep you in the saddle and turning pedals, consider signing up for 30 Days of Biking and pledge to ride your bike every day in April. And make today's Mellow Monday ride your first ride of your #30DaysofBiking pledge! The one thing I know about riding my bike is that I never regret it.

Wayback When-sday: 1988 Ritchey Outback

Welcome to another installment of our semi-regular series on the old bikes that we love, cherish, and keep in our homes daring anyone to label them clutter or junk. Have a bike you want to share? Let us know about it here.

It's been hanging from the rafters in our basement for about 5 years and it has moved all over the country with us. "It" is a 1988 Ritchey Outback mountain bike frame and fork, the mountain bike that my wife, Golden Brainard-Moore started mountain bike racing on for the first time in the late eighties.

What kind of bike are you sharing?

1988 Ritchey Outback, an off road touring bike. Originally equipped with Shimano XT (the first year of indexed shifters, thumbies) with Campy track pedals, campy short toe clips and Binda straps, Selle Italia saddle and I had these great Sidi cyclocross shoes.

Are you the original owner?

Yes

How did you come to own the bike?

My boyfriend at the time had worked for Ritchey and he called up some guys he knew and got it for me.

What makes this bike special to you? What memories or special moments do you have associated with this bike?

It was my first nice mountain bike, I basically learned how to ride on it. I did my first race on it. It originally had chainstay u-brakes on it and Tom Ritchey brazed cantilever studs on the seatstays for me. I was given a Bridgestone MB-3 by a shop after this one. I became Expert National Mountain Bike Champion in 1992 or 1993 on the Bridgestone and then turned pro with Fat Chance.

Do you still ride this bike?

No.

*note - Golden retired from professional mountain bike racing in 1999. Her palmares include representing the USA at the Women's Elite Mountain Bike World Championships five times, a win at the NORBA National Series Race at Big Bear, in addition to the rare opportunity to devote yourself to racing your bike and getting paid to do it.

Downtube derailleur cable stops are pretty rare these days...

Ovalized seat tube meets the bottom bracket for added lateral stiffness

Fastback seatbinder with rack braze-ons and cantilever brake cable stop

This frame was tig welded in Taiwan by "Ritchey Trained" builders. 

If you love 'em, you ride the hell out of 'em. That's why it doesn't look immaculate!

Unicrown rigid steel fork

Love Valley Roubaix

The rain is so light you don't even realize it's there until you turn off the windshield wipers, but the intermittent clicking of sleet on windshield let's you know that it is real out there. Really real. I've got a front row seat to the suffering behind the wheel of the follow car. Riders slapping their hips with their hands trying to pound life and feeling back into them. The former leader sits in the car seat next to me, hunched over double, shivering uncontrollably, a frozen stream of snot hanging from his chin in defiance of the blast of heat being hurled out of the cars vents at him. I'm sweating, Owen is stripped down to t-shirt and sweat pants and still he shivers.

This is the Love Valley Roubaix. Gone is the fear of overheating that some riders had at the start. Gone are the majority of the riders who started this 50 mile jaunt through the Brushy Mountains. They've been left behind in the opening miles by the 7 riders in front of me. The opening climb that came in the first miles of the race was a veritable mine field of shattered dreams as one rider after another exploded spectacularly as the Fox Mountain road tilted up and up and up. Two riders popped from the lead group (including +David Clark ) fell far enough behind on the climb to warrant me passing them and nestling in cozily with the front group that included +Jeff Welch , Sonni Dyer, Reid Beloni, Miles Hubbard, and Dirty Darrel Prillaman.

This rolling sufferfest ground out mile after mile, passing through the odd bit of sunshine and then plunging into fog and so many different kinds of rain that I was able to marvel at the variety of precipitation that pelted the car. This lead group was rejoined by David Clark and another rider who chased back on with some impressive descending on the twisty dirt and gravel roads criss crossed with rivulets of tan water.

I stopped to help a rider fix a flat tire. He expressed simultaneous disappointment and relief at not being able to ride in the lead group any more. He fumbled the tube change with the frozen blocks of wood buried deep in his gloves. I took off to catch back on to the lead group only to find it in tatters on the second long climb of the day. Riders drifted past the car, numbly locked in slow motion heroics as they inched toward the unseen top. I finally caught Reid, his upper body pistoning up and down as he put every bit of strength he had into the pedals. Just ahead of him, Jeff and Darrel spun survival circles in pursuit of Miles dangling just in front of them. Just out of sight rode Sonni Dyer with the aforementioned lead rider some two minutes off the front.

For a good many miles a half-hearted chase was mounted by the group containing 3rd through 6th place. And then the penultimate climb appeared. Darrell chased mightily to catch back on to the group after exchanging gloves with me on the fly in the flat valley road leading up to the climb. He caught just as Reid came untethered from Jeff and Miles' wheels. The Miles set off on his own at the midpoint of the climb and by the three quarter's mark, Darrell had opened an inexorably expanding gap on Jeff. With the exception of the early retirement of the lead rider, this pecking order remained set in stone for the remainder of the race as riders switched from competition mode to survival mode. Each descent was followed by another brutish uphill in some cruel example of why gravity always wins. As we hit the final road, you could see the relief was through Jeff as he realized that the suffering was almost over.

I hadn't been in a follow vehicle for a long time, but my vantage point left no doubt to my conviction to not race this year. It was good seeing many of my racing friends, but today was a day that I did not envy them in the least. No, my weekend ride featured ride companions like this:

And I also got to experiment with riding new roads in a very familiar area by taking a turn that I've passed a thousand times, but never actually taken. Instead of following the road up Goat Hill, I turned right onto the dirt road right in the apex of the turn. It was nice doing something new, riding by myself, and just enjoying being outside in the semi-warmth of newly born Spring. I'm excited about the coming year of riding, surprised on not thinking about racing too much, and yearning for a lasting run of warm weather, clear skies, and bountiful sunshine.

It might be about the bike

It struck me over the weekend that I live in an incredible area for cycling. Situated at the base of the Blue Ridge Mountains, tucked in amongst the Brushy Mountains, and bordered by a large chunk of the Pisgah National Forest, this area enjoys a variety of terrain from rolling hills that help keep a cyclist honest, to long and steep climbs that challenge you until your lungs might burst. The nearby Dark Mountain/Overmountain Victory/Warrior Creek Trail system gives a rich display of the trail builders art for when we hit singletrack. Wilsons Creek Gorge gives shy glimpses of beautiful trail and bigger ride challenges for when you want to put an all day adventure together on the mountain bike. The Blue Ridge Parkway dangles above us, beckoning like a siren, luring you to its beautiful, lung crushing stone. And a tangled web of dirt roads provides ample opportunities for gravel crusher/"Roubaix" style riding when you want to have the joys of a road ride but are looking to take the road much less traveled.

I love exploring all this area has to offer to the two wheeled set. As I was working at the shop Saturday, I caught a glimpse of one of the books we have in our little library. Pausing for a moment, I contemplated the cover. There was Lance Armstrong, looking human and slightly vulnerable, staring out at me from the cover of It's Not About The Bike. I remember reading this book when it first came out, back when I still believed in superheroes. Shortly after reading it, creeping suspicion and doubt started to make the story look tarnished, but there still had to be some substantial amount of credibility to it, but we all know how that turned out. It doesn't do to add insult to injury by parsing the incredible amount of damage that the lies has wrought and continues to wreak in the world of professional cycling. No, what I remembered was how Armstrong talks about coming to Boone and discovering that he still wanted to be a bike racer. It was this area that was transformative to Armstrong. Well, that and an apparently staggering amount of performance enhancing drugs, but let's focus on the transformative powers of this area, shall we?

This area really is that remarkable, but it was a conversation with a friend later on Saturday that really served as an interesting counter to this idea. My friend said that by all rights, Lenoir should be successful. It has so much to offer, not just in outdoor recreation opportunities, but in terms of low cost, a low bar to entrepreneurship, an active community of artists, and it is remarkably beautiful. What he expressed was a conflicted feeling about buying a house here, despite the fact that he really likes it here. He wondered if we are destined to forever be on the verge of taking off, on the verge of being successful.

So if our area is so transformative, why can't we transform our area? I would put to you the idea that we are transforming and we are doing it at an accelerating rate. I see more people moving to Lenoir and the immediate area. Their demographics are the critical 25 to 45 age range. They bring with them ideas and notions of what they want in a place to live from all over the country. Recently, an article in the Lenoir News Topic talked about the area's past, a past when this area was referred to as the Athens of the South. I feel that we are ressurecting that notion of ourselves in a new and fresh way. The litmus test for me of this new concept of Lenoir is the success of +Howard Brewing Company . The very fact that a microbrewery can open and quickly thrive in downtown Lenoir, signals a sea change in attitudes and sensibilities for our area. It's a change that I firmly believe will continue to gain momentum and I'm glad to be a part of it.

You may or may not have heard of our efforts to build a trail in town. I'm happy to say that +Jeff Welch  has been busy laying out the proposed trail route with the head trail builder and progress is coming along nicely. The possibility of having a completed trail in town this season is very real. There will be many opportunities for us to come together as a community and put in some sweat equity on this project as there will be several trail building days to volunteer on. We've also got a few other irons in the fire, but that's a story for another day.

Our Spring Fling open house was our way of trying to bring many disparate parts of our cycling community together in one place to lay out this idea of being more involved in the whole community. If you weren't able to make it, one of the things that we introduced was the +Luna Cycles Google+ Community. This takes the place of our old Yahoo! Groups forum which was revealed to be intimidating from feedback we received on our 2013 Cycling Community Survey. The impression that we were unintentionally giving was of a forum of extremely hardcore racers doing nothing but big miles at fast speeds. This is far from the reality of what we want. The intention is for us to have some centralized place for everyone to be able to put out their ride ideas and try to find others who want to ride with them.

Yesterday, I observed two customers introduce themselves to each other (they had heard of each other but never met). They talked about riding together, one of them mentioned another person who would like to join them for a ride, and then they layed out a semi-complicated plan of communication to attempt to coordinate all three of them riding together. This is exactly what the Google+ community is meant to make easy, this communication and coordination of rides. Put your ride out there, communicate directly with people if you so desire or put your ride out to everyone that might be interested. You might just get more people than you imagined showing up to ride with you!

The point is that when I moved here, I saw lots of people riding, but few of them riding together. There were 3 or 4 people riding together here, 2 or 3 riding together there, but no large group ride. My background is one of large group rides held every week. No one talked about not being fast enough or training for the group ride. The group ride is training. It's fun to push yourself a little harder than you would by yourself. I see lots of people hiring a coach who I think are skipping the vital step of just coming out and doing group rides to get to the next level. The point to all this is that we need to stop thinking "those guys are too fast for me" and "those guys are not as fast as me" and trying to find exactly what shade of gray category of rider we are and finding the other 1 or 2 people who share our shade and riding only with them. Go ride with a group of riders that are slower than you. Do more time on the front at a slower pace. Offer people advice. Teach them to be better, faster, smoother. Then go ride with a faster group. Don't pull; stay in the back. Hold on for dear life, ride 'til your lungs burn and you go slightly cross-eyed. Get dropped. Catch back up at the regroup point (or turn around and catch the pain train again on the Tuesday night ride). All of these things will make you a better, fuller, more active participant in our cycling community. That robust cohesiveness may just be the transformation our cycling community deserves.

New Bike Stoke 2!

+daren wilz picks up his Gunnar Crosshairs 'cross/gravel grinder bike built with SRAM Rival. Look for this bike at the upcoming Love Valley Roubaix.

2013 Specialized Myka

+maggie jo sime just walked out the door with her new 2013 Specialized!

Bike: 2013 Specialized Myka

Name: Mona

Wayback When-sday: 1993 Titus FCR

Welcome to the first installment of our semi-regular series on the old bikes that we love, cherish, and keep in our homes daring anyone to label them clutter or junk. Have a bike you want to share? Let us know about it here.

In the furthest recess of the shop, you'll see a small titanium mountain bike frame hanging from a hook on the wall. A large downtube sticker identifies it as a Titus and a smaller sticker on the top tube shows its model designation as FCR.




What kind of back are you sharing? 1993 Titus FCR (Full Custom Racer)

Are you the original owner? Yes

How did you come to own this bike? I was Titus Titanium's first sponsored cross country mountain bike racer. They had a downhiller and me.

What makes this bike special to you? What memories or special moments do you have associated with this bike? It was built to custom specifications for me. I can get on it at any time and it just fits.

Do you still ride this bike? Why or why not? No. It's a 26 inch wheeled bike and it's built around a different suspension fork standard than what is available now.

Please share anything else you would like to about this bike and your experiences with it. It was built originally for cantilever brakes. Titus rerouted the cable stops to accommodate v-brakes. Titus also shaved the bottom of the headtube to accommodate the move from a 63 mm travel Rock Shox Mag 21 Ti to the 80 mm travel Rock Shox SID.

Dropouts were cut with a water jet from Titanium billet. Look kids!
No disc brakes!

Head tube/Down tube gusset added after a crack appeared.

Kinky...

Overextension

 Some rights reserved by TimothyJ

The group ride season is fast upon us. We are excited to say the least. We have talked about it with anyone who will listen, we have posted an article about it on +Luna Cycles and our Facebook page, we're even having a party to celebrate it. So, yeah, we're excited.

Last night, as I was reading before bed winding down the day, I read a great article in one of my favorite cycling magazines, Bicycle Times. I'm happy to say that we now carry Bicycle Times and it's sister publication, Dirt Rag.

The cool thing about Bicycle Times is that it is just about riding bikes. There isn't a word about professional bike racing and the bikes that they spotlight are usually steel, oftentimes are commuter or cargo type bikes, and weight is never mentioned. No, their focus is on riding for fun, health, and transportation. These are things I look at the bike for as well.

Now, don't get me wrong, I love bike racing. I love racing my bike. I love watching other people much better than me racing bikes. But, my day to day enjoyment of bikes tends to be of the commuter variety, hauling more stuff than I probably should, and focusing on getting from point A to point B. Also, I must frankly and openly state: My name is Shawn and I love steel bikes. Hi, Shawn!

So imagine my surprise when I see my entire training ethos laid bare for all to see in the pages of Bicycle Times. There was a bona fide article about getting fit for racing, but with a severe twist. No mention of heart rate or wattage. No mention of numbers at all. The article was simply about how in order to do better, you had to overextend yourself. It all boiled down to this nugget of wisdom, "Think of it this way: what if you had stopped looking for more challenging reading material at Hop on Pop? You just read Hop on Pop every day for weeks and months and years, expecting to get better at reading, but instead you ended up having the literacy level of a four-year-old... for life. That's how it is with training on the bike: you have to overextend yourself occasionally to have breakthroughs and move forward." (from Boiling the Frog, a Boston Commuter Journal by Thom Parsons, Bicycle Times, Issue 021, pgs. 20-21)

Moving forward this riding season, we have been brainstorming ways to tailor different group rides to different groups of riders. One of the things we will be presenting at our Spring Fling this Saturday is the structure of the weekly group rides. Our goal is to have at least one group ride that suits your ability level, no matter what. However, there will be another group ride each week that will push you to overextend yourself. How about taking on that challenge?

Cycling paradox

This weekend was full of paradoxes. I found myself unable to ride outdoors Saturday morning as our overly busy schedules put Golden committed to do a school function; meaning I needed to hang with Owen. Since the weather forecast didn't seem promising this wasn't too big of a deal and it looked like those who weren't racing at La Bastide were content to sit the inclement weather pattern out.

I pulled out the trainer and settled down to riding while watching the first classic of the season, Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. Our weather was chilly but the Belgian Spring I saw looked miserable. How often do you see pros racing in tights, jackets, and scarves. Yes, scarves. They looked miserable. So paradox number one - it actually seemed more enjoyable to ride my bike indoors given the other options.

Sunday came and with it a glorious sunshine that looked too inviting to stay indoors. We kitted up for a family ride, got all the bikes ready and took off riding towards the greenway. Paradox number two - my road bike for this voyage was my 'cross bike with road tires on it, but I made sure to hit dirt as much as possible to make up for the lack of tread.

The sun was bright and warm but the breeze was almost too chilly. As far as a tease for a coming rendezvous with Spring goes, Sunday was almost too much to bear. Owen attacked the hills with gusto on his single speed BMX bike. He even powered up Library Hill in one go. As crazy as our lives are, as busy as our schedules are, and as hard as it is for two outdoor athletes to pine for the freedom of self-propelled speed, the rush of blood and beating heart, and the deep breaths of fiery lungs, these moments of easy riding behind Owen as he explores his physical limits, pushes his pulse rate, and proclaims his growing strength with new milestones like climbing a hill without stopping for the first time, are deeply and astonishingly satisfying. Finding so much joy and wonder in the accomplishments of someone so small and young is perhaps the greatest paradox of all.

Gunnar Crosshairs

+daren wilz checks out his new Gunnar Crosshairs frameset. Gunnar is known for super sweet, American made, steel bike frames. This frame is being built up for the upcoming Love Valley Roubaix race. Stay tuned for full build pics later this week!

Pearl Izumi Kissaki 2 road running shoe - review

 The Pearl Izumi Kissaki 2 road running shoe.  Today was my first run in these puppies.  If you would like to refer to the technical information from Pearl Izumi you can do that via this link here- Or follow me below and I will explain it very simply for you.  

http://shop.pearlizumi.com/product.php?mode=view&pc_id=31&product_id=1870419&outlet=&color_code=4BE

First off in the past I have had issues with Pearl Izumi running shoes in terms of them fitting my foot.  I have a normal foot with a very high arch and a fairly narrow heel.  Pearl Izumi in the past have been very boxy in their "Last" and simply have been too much shoe for me.  I often found myself sliding in them and for those reasons simply just wore them around and not ran in them other then once or twice to try them out.  I have been running in the syncrofuel road II which they have under the "light stability" shoe category which I agree with.  I have wanted them to come out with a light neutral shoe other then their racing models.  They nailed a winner in the Kissaki 2 which I ran in today.

I will break this shoe down in 4 areas- Midsole, Outsole, Upper, and the Inner sole.

Midsole- Often referred to in footwear technology as the most important part of the shoe.  The Kissaki 2 is a great shoe for those that have a neutral gait through out the foot strike with minimal cushioning in the forefoot and heal.  They call this cushion, "Energy Form" under the forefoot and on the heel crash pad.  Similar to other forms of cushion by other companies but this is Pearl Izumi patented and I like it!

Outsole- This area of the shoe is what comes in contact with the ground.  It needs to be durable yet light so we the consumer get plenty of miles out of our investment.  This material is called "Blown Rubber" complimented with a carbon rubber crash pad on the heel.  Blown Rubber is simply a lighter form of carbon rubber and very responsive with each foot strike.  The carbon rubber on the heel is more durable thus lasting longer.  With today's age of forefoot running craze I would have liked to see Blown rubber the full length of the shoe since those that run in neutral shoes don't land on their heels.  We are mid-foot to forefoot strikers thus not needing the carbon rubber on the heel.  This would save a few ounces on the shoe for something that is not needed in an area that won't be used.

Inner sole- This is really nice.  The insole is lined with EVA (Ethylene-Vinyl Acetate).  EVA is what all shoe manufactures use to use as their cushioning technology in the old days of running shoes in their mid-soles.  Now days due to improvements in shoe technology they can save that material for the inner sole thus providing more cushion with less weight.  You can read more about EVA here- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethylene-vinyl_acetate, but basically EVA is a polymer that approaches elastomeric materials in softness and flexibility, and works great with glue.  The insole of the Kissaki is molded with EVA and provides a "cradle" for the foot as soon as you step in it with solid heel support.

Upper- The upper is constructed with "Seamless SKIN" technology with really thin film providing structural support in a supple way.  Basically no seams in the upper of this shoe.  Which saves on weight, manufacturing cost and provides a more sleek shoe profile.

Some might ask the question why the $130 price tag when they are saving manufacturing cost?  When making any product, rather it be bikes, wheels or shoes there is a huge degree of research and design that needs to take place.  Then field testing followed by revamps.  Then if all goes well the product can be released to the market.  So a lot of the pricing that you see on shoes is simply money companies have to charge not only for their technology of the product but to also cover the cost of years of development before launching it.  Most consumes only see the $130 price tag and think why?  Not taking into account the dozens of people working on the product on several different continents for years to provide that product to them!

Pearl Izumi says that their shoes run a 1/2 size large.  I have found they run true to size as I ordered a size 11 and run in size 11 in other brands.  But I like my shoes tight and I am use to a tighter fit then most people from years of playing soccer as a kid so please order up a 1/2 size if you generally like more room in the forefoot of the shoe.

I honestly like the Kissaki 2 and think it is worthy of the $130 retail price tag.  If you would like to talk further about the Kissaki 2 or other shoe models by Pearl Izumi available through Luna Cycles please contact me at the shop.  

Bring on the... meh

 Some rights reserved by nutmeg66

February is an outright tease. Yesterday, I left the house at 7 am to ride to work. It was a balmy 19 degrees. I chose the commuter with gears over the commuter with Bar Mitts, a decision I regretted just shy of immediately as I rolled down the road.

I normally picture my interactions with cars on my morning commute as a comic panel from xkcd, probably because a stick figure would be the best I could muster, but I digress. In this comic panel, a car is passing me, I am looking over at the driver and the driver is looking over at me and we share a "thought balloon" which has both of us thinking "poor b*stard".

It isn't often that I envy car drivers on their commutes. I find cars to be confining and only find cars tolerable when driving a long distance to get somewhere. But in the sub- sub-freezing temperature of my commute yesterday, as my fingertips buzzed with the pain of early onset frostbite, my breathing came in short, shallow gasps of bitter cold, and my hands began to puff up from the cold despite my two layer gloves, that "thought balloon" was strictly directed at me.

One advantage of the frozen commute is that my normally cold school that I work in feels downright warm in comparison to the Iditabike experience I have just completed. What is truly mystifying about February, though, is that later in the day I went outside and it is sunny and warm with a slight cool breeze blowing. There has to be a >40 degree temperature differential as the day progresses. This is infuriating since my riding will be largely made up of commuting until time changes on March 10th. I'm so ready for the warm rides of Spring I can't hardly stand it.

To celebrate the coming time change and the start of the most glorious time of year to be a cyclist, we are having a big party. Check out our Spring Fling! event page, you're all invited. We'll have food and drinks from locally owned Howard Brewing Company. We'll be talking about our Google+ page and we'll be introducing our Google+ Community, which we hope will serve our cycling community as a virtual hub for ride information and planning. We are really excited about 2013!