The “Other” Bike Show

For the third year in a row, I headed down to Conyers, GA for the Southeast Bike Expo. After checking in, I headed over to the Niner tent.

I announced my arrival, and got this response:


“I didn't think you'd come down here with that handmade show going on back in Charlotte”, said Niner Mike.


“What can I say, I'm loyal” I replied.


When the date was announced for this, I said I'd be there. After the handmade show decided on their dates I stuck to it (and eventually figured out how to cram in both on the same weekend.) This kind of event is more my speed anyway: socializing, riding, and sharing beverages with industry insiders. Since I got there right when they opened on Saturday, I decided to go for a walk around to check things out. When I heard a few people asking questions about the new ROS9, I asked Mike if he had any for people to ride.


“Nope. Do you have yours here?”


I did, and he asked if I would leave it there so he at least had something to show to the general public.

See, I give back sometimes too.


So I took off, wandering around to see what's new. I ended up talking to old friends, and even made a few new ones. The next stop was to introduce myself to the DeFeet rep.

We chatted for a bit about the latest products, and after a little bit I went back to wandering around. That's when I ran into Bruce from ProGold.

Then I hung out with the Industry Nine crew and chatted about all things Pisgah (and of course their wheel goodies.)

I spent more time talking to people this year than I did taking photos, and while the conversations were interesting, I'll keep them private for now so no one gets butt hurt.


Anyway, knowing I had to get back to Charlotte that evening, I decided that I should go for a ride. Not really needing a new bike (or not even being remotely interesting in trying one), I grabbed The Executor from the Niner Tent and took off on the trail. Riding on the course that was the site of the 1996 Olympic mountain bike race is always fun, and being on a familiar bike made it even more fun.


The most fun I had was in the very beginning, when there was a small crowd on the trail.

There was a couple (husband/wife), testing out the latest in fatbike technology that took off right before me. On the climb up, I managed to pass the dude and we exchanged pleasantries. His better half was up ahead, and she made a u-turn to go back to check on him. She said, “This is a fun bike!” and asked him how his was.


“This sucks.”


He was having a hard time, and she was schooling him on the climbs. I had a good laugh for a little bit and slowly pulled away. After that it was wide open.

It was awesome, made more awesome by the fact that I brought along some refreshments.

The rocky section was fun, but the fast(and dry unlike last year) singletrack was even moar fun.

Riding alone even gave me a chance to stop and check out the scenery.

It was an awesome day. The weather was beautiful and warm, the beer was cold, and the riding was quite awesome. I was worth the drive, and I'm glad I went. I said my goodbyes at the SE Bike Expo and hit the road. I had to mosey up the road to get to a Saint Patrick's party with some real Irish folks back here in town. I know St. Patty's Day was yesterday (and I'm not Irish either), but getting a chance to hang out with Irish Luke before he moves out to Seattle was something I didn't want to miss.


Besides, because of his new shirt I was Irish that day anyway.

Weekend In Sight

I know, it’s Thursday. Since tomorrow is Fun Friday, I’ve already started thinking about the weekend. One thing I forgot to mention yesterday was something I found when I was cleaning off my work bench.

Ah, the Tour de Charlotte. One of the premier events here in town and I’ve been excited about it since last year. I missed last year’s ride/race/party on wheels due to a prior commitment, so I sure as shit wasn’t gonna let that happen this year. With various dates tossed around, a solid (sorta, according to Dicky) one was selected (March 8th.)  With that information, my yearly retreat with the little lady was scheduled.


A few weeks later, the date mysteriously changed.


Shit.


With our plans set in stone, it looks like I’ll miss it again this year. I understand the reasons for changing it I guess, but damn I am disappoint. I planned to win the “Party Pace/Animal” category, but I guess I’ll have to take my one man party somewhere else. No hard feelings towards the Faster Mustache crew, but it looks like the Tour duh Charlotte is dead to me now.


There’s always next year, right? I have plenty of time to plan shit that will get in the way.


Speaking of planning shit, I should get busy on some other plans. Next weekend, the Southeast Bike Expo is happening once again down in Conyers, GA. I’m really almost certain to be there, but I’m trying to figure out how to pull it off. You see, the North American Handmade Bicycle Show is the same weekend here in Charlotte.


What the hell do I do?

TomTom and Good Guy Greg want to tag along down to GA, but we have to make it work. It’s looking like I may go down next Friday night, Do the Expo thang Saturday, drive home, and do the Beard and Mustache, I mean Handmade Bike Show on Sunday. That’s a lot of shit to cram into a weekend, but I’m good with that.


I’ll probably decide at the last minute, which means I’ll keep talking about it for another week.



Maybe I should just head back to the hills and get away from it all.

Expo Part 2

At the Southeast Bike Expo, we didn’t just look at cool-looking shit.

Or pretend to ride shit.

But, I did ride the same shit as last year.

Let me explain.  Last year, I was the first person in the southeast to ride the Niner Air9 RDO.  It was pretty rad, but not rad enough for me to drop money on one (plus I was riding for another brand at the time.)  This year, when we visited the Niner tent, I only had two choices (in an extra large size):  The Air9 RDO and the Jet9 RDO.  The plan was to ride the Jet9, but the large version wasn’t available when we wanted to ride.  That meant that TomTom wouldn’t get to try one. 

Being the good guy that I am (and the fact that TomTom is between sizes and could ride a large or extra large) I decided to make a sacrifice and ride the Air9.  That meant that my pal TomTom could enjoy the squishy carbon goodness while I rode something somewhat familiar.  I didn’t mind at all, because I’m all about making people happy.

I know, he doesn’t look very happy in that photo.  I assure you that he was.

Anyway, since we saw people coming off the trail all sloppy, muddy, and gross, we decided to ride the other side of the 1996 Olympic mountain Bike course.

You know, the cool, rocky side.

TomTom seemed to enjoy it.

Even though you can’t see his face, he’s smiling this time.

The best part of our test ride was that we had a tour guide…

Yup, Faster Mustache’s own Evil Ginger happened to be there, and he was kind enough to ride with us.

We had a lot of fun, got a little dirty, and got the bikes even dirtier.  So dirty that Niner Mike had to clean them off after we were done.

That wasn’t all we rode though.  We ran into the Pinarello rep (who was from Charlotte), and took a spin on their new carbon 29er.

It was pretty cool, although I’m not sure I would want to see the price tag.  It was kinda meh, other than the weirdo seat post clamp thingy…

It was a long, long day.  After leaving the B-43 Worldwide Headquarters at the crack of dark, looking at, touching, and even trying fancy bike stuff, we grabbed some dinner and drove back to the Queen City.

It was worth every second.  I can’t wait for next year.

I’m Still Tired

And I’m glad I took yesterday off from here.  My day at work Friday was hell, and I thought I was never gonna get out of there.  I don’t often have to stay late, but for some reason I got shit on and had to work way past my regularly scheduled time.  When I finally got home, I only had a couple of hours to eat, drink a beer (or two or three), and prepare for my journey the next day to the Southeast Bike Expo.

I knew I was tired from a long day, so I pushed back our start time from 6:00 a.m. to around 6:30.  I picked up TomTom at his house around the corner, and we made the long journey to Conyers, GA in the rain.  It wasn’t looking good for the trail conditions down there, since it shit on us the whole time until we rolled into the parking lot.  But, we finally made it.

They moved the event down the road a bit this year, so instead of being out in a empty field we were inside some sort of compound.  That kept people from sneaking in (like last year) and with the rain it was good to be on asphalt instead of in a muddy field. 

TomTom and I started making our rounds, checking out the vendors and doing my best to talk to everyone I knew.  Of course our first stop was to visit Mike with Niner Bikes.

Mike is good people, and onoe of the reasons that I dig Niner so much.  I dropped off some smuggled out of state beer for him, and we discussed bike stuff for a bit.  Of course, he asked why I didn’t bring Dicky along.

“He’s afraid I would let him drink too much.”

That was the recurring theme for the day…

“Where’s Dicky?” 

Like I’m his right hand man or something. 

Bastard.  Shoulda went down there with me.

Anyway, we decided to take a lap around the Expo.  The rain had stopped, but seeing everyone come back from their rides all sloppy made us decided to wait a little while to ride.  There was a lot more to see and do this year, so we got busy.

The next stop was to visit the folks over at Industry Nine, where I found them testing a new wheel.

A big one.

I’m not sure why you would want one of their fancy wheels on a high roller, but hey, everyone should enjoy a quality ride on I9 wheels.  We say their new hubs and the Torch wheelset, and I even got a look at the new single speed hub.  I didn’t take a photo, but trust me when I say that it is badass.  I think it’s time for me to start thinking about an upgrade.

Anyway, we walked over to the folks at Cane Creek Cycling Components, and we looked at headsets an shocks.  Malcom was kind enough to explain to TomTom (who rides squishy bikes) all about how the Double Barrell rear shock works.

Right next door was the Maxxis booth…

Where I promptly went over and introduced myself as a “sponsored rider.”  I felt kinda douchey saying that, but when I told him my name at least he knew who I was.  He didn’t even ask why I didn’t bring Dicky.  Instead, we talked about prototype tires and new designs, which really got my attention.  There will be some cool new stuff coming out of Maxxis, and I’ll get to it as soon as I can.

We walked over to the Scott tent, and I expected to be greeted with disdain and snobbery (like last year.)  Instead, TomTom (who rides one of their bikes) got a pretty good reception and seemed to emjoy looking at their new stuff.

New product stuff at the Expo?  You betcha.  SRAM had their new XX1 drivetrain on display.

Although it’s really freaking pricey, I must admit that it rides pretty smooth.  I don’t think I would shell out the big bucks for it right now, but when it trickles down to the X9 level I may give it a whirl on my geared bike.

Maybe.

Speaking of things that are really nice (yet expensive), we stumbled upon a couple of guys from Webb Works, makers of custom bamboo bicycles. 

These bikes are handcrafted in Thailand out of bamboo (duh) and joined with carbon to make one really light bicycle.  The pictured above was a road bike, but they also had a cyclocross, touring, and even a fixie.

They were prtty neat to look at, touch, etc.  Word around the campfire is that they will be introducing a 29er very soon too.  I’d like to demo one to see if it can withstand my power. 

You may ask, “Did you actually ride anything out there?”

Well, yeah, we did.  I just don’t want to get into to it today.  So yes, I will drag out a post over two days as usual.

Be back here tomorrow.

The Road Ahead

Apparently it leads to Minnesota. That’s right, registration for the biggest party in the U.S. has opened and it is filling up fast (less than 40 spots remain.)  Single Speed USA is in Winona, MN this summer, and I’m pretty excited about it.  Last year, I made the trip to Vermont (mostly because George was hosting the race) and I had a blast.  I’ve never been to Minnesota before, so I figured, “What the hell.”

Or as the kids say for every insignificant thing...YOLO.

I haven’t made any travel plans as of yet, but I’m 99.9% sure that I will be driving up there.  I don’t care for flying, plus I like being alone behind the wheel for extended periods of time.    It looks like about a sixteen hour drive, which doesn’t sound too bad.  Well, at least on the way up.  The drive home will probably suck worse than anything that has ever sucked.

Bring it on, I’m ready.

In other news, I have immediate travel plans for this weekend.  Bright and early tomorrow morning, TomTom and I are heading down to Conyers, GA for this:

Yup, once again I’m going to the Southeast Bike Expo.  I had a lot of fun last year, so hopefully this year won’t be any different.

Unless there is moar fun.  Yes, moar.

I won’t be spending the night like I did last year though, which also means that I won’t have to babysit Dicky because he drank too much beer.  We’re leaving bright and early tomorrow morning, and coming back late that night. 

I told you I like driving.

Anyway, I have other shit going on after the Expo, so don’t come back here on Monday looking for me.  Tuesday will work better.

Is that good for you?

I’m Not In “The Industry”

But I sure dig being around that kind of stuff.


Just like the beer drinking I did over the weekend, I tried to cram in a bunch of shit into one post yesterday. I didn’t really get too deep into the actual expo I attended.



After walking around and around, I ended up hanging out at the Industry Nine booth for a while (while Dicky signed autographs for his fans.) I talked to them quite a bit about their awesome shit.



I’m a big fan of I9 hubs. Ever since George built a couple of wheelsets for me with them, I swore my allegiance to hubs that don't suck and promised never to go back to anything else. They had lots of samples on the table to check out.





They had pieces and parts strewn about, and you could easily see why the engagement is so quick on their hubs.



They make these things right here in North Carolina, which is even more of a reason for me to like them. I did tell them it was kinda funny that they shipped their hubs to Vermont to be built into a wheelset only to be returned to North Carolina. I like spreading the love all across the U.S. I guess.


I noticed another North Carolina company there too.



DeFeet was on hand, but I didn’t recognize the guy under the tent. When I went back later to introduce myself, no one was there (as you can see in the photo.) There’s always next year I guess.


Another very important component of my bicycle stuff is Stan’s No Tubes, and they had a shitload of wheels on display.



Lots of purdy wheels and junk. Nice.


Honestly, it was a lot of stuff to take in. The Southeast Bike Expo appeared to be a huge success, and I’m glad I made the trip down there to check it out. Fun was had, shiny new bikes were ridden, and I even lost my temporary job as the Dicky Handler for letting him drink too much beer. I hope they bring it back next year, ‘cause I’m in. Maybe next time I’ll ride more bikes and drink less beer.


Oh yeah, I’ll be gone for a while. I have quite a few days of vacation planned, so there probably won’t be any posts from me until Tuesday. I have two days of bike riding planned, which includes hanging out with an industry friend and attending the Foundry Cycles launch party here in Charlotte on Thursday. After that the little lady and I will be heading out of town for our anniversary weekend.


I need a break anyway. I probably should take a little time to think about all the new bike stuff I saw, which could equate to me acquiring some of the aforementioned new bike stuff.

Stay tuned, but not now ‘cause I won’t be here until next Tuesday.


Don’t forget about me when I’m gone.

The Beer May Have Won

Saturday was the Southeast Bike Expo, but I’m sure you already knew that. I picked up Dicky just before sunrise, and we made the long drive to Conyers, GA pretty easily.



When we got there, we hit the ground running. We made our rounds, and I met a shitload of people. Some I’ve never met before, some I’ve only met on Facebook, and some people I never really properly introduced myself to.



The above photo you can see Bruce Dickman from ProGold, and we chatted a bit about how freaking awesome their stuff was. We chatted about other stuff too, but he was going a million miles an hour and I was still recovering from the long ride down there.


One of the first stops we made was the Niner tent, where Mike Stanley proceeded to tell me he had a bike waiting for me to ride it. It was the fancy new Air9 RDO.





We hooked up with local shop owner Mark Sullivan and took a test ride over to the rugged, granite-laden side of the trails, where I could scare the shit outta myself on a really freaking expensive bike just for the sake of “demo-ing.”



Even though this bike was pretty and worth more than a small car, I eventually settled in and rode it like it was meant to be ridden. You know, like flying down rocky surfaces and junk.



Dicky and Mark were there, did I mention that?



Most of the time after that was spent searching for more bikes to ride, but we kept striking out. With Rich looking for a extra small and me looking for an extra large, it was slim pickings. We eventually settled on Origin8 carbon rigid (geared) bikes.

We came prepared in case of a disaster:



Yes, we brought our own Awesome Straps.


The bike I was on was too small, the handlebars were too short, and the shitty not Industry Nine wheels were uh, shitty. That didn’t stop me from whipping that thing all over the trail when I had the energy. After Rich reminded me that I only had a banana to eat all day, we stopped riding bikes and began our quest for food and beer.


The first step was to check into the hotel across the street, where they quickly shoved us into the dining room for a “reception.” We were the first ones there, so Rich ran right over to make a meat salad.



We stuffed our faces, and went up to the room to unload his bag so we could use it to smuggle beer back to the Expo.



With money in hand (ours and other people’s money), we set out on a quest to find good beer. This is what we ended up with:



Well, that was the shitty beer. We also found some good stuff after driving around for almost an hour.

When we returned to the expo grounds, I though we would be greeted like heroes and bum-rushed for our beer. That didn’t happen. We ended up watching most of the guys that said they wanted beer keep riding their bikes, so Rich and I sat down and started the party without them. A little while later we were joined by Watts and Andrea, and we sat out on borrowed chairs drinking beer in the cold darkness. At least we didn’t have to drink the shitty beer though.

We eventually took the party back to the room, and tried our best to kill the rest of the good beers.






Well past 1:00 a.m. we gave up and got some sleep.


The next morning after I destroyed the breakfast buffet and the toilet in the lobby, we headed back across the street to talk to Jason from Foundry Cycles, and he was busy getting the demos out on the trail.




We were too hungover to ride anymore, so that meant that it was time to head back to Charlotte. It was a long drive, but at least I didn’t fall asleep and kill us.


That’s all I feel like writing today. I didn’t drink anymore beer after Saturday night, but I had my ass kicked enough by it so I won’t touch that stuff for a while.


See y’all tomorrow.