Whirlwind weekend

With Jake's European tour quickly approaching, he wanted to get in one last weekend of mountain biking before he left. So plans were made to attend the Rocky Mountain Bike Festival right next to Invesco Field. Then head over to boulder and ride Valmont bike park, that was opening up the same day. We ended up spending the night at the Freer house. Thanks a ton Jenn for putting up with us and making us that wonderful dinner. Sunday we ran back over to Curt Gowdy and rode there. Great ride, even if it did get pretty windy towards the end. Pedaling to get down hill is no fun.

 

We arrived a little early so we unloaded the bikes and rode around Invesco Field.  It was fun riding around while there were no crowds.  We rode the short distance to the bike show and checked our bikes.  Nothing like bike shows with valet parking.  We then roamed the booths. 

The Boo bikes booth was pretty cool but what I liked the most were the TRP brakes on there cross bike.  The stands were also very cool.

The guys at King Cage had this bike on the side of there booth.  Pretty beefy.  They were twisting up cages for you right at the table.  Bought a top cap adapter and Iris cage for Joab.

Here is the Dean FS bike.  The craftsmanship was awesome.  Beautiful bike.

The boys tried on a bunch of sunglasses and then Joab found this.  Pretty darn sexy.  Thou Joab didn't think it would shave that much of his Stonetemple loop time.

 

The BlackSheep bikes were absolutely beautiful.  The FS job at the top had three types of finish on it.  I couldn't get good pics on it.  The logo was polished Ti, then masked off and they bead blasted a design around the outside of that OVER the original/normal Ti finish.  Great guys to talk to also.  You can tell they think about the ride and THEN think about how to make it stunning.  Still it wasn't my favorite bike there.

Then we had to stop looking at bikes and get a little competitive.  This place goes to bars, events, charities, etc and you can race your friends and enemies too.  They were a fun group and no matter what Jake says, I let him win.

After talking to a steel tubing manufacture that was there we had to go back to the Dean booth to see the steel tubing with carbon cutouts.  Very very cool.  Major drool factor.  I kept using the word bacon instead of carbon when talking to the Dean rep, he started looking at me funny.(inside joke to those in the know)

 

It may not be the best looking bike there, but damn I REALLY liked this bike.  Chris the guy that designed this really had it all together when he built it.  I'm still not quite sold on the Maverick fork.  It's hard to argue when the suspension guru in the next booth and Chris the maker of the bike are talking about this fork like it's some sort of god.  Chris let me and Jake play around on it.  What a great feeling bike.  I think I might love a geared version.  Check his stuff out...GENERIC CYCLES

 The there was the Big Wheel guy.  This guy is making adult sized Big Wheels.  Wow....they were a blast.  I also stopped at YipSan cycles.  A custom frame maker out of Fort Collins Colorado.  I was so busy yaking with him about bikes, tire sizes, paint, etc that I totally forgot to take any pictures.  I did get a T-shirt thou.  Here's a link to his stuff.  YipSan

After taking it all in we drove to Boulder and met Jenn, Tiki and Buster.  We had some interesting pizza and then hit a couple bike stores.  When ever you get to Boulder's Pearl street stop in and see Vecchio's Bicicletteria.  Hope I spelled that right.  Shop was uber busy.  However they made time to chat with me about Moot's bikes and sell me a really cool handle bar.  

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They also told me for a six/twelve pack I could demo a Moots.  I just might take them up on that.  

After the shops we hit the grand opening of the Valmont bike park.  Lots of trails and things to fall on.  It was a blast.  Jake only came away mildly bruised.

Then Sunday we got up, had Lucieles for Breakfast and headed to Wyoming's Curt Gowdy.  Last weekend we rode Stonetemple up and rode Ignoramus.  We had a blast.  So we did it again this weekend.

Between loops we hit the fun park by the trail head.  Jake and Joab showed off there wall riding skillz.

 

 The Slingshot rode great.  Only had a bit of toe overlap once or twice.  I'm pretty sure if I was clipped in it wouldn't be a problem.  However since I run flat pedals and I seem to at times plant my foot further forward then normal.  So sometimes I get an occasional rub.  It climbed like mad.  The Kenda Karma's hook up really well.  I could tell I was rolling over things easier, and I could tell on the switchbacks that it had bigger wheels then my 26er too.  All in all I liked it.  I think with a little more riding and fiddling with seat position and such it'll be a great bike.

Proud Cannondale owner

And then as the winds picked up, the trail drew to a end Jake got his second flat of the weekend.

That pretty much ended our riding weekend.  The boys were tired and hungry and so was I.