Beetle-Juice, Beetle-Juice, Beetle-Juice!

The Redline has been free since its revival a few months back.  Recently, one of my co-workers has been talking about fixie mountain bikes.  Like Beetle Juice back in the day, he said "fixie" three times and I was compelled to bring mine back.  I rode it today and remembered how much fun it is to clip rocks with my cranks and spin as fast as humanly possible while descending. It may stay this way for a while.

The Coolest Place You Have Never Ridden

Built in natural "rest area" on Newham Trail

I am convinced that, when it comes to quality trails, Flagstaff, Arizona wants to be a sleeper town.  That is the only way a place with trails as rad as Flag stays relatively unknown.

Nice rest area on Sunset Trail

That Itch Again...

I'm jonesing for a safety scissor blue Karate Monkey frame set real bad. It's like when I was thinking about proposing to my wife and I thought, "That's crazy thinking" but I kept thinking about it. Yeah, it's like that. Perhaps a better analogy is, I feel the same way about the Karate Monkey as Homer feels about donuts.

No Dirt

My plan for the forest closure:

Daydream about riding restricted trails.
Daydream about riding a bike I don't own on restricted trails.
Drive to a place where trails aren't restricted and ride.
Ride on the roads next to restricted trails and daydream about riding them.
Drink beer in my back yard and stare at the mountain with the closed trails.
Ride the few trails that are open along with all the other mountain bikers in the Albuquerque area.

Life Lessons

I learn important life lessons on my mountain bike. For instance, any time a hill I've never ridden before gets too steep and I get off, the end is always right around the bend. Any time I'm not having fun on the bike, its because I have lost sight of why I'm riding in the first place.


I always tell people that I am not a racer and they give me a puzzled look. I finally figured out why I say it. Life is too short to race through. Go slow, ride long and enjoy it.

What bike do you build in your dreams?

Last night I built a hardtail 29er.

Frame: Niner EMD
Fork: Sid
Hubs: Hadley Rear / Hope Front
Rims: Stans Arch EX
Drivetrain: XT
Brakes: Avid Elixer 5's
Tires: Maxxis Ikons
Carbon Bits: Bars, Post

It was a nice dream.  I woke up late.

Sticker Shock

Mountain Biking is booming right now and that's awesome, but something else is happening too.  Everything is becoming crazy expensive.  Yes, the fact that I am broke factors in, but I have always been broke, what with the beer habit, teaching, the kid and ya-de-ya-ya.  Seriously though, there is a strange disconnect developing.  Entry level stuff for entry level riding is reasonable, but good stuff for us middle of the road riders seems to be, sell my car and starve my kid, expensive.

I did the math in my head while riding my beat-up singlespeed Redline with bike swap wheels, and an antiquated fork and even if I gave up beer for an entire year, I would still only have about $780. That is the price of A solid wheel set or A solid Fork.  Despite the fact that this made me feel much better, knowing that I could keep my beer, it still leaves a lot of folks with a dilemma.

I had an expensive bike once and I am past the better bike, better rider stage.  I have all the bikes I need, but for the sake of writing something on this blog, I thought this was a worthy topic.

Is it my imagination? Should tires be $80 each, bikes $5K, chain lube $20, Cassette $150-$300, decent shorts $100? My former teacher self would argue market forces dictate prices and the easy answer to my own question is, "Yes they should or they wouldn't be."  Or am I experiencing the "Community Bike Shop versus Boutique Bike Shop" culture clash?

Whatever the case, if you read this post, you are likely thinking about its content or more likely thinking you just wasted five minutes of your life.  I am thinking its time to go have a beer and cannibalize some stuff in my garage so I can have the "new and different" feeling on my old bikes without spending beer money.

Oh and for the record, yes I am having a beer on a Monday night.  Its the end of my weekend. As my friend G Scott once said, "Don't judge me bro".

Happy Trails.