BikeRumor.com

What do you get when you combine the long travel of a Freeride bike with the geometry of an XC racer?  According to Dreamride founder Lee Bridgers, a mountain bike that does everything better than any other bike out there.  Lee creates Dreamrides one at a time, custom measured to each buyer, runs a Moab tour company and runs the Dreamride bike shop.

Founded in 1996, Dreamride takes your measurements, riding style and other information and designs the bike, then they’re built by Ventana, Moots, Lynskey, Pegoretti or Land Shark…depending on which frame material you desire. Their newest creation, the Fully 69 (pictured above), combines a 29″ front wheel with 5″ of travel and a 26″ rear with 6″ of travel to create an aggressive handling XC/All Mountain style bike.

After coming across this unique brand, which is based in Moab, UT, I sent Lee a few questions.  What came back is a very interesting (and opinionated) perspective on other mountain bike brands, his history of directing extreme riding for film companies and the genesis of the Dreamride brand.  Hit “more” to read the interview and check out pics/deets of the bikes…

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Fresh from their team training camp in Tenerife, Chris Horner gave us an interview about what it’s like to have Lance on the team, what the Europeans think of the relatively new U.S. stage races like the tours of California and Georgia (and how we can improve their status among the “grand” tours), and what it’s like to be on a Pro Tour team.

BIKERUMOR: If you weren’t a pro bicycle racer, what would you be doing?
Flippin’ burgers (laughs)…I don’t know, I’ve never thought about doing anything else.

BIKERUMOR: I read about a lot of pro mountain bikers that have day jobs…are there many (or any) Pro Tour riders that have to keep a job on the side?
No. There’s many pro road racers that do, but no Pro Tour guys that keep jobs.

BIKERUMOR: Let’s talk about the Europeans for a bit. When you travel there for some of the big classics, what’s the overall attitude from the other racers and from the crowds toward American riders?
I think it’s always good from both. The Americans are welcome now, everybody’s used to us.

BIKERUMOR: How do you think the Europeans regard our relatively new stage races like the Tour of CA and Tour of GA? Do those events have any relevance to them?
They all love CA. All the riders want to come back and do it, and more teams want to come do it. They like it, they think it’s hard racing and the courses are good. I don’t think any racer is going to compare it to the Giro, but it would compare with something like Romandy (Switzerland).

Click “more” to read the rest of the interview…

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With the growing popularity of mountain bike stage races, I thought I’d look into one of our homegrown events.  At $400/person, the American Mountain Classic relative bargain in terms of stage races, so I was curious what founder Tom Spiegel had to say about the origin of the event, its inaugural year’s participation and plans for the future.

This interview started with a brief phone call, then conducted via email.

BIKERUMOR: You mentioned on the phone that the inspiration for the AMC was participating in La Ruta…what was it about that event that got your wheels turning?

TOM: After competing in the La Ruta race, I realized there was not an endurance stage race in the U.S.  I also realized how much satisfaction one gets from completing something so challenging.  That’s what got the wheels turning.

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Ever wonder what it’s like to put on an event like the Sea Otter Classic, the world’s largest consumer bicycle event and expo?

When I first conceived this story, I really wondered if the original founder of the event was still involved in any way…so many large races and events these days are put on by professional event management companies, and many are designed as marketing vehicles first, races second.  I was pleasantly surprised to find out that the man who started the Sea Otter, Frank Yohannan, is still actively involved in the event…and during our phone interview, he came across as a very friendly, down-to-earth guy.  Here’s my interview with Frank about how the Sea Otter started, how it’s grown, what challenges and mistakes were made in the almost 20 years since its inception and what his favorite thing is about the race.

BIKERUMOR: Where did the concept for Sea Otter come from?

FRANK: In early 1991, a friend and I started a new business after I retired from the Marine Corps to do event management. We went into a local bike shop and the owner suggested we put on a mountain bike event. That was about the time mountain biking was really taking off, so we did, and our first race was in April 1991.

For the first couple years, we just focused on mountain biking. The first non-mountain bike event we added was a duathlon, a run-bike-run, in ‘92 through ‘94, followed by roller hockey and inline skating on the raceway from ‘93 to ‘95. We even had grass volleyball one year.

We introduced road cycling on the (Laguna Seca Raceway) in ‘93 and that’s stayed with us.

Click “more” to continue…

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I spoke with Harlan Price, a pro rider that we interviewed at the MTB Oktoberfest recently, about the India Stage Race that he’s working with as the U.S. ambassador for the event.  Some of our recent posts (here and here) show the growing interest in stage races, and this one seemed particularly interesting due to the location and huge purse.  Here’s what he had to say about the event:

BIKERUMOR: First up, what is the India Stage Race and how did you get involved with it? 

HARLAN: The India Stage Race is actually called the Khanchendzonga Mountain Bike Expedition. I Titled the blog India Stage Race to make it easier to find, for people who couldn’t remember how to spell Khanchendzonga. 

The event is a nine day stage race through the foothills of the Himalayas in India’s northern state of Sikkim. The stages travel from village to village and are between 15 and 40 miles a day. Sikkim’s tourism department is responsible for the race, and their main goal is to show off the country. Having shorter mileage compared to other big stage races is supposed to allow participants more of the day to enjoy each location they stop in. It will be a fully supported race with aid stations, lodging and meals provided. At $500 it’s a bargain considering you are getting 12 nights of accommodations. It should be made clear that during the actual race, the sleeping arrangements will be two man tents. 

I got involved because I am interested in adventure travel and was looking for a chance to go overseas to new places and race a mountain bike. I wrote the tourism department to see what the race was like and somehow I ended up being the US liaison for the race.

Read “more” to learn about the $25,000 cash purse, see where in the world Sikkim is and more…

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As promised, here’s our followup to the “official-ness” of Road Tubeless.  With wheel support from Shimano, Campy, Roval, Fulcrum and A-Class, as well as interest from folks like Stan’s NoTubes, the question isn’t whether there’s industry support.  Rather, it’s why go tubeless on the road?

The obvious question is “why would I want to run lower tire pressure on a road bike?”

Well, for answers, I went straight to the source.  Steve Boehmke (formerly of RockShox and Shimano and a Mountain Bike Hall of Famer) is a marketing and product development advisor to Hutchinson and has been the man behind promoting this new technology.  He gave us the scoop…there’s more to it than just lower pressure.  Read our interview when you click “more“…

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Perusing the various Flickr pages covering the Oregon Manifest handmade bike show, I found a few brands I’d never heard of and thought I’d share some of the cooler ones with you.  First up, Winter Bicycles.

Shown above is their Track frame called the Whip.  If you can see past the day-glo pink, check out the integrated seat tube…the first steel one I’ve seen, sort of retro/modern tech.

Winter Bicycles is based in Eugene, OR, and builds full custom bikes from steel, selecting the tubes based on the rider’s specs, desires and goals.  They also make custom forks, stems, racks and other fittings.  Get the LD on the brand, the builder and some more cool pics when you read “more“…

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The Collegiate Bicycle Company is in talks with a number of major universities, most recently the University of Florida, to roll out bike share programs.  The plan works with rental stations scattered throughout campuses where students would use the ID cards or other “prepaid” type cards to use a bike for a while.

Besides the program, they also offer college themed cruisers like the ones shown above, with graphics for 22 universities so far, plus greek organizations (I wonder if that includes “ΓΔΙ”).  Click “more” for some pics of the different styles plus specs on the bikes…

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After capping off his stellar season by winning the infamous Iceman Cometh mountain bike race by a mere 7 seconds, we gave Jeremiah Bishop a call for a few questions. Actually, it started with a few txt msgs:

BIKERUMOR - Nov.12 - 9:39am: Congrats on the Iceman win!

JEREMIAH BISHOP - Nov.12 - 12:59pm: Thanks, want an exclusive?

(ME, THINKING: Well, I just read about your win on Velonews…)

BR: Sure.  What u got to say?

JB: Ice man is the biggest 1 day Mtb race in teh us and it was the season finally of my best year ever!!  New course record for the 20 year old race! Zooom!! Yeah baby!

BR: Do u have a pic you can email me?

JB: Sure

BR: Cool.  I’ll post as soon as I see them.  You made that course your b….!

From here, I pulled a pic from Flickr (on left, credit: thirteenhertz) because we just got our wrists slapped for pulling a copyrighted pic off one of the other major cycling race sites…which is where the pic that JB sent me came from, too.  To read the rest of the interview, click “more”…

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So, it’s not everyday you have the chance to interview six of the top endurance mountain bikers at once…but thanks to Taylor from the MTB Oktoberfest, I had these fine racers yucking it up for about 20 minutes prior to the final NUEC race of the year.

It was a grand interview. A big crowd.  Applause afterward.  We laughed, we cried.

Well, actually, it was just me that was crying when I went to play back the vid and found out the audio didn’t come through (despite THREE seperate mic checks!!!).  The good news?  I figured out what the problem with the mic jack is, so hopefully this won’t happen again the next time I have a once-in-a-blue-moon opportunity like this.

Hit the “more” link to read a transcript of the interview…there are some funny questions as well as race tips from the pros…

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NOTE: This video is available in HD! Mouseover the video, click the “HD is Off” button, then click in the middle and a new Vimeo window will open with the HD version.

I went out to the MTB Oktoberfest this past weekend to meet up with six of the pros that were racing.  The video above gives you the run down on the race bikes for Pua Sawicki, Ernesto Marenchin (aka Sologoat), Jeremiah Bishop and Harlan Price.  NOTE: The audio gets a little crappy for the last bit of Ernesto’s bike, but comes back on fine for the rest of the interviews.

I’ve also got video of Tinker’s and Nat Ross’ bike, but the audio didn’t come through, so that’s shown after the break (click “more”) with no sound.  Turns out the mic jack on our HD camcorder wasn’t intended for heavy use…great.

If you’ve ever wondered what they ride, here’s your chance to see them review their bikes and component selection in person.

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For those that are unfamiliar with the 650b Mountain Bike Wheel concept, here’s the gist:  It’s a 27.5″ wheel size, smack in between 26″ standard and the 29-ers.  The idea is it allows for very similar geometry and bike layout as a 26″ frame, but with the larger rolling advantages of a 29er.  Additionally, for bikes in the 100mm to 140mm travel range, which is most full-suspension XC and Trail bikes these days, 650b keeps suspension travel in a favorable movement path versus the sometimes awkward compromises required for 29″ wheels.  It also allows for smaller riders (down to about 5′3″ tall), to enjoy the advantages of bigger wheels.

Kirk Pacenti is leading the charge to make 650b a new standard, launching his own line of tires (shown above, Pacenti Neo-Moto 2.3″) and providing manufacturers with the specs and materials needed to build 650b frames.  29ers took about seven years to really gain momentum and become a “mainstream” option.  Follow the “more” link to read the BikeRumor interview with Kirk…

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R.E.Load bags just relaunched their popular “mid-pack” messenger bags after a roughly eight-month production hiatus.  According to founder Roland Burns, the double-strap backpack model launched in 2001 in an oversize model intended to make messenger work easier.  These were followed by the “mid-” and “mini-” packs for normal size loads, and according to Roland, they were widely regarded as the best double-strap backpack-type messenger bags around.  They were sold alongside R.E.Load’s other bags (below) until late 2007, when the company stopped making the backpacks altogether.

So, why would they pull one of their more popular styles off the market?  Read more to learn why, and to see more examples of the incredible custom stitching they can do…

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We had the chance to sit down with Trek pro rider Jeremiah Bishop at the Fool’s Gold 100 and talk a little about his training, his bike and what he’s looking forward to riding in the near future.  We’re competing with the band in the background a bit (hey, we’re new at this), but check it out:

 
Bikerumor.com - Jeremiah Bishop Interview from Tyler Benedict on Vimeo.