Lugged stemz and sweet cruisers...

Howdy Folks
Its friday and the sun is out... Just wasting some time here at the factory, lots of work to do... I took some pictures of a few fancy stems I've been working on... Not really lugs but more of a sleeve or collar kinda a thing. Pointy and ornamental like a lug though.... Also a nice picture of Shakey Nate's rocka-billy scooter, complete with genuine flat tracker bars and big gooey tires. Sexy ain't it !!!

Surf City Race #3 Cancelled!!.....Bummer? Not really

Yesterday morning Rick and I got out of bed in the early hours to get ready for the final race in the Surf City Series. The Cross series that is arguably the most fun in the bay area. On our way to the Watsonville fairgrounds we started to notice a large number or cars driving in the opposite direction with cross bikes attached to their roof racks....weird. We were making all sorts of excuses for them, maybe they're lost, maybe they're looking for a Starbucks......The race can't possibly be cancelled, what could happen that would lead to the cancellation of a race. We know how many hours go into putting these races on, and we figured come hell or highwater, the race will go on. Unfortunately when we arrived at the gates, Mike "I don't want to talk about it" Hernandez was standing there with a sign that said "Race Cancelled!" No way!! So we turned our car around and joined the congregation of cyclists on the side of the road speculating about the reasons why (the complete story can be found at http://ncncacxnews.blogspot.com/2006/11/surf-city-3-canceled) and then discussing where we should spend this beautiful day. We called the rest of the team and decided that of course we should go for a ride.
After having breakfast with Jason and Maripaz from De La Paz Coffee at the Beach Street Cafe in Watsonville, we went back home and gathered the troops. Cameron, Brue, Chava, Brian, Rick and myself headed on up to the UCSC Campus, through the throngs of other team jersey wearing cyclocross riding parties with similar ideas.
We had bigger plans though, we wanted to keep going, all the way to the top of Empire Grade and eventually through Big Basin Park. It was a beautiful day, and a classic ride. Some single track that was way too hard for me on my cross bike (actually on any bike for me) and some beautiful trail, that was just wet enough to make it sticky.




It was one of the funnest days I've had riding in a while, despite my whining about the fact that I couldn't keep up with the boys during the climb up Empire....get real. During this time of year it's hard to get a group together for a long ride, with races every Sunday, the weekends are busy. The Cancellation of this race was actually a nice break during the cross season to spend a day just riding with friends. Hopefully the race will be re-scheduled, but I don't think any of us were disappointed.





We even had the opportunity to take a team photo,




and Brian was getting rad







and Brues new bike went on it's maiden voyage.

not a bad commute....

Every so often I remember to check the tide book, every so often a negative tide lines up with my commute to or from work... Monday night was such a time... I left the shop a little early before the night began. I pedalled out the door and downstream on the Pajaro river levee, a fairly straight gravel path with strawberry fields and rows of lettuce off to the side... Normally I get off the levee at a certain point and start battling the cars and tractors on Beach street and San Andreas road, but I rode further towards the beach taking a right onto a dirt farm road... A few hundred yards of pavement and I hit the sand... Nothing but gulls and glassy wet sand, a flat race track of sorts, the sun is setting and the waves are breaking, I look northwest towards Santa Cruz proper, 10 or more miles of beach in the way, somewhere in the east the moon is coming up...
I took the videos and snapped a few shots, Mary-Anne did all the edits and rad soundtrack....
Life is pretty good when during your 20 mile commute home you can splash your wheels next to the mighty Pacific O, close your eyes and pedal no hands, hear the crash and cries of water and birds, and never be near a car.....
Rick



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Super Human Strength

Despite what Rick might want you to believe he does not have super human strength! He is pretty smart though, and he can make really cool things! Like his tube bender, don't ask me how it works, or even what it is called, but Rick made a tool to bend tubes the other day. Rick gets really excited when he does this sort of thing. He gets to be creative, and he loves it when his ideas work out. He stayed up all night that day, thinking about all the things he could make with bendy tubes. Endless possibilities.

New Threads

Check out our new team jerseys.

Our friend Randi at Rainy Peak made them for us. We decided that since we are all about hand crafting bicycles, we should have some hand crafted jerseys. Randi is a talented seamstress, she also rides a hot pink Hunter.

We love these new jerseys, they are comfortable, they stand out, and they're made from wool the wonder fabric.

We hope you like them too! Send us and email if you're interested in one.

Homeless Cam

You know the old joke
"what do you call a bike racer without a girlfriend?
homeless!"
Cam's not homeless.
The beard makes him fast.
Fast and sweaty!

Re-Todd-ed

Todd helps out at the shop sometimes. He hates his nickname.

Just Forking around....

Thanks for checking back in... Heres a micro batch of saucy Cyclecross forks, for the masses... Ready for some finish work and paint... We can't decide on a name to call these babies... Arch delux or arch supreme or flying buttress... Deluxe and Supreme sound like hamburgers to me...Suggestions ?
Rick

The Wheel of Fortune is growing on me...

True dat.... I like Vanna and that little pervert Pat... I like when someone needs to buy the last vowel /letter to solve the puzzle. I like falling asleep to the T.V. and drooling on my pillow all by 7:45 at night... Maybe its the rotating swirling wheel or the clicky noises but " The Wheel " puts me under.....

Day One... Super Blog out

Howdy Folks
Rick and Mary-Anne here... Blog day number one... Feels like the whole universe just expanded-exploded... We are now on a journey into the virtual social world, a world of over communication and digital satisfaction.. Please stick with us as we will continue to update...