Fact: The Ibis HD3 will get you 6" of rear wheel travel closer to Jesus.

Big news, homies: Around the middle of this month we will be getting in our first Ibis HD3's. The first'll look a lot like this guy in the Porsche 917 trim,

only with the new Fox 36 fork and a Cane Creek DB Inline shock (the "XT Werx" build, if you're savvy to such tech).

We'll be getting mediums initially with larges following in March. "Yeah, so...you get new bikes in all the time, what's the big deal?" you say. Well, you can read all about why it's so bitchen (and how it fits, and the Cane Creek DB Inline shock ) on our now-much-more-ibis-centric-IMT site

You can also read about the carbon wheels here. Or even what the esteemed press is saying about it.

The main point is that the HD3 is coming, and in anticipation of it we've beefed up on our knowledge and commitment to Ibis in both stores and on the webpage.

Now, I realize that a lot of you out there might think that 150mm (6" in 'Merican parlance) is just too much travel for our old, sandy, smooth trails around here, and usually I'd agree with you. There will be some of you that will be happier with the shorter travel and larger hoops of the 29" Ripley, and we have more of them coming as well.

What I think keeps the HD3 from being overkill to Boiseans, though, comes down to two things. Yeah, it's plenty light at about 28lbs and super stiff and dw-link bikes tend to pedal well, but that just gets your foot in the door of being an "efficient climber" in the world of full-sus carbon bikes these days. The DB Inline shock takes adjustability up a notch with hi and low speed rebound and compression adjustments, as well as a climbing lever. So, bam! it can be set up fast and efficient for smoother Boise rollers, or you can open it up for Moab or wherever else your travels take you.

Also, the head tube angle is steep-ish for this travel of bike at about 67-degrees. That means it won't be stupid-slack and floppy when you're just wanting quick and nimble. We're not hucking The Shore here, people, so this bike isn't made for that, it just happens to have a bit more travel than we're used to seeing in these parts.

Don't trust me? I wouldn't either (I'm kinda shady), but luckily you don't have to. Come check it out in store, and we are working on a demo day with Ibis this spring, so keep an eye out in this space for dates (none to announce just yet).


And in case you're not into the baby blue/red, there are always these:

BC

Let's talk about springs, man.

"Springs? It's about time you wrote about springs, Bill. Whohoo, let's get to it." - No one, ever. 

I know you don't think about, or want to think about, or even want to know about springs or spring rates, so I'm not really going to talk about them here. Springs kind of fall under the banner of Civil Engineering in my mind, and I would rather blow my own brains out than be a civil engineer for a single day. See, I don't want to know any more about concrete, or sediment composition for anchoring bridges, or...well, springs, than I need to. I get to a certain point on the topic and I just don't care to know more, and I'm pretty sure that's how most people are with things so mundane.

So here's all you need to know about springs when it comes to bikes, first and foremost: preload will affect the amount of force it takes to get the spring to begin moving, but it will not do anything for the amount it takes to get that spring to bottom out. One has to increase the spring rate or manipulate travel with a damper to keep your suspension from bottoming.

Second, on a bike, right now, you're gonna either run into a coil spring or an air spring. Coil springs are what you see above: just a piece of rod iron (or ti or whatever) rolled around a mandrel. You can do it while the metal is hot, or cold, and you can roll it different ways, and you can use different alloys or heat treatments, but they are all essentially the same as a pogo stick or what is in a Bic pen. You can push down fast or slow on a coil spring, but it'll always push back at you fast (at least in the mountain bike world, for now).

Companies can get somewhat fancy with coil springs, but usually they choose to get fancy and hype their super lightweight air spring, and for good reason: they're light. I like air springs for that reason, and you can also play with twin tubes and chambers and negative springs and manipulate them a bunch. That's exciting, and the price you pay is that you have to hold tighter tolerances with air springs and deal with heat expansion, but a lot of companies now have that all sorted. We don't need to worry about all that, so when envisioning an air spring all you need to picture is an air tight trash compactor. Don't care about all that other stuff, just take away, "air tight trash compactor." 

What you should care about, and what I care about, and what this Rant is about, is old technology being passed off as new tech. Exciting tech! And price-gouging. Maybe you make a ton of money and don't have to worry about such things, but I don't, so I care about price gouging. 

So where does it all come together: the springs and the price gouging and the old technology being passed off as new? Right here, they all intersect right here. 

What you see above are 3 (three) of Rockshox's "Bottomless Tokens." They are made out of plastic, they take up space in your Rockshox air spring chamber so you effectively are left with a smaller air spring. Smaller air springs ramp up more at the end of their travel, so you can run lower pressures to keep your small bump performance nice and buttery without wallowing in the mid to end of your stroke and/or bottoming out. It's a great, simple, solution to fine tuning your air spring. So what's my beef with 'em? 

Well, washers of some sort are a solution that's been around for decades, for one. Don't try to tell me you've solved the riddle of the air spring with freaking washers in 2015. Come into the paint with that crap and you're gonna get Dikembe Mutombo rejected in this house. For twos (yeah, "for twos" I say) they cost around $20.

20 bucks isn't all that much, right? Well, it is when it's just crap to jam into your air spring to take up space. Crap they call "Bottomless Tokens." Bottomless Tokens to me sounds like I'm about to have the time of my life at the Family Fun Center on a Friday night circa 1991. That would have been magical, but there's nothing special about these. They can be replaced with any incompressible material... strike that, the material could be compressible. Meaning, "Bottomless Tokens" could be replaced with literally anything that takes up space. Straw? Sure, cram it in there. Old 8 track tapes? Smash them up and pour the bits in your stanchion tube, it'll have the same effect. Pennies? God knows we all have a boatload of those layin' around. You bet.

Of course, using an incompressible material (read: any liquid) would make sense in taking up space in an air spring, especially if that material were slippery and non-corrosive. If only we had something like that handy in a bike sho-p-p-p....wait a minute. Those SOB's take the place of about 10ml of oil? 10 ml of any type of oil costs...I have no idea because there's tons of it lying around. It costs nothing.

Oh no you di-in't Rockshox. Once again, you've wasted my time and money.  

Pictured: Two blue Air Volume Spacers reporting 

for their duty of...just taking up space.

For the record, Fox has a similar product that sells for even more for their new 36 Fork (which is amazing, BTW). These are blue or orange spacers for $25 but they escape my ire here because Fox rightfully calls them "Air Volume Spacers." An air volume spacer is almost anything. Hell, I'm an air volume spacer on this planet. There is nothing new or exciting about an air volume spacer, there is no hype. Bottomless Tokens are what Scrooge McDuck unwisely dives into in literally every episode of Duck Tales. 

Once again: advantage Fox.  

-BC

Fat Bikes are here, and more are coming.

We happen to have this exact TREK Farley 6 in stock right now. And available for Demo! 

Yesterday there was an article in Bicycle Retailer, which is a USA-based trade magazine that I assume most of you have better things to do than read every day. I don't have better things to do, and it highlights some boys in not-so-far-away Jackson Hole, and even a few here in Idaho, that are doing good by beginning the conversation about bringing fatbikes to more State and National Parks. Kudos to them, what with their whole bettering the world for more outdoor enthusiasts-thing and all. I guess.

Get it? They named it the "Farley." 'Cause he was also fat. 

Anyhoo, I thought I'd bring it to light a bit. It was written by Lynette Carpiet and the original article can be found here, though I've posted a copy below.

State parks provide model for fat bike use, acceptance

Fat Bike Summit founders Gary Sjoquist and Scott Fitzgerald

Some 250 advocates, land managers, U.S. forest service representatives and industry suppliers and retailers attended the fourth annual Global Fat Bike Summit here at the Snow King Resort this past weekend. Gary Sjoquist, QBP’s advocacy director, said that while Jackson Hole is a remote location, it was selected for various reasons.

We also have this (even nicer) Farley 8...right here in our stores!
Can you believe it?

Sjoquist along with retailer Scott Fitzgerald, owner of Fitzgerald’s Bicycles in Victor, Idaho, founded the event and remain among the organizers. Helping plan this year’s gathering were local advocacy nonprofit Wyoming Pathways and local retailer Hoback Sports.

“The first two Summits we had too much snow, so people couldn’t get to them. And the third one in Ogden [last year], we didn’t have enough snow. We want to get land managers on snow bikes and we knew there would be reliable snow in Jackson. Plus, fat bikes are an accepted practice here.”

The Snow King Resort grooms its singletrack and Sjoquist said the surrounding business community is supportive of fat bike use. Jackson Hole is also next to Grand Teton National Park, which like other national parks, doesn’t allow fat bikes. However, with a new park superintendent, Sjoquist said there’s hope that that could change.

Among the attendees this year were representatives from Grand Teton National Park, the Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Forest Service, state parks, chambers of commerce and Nordic ski resorts.

“For the first time we were able to have state park managers talk about — based on what they had learned at previous summits — they’re now building singletrack for fat bikes at their parks. They’ve got grooming equipment and now have singletrack available. It was a really good way to show national parks – look, state parks are doing it and they’re making it work,” Sjoquist said.

“We didn’t quite get there this year, but Grand Teton and Yellowstone have at least said ‘we are ready to listen,’ ” he added. “That’s a big step forward.”

The Bridger-Teton National Forest Unit was presented with a land manager award for their efforts to create a mountain biking destination — building mountain bike trails for summer and for fat biking during the winter. They also were presented with a Surly Pugsley to patrol their trails.

In addition to a full day of panels and discussions Friday, a demo area had fat bikes from Salsa, Surly, Trek, Specialized, Durango Bike Company, Borealis, Felt and Rocky Mountain. The weekend festival drew three times the industry support it had in previous years. Specialized brought 20- and 24-inch fat bikes for kids to demo.

A short track race next to the expo drew beginners and experts alike for three-lap and six-lap competitions. Attendees could easily ride from the Snow King Resort into the adjacent forest’s singletrack trails.

While the location and date of next year’s Summit hasn’t been set, Sjoquist said the success of the event and the growth in fat biking means that it will likely return. But it may make more sense to have various regional summits that address land management issues that are specific to the local area.

“This was a great, positive event that showed how this fat bike thing is growing, expanding into kids’ bikes and how land managers are realizing this is the real deal. It’s not a fad. It’s going to be around a long time. We need to figure out how to accommodate these bikes,” Sjoquist said.

6 REASONS WHY SKIING WITH GIRLS RULES

Note: This entry is reproduced entirely from the SCARPA website here: http://blog.scarpa.com/

         Not only does Scarpa make great products that we offer in our stores, we thought it was a fun read. 

The backcountry isn’t a place reserved solely for testosterone. While the current demographics of the sport’s participants are slanted in favor of the boys, a day in the hills without Y chromosomes offers a completely different, yet totally enriching, experience. And thanks to products like the Freedom SLand the Gea RS, girls have never had better gear for getting out there. Here are some of the best aspects of skiing with the gals according to our athletes Annelise Loevlie, Rebecca Selig, and Shaun Raskin. You better believe that farts are involved.

Credit: Re Wikstrom Photography

Chicks break it down

When was the last time you were with a bunch of dudes who broke into a rendition of Lady Gaga’s Fame and busted out a few dance moves just before dropping in? Probably never. Guys don’t typically admit their love of fun girl music, and they don’t typically express themselves by shaking their hips and belting out ridiculous lyrics. For us girls, dancing breaks up the tension. It reminds us that it’s about having fun right before dropping a sweet line.

Chicks set better skin tracks

Skin tracks and boot packs are generally better fit to our stride when they’re set by a fellow female. Plus we get to talk about food and farts on the way up.

Chicks laugh more

There is something about getting a bunch of badass ladies into the backcountry that stirs collective hysteria. Expect jokes, pranks, funny faces, and a conscious effort to keep spirits high. Why? Well, why not? We are free in the mountains. We’re free to share all of our wild unabashed selves with our girlfriends. If skiing is about setting our souls free, then laughter is the wings upon which it rides.

Chicks understand the importance of pee breaks

We tend to be on the same pee schedules, so when nature calls one of us, we generally all take a moment to appreciate the view. There isn’t the same worry of slowing the group down when you have to go to the bathroom.

Chicks let you hear it

If you want a good show, watch a bunch of women standing at the top of a pillow line pushing each other to go bigger. Girls know how to support each other, and they aren’t afraid to vocalize that support: “woohoo,” “take it deeper,” “you’re killing it.” There’s a level of mutual respect and admiration amongst ladies. When one girl pushes hard, others inevitably follow.

Chicks ski with fire

When women come together on the hill they create a sense of power, and they bring a connection not found in many places. The energy behind the costumes, smiles, and stoke explodes in lift lines and on skin tracks brightening up any hill and making everyone wish they had similar experiences to take home.

Reminder: 30th Anniversary IMT [Sale Kickoff] Party Thursday Night

Ibis launches the all new 2015 Mojo HD3

No, I haven't ridden it. I was not at the launch last week and despite being a fan of, and having worked for, Ibis I don't know any more about the new Mojo HD3 than what is outlined by our friends at VitalMTB below.

Wait... I lied. I do know a little more: It seems pretty ideal for local Boise trails due to it's (light) weight, lessened 150mm of travel, and relatively steep 66.6-degree head angle. Also, the smaller sizes are shipping in December (read: January) with the larger sizes following in January (read: March). Come see us and we'll get your name on one ASAP.

I have a cross-related post coming shortly (Title: A Beginner's Guide to Heckling), but until then, enjoy.  http://www.vitalmtb.com/photos/features/First-Look-All-New-2015-Ibis-Mojo-HD3,8344/Slideshow,0/bturman,109


BC

Now ya done it, 'cross chick.

You may not be aware, but as my buddy Stevil eloquently puts it, "there’s a huge push to ‘keep cross weird‘, but to not mistake that for throwing beer in the faces of people who potentially don’t want beer thrown in their faces."

Couldn't agree more, but I've been stewing on a little incident since last Sunday that I need to get off my chest (it's taken considerable time just editing the curse words out). Let me set the stage for you a little. I'm a fan of cycling, and as such I go to cycling events. I don't really race anymore, and don't usually have too many dogs in the hunt at most events. I just go to support something I've been into for a long time. Some think that's weird, but football fans will spend all day screening TV from their couch, or tailgating, or at the stadium. No one should bat an eye at either notion, in my opinion.

My football buddies wanted me to come do said football couch thing last weekend, but in some kind of Halloween miracle I convinced them to come to the Waffle 'Cross SICX race in Eagle instead. "I've got a bag of bells, a bunch of beer, some Solo cups, and it's nice out. Let's go heckle some bike racers. You'll dig it?"

 I showed them pictures such as these. They're all in.

Now, Stevil's quote up there is in reference to a pro 'cross race they had at a bicycle trade show in Las Vegas this year. At night. In all their wisdom, the promoters never expected things to get all Rowdy Roddy Piper and some serious world class pros got beers thrown in their face (just the liquid, no cans or bottles). Racing a bicycle steeplechase in circles at night, in Vegas, at the epicenter of all things bikes in the US that week, they got beer in their faces. Who knew? But racers being the self-absorbed sort that they are, they weren't expecting anyone would go to a bicycle race in Vegas for any reason other than to see how ripped their legs looked in the light of The Strip.

So that's one thing, and no one likes to get beer thrown in their face when they're going anaerobic, but there is another thing that is a tradition in 'cross racing and it is called a "beer handup." It is where you pour part of a beer into a cup and offer it to racers on the course. While they're in the throws of the race, they grab it, shoot it, and throw the cup aside. Off they go and you as a spectator go pick up their cup and reuse it with more beer for the next guy/gal. If you want to be a b-hole you put gin in the cup, but I recommend only doing that to your buddies.

That last part is crucial, you advertise what you have. "Beer handup?" and if you're nice you run with the rider a couple of steps like you're in an Olympic relay to avoid spillage. This is a tradition of cyclocross that goes back long before you or I.

So we're out there, we're doing this, my friends and I, and we bought all this beer and brought some swag and I'm showing them how it's done and they're loving it. Not at first, mind you. At first they were angry they had to leave their house and get outside on a nice day, and also because no one was taking the cups. I explained, "Listen, you have to get in the head of a racer. No one starts a race intending to be a crushed loser. Most think there's a chance they'll win this thing. So you'll get no takers on lap one. Probably none on lap two. Lap three, you'll start to see some cracks, and that's when you tell the guy in 6th that he's way off the guy in 5th and he'd better grab a gear or a drink. Tell the next guy he's about to get 'chicked!' (passed by a female) and then...watch 'em come to daddy every lap from there on out." Half-hour later, they (my football friends)...they're old pros. They found something new here. This is bitchen. People are finishing and making it a point to come back to our spot and thank the beer hand-up crew for our support. We're "lifesavers." "We haven't seen that spirit here since 1969" said some jackass Eagles fan [who I wish would die soon].

Feel good story of the decade, right? Yup, 'till the Women's heat. That's when on lap three (and I'd already given some hand-ups to several very happy-to-see-ya ladies) a woman is coming up the climb and I start asking if she wants a beer hand-up.

"What is it?" she says?
"It's beer," and I begin running to meet her pace.
"Beer?"
"Yeah, it's beer, if you want it, here you go."

She takes it, and throws it back all over me. Her male husband/mate was apparently shadowing her on the course because he was right behind her in the same kit and said, "Yeah, Honey. You show 'em!"

You showed me, alright. You showed me and a bunch of potential fans of your sport. Listen, you take it, or you don't. There are lots that don't, there are many that do, but what you don't do is take a beer from a fan that is there to support you and throw it on them. And lets be clear, she didn't take it to her mouth or take a sniff and realize it was beer and didn't want it, oh no. She was mad that beer existed, took it from someone who had it, and threw it back on him.

There was a little fallout. The racers immediately behind her asked what that was all about and might have thrown around some words in her wake, but nothing else. Except the real "miss" with all of it: my buddies were immediately turned off. They asked if that happens often, and I said, "no...not to me. Never, actually."

I probably won't be able to talk them into coming to another 'cross race. So here's the thing, lady (and I love ladies, if it were a male I'd be saying the same thing. She happened to be female), my panties are not in a wad over this, but think about it next time. If you were in the NBA and a fan offered you a beer from afar and you went over to the front row and took his beer and poured it on him, you would be fined more than I make a year. But your sport doesn't even have fans like the NBA, or football, or nearly any other sport I could have followed that day. Your sport doesn't have cheerleaders and Ford Truck sponsors and fireworks. It's not easy to get up early in the morning on my weekend to watch you turn laps in a field, but I do it. Keep in mind, however, I'm the rarity. My friends are the norm. Look around at your little cross event and what do you see? Racers and their immediate families. No other spectators. I'm sure you get a discount on product and you think you deserve it. You don't. You're not selling anything. No one is looking at you to see what frame you're on and then going and buying it at full retail because you went through a sagebrush loop fast one weekend. You're not Lebron, and even if you were, he treats his fans like gold specifically because they are there to support him.

I couldn't care less if you like beer, but you'd better come away with something from this so here it is: Spectators don't need 'cross. 'Cross needs spectators.

Get it straight, "Honey."


-BC