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You can buy complete bikes at PricePoint.com

I don’t know if you knew this but Pricepoint.com sells complete bikes.

Here’s a few samples of what you can get.

On One Inbred Single Speed Bike
on one single speed

IRO LC Fixed Gear Bike



Sette Team 6.0D Hardtail Bike

They even have some cool frames….
Lynskey House Blend
lynskey frame

Soma Grove Frame


Azonic Steelhead

Pricepoint.com has a boat load of other stuff you can get…just check it out and you’ll see that they have a pretty good selection and prices.

Popularity: 8% [?]

Ride Report: El Moro


Taking a quick break to scope out the smooth rock descent

Khoa, Steve, Tim & I got out to El Moro near Newport Coast for a loop. The beauty of El Moro is that it is right next to the beach which makes El Moro a great place to ride when it is hot out. Although there is not much tree coverage, being closer to the ocean reduces the temperature and boy was it hot in Southern California with temperatures reaching triple digits farther inland where I live.


Tim taking it with ease

El Moro started with some fun singletrack which led to a short fireroad descent that led to the most overgrown singletrack I’ve ridden through to date. The weeds were taller than me and the other plants we rode through left scratches on my arm including one that was deep enough to bleed. One section required a continual “ducking� while pedaling manuever to avoid getting my faced whipped by the weeds. Khoa made the comment that sometimes being short has its advantages. At that moment, I couldn’t agree more. By the way I performed a quick tick check afterwards. Highly recommended when riding through areas with bushes and other vegetation inundating the trail.

Some of the best parts of this ride didn’t even involve riding. It involved being at the top of a climb and looking back on the beautiful Pacific Ocean. Khoa’s camera phone pictures, thanks Khoa, do not do justice to the magnificent ocean. Yes, that’s the Pacific behind us and no, it did not just turn turquoise. haha. We took a detour just to get a better look at it (well worth the detour, I might add).


Turquoise Pacific Ocean

The ride ended on a slightly sour note as I grazed a cactus leaf on the way back to the car. It left a few thorns in my shin and flatted my rear tire out about 200 yards from the car. I was too lazy to change it so I just hoofed it out. No worries though the bike is ok. ;)

Popularity: 9% [?]

Riding the Titus Racer X 29er

This year, the weather was good at the Sea Otter Classic 2008. We took advantage of the weather to test ride bikes that are out of our budget reach. Jeremy and I took a couple of Titus Racer X on the Sea Otter testing grounds.

I’m not an exclusive ‘29er only’ rider, but I do own a hardtail 29er. With that said, I was really excited to test ride my first Full Suspension 29er. So here are my observations and opinions:

The Titus Racer X was really nicely equipped with Shimano XT, Fox Rear shock and Rock Shox in the front. Shifting was fast and precise, the shocks were dialed in (thanks to the Titus Crew for setting them up) and everything was adjusted to my height and weight.

As Jeremy and I rode to the trailhead, I noticed the weight of the bike right away. Once we started riding the singletrack, I was all smiles, the bike performed beautifully as the full suspension soaked all the bumps and it cornered with confidence. I did struggle climbing on this bike, to me, this basically confirmed that 26ers can climb better than a 29er.

Overall, riding the Titus Racer X 29er was a good experience but I think I’ll stick to riding my 29er hardtail.

Popularity: 13% [?]

How to become a faster rider…

I was looking at myself in the mirror and said, “dang, I’m sooo handsome!”

Then it occurred to me the reason why I’m hot is because of my short hair. Oh and I truly believe that my shorter hair has made me a faster rider.

See this picture, I had long hair. I wasn’t hot and I sure wasn’t fast.

So here’s my tip for you, buzz cut your hair to about a length of a #1. Basically that’s the last little attachment that goes on the clippers before you hit the blade. Cutting your hair off will not only make you look handsome like me, but also faster. How does it make you faster? Well I’ve spent time in our wind tunnel for testing, (that’s me sitting in front of a fan in my garage) and found that when I have hair, the wind doesn’t flow so well through my helmet and around me. But with short hair, the wind felt like a tornado coming past me.

But keep in mind, if you cut your hair short, people may assume that you’re some sort of thug. Cuz’ for some weird reason folks love to associate short haired males as trouble makers…like this guy.

Popularity: 7% [?]

A Morning Pick Me Up

Every morning I always have a cup of coffee. I’m a bit of a coffee snob or perhaps just addicted to it so I make sure I drink the best(IMO), Starbucks.

I usually will have my standard 1 cup in the morning. But on morning rides, I’ll go wild and crazy and drink…1 and a half cups! Whoa! I know what you’re thinking, “that RL guy is CRAZY!” Yup I am. But the doctors said the medication will help with that. Back to the coffee. So not only do I drink the stuff to help prevent my caffeine addiction headaches, but I drink it to make sure I am pretty alert and energized for the trails.

I’ve tried Redbull or Monster drinks before, but all that did was give me a stomach ache. Any suggestions on how to walk up quickly in the morning before a ride?

Popularity: 5% [?]

Weightloss Wager Update

From the desk of Vince Rodarte

Ok…as many of you have heard or read…or both; RL Policar of
Mtnbikeriders.Com and myself are competing against each other in a weight loss
challenge for the next 8 weeks.

This past Tuesday night I received a phone call from a good friend, Juan Diaz.
(He is the SoCal, Vegas & Arizona Specialized Bicycles Rep). Anyways, he’s been
giving me well deserved grief over my health recently. I forwarded him the link
(shown below), which prompted Tuesday night’s phone call.

http://www.mtnbikeriders.com/2008/04/22/the-battle-begins/#comments

Juan is willing to shell out $5.00 for every pound I drop for the next 8 weeks!
This got me thinking… If I could petition more people for ‘Sponsorship’, that
could mean a bit of cash generated. Then I thought, this could be a great
opportunity for RL and I to do something good, not just for us and our families,
but for some people who could really need the help.

SOOooooo…Here is my idea. RL and I are asking for ‘Sponsorship’ for our
Weight Loss Challenge. It works like the Jog-A-Thon or the Jump-A-Thons that
many of our own kids participate in at their schools.

For every pound RL and I lose, our ‘Sponsor’ donates a predetermined dollar
amount for the over-all pot.

We have 2 options…

‘PER POUND’: Ex: RL and I lose a total of 20 pounds. Joe Momma pledges $2.00
per pound. At the end of the 8 week contest, Joe Momma ponies up $40.00!

‘FLAT rate’: Ex: John Doe pledges a FLAT RATE of $20.00 bucks.

It’s easy…just like on PBS when they have their pledge drives!

The Over-All Pot will be donated to City
of Hope National Medical Center, a national and WORLD leader in the fight
against cancer and cancer treatment.

For the donations we are able to accept checks or money orders made out to: City
of Hope (on the memo line write in WEIGHT LOSS CHALLENGE)

**these will be requested after the 8 weeks are up**

**PLEASE CONTACT VINCE RODARTE OR RL POLICAR FOR MAILING ADDRESS**

For those of you local enough who would like to donate cash, we will have some
City of Hope Donation envelopes you can fill out and seal.

If you would like to donate a FLAT RATE online, please visit:

https://www.cityofhope.org/donate/Main/GeneralDonation.aspx

***** PLEASE GIVE NAMES AND ADDRESSES AS THESE DONATIONS ARE TAX
DEDUCTIBLE! *****

At the end of our 8 Week journey, RL and I hope to be happier, healthier AND
lighter!

Any help you can provide is greatly appreciated!

Thank you in advance!

Vincent Rodarte

Inside Sales Manager

KHS Bicycles, Inc.

Why City of Hope you may ask?? My life has been touched too many times by cancer
and the pain & suffering it brings. I’ve had 4 friends taken away too soon and
too young because of this disease. My wife also works on the Pediatric wing at
the main hospital at City of Hope. Hearing her stories makes me feel helpless
sometimes…Well; here is my chance to do something to help. I don’t wish it
upon anyone, but who’s to say you or I might need City of Hope’s help sometime
in our lives??

Popularity: 6% [?]

Dirty Dog MTB & a Special Guest

We hooked up with Dirty Dog MTB while out at Sea Otter 2008 again to check out some of the new stuff they had going on. If you don’t know, Dirty Dog makes some of the best looking rotors out there. Not only do they look killer they also perform as well as if not better than stock rotors of the same size. We know this from experience as both RL & I have run different rotor designs from Dirty Dog for almost a year now.

Some new designs that Dirty Dog has included in its rotor lineup:


the High Roller


the Bone Burner

They have also reduced the weight of their Reaper Skull Stem although for the life of me I can’t remember by how much or what its current weight is at.

Guess who else liked Dirty Dog MTB’s products… Gary Fisher. Yeah that Gary Fisher, as if there was any other. GF stopped by the booth as we were perusing the new designs and I couldn’t help but overhear how GF wanted some of those sweet rotors on his rig too. By the way I mumbled a quick “Hi Garyâ€? as if we’ve known each other forever or something. Me & Gary, we’re just cool like that.


Gary Fisher talking with Nick DeBeer of Dirty Dog MTB


Nick has a cool orange custom 29er behind his right elbow. I should have gotten a better picture of it. And Gary Fisher is checking out the Skull Cable Guides.

Click here for Dirty Dog MTB’s website.

Popularity: 17% [?]

Yesterday I discovered this…

Back in the day when I was a young pup, my dad would always drink this stuff. I never understood it because it basically tasted like tomatoes. I’ve always associated V8 as an “old peoples” drink. Well now that I’m older and way fatter, I think this drink has sorta grown on me.

It’s kinda like beer or pozole(Messican soup). No one I know, when they first take a swig of beer immediately falls in love with the taste and no one I know when they first take a bite out of the beef tripe (cow stomach) loves it. Basically its something you learn to appreciate. Well now that I am on my 2nd day of drinking V8 (I had one on my way home yesterday), I’m actually starting to like it too. It’s actually way better than the Naked Juice that we get at work for free since it has less calories.

The 5.5oz can only has 30 calories, 7g of carbs and 1g of protein. It’s the perfect drink to keep me satisfied until I get some real food.

The taste, well I do love tomato stuff such as gazpacho, salsa, pico de gallo, ceviche and all that jazz. So the V8 is just right up my alley…well now it is.

Dang, I think I’m getting old and turning into my dad….uh oh…next thing you know I’ll be wearing golf shirts everyday….

Popularity: 5% [?]

Bad Ass Coffee for some Bad Ass Guys

On our last day at Sea Otter, we packed up our bags and loaded up the truck to head to the show. But before that, we wanted to get some coffee to help wake us up. But we weren’t satisfied with just regular coffee, we wanted Bad Ass Coffee! We actually found a place that catered to our needs…

Here’s Jeremy showing the burro who’s the boss…look at the guy next to Jeremy…

Here’s my Bad Ass Coffee. Jeremy and Moe both ordered some sort of espresso drink where they were required to say…”with a shot of Bad Ass Espresso.”

This place had all sorts of knick knacks, this one was my favorite.

We thought that this place was just a one location store, but they actually have branches all over the place. I guess it all started in Hawaii. Check it out HERE

Popularity: 10% [?]

Week1 Weight Loss Wager Progress Report

So this is the end of week 1 and as we promised we are going to give you our weekly progress reports. So here they are:

RL started off at 202lbs, as of this this morning he weighs 200lbs, a total weight loss of 2lbs for week 1.

Vince Rodarte started off at 241.5lbs, as of this morning he weighs 245lbs, a total weight gain of 3.5lbs for week 1.

7 more weeks to go!

Popularity: 5% [?]