I just wanted to share this with you folks. Nothing fancy, no waterfront scenery or a huge mountain, but it brings me a smile.

Popularity: 5% [?]

Trek Demo, Fullerton Loop tomorrow, Saturday May 31 from 9am to 3pm.

Even if you’re not interested in buying a bike, demoing bikes is super fun. My friend Tim & I went to the last demo day here in Fullerton and had a blast riding Treks and Gary Fishers. Tim wasn’t looking for a new bike at the time but was so blown away by the ABP of the Trek Fuel EX he ended up purchasing a Trek Fuel EX 9.0 after the demo ride. Great props to our friend Matt Gutowski for all the hard work he does in setting up the demo and dialing in the bikes for the ride.

But, if you decide that you are interested in in a Trek, Gary Fisher or Lemond, check this out… particularly the last line:

Jax Road and Mountain Bicycle Demo Day this Saturday

Join us at the Fullerton Loop from 9am - 3pm

Ride the newest 2008 bikes from Trek and Gary Fisher including the New Trek Remedy, New Trek Fuel EX, Trek 69er’s, Fisher HiFi’s, Fisher 29er’s and also the New Trek Madone road bike. Come and experience what all the buzz is about on these class leading products.

Where: Fullerton Loop
When: Saturday, May 31st from 9am to 3pm
What to Bring: A photo ID, cycling shoes, pedals, helmet and a bottle of water. We’ll have a few pedals in case you forget.

For more information visit www.jaxbicycles.com or Ride the Best.

Print this page and bring into any JAX location to receive $100 off any bicycle prices $999 and above.

Don’t print our page! I don’t know how much good that will do you. I’ve linked the page for you. Here is the link for $100 off.

Can’t say I never helped a B.O.B. out. Happy riding.

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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.

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I recently went out to four nearby Local Bike Shops (LBS) to check out the 29er scene. I was particularly interested in what manufacturers the LBS carried and if the LBS carried 29ers from those manufacturers.

Specialized FSR 29

My realization? 29ers have definitely come a long way in a short period of time. Every shop I went to had at least one 29er on their sales floor. This probably would not have been the case just a year ago. The popularity of 29ers has caught the attention of many big name manufacturers and because of this many of them have added their own 29er for their lineup.

The first shop I visited is a high end bike shop. They carry smaller bike brands like Salsa & Felt. At this shop 29ers were very commonplace and the sales people were very familiar with 29ers. They consistently recommended them for mountain biking to many of their customers. I came away pretty stoked because the 29ers were holding their own at the shop.

The next shop I visited was significantly larger. It had a ton of bikes from different manufacturers and 29ers were still well represented there. The 29ers they had were by Redline and Specialized. Only a short year ago this shop wasn’t even carrying any 29ers. Why? Because they didn’t carry Redline bikes and Specialized was still dragging its feet in coming out with their 29ers. Now Specialized got on board and added a hard tail plus a full suspension 29er to their lineup. The shop, likewise, did the same to their sales floor. Redline had a strong showing here multiple Mono 9’s, Monocogs & Monocog Flights.

The 3rd shop on my list was a Trek/Gary Fisher dealer. I knew this bike shop would be filled with 29ers but I was surprised when I walked in and only a few 29ers were on their sales floor. I inquired about this and was told that their supply couldn’t keep up with the demand for 29ers and the 29ers were flying off the floor as soon as they were built!

Moe & his KHS Solo-One

The last bike shop I visited is a little shop that I’ve been frequenting off and on for the last few months. For mountain bikes they carry Santa Cruz, KHS, Cannondale and Trek. Although half of those manufacturers carry 29ers the LBS had only one 29er on the floor, a lonesome KHS Solo-One (not kidding… a “solo” “one”). I was a little bummed that this shop didn’t have more 29ers especially from KHS who has wholeheartedly supported the 29er movement with rigid, hardtail and recently full suspension 29ers. When I inquired as to why they stocked only one 29er the owner mentioned that he had not ridden a 29er yet. Ahhh… I get it now. In my opinion you really can’t realize the benefits of the 29er unless you’ve had some seat time. His reasoning for carrying the Solo-One is that if any of his customers were interested in trying a 29er the cost would not be prohibitive to get onto one. Valid point.

So, are 29ers coming around? In my neck of the woods I would have to answer with a resounding “yesâ€?. All of the LBS’s I visited carried at least one 29er and many of them had 29ers from different manufacturers. For some of these LBS’s the 29ers were a strong part of their bottom line. Music to my ears!

What about for you? Have you started to see more 29ers out on the trails and in your LBS?

Popularity: 11% [?]