Sea Otter Classic, one of the best mountain biking events of the year (if not THE best), is offering a 15% discount for those registering for the races.

Click here to watch the video and get the promotion code for 15% off.

By the way, the Sea Otter Classic is going to be held on April 16-19, 2009 and guess who’ll be there?

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Remember that contest that I posted where I asked people to guess what part of my body this photo was from?

Well after getting some entries…all with the wrong answer! Chris Arnold, a loyal reader won! I had promised in the contest that I would give the winner something from my garage. After looking around, I felt guilty in giving the fella some stickers and pens. So I told him to hold his horses and promised him something from the 2008 Sea Otter Classic.

So here’s Chris showing off his commemorative 2008 Sea Otter Classic Messenger Bag. All the media folks were given a goodie bag and one of the items was…this bag! It’s a sweet messenger back and I wanted to keep it, but I remembered that I made a promise to Chris. So I gave up my swag and shipped it to him as soon as I got back. See how happy he is!

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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

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For our trip to the Sea Otter Classic this week we needed to bring along 3 bikes for the festvities. SO is a huge “Celebration of Sport” with tons of riders, exhibitors and people spread out over a huge area. Just getting from the media center, located on a mild hill on the far west side of the festival, to the exhibitor area, smack in the middle, takes a 15 minute walk/ride. SO is actually so big that there are shuttles running around the perimeter to get people from place to place.

In order for us to bring along our 3 bikes we contacted our good friends at Raxter Rack. Raxter Rack, if you remember, had previously sent out the highly recommended 2 bike rack which we did a full review on here. Raxter Rack sent us their very nice 2 bike extension giving us the ability to bring up to 4 bikes to and from SO. I pulled it out of the packaging a few days ago and was very impressed with the glossy black paint which looks great. The previous glossy black paint found on the folding arm has held up with nary a scratch or chip in over 10 months of constant use including a long round trip from Southern California to Colorado.

Same design, just in glossy black

Here’s the description by Raxter Rack:

2 Bike Extension for 1-1049 (2″ 2 Bike Rack), 1-1047 (2″ Single Bike Rack) or 1-1110 (Folding 2″ 2 Bike Rack). Quick installation and removal with only 2 bolts to attach to the rack and 4 more bolts to attach your crossbars! Gloss black . Ships in two boxes.

I got the rack installed onto the original 2 bike rack that Raxter sent out to us last year for testing. The gray rails are the original rails - which still look good - while the black rails are for the new 2 bike extension.

Three parts here: 2 Bike Rack, Folding Assembly & 2 Bike Extension

Some quick first impressions:
- Good quality product. You know you’re getting a good quality product when everything fits PERFECTLY. This is not Ikea stuff where you sometimes have to bend, shim or realign parts to get their products to resemble furniture (don’t get me wrong, I love Ikea as proof by our Ikea furniture. They’re just tough to assemble). With this 2 bike extension everything slips into place gently and you lock them down with the nuts/bolts provided. No need to bore out bigger holes or do the “bolt finding hole” dance.

The new loading trays

- Other than the paint I don’t think Raxter Racks has changed anything… this is a plus as the gray system was easy, quick and secure. I took this rack out with three bikes a couple of days ago and I’d say the most time consuming part of securing a bike is actually walking from one side of the rack to the other! The velcro is so simple and secure I’m surprised so many companies are still using the rubber straps with holes in them method.

Little lonely but we’ll fix that when we drive 700 miles round trip to SO

- Attaches/detaches with two bolts to the original 2 bike rack. The whole 2 bike extension is simply attached by pushing through two bolts through two holes on the original 2 bike rack. This simple procedure takes just a couple of minutes with a couple of adjustable spanner tools or something similar. Below I circled where the 2 bike extension attaches to the original rack. A very clean look.

Two bike extension attachment point

Keep checking back for the full review as we take a few bikes to Sea Otter and back using the new extension.

For more information regarding Raxter Racks, click here.

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I was recently on the Sea Otter Classic Website to check out the dates for the 08 show and saw that a video I made of the Magura Flow Show made it to the home page of their website.

By the way, the Magura riders are sporting the bad ass Tag Wheels that Lanced reviewed.

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