TODAY IS COLONEL SANDERS BIRTHDAY, EVEN THOUGH HE IS DEAD...

And since I train exclusively on KFC, I though I would share this with you which I stole off of today's Whore Church blog post. See you in Breckenridge tomorrow at the Fall Classic.

CASTLE BIKES ARE HERE

The Final product of the FIRST Castle

I am currently, right now, as I type this blog post, in real time, while I sit in Yeti's Grind in Eagle, sitting next to Alfred David Mires. He's been a steel fabricator and cycling enthusiast pretty much his entire life. I've played music with him live as he rips an electric guitar pretty damned good, and I rode with him two springs ago in Eagle because he lives here, and he has lived here a really long time. After the ride he took me to his steel fabricating shop which I found fascinating, he creates some insane steel and metal items all from scratch for all kinds of people who need all kinds of shit, custom, it's impressive. Dave told me what he really wanted to do was build bike frames. Guess what, he did, and I introduce to you the first ever Castle Bike frame from Alfred David Mires. He had just finished this baby up and threw some parts he had laying around the house on it to make it rideable before the actual build for Charlie Brown who owns the Mountain Pedaler in Eagle, this is his frame prior to paint. Dave took the bike out for a quick spin to see how it rode for an hour, and came home four hours later with a perma-grin on his face, he had done it, he had built a rock solid and functional mountain bike frame which he said rode fantastic, and the detail is just plain fucking sexy, craftsmanship beyond the wildest. So here it is after the first ride, raw and dirty, just the way a mountain bike should be. Nice job Dave, see you at NAHBS soon. You WILL see more soon from Castle Bikes.

Castle Bikes preferred tubing choices for the initial build
4130 Aircraft Chromoly for the Seatstays, top tube, and down tube 
The seat tube and head tube are True Temper OX Platinum
Chainstays are Columbus Life tubing
Mires also uses Fillet Brazed Brass to join all of his frame tubing selections. He can use whatever tubing you prefer. 


If the first question out of your mouth is "how much does it weigh?" (this frame weighs in at 5.5 lbs.), then this is probably not the frame choice for you, all though 5.5 is pretty right on, and to be honest with you, I'm not sure Mires, or myself would find you as the type of person we want to ride with anyway, so eat a few less donuts and ride a Castle. These bikes are built to ride and have FUN on, which is what bike riding is supposed to be about in the first place.
Dropouts from Paragon, set it up as single or  as a geared machine. Killer.

Internal routing through the seatstays for the rear disc brake

 

 Below is stellar craftsmanship, check out the seatstay mounts here, and the first look at the yet to be named top tube configuration...

 

Above and below are the cable routing holes designed for the internal routing of the housing for both brake and shifting cables

Even the bottle cage mounts have a little flair with the diamond shaped framework.....nice flair.

The first Castle Bike frame complete, a 26 inch edition, and it's sweet that Dave just threw a bunch of parts that he had laying around to test ride her, you get to build yours up as you wish. But be patient, these frames are built one at a time, and there is already a small line forming to get em. Most importantly, there may be a CX frame prototype in the works, which pleases me.

I mean look at this profile from the top, this frame simply reeks of 

FUN.

WELCOME TO CASTLE BIKES, MANUFACTURED IN GYPSUM/EAGLE COLORADO.

Chillin early morn with Dubs.

photo Tommy Maddox

What a weekend. 

I found this an interesting perspective from Steve Tilford this morning on his blog...

"I paid $205 to race this race. I would have had to finish top 4 to win my entry fee back. The entry was $165, plus $40 more for 4 days of an ACA license. It seemed really a lot too high. I couldn’t afford to race in Colorado if this is a common entry. I think I used to know why Colorado quit USAC, but it seems kind of a hassle now. The are lots of problems with USAC, but having a bunch of individual groups running races is not good for the sport. Plus, I hate it that USADA isn’t ever going to do any drug testing on riders from the ACA. And I presume that the ACA doesn’t have any ability to test their own riders."  

Besides that, the Rocky Mountain Endurance Series wrapped up in Elbert at the Peaceful Valley Scout Ranch, which is simply an amazing piece of property. 3300 acres of the most divers mountain biking terrain I've ever seen, and the course was a monster, and it was really fun. Colin Cares was able to separate from Brady Kappius on the final of three 22 mile laps and take the victory while Taylor Sheldon came back strong from a mechanical to finish third. This place is the bomb, and thanks to the staff there for the accommodation and the great time. This is a venue that could some day rivel the 24 in the Sage with cool campsites, showers and bathrooms. The night before the race, Thane Wright put together a pot luck dinner for the staff and camping racers, it was a great vibe and killer fun, especially the Dale's Pale Ale fueled night ride and session down at "Silver Lake", where the carp fishing was off the charts earlier in the eve. 

The next two days were spent battling a pretty wicked head cold and two long days on the mic, winding up at the Steamboat Stage Race. The guys and gals in Steamboat are always so welcoming, and the racing was top notch which included one of the strangest finishes I've seen in a 1-2 Crit in my day. The break of seven was free and clear and held out until the finish, with Keith Harper winning the sprint to the line, but throwing his victory celebration about 10m to early and having Colby Pearce roll right through his early celebration at the line to take the win. Jake Wells was third by a hair and had a great ride and weekend in the Boat. Scott Moniger won the weekend overall. Special props to Nathan Wilson of Cal Giant Strawb/Specialized for taking matters into his own hands late with a monster charge for many laps to hold his second place overall.

So now it's time to recover from this nasty head cold and rest up a day or two in Eagle, it's raining as I type which means the singletrack will be championship caliber shortly. Then I'll figure out the rest of the story.

 

I'M SPEECHLESS

I'm gonna go out there and say this is the best DH riding, and absolutely the best commentary I've ever heard by a cycling announcer.

PEACEFUL VALLEY GETS UNPEACEFUL....

That's 50 cases of Dale's Pale Ale!

There's a lot more to this story, I'm just too tired to tell it right now, but it will come......

HERE'S A GOOD ONE....

There is a ton of YouTube footage now surfacing from this great day, this one captures the madness very well.

24 HOUR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP MAP RELEASED....

The 24 Hour National Championship course in Colorado Springs...October 1st and 2nd, I'll see you all there, I'm calling the action.

Click the pic to go to the USAC site.

MORE FROM 24, IN THE SAGE

"On a steel horse I ride"

The old red and white 1986 Rockhopper (originally yellow) doing what it was originally built for all those years ago, with another relic riding the rigid race machine. There was understandably some "questions" as to whether or not this rig actually "qualified" as a townie. We were "allowed" three gears, a fuzzy seat cover, coaster brakes (I was rockin OLD and dried up, sketchy canti brake pads), had a rack and rode flat pedals with Teal Teva river shoes, which happened to be an awesome shoe choice. My three gear choice, which I found to be ingenious, were my front three chainrings, while disabling my rear derailleur. It worked VERY well, especially on the flat road when I could kick it up into the big ring, until the front derailleur failed after lap two, which was actually a blessing.
What a damn fun weekend with a bunch of damn fun people.....see ya there in 2012

When it was all said and done, I logged 85 miles on this bad boy, one pre ride lap, and five during the race, so fun.