John won his Fifty-Five at the Cascade Cream Puff a couple years ago…

He’s turned his singlespeed into a short-track machine, winning a popular Cat 1 short track  in Portland.

(John was the luckiest man in Oregon that day, winning both the Fifty-Five AND a sweet chainsaw bear… unfortunately I don’t have pics of either!)

While mixed wheel bikes such as the Fifty-Five have been establishing themselves in the endurance race scene, their entry in shorter, high intensisty races such as short track is more recent news.

John says of the format: “I think the fact that it can win on this format really shows how the bike can handle — it’s nothing but turns, jumps and berms.”

John also tells me that Adam Craig set a course record at a local 50 miler on a mixed wheel bike the week before. Hmm… maybe they’re not just a passing fad?

Enter to WIN a John Henry BIKE on MTBCast!

The bike giveaway is sponsored by Siren, Carousel Design Works, No Tubes, and Addictive Cycles. Yep, so far we’ve got a frame, wheels, and packs… Joe is looking for more components sponsors.

From the MBTCast site:

No purchase is necessary to enter. Officially, the promotion will start 6/24/09 23:59EDT and end 8/17/09.00:00EDT. Anyone is eligible with a restriction of one entry per household. The odds of winning are dependent upon the number of entries.  The prize is a Siren John Henry Steel 29er complete bike valued at appr. $1700. The winner will be selected via a drawing. To enter, visit MTBCast.com and fill out the online entry form. This giveaway is sponsored by MTBCast 1494 Forest Path Lane, Sugar Hill, GA 30518 and it’s partners. This contest is open to U.S. residents only or parties who can take position of the prize within the U.S. only.

It’s my understanding Joe can only run the contest within the US for some legal/interweb reason…

Click here to enter.

Entry for the contest is FREE, but donations to MTBCast are welcomed. Joe works hard to bring up to date coverage of Tour Divide, Colorado Trail Race, and other events…

I’m donating today.

Please consider a donation to support great Mountain Bike podcast coverage. Donation Link

Ride on!

It’s not what you’re thinking

Check out the World Bicycle Relief Project Zambia Bike on Velo News.

The Other White Metal

Big BIG thanks to Russ and Mike for the expertise here… John Henry quite literally wouldn’t happen without y’all.

John Henry is the next Siren model, and our first true “production” bike. Our goal with John Henry is to offer high value in handlbuilt American craftsmanship, and perhaps most notably: good margins for bike shops. Local bike shops are a critical component in the cultivation of our sport, and the front lines of customer service and expertise. While we have functioned with a stand alone, direct sales business model, it isn’t a sustainable practice when you consider the growth of the sport, and our business. Sure, we’ll sell them directly but only if it doesn’t compete with established Siren dealers.  Want to become a dealer? Drop us a line at info at Sirenbicycles.com

This first John Henry is a size Medium, which I’ll be shaking down soon… on an overnighter on the 27th with Dave & Mary. More on that later.

Until we have all the details figured- final tube selection, production process in place, etc- we’re not going to let on much more than this here. Don’t wanna build you up, Buttercup.

Want to see more? You’ll have to find me on the trail.

Thanks to the fellas who passed this on.

A good read.

Also, if you haven’t done so already, check out the link on the right, under “Must Read” titled “Why We Need Shop Class.”

Among the the hottest bikes we’ve done yet.

Solo racers Chris Strout and Todd Carpenter will be piloting these bikes in West Virginia this coming weekend at the 24 Hours of Big Bear.

They’ve both been racing Song 55’s for the past year, adding these two will give them more options in the solo pit.

The Song SL is essentially a lighter, prototype version of the current Song platform. They feature a lighter tubeset, enlightened bottom bracket shell, anodized rear end and bond-in titanium seatstays for extra compliance.

Chris’s flex plate is also optimized for SRAM’s new XX component group, in particular the low q-factor 2×10 cranks. He’ll be running the full group on his bike this weekend.

Fabrication was a little easier for these two bikes, as Todd & Chris both ride about the same sized bike.

They’re both 24.5″ ETT sized bikes, with forgiving, slackish geometry. They weigh just under 4.2lbs each. Not bad for such big bikes!

The down tube notes- both have special significance for the guys…

One has silver decals, the other has white decals- to tell them apart better in the pit.

Dave Nice (a nice guy) flew in to Tucson last Monday, acclimated himself to desert heat, and started his Tour Divide Individual Time Trial yesterday.

Follow his south-to-north ITT here, on Topofusion.

Read Dave’s blog.

Also, you can listen to all Tour Divide racer call-ins on MtbCast. We’re sponsoring the podcast, more on that in another post.

When Dave arrived, he collected his gear, got things in order… and waited patiently while I worked in the shop. He did a fair bit of sleeping too.

Dave Squared = snooze time…

We got out for a spin in Tucson Mountain Park

I drove him out to Antelope Wells yesterday, so he could start his Individual Time Trial (ITT) at noon sharp. I passed on an Egg McMuffin- a favor returned from Mary from last year’s start in Banff.

We met Tim the Border Guard and had a Nice© visit.

Shortly after noon- strong wind, warm but not hot temps, big smiles!

I headed up to Silver City to tie up some loose ends. I packed my gear and headed south on the route. Can you count all the hand positions on my Song? Very Fredular.

The ride out. Great pedallin’, just putting miles away in the New Mexico desert…

I ran into Dave about 40 miles out, shortly after this sign. *Note to racers: when you see this sign, go straight.

We cruised north for a while before finding camp

Camp… err, windblock

5:30am, no coffee in sight.

Near camp. This windmill was made in Chicago and made the trip all the way out here… Like me.

Would you want to drink from this? We didn’t.

On the road to Silver City. Tricky aero technique on a fixed gear…

yeah, right…

I wanna race.

Instead, I’m back to the shop… traded yesterday’s work day for tomorrow. Metal shavings here we come!

Matteo’s bike isn’t new, but it’s sporting a new powdercoat skin.

Deep root beer brown… semitranslucent, with a little metal in there. Very deep & tasty. Creamy decals keep it smooth.

The new & improved geometry chart for production Trauco & John Henry

Trauco	Small	Medium	Med-Lg	Large	XL
Head Angle	70	71	71	71	71
Seat Angle	73.5	73.5	73.5	73.5	73.5
ETT	22.25″	23.25″	23.75″	24.5″	25.1″
Chain Stays	17.3″	17.3″	17.3″	17.5″	17.5″
BB Height	12″	12″	12″	12″	12″
Wheelbase	42.4″	42.3″	42.6″	43.6″	44.1″
Standover	26.5″	27.25″	27.25″	29.25″	29.6″
John Henry	Small	Medium	Med-Lg	Large	XL
Head Angle	70	71	71	71	71
Seat Angle	73.5	73.5	73.5	73.5	73.5
ETT	22.25″	23.25″	23.75″	24.5″	25.1″
Chain Stays	17.3″	17.3″	17.3″	17.5″	17.5″
BB Height	12″	12″	12″	12″	12″
Wheelbase	42.4″	42.3″	42.6″	43.6″	44.1″
Standover	26.5″	27.25″	27.25″	29.25″	29.6″

First things first: the color is rhodochrosite.

What’s rhodochrosite? The Colorado State Mineral, by golly!

Emily’s homework assignement read something like this: “I want to drop Scott. Uphills. Downhills… lots of endurance rides/races in the future.”

I love it. (Scott is Emily’s husband, a great rider)

The color is a mildly pinkish translucent with a very subtle hint of metal flake. I wish I could capture this color better on camera. It’s amazing.

We designed her Song 55 to be as versatile as the terrain she’ll be riding it on- everything from BC nastiness to fast Colorado singletrack. It has excellent standover clearance for a big-wheeled bike, yet affords her three large water bottle placements. The component selection is good, dependable all-weather stuff, with a dash of nice touches, such as a 3d Violet headset from Cane Creek and other goodies.

We shipped it out just in time for Scott and Emily to build it up and race it at an XC Marathon in Vancouver. Check out Emily’s report.

I stole this pic from her blog- hope that’s ok Emily?

Perhaps the best message of all- coming back from the holiday weekend, my Facebook wall post:

“ The bike ROCKS! Just had 4 great days of riding and even managed to cross a finish line before the hubby (don’t expect to repeat that though!). thank you “

-gosh, I just love that stuff.