Business & Pleasure Morphed In To One

Interbike ‘09 was everything we’d hoped it would be; a chance to catch up with friends & colleagues, see some new product, and get energized about working in the industry we love.

Here, some of the greats of Tour Divide:

Matthew “One Race Suzie” Lee, Mary Metcalf-Collier, and Jay Petervary keeping the crowds happy with free ice-cold Tecate… (Mary sips water, of course)

We arrived in Vegas on Wednesday and caught up with the World Bicycle Relief folks, then proceeded to the evening festivities at Cross Vegas.

We caught up with divide racing greats Matthew Lee & Jay Petervary in the Cannondale Unimog… Matthew & his Cannondale teammates had ridden the 600 miles from Park City to Las Vegas off road- with a Mercedes Unimog for a sag wagon.

Later, we met up with suppliers, exchanged big ideas with our cohorts, and helped staff the World Bicycle Relief booth. Once again my hat goes off to FK Day for the realization of his vision of the Power of Bicycles.

There were lots of neat bikes to see… but I didn’t get any pics of that. I was too excited for our post-Interbike explorations, starting with Jon Hanson of Sabrosa Cycles.

Rocket Track

Through many turns of luck, we had the very rare & fortunate honor of a tour of the Hurricane Mesa Test Track, outside Virgin, Utah. The “No Photography” signs meant the camera’s stayed in the car… below, an old pic from the internet.

The track , as seen from the North Point of Gooseberry Mesa

My great uncle had worked there in the 50’s, as an aeronautical engineer in the research & development phase of the earliest ejection seats for supersonic aircraft… he told me stories when I was a kid about launching chimps off the mesa at supersonic speeds.

The track is still in use today.

The tour was amazing. The staffers were super friendly & answered our incessant questions. I could go on & on about this tour, it was one of the glowing highlights of the trip for me.

Today, they use test test dummies rather than chimps, and they don’t need to go over the edge anymore. The work they’re doing now is more sophisticated and affords safer ejection for today’s pilots, with their added equipment & demands.

We went home from the tour buzzed & spent a nice evening with the Sabrosa Family. They have some of the best neighbors, by the way…

Rides

We had a killer campsite atop Gooseberry Mesa- complete with a great view, some juniper shade, and a bit of petrified wood to gaze upon during morning coffee time. Utah mesas have a way of cleansing one of Vegas funk.

We joined up with Dave Nice at Over The Edge in Hurricane. This was our first visit to the Hurricane shop- the place looks good! They were hosting “Afterbike,” which was a low key celebration of the bike lifestyle complete with bike rides & BBQ.

We joined in on a group ride with a bunch of total strangers- and what followed was some of the best riding & hangout time a guy could ever ask for.

Jonathan from Bianchi, and Jason… sadly, this was the last documentation of their whereabouts before getting split from the rest of the group. Ha!

Riding Guacamole- where else do you find a cairn made of petrified wood?

Riding Gooseberry Mesa with Monte & Shiggy

Monte points to his house… very good dude. We hope to see him & his wife Bonnie again in a couple weeks as we come through on the way to the 24 Hours of Moab.

I returned from the trip even more energized than before, with a karmic recharge of sorts. Friendships are built and strengthened where bikes & people come together. I guess that’s why we build them, right?!

Jason’s Custom Fifty-Five

Jason’s Fifty-Five features custom fit, custom tubing, and custom geometry.

His typical trails are in and around Half Moon Bay, California. They tend to have short, steep ups, and the corresponding downs.

Jason’s, who writes the 20 Dollar Wine Blog, is a big dude. We started planning with a tubeset in mind, featuring elegant Columbus stays and some choice main tubing from Easton. Add to that a great fit, derived from our Homework Assignment (Jason coined the term, by the way) and low standover clearance to accommodate his needs.

His bike inspired a new, sturdier, bent top tube we can now offer on other custom builds. The new tube sports the same angle of bend as our standard bent TT, but on a softer, 8″ radius and a sturdier tube.

We also worked through a solid, low maintenance components build with an eye for a unifying look. A lot of Sram X9 and Shimano XT drivetrain components paired with Juicy brakes, a Reba fork, and a NoTubes ZTR Flow wheelset.

It came together nicely:

Jason’s stays in detail- very sturdy, but elegant & smooth:

Drivetrain. I dig the red accents.

We finished the cockpit off with a matching stem- a Syntace F139 powdercoated to match the rest of the bike. Paired with a Syntace Vector Lowrider bar this makes for a sturdy, lightweight, and comfortable setup.

Jason put on a track benefit not long ago at Hellyer Velodrome, a benefit for World Bicycle Relief. By the sounds of it we might be getting together in the next few days at Interbike… can’t wait!

Today marks the halfway point to our child’s Birth Day party…

And I’m more aware of milestones.

Birthdays, anniversaries, graduations- they’re on my mind, not just on the smart gadget.

The image below is one week old: Our Kiddo, 19 weeks into gestation. We went to our ultrasound check up appointment last week…  In the time between walking in and out of the door of the imaging office I not only learned we’re having a boy, but really saw, understood, that we are having a baby. He was active, kicking & wiggling. So much so that I think he gave the technician a bit of a hard time for some of her tests. Quite the milestone.

I was asked how it made me feel to know the baby’s sex; but I can’t answer that clearly. It’s hard to separate the end of a fantasy of what it would be like to have one sex or another from all the new points of reality those images brought home: a developing spine & rib cage, a skull, arms & legs, even digits. It was all a lot to take in. In a great way.

A couple days ago, I finally felt a kick. Mary has been feeling them for quite some time (easy to feel a foot against your organs I’m guessing!) but I finally found myself in the right place at the right time. A flutter. Another milestone.

We went to my grandmother’s 85th birthday celebration last week. As always, my cousins, aunts, uncles, and I retold stories from years past. New to the scene was the youngest generation- the kids running around the house, playing & sticking their fingers into the birthday cake when nobody was looking… living the stories they might retell at family gatherings in years to come. A generational milestone.

Today, September 15th, also marks a major anniversary for a couple special people in my life. I won’t list them here but you know who you are. Enjoy the special day!

This Song SL is hot, hot HOT!

Jerry commissioned us to build a versatile softail… and he wanted it to be light… and good-looking.

Here’s what we came up with- one of the first true Song SL’s since the team bikes we built for the WBR-Siren guys Todd & Chris. This one is similar, but even more refined…

Jerry’s bike features an Easton Scandium down tube, which is pear shaped for added torsional stiffness, and our proprietary hourglass head tube to save a bit more weight. (thanks to Jerry for the trail pics)

Perhaps most notable is the addition of the tapered titanium seatstays, bonded to handbuilt aluminum lugs.

The dropouts are Ahrens Sliders, with hardware upgrade to socket head bolts and a brass jam nut. Notice the NDS torque brace and our proprietary (and very Sireny) hidden brake line routing.

We changed the decals over from gold to pink just before shipping it out. I think the bike looks even better with the pink accents-

And a friend just sent me this link today. Seems there’s a discussion on mtbr.com about it: Check it out here.

First ride: I got a message that read something like this:

“Built bike yesterday. Raced Today. 112.8 mi. The Song rocked! Field of 60+. Never even got passed. Won by 20+ minutes.”

Music to my ears.

We gave Dave’s bike a new look

The new powder is a chocolate brown with a chameleon-like sparkle clearcoat. Depending on the angle you look at it from, it glows with a copper, or green sheen. Very hawt.

It even looks good dirty…

It’s ON.

October 24th, 75+ miles, with options….

current route profile is sitting at 11,350ft of climbing.

Read About & Follow Here.

Read it here, on Mary’s Blog!

This one’s shipping out to Todd in Chicago

His Hydra is optimized around a Sid 100 fork (they’re back!) and features custom fit and handling for twisty, midwestern singletrack.

The frame also features the CNC yoke, and a trick Sparkle Burgundy powdercoat.

The gold on white decals add a bit of flash, eh?

Easton main tubes & chainstays, plus Columbus seatstays round out the build nicely.

Sometimes I catch myself thinking: “This is like one of those places people go to for vacation!”

The friends are great, the rides are plentiful… and we have more trails than we know what to do with. The livin’ is a little slower, which is a good thing.

Lately, I’ve been doing some exploring with my peeps- we’re planning a Self-Supported Enduro in the area. For now, we can share this much: it’ll be long, with a lot of climbing, and very rewarding, with post-ride activities. More to come on that, I promise.

Here’s some of what we’ve come up with:

I still can’t keep up with Mary very well. She’s been doing some exploring of her own, too.

Dave tested this natural spring & gives the thumbs-up. (he does this stuff for a living) The enduro will likely pass by this spot.

Nick has been helpful with his knowledge of the eastern end of the valley… and his willingness to hike-a-bike for 5 hours.

Some Garner Valley doubletrack. They filmed Bonanza here.

View of Lake Hemet from the climb up to Rouse Ridge

Doug. This guy is way faster than you.

With much anticipation, we introduce the Steel Drivin’ Man.

A little background on the American Folklore Hero

excerpt from americanfolklore.net

But John Henry, he worked tirelessly, drilling with a 14-pound hammer, and going 10 to 12 feet in one workday. No one else could match him.

Then one day a salesman came along to the camp. He had a steam-powered drill and claimed it could out-drill any man. Well, they set up a contest then and there between John Henry and that there drill. The foreman ran that newfangled steam-drill. John Henry, he just pulled out two 20-pound hammers, one in each hand. They drilled and drilled, dust rising everywhere. The men were howling and cheering. At the end of 35 minutes, John Henry had drilled two seven foot holes – a total of fourteen feet, while the steam drill had only drilled one nine-foot hole.

John Henry held up his hammers in triumph! The men shouted and cheered. The noise was so loud, it took a moment for the men to realize that John Henry was tottering. Exhausted, the mighty man crashed to the ground, the hammer’s rolling from his grasp. The crowd went silent as the foreman rushed to his side. But it was too late. A blood vessel had burst in his brain. The greatest driller in the C&O Railroad was dead.

Our first “standard handbuilt” frame is ready to go… anywhere you want to go. In honor of the John Henry namesake, we build this hammer-swinger the old school way- here in US, by people who ride & love building bikes and take pride in their craft. John Henry hammers in quality and performance comparable to high end custom frames, with a competitive price available through your local bike shop, or directly from us at Siren Bicycles.

Features include size-specific tubing throughout the size range, packing in as much value as we can with our proprietary mix.

Our 5 size range includes the elusive “tweener” size; medium-large.

Go to your local bike shop or contact us directly to get drivin’

John Henry is true to Siren roots with a bent, premium quality double butted top tube. Despite the added expense, we still believe in maintaining good standover clearance & enhanced ride quality.

US made Paragon sliding dropouts- the undisputed best in the business- come standard issue. You can head for the hills with derailleurs, or run silent on one gear.

The added torque brace enhances braking power and boosts frame integrity in a high stress area.

The s-bend stays and a 73mm bb shell accommodate the very largest 29″er tires out there, even in the “short” setting on the sliders.

Hidden brake line routing protects your expensive hydraulic brakes in case of a crash.

Frame weights are competitive throughout the size range, coming in a full 1/4 lb lower than the leading high end production steel 29″er.

Standard, no charge options include 5 decal color choices:

Like all Sirens, we can also do full custom work with the John Henry. Custom options include tubing options, finish, custom geometry & fit, rack mounts, extra water bottle mounts, Rohloff compatibility, etc.

Hammer on.