Fatbikes at Interbike!

So despite being in Las Vegas for other reasons entirely, and thanks to a cancelled meeting, I was able to attend interbike for the first time in more than 12 years. I walked up to the registration table on Friday, the consumer day, paid $20 and got a badge and in I walked.

And as I walked in, this was the very first bike I saw.

That is an Atlas Cargo Trike with 4" tires and a ebike front hub. There. That is Interbike 2014 in a single bike. Read no further.

Wha? Still here? OK, there was actually lots of good stuff at interbike, but lets go through a small fraction of the fatbikes I saw. I decided to take pictures of all of them, but got a bit tired of the whole project. I pretty much skipped all the carbon fat bikes, and I don't really care about fat bike suspension, so no photos there, but lamentably, I did not document the really nice Surly Ice Cream Truck, nor the nice looking new fat offerings from Swobo and Twin Six. I am sure there were more, but you can google around and see what else was there and I missed.

Ritchy had a very nice looking "Commando" fatbike. Steel. No camo paint, but still looked pretty good.

Then there were the kids fat bikes.

Pirannah 20" fattie

with these 20" 406 Chao Yang Tires

If that was not enough, German brand S'Cool had both 20" and 24" fat bikes

QBP had an enormous amount of floorspace dedicated to a (QBP centric) History of Fat Bikes. There was no exhibit guide, or collectors book though. Get on that QBP.

There was a nice Remolino prototype fatbike in the exhibit, which I did not photograph, google it, first modern looking fatbike (as opposed to stiched together rims or double tires or smaller hanebrink type fat tires). As well as a variety of QBP bikes, Older Surly Fatbikes and newer Salsa's and the neat looking Cogburn hunting and fishing bikes.

There were so many new fatbike tires out there, from lower end tires to high end light weight tires. Schwalbe had a sub 1000g 4" fatbike tire, the Jumbo Jim. Which sounds great, until you realize that each tire is a Kilogram. But then you think, how much do my fatbike tires weigh? The answer is your tires, Tarik, weigh 1.6 kg each. Oh! Well then, sign me up for 1000g tires!

Blackburn had a really impressive array of racks and bikepacking gear, notable in this context, they had a nice looking fatbike rear rack, the Outpost

Like I said before, the Surly Ice Cream Truck looked fabulous what with its through axles and 4.8" tires, I am sad I did not photograph it. It was sparkly! 4.8" tires make sense if you ride in loose or deep snow and or sand at all. But I did photograph the even more fantastic, and my pick for the Moscaline Fatbike of Interbike 2014, the Curtis Inglis made Retrotech curvy 4.8" through axle love

Look at those stays!

Finally, there was a nice lot of demi fat stuff all over the place, from 29+ to 27.5+ to 26+, I think outside of snowy lands, this might be the ticket for a good fun as hell all purpose trail bikes. I regret not making it over to see the WTB 27.5x2.8" tires which might fit in the space of 29x2.4" tires, like on my singlespeed. My personal favorite not quite fat bike was the Surly SNS coupled World Troller. Sporting some 26x2.6" meats and couplings, this would be a great travel single speed/ all terrain travel touring frame, etc. etc. Bordering on too useful. I have lots of potential bike projects coming up, but a single speed just like this would slot right into my burgeoning quiver quite nicely.

OK, I have a couple more posts of interbike excellence if I get to em. Stay tuned.

New TSBC pins - Vegas

Hey! New pins!

Four packs of a pink, glow in the dark, hologram sparkle and white pins are available for purchase.
Check it at http://tariksaleh.com/tsbc/

I am also lurking on the periphery of interbike this week, if you see me at underbike or cross vegas and ask nicely I will give you some. Or trade you some, or something.

Speaking of Vegas. I really like going out to red rocks. I have done two rides out there and one run. Weather ranged from 100F and brutal, to raining and kind of chilly to a sparkling cool morning run. Photogenic too.

In the shimmering heat

Sunday in the storms

Another sunday storm view

After the storm passed Sunday night

Full moon set this morning.

Big Dummy Redo

After riding the Big Dummy all over the place, with the bare minimum maintenance straight into the ground since I built it up in 2008, it was high time to give it the overhaul it deserved. I want to thank my buddy Steve Pickle at 30th century bike in Iowa for helping me with some advice and sourcing some xtracycle bits for the rebuild, and old friends Mellow Velo for helping me get the bike in the first round of Big Dummies way back in twenty-ought-eight

Pre redo, I think all I have replaced is the disc brake pads 3 or 4 times over since I built it the first time

The original snap deck had seen better days

Stripping it down, time for that ancient bluemels metal fender to go

Down to the frame, re frame savered, new rings, shifters, cables, chain, matching planet bike fenders

Holy Roller Tires to replace the well worn big apples

Flight Deck and Hooptie added, new xtracycle bags as well, also new glowing green grips

Neighborhood kids aboard

Aida Likes it, me too

We can get along pretty well on and off road, and use it for establishing hiking basecamp

She can't nap on the back, but a towel and some shade is all we needed

Still does the hauling

With the addition of the magic carpet seat pad, we can do some reasonable mountain style bicycling

But it carries the recycling nonetheless

All and all I still love this bike, it has now entered its new life as even better family adventure hauling mobile. I am soon to add a dyno hub and a special front hauling addition. Stay tuned.

Ubikequitous 12,Trammell Whitaker Tandem

Trammell's in my Hall of Fame. Get your own Hall of Fame. There's a statue with him on a tandem bike with Lou Whitaker, and it's near the food court.

From a Grant Brisbee Sb Nation article, "Renaming the 'Ultimate Grand Slam'"

TSBC caps in production

Update 6/3/14, production is complete, caps will be shipping this weekend (6/6/14) to preorderers! There will be some extras, email me at hats at tariksaleh dot com to get on the waiting list, price will go up, but they will not last long.

Sneak peak of the exceeding all expectations crazy hats from Randi Jo

Yee haw...

Picking stuff up

Had a good month of finding stuff on the wheel.
I found a nice 14mm Made in USA Craftsman Socket over near work (3/31/14):

Then I grabbed a couple big rounds from a Chinese Elm tree off the curbside on my way home. It was a reasonably smooth ride home from there all loaded up on the big dummy (4/2/14):

I found this excellent Hairy creature jaw on a run in the canyon near the house. I stashed it nearby in a somewhat relocatable place hoping the insects clean the bones for me by the fall. Or I will forget about it and never see it again (4/18/14):

Then I had one of the best single road find days of my life on Tuesday April 29th, 2014. I found a big honking 4xl reflecty safety jacket in the middle of the road at 7am on my way down to white rock for training. Then I took a lunch break out at the overlook and found a lacrosse ball on the way back to class. Lacrosse balls are excellent to juggle with and really satisfying to hit with a baseball bat, but I don't really endorse that activity in a neighborhood or in close quarters...
Scene from lunch at the overlook

Then after an afternoon of unsatisfying training activities, I took the long way home from White Rock, around the bandelier loop, and while climbing slowly out of a canyon somewhere, I looked over to the side of the road and saw this gleaming out at me amid the detritus of some recently removed trees:

I stashed it in my musette and kept on riding.

Then at the top of the long climb before the back gate, I saw an excellent pink Pedro's tire lever waiting for me on the side of the road. I picked it up as it began snowing reasonably hard. I took a break, put on my jacket and rode on home through the snow flurries.
4/28/14, the dubious collection of the road find day of infamy

It was a good day.

A couple things Saturday, TV time

With any luck I am off at the races this morning. Please enjoy a selection of my favorite TV introductions of my childhood for no other reason than they all came up recently in discussions. In chronological order of time wasted.

Someday the mountain might get em, but the law never will

of a man... who does not exist

Too dangerous to be left in unenlightened hands!

TSBC cap order window closing 4/15

Hey!, cap preorder is closing soon. 4/15/2014 at midnightish, just like your taxes. Three styles, all the sizes, details here!...

you get these four pins with each cap order

Hey Hey Cobblyass Hills

Zoiks, The Ronde van Vlaanderen is nigh, and I am remiss if I have forgotten to tell you I explored some of the mighty cobbled climbs for you, dear readers, back in November of Ought-12. Yep, the same trip that yielded Jonathan Page cheer you! also yielded a quick trip to Oudenaard for a quick run through the cobbled climbs with long lost pal Jeff. Quickly speaking, we drove from Gent to Oudenaard. Checked out the RVV mueseum, got Aida a Freddy Maertens shirt and me a commemerative RVV beer from the 2012 edition, and then we rode around a selection of fine cobbled helligen. And then we had beers at the bar at the Ronde Museum.

It was a great day

It was in harvest season, so much of the roads and climbs were slightly muddy to super greasy (koppenberg). As you probably note from the race coverage, the roads into and out of the climbs are pretty much bike paths. I was on a borrowed bike from Jeff, with 23mm tires and did not have too much trouble with the cobbles, except for the super greasy koppenberg climb. Not knowing the roads and being slightly cautious anyway, I can't say I ripped up any of the descents, especially some of the dirty ones. But the wheels were definitely pretty much toast in the trueness department. Sorry Jeff.

Anyhow, no time for a hazy memories, but here are some photos of the ride back in Novemeber 2012. I am totally rooting for a Taylor Phinney/Tyler Farrar 1-2 finish tomorrow, or something. Full flickr set from Belgium here.

Ronde Van Vlaanderen Museum was small, but fantastic

Jeff and the giant turnip, or organic cobble...

Greasy up there in the trees on the Koppenberg

The country

Oude Kwaremont, beginning, end? Who knows

Most of the way up the Paterberg, there is a little smooth line over the steepest bit...

Alo' my name is Koppenberg

End of the ride road beers atop the Koppenberg

The other end of the ride beers at the bar at the Ronde Museum

Ubikequitous 11, Cosmos on a Bike

Sort of related to my last post, uh...

Neil deGrasse Tyson rides a bike.

or at least uses it on cosmos to start to explain relativity and the speed of light.

Sort of related: Niels Bohr, crypto-cylocrosser

Cyclocosmlandia

So, I am going to put a whole post about someone else's blog. OK? If you don't like it, go over to Cosmo Catalano's Cyclocosm and watch everything obviating this whole post.

I used to write a bunch about pro cycling and mostly doping, but I got tired of it and ran out of time and lots of other people like Cosmo are doing it better. I wanted to give Cyclocosm a bit more press as I think Cosmo has of the best pro cycling coverage out there, and someone actually needs to pay him to do this, so he can escape the confines of Connecticut and move into Lance's apartment in Girona while he covers pro cycling full time. So I am sure, among my many readers, is someone who makes decisions at NBC sports and they can just go ahead and make that happen...

As classic season is upon us, there are too many races and not enough easy ways for us Murricans to see em. I, for one, am too lazy to get up to scruffle for some dodgy Belgie live feed that may or may not actually work. In fact, I timed the publication of this post to coincide with groggy eyed people waiting for their Sporza/steephill/etc feed of Gent-Wevelgem to actually work. However Cosmo has been doing a great job on race recaps of all the big races for his How The Race Was Won (HTRWW) series. See HTRWW for all the videos. I will embed my favorite one ever, due to the fact that is was a good race, a excellent recap and dude wrote his own John Techesque race score for the whole shebang:

How The Race Was Won - Paris-Roubaix 2013 from Cosmo Catalano on Vimeo.

Spectacular.

I recommend checking out his recaps from last years Tour de France which were better, funnier, and a much, much, much, more efficient use of time than the NBCsports coverage. I also like to go back and watch old HTRWW for races right before they happen again, thus refreshing my memory of the course, the key riders and the general race feels. Also the nyuks.

His newish The week in bike Series is excellent as well, for brief sardonically transfixing recaps of what all happened in pro cycling last week. Also his tumblr is great too.

Cosmo also had a gig with Behind the Barriers TV for cross coverage last year, so there are a whole bunch of US based cross HTRWW out there. Here is me and Cosmo, a TSBC member from way back, himself at the cross natz in Boulder last year, where he was doing some race coverage production.:

And hey, did you know that you can order the styling caps that the scary bearded man is wearing? TSBC CAP ORDER DETAILS HERE

Finally I will leave this here with no further comment, this will feed into next Sunday's post somehow, maybe (foreshadowing):

CHRIS HORNER'S CYCLOCROSS ESSENTIALS from Cosmo Catalano on Vimeo.

Someone hire this dude already. Rumor has it he used to nordic ski a bit. Waiting for the HTRWW for all of the olympic nordic races please (foreshadowing)...

Tarik Saleh Bike Club Bike Cap, PREORDERS through 4/15

Update 6/3/14 Preorder window is closed. There will be some extra caps for sale. Read the below and email me at the hats@tariksaleh email address with your request and I will see if I can accommodate you. Price will be $40 per cap shipped. Mellow Velo in Santa Fe will stock some hats if you are local. If you live in Los Alamos, get with me ASAP...

TSBC hat preorders are OPEN NOW! Window closes 4/15.
See HOW TO ORDER Below

There will be three types of hats available, IN ALL SIZES, all made in the USA by Randi Jo Fab:

(1) Orange wool with navy TSBC logo. Similar to last run, but more pumpkiny. This is a lightweight wool cap. $32 preorder
something like these, but a little darker orange:

(2) Burgundy Wool caps with Navy wool earflaps, white TSBC logo. $34 preorder
something like these with tsbc logo:

(3) Cotton crazy caps. Ed Emberleydragon/batprint on the front. Blue side and back panels with green TSBC logo, red brim. $32 preorder.
Pattern is the same in front, cap sides will be blue, cap brim will be red, logo green

sizes available are as follows:

Large: 24"+
M/L: 23"-24"
M: 22-23"
S: 21-22"
I am between a 7 3/8 and 7 1/2 fitted cap and I find myself in a M with shorter hair maybe tending toward a M/L in full winter glory sasquatch hair. But measure your head. This is your chance to get a nice TSBC cap in your size. I probably won't do caps again this year. I will order a few more beyond preorders, but the price will go up a few bucks. Each cap will come with 3 TSBC pins of varying colors.

HOW TO ORDER. This is important. All pre-orders will be paid in advance. You must email me with WHICH cap you want and WHICH size you want to hats@tariksaleh.com. Use the same address for paypal payment and questions. All prices include shipping to the Continental US. Please email me if you want a cap and live outside the US. Email me if you want more than one. Comments in the blog or a facebook page or whatnot WILL NOT result in an order. You must email hats@tariksaleh.com and pay me before the order goes in April 15th. I may entertain some trades, email me at hats@tariksaleh.com...

delivery will be in mid to late May, I will update those who have ordered as things progress...

On seeing what the Moscaline - Target Salad - Tarik Saleh Bike Club is up to

Things got slow here in old Moscalineville, only because the real life has been excellent and pretty much everywhere of late. Too much time doing stuff, not enough time writing about it. But perhaps the hiatus will end shortly. Got some reviews in the queueueue as well as some crusty old race reports that I can barely remember. In the meantime if you are all into the new or older or middling media, you can foller me at:

Flickr as Target Salad

Instagram as Target Salad

Tumblr as Target Salad

I am Target Salad on Strava as well if you like such things

On the Tarik Saleh Bike Club

The Tarik Saleh Bike Club is growing wildly and it even has its own Flickr Group as well as a TSBC facebook page. I will announce a hat preorder shortly for those who need some TSBC cycling caps. Which is everyone.

Also, remember if you see me in person, you can usually join the club on the spot for free. Like Cassidy from Philly did when he stopped me in the airport:

Or even if you see me in ATL and you have terrifying rock climber hands like jason

Also, this guy is in the club too:

Anyways, Hope to see you here or there or anywhere.