Great Southwest Bike Swap

There is a very cool bicycle event happening in Fort Worth at the end of January: The Great Southwest Bike Swap.

This is the inaugural edition of the event, but I think the organizers are doing everything right. With the support of the Fort Worth cycling community, this could become an event that draws folks from all over the state. (Think of it as our own Texas version of Veloswap).

The swap meet will be January 27 at the Resource Connection. There will be booths for both individuals and bike shops, and the spaces are affordably priced. Panther City Bicycles will be there, and we'll have some great deals for attendees.

I like the fact that they're sprinkling a little bicycle culture on the event with some special film screenings, as well. There will be a noon showing of "A Sunday in Hell," the 1976 documentary classic that chronicled that year's Paris-Roubaix in all its gnarly glory. At 2 p.m. you can watch Klunkerz, a documentary about the birth of the sport of Mountain Biking.

If you like bikes, you should be there. You're bound to be able to buy, sell, or trade something. Stop by our booth while you're there!

How will you spend New Year's?

I'm going to do back-to-back centuries. Come do it with me!

First, New Year's Eve, we'll ride out to Mineral Wells State Park and back. From the shop, it should be well over 100 miles. We'll leave at 8 a.m., or for a shorter ride you can meet us at the Aledo Library a little after 9. My proposed route out to the park: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=1514454

Then on New Year's Day, I plan to ride Ricky's New Year Century with the Fort Worth Bicycling assocation. This one starts in Arlington at 9.

It should be a good holiday!

PCB fields a racing team in '08!

We wanted to do it last year, but got started too late. I can now say with confidence that PCB will field a racing team for the 2008 season.

Here's the deal: yeah, we want to win some races... but never at the expense of having fun. We don't plan to pursue any elite racers this year; we think it would be more fun to start with average and beginning racers, and grow together as a team. We want to find a group of guys and gals who will race for the team before individual accolades.

Our ultimate goal is to promote our sponsors (which will be announced soon), and to support newcomers to the sport, whether they're on our team or not.

To do that, we plan to have the coolest team tent at any race we attend. Rahr & Son's Brewing and their fine line of "Better Energy, Endurance, and Recovery" (B.E.E.R.) drink products will be an integral part of our team tent atmosphere. All other teams, unattached riders, and spectators will be welcome to visit.

Looks like our team jerseys will retain all the class of the original PCB jersey, but with a new twist: a bitchin' lavender color. The original sage and tangerine colors will be retained in stripes separating the white chest panel from the lavender body.

Here are some preliminary mock-ups of the new jerseys and shorts (note: co-sponsor logos are not accurate; we'll be finalizing soon):

Holiday Hours

Attention cyclists and last-minute gift buyers! Our holiday hours are as follows:

Sun, Dec 23: 12-4
Mon, Dec 24: closed
Tue, Dec 25: closed
Wed, Dec 26: closed
Dec 27-30: regular hours
Mon, Dec 31: Closed
Tue, Jan1: Closed

We wish you and your loved ones a happy holiday season, and a great start to 2008.

Shoes on Sale:

Save 20% right now on Louis Garneau shoes!

The ergo air, below, is a great deal. It has large airy vents on the sole to keep your feet cool in the Summer months, but also included an insole that's impervious to the elements to keep your feet toasty when it's cold and/or wet, like it has been this week.

Originally $100, now just $79!

More kids bikes...

Those kids bikes I blogged about a couple of weeks ago have multiplied. Apparently somebody spilled some water on them, or fed them after midnight, or something.

The 2008 SE Draft

I'm loving the new color on the '08 Drafts... we just got our first one (a 56cm frame). They actually come in six sizes this year, instead of just four, so there'll be one to fit everybody.

There aren't many (any) other urban single speed road bikes under $300; this has to be the best deal going for somebody looking for a hip, reliable bike on the cheap.



This bike and a sweet Chrome messenger bag would be all you need to get around town, or campus, in style.

A nice new touch is a sizing sticker that echoes the "beer" theme of the Draft, Lager, and Stout:

New Fuji 29er

29" wheeled mountain bikes have been all the rage in the mountain biking world for the past few years, but until recently there weren't really any lower-priced options unless you wanted a rigid-forked single-speed.

Fuji is one of the first to remedy this by offering a sub-$1000, front-suspension, 27-speed 29er, the Tahoe Comp 29:



For a retail price of $900, the parts spec is pretty impressive too. The fork is a Rockshox Dart 3 with adjustable preload, rebound, and lockout. Brakes are Avid mechanical disc. Wheels are built with solid WTB disc rims, and the bike has a full SRAM drivetrain, including their popular trigger shifters.

Fuji didn't even skimp on the saddle or tires, spec'ing a comfy WTB saddle and the awesome Maxxis Ignitor tires.

Texas Cycle Speedway

So there's this sport called cycle speedway that pretty much only happens in Britain (there's only one track in the U.S., in Arizona). Bryan and I have been intrigued by this, enough so that we've built our own cycle speedway bikes, and have been practicing on the cinder track at Daggett Middle School.

Check out this video:



Go to the British Cycling Cycle Speedway Website to find out more about the sport. We'll be posting pics of our new rides soon.

Eventually, we'll need use of a small empty lot to build a shorter, tighter track... anybody know of a place?

From the wheelbuilding studio:

Check out these incredibly cool fixed-gear wheels we just built! We used the limited-edition, "Jim Brown" anodized Surly hub set, some chocolate-brown powdercoated Velocity Deep-V rims, the finest DT-Swiss spokes, and our wheelbuilding expertise to make a one-of-a-kind, super-durable wheelset.


A properly handbuilt wheel will always be more durable than a factory one, and should never break a spoke under normal riding conditions... in fact, we guarantee our wheels for life against spoke breakage not caused by a crash. The rim or hub should wear out before a spoke breaks. Once in a while, a defective spoke gets through QC, and if one does break, we'll replace it and true your wheel for FREE. For as long as you own it.


Look at those beautiful Surly hubs. These are no longer available... we have a couple of pairs, so if you want these hubs (or a mountain bike version) with a different color rim, just let us know.


We think the Velocity Deep-V is the most reliable rim out there, and it's pretty aero' to boot. I've got an orange pair on my road bike, and a pink pair on my fixie, and I love 'em!


Price for the set is $425; it's a great deal for a limited-edition wheelset with a lifetime guarantee!

10,000 km challenge

Our buddy William, nicknamed the "Iron Ox" because he's a rather large dude who likes ironman-distance events, is a cycling/triathlon coach.

While looking for a way to keep his athletes who train year-round motivated, he came up with a unique challenge.

The goal: log 10,000 km in one year, with any combination of cycling, swimming, running, or rowing. That's 6,214 miles.

This isn't just for super-speedy athletes though. Are you a serious bike commuter? Challenge yourself to put 6,214 fewer miles on the odometer of your car this year!

I just mailed in my entry form... who's with me? I've got entry forms here at the shop, or you can email the ox for more info. Or read his blog.

Why I want a Big Dummy

Borrowed from the Surly Blog:

Every Road Bike ON SALE

Every single road bike we have in stock is on sale, as we make room for the new Masi bikes that should be arriving in the next few weeks... Save big on great brands like Masi, Jamis, and KHS.






If you've been on the fence about a new road bike, this is your chance to save up to $125. We probably have a bike in your size, unless you're shorter. Or medium.

If you're 5'10 or taller, we've definitely got something for you. Come check them out!

Tomorrow! Tomorrow! I love you, Tomorrow!

because that's when the Rahr Beer Ride happens!

and one for the boys...

Here's another Christmas bike we just built... the Fuji Fazer. Check out those rad motocross-inspired fenders:

Holiday Time at the Bike Shop

You know it's holiday time at the bike shop when the lights are in the window (above) and the kids' bikes start arriving.


Here are a couple for the girls, including one from a new line we picked up, Fuji bikes:

Fixed Gear Fever

These days we're selling more urban bikes than anything, and it seems like the lion's share of them are fixed gears, like this Surly Steamroller we got today (56cm frame, in case you were wondering):

The Steamroller is so hot, you have to wear oven mitts instead of cycling gloves when you're riding it. Seriously, everytime Surly gets a container of these ready to ship, they're sold out in a week.

We also built one of the awesome and affordably priced ($550) SE Lagers today:

Technically, this is a freewheeling single speed, not a fixed gear (you can coast on this one). The rear wheel has a flip-flop hub, though, so buy a fixed cog and a lockring and you can ride it fixed or freewheeling. I thought it was cool that this one comes with comfy bullhorn bars, and a matte black paint job. The decals aren't clearcoated, so you can remove them if you want that stealthy, non-bike-thief-attracting look.

Do you [heart] FW?

If so, you need one of our nearly-famous "I [heart] FW" t-shirts.

We just got a sizable run of the Panther Black Ts in all imaginable sizes back in stock for $20:


And for the cooler weather that has finally arrived, we also made a limited run of 3/4-sleeve Baseball Ts for $25 (These are made from super-soft jersey cotton, and are my new favorite shirts):

Enjoy the Thanksgiving Holiday-

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, so there will likely be no blog post... in order to relieve your Thanksgiving PCB blog withdrawal, I've decided to give you this completely gratuitous picture of a Turkey in a wig and bicycle helmet:



No kidding, this is a logo for a rally that happened in Denton a few days ago. Enjoy!

Hommage á Pablo Picasso

Congratulations Jeremy!

Thanks to Jeremy, Panther City Bicycles came out on top of the unofficial "Bike Shop Battle" at yesterdays Moritz Cowtown Cyclocross race.

Four bike shop worker bees entered the 11:30 Cat 4 heat: Jeremy from PCB, and Aubrey, Tim, and Sully from Colonel's. All rode single-speed 'cross bikes, so the race was pretty fair.

Jeremy carried the PCB colors to victory in the shop-rat race, and even pulled off an impressive 9th overall. We couldn't be more proud of our lead courier.

We set up to watch the race at the one forced dismount point of the race. There were two barriers, followed by a levy hill so steep riders had to run instead of ride up it.

Jeremy clearing the barriers on the first lap:


This picture shows just how steep the hill after the barriers was:


A quick remount, and Jeremy's back in the action


Our buddy Watson from the Arundel Bicycle Company rounding the corner at the top of the hill:


Tim, who took a bit of a fall on the first barrier run-up, getting up the hill on the next-to-last lap. We're proud of Tim for finishing the race, even if it was in Colonel's colors:


We asked Jeremy what enabled him to pull of such a decisive victory, even when he was outnumbered three to one. "Noodle Salad," he said.

To see some more pictures of Moritz Cowtown Cyclocross action (much more professional than my pictures), check out Pete G's photos at West and Clear.

Who wants a Surly Steamroller?

All sizes are back in stock at Surly world HQ... but they'll probably go quickly. Last time it took about a week. The time before that, they were gone in about 3 days.

Speak up if you want one... they're outstanding bikes at a Surly price ($666.)

"Creating a Buzz for Cycling"

We've got a new Saturday morning routine, Inspired by Interbike and Bikes Belong. At this year's trade show, they gave away great coffee in mugs that said "Creating a Buzz for Cycling."

In the afternoons, we're happy to share our Rahr beer to create a buzz. But Saturday mornings seemed ideal for coffee.

So here it is, our inaugural Saturday morning coffee bar:



Make us a stop on your Saturday morning ride. Have a cup of coffee and talk bikes with us!

Classic Trek fixie for sale

We came across this classic Trek frame a while back... It needed lots of new parts to get rolling as a road bike again, but the frame is in fantastic shape, so I decided to make a cool urban fixed-gear out of it.

The frame is a very nice vintage lugged Trek frame, made with double-butted Tange tubing. Almost everything else is new: Brand new rear fixed gear wheel, new cog & lockring, new nickel-plated 1/8" chain. New seatpost and new (slightly scuffed) Selle San Marco Concor saddle. New stem, bars, and front brake. New grips. Like-new Vittoria Zaffiro tires with new velox rim strips and tubes.

The rear-wheel has a flip-flop hub, so you could run it as a coastable single-speed if you really want to. I'd reccomend riding it fixed for maximum fun, though.

We're asking $300... about half the price of most entry-level fixies, with twice the character. It's a 54cm frameset.

SHAKEDOWN

Trae Monster and myself participated in the Shakedown in Denton this weekend.
Its pretty much a team alleycat. It was fun.
We did a good job reppin the eight one seven couriers. We took fourth place. Highest placing out of towners.

They plan on doing it monthly. Not a bad way to spend a tuesday evening.

Feeling Guilty

Of all the insect species that could have been killed by the spokes of my front wheel and flung onto my down tube... it had to be a ladybug!?

Don't Forget

The City's bicycle transportation planning meeting for the central region is tonight, at the downtown Public Library.

Be there!

Fort Worth Bike Plan Meeting

Here's the word from LMRA Bicycle Club president Jim Wilson, whose club is hosting the first meeting:

"The City of Fort Worth has a City Planner (Don Koski) who actually has a background in cycling. More importantly, they are letting him put time towards cycling. To that end they've appointed a Bicycle Study Technical Committee (to include reps from the "T", Police, TCU, TCC, Parks, Transportation, Environmental Management, and cyclists). The mission is to establish guideline policies and route/lane/trail plans that incorporate cycling into the city's transportation plan. The committee's next move, Regional Public Workshops to garner support and inputs from citizens who currently, or would consider cycling. The first of these Public Workshops will be hosted by the LMRA Bicycle Club at the LMRA Facilities (3400 Bryant-Irvin Rd, Fort Worth) on the 5th of November."

We'll ride from the shop to this meeting, leaving at 5:30 sharp (note: that means we'll have to close a little early). Come ride with us, show up and make your voices heard!

Cool bicycle commuting challenge

Clif Bar is challenging folks to rethink how many of their trips could be done by bike... the call it the 2-mile Challenge:

http://www.2milechallenge.com/home.html

The 2-mile radius mapping is an especially cool feature... I noticed some stores in my radius that no longer exist, so call first. But otherwise, what a cool tool!

Chrome display finished

Chrome chrome chrome

Our display is completed
thanks to the hasty man.

Please- buy some bags
we love you.

Jason

DONT FORGET!!

The weather and the beer will be awesome.

CHROME GEAR

We just got a fresh load of goodies from Chrome.
In addition to their awesome messenger bags, we now stock...

-Messenger Backpack: we got an orange Backbone. Its huge, versatile and comfy, nuff said.

_Hipbone: These things are awesome. I would call it a cycling specific fanny pack, or a stylin u-lock holster.

-Manifest Pouches: If you arent a courier, I bet you could use this as an oversized chrome wallet?

-Cell Phone Holster: you need one.

PCB featured at FortWorthology

Kevin at FortWorthology has been experimenting with a Holga camera lately; today his site features a slightly eerie pic of the PCB storefront.

Go take a look.

And now, back to the Interbike coverage

The line of bikes that excited me the most was the new Masi lineup. New colors and graphics, and LOTS of new models made for an exciting visit with Masi Bikes' brand manager Tim Jackson. I'll start you out with a couple new colors and graphics.

First up, check out the new Alare. This is Masi's most affordable road bike, but you could never tell by looking at it. The other color it's available in is Black with Gold accents... with the colors, and elegant, understated graphics treatment (I'm so glad the Italicized Masi decal is gone!), these bikes look way more expensive than the $700 range they're actually in!



Another bike that really got my attention was the classically-decaled Gran Criterium. The Gran Criterium is no slouch frameset; I love mine, and I think it's one of the highest-performance yet most comfortable racing frames out there. Add to that some retro 80's decals and an original back-in-the-day color called Purple People Eater (which also happens to be a dead ringer for the official color of TCU Horned Frog athletics... Pantone 269), and you've got a truly lust-worthy bike.



More Masi updates to come tomorrow....

The Texas Time Trials

This weekend, I raced at my favorite local cycling event, the Texas Time Trials in Cleburne. For those of you who aren't familiar with the Time Trials, you should check them out... they have several events going on at once: a 500-mile randonee with multiple start times and both solo and team categories, a 24-hour time trial, a 200-mile UMCA National Championship, and a 100-mile UMCA national championship time trial.

Thanks to my lack of training lately, I thought it unwise to compete against a National Championship field, and maybe even less wise to tackle the 500-miler solo. So I settled for the 24-hour time trial.



My strategy was to try to get some sleep right before the event, so I could ride straight through. That didn't work out, however, so 5 hours into the race (about 11 p.m.) I was getting dangerously sleepy. I had gone out pretty fast, doing my first few laps in 1:10 or so, but I didn't want to risk nodding off on the bike and crashing, or worse, weaving in front of a water truck servicing a gas well in the middle of the night. Also, when I thought one of those black tar ribbons on the asphalt was a snake and tried to bite my leg, I figured I was entering the danger zone. I pulled off and told my friend Brad Flickner, who helped me through those first few night time laps, I needed some sleep.

He offered to wake me up in a few hours, but I was sure that I'd wake myself up, since sleeping in tents has never been all that easy for me. I told him to just let me sleep, which he did... until the daylight woke me up at 7 a.m.

So there I was, knowing I was in dead last place by multiple laps, and realizing I had slept a third of the race away. Needless to say, the pressure was off a bit. At this point, I also did not realize I had miscounted the number of laps I had done.

As I started that first morning lap, I saw my wife Victoria driving in, which lifted my spirits a bit. As I came back into the start-finish area, I told her about my excessive sleeping, and she very matter-of-factly informed me that I "probably needed it." That made sense, and I figured I was fresher than most of the other guys, so I went out with the intention of turning a strong lap. The lap ended up not being as quick as I had hoped, but when I came back in my friend Jeremy had arrived with a Whataburger... my first solid food in 16 hours or so. Excited by the Burger and a Coke, I jumped out to do another lap, but with my body still digesting I got overheated and had my most miserable lap of the whole race. Jeremy and Victoria tried to get me to do one more lap before taking a break, but I had to cool the engine a bit.

At this point I thought I had done 140 miles. I had about 6 hours left, so as a group we decided that 200 miles would be my goal, but 180 would be acceptable since my previous longest ride ever had been 160, in a year when I had trained far better. I went and did another lap, and suddenly felt like I was flying... I can't really explain why, but experienced ultra-distance riders all tell me the same thing. You're never done; if you feel bad, just keep eating and drinking, and you'll feel better. If you feel great, keep eating and drinking, because eventually you'll feel awful.

That lap turned out to be nearly as fast as my first couple, so I was really encouraged and did another... just as fast. I had done 180 (I thought), and had two hours left to knock out another 20 and reach my goal of 200. I made it around with 45 minutes to spare. I had lapped 5 other 24-hour riders in the last 3 laps, so I knew I had made up a little distance on some of those guys, but I also knew most of them probably got a few laps ahead of me overnight.

Much to my suprise, though, Brad had been talking with Victoria and Jeremy, and he came up to me after I finshed to ask me how many laps I thought I had done. I said 10 laps, 200 miles. He informed me that in my overnight delerium I had forgot to count a couple laps, and that I had actually done 240 miles. That last lap moved me one place higher in the standings into 6th place.

Here's how I had the Masi set up for the race:



Mostly it's my regular set up; I only added/changed three things. I used an Arundel aero cage/bottle on the downtube, swapped my every day wheels for the very light and aero Zipp 404s, and added some shorty aerobars, which worked great.

Here's my 6th-place trophy:

Fixed gear madness

Every bike company and their brother had a fixed gear at this years interbike, including many brands we carry. Here are a couple from Fuji (SE is Fuji's sister company).

First, Fuji has co-branded a special edition bike with OBEY... it's a pretty slick looking matte black number, complete with lugged steel frame and fork, real Brooks saddle, double-strap track pedals, and various parts anodized gold. Only three hundred of these will be made, so if you want one you'd better get in line now:



SE was showing some of their successful urban fixies as well. On top is a new rust color for the well-received (and bargain priced at $550) Lager. On bottom is the pricier Premium Brew, with lugs, sparkly green paint, and more gold accoutrements.

A new color for one of our best sellers:

After two model years in shades of gray, the KHS Urban X is now sporting a fresh coat of red:

Mr. Whirly

The new Surly Mr. Whirly modular crank system... can be fitted to just about any frame, and you can use your choice of bolt patterns.