Mountain Goat limited editon #4 shirt design help

Now that the LTD#2 is down to a few XXL's and LTD#3 is down to a few XL and XXL's it is time to make another run of limited edition Mountain Goat shirts and we are stumped for an idea. Anyone have an idea? if we use your idea, you will get the hook up with some free shirts and a high five.

For reference to the previous designs go to http://www.firstflightbikes.com/MGGoodies.htm

WTB demo saddles

We have done the WTB demo saddle program for a few years since WTB introduced the program and have been very happy with it and it has helped quite a few customers choose the perfect saddle. We just received more saddles this week, so if you are looking for a new saddle come by and try some to see what makes your butt happy.

Here are some off what we have right now, including the new Vigo

Still raining but still plugging away

Yep, its still raining but we are keeping busy anyway. We just received another bike order from Trek and Gary Fisher including some Madone action, more Arc Supers, and an EX 8 that went home today with a happy new owner. Yesterday we received 60+ discs from Innova including the cool new R Pro Dart and Groove. Today Jeff picked up something pretty cool.....like this



hopefully more about it very soon.

TTB meeting outcome

Looks like the ride/meeting at First Flight was a big hit and I really enjoyed it myself. We had decided to ride before the meeting heading out at 6 from the shop and be back before 7:30. About 5:30 it decided to start sprinkling and it looked like we would not be able to head out but alas the rain held off enough for us to decide that we would at least try and if all else failed head back in.

The ride out to Signal Hill


At the trailhead(Tom Matthews photo)


Me at the entrance to the trail with new toilet markers and a couple more in the future(Tom Matthews photo)


Tom borrowed the shops Pugsley and was all smiles on the ride


and the ride back in the drizzle


Thanks to Jeff for hooking the meeting up with free pizza courtesy of FFB.

I hope we can do more things like this in the future for our meetings as I think more people will show for a ride/meeting than just a ride.

Trail Builders Meeting at FFB

The next Tarheel Trail Blazers LKNM edition meeting on Thursday, March 19th at 7:30 will be held at First Flight Bicycles. We have graciously donated the use of the shop as a meeting place and will be supplying pizza so please RSVP ASAP! Hope to see you there!

There is currently a ride planned the same day leaving FFB at 6 and heading out to Signal Hill for a quick lap and back for the meeting as long as the trail will not be overly muddy so hope and pray that the warm weather drys the trail out. Instead of riding tomorrow night we will be heading out to Signal Hill to lop and clip a few of the limp casualties from all of the snow and rain of late.

Come to the meeting and get into trail building if you have never done it. It is just as fun as riding and makes riding the trails more enjoyable and meaningful when you know you are on something you worked on

Some catching up on Dubwatch

When we got back from the handmade show the world of Statesville was under a snow storm which collected pretty nicely on the roads. A few days later this dubwatch was in front of the store and must have got stuck.





and yesterday Jeff liked this one as a hopeful "future dub", i just think he has a thing for wood panels(not a bad thing)

Good road ride

Darrell met me at the house this morning for a little road action. I have had a 45 mile route in mind consisting regular paved roads and gavel ones as well and thought we might get into that today. Since Darrell needed to be back fairly early to go to work later I decided we would start on the 45 route and see how things went. We headed out to Love Valley to start our first gravel road on Fox Mountain Rd which is where I got my only picture of either of us on gravel.

Darrell on the beginning of Fox Mountain which had a really nasty 30% grade switch back and lots of climbing to go with it but some really fun descending and wash boards to go with it.



When we got to Coolbrook and should have gone left, good ole Wes decided that we should go right which brought us to 115 just above Rupard which is another fun gravel road leading us to the rest of our route which still gave us a few more good gravel roads, some which seemed smoother than the tar and gravel roads we usually ride but most of those dont have some of the cool sights we got today.





some crazy guy kept following us


Darrell out in front


only one minor stop on the ride for Darrell to check out what could be his next ride


Everyone seems to take pics of there bars so here is one of mine showing my crappy pace at the time


27 miles total made for a fun and good day in the saddle, we will have to do the 45 soon.

more of Seans paint

Got Sean and Darrell's forks together today and both of their bikes together. I did not get any pictures of Darrells yet but he was fast on it tonight, so fast that this is all I got of him on the ride tonight at LANO.


I did get Seans out for some bad pictures and we should have better ones very soon.





and Sean at LANO after his first climb up the big hill on Mombo with the SS



and as always Matt showed us how to put the power to the floor on his Lobster 69er

who likes blue? pink?

No pics of Darrells pink bike but should tomorrow after I bleed his brakes and decal her up.

A couple teaser shots of Seans fork and wheels back from paint. Gonna put them on tomorrow along with his matching Luv Handles. The blue came out really nice, I am glad I talked him into it.

I9 hubs and spokes on some Stans rims, notice the one blue spoke?


I slapped Seans fork together enough for a quick picture and will finish building it tomorrow so he can ride it/wheels and bars.



We will head start riding at the State Park on Thursday nights since they are now open till 8. Still riding at Signal Hill on Tuesday nights except for tomorrow night since we are going to head down to the park. I have not been able to ride the park since November last year, it will be cool to get back out there.


Should have pictures of Darrells new WTR, Seans WTR and a new stock WTR. Lots of Goat lovin' going on at the shop!!!!

memories

Rebuilt a few forks in my day but the first one I really remember that got me to love taking them apart and making things silky smooth was Matt McPherson's 97 Marzocchi Z2 Bomber. Until then the biggest thing I had done is lube elastomers and change out Judy Cartridges after each ride. Matt was riding at VT and when his Z2 was ready for its first overhaul Matt brought the fork by and we tore it down not thinking too much about it and when we had it back together it was 6:30 and we still had a few extra parts. Both of us had to be somewhere that night so we decided that we would redo the whole thing in the morning. The next day the fork was back together correctly in no time and I wanted a Z2 so bad I bought one and still have that very fork. I have overhauled that fork more times than I can think and have passed the fork to Savannah on her bike. The last couple of rides the fork has been leaking more than something that leaks really bad so I told Matt and Darrell we should have a pizza and beer night at the shop like we used to and tonight was the night. The fork is now all back together with some new happy seals, the old Guinness stout like oil is gone and fun was had. I love that fork! OK, sappy memory moment over.

Before Matt and Savannah showed up, Darrell and I took the Pugsley out to play on a snow pile still left over, those are just some big ole tires I tell ya.

ITUSI trail work day canceled

Due to unfavorable conditions, the 3/7/09 trail work day at Lake Norman
State Park has been CANCELED!

The park received about 4" of rain and 5" of snow so it is very gooey
right now plus we will have 2 more freeze/thaw cycles before Saturday.

It looks as if the late April / early May time frame will offer us the
best use of our resources...


And as always, we thank you for your support! We will announce new dates as soon as we have them

2009 NAHBS recap

After racing a blue hair for many miles, crossing the Kanawha River what seemed a billion times, seeing the same amount of YES, Coal billboards and a couple other highlights Sean, Darrell and I made it into Indianapolis Thursday afternoon. We walked around to see the sights of town while waiting on Rody of Groovy Cycle Works to finish setting up so we could head to Maxine's Chicken and Waffles! Rody was running a bit behind so after a good bit of walking we decided to hang out at Rock Bottom Brewery and try a few of their finely made brews. We all really like the Fire Chief that was just tapped and then we each tried one more different one, mine being a Hoosier Ma Stout which was very nice indeed,

unfortunately the glass is half empty


We decided that since we were hydrated again we would walk a touch more and check out our hotel a little and right when we sat down in the lobby of the hotel Rody called and said that everyone was heading toward Maxine's and would meet us there. As we headed out the door I asked the valet where Maxine's was and he decided to drive us there instead. Upon arrival we found that Maxine's closed at 9 and it was 9:01 and the place was empty as could be. A quick call to Rody and we decided to go back to Rock Bottom and eat there. Showing up we ended up eating with Carl and gang from Vicious Cycles, Drew from Engin, Bill and Aaron Grove and others that I cannot remember. After trying out a couple more Rock Bottom made brews(all were good) Rody asked us where we parked and we told him we would just walk back with him to his car at the Convention Center and show him. Hopping in his Element was easier said than done with all tons of cardboard, bubble wrap and who knows what else we squeezed in, Darrell hanging half out the rear holding the hatch and headed to the cheapest parking deck we had found on our earlier walks. Pretty much called it a night to make sure we could get up for the first big day of the show.

The show stared at 11A.M. to the public but fortunately Sean, Darrell and I were able to get in at 9 since we are "industry". I wanted to walk through super quick to get a good glance before heading back to snap some pictures and talk which also was easier said.... We had to stop at the Engin booth to ooogle over a bike that was probably Seans favorite


Next door was Dirt Rag and Maurice was behind the booth so I went over to say hey and we ended up talking with him and then wondered over to the Naked booth with him to see their amazing bikes

and


When then went back to our "hurry through" and ended up talking to Peter at Cane Creek for a while. Jeremy SyCip was at his booth so we talked to him for quite a while as well then Rody at his booth



I was asked about my FFB shirt by quite a few builders so it was great to know that the museum is very popular and got lots of great complements.

One builder was Chris Igleheart who was a very nice guy and was showing off this bike with the new Chris King Inset that seemed to be everywhere


Chris also had the only Sturmey Archer 3 speed fixed gear hub

There was lots to see and I hung around pretty much all day talking to lots of builders about the bikes or about the shop since I got lots of questions about how we are able to do FFB, MOMBAT and Mountain Goat all together and not go insane.

notables from the day

I really like this bike from Curtis at Inglis/Retrotec, thats me in the background talking to Jeremy SyCip, Sean took the pic


Jeremy's dads bike with Philippine flag panel


All of Rody's bikes were a hit and his paint is amazing, including this bomber bike


at the end of the day we ended up talking to Alexis from Villin about his bikes which are very well built.


The show ended and Rody, Bill, Aaron, Sean, Darrell and I all decided to hoof it to Maxine's again and on the way passed a group of Miss Indiana girls and Darrell decided to ask a group of six to go with us to Chicken and Waffles his treat and would you believe that they turned him down? not only that but they laughed at him...and so did we, that when Darrell decided that he was tired of searching for a 10 and that his new mission is for five 2's!

Maxine's is more than amazing and I will leave it just to a picture of my oh so good picture of my Chicken and Waffles w/ peach marmalade butter


I cannot remember what night it was but we did have a Dubwatch sighting and on this edition we have the rare three dub night (yes only 3 dubs)



Day 2 of the show went on pretty much the same as day 1 but we did take a break to go try the last few brews at the Rock Bottom that we had not had before.

some sights were the torn down RCA dome

War monument in the middle of the roundabout


and Capital building




A few more pics from the show

Rich Adams bike with real bunny on the front rack


Eriksen Uni


very nicely made Signal


Thats pretty much the down and dirty, we left Sunday morning and just beat the worst of the snow to make it back before things got too bad. Probably could have beat it all if Darrell's GPS had not taken us through BFE Ohio which led to Sean getting a ticket and costing us time!

All of mine and Sean's pictures are on my Photobucket

Great trip, thanks to Sean and Darrell for going and Rody for hosting us and being cooler than cool, I wish I had taken pics of our dinner at PF Changs which was about the funniest thing of the trip...oh well.

2009 NAHBS pictures

I will post up my recap tomorrow but for now I am heading to sleep and hopefully be able to go to work in the morning if the roads arent frozen

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v642/timbercomp/2009%20NAHBS/