Past Present Future Events

First up – future event! Next Friday, March 7th The NCJC Youth Off Road Riders are having a Spring Benefit and Hand Built Bike Show at the Terry Trueblood pavilion. Silent auction. Live auction. Pretty hand made bikes to look at from the UI frame building class. Hope to see you there.

Presently, just want to mention that our Swing into Spring Sale is still on, and while the stock of hats is gone and gloves are low we still have a limited selection of studded tires in 26″ and 700c. And for good measure our remaining 2013 MASI road bikes are 15% off.

To the past then, this unforgettable winter weather will soon be forgotten as the cycling season proper is coming at us. Last night Bicyclists of Iowa City held their annual Bike Expo out at the North Ridge Pavillion in Coralville.

Donnie and I loaded up a couple of cool bikes with cool stuff to show off and made the ride out to do just that.

Xtracycle Edgerunner, Detroit Bikes A-Type, Ironweed BP bags, Selle Anatomica demo saddles, a full carbon MASI road frameset, some Arkel stuff, Retroshifters, Giro shoes and more.

The Ironweed Dolliver trunk bag fits a 12 pack perfectly! We had a good time drinking a couple of those and chatting with folks, and the ride back was all tailwinds and smiles, like the Spring season just ahead.

 

Poker party, art party, & he who shall not be named

Poker Run is tonight! $10 entry fee gets you a coffee at Wake Up, a beer at Trumpet Blossom. Ride to five places in Iowa City and get five cards Start at Wake Up & end at the Trumpet Blossom Cafe where you play your hand to win gift certificates to WAKE UP, Trumpet Blossom, 30th Century Bicycle, or White Rabbit! Music starts@ 5:30 with the musical stylings of Chasing Shade & We Shave!! A portion of the proceeds goes to the Crisis Center.

ICCSA Season 2 Launch Party is tomorrow night at Trumpet Blossom!

Lots of options to support local artists: $50 will get you a meal and an ICCSA commemorative print all while getting a healthy earful of Dustin Busch’s pickin’ & croonin’. If you decide to do the full CSA subscription for $350, you get six pieces of artwork from six local artists. If those options are too rich for your blood, $10 will get you in the door tomorrow night for music and a commemorative print and the opportunity to hang out with a segment of your arts community.

Shameful, sheepish self-plug time: 30¢’s own Cody G. is one of the repped artists this season, so she’ll be there to tell anyone who will listen all about why it’s worthwhile to spend an entire month+ making a letterpress artists’ book of Art Bears‘ 1981 still sleeping sleeper album The World as it is Today.

Let’s keep this dance with the devils of intellectual property law going with this Italian bar plug that landed in the shop earlier this week. Can’t stop, won’t stop.

 

Bikes & Moonshine & Poker!

First up – Poker Run this Saturday, Oct 6th at 4pm! No you don’t have to run (we will shake our heads and frown at anyone that does) ride your bike! Starting at beautiful Wake Up Iowa City and finishing right next door at the delicious Trumpet Blossom Cafe. Now about that moonshine… As soon as the shop was closed on Saturday Steve jumped on his bike and went for a ride, this is his story.

I rode the Masi CXR, with bags and lights to ride into the night on the Moonshine Metric, a gravely 100 km ride put on up in Mt Vernon. Had to do the ride up and back as well because there is not a bus or a train that goes that way, and we are a car free business as you may have heard? Well, now we share a car with zip car, but that is a story for another blog post.

Had to stop by home quick and the ride up was quite a push to make it in time for the start but I made it in time for the pre ride particulars from ride organizer Craig, in the black jersey here.

And we were off on the ride proper, about 10 of us, starting at 6 pm. This was a self navigated ride using cue sheets. I was riding with Charles from Cedar Rapids and we were having too much conversation and not enough paying attention so at this intersection we got a bit confused. We stopped a friendly passing motorist and asked for a bit of directional clarification but we still went astray for a couple of miles. Whoops. But hey, lookit that moon! And since we were stopped anyways (confused) it was a great time to snap a picture. The rest of the ride went smoothly for us, we stuck together until mile 45 when Charles decided to wait for some riders in Solon. I needed to keep moving as I wanted to get home before dawn (it was about 9:30 now) so I rolled out alone.

The rest of the ride was uneventful except for the occasional possum encounter, and the Harvest Moon was living up to its name, offering up numerous Unidentified Farming Object sightings as they worked through the night. After a brief stop at the start/finish for a clothing adjustment to keep off the evening chill, the ride home was awesome. The moon was way up, car traffic was way down, and the miles just kept clicking off until I had finished what has to be one of the most convoluted routes ever, the map looks like I went mountain biking!

Moonshine Metric by gpickle at Garmin Connect – Details

Highly recommend the Moonshine Metric, and hope to see you on the Poker R(ide)un this Saturday.

 

Cross My Bike & Hope To Ride

The season of cross is upon us, and the 2013 cross bikes are arriving in force. Tear up that cross course or those famous Iowa B-roads with some flash and maybe some panache.

Daaang, Masi CXR:

Smokin’ like a Bianchi Cavaria:

Seductive Soma Double Cross, ooh hurts so good:

There are so many rad all-terrain events going on right now, take yer pick. Last weekend (so put it on your calendar for next year), the Culinary Ride. This weekend, our old friend, the Gritty Brevet. And, in a couple weeks, the Poker Ride. While you likely wouldn’t want to ride one of the bikes shown here, the Sugar Bottom Shit Show is not to be missed, and from what we hear, the turds will be provided.

And, don’t forget all the group rides and cross events coming down the pike.

 

Good Work

The Xtracycle has been hard at work lately.

Recycling the recycle-ables.

Salvaging the metals.

And just enjoying the occasional longer ride out and about to see what’s new. Like this new bike rack and FixIt bike repair stand at the New Pi Coop in Coralville. Good work!

 

Cycling Door to Door

We inherited a few too many doors with our expanded shop space.

After looking at them for 8 months we decided to move them out so someone who could actually use them could have them. We also had a bit of recycling that needed to go, so loaded up the Xtracycle, hooked up the Bikes at Work Trailer, and made for the Iowa City ReStore!

Right up to the donation doors, luckily they accepted them – but who can pass up a Porsche / Quaker State poster?

Then over to the recycle bins to unload some more.

 

Always rock star parking for the bikes. Got some bike hooks at a great price, and a new door, (sigh), and got to ride it all back to the shop in the pouring rain. Door to door!

 

Heads up, Kidical Mass Gang!

A message from the Kidical Korps delivered to us in the twilight hours:

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Friends,

 

This month’s Biker Babes/Kidical Mass is in the morning again, to avoid the heat. (Next month we’ll go back to afternoon.)

 

The details:

 

Biker Babes/Kidical Mass: a gathering for families who bike with small children, or would like to

Saturday, August 4

North Market Square Park (at Fairchild and Johnson)

8:30-9:00: Playground time, admiring of rigs, getting organized

9:00: Group “kidical mass” bike ride around town and ending at Chauncey Swan plaza, near the Iowa City Farmers’ Market, where much admiring (and trying out) of bikes may ensue

 

See you there!

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Tiny Tour Lite

Friday afternoon I (Steve) decided to go on an overnight bike tour. So, naturally, I had a beer.

Left the shop early, quick stop at home to pack and off! But where to go? Anamosa of course, to say hi to ragbrai. There was a bit of headwind, but the temps were in the 80s so no complaining. Saw the first riders in Mount Vernon, taking their time on the 45 mile day, it was 5:30 and they still had 25 miles to go!

Escape to Ragbralcatraz by gpickle at Garmin Connect – Details.

It was a nice ride, and from Springville there were lots of riders still out enjoying the short day and the cool temps. Set up the camp. Did you know we can get tents, sleeping bags and pads and other camping gear? Well we can, and this 1-person Sierra Designs tent and Nemo sleeping pad are great for bike touring, they pack small and light. Had a good time wandering around taking in the sights and smells, and found some old friends from rides gone by to do some catching up.

Then a quick pack and ride home to get to the shop by 10 Saturday morning. Using a Revelate seat bag and handlebar sling took care of all the gear. I was surprised to think that really you could do the whole week carrying all your gear with just this set up. It rides well, and when you consider the weight of racks and full sized panniers, plus all the extra stuff they invite you to take along, this is a pretty great set up.

Escape from ragbralcatraz by gpickle at Garmin Connect – Details.

The ride back offered tailwind, which was great, but I was not aware that my route was also the vehicle route, so the first 15 miles were hectic being passed by lots of buses and RVs. Another ragbee in the books, in under 16 hours!

 

Kidical Mass Hots Up!

Tomorrow there is another exciting edition of Kidical Mass. This here might be late notice, but remember, the Kidical folks get together the first Saturday of every month. 

If you’re trying to figure out how to haul the youngins by bike, try out some of the amazing rigs at Kidical Mass. Here’s the deets:

Saturday, July 7
North Market Square Park (at Fairchild and Johnson)

8:30am-9:00am: Playground time, admiring of rigs, getting organized.
9:00am: Group “kidical mass” bike ride around town and ending at Chauncey Swan plaza, near the Iowa City Farmers’ Market, where much admiring (and trying out) of bikes may ensue.

 

Kidical Mass!

You got kid(s) to haul and wondering how to manage with your bicycle?

Biker Babes/Kidical Mass: a gathering for families who bike with small children, or would like to. Tomorrow, Saturday June 2nd! 

 North Market Square (at Fairchild and Johnson)

2:00-3:00: Playground time, snacks, admiring of kids, trying out each other’s rigs (bring a finger-food snack to share if you want)

3:00: Group “kidical mass” bike ride from North Market Square to Creekside Park (off Muscatine at Fifth)

 

Feel free to join for either part or both—those without their own kid-bike setups are especially welcome to come to the first part!