This is a great time to be in Santa Cruz. The sun is out, birds are chirping and the dirt is tacky. The hills are still green too for another couple weeks. And its 2010 now! At least in bike-land. All the latest gadgetry is trickling in. It doesn’t really make any sense for business to have all of your suppliers changing all the parts that you’re trying to ship out in the middle of the busiest time of year, but hey, this is bike-land. In the rush to be first and even firster and newer and radder the yearly changeover gets earlier and earlier. Someday it will be back to when the cycling season starts again, if we’re lucky. But we’ll be a year ahead.

All cynicism aside though, bike parts do get better, and this is the best time to get a new bike. The bugs have been worked out of the prototypes, all the new shocks are tuned, the parts are shiny and you don’t have to hide when you run into people on the trail. I don’t have very many personal bikes, but the freeride XC is just too good to not have my own.


Its so fun. I was getting all retarded building it on Friday, turning down custom ti bolts for brake calipers and stuff. So it took me forever to finish it because I’m not a very good bike mechanic. But it ended up good, because when I was leaving the shop around 7 on Friday I ran into Forrest who was performing another New Year’s ritual: photographing all the catalog bikes. See, we don’t actually get parts to take pictures of until now, and many of those parts either don’t work or we only get one. So by the time we build the bikes in the new colors and with the new parts and take pictures and make a catalog and a new website and print it and set the prices – some of the stuff’s already been out there for months. Its like a rolling start to the New Year. Interbike isn’t until September, right? Which is the start of 2010 bikes? huh? Who thought this one up? It’s essentially only good for meeting up with all the bros you only see once in awhile. And good riddance anyway, I’m sick of Vegas and so is the bus.

Anyway, the Blur XC went together great despite my incompetence, and why wouldn’t it? Every single one of our frames, both carbon and aluminum, get personally inspected at the factory by our QC posse. And you wouldn’t want to fuck with these guys either. This is Slong and his “little friend”. He seems happy.

Thanks to Jason at Edge and all the happy guys at The Hive, and of course Crank Bros for the saddle and post too.

Anyway, Forrest and Jamie and I rolled around town for a little bit, where Forrest showed off his new car

and we ran into his uncle, who had just been released from jail and needed a dime for some walkin’ ’round money

he was so excited to show us his tattoo that he ripped his shirt open....

I went to Portland, OR on Sunday – world hipster capital – to see an old friend and ride motorcycles. Just for the day because how often do you get a chance to take out a pimped out FZ1?. The whole bacon tainted everything in Portland is stupid. If you aren’t willing to step up and wear a meat hat then just shut the hell up already. Jesse, aka beerguy, built one of the most ridiculous bikes I’ve ever seen in my life. It’s hard to understand if he’s serious or not.

custom titanium newsboy, with custom ti fork. 1.5 headtube, split driveside dropout for belt drive-ability. custom one-piece ti bar/stem combo. ti sweet-wing cranks. generator hub/light system. bob trailer hook-ups.

ladies and gentlemen: the donkey show

He also is collecting caps from Underbergs. To help with the collection email me or something.

aids in digestion, tastes like cough syrup and has booze in it.

And finally and probably most importantly, I have two websites of substantial importance that have been brought to my attention. First is this, which also has a catchy little tune if you got speakers on your computer. OK, so thats not really important.
But this one is. Its not only scandalous allegations, but it suggests that additional industry rumors be posted anonymously there as well. Check IT out. Who could it be? Is it true? First doping in cycling and now this. I gotta go for a ride to calm down.

Does this mean that Nico's buying the next round?

Steve Peat made history yesterday in Andorra. At the 3rd World Cup DH race of the season, the 35-year young fresh father of two took his second victory of the season. In doing so, he racked up World Cup win number 17, surpassing Nicolas Vouilloz’s longstanding record, to become the winningest DH World Cup racer, ever. Along the way, he also vaulted to 100 points clear in the World Cup overall standings, and this win, combined with fellow Santa Cruz Syndicate riders Greg Minnaar in 3rd and Josh Bryceland in 9th, put the Syndicate on top of the team overall.

Folks might have to stop calling Peaty “old school” now. I nominate “Peaty fresh” as a suitable alternative. Mmmmm, fresh peat…

It’s early in the season, but home turf is coming up with the next round, in Fort William, Scotland, and Peaty is on a tear. Last weekend he played on years of experience to dominate a tactically demanding unfamiliar course. Sam Hill was quoted after the race as having gifted the victory to Peaty in honor of his newborn son. However, if any gifting occurred, it was most likely in Andorra yesterday, when Hill took an absolutely massive digger at speed while running close to two seconds ahead of the pace. Peaty rode a more conservative race and squeaked out a couple hundredths of a second victory over Gee Atherton. It would appear that lady luck, who could be described as Peat’s longest-standing rival, is having a change of heart. Not wanting to jinx anything, but could this be the year that Peaty, who could be described as the Raymond Poulidor of downhill racing when it comes to his luck at the World Championships, shakes the monkey off his back?

Fingers crossed. Cheers, Peaty! You are doing it up right.

Ricky Bobby hoses the World Cup leader down. Payback for the French Bath given to him the previous week... Kathy Sessler photo

For those gravitationally obsessed, you can’t find a much better source for the innards of the sport than our friend Spomer over at littermag.com. Get your fill there. He’s got a better video of Sam’s crash than the one we posted…