The powerhouses from Pittsburgh & Philly united to take on the world of one speeders this past weekend in Napa. It was a great couple of days with our Pennsylvania based crew made up of some friends from Dirt Rag , Bike Sport, Dave, the Dutch Hammer, and myself.  �


Upon arrival into the golden state we rendezvoused in San Fran and high tailed it over to American Cyclery  for the Pre-race “49er style” barbeque and ride. A spin through town and over the golden gate bridge put us at our final destination of the Marin foothills. This is where we quickly learned the meaning of “49er style” to be a couple soy dogs, 1 bag of chips, no heat source, and BYOB. This would have been acceptable had it been defined in advance, but after a food-less day of travel, this was not going to suffice a bunch of half intoxicated single speeders with the munchies. So, with some local knowledge and a spin back through the city we landed at Tommy’s  Mexican Restaurant & World Famous Tequila bar. Souvenir placemats from Tommy himself and a new release tequila from one of the Sauza family members who was in attendance that evening were just a few of the highlights.

Saturday we chased history & took in some classic Marin single track. Up, down, and switchbacks all around made for a sweet ride that even had some of these so called CA “rock gardens.” Once we poped out of the trail head we were greeted by Charlie Kelly, one of the sports founding fathers, and stars in the new Klunkerz flick. He joined our gang for some post ride food and beers in town before heading up to the race in Napa. 

Race day eve incorporated a pretty excessive amount of liquid carbo loading with our buddy Peter from Misfit  and several other comer and goers, some even bearing that tattoo of previous SSWC victories. Pretty typical pre-race drunkin shenanigans with the exception of the self proclaimed Scottish “fat bastard” of SSWC, who was gunning for his second dead F**king last award in 2 years. As the night progressed he took it upon himself to retrieve any early nappers from their tent with a sort of shirtless facial smattering into his chest. This of course was in between “pissing on the bum” of nearby rental cars… Needless to say it was a rough morning for most preparing for the 10 am start.


Sunday, Sunday, Sunday -  A run, a bike race, an Easter egg hunt, and other testosterone rich competitions. Abundant swag for those who succeeded, those who sucked, and those who were standing in the right place at the right time. Oh, and if you did it in one of a dozen lucky pairs of tighty whities there was even more booty to be had. The course offered up some mean single speed climbs, some nice flowing single track, with a bit of technical terrain mixed in. In the end, we all walked away with bottle openers. Some of ours had finishing numbers, and others had a few famous letters. It was another great time with a solid group who love to ride bikes and have fun, that’s what its all about. See you in Durango in 09!


and a special thanks to Sean from Mountain Hardware for lending me a race rig!�


-jk

I ran across this sign yesterday. It’s fair. I think sometimes we all think that every spot a chain or lock can run through is fair game for leaving our bikes.  It’s really not, and in the end, we need to be considerate of peoples places.

More community bike racks/parking please.

 

We also have 24 Hours of Allamuchy this weekend - viva New Jersey. It’s big stuff for us. Local scene and good peeps.

We love it so much, we have been there all day getting ready. Here’s proof:

Yup, that’s right. SSWC08 is back in the states for the first time since 2005. How can you pass up heading to Napa this weekend to compete against some of the fastest guys & biggest partiers pushing one gear?

If you are joining in, you best not show up unprepared. A good outfit is crucial to winning something, even if it isn’t the race. Up for grabs are some sweet new Swerve taillights along with an abundant collection of impressive swag from other kick ass companies and peeps. (they scored some serious ish and support for the race - nice).

I started by digging out my attire from SSWC05. Luckily it has remained unworn and unwashed since then. For updating my attire, I searched out the swankiest local thrift shop - where else. You know it is a good spot when you are overwhelmed by the shear mass and color coordinated parade of goodies. It is also a good sign, somehow, that you have a weird tingle and some odd itches through the rest of the day and into the night. Post weekend, you’ll get to see my ssw style. Start counting the seconds.

So get your sh*t together and work your way to Napa this weekend. It is guaranteed not to disappoint!

-jk

Handheld flashlights.

We all have them. We all need them. We all use them. We may not all love them?

I am not sure why - our world loves headlamps. They make sense to us. We can move and work with our hands free and, lets be honest, they just make us look cool.

 

 The truth is that the handheld flashlight is the workhorse of your lighting arsenal.  It’s the first thing you grab when you need a light. Princeton Tec has a long history of making flashlights, and we are psyched to be introducing a new line of technically advance handheld lights - the AMP SERIES.

 

What makes them so special? The are designed to have really long burntimes, and by that, I mean, wait for it… really long burntimes. We know that our customer values conserving power, and not running through sets of batteries every 30 minutes (save the planet dude). We also know that our customer understands that there is a proper balance between brightness and burntimes. Because we love our core, we designed handhelds that are bright - even if they are not burning a hole through something hard to burn a hole through, they ARE more than bright enough for nearly everything else and burn for a really long time.  We threw in some modes - high and low - so that you can have some control of those burntimes, and also regulated it to give constant output.  If you didn’t know, long, controlled burntime time is where it’s at.  For prettier language read it here: here.

On top of all that, they feel good, look good and function well.  Hey, we like ‘em.

“I snuck out for a hike with the dog last night to test her new Palisades Pack and booties when I ran into a volunteer in a hard hat and covered in dirt who told me about the Sustainable Trails Initiative.  For those of us who ride the trails regularly, this is a chance for us to get involved in the restoration of the trails which are suffering from erosion and decay.  They have some opportunities to come out and help (maybe play with a back hoe?) so if you’ve got the time and got the drive, we’d love to see you there.  “

I like the Olympics. I have friends in Beijing competing, so I have been following. Not closely, but just enough. In my search, I stumbled along a great cycling graphic from the ‘72 Munich Olympics… this led me on a google spiral. Here are a few of the 1,000 or so posters that I looked at while I spun downward. I still feel dizzy:

 

OR is done.  We presented our newer wares - and, yes, we have smelled the scent (at some moments - odor) of success. At the show, we presented the new EOS Bike, the Swerve, the Amp Series of handhelds, and talked about new specs - brighter lights and longer burntimes.

Here is a second cool example of spec changes: the FUEL has been pumped up to 35 Lumens from 15. Do I need to say more?

The week was filled with tons of work, a bit of play, not enough sleep, some good food (mostly Sushi and Mexican - otra vez sopa!), a few beers, a lil bit of vino, lots of those new extra lumens accidentally piercing our retinas, and planning/scheming for some new gear. 

What’s sweet is that Justin and Ryan were able to do some riding with our good buddy Adam Lisonbee on his home turf.  Sounds like it was an awesome pre show ride.

Fresh off my trip up north to the lobster infested waters of Gloucester, MA; Saturday was going to be a similar event, afternoon dives, followed by a Princeton Tec night dive.  Mental note for next year: do not schedule dives during hurricane season.  Diving off Jersey during hurricane season can be a little bit like (insert analogy about how you can get your ass kicked from weather that is 1000’s of miles away here). 

�


I got to the beach earlier that day to enjoy some sun (and skin) before the Venture III left the dock at 3 PM for a 2 afternoon dives and 1 night dive.  17 divers loaded gear for the 3 tank voyage out of Belmar Marina, destination: Stolt Degali.  A little background, the Stolt is a great dive, but it’s 10 miles from shore; approximately a 1.5 hour boat ride.  It was when the boat hit the first 4 foot wave after exiting the marina was when the judgment call was made that 1.5 hour boat ride was probably not the best idea.  Destination: Pinta!�


Less of a haul meant several things: my nap was going to end sooner (boo!) and people would vomit less (yay!).  Now, these dive trips are fun, but when the weather is bad, that boat bounces on the water like a cork in the sea.  I managed to get geared up (despite being tossed around like this kid) and in the water, so I didn’t have to float around on the surface anymore.  The water was pleasantly green as usual and started to see the port side of the ship at around 70 feet.  It was dark enough that the shockwave LED was, once again, my savior underwater.  I poked my head inside the wreck, in search of some delicious lobsters.  It was dark and all the little nooks and crannies lit up by my Shockwave LED revealed no lobsters.  The rust began raining down because of my bubbles so I decided it was time to head up.  That and my 9 minutes of bottom time remaining may have had an influence.  �


I surfaced a few minutes later after several deep and safety stops, only to get hammered with stronger waves.  I grabbed onto a line and was pulled over to the ladder, trying to time the 6 foot swells and not get ejected from the ladder like a guy getting shot out of a cannon.  Once on board, we elected to not continue with the other 2 dives and to get everyone back to the dock.  The flat, calm dock was a godsend to several of our pukey travelers.�


�


 Unfortunately, this night dive was cancelled again (are the night dive gods trying to tell us something?) but we will have another go some other evening with less weather.  All I know is that the boys in Alaska can have the Crab’s all to themselves: deadliest catch isn’t the job for me. 

I don’t know about you, but I do. More output, more power, more light, more brighter.


Our most loyal fans, like Beth, have probably noticed some changes in our specs. Most of our products are getting brighter. We are heading to the Outdoor Retailer trade show this week, and as you can imagine - we will spend a load of time talking about lumens, and getting in return a lot of  - damn, that is bright.


Case in point: The Eos series of lights are getting crazy bright. Last month they were a solid 25 Lumens. This month they are now 50 Lumens! Yea - DOUBLE as bright, double the fun. What’s more amazing is that the burntimes have ALSO INCREASED.


That means the EOS Bike is 50 lumens. The Eos Headlamp is 50 Lumens - and they still burn more long!


Damn. Right. More new specs will be out soon.�