Grognard Bicycle Company

Here's a good one

2008-08-12T09:12:00.000-07:00

We had an awesome ride on Saturday. It linked a few of my favorite Marin trails together to make one big ride. It's about 77 miles with 13,000 ft. of climbing. It took us about 11 hours. I think I'd have had more actual fun if I'd have geared my 29er with 32x20 rather than the 32x18 I rode it with. There's some steep climbing in there. It was a great workout though and a great way to spend the day. Give it a shot if you're up for an all-day challenge.

The route details can be found in the book "Mountain Biking Marin" by Theresa Martin and Brian Simon. That book is really good. This ride combines several of the rides they detail, but it's not complicated.

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Now THAT'S a ride

2008-08-07T18:25:00.000-07:00

This past weekend was my cross-California road ride. It was awesome. It was hard. Too hard in fact. The idea was that I was going to start riding at the junction of Hwys 395 and 89, at the Nevada border, and ride all the way to the coast. Well, I gave it my best shot, but I came up a little short.

It began beautifully. My buddy Ryan and I rolled off the start at about 12:45 am Saturday morning. The sky was crystal clear and it was surprisingly warm and calm. We started at the base of Monitor pass so the first 9 miles were pure climbing. That's a great pass to ride in the day and now I know it's even better at night.

We rolled through Markleeville and a few of the other small "towns" up there and made it to Carson Pass just at the sun was shedding the first rays of light on the mountains to the east. It was about as perfect as riding a bike can be. At that point Ryan jumped in the car with Greg and I rolled on. During the night time hours it was really nice having two of us out there with lights and Greg in the car behind us. People aren't used to seeing bikes at night up there and there's not a lot of shoulder for much of that part of the ride. Having as much light as possible minimized the chances of us getting hit by the cars speeding through there and lowered the stress considerably.

I got down to Folsom at about 10 am. I felt really good and had high hopes for the second half of the ride. After a little break to eat and change clothes I set off down the American River bike trail toward Sac. Around Sac State Blair met up with me and the two of us rode together for the remainder of the ride.

All I can say about the section from Folsom to Winters is that it was hot, flat and a bit boring. Once on Hwy 128 the road surface got pretty bad too so that made it even less enjoyable.

After spending a few hours spinning on the flats to get over to Winters, not to mention all the miles I'd already put on the bike, the hills at Lake Berryessa were challenging. For the rest of the ride I had to just slowly spin up all the hills; no muscling my way up. On the flats, all the way through the end, I was still able to keep an 18 to 20 mph pace, but on the hills it was more like 4 to 6. All it would have taken was one over the top effort to be superman up some hill and my legs would have blown up and that would have been that.

Once on the far side of Napa at the base of Oakville Grade Rd. I decided that was enough. I was extremely tired and actually getting a little delusional. At one point I hit a bump I didn't see (one of several by that point) and nearly lost my hands off the handlebars. After sitting in the shade for about 30 minutes I declared my ride over and stood up to start packing the bike in the truck. Blair wasn't content though, so he decided he'd strong arm me into a few more miles. He said that since he hadn't gotten even 100 miles in yet that he was going to at least go up and over the Oakville/Trinity grade and into Sonoma Valley. Well, I couldn't let myself be punked liked that so on went my shoes and up we rode.

Oakville Grade Rd. starts out nice enough, but within just a few minutes it kicks up and doesn't have a single plateau for way too long. You know that when your in the easiest gear on a compact double and you can barely turn the pedals while standing that it's a steep climb. Luckily I've driven that road many times so I knew that it didn't go on forever, it just felt like it. Trinity grade wasn't any better. It wasn't quite as steady, but it was longer. That pass was easily the hardest of the ride.

Once we got down to Hwy 12 we called it. I had been in the saddle for 19 hours and had covered 250 miles. Blair had done about 9 hours and 100 miles. The nice thing about a ride this long is that even if you don't finish the whole thing, it still makes for a good result. Sometime over the winter I'd like to ride from here to the coast to see what the rest of the ride would have been like. I think having some experience on that part of the ride will make it easier next year when I try it again. That and some actual training and I think it'll be good as gold.

Cleaner air and cooler temps

2008-07-13T21:05:00.000-07:00

Yay! So after a week of intense heat and really bad air, this weekend gave us nearly normal air quality (which is not really that great anyway) and cooler temps and I...only got out for a two hour ride this afternoon during the hottest and smokiest part of the whole weekend. Damn.

Somebody please pass the oxygen

2008-07-08T13:05:00.001-07:00

Having grown up in the Midwest, I prefer to feel cold rather than hot. Every summer, while the sweat streams out of my body, I ask myself if it's really worth living in Sacramento. The hot conditions are made even worse by the fact that my shop faces straight west without so much as a hint of shade. This summer, though, is proving to be nearly beyond what I can endure. We are in the 4th week of what is proving to be a record fire season. Last week there were 1000 wild fires burning in Northern California! We are currently down to 300, but they are the biggest ones so the effects are just the same. The smoke is so thick that visibility is down to just a few miles. My asthma usually only gives me grief when my heart rate is up, but now it's tough to breath even sitting at my computer in my house. The firefighters are putting in an amazing effort and I, along with everybody else who lives in the state, hope they can get the situation under control soon so we can go back to the usual, unhealthy and smoggy air and get this smoke out of here.

Because of the smoke I've been forced to postpone my across-the-state bike ride. I really hate getting my mind set for a big effort and then having to call it off. Spending 24 hours out in this air with an elevated heart rate doesn't make a lot of sense though. They've even cancelled the Western States 100 running race for the first time ever. Hopefully things will be better in a month and I can get the ride done. A month is a long time and it's hard to believe the smoke won't be clear by then, but it's been nearly a month already and it's not getting better so all we can do is hope.

I also hope these fires make people realize that there needs to be greater thought put into how things are run in this state, and country. 100 years of fire suppression coupled with not allowing for the thinning of forests are why we're in this mess. I'm as much for conservation and environmental improvement as anybody, but it needs to be done intelligently and the effects need to be considered honestly. Change for the sake of change is just plain dumb, and lazy. If change needs to happen it needs to be done with purpose and deliberate intent. Too many changes are made because they make people feel good or to further a politicians career, and damn the consequences. Often times, the right thing to do isn't the thing that makes us feel the best at first, but over time we come to realize it is for the best. OK, this has nothing to do with bikes and I really hate one sided arguments so I'll get off my soapbox now.

Cool Pics

2008-06-24T19:17:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple pictures that I think turned out pretty cool. Blair took them while I was tacking the bottom bracket cluster on Kevin's bike.

Didn't I say I was going to post more?

2008-06-24T18:40:00.000-07:00

Hmmm, I believe I did. Well, it's only been two months. Life is so busy that two months is little more than the blink of an eye for me right now. Let's see, since I posted last there have been a few cool things that've happened.

The Cool24 has come and gone. It was a great weekend. I was part of a team this year and enjoyed myself much more than going solo. We pulled in a third place for the 4-person singlespeed teams. Of course, there were only 4 teams, but no need to get hung up on technicalities. Several other friends raced solo and as a result they had more than their fair share of misery. I don't see myself doing the solo thing again anytime soon. At least not on a mountain bike.

A really cool guy named Patrick won the bike that I gave away at the race. He was stoked to get it so that made it worth it. It was made all the better by the fact that he did the ride to help a buddy of his whose fighting cancer right now. Being able to give a little joy to his circle of friends feels really good.

I did an awesome road ride with some friends a couple weeks ago. We started at Topaz Lake on the Nevada - California border and rode 140 miles back home. We totalled about 11,000 feet of climbing for the day. We went up and over Monitor Pass, up Carson Pass past Kirkwood to Mormon Emigrant Trail to Sly Park, down to Diamond Springs, over to Rescue and down to Folsom. It was an awesome way to spend the day, but it was tough. I was beat. It wasn't the riding itself, really, that caused the most grief. It was not eating or drinking enough pretty much the entire second half of the ride that hurt the most. No fuel = pain.

The ride was a pre-ride of a longer day I have planned in a few weeks. I've often thought it'd be a cool thing to ride across the entire state of California. Originally I thought of doing a half mountain bike, half road bike type thing. There is such an extraordinarily good route for the road bike though that I've decided to make it all road. It's going to be between 280 and 300 miles when all told. I don't know how much climbing, but I'm guessing somewhere in the 15k to 20k range. "Big deal, so you're going to ride across the state" you say? Well, I thought the same thing. So what I've decided, to make it sporting, is to do it all at once - no sleeping. I'll be leaving the Nevada border at midnight and plan to finish at the coast sometime around midnight the following night. It should be a good challenge. In fact, I'd go so far as to say it's going to be the first ride I'll ever do that I don't know for sure that I'll finish in the desired time. I've never ridden 24 hours on a road bike so I don't know how it'll go. Considering the fact that since last fall I've only ridden over 35 miles without stopping twice, once a couple weeks ago and once a few weeks before that, I really don't know if I'll make it or not. But hey, that's the best part.

Wow

2008-04-26T14:03:00.000-07:00

Wow, OK, so I guess I'm not a very good blogger. It's been a while since my last post. I need to work on that.

Over the past couple months I've been trying to catch up on my schedule. The NAHBS really put me behind. I've been working away though and am pretty close to being back on track. I've put out some good bikes these past couple of months. The one that folks might find most interesting is the bike that's going to be given away at the Global Biorythm's Coolest 24 mountain bike race. It's coming up next weekend and is sure to be a blast. This year's race is looking like it will be bigger than ever. Jim Northey is a very generous guy and puts on a race that is not only a fun time, but doesn't cost an arm and a leg. The best part is that it's all for charity. All of the proceeds go to help fight cancer.

The bike that's going to be given away is a 29er singlespeed. It's the only non-custom bike I've every produced. I don't do non-custom bikes, but Jim really wanted to give a finished bike away rather than the certificate that's normally given out. I think it's a good idea as people get really excited about the possiblity of riding the bike away at the end of the race rather than having to wait to get a custom model built. It's a bit of a trade off, but in this case I think it's the better way to go.

Here's a picture:

Pics from the show

2008-02-12T22:30:00.000-08:00

I didn't get a chance to take as many pictures as I'd have liked to from the show, but here are a couple that my friend Jim Northey took and gave to me. A big thanks to Jim and Frank for making the drive and spending some time with us.

Besides the pictures in the links in my last post there are pictures of my bikes and everyone else's all over the net on personal blogs. I haven't seen them all, but there are too many to start listing here. If you're interested in seeing more just do a search for NAHBS 2008 or something similar on Google and you'll find everything you missed at the show.

I need to set the record straight

2008-02-12T21:58:00.001-08:00

I'm super happy with all the attention I was given from the media. So far the major media outlets that I've seen my bikes in are Mountain Flyer magazine, the Fixed Gear Gallery, and VeloNews. I have nothing but thanks and praise for those organizations as well as all the other media that were at the show, whether they gave me attention or not. As a small builder I have nothing to offer the big guys other than my thanks so those that go out of their way to help bring me attention are extremely generous.

I do need to make one correction, however, to what was posted on VeloNews. I don't mean for it to be contentious, but simply to clarify a point of honost misunderstanding. In the caption for my fixed-gear bike they state that I built the fixie special for the show. While I did build that bike with the intention of showing it, I think that statement is a little misleading. There were several bikes at the show that were built with no regard to being practical or repeatable (at least not at any reasonable price). Mine, however, was not one of them. There was nothing on my bike that I do not offer as an option for any of my bikes. The dropouts, the brazed on lettering, the handlebars, the wheels; everything is a real and practical offering.

The handlebars are new and so they need to be tested and modified if necessary before they are going to be for sale, but they were built with the intention of being a saleable item and they will be. Not that I have anything against making something that is intended as a purely show piece, but that my bike stood out amongst all of those and was still percieved by those who saw it as special is a point of pride. More importantly, it follows my beliefs in being as honost with people as I can as well as offering more than what is average or expected. The greatest complement for me was when people said they loved my work. To be appreciated for the whole of what I had to offer rather than (or should I say in addition to) one specific detail is very rewarding.

What a show!

2008-02-12T21:19:00.000-08:00

NAHBS 2008 is finished and in the books. What a great weekend it was! 6800 people attended the show. At one point on Saturday the firemarshall shut the open admission down because the hall was over capacity. There were hundreds in line to get tickets and hundreds more waiting for their turn to get in the door. Wow.

The weekend was too long and there was too much going on to be able to give a detailed account of everything that took place so I'll just give a quick recap.

Blair, Ryan, Miranda and myself drove up to Portland on Thursday. I overestimated the time it would take to get there so we got up there nice and early. Not a problem except that we all woke up at about 4 am to get an early start. Oops. Once at the hall we set the bikes in the stands and assembled the sign. It all went off without a hitch.

Friday was an industry only day so it was a little slower than the next two days would prove to be. It was nice to get a chance to talk with industry folks at a slower pace though and was a good warm-up for things to come.

Saturday and Sunday were crazy. Saturday more so, but both days were pretty fast paced. I would prefer it that way though, since it makes it easier to forget that your feet and back are sore from standing on concrete for 8 hours. I didn't even eat lunch either day since I was having too much fun talking with people about my bikes.

The feedback I got was awesome. Everyone liked what I had to offer. It was really great to see all my hard work get appreciated. The vast majority of people were quite savy as well and picked up on most of the subtle details of the bikes. That's not to say my bikes weren't full of unique features, but rather that I chose to maintain my usual style and keep those differences low key.

Not surprsingly, since the show was in Portland, the fixed gear bike got the most attention. I packed that bike with a bunch of the options that I offer, but did them in as subtle a way as possible. One of the things I find the most pleasure in is offering people the chance to make discoveries at their own pace. The bike was very monochromatic and a quick glimpse wouldn't reveal much. Only after a few moments of looking would things begin to make themselves visible. It was great when someome would already have been looking at the bike for a while and another person would come up and comment on something the first person hadn't even seen yet. They were happy with the surprise every time and challenged to see if they could find anything else I wasn't telling them. Even after thousands of people looked at it there were a couple details only a handful of people spotted. It was great fun.

I was also told by quite a few people that mine was their favorite bike of the entire show. To all of you I say Thanks! I didn't win any of the awards at the end, but that's OK. I got my satisfaction and praise directly from the people attending the show. They, you, are the ones whose opinions I care about most.

I'll finish this post by thanking everyone that came to the show, both within the industry and the general public. The days were filled with great conversations and many good laughs. I'd like to publicly thank Blair, Ryan and Miranda. Your companionship and hard work made the weekend go infinitely smoother. I'd also like to thank Don Walker, Brian Riepe of Mountain Flyer Magazine, and everyone else that had a hand in bringing the show to life. Thanks all!

Portland here we come

2008-02-06T21:51:00.000-08:00

Wow! What a weekend. I thought I had everything pretty well in order last week and didn't expect to be working as hard as I've been to get ready for the show. Thankfully the bikes came together well and caused very little grief. It was everything else that was so challenging. My sign turned into a bit of a nightmare. With a ton of help from Blair, Ryan and Hilary it all came together though and everything looks great. I was planning on putting up some teaser picks, but it's late and I still have to pack. Everyone is going to be here at 4:30 am and we're going to roll out at 5. Ugh. Can't they move Portland any closer?

Getting started

2008-02-01T17:00:00.000-08:00

What better time to start a blog? We are now just days away from the 2008 North American Handbuilt Bicycle Show. I've been focusing on getting everything ready for the show for some time now. I'm going to be bringing a 29er mountain bike, a fixed-gear bike and an S3 road frame. I was hoping to have another road bike done and ready to bring too, but time got away from me.

I'm really excited about this year's show and think it's going to be a great time. The only down side to the weekend is going to be the fact that since it's in Portland, my family won't be able to come and visit. Last year they surprised me and came down for a day.

I won't be going up to Portland alone though. We're going to have a full truck with Blair, Ryan and Miranda on board to help me out. It's going to make life much easier to have some additional people to help with the crowds and to watch the booth when I feel the urge to go and check out some of the other incredible machines that will be there.

In the next 5 days I have to finish prepping the fixed-gear frame and put the parts on it. I just got it back from paint a couple days ago and it looks awesome! I'll be picking up the fork and handlebar/stem on Monday. That's right, I said I still don't even have all the parts yet. In fact, I won't be getting the wheels for it until Tuesday. Needless to say I'm a little nervous. There's no reason to think it won't all work out though so I'm not stressed too much.

I also have to finish making my sign. Last year I did a painting of my logo as the backdrop for my booth. It came out OK, but not great. It was a bit of an amateur effort I'm sorry to say and I was a bit embarrased by it. This year will be much better. I'm putting together a nice wooden sign with teak veneer and aluminum letters. It's going to be at the same high quality level as the Grognard bikes. I'll post pictures of it when I've finished getting it all together. I'll put up a few teasers for what I'm bringing to the show too.