No ride on Monday July 12

Redbike Canada Cup

Just a great day today at the Edmonton Canada Cup. All of our racers had some type of fun. Congrats to everyone that gaver out there. 

Chris Ring rang in a 3rd place finish after wiggling his way up to the front groups of the start line. He staged up last but "somehow" ended up within arms length of the other Redbikers. 

Good job Chris.

As for Sam Mothana (AKA Poncherello), he was silent but deadly. He slowly made his moves through the group to get his great 7th place.

Now, let's not forget the REAL Lance Steinke. After missing the finish turn he had to pick up his bike and run back to use the finishing straight. Not a happy camper. So, he came in 8th just behind Sam. Say thank you Sam.

Notice the Pro XC knee pads. I think he keeps his EPO in there.

Great first XC race.

DUDE CAN HAMMER!!!

I have never ever ever seen a novice take off that fast. I think he should lay off the caffeine. Waleed had to be a country mile away from the whole group before the first climb. WOW! I'll have what he's having. Needless to say Waleed blew up. He did come back though, and after settling in had a good race. Waleed, when I said go hard the first 100-200 meters, I thought you would leave a little. Still, good race Waleed.

Ah, Mark Jung, our enforcer. Mark used his "Drunken Rider" technique to block other riders for Chris. Out came flying elbows to the right and left almost crashing to back up his team mates. This man would through himself on a grenade for his mates. If a grenade is an elbow or two. Well, he's our enforcer no matter how you look at it. 

Oh, he did well. 5th I think.

Shadow man. Paul Wiminga had a valiant ride. However, I think he was in the shadows. I didn't get one good picture of him. Paul is our steady, strong anchor man always slipping in. he pulled out a solid race today. It was great having on the "Pro Novice" squad.  

As for our elite riders, they had clean rides.

Shantel Koenig turned in a 10th place using her steady "donkey style" riding. we all could learn a thing or two from this chick. Keep rolling, keep moving, get up, keep rolling, get up, keep pedaling. Sounds simple because it is. Try it!

Last but not least is our elite man on the move, Matt Krahn. A few weeks ago Matt crashed on his way to a Tuesday night MTB race. He dislocated his shoulder and had to get off the bike for a week or two. After a while Matt was able to hop on his road bike but not the MTB. So Matt's Canada Cup was the first race since the injury. Once it all wound to a close he had fought hard and stayed with his Alberta compatriots. Even beat a few. 

Excellent Job!

Now, we start all over again next week in Camore for Nationals. I can't be there but I hope that as much of the  Red-Army make their way down as can go.

- Bruce

Why The Face? Because another ride is cancelled.

Sorry to say, but the wet weather is forcing us to cancel the Wednesday night race pace ride.  If anyone wishes to venture out, we wish them luck in the mud.  When you do get muddy, come by the shoppe and buy some more clothes and a new drivetrain. Better yet, ride the road and stay off the trails.

Monday night ride cancelled due to Mark having bronchitis

Since the world revolves around Mark, the Monday night trail ride is cancelled due to his sudden and mysterious illness. No relation to his trip to Germany i'm sure. Also, the Noah's Ark like rain we have been experiencing also has a small part into the cancellation. Stay tuned for the Wednesday night ride. Hopefully he will have a remarkable recovery.
Not written by Mark.

You know it was Mark that wrote this!

That's it Mark Run!

No ride for Monday

Just too wet out there to have a large group tear the trails apart. The Wednesday ride should be a go. Any questions just give me a call at work.

- Bruce

Rocky Night

Come out to tomorrows Rocky Mountain demo night. Our man Keith Brodsky from RMB will have the new 29rs for you to try. Hope the thunder showers don't happen. What we'll probably do is have short rides from Da capo's parking lot. See you all tomorrow.

After A Couple Rides

The redbike rides have been running now for a few weeks. I can't believe how well they're going. Every monday we have between 16-20 riders show up. These rides run the full range of skill levels from beginner to elite athlete. You would think that after a while we would lose a rider or two or have countless flats and  bike failures. Nope. Sure the odd time something happens but there can be 20 bikes out there, what do you expect?

With that many riders you need to take a minute here and there for everyone to catch up. This rest-stop we were waiting for Mark to repair his flat. After what felt like an hour, we were on our way. Mark is a great chiropractor not a bicycle mechanic.

Here's Rob Willms making one of the trickier descents of the night. No biggie.

Yup, we're done. 

OK We'll ride tonight!

The weather was looking bad but turned around for the better. See you tonight for the race ride. We leave from Dacapo @ 6:30. Be ready for a quick paced ride.

- Bruce

Maybe No Riding

The weather is looking not so good for Wednesday night. Big wind on the way. Stay tuned. The weather can change in five minutes.
Wednesday rides are for those who would like to train a little harder for upcoming races. However, this ride is different than our famous Monday ride due to the ABA insurance that will be needed. I will update later the ride status.

- Bruce

16 Times The Fun

As a cyclist that has been on his fare share of club rides, I have to say, this one was a great time. 16 eager riders showed up at Dacapo to play their part in the ballet of two wheel chaos. A shifter broke. I had two slowly leaking tires. Another had a full on flat. Let's not forget how twisted up we got keeping such a large group together on a winding inner city MTB ride. Through all of this I can't think of anyone that didn't have a great time.

Where else can you see Lance Steinke point out a rare travelling Edmonton Iceberg?

The renowned metal sculptor, Rob Willms, showing that mud incrusted iceberg who's boss.

That's right, it's all ice under his bike. I don't think he even gave it a second thought!

We even have full support on this sucker by paying one of our mechanics double time and a half to show up and do on the spot tune-ups and expert diagnosis. Thanks Craig.

It dosen't just end when the wheels stop turning. We always leave plenty of time to have a couple fine euro beers or Italian pizza at Dacapo. Don't worry about the mud that you might drag in.....Antonio has a cleaning service. What else could we ask for?

For those of you who waited for the weather to clear up, this is one less,

ride and.......

See you all next monday night at 6:30 pm.

Where else?

Well, here it is, I have the wrong Q-factor. Truvativ makes three Q-factors, 156, 164 and 166. My bike came with 156. There you go.

The 2010 Devinci Moonracer SL XX

2010 has brought quite a few new bikes and equipment to redbike. One that really stands out is the Devinci Moonracer SL XX. The frame is made from Devinci triple butted Optimum G3 6061-T6 aluminum. They also have made the geometry very twitchy for a fast response to trail changes. This is basically the same frame as last year with a great new paint job. What has changed drastically is the groupo. For 2010 Devinci has added XX to the Moonracer line. What this means is a bike with a complete Sram Corp group. The all new Sram XX 2x10 group was used throughout with Truvativ, Avid and Rock Shox. Shifting the Moonracer is snappy and super responsive. Not having a granny ring is never missed. This is a race rig and not many serious racers ever use the 20 or 22 tooth gear. this means less chain-slap, weight savings and quicker shifting by having fewer options. By not having a granny gear Sram wanted to still give options to the rider. They came out with an 11-36 cog set.

Eight of the 10 cogs are machined from 4130 chromoly steel. The 7075-T6 large cog can be replaced when worn out. Cool! You hear that Sam, a stronger cog set with a REPLACEABLE large cog. For those of you who have heard that these are really expensive, you're right. They will cost around $375.00 to replace. However, the word is that there will be an X-7 2x10 group. That means there should be a cheaper cog set on the way. Yah!

Not all the news is good on this smokin' race rig. As I was testing it out today there was an odd clicking coming out of it when climbing. At first I thought my new cleats were moving around but no. With the new 2x10 system comes a crank with a tighter crank arm tolerance in relation to the chain stays. When putting more power down, the little flex from the crank and frame causes a serious problem. If this was left alone the crank would wear through the chain stay. As soon as I get back to work Devinci will be getting a call. The positive side to this is how great Devinci is with customer service.

All in all I'm very excited with the new ride. See you all Monday Night.

Spring Riding

Can you believe it, it's April already and time to put away the winter beater MTB and free the beast that's been tucked away in the corner of the basement. Some of you have already hit the spring trails. If you're carful you can make a ride out of it by picking around on the north side of the river. There are a few dry pieces on the south side however they are far and few between. Even on the north side there can be some problem areas. As you can see from the photo, trails are not all that great so please stay off the wet ones. I'm not concerned for you bike as much as I am for the trails. In fact the more you ride in the mud, the more our shop makes in parts sales!

As you can see from the small video not all trails can support cycling.

There are some shining stars in under the trees that have dried up enough to ride on. This one is just below Saskatchewan Drive and 91 Ave.

So, yes, please come out on April 12 @ 6:30 for our inaugural redbike Monday ride. I'll have a prize (mini-tool) for the best first crash of the year. No matter how long it takes, there will be one.

- Bruce

Monday Rides Continue Soon

The long cold wait will soon be over. It won't be long before you'll see redbike jerseys flying through the great Edmonton trail system. We can't wait for the trails to actually dry up, but we will. Please, everyone, do not ride our fantastic single track until it dries up. If you can't control your corners you shouldn't be there. Never mind that it will send you to see us for a new drivetrain or cables.

Now, for the ride, we will still be riding on Mondays @ 6:30-8:30. Be sure to meet at Dacapo Caffe just south of the shop. We always ride as fast as the slowest rider. Don't worry about keeping up. This ride is not a race but every now and again one will break out for a few meters. After the ride we pop into Dacapo for a Belgian bear, fine Italian pizza or artisan gelato.

Keep in touch. We will let you know when it's dry enough.

It Was Time For A Change

I found that the old blog address was hard to use. So, this is the new one. Stay tuned for updates on rides and racing.