Peak Cycles – BikeParts.com Blog

Today I was reminded that it was still Feb.
Colin Osborn

Time: 8:24am

From: Tate Graves

Text Message: : Lets ride bitches!

I went shopping for a new snowboarding jacket a couple weeks ago.  Every jacket that I looked at the I liked had one thing in common… a furry hood.  I ended up getting this 4Square jacket…

I got home and it was kinda bugging me, why did I buy a jacket with a furry hood?  The question ate at me for a while until during the last cold snap, someone described as being cold as Hoth.  At that moment it clicked!  In my opinion, Empire Strikes Back is the best Star Wars movie of them all.  It introduces Yoda and my life mantra “Do or do not, there is no try”, the Rebels get their butts kicked by At-Ats, its our first real sight of Boba Fett, Han Solo cuts open the Taun Tan and sticks Luke inside, Han then gets tortured and frozen in carbonite and to top it all off, Luke gets his hand cut off an we find out about Darth being Luke’s dad!  What an awesome movie!  I guess it influenced me more then I thought.  Now, if I am looking at new cars and am leaning towards buying a really tall, robotic looking dog car with 4 legs, someone stop me!

What do you do when the little brother keeps taking the big brothers bike out?!

You go down to Peak Cycles and get your own bike, the Specialized P Grom!  

Keep riding hard little ones!  I know its only a matter of time until I am chasing you guys!

If you are wondering about this guy… read this post, Epic Eric.

I am a middle school teacher and have a Skate Club at school.  Normally we skate at the park behind the school a couple times a week.  But this time of year, we watch skate movies and wait for the snow to melt.  This year I found a place in Cali that sell uncut skate boards for $14!  I ordered a bunch up for the kids and on Friday  they are going to start making their own skateboards (photos at a later date).  In the package of boards, the guy sent me a OJIII t-shirt.  This brought back memories of the old orange OJ wheels I had and got me thinking…

I didn’t play football, baseball or even soccer growing up.  I was riding my BMX bike at an early age and I think I enjoyed the freedom and the jumping contests with my friends.   Then I moved on to the skateboards in the mid 80’s and again loved the idea of not going to practice or having a coach.  Then in the mid 90’s I moved on to mountain bikes and found that what I enjoyed about it was pushing my self and riding with friends.  I really think those early days skating shaped me as an adult and the people I hang out with, the music I listen to and the sports I like do/watch.  

Brad Click - Circa '86

I urge everyone to think back to when they were 13 years old… what did you do with your Saturdays?  What did you want to do the second you got out of school?  What was your favorite tape?  What was your favorite movie?   Blow the dust off that tape, throw it in the boombox, go out in the garage find a skateboard and ollie!  The 13 year old will thank you!!  Sk8 or Die – Mr. Swift  

A longtime friend of mine, James Flatman, has started up his own bicycle company down in Texas near Austin, Alchemy Bikes.  He has been building frames like mad for the past 6 months to get ready to debut at the Handbuilder Bike show at the end of February.  James will be making bikes out of all materials, steel, alum, carbon and ti in all forms of bikes, mtn, road, track, 29r, SS, and dirt jumpin.  Here are some early picts of a fixie James has been turning into gold!  So, if you a looking to have the newest bike on your block, contact James and get a new, one of a kind ride!  

It was -8 deg this morning in Golden when I woke up.  Here is a photo of the bedroom window…

Say good bye to the 60+ degree weather we had last week!  At the moment it is 6 deg in Golden.  But not only are the sunny skies gone, but the clear trails are gone too!  I got to work this morning and there was a light dusting of snow on the ground, over the next couple of hours, we got more then 12″ of white stuff! 
Here is a backcountry snowboarding photo update from Colin M…But not only was it a snow report… it was also a beard update too…  Josh Kravetz of the Urban Assualt Ride fame, started the 2009 Mustache-Grow-A-Thon on Jan 3rd with the final ‘Stache Judgement’ on March 3rd.  Here is Colin M’s update after almost a month of grow time! “I have chin hair like Shaggy but the mustachio is coming in ok!”
Hey Red, with 30 or so days to go, I would start looking into some ‘Hair and Nail’ vitamins!!!

I know this has nothing to do with biking… but this goes along with my other post from last week,  ‘Christmas Came Late’.  

I got a Maverick Speedball adjustable seatpost about 2 years ago and fell in LOVE with it from that first ride!  It was awesome to lower the post so effortlessly at any moment I wanted.  It came in very hand on those steep descents on the Long Horn trail at White Ranch.  I was riding a lot with a friend who would adjust his seatpost lower on EVERY decent (you know who you are) and we would have to stop and wait for him to undo his QR and seat the post, then wait at the end of the descent for him to raise his post again.  This happened so often his black seatpost was turning silver from all the “ups and downs” in the seat tube.  I told him repeatedly to get a Speedball and finally he broke down and got some cash together to buy one, but… Maverick had sold the design to Crank Brothers.  It seems like people were finally understanding what a great product it is!  Now, Specialized has gone forward with a similar looking adjustable seatpost called the “Command” seatpost!  Now all they need to do is make a 27.2mm seat post size!

All this warm weather reminds me of the tough decisions summer brings…  😉

So it was time to up my game, the bike path around denver and the lame climbs like lookout mountain were suddenly has beens. Parker decided to give up his traveling lifestyle for a weekend at home in longtown colorado. I headed down from Breckenridge friday night so I’d be rested and ready for the day to come. Just before a late morning departure I wasn’t sure if I could even walk, let alone ride a bicycle. The scary thing about that evening and morning with parker was that more and more of the hulk was making an appearance. Suddenly I didn’t know who I was hanging out with. Was it real…… was the hulk making a return to bike racing after going into hibernation for a few years. The calender said mid January, the hulk said lets go crush Left Hand Canyon to Ward. So with the hulk pulling jason, we headed up, just under four hours, 52.7 miles, 4281 feet of climbing, not bad for a 55 degree day in january.  – Jason Kompf

Parker resting before hitting the ward spring for some of that spirit water they drink up there.

So, this was one of those gifts that was said to be “in the mail.” I had forgot about it until it arrived today! Now that I look like Cru Jones, I hope I can backflip like him too! 😉