I plan on updating the website with some pictures from Interbike.  We have just been too busy at the shop these last couple of days.  We are taking off Thursday afternoon to head down to Death Valley for the Furnace Creek 508.  I am glad I’m not doing it, even though I think crewing is not much easier than riding it.  I can talk from experience on that one since I have crewed twice so far and ridden it once.  This time I just need to make sure that Debbie’s bikes are working perfect the whole time.

We just got back from Interbike yesterday morning.  Claire and I spent 5 days in Vegas and we flew A2 in for 3 days.  It was a blast.  The show was incredible and we left very excited about being in the bike business.  I had the opportunity to test ride a bunch of bikes during Dirt Demo day which took place outside of Las Vegas.  I will write more about that here or on our webpage.  I will also post some pictures on our webpage when the dust settles.

I went out yesterday morning and had a great hour long run.  I did the modified Scenic loop with plenty of hills.  After that I went to work and really got my butt kicked.  It was so busy that nobody knew what side was up.  Claire and I were trying to get stuff organized before we took off for Vegas, but we didn’t have the time we needed.

It is Friday evening, and Claire and I are getting ready to head off for some wine and pizza at our favorite winery.  It has been a busy week, and tomorrow promises a little more.  We will be taking off for Las Vegas on Monday for Interbike.  We are really excited.  We are flying A2 out there on Wednesday so he can join us.  We have been trying to get the shop sorted out so that the guys have an easier time of it next week with us gone.  I think the work load is starting to taper off at the shop, but I still feel like Mike and I can’t quite stay up with all of it.  I have had some time to build up a couple of the nicer Giant road bikes that have been sitting in the back room.  They are quite eye catching.  The 2009 bike line seems to be taking off.

I went out yesterday for a great 31 mile ride.  It was a new loop for me that I think will become one of my favorites.  It consists of some riding on 116, but the traffic is usually light on that portion.  You need to watch out for the gravel trucks for the first half mile, but otherwise it is smooth sailing.  I didn’t see a single car on Mays Canyon or Sweetwater.  Here is a map of the route.  I felt really good and did the ride in a little less than 2 hours.  I tried to keep my heart rate up in the 150’s for most of the ride.  I did hit 194 at the top of Sweetwater.  Oh, yea, I did have a first for myself.  I had a wild pig run across the road right in front of me on Westside Road.  I had just passed some tourists who were doing one of those organized rides, and I’m sure it gave the guy behind me quite a fright.  I had to hit my brakes pretty good.  I don’t think those pigs have very good traction on the road because that thing was skidding all over the place.

Well, I finally got around to fixing our oven, so I could bake some bread.  

Giant Bikes treated Claire and I to another great day at Northstar Ski Resort.  It was quite a luxury, there were only about 20 people total on the whole mountain and Giant supplied brand new 2009 Demo bikes for us to ride.  I spent most of the day on a Giant Anthem X2.  Claire rode the Giant Cypher.  The Anthem was incredible.  It climbs like nobody’s business, but I was able to ride it down Livewire with it’s 8 foot jumps.  We did a couple of pure downhill runs, but ended up riding across the face of the mountain and doing some great single track to test out the handling of these bikes.  I have spent most of the last 10 years or so riding single speed mountain bikes, so having the gears was an adjustment by itself.  Both of my single speed bikes are hard tails, so I was a little leery about how the Anthem would climb, but I found that I could climb in a bigger gear if I wanted to and the rear wheel would stick to the ground like glue.  For the last run of the day, I did take out a Giant Glory.  That is a whole different experience.  You can almost just point that bike downhill and let it go.  If you are going to do some downhilling, you owe it to yourself to take out a real downhill bike.  Giant arranged a three bedroom condo for us for the night, so we didn’t have to drive home dusty.

Well, the shop is going like gang-busters, and Claire and I are just holding on tight for the ride.  We keep thinking that things will slow down, but to no avail.  We received 121 brand new Giant bikes last week and we are trying to get them built as fast as possible.  It sure makes the days go by fast.  There are some beautiful TCR road bikes in the order that I want to build, but I am having trouble finding the time.  Right now it seems like we are just building bikes as customers request them.

Well, things have been going bonkers at the shop.  I think there is more work to do this week then I have ever seen on our work board.  I was telling Claire yesterday that I don’t think it will be physically possible to finish all the work this week.  We have been going in early to try to catch up, but it is not working.   It is great to be this busy, and we are having one of our best months ever.  

Well, it is Sunday morning and I am up having some coffee before work.  It has been a long week, but we are being rewarded with a trip up to Northstar tonight to do some demoing and downhilling tomorrow.  Giant has arranged for us to get free lift tickets and demo bikes for everyone in the shop to test out some of the Giant mountain bikes.  We will be leaving right after work this evening and taking the gang up there.  A1 is returning from fighting fires in Southern CA, and this will be a great chance to celebrate his return.