Professional Fit Seminar

Tom here,

I attended Paul's seminar at Signature Cycle in NYC and I must say that I came away with a wealth of knowledge on bicycle fit. From detailed anatomic realities of the human body and how they must interact with the immutable laws of physics on the bike to the infinite diversity of each individual, I was extremely impressed and pleased with the quality of Paul Levine's presentation. What struck me as the most compelling element of his breakdown of the fit process is how simple the actual fit is and how different it turns out to be for each individual due to different size, shape and flexibility of each athlete. With a background of bike fit in the industry that dates back to the early days of The New England Cycling Academy's Fit Kit in the 1980's, I was not honestly sure what I could expect to learn when I travelled up to New York City to attend Paul's Professional Bike Fit seminar. His application of anatomy, range of motion and physics attaches a clear and concise vocabulary to proper fit and clears up common misconceptions like a hot sun burns away a morning fog. As I continue to gain experience in fitting bicycles under different people, I feel much better prepared to deal with the incredible variety of athletes and their individual fobiles. As David said, like any serious pursuit of knowlege this is a continuing education for myself and all of us. I feel very lucky to have been able to soak up Paul Levine's information and point of view these last few days and I look forward to continuing to expand my horizons.

Hotrods new Moots

After about 12-18 months of reading about and researching 29ers, I finally ordered the Moots. I really like the YBB and the workmanship of guys at Moots is top notch. Cant say enough good things about Moots.

I also decided to break from tradtiion and go with the Rohloff and a Lefty. I got the frame about 2 months ago and have just finished the build right after christmas. I think I have pretty much got the fork dialed in and am narrowing down the stem length/angle. I have a pretty good idea and am going to probably make the final call soon.

All the rides so far are on the trails we are cutting for the Leesburg Bakers Dozen and 1 ride down on the difficult run/farady trail this morning. Man, was that muddy and cold, I was the ice breaker this morning. Cool thing about 29ers is that you can ride through deeper puddles, etc. I can already tell I am going to prefer the way this bike rides to either of my other two, a Merlin Fat Ti and Yeti Arc Titanium. Bottom line is this bike ROLLS. It is so smooth over everything so far and just feels great.

The Rohloff, my first, is great. Takes a bit to get used to coming from standard Shimano drivetrain. I think the Rohloff will be with me for a looong time.

Setup:Frame: Moots Mooto-X w/ Paragon Sliders
Fork (knife): Lefty Max Carbon
Front wheel: Industry Nine lefty hub on DT TK 7.1
Rear wheel: Rohloff on DT TK 7.1
Seatpost: Moots Lay Back
Saddle: Fizik Gobi
Handlebar: Salsa Pro Moto 11degree flat
Crank: FSA Carbonw/ 46 tooth ring
Pedals: eggbeaters ti spindle
Brakes: Magura Marta
Skewers: Salsa

Weight as shown is 26.9lbs

I have a Boone CR on the way and will be mounting it to a 2007 XTR crankset. I am also going to get Salsa Pro Scandium stem or a Ti Moots once I finalize the dimensions. Aside from these changes, everything will remain the same.

We're Back

Here we are setting off in full Plum Grove Regalia to test ride in Bootleg Canyon, near BoudlerCcity, NV. You can see the terrain in the background. It was really hot and dry. we did have a good day, but got wore out rather quickly due to heat/dryness. Between us, we rode several Moots, Cannondale, BMC, as weel as some other bikes. The highlights were the Moots YBB 29er, Cannondal Rush Carbon fiber, and the BMC Fourstroke. These bikes are great and suit the needs of a Mid Atlantic rider

Here is Mike with a prototype Independent Fabrication Reynolds 953 Stainless Steel Crown jewel. This is a very exciting advancement in steel bicycles. The 953 exhibits the ride charateristics of steel, but has the durability of titanium as far as corrosion is concerned. The 953 is also very strong and allows for the construction of very lightweight steel bikes. IF will be moving into production in the early part of 2007


Here is a Moots Mooto-X setup as a single Speed. We are very excited to be a stocking Moots dealer and have a few MTB's in the store.

Thats all for now, I will post more photos/info later.

Off to Interbike

Well, Tomorrow Mike, Tom, and Rob leave for VEGAS for Interbike. We have a pretty full schedule, with about 20 meeting set up with various vendors and several booths highlighted to visit to check ou new stuff.

Campy has their new bottom bracket configuration, which we are excited about. We will be going to the Campy tech seminar to get all the details. There are new wheels coming from several makers as well.

On the MTB side, I will also be checking out all the 29er stuff out there. This is another thing we are very excited about as the ride characteristics of the 29ers seem to offer many advantages over 26er's.

Also, We will be closed Mon 25th thru Fri 29th to attend. We apologize in advance for any inconvenience this may cause.

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