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Wednesday, August 31, 2005
Today, I rode a new section of trail built by the "farm" guys. Wow! That's all I can say. For those of you that know the farm or have ridden the farm, you also probably know what a great trail this is and that the trail is constantly being re-routed due to new housing developments. Some of these guys have been riding dirt bikes and maintaining the trails for almost 30 years. Well, today I rode a new trail built and maintained by the same farm group. It is awesome. I'm told the trail is 13 or so miles long. It is almost entirely tight single track. No double track. It is a tight and twisty trail. Short steep climbs. Off camber everywhere. A few stunts. A broken chain. Some great views. It is a maze and I doubt I'd actually be able to do this ride without one of the guys. I can't wait to ride it again. Thanks "Farm" guys. Your trails rule. Jason Posted by Butcher : 12:54 AM 0 comments | permalink 
Friday, August 26, 2005
Minneapolis and much of the rest of the state got pounded with a bunch of rain in the wee hours of the morning today. Two inches out at the airport they say. That's a bunch of liquid sky. The timing really couldn't be better as I got three off-road morning rides in on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday and needed a day off today anyway. My hope is that the rain stops shortly and a slight breeze starts blowing to make trail conditions perfect. The days of mud riding for me stopped a few years ago. Some might argue that this is a sign that I'm GETTING OLD, but I prefer to think that it might be a sign that I'm GETTING SMARTER. Of course GETTING SMARTER might be another way of saying that I'm GETTING OLD or at least OLDER. Ah, those carefree days of my youth when the sloppiest days on the trail were no excuse. But at some point I really just had my fill of cleaning muck off of my bike, getting the drivetrain cleaned and lubed back up again. Frankly, it is just so much simpler to stay out of the crud, even if means riding some pavement for a while. Anyway, my fingers are crossed for the drizzle to stop and the sun to peak out with a nice gentle breeze. I'm hoping for nice and tacky trails tomorrow morning for a few hours of dirt-enhanced fun. Enjoy your weekend. -Kid Posted by Salsa Kid : 12:00 PM 0 comments | permalink
Thursday, August 25, 2005
Rant# 2: "What the (ahem) are you thinking!" So here is the deal. I play in a band. We don't have a ton of money so we drive a beat up old van that to the average fellow motorist appears just barely road worthy... and in actuality that really isn't too far off. Anyway.... here is the rant. If you happen to be in minneapolis driving a small import death trap on wheels and for some reason you decide that you absolutely have to change lanes at the last minute for no apparent reason while traffic is slowing to a crawl leaving 3 inches or less for the person behind you to stop.... For the love of peat don't pick the vehicle 10 times your size that looks like something off junk yard wars!! I mean what the (ahem) are you thinking!! Its a darn good thing driver of said pile of junk is familiar with cutting through tight minnesota single track and can pick a good line when the need arises... oh...and please ignore the large Salsa stickers that cover the window which the hand giving the universal sign of disrespect is hanging out of. Ride and Smile! Bobby "normally i'm not this bitter I swear" Dahlberg And for the record... I decided to try the ice cream/frozen food machine again for breakfast today to get a ham and cheese hot pocket....... please see previous rant for the rest of the story. Posted by Bobby : 4:44 PM 0 comments | permalink
 Ah yes, another perfectly normal day for most of us. Get up, feed the dog, take the bus/bike/family wagon to work, think about how your blood is reoxygenated in your lungs and then circulated through your body... OK, maybe you aren't thinking about that today but I was. You see, this speedy little guy cruising the pimped out Salsa ride-n-scoot is Jet Feirn, son of Salsa Superteamer Fast Freddy Feirn. Jet had open heart surgery yesterday to patch up his ticker. He was born with a condition called Tetralogy of Fallot. In terms even I can understand, he has four problems with his little heart including a hole between the left and right ventricle. Blood enters his heart but bypasses the lungs, re-entering his circulatory system blue without being reoxygenated. You can read about his story here at the Caring Bridge site. Caring Bridge is a non-profit organization providing free web sites for families to post and share news with far away loved ones during major life events such as medical emergencies. News from the Feirn household is that he's doing fine and feeling strong and ornery already. Exactly what we would expect from a future X-Games champ. He'll probably be in the hospital for a week or so terrorizing the nursing staff and wanting to do speed laps in the wheelchairs. We wish the best to Jet, Fred, and Kerry. -Pierce Posted by Pierce : 12:31 PM 0 comments | permalink
Wednesday, August 24, 2005
Wow, this is a crazy time of year. We are wrapping up so much stuff in the next few weeks. I just wanted to give a shout out to the Salsa crew. Chuck, Dave, Bobby, Kid Riemer and Wes (that's all of us) have all stepped it up and are doing what it takes to get it done. Our engineers are dropping their other projects and dealing with all sorts of last minute QC and product issues. We are packing our tradeshow booth this week, Bobby is finishing up the Dealer Program and Wes and Kid are spending countless hours on the catalog. What am I doing? Good question? Mostly, I think I'm driving the team nuts and trying to keep some big projects going for 2006 and beyond. Here's the scoop on what's going on at Salsa and the first sneak peek at 2006 product. We are finishing up our catalog in the next 2 weeks. Unfortunately, since many of our show samples showed up late, we won't have the 2006 catalog at Eurobike. We will however, have samples of all but one of our new projects at Eurobike. Eurobike will be a great show for Salsa. If your going to Eurobike, please stop by the Cosmic Sports Booth and see our new stuff. Next week, we will be distributing some information to our dealers regarding new frames and products. We won't have a ton of pretty pictures. It'll be short and sweet. We just want our dealers to hear it from us first. Once we've distributed it, we'll be sharing some details and some pictures of some of our new products. That said, I'll share one new product. I'd take a picture of it right now, but it is in the washer so I can wear it tomorrow. It's our new Dos Niner 29er Scrabble T. It's in stock at QBP (Part #'s CL2900-2901-2902). Pictures will be available soon. Thanks again Salsa crew. We've had a great year. The next few weeks will set the stage for 2006! I can't wait. Jason Posted by Butcher : 10:32 PM 0 comments | permalink
Monday, August 22, 2005
Thanks to all who stopped by the Salsa booth to visit and check out our goods at Ore To Shore this past weekend. It is always nice to meet folks face to face. I hope I was able to answer some of your questions. Here are a few of my highlights from the weekend's trip. -Kids, kids, and more kids. Ore to Shore puts on the finest kids race I've ever seen. 200-some kids from ages 16 to 5 were in the 4-mile Kid's Race. That is awesome to see as they represent the future of our sport. Let's get some more interested as well! -Riding the Kid's Race with Jordan. It was his first race ever and after his lunchtime crash on the pavement, I was glad to see him ready and willing to take on all the other little cycling gladiators. The sand pits gave him a bit of a hard time, but he had fun and is looking forward to his next Kid's Race. -Seeing old friends. I spent a lot of years around the race scene and don't get there much any longer. It was brilliant seeing a lot of the folks from the 'old days'. I hope it isn't as long till the next time we meet. -Seeing a bit more of the Upper Penninsula. You folks that live there sure are lucky. Jordan and I stayed further east in Munising so we got to see some of the sweet shoreline with sandy beaches. Not too many sandy beaches on Minnesota's shore of Lake Superior so it was nice to wiggle the toes a bit. -Hearing that Brian and Kim Eppen had won the overall event on their tandem. I've known Brian for quite a few years now. Kim not so much, but what a feat. It is impressive to say the least. Watch out all you Chequamegon riders because they are taking names, and kicking you know what. And I could go on and on. Next year's Ore To Shore is August 12th and Salsa Cycles will be back to take part in the celebration of cycling. If you're anywhere nearby, you oughta check it out. -Kid Posted by Salsa Kid : 5:42 PM 0 comments | permalink
Wednesday, August 17, 2005
As most of you who've perused this blog before know, I got married a couple weeks ago. I'm pretty sure I got the best part of the deal, because now I've got a great woman, Becky, as my partner for life, and a really great 8-1/2 year old son, Jordan, as well. Yesterday I dropped Jordan and his bike off at summer day care. They call it Adventure Club and they do field trips and projects and stuff like that. They also have bike days when all the kids can bring their bikes and ride around the school playground to their hearts content. So, I dropped J-Man off with his bike yesterday and when Beck came to pick him up he rode home while she followed him in her car. Last night he asked if we could ride to Adventure Club today so I said sure, and that's just what we did. Inside me, I have the fear that my passion for bikes will somehow be too strong and that I'll wind up scaring Jordan away from the thing that I really love so much. I hope that doesn't happen, and this morning's ride to school is a good sign that maybe it won't. Jordan and I will be at the Ore To Shore mountain bike race in the beautiful Upper Penninsula of Michigan this weekend working the Salsa booth. Jordan is going to do the Junior Rock 4-mile kid's race as well, which is cool, because I get to ride along with him. That's never a bad thing. If you're attending Ore To Shore, please stop by and say hello. The first person to tell me they saw this blog will win a special prize. Peace out. Rubber side down. And all that good stuff. -Kid Posted by Salsa Kid : 4:00 PM 0 comments | permalink
A while back I wrote about some of the honest truths and challenges of a small bicycle brand. Some of you emailed me and said that we should share more of these things. OK, you asked for it. I apologize in advance for being a bit vague on some topics. Today was a day to remember. I started the day with a ride starting just after 5:30. I had made a few tweaks to my beloved Dos Niner including an 11 degree Pro Moto bar, a new Scandium stem, and some new WTB treads. Finally, this bike is perfect, at least for me. Leb (the trail) was good and tacky. No other riders. 2 hours. 3 laps. I saw deer, rabbits, and an owl. Honestly, it was my best ride all year and I followed it with some smooth espresso on my way to work. Ahhhhh! I wasn't at work more than 5 minutes when someone showed me a picture of one of our new products. At first I was excited because I had not seen the final production. Then I was bummed. He pointed out something that none of us noticed. In the final form, the product had a resemblance to something we aren't interested in representing. Damn! It's arguable, but I'm sure someone will see it eventually and make a stink about it. Maybe we'll change it after the first production run, maybe not. I then booted my computer up and opened my email. About 2 emails down was one of my best emails in months. I received pictures of a few of our new 2006 products along with some shipping notifications. I think your going to like them. They look beautiful and I can't wait to ride them. Some of these projects have been in the works for months, even years. Even though the products are 3-4 weeks late, I am so excited we are finally going to receive them and Eurobike won't be a bust. This was all before 8:30AM and was an indication of the rest of my day. It was jam packed with ups and downs. Everything from great product conversations (the best part of my job!) to having difficult conversations regarding some sponsorship expenses to not getting needed information sent to three of our international distributors. I ended the day leaving the office over 1 hour late. My long commute was made longer by a two cars having some sort of automobile intercourse at the intersection of 94 and 35E. I walked in to see my wife holding my daughter because shortly before my arrival, my son bit his twin sister leaving teeth marks and what I expect will be a terrible black and blue mark. Thankfully my wife salvaged this moment by preparing an amazing dinner. She is the best. It's now 11:00PM and I'm taking a few moments to read email and a few blogs I like. Finally, some down time. Unfortunately, this down time is being interrupted by blowing my nose. My twins have passed on their cold. Good nite all. Jason Posted by Butcher : 12:17 AM 0 comments | permalink
Friday, August 12, 2005
A week ago tomorrow was my big wedding day and it has been a pretty awesome week I have to admit. First off though, for any of you that have a wedding coming up...be prepared to have the day rush by incredibly quickly. Once it all starts happening it just spins by like gangbusters. Enjoy the days ahead with your friends that have come to town because you won't see much of them on your wedding day as you spend 30 seconds with each guests. Enough of the wedding advice though. Beck and I took a mini-honeymoon up north to Lutsen for a few days and had an awesome time. Great weather, a lot of swimming and hiking, and I even convinced her to let me take one mountain bike ride early in the morning. So I'm riding down this overgrown snowmobile trail when I have to cross this little walking bridge over a river. As I'm riding across the bridge I look left downstream just in time to see a moose crossing the river about 75 yards away. Nice. I've seen moose pretty much every year for the past few years on my trips up north but this was the first time I'd seen one from my bike. We're pretty fortunate here in Minneapolis to have some pretty wild country just a few hours to the north; the biggest lake in the world, a ton of woods, and the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. Bear, wolves, and moose too...oh my! -Kid Posted by Salsa Kid : 11:52 AM 0 comments | permalink
Wednesday, August 10, 2005
"The Rantings of a lunatic #1" I hate the ice cream machine here...not the ice cream mind you as I'm very fond of Ice cream....but whoever invented this particular type of vending machine should get the Prometheus treatment. (He was the dude that stole fire from Zeus on Mt. Olympus and thus when he died was sent to Hades and tied to a rock so that a raven could peck out his liver everyday only to have it grow back during the night and start all over again in the morning.) At least I think that was him.... Anyway..... so the Ice cream machine. I get a craving to go get me a milkyway ice cream bar. Vanilla ice cream, caramel, chocolate, and all on a stick so you don't get your hands all full of chocolate. Good stuff and a money well spent. The way this machine works is you put in your money and select an item and this little door (that normally seals in the cold) opens on the bottom while the corkscrew thing turns and pushes out your goods. So...I put my money in the machine and type in my numbers. The little door opens and the corkscrew starts turning. Here is were things go bad. The corkscrew is having issues pushing out my milky way and because it takes too long the door shuts to keep the temp correct inside...then the corkscrew stops turning and my milky way is stuck. I can see its just barely hanging on and know that if I give the machine a "gentle" nudge that it will probably fall..but the door is already closed. I heard from someone that if you hit the coin return button that the door will open so I give it a try and shure enough the door opens up. So... I figure if I can knock it down then hit the coin return to open the door I'm home free. So I very "calmly" body check the machine and sure enough it drops. I hit the coin return....Door stays shut. Apparently you only get one extra chance at the door. At this point I am trying to decide how thick the glass actually is on the front of the machine. I take a few deep breaths and decide that If I could scrounge up some extra dough I could just by another tasty treat and hope that it falls and I don't end up paying double for my afternoon satisfaction. So...to end this before we all dont really care anymore, I end up spending double for a stupid ice cream bar (the top half of which was crushed from the fall onto the closed door from the the top row of the machine) and swagger back to my desk. What happened to the second ice cream treat you ask... I don't know...ask Pierce..he beat me up and took it. Posted by Bobby : 3:53 PM 0 comments | permalink
While I'm sure all of us are eager for Salsa's own Chuck to return from his vacation and wedding, I'm writing about the return of Chuck Ibis. Yes, Ibis Cycles. According to http://www.ibisbicycles.com, Chuck Ibis is returning sometime this fall. Some of you may find it interesting (or weird) that someone from Salsa Cycles is writing about the return of another frame manufacturer. Maybe true, but as a long time cyclist and industry guy, I think Ibis deserves a little support. They've been through a lot over the years. As a retailer in the 90's, I sold lots of bikes from Salsa, Ibis, Yeti, Fat City, Bontrager, Otis Guy, & Ritchey. I also raced an Ibis Ti Mojo for many years. It was with me when I won my first expert race. I also pedalled this bike to a sub 9 hour Leadville Trail 100 finish. I later sold this bike to help raise money for an engagement ring. As you can see, I've got some pretty great memories linked to Ibis Cycles. All that said, now that I am part of one of those small brands I used to ride and promote, I have a different respect for Ibis (and any other small manufacturer). It is really hard to survive and be sustainable. The bike market is tough. It isn't that big. It's filled with competition. Many folks are only interested in the latest and greatest carbon fiber widget. I just really hope Ibis makes it because like Salsa, Ibis always had fun doing what they were doing. They took some chances and made some crazy fun bikes. I know I wish I still had my Scorcher! I wish them the best and am looking forward to seeing how and what they present this fall. Chuck, see you soon and good luck! Jason Posted by Butcher : 10:08 AM 0 comments | permalink
Tuesday, August 09, 2005
Has it been hot where you live? Just to make up for the -20 degree highs we get in January, August and July bring high 90's and dripping humidity to Minnesota. We don't have A/C in the house so I look forward to getting into Salsa world headquarters in the morning for some climate controlled goodness. The last few night's thunderstorms have brought relief as cooling breezes came in the window of the bedroom, but last night the rain only made the air feel even more saturated with moisture. The dew point was in the 70's when I started my ride into work this morning and I could see isolated thunderstorms to my south and west. For once I was actually hoping I would be caught in one, but alas, they all missed me. Sun, shade, it didn't seem to matter it was just hot and sticky out there. Now I'm not looking forward to the ride home. This may sound wrong, but I'm glad the good citizens of Edina and South Minneapolis are so bad at water conservation. Dozens of houses on my route home water their lawns at 5 in the afternoon rather than the proper early morning hours. Not as good for the lawn or the water bill, but very good for cooling down my core temperature. If you see me riding across your lawn today, don't bother yelling. Just throw ice cubes. Please. -Pierce Posted by Pierce : 2:30 PM 0 comments | permalink
Monday, August 08, 2005
Hey folks. Hope your weekend was as good as mine. I rode Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. All dirt. All on different trails. All on my Dos Niner! Anyway, we've been getting a lot emails and phone calls regarding what we are doing for 2006? Well...That is a good question. Unfortunately, we can't fully answer at this time. I'm not trying to skirt the question like some politician. We just don't know because we are anxiously awaiting final prototypes on more than one project. To make matters worse, they are more than a few weeks late and it's causing some problems with our 2006 Salsa Catalog and EuroBike plans. Hang in there. We've got a lot of good stuff coming. Hopefully, we will be able to do a short introduction the first week of September since they will be shown for the first time at EuroBike. Ride and Smile! Butcher Posted by Butcher : 1:08 PM 0 comments | permalink
Thursday, August 04, 2005
Being a signature hack of my slacker generation, I just returned from another week off. My good friend Jeff (not W. Jeffrey, the other Jeff) invited me on a climbing trip with some of the teachers from his school. I probably should have asked more questions about where we were going before I clambered into his mini-van, but everyone needs some adventure, right? And that's how I found myself on the Eagan High School Science Department's Annual Summer Trip to the Wind River Range in Wyoming. Luckily I brought far more gear than I needed. Denny handed me a guidebook with a few select climbs highlighted as we left the Twin Cities southbound on I-35 and I realized we weren't going "rock-climbing" as I assumed, but rather summer alpine routing. The goal was the North Face of Gannett Peak, the highest point in Wyoming and one of the few glaciated peaks in the Rockies. There were also some steep ice and mixed lines up nearby peaks we could try if the weather held. We drove through the night stopping at Maggie's for breakfast. Maggies is incredible; good food, cheap, Maggie herself takes your order, cooks your food, and brings you the local paper. I would recommend it but I have no idea where in Wyoming it is... I was asleep when we drove in and the next town I remember coming to was Riverton. I'll look into it. We pulled into the trailhead outside Dubois and I started to shed equipment. According to the book it was a 23 mile approach hike with a 4000 foot gain in the first four miles over an 11000 ft pass. With heavy boots, crampons, and ice tools already in the pack I dumped any extra clothes I wasn't wearing except for a spare pair of socks, left my raingear, opted for a lighter but less comfortable sleeping pad, and even accidentally forgot my headlamp, Doh! Of course, it rained and hailed on us the first two days, when it wasn't 97 degrees. Over the next six days I used almost all my sunscreen and fully depleted my bug dope. It was a pretty brutal hike, especially for five of the eight of us who had never done any backpacking before. But, the scenery was beautiful and despite the blisters and bugbites everyone had a pretty good attitude. Hopefully I can get some pictures from Howie or Jeff to post for you, and tomorrow I'll describe the actual climb. For now, I have to get my biking legs back on for the ride to work. -Pierce Posted by Pierce : 8:10 AM 0 comments | permalink
Wednesday, August 03, 2005
My final four days as a single man are upon me. Good friends family are flying and driving in to take part in the big event and I'm psyched. Thursday night is my bachelor party ride in downtown Minneapolis so be on the lookout. Still lots to do of course beforehand but it is for the most part all under control. Getting wedding programs copied off tonight. Pack my clothes up for a mini-honeymoon up north. And keep moving all of my stuff out of my house and up to Beck's. Busy, but fun days all the same. Luckily, I'll be wearing the full tuxedo thing because my arm and leg have a nasty case of road rash after stacking this past Sunday. Lesson learned...dry dusty hardpack and slick tires do not mix. My wedding service starts at 3:30pm on Saturday, so if you're out for a ride at that time, keep Becky and I in your thoughts and wish us well. Cheers! -Kid Posted by Salsa Kid : 11:45 AM 0 comments | permalink
Tuesday, August 02, 2005
Have you tried emailing us in the past week and not been able to get through? We had some rather trying server problems and didn't receive any emails from 5:00 last Tuesday until today. When we realized what had happened Chuck said it was gremlins, Bobby insisted it was proof "the robots are among us, all is lost" whatever that means, and Miker just put his head in his hands and softly moaned. If you haven't gotten a response to the tech question or catalog request you sent us, send it again! Pepperman is up and running again with witty replies banter for all your questions and needs. Just email pman@salsacycles.com Talk to you soon, -Pierce Posted by Pierce : 7:00 PM 0 comments | permalink |
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