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Monday, October 30, 2006
I received word on Friday that my entry into the 2007 edition of the Arrowhead Ultra race was accepted. To be honest, I'm excited and nervous about it at the same time. What is the Arrowhead Ultra? It is a 135 mile bike, ski, or foot race through the Minnesota north country on a shared use/snowmobile trail in the beginning of February. Four folks from our parent company entered last year. Two finished and two dropped out. My goal is to finish. I don't have any delusions of winning (or even placing). I intend to finish without damaging myself in the process. So now the preparations begin. I've got good people as resources. And the training regimen has begun already. During the coming months I'll post some frequent updates as to the state of my preparations. For now, learn more about the Arrowhead Ultra at the Arrowhead Ultra website. Enjoy your day. -Kid Posted by Salsa Kid : 8:34 PM 0 comments | permalink 
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
Whether you're a consumer or an bike industry veteran it's always a thrill to build up a new ride. That's what I've got going on right now. I'm building up one of our El Santo frames into a 1 x 9 four inch travel cross-country bike. I've been pulling parts off of some other steeds that are going to be put up for sale and buying some new bits when necessary. All in all, it is going to turn out pretty sweet and I'm looking forward to bumping some suspension around for a while. Some of you might be thinking, but you work for a bike company? You can have as many bikes as you want? That's not true though. Sure, I'm fortunate to have as many bikes as I do. I'm fortunate to spend time on prototypes. But bikes aren't cheap for anyone to build up so everytime an opportunity comes along to try something new, it still costs its fair share. I'm definitely not complaining though. Because building a new ride up is just the start of the fun. The real fun comes from riding it! Go tear it up on some trails. -Kid Posted by Salsa Kid : 6:50 PM 0 comments | permalink
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Everyone's got some favorite places. Close your eyes and let your mind wander and you'll find yourself thinking of them, remembering what it felt like the last time you were there, what made that time special...what made it a favorite. Friday my lady, Jordan, and I are all heading up to one of ours. Minnesota's north shore. Yeah, yeah. If you're biker folks you know about the North Shore of British Columbia. Freeriding. Hucking. Chucking. All that good stuff. Well Minnesota has a north shore too. It is bordered on the east by the big lady herself, Lake Superior. To the north, the Boundary Waters and Ontrario and the good people of Thunder Bay. To the west, miles and miles of deep woods, lakes, rivers, and streams. Minnesota's north shore is where moose live. And wolves for that matter. There is good mountain bike riding on our north shore too. We don't have the total gnarl of BC, but we have some fun chairlift riding and better yet, some good ol' original getting out in the woods mountain biking. You need a sense of adventure though. The trails aren't highways, are often unmarked and are easy to get lost in. For me, life slows down on the Minnesota north shore. It reminds me that I'm just a small creature in a big landscape. That I'm like a drop of water in the big waters of the Gitchee Gumee. I feel a part of nature there. I feel alive. -Kid Posted by Salsa Kid : 5:40 PM 0 comments | permalink
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
Some of you out there that do customer service, sales or own your own business know how I'm feeling today. Today was a butt kicker in the customer satisfaction area. I'm going to come clean with some things. Please work with me here and cut me a little slack. I'm working through some tough stuff. Today we had some unhappy customers trying to work through some warranty issues. Warranties are tough. Some times they are clear. Some time they are not. Sometimes we make mistakes. Sometimes requests are unreasonable. On top of that, emotions come into play as does entitlement. I personally think that warranties are the hardest part of my job. Thankfully, I don't handle many of them. Today, in an effort to be honest, up front and in my mind helpful, I really got someone worked up. In response to this, they got me REALLY worked up. In the customer's defense, I understand that this issue is important and I understand they are leaving town this weekend on a bike trip. Salsa always wants to do the right thing. I made a couple of mistakes. I learned. I also don't own the whole issue. I think this person thought I said no despite me openly stating, we will take care of you and replace your product, I just don't know if we can resolve the entire issue by this weekend. This leads me to the next part. Time. Getting things researched takes time. Getting things fixed if there actualy is an issue takes time. It isn't as easy as Salsa gets a call about a potential warranty. We pull inventory for inspection. We confirm the issue. We get replacement inventory. Problem solved. If there is an issue, it takes time to physically inspect, talk to people, gather more information, work with our factory, etc. I am just asking folks to be aware that things take time. This isn't blowing people off or saying your request is bogus. In fact, we are trying to do the correct things so that we can speak knowledably about the issue and have real data and real facts. It's important, both for Salsa and the folks that actually buy our stuff. If we can't have time to identify the real issue, we will fail in meeting your expectations almost every time. That part stinks. This process is critical for us to improve our products and ultimately meet your expectations. I want to leave you with this. When you call us about a potential warranty, think about this. Salsa ALWAYS wants to do the right thing. In some cases, we may make a mistake. In some cases, it may take some time to figure out if your request/issue is an isolated case or a larger issue. This process is important and the end, this results in better product. Please be partners and work with us. In the end, we both win. Anyway, thanks for listening. Jason Posted by Butcher : 8:48 PM 0 comments | permalink
Monday, October 16, 2006
Yesterday was the first ever Gluttons of Dirt event put on by yours truly. The Wirth Whirlwind 25 was a 25-lap ride or the main Wirth Park trail here in Minneapolis, with a 9-hour time limit to receive a limited edition Gluttons of Dirt patch. For those of you that don't know the trail. The Wirth MTB trail is a prime example of what a good advocacy group can do in an urban environment with not a whole heck of a lot of space. The trail at Wirth is never boring but flows well and is constantly turning. And I do mean constantly. You almost never get to ride straight. Each lap is 2.75 miles long so the event would take the riders 66 miles on dirt. Because of the twisting nature of the trail it is almost impossible to drink from a bottle during a lap. But the short lap usually made it possible to just drink when checking in and out after signing in on the lap book. Six riders started the event, but two dropped out midway through. The other four continued on and earned the first four Gluttons of Dirt patches. Congrats to Ezra 'EZ' Taylor, Bill 'Baba' O'Reilly, Steve 'Seve' Bobusch, and myself. The first 3 finished in 8 hours. I managed to finish with just 10 minutes to spare. Yikes! All of us got to witness a spectacular sunrise through beautiful pine forest sections. The temps were perfect. A bit brisk at 28 degrees at the start but getting up to 60 degrees during the peak of the day. While 25 laps may sound boring, it never really was. The trail demands your attention. Quite a few other folks were out riding throughout the day and became aware our our effort. Keep your ears tuned for Gluttons of Dirt events in 2007. I hope to put on two events. One at Lebanon Hills and other somewhere a bit further off. Gluttons of Dirt events are cool because they are free and they let you ride your mountain bike a lot. And you could earn a cool patch. What could be better than that? Cheers, Kid Posted by Salsa Kid : 2:13 PM 0 comments | permalink
Friday, October 13, 2006
This Sunday, October 15th at the Wirth Park MTB Trails. 7:15am for the first, entirely unofficial, Wirth Whirlwind 25 ride. The ride will be 25 laps of the main Wirth loop. Approximately 2.75 miles per lap. Here's the hitch. Complete your 25 laps by 4:30 pm and you'll earn yourself a limited edition Mpls Gluttons of Dirt patch. Instructions at 7:15am. We'll start riding (not racing) at 7:30am. Bring everything you need to take care of yourself for 66 miles of twisting singletrack. Bring your own water, the right clothing for a 35 degree start and 55 degree day. Tubes. Tools. Food. You get the picture. Ride one bike or switch between bikes as you like. It should be a good, fun challenge. Enjoy your weekend. -Kid Posted by Salsa Kid : 5:24 PM 0 comments | permalink
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
I took last friday off as payback for 8 days spent in Las Vegas. Dropped Jordan off at school then went home and hit the snooze button for a while. Then I got up, threw the El Mariachi in the van, and headed for Lebanon Hills in Eagan. Leb is sweet. Nice challenging riding in a small area. Props to the folks that have built and maintained it for showing land managers what can be accomplished in a small space in a suburban environment. There was some new stuff on the trail that I hadn't seen yet. Getting to Leb is a commitment for me as it is clear across town and I can just roll from my front door to the Wirth trails so easily. I turned 3 of the big boy laps and then headed to work to hook up with visitors from afar. Well, not that far...but Cojack hadn't been here in a while, and it had been quite a while since I'd gotten to ride with him. With Jimmy Mac setting the fast pace (the only pace he knows), Cojack, Bruno, Brian, Pintz, Tat, and myself charged the river trail. Just the west end to the raft since we were on a schedule. Once there, Pintz broke open the backpack and distributed one beer each which we swilled with enthusiasm. Then we were off with blasted Seamus at the front again. Part way back my legs were shot. Not so funny cramps were kicking in right above my knees whenever I'd stand. So I rolled it back to the trail head where I caught up. I don't do group rides very often. They take that extra bit of scheduling that puts a little too much complexity into an already complex life. But that was a good one. Nice and refreshing and fun. Fun to rip corners with friends. Fun to share a beer on a trail. Just plain fun. -Kid Posted by Salsa Kid : 3:43 PM 0 comments | permalink
Friday, October 06, 2006
Today I took a ride with an old friend, my Dos Niner. You see, I sent it to Colorado for my family reunion back in July. When I returned, I moved, broke my arm, went back home for a funeral, and went to both Eurobike and Interbike. I just never got a chance to fully assemble the Dos after my brother sent it back to me in August. While the Dos was in pieces, I've been riding my El Mariachi. However, my arm is still hurting quite a bit so I decided I better start riding my bike that has the most squish on it. I left the house just before 6:00AM for the 2 mile ride to the trailhead. Ahhhh. I've missed riding my Dos Niner. It is so smooth and I had a blast riding in the perfect fall conditions. The Dos was the only bike I rode last year. It was my trusted friend until I started riding the prototype El Mariachi's last year. I still took the Dos on my big trips and long rides as it just so comfortable and fast. Today, after over 3 months off the Dos, I again realized why I love this bike and trust it on all my trips and long rides. Light. Smooth. Fast. Stable. Nimble. I love this bike. Thank you old friend. Jason Posted by Butcher : 12:31 PM 0 comments | permalink
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
Greetings everyone. It's been a bit. Interbike week turned into Interbike two weeks. The entire Salsa crew is back in the office this week. Thanks to Don and Katie for holding the fort down while we were gone. Interbike was crazy. Not just for us, but for the industry as well. 20+ companies showed 29er frames of some sort. Luckily for Salsa, we showed our Mamasita. It's our new go fast 29er. It is Moto Rapido's bigger wheeled cousin. Twentynineinches.com even named it "Best of Show". It's light and fast. If you already know about it and are looking for images, spec, etc, we hope to get it added to the frame updates as soon as we actually get it back from Interbike and take some pictures. Speaking of 29ers, a few of them were actually quite good and interesting. A few others weren't all that great. My only question to all of you that like 29ers is this. "Why are you or your customers paying for 29ers that are poorly designed?" I won't name names, but more than one very high end company was showing and selling frames that have issues. Not small ones, but big ones like the Reba fork crown hitting the down tube. This is poor design. Are there just not enough properly designed options out there where buying a frame with DT/Fork interference is your only choice? If you've got opinions you'd like to share, please shoot PMAN an email. Please don't send me hate mail. I'm genuinely interested in knowing why? I'd also like to know why people take things that do not belong to them. You see, coming back from Interbike, one of our Dirt Demo trucks was stolen and we lost a crap load of new 2007 frames, bikes and products. Dealers and Salsa fans, if you see any of our new Orange Dos Niner or Red or Brown Ala Carte frames for sale or being ridden, it is probably hot since these are not available to the public. Please keep us posted. It was a huge loss for us. Anyway, thanks to all of you that came to Interbike, checked out our stuff and said hello. It meant a lot to us. Interbike was crazy and the Salsa crew had so much fun. OK, back to work. Only a few hundred emails left. Jason Posted by Butcher : 3:03 PM 0 comments | permalink |
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