Simplified 650B w/Gates Carbon Drive System

Carlos’ Columbus LIFE 26-inch MTB

Smitty Great Divide

Schlick BigMX

Schlick OneBy 29′er

Mark’s TET MTB

Smitty 8-speed Coaster Brake Commuter

Sue’s TET MTB

Refurbished Ralph Cycles Mountain Bike

Check out the Flickr Group here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/gasmith/sets/72157622844120179/

Here are a couple to warm you up!

Tony’s Smitty with the Gates Carbon Drive System Belt Drive!

Out trail testing a Simplified 26-inch Singlespeed MTB

http://www.flickr.com/photos/gasmith/sets/72157624757176047/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/gasmith/sets/72157624881494054/

Sport class will be up shortly!

Indirectly from the Cat his own self!

Vote in the Best Steel Bike Contest. Riders will vote at Cafe Hollander before the start for the best Road Bike, One-On-One, Balloon-Tired Bomber, Mountain Bike, Bagel Wheels (24″ or less), Extemporaneous (high degree of creativity), and the coveted “Should’ve Taken ‘er to Ziebart” award for the best rust bucket (must be ridden) that looks a few pedal turns from the junk yard. We might do a best tandem award too if more than one shows up.

At registration everyone will get stickers for each Best Steel Bike category. You’ll vote for your favorite by putting the sticker on the bike of choice. We’ll call up entrants for each category and if you’ve got one entered you can do the show dog routine and tell about it. You can also buy votes. Beer bribes and flirting seem to work best.

And, we’ll have the Tattoo Contest again for real and fake tattoos on men and women. It will be “people’s choice” judging at a yet to be disclosed location. We’ll have washable ink colored pens available at earlier stops.

As before, we’ll be visiting fun Milwaukee taverns along the 25-mile route that starts and finishes at Cafe Hollander at 2608 North Downer Avenue. If your bike won “Best Bike” in one of the categories, people are sure to buy you beer to suck up. If you entered and didn’t win, you can just bitch about it. No one will buy you beer, but bitching is a Wisconsin tavern art form and you’re going to have company to join in the pissing and moaning.  What could be better?

The long-sleeve T-shirt you get when you register will have the latest Steel Is Real Milwaukee logo on it. (See that pretty photo up over there a ways?) No, Pee didn’t pose for it. Would have had better hair and a bigger package if he did.

Hope to see ya there!

Coupon Number: ThanksGreg828217

This coupon is good for $1 off any Road ID order. It can be used up to 20 times in the next 30 days.

Hard to keep up with reports on bike-related events we go to but here is a minor whack at that.

Tour of America’s Dairyland races are behind us. I hit Shorewood and Downer Ave. Good times at both. We had a few bikes at a house party on Lake Dr. for the Downer race where several people took Tony’s belt drive Smitty for a cruise, including me! It is a super ride. Can’t wait to get my own.

There are a few pix on the Flickr site here.

Coming up we will be at several Superweek races including Downer Ave. on July 24th. Look for us on Lake Dr. about a block and a half north of Bradford. We will have bikes to check out and possibly a cold one or two!

Tony’s Smitty was built with Paragon’s Sliding Drop to allow us to tension the belt and because Paragon makes the mount with a break at the stay necessary to install the belt.

We used the Shimano Alfine 8-speed IGH along with a 46T front belt wheel. Gearing is great with the Schwalbe Big Apple tries. The bike is just a total blast to ride.

Direct from the Cat’s mouth:

A friend of a friend at MREA just rode the bike and said he had an out of body experience. Freakin hippies!  Lots of questions all day!

and

I had another 10 or so people ride it at MREA today and nothing but amazement was reported. Everything from “Never saw a belt drive before” to “what’s up with this tires …… wait, what the hell is up with that belt!”.  The smile on their face was worth the ride alone.  Just an epic ride, Greg!