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!

Took my Rat Ride for a cruise the other day and rode the Marsupial bridge. Seemed a good spot for a photo and a little mammal on mammal action.

Yep, we do build some great bikes but I often like to ride bikes from other manufacturers simply because they are awesome. The Surly Rat Ride is one.

The Rat rules the day!

Just posted a Fat Tire Tour of Milwaukee XXVI Flickr Photoset.

Venues visited in no particular order were and not necessarily official:

• Cafe Hollander
• Best Place – the new pub in the old Pabst complex on Juneau.
• Long Wong’s
• Kelly’s Bleachers
• Haggerdy’s
• Valley Inn
• Kochanski’s Concertina Bar
• Liquor Store
• Holler House
• Times Square Pizza
• Lakefront Brewery
• Liquor Store
• Monica’s
• Rascal’s
• Cafe Hollander

Dave bowling at Kochanski’s while Greg pilots Tony’s Xtracycle.

Here’s looking forward to next year’s Fat Tire Tour of Milwaukee XXVII!

We will pay homage to the brew city’s bowling heritage and the movie The Big Lebowski on Saturday, June 12. We’ll be visiting legendary bowling alleys like the Holler House, the oldest lanes in the US. We’ll hit Long Wong’s too and they’ll play The Big Lebowski on the big screen.

Pix from the event may be posted as it happens! For sure after.

I’d been hearing rumors and plans for a while now but a recent Bicycle Retailer and Industry News (BRAIN) story confirmed that this is no rumor! Here is a bit of the low down.

Ray’s was the first indoor mountain bike park in the world when it opened in 2004 in Cleveland, OH.

To help with the Milwaukee location Ray’s MTB has partnered with Trek Bicycle for this gigantic expansion

The Milwaukee Park site currently under major construction. It will be in a 110,000 square foot former Menard’s store on the north side of Milwaukee.

Plans are to have it open Fall through Winter with opening ceremonies scheduled for November 2010

Ray’s will offer XC, freeride, dirt jump, park bike and BMX all under one roof.

Sounds great!

What is a bit funny to me is that I tried to figure out a way to do this way back in 1990 or so when the old Gimbel’s Warehouse on the Milwaukee River was standing unoccupied for several years. It was 9 stories tall and had forklift ramps throughout. I envisioned a 7-story park with the ground lever being retail with a bike shop, juice bar, restaurant, massage therapist, bike messenger biz and several other related businesses. Wish it had come to fruition! Well, at least now we have Ray!

There will be a new website just for the Milwaukee Park but, for now, check this out:

http://www.raysmtb.com/new/index.html

and the Cleveland location:

http://www.raysmtb.com/index.php

also, here is the complete BRAIN article on the Trek connection:

http://www.bicycleretailer.com/news/newsDetail/4176.html

Had the SuperFast out the other day and decided to see how it worked on the local MTB trails along the Milwaukee River. I hit the section from just south of Capitol to south of North Ave. and the SuperFast worked well. Admittedly, this section of the River Trail is reasonably tame but the SuperFast is a road bike after all!

The 28mm Fyxation Session 700s did a good job on the mostly dry trail just a bit sketchy where the trail was slimy.

If I did this regularly on the SuperFast I’d add inline brake levers so I could brake while riding the top of the bars. Other than that no worries.

I finished the ride along the Milwaukee Lakefront.

Using the Paragon Machine Works belt drive slider drop!

We finished up Carlos’ SuperFast and it turned out great!

Highlights of the build include:

• A hand-built True Temper Verus HT frame
• Shimano 8-speed Alfine Internally-geared hub
• Shimano Alfine Dyno front hub
• Avid BB5 road disc brakes
• Versa 8 levers
• Velocity B43 rims in red!