Wednesday-Friday: Came down to Missoula on the first Farm to Market Bicycles Business trip. Met with Dave and Kevin and their new shop. Its called Hellgate Cyclery and has a wonderful Downtown location in Missoula. I had a great time riding around what could be the best town/city ever, saw all my friends and had supported some local establishments.

Friday night: My poor little pup, Reily, escaped from her backyard and went on a garbage binge around Missoula. Try as I might to find her, she evaded my capture. Eventually she spent the night in the bear den.

Sat. woke up after a fun night with Shaun, and Cass, drove for Seattle to drop off the evil beagle. Stayed with Devin, went out in Capitol Hill, saw old friends. Heck of a time.

Sunday: Woke up at dawn, again! Went to Sewage park to watch UM cycling kick butt at the crit. UM cycling is so gangsta. Ate at fast eddies in spokane, first edible joint i’ve ever found there. Rolled back to Missoula with them, got in around 11.

Monday AM: Went jogging, stopped at UM lab, where I sit now writing. If your still reading I applaud your abilities, combination of coffee, crap food, lack of sleep and covering 1200 miles in a day has put me in this state. See ya’ll next week.

Everyone involved in the Giro D’iscovery (giro meaning tour, also paying homage to the Giro d’Italia and D’iscovery a reference to Lewis and Clark’s Corps of Discovery) believed we were part of something once in a lifetime, the first test of its size and scope. And we were, in a sense, no human performance test even comes close to the amount of data the lab collected. But, much to my surprise, we weren’t the first subjects the military commisioned to ride 2000 miles. We weren’t even the first one’s they told to ride 2000 miles leaving from Missoula!

I know, I know. Your probably thinking, how could this be the case? Lets not forget, were talking about the US Military folks, they’ve been wasting trillions of dollars for quite a while now. As it turns out, if you turn back the clock about 110 years and 1 month, another group of riders left Missoula on amazingly similar journey. On June 14th, 1897, twenty black soldiers from the 25th infantry, stationed in Missoula, took off on a 2000 mile trek to St. Louis. Carrying 55 pounds of supplies. On crappy dirt roads. On crappy single speeds. Their support crew; a half blind spiritual advisor, a reporter, a doctor, a mechanic, and Lieutenant James Moss, an overly ambitious young officer whom I’m sure his men, and the army grew a very strong distaste for.  Suddenly my fully supported, catered and pampered trek seems more like a vacation than an extreme endurance fatigue study. I wonder what our POMS testing would have looked like had we endured the same 63 mile cyclocross style portage (back then they just called it carrying your bike on your shoulder) one day that the 25th had to go through? Amazingly, the Bicycle Corps made the trip down to St. Louis in only 5 and 1/2 weeks! 

I can’t help but think about the similarities between the soldiers of the 25th and the riders of the Giro. I’m sure they relied on each other just as much as we did when they had nothing left. I’m sure they asked questions like, who do you like? Maybe they even did the chicken dance to pass the time. I also think about how much worse they had it. My general motto on the Giro was: Life sucks, I suck at life, but riding bikes all day is one hell of a fun time! I bet theirs was more like: Life sucks, but this crap really sucks. But I’ll also bet that if you could ask any of them if they would do it again they would give the same answer as me, wouldn’t trade it for the world. 25th Bicycle Corps, Giro riders salute you for the trail you blazed in history, ride on comrades!

Old school whips.

Phil

Info gathered from personal experience and Boneshaker: A Bicycling Almanac, Issue BA-100. Hopefully for sale on the site ASAP!  See ya’ll next week.

Ranch Bike Two is finished and up for sale! Check it out in the garage…

Bamboosero is the creation of Santa Cruz, California bike builder Craig Calfee. He made a name for himself designing exotic, ultra lightweight frames for the rich and famous. While his latest project is no less innovative, the goal is much more utilitarian. 

Calfee conjured up the idea of a bamboo bike project while on walkabout in Ghana in the 1980′s. Bamboosero remained just an idea for several decades until he decided to build a bamboo bicycle frame mainly for some Interbike (big industry trade show) glitz. Today, bamboo frames make up a sizable chunk of his 400  high end frames per year, but do little to help those not interested in spending a minimum of $3,500 on a bike.  But being a forward thinker himself, Calfee created a new bamboo line, Bamboosero, as a means for people in developing nations to learn a trade, provide transportation for themselves and others, and be self reliant and free of foreign aide. Currently, Ghana is the first and only Bamboosero shop thats up and running, with Zambia, Mexico and Uganda nearly operational. Cambodia, El Salvador and The Philippines make up the Gruppetto of this league, with plans “in the works”.  Craig travels to these areas, trains local entrepreneurs to build these earth friendly steeds, and helps to set up local component supply chains. Some of the frames are sent back to the US, where we pay around a thousand for a complete bike. Most stay where they were made, sold to locals for around $100. The large price difference is mostly due to shipping costs and differences in components. The local bikes are built with, well, whatever’s local.  No doubt a “Ghanian Flea Market Spec’d” bamboo bicycle would have quite the, (cough), eclectic build kit! 

Bamboosero brings a multitude of benefits to the people of these developing areas. Bicycles, compared to “hoofing it”, multiply our mobility by at least a factor of four, providing easier access to food, water and employment. With all this extra time and energy, local residents can focus on developing other useful goods and so on, you’ve all taken econ. Much like lasts weeks Project Freiker, Bamboosero is providing multiple benefits to people’s basic need for simple transport. Best wishes to all you future Bamboosero’s of the world! This is Phil  from the Sunday Special saying see ya’ll next week!

Pics and background info courtesy of bamboosero.com

What is this meaningless acronym?  Well, it stands for the North American Handmade  Bicycle Show. With this being the shows fifth year and having a new central location in Indianapolis, hype surrounding the event reached an all time high. The show features just about anything that a creative mind and sound welding can create. All of the products are quite exquisite, with basically all the creme’ of the bike industry in attendance. Keep in mind, While many of these commuters are very expensive a lot of their style comes from age old city bikes. Which we all know can be found for a great value. We’ll sift throw the “all show” and take a look at some products that will help you go.

Excellent commuter bikes have been a theme at NAHBS for several years now. The show’s previous location, Portland, OR, can take a lot of the credit for this. Portland is one of the most bike friendly cities in the nation. A growing tend at this years show was some new iterations of a time proven bike accessory; the front rack. Front racks are in vogue again for their stylish looks and ability to carry significant loads without affecting handling. The fact that you can see your load and make sure your not leaving a trail of fresh produce behind you is an added bonus. Frame builders including Signal, Hufnagel, Bilenky, Shamrock, Yipsan, Hunter and more wonderfully integrated front racks into their custom commuting creations. Long time brake and component manufacturer Paul had a nice rack ready to fit any bike with a ridgid fork. If this show is any indication of industry trends, we can expect a multitude of quality, load bearing racks to hit the market very soon. Here are some pics from the show, hopefully next year i’ll make the jaunt in person to see what’s headed our way. Thats it for the first edition of New Release Tuesday’s, see ya’ll next week!

Phil

Photos courtesy of handmadebicycleshow.com, where you can find more pics and info about NAHBS. Links to builders featured in this article found in links section of farmtomarketbikes.com