In the past, I have always tried to keep itsallaboutthebike, well, all about the bike. Whether moto or bicycle related. I once have written about a backcountry ski strip one time (Natoconnect 2008), but since everyone on that trip was some sort of biker, I justified it. Since the origins of this blog were really an SEO marketing experiment, and since there is four feet of snow on the ground here in Park City, Utah, I am going to deviate from the mission statement and include a link to my December 30th, 2008 blog post on Utah CEO Magazine. It’s marketing related. I think it makes sense. With the economy looming large on everyone’s mind, we are all going to have to get smarter about how we do things.
Trust me. There is nothing I would rather do right now than saddle up the KTM, head south into the desert, and get a good head-clearing that only an adventure moto trip has the ability to do. Those days will come in 2009. And we’ll write about them next year. Happy and healthy New Year wishes to our readers, all three of you.
Winter is here in Utah, and the storms are lining up to help get us back in the black on the balance sheets, with white on the mountains. Highlights of this past week: bluebird day at Alta with deep snow, cruising Deer Valley on a weekday with my boss, taking my new Rossignol S6 skis and Fritschi Freeride Plus bindings in to get mounted. It’s never too early to start daydreaming about the next adventure motorcycle trip, though. I am proposing to the Tribe that we venture by dirt, paved road, and highway, if need be, to the Sip N Dip at the O’Haire Inn, in Great Falls, Montana. If you watch this short video on YouTube, maybe you would be inclined to join us for this adventure.
The Outside 100 list is an annual editorial piece the magazine does every year highlighting their favorite things, featured in their current December 2008 issue. We thought it was noteworthy among the people and events that made up this year’s list (among the top 100; Phelps’ 8 gold medals, Lance’s comeback, and some other crap), Dave Zabriskie’s homegrown product launch for DZNUTS (pronounced DEEZ NUTS) chamois cream to help protect the dark and damp places of a cyclist’s body, comes in at #47 for “Ballsiest marketing language of the year.” If you know any cyclists who ride and race way too much, and you haven’t figured out the perfect holiday gift yet, go to dz-nuts.com and order them a few servings of Dave’s favorite sauce. They might not exactly thank you right away, but they will think about you at some point down the road. This segues into an interesting conversation I once had with former pro bike racer and now author of “A Dog In a Hat” Joe Parkin. Joe once told me to never use chamois cream of any kind, because it softened up the skin and made it easier for saddle sores to develop. I’m sure this advice was well-grounded in the old myths of the Belgian Kermis circuit, and may now be passed off as an old wives tale or just a crazy Belgian superstition. It does remind me to give a plug for Joe’s book, though. A Dog In a Hat chronicles Joe’s time spent racing underground in the dark underworld, before carbon fiber, SRM power meters, altitude tents, and all this junk that people think they need to win bike races. It’s a quick read, and helped me make sense of why I was so attracted to bike racing when I started back in the dark ages of the late 80’s. Buy it from Velopress or Amazon, you won’t be disappointed.
Or maybe he is just a big leprechaun. I had a friend who always used to say Leper Corn. She thought that was really funny. Regardless, Sully has been cranking out t-shirt designs for the Tribe, and probably not doing much wrenching in the shop. I feel bad for him in that respect. The good news is, we have another design to share. This one I think is going to stick for a while. Check them all out at our Online Store.
This is the back of the “It’s Not About The Shirt” Shirt. Another Sully original.
In addition to the designs coming out of Sully’s Garage for the It’s All About The Bike Tribe, Sully has created a logo and a line of products on Cafe Press representing his devil’s handiwork, that is, the custom fabrications and restorations he does in his Heber City, Utah workshop. Check out Sully’s Online Store for more shirts like the one below.
Shamrocks are lucky. Skulls in top hats are just cool.
Darth ordered some parts from Touratech for his new F800 GS. I rode my KTM over to his Monster Garage to help install some shit. Funny, every bolt and screw on the BMW seems to be a torx head rather than an allen or hex. I volunteered to do the windscreen, took off the old and installed the new, which seems to offer about double the wind protection. Darth also installed a sweet brake master cylinder guard, a laser cut aluminum chainguard, and some other sweet details from the Seattle-based importer of German aftermarket trinkets. While working on the bike, I got a closer look at some of the details and have to say I am very impressed with the new BMW. It’s going to be hard to keep up.
Check out the sweet brake master cylinder protector from Touratech.
Limited edition t-shirt number 2 is available in our Cafe Press Online Store. It features Sully’s sprocket logo. Too bad we didn’t have it ready for Black Friday, the servers probably would have crashed. We like to say these shirts are “limited edition”, because, well, our audience is limited. If you are in the Tribe, click the link to our Cafe Press Online Store and throw down.
Sully has come through with some designs, just in time for Black Friday. More will be added soon. Check out the limited edition Got Bike Boot Camp shirt at the Its All About The Bike Online Store.
Awhile back, I made the announcement that we were working on some t-shirt and sticker designs for people in our Tribe. There have been countless times on moto rides, in the middle of nowhere in the west desert, you see an Alta snowflake sticker on a lonely road sign, someone had to put it there. Maybe a hiker or a climber, or another dualsport moto rider put it there. I thought it would be cool to have stickers to leave in all the random places I’d likely never get back to. Or how many times did we meet fellow dirt surfers and big bike touring freaks out on the Trans-America Trail who asked about our trip? We would always tell them to check the blog for photos and stories, knowing they would likely forget the URL. I am happy to announce that Sully has been doing more than just building choppers and cafe racers in his World HQ. Here is a taste for one of his first designs. Our online store will be up and running soon. Peace.
The garage is a lonely place without the bike. Today in Park City was amazingly warm weather. Great for riding motorbikes in short sleeve shirts. Not so great if the business you are in is skiing. Last Friday, Deer Valley Resort had all guns blazing, with fan guns blowing copious amounts of snow as far up the mountain as you could see. Today, it was 65 degrees and sunny. I see a pattern developing. This is turning out much like last November. There’s no doubt the snow will come, just a question of when.
The garage is empty, because I scrambled home at lunch and rode the KTM across the way to the local folks at Summit Honda. They don’t speak Austrian, but are nice enough and agreed to install a new Regina chain for me, since I don’t have the correct tool to replace the rivet link. While I was inside, my bike created quite a ruckus outside. There were four or five guys hovering, checking it out, eyeballing it, sizing it up. Summit Honda has a 2001 KTM LC4 they took in trade a while back (which I wrote about), with 1,700 original miles. Apparently they couldn’t sell it for awhile since they didn’t have the title, but have that all worked out and it’s back on the floor. It would be a sweet bike for someone looking for a good dualsport.
Finally, for all of those who are bored with my infrequent posts, occasional rants on cycling dopers, (all two of you, according to Dave Fields), I will start to post writings by fellow itsallaboutthebikers. Sully is on the hot seat. Let’s see what he comes up with. The pressure is on. Maybe while I’m in Boston for a consumer ski show, Sully will come through. If so, I’ll drink a pint of Guinness for every post he writes. Or three.
