Black Mountain Cycles

When I was a kid growing up in Marin, Point Reyes Bikes was the place to go to see handmade mountain bikes. Potts, Salsa, Ritchey, Cunningham, etc. That place is long gone but Point Reyes has a new bike shop that is a welcome throwback in this age of slat-wall and plastic bikes. Black Mountain Cycles is the name and it's owned by bike industry veteran Mike Varley. He's got some cool stuff in there and if you're rolling through town you should stop and check it out. Or at least go to their website. Mike was kind enough to build up Daniel Boyes' new Option 3 the day before the Sea Otter this year.


Par for the course, we, I mean "I", got the frame to Daniel last minute which forced Mike to build it up in a hurry, which he did without complaint (as far as I know). He did such a great job that Daniel went out and won the 18 and under expert category. No mechanicals. Check out Mike's post about it here. People are always afraid to race on new bikes and I always say that if the bike is well designed and the person putting it together has skills, then you should be able to do a short shakedown on it and race. That's what a lot of pros have to do with new gear so why not the Soulcraft Team? Anyway, thanks to Mike for the expert build and we wish him all the best at his new shop. By the way, check out his article on chain installation. I'll bet you dollars to doughnuts you learn something.

The Soulcraft Family

Part of the vibe we like to foster here at Soulcraft is one of "Family". Not necessarily the type of family that I want asking us to bail them out of jail, more like the type we like to party and ride with. This is Jason Elliott's kid and he is wearing a custom "onesey" that Matt Nyiri had made some years back. Matt sent one to another friend named Mike Gerlach in Michigan. As Mike's kid outgrew it he asked if anyone else could use it and I told him to send it to Jason in Portland and he did. Here's the story:

"Recently an envelope showed up at my office, the address on that package informed it came from Gerlach Companies Hartland, Wisconsin. I receive multiple packages each week from random commercial auctioneers liquidating businesses so I assumed...
I read the letter prior to looking in the envelope. The first sentence dropped a little Doobie Brothers on me "you don't know me but we are brothers" needless to say I was a bit concerned until I read on. Mike went on to tell me the history of the onesie and its travels through his family... for him to pass it my way was extremely cool. It certainly put the "soul" in the Soulcraft for me. Anyway...thanks for the infant sportswear hook up. I will certainly "pay it forward" when it is no longer of use around the Elliott home."

So the onesey in the photo is actually a "hand-me-down" that was passed from one Soulcraft customer to another. This wasn't something we planned on when we started Soulcraft but we can honestly say that this may well be the pinnacle of the whole "family" thing we envisioned. Big thanks to Mike and Jason for helping foster that vibe.

Spring Cleaning Ride

Ario Says:

Looks like we are a go on May 11 for the 6th edition of the ABC Rides. Team Soulcraft will have an open invite to all cyclists to help clean up I-Street as we do twice a year now since 2005.

We are also getting great support from other organizations with similar interests in getting our cherished backroads cleaned up. To name a few, 53x11 Coffee has generously donated water bottles and coffee packs while Sonoma County grant authors are very involved with our progress as part of their "Keep Sonoma Clean" program.

Norcal Velo also continues to support the "Tour de Trash" be covering the northern portion of the county. Claire House from the Norcal Velo Women's Team is doing a litter pickup B-Ride on May 4 from the shop and Jonathan Lee is covering longer distance and larger dumping today by way of GPS donated by REI Santa Rosa.

Hope to see you on one of the rides. Check out Tour de Trash for all the details.

Ben

This is our buddy Ben Proctor. Some years ago while working for Absolute Bikes in Flagstaff Az, he bought one of our early Holy Rollers. Over the years he's ridden the crap out of it and recently sent it in for a repaint. He sent this e-mail today:

"It's good to be back on old baby blue finally! I can't tell you how nice it is to ride this bike again...I can't believe I suffered through so many months on another frame. I love the way this bike rides. Thanks again...six years later!"

That right there is Gold for a frame builder. We know bikes are a way of life for Ben, not just something he does on the weekends. So when he lays something like that on us it means a whole lot. When Matt and I started Soulcraft in '99 we had in our mind's eye a particular customer: rides because they love it, maybe races a little, appreciates a nice steel bike, and isn't going to be moving on to the next big thing in a year or two. That's Ben. He reminds us why we started Soulcraft. Thanks man, and here's to another 6 years of happiness on your rig.

Old Soul

I got this frame back for a repaint a couple weeks ago. When we started I used to include the whole word "soul" as part of the serial number. After stamping it about 400 times I decided to make things more efficient by shortening it to "SCXXX". Call me lazy. Whatever your view, no doubt that having one of the older frames with "soul" stamped right in there is pretty cool.

Anyone know where I can find a giant ATM?

Thank you CO for your generous donation. We will break ground on the "Hall of Oates" memorial sandblasting room in early May.

I think I got a little tear coming down........

It was with great joy and a fair amount of sadness that last week I sold the Soulcraft Battle Wagon. Matt and I bought this thing for $2500 from a pastor in Arizona sight unseen (except for a photo) in 2002. We had one of our racers, Nikki Dinger, pick it up on her way out to the Sea Otter. When I asked the guy what shape it was in he assured me it was in excellent shape and ran like a top. Why wouldn't I believe the guy, he was a pastor, right? Let's just say that he's going to have a lot to answer for when he meets his maker. Not the least of which would be "why that 1988 Suburban you sold those two suckers wouldn't pass smog and why the tranny was roached". Matt had to limp home from the nationals in Durango in 2002 with 2 out of the 4 speeds working. He barely made it. We had to swap out the tranny in his driveway and got it done the day we left for Interbike in Vegas. The "break in" drive was 9 hours at 80mph. We pulled into the Dirt Demo at 6am and proceeded to work the next 15 hours on donuts and coffee. I fell asleep in the lobby of Harrah's waiting for my girlfriend to arrive. Over the next 6 years the Wagon broke down numerous times, but thankfully always in the driveway. A fuel pump here, a rear window motor there. All told I think I spent $3K on fixing the damn thing. That part sucked but we had a lot of good times in that thing. Sea Otter, Durango, Vegas, Downieville a couple times. Anyone who had the pleasure of sitting within its velour confines knew that nothing was guaranteed. Maybe we make it, maybe we don't. It added a sense of adventure and urgency to those trips which I miss.
I'm not as young as I used to be and I'm a lot less fond of spending 3 days in the desert trying to find a carb rebuild kit than I used to be, so I had to let her go. I can rest easy at night knowing it was running better than ever and for $1500, the couple that bought her got a great deal. So here's to the Ole' Wagon. May she continue spewing untold tons of greenhouse gobbling gasses for many years to come.