8 Hours of Boggs

The 8 Hours of Boggs race last weekend was as fun as any race gets...go Carlos! The weather was perfect, the trails buffed, the people stoked and the beer and food flowing. Our unofficial Soulcraft Ladies team (sometimes known as Team Badger Milk) took first place this year and had a blast doing it. One of our teammates-the lovely Katie D-even dropped the fastest women's lap! The redneck, Georgie and the crazy Frenchman were also there reppin the Soulcraft colors. You should do it next year.

Keyesville Classic

That there is Keith Marchando, charging on his way to a third place expert singlespeed at the famed Keyesville Classic. I think he got a time bonus for the Levis and sleeveless jersey.
Adendum: Keith also won the All Mountain Singlepeed Expert, 3rd in DH, and 1st in short track. Talk about selling someone short.....

Oh Snap.

'Oh snap' is what the kids say when they are surprised at something, in agreement with something, or are reminded of something. In this case, it's for the latter, as I should probably go ahead and mention that this coming weekend in the great state of Minneapolis, friends to the friendless, OneOnOne Bicycle Studio is hosting the third annual Art Crank Poster Show, and if you know what's good for you, you'll like, totally be there and stuff.
Do you like bicycles?
Of course you do.
Do you like beautiful people and cheap art?
...Or is that cheap people and beautiful art?
Either way, I say 'hell, who don't?'
Do you like beer?
Totally rhetorical!
Do you like rubbing elbows with world class, though as of yet undiscovered artistic luminaries that you can say, "I totally hung out with that person one night.. Such a shame about that whole overdose unpleasantness. Lucky for me I bought a piece of their work before they went belly up.."
Well then my friends, if you're within a day's drive or an evening's ride of downtown Minneapolis, then might I suggest you block a little bit of time out to come by and say hello?

Then next year you can look at the pictures on the site and get all 'where's Waldo-ie' in an attempt at trying to find yourself.
If you come and have a miserable time, I can almost guarantee that The Giant Pirate will reimburse your travel expenses.

'round here

i'm anticipating the 5th running of the transiowa. so i've been riding. nothing new about that. there really is no off season for me and my cycling partners. altho TI is 320 miles or so this year, i don't subscribe to the notion that i should go out and do a 250 miler or anything. i just want to finish again. i've been riding in the 50-80 range on the each of the weekend days all winter. or close to that. i get out for a few miles during the week, and i commute all the time, but i'm a workin man so i do what i gots to do. be safe out there. thanks to cornbread for the pic.

I've been wandering around here aimlessly waiting to be invited back to the party..

Now El Cap-It-Ann has seen it fit to bring me back into the fold.
It would figure this request lands on day two of my most tremendous hangover of the last 6 to 9 months.
I'm totally on the cusp of dazzling with my word smithtitude, but first I gotta find my pants.

It's been a while.....

...since I posted to the blog that I give others a hard time for not updating. But I'm the boss, and I can do that. A lot of water has flowed under the bridge since the Singlespeed Worlds in Napa. Last August. Yikes that's a long while. Time seemed to get away from me. Or maybe it was the sense that I should be building frames for people who had given me deposits instead of spending (or is it wasting?) time writing about what I did yesterday. I'm torn about this blogging deal, really. On the one hand, I want to give anyone interested in Soulcraft an open armed "welcome" into our world. On the other, I see many builders spending way more time writing about building frames than actually building. So I'll try to walk that fine line and thankfully, this year, the Soulcraft team and I will be sharing this space so I won't have to post too much. The photos here are a sort of "catch up" of the last 7 months.
So what's new at Soulcraft? Well, Mitch Kline at pixelEight Studios and I have been working on a major website update which will be taking place over the next couple months. Look for a monthly (instead of twice yearly) newsletter. Make sure you sign up so you'll know when we do a team kit order, which will be soon. The 2009 team roster and sponsors are all set and it's going to be another great year. The Soulcraft family keeps growing.
In the shop, we're getting close to finishing our new singlespeed dropout, which has been in development for a couple years now. The new Dirtbomb cross bike has been secretly making it's way to customers depsite any mention on our website (soon, we promise). I've been riding mine exclusively for a couple months on all our local mountain trails and it's a delight. Amazing what a 45c tire can do. Starting now, all Soulcrafts will be painted by Spectrum Powder Works in Colorado. The best in the biz for powder. Finally, you will be able to get your name painted on the top tube and daisies on the downtube. We will also be pushing complete bikes more than ever so keep your eyes peeled for new prices on that. There's plenty more to get us up to speed but that's all I can deal with for now.

Is it spring yet?

We can still ski up here in Flagstaff, but early-season racing and riding can be found a little further south of here: racing in Phoenix has been entertaining, there aren't many pro women who race these so I've been racing expert men's singlespeed. It's really fun to race against a bunch of guys that I don't know, and to not know how I'm going to finish...but it's turned out pretty well.
I've been riding a bunch in Sedona, too. Lots of new trails popping up as well as some of the old standbys; it's only 40 minutes away but 3000 feet lower so it's nice even when it's freezing in Flag. Today I rode this trail called Hangover, called such because the first half the rocks are hanging over your head, and the second half you are hanging out over the cliff. A little spooky but a really well-built trail. Cures your hangover in a hurry, thats for sure.