May 2006

The Orbea 29er

Orbea is our favorite bike brand. Orbea road bikes are truly exciting to ride and we all love ours, but did you know that they also make a killer 29” wheel mountain bike. They feature a lightweight aluminum frame handmade in Spain with a geometry that works beautifully with the 700c wheels. The big wheels roll over obstacles easier than 26” wheels and make the bike more stable at higher speeds. They eat up root-strewn trails and roll over rocks like a 26” wheel bike rolls over rough pavement. There are other builders making 29ers but none with as much style and quality as Orbea.

GIANT 2005 and 2005 1/2 CARBON ROAD BIKES

We are making huge deals on left over inventory of GIANT carbon road bikes from 2005.  We have several sizes of TCR LTDs in stock. They feature full carbon fiber frames and Shimano Ultegra drive trains with 105 clipless pedals. With the stock Zerolite wheels we’ll let them go for an incredibly low $1500-save $300. I’ll sell you the same bike upgraded to Shimano 550 wheels for $1600.That’s $300 off. I have a TCR 3 carbon with 105 in size XL. I’ll give that beauty away for a mere $1300-save $300.  I have an OCR 2 Carbon in size Large and size XL. They are full carbon with Ultegra and I’d sell those incredibly smooth riding beautiful bikes for a $400 savings at $1400.Wow! I also have a large OCR3 Carbon. It’s full carbon with 105 ten speed (that’s the 2006 105) and I’ll let that baby slide out the door for a mere $1200. That is a $400 savings. These are the best deals you are going to find on high quality carbon road bikes so get on in here before this opportunity passes you by. If you were looking at cheaper aluminum bikes now is your chance to upgrade to the ultimate frame material for ride comfort-the magic carbon fiber. Do it baby!

Friday night rides

We have begun to meet on Friday nights at the store for urban rides on fatter tire bikes. We prefer mountain bikes but hybrids or cruisers will work. These are not like our urban road rides where we keep a steady pace. Rather they are more goofing around rides where we go to Allen Parkway, Downtown, White Oak Bayou or someplace where we can find some interesting obstacles to interact with or just places where we can engage in some child-like recklessness. We might jump some stuff, haul ass down the slopes of the bayou or ride some wheelies. We like to make sure we don’t take the whole bike-riding thing too seriously. If you want to join us, meet at the store at 7pm Fridays bring a helmet and lights (we’re goofing around but we’re not being stupid) and some kind of fatter tire bike.

View the ride of the month (PDF)

Two really cool gizmos

A handy item for anyone who rides a good quality bike is a folding bike stand from Topeak. They call it the Flash Stand because you can whip it out of its little carrying bag and prop your bike on it in a flash. This thing is about 10” long 3” wide and 2” thick and weighs about 2 lbs. It folds out into a frame mounted stand that holds the rear wheel off the ground so you can adjust your derailleur or true your rear wheel or just hold your bike up so you don’t have to lean it on anything. It looks like a center kickstand like you’d find on a street motorcycle and it is super handy. Keep one in your car and use it for pre-ride adjustments and post ride posing. Buy one at UBG for $33. It’s worth having.

A tiny gadget with massive usefulness is Topeak’s mini 6. This is the tiniest folding hex wrench set ever made. It has a 2mm; 3mm, 4mm, 5mm and 6mm hex wrench as well as a Phillips head screwdriver. It is miniscule and it still works well. It’ll fit in any wedge bag no matter how small or packed it is. It also just looks cool.

Another super MS150

This was our third year of fielding a 60 plus member MS150 Team. The Team made us proud with their enthusiasm and fortitude as each and every one of the members completed the entire ride. We also raised some big money for the cause. David was our top fundraiser with over $5000. Kris was close with right at $5000. (Kris was our youngest rider, age 13)  I thank all the riders and congratulate them. I also thank all of our volunteers who made the ride comfortable for our team riders and Trey for helping map out all of the training rides. Great job.