Join us this Saturday for Cranktivus! Ride bikes around to area grocery stores to purchase non-perishable goods for donation to local food outreach. Questions? Email bigawesomecomo@gmail.com
Winter Sale Dec. 4-7
We can help outfit you with everything you need to keep doing the outdoor activities you love this winter! We've got a great selection of bike lights for evening commuting and warm, windproof clothing -- all on sale!
Still too cold? We've still got you covered. All indoor fitness equipment including treadmills, ellipticals, stationary bikes, and more will be on sale all weekend. As always we'll deliver your new equipment for free within the Columbia area.
Come visit us this weekend to check out the deals!
Tire Tuesday: Salsa Colossal
Road bikes are in a state of evolution. Sure, you can still buy your run of the mill purpose-built race bikes, but manufacturers are beginning to broaden their road lines. With the advent of disc brakes in the road market we've begun to see road bikes with more tire clearance. More tire clearance means more possibilities for where you might end up on your daily adventures.
Among some of the first multi-surface road bikes was the Salsa Colossal. The Colossal is a steel framed, carbon thru-axle forked, do everything road steed that comes with 700x28c tires. 28's are great for road rides in the Winter when the roads deteriorate from the constant freeze-thaw that we see in Missouri. But what about when you want to take a left onto Howard Orchard Rd or head out on the Katy?
We mounted up some of our favorite gravel tires including the Clement X'Plor MSO (700x32), the new Bontrager CX0 TLR (700x33), and the official BoCoMO gravel tire: the Clement X'Plor USH (700x35). Each one fits perfectly in the frame with a little bit of room to spare.
Salsa still bills the Colossal as a pavement bike, but they don't say anything about it being ONLY pavement. With that much tire clearance, there's no reason why you couldn't roll an occasional gravel road. Maybe even more!
Salsa Demo Day - October 11
Salsa is brining their demo truck down to Columbia, MO! We'll be out at Rock Bridge State Park (weather permitting) trying out the latest and greatest mountain bikes from Salsa and we'd like to invite you to come along! If the trails at Rock Bridge are closed we'll move the event up to Rhett's Run at Cosmo Park. Of course, if its just too muddy we won't be riding on the trails at all. Keep an eye on the weather and keep your fingers crossed!
Salsa will have the Spearfish, Horsethief, Beargrease, and Bucksaw bikes available for demo. We'll be meeting at the upper parking lot next to the shelter.
Stay tuned, we may be planning an after party!
Check out the Facebook event here.
Back to School Sale!
Our Back to School Sale starts this Thursday and runs through Sunday! And don't forget about the annual swap meet taking place in the parking lot Saturday morning. The swap meet will run from 9am to 2pm. If you have outdoor or cycling equipment to sell bring it by at 9am and put a price on it. If the item sells you have the option of either 100% of the sale in store credit or cash with a 10% consignment fee. Have questions? Give us a call: 573-886-9258
Saddle Drive Summary
Tyler and I are sitting in the Denver airport waiting for our connecting flight to Kansas City after a few days in Utah at Quality Bicycle Product's Saddle Drive event. We've ridden the latest and greatest from Salsa, Surly, All City, and Foundry on some awesome trails out of the Snowbasin Resort just East of Ogden, UT. After spending time with the bikes and the people that created them I think it's safe to say that 2015 is going to be a great year for bikes!
I'll save time and let the actual companies give a detailed line description.
We definitely had some favorites this year. Among them were the new Salsa Mukluk with the Rockshox Bluto suspension fork and Salsa's Bucksaw full suspension fatbike. Adding suspension to the already fun fatbike category just expands what these bikes are capable of. They've now gone from flotation oriented mixed terrain crawlers to full on trail machines. Suspension isn't needed on all fatbikes though. In 2015 Salsa will still offer their popular Mukluk in a traditional rigid design as well as the new Blackborow line with close to five inch tires. The Beargrease also returns with a carbon or aluminum frame. Look forward to seeing some of the above in the shop come Fall!
Besides the ever popular fatbike category, Salsa had their entire mountain fleet on hand. While there weren't many technical changes in the line, the Spearfish and El Mariachi return in 2015. The Spearfish is probably one of the more perfect bikes for Missouri. With 80mm rear travel and 100mm front, the all-day-cross-country-race-bike or I-just-want-to-ride-mountain-bikes steed couldn't be more appropriate for our trails.
It's hard to truly understand how much fun these bikes are without actually being able to ride them on our own trails. Fortunately we'll get that chance come October! The Salsa demo truck will be making it down to our neck of the woods so we can all spend some time on all of their bikes on trails we know and love. Stay tuned for dates and details.
If you missed out on our day to day coverage of the event be sure to follow us on Instagram!
Tyler and Jesse go to Utah!
Independent Fabrications Gravel Royale
We just received our new Indy Fab Gravel Royale frameset for display in the shop! The steel beauty is complete with disc tabs and a custom painted Enve disc fork. Right now we're planning on building it up with Shimano's Ultegra 6800 mechanical groupo with the new hydraulic disc brake shift/brake levers once they're available. Keep an eye on social media as we'll be posting up photos of the build as it happens!
Paris-Roubaix 2014
The 2014 edition of Paris-Roubaix, arguably one of the most exciting and hardest one day road races in the world, takes place this Sunday. Last year's race saw a win for Trek Factory Racing's Fabian Cancellara aboard his Trek Domane. Coming off of an impressive win at the Tour of Flanders last weekend, Cancellara is set for a repeat victory this Sunday. Below are some websites and twitter profiles that we recommend you follow to stay up to date.
http://twitter.com/TrekFactory
Saturday morning trail rides with Judy!
Walt's Saturday morning trail rides with Judy will resume on April 19, weather permitting. These are "entry level rides" geared towards folks who want to start riding regularly but would like a little initial support. We leave Walt's at 9 am on Saturday mornings, take the road over to Flat Branch Park and go to the MKT from there--our end destination is Hindman's Junction near McBaine although, depending on the group and ability levels, we sometimes do the road loop in McBaine around to the old Burr Oak tree. The mileage for the basic route is about 22 miles, but is easily tailored to fit the ability levels of novice riders who need shorter mileage initially. Helmets are required, and cyclists are encouraged to carry plenty of water. Judy's job is to make sure all participants safely to Walt's or their drop off destination. Cyclists of all levels are welcome to join us and often do. If you think you would be interested in joining us, please email Judy at JudyKnudy@aol.com and request to be put on the updated email list--you will then receive a weekly email announcement (or cancellation if she's out of town and doesn't have a substitute) and also last minute weather cancellations. We do not ride if it is raining, if conditions are too wet on the trails, or if the weather is threatening. Hope you will join us!!!
