“It’s about time you guys started riding bikes for men.” -Gibs

Building a bike from the frame on up includes the voices of angel and devil in opposite ears.  You get to hand-pick every component from the spoke nipples to the grips.  There are no surprises like that rusty, open cage headset that manifests six months after you got the complete bike.  However at some point, it’s best to stop recalculating the total cost estimate.

My recently completed Ellsworth Epiphany build spanned nearly a year from planning stages to the final juicing of tires.  Fortunately the ride was worth the wait.  This is a nimble, plush, and wicked ride which arose from a stack of refined and, where possible, American made components.

The Spec and the Reasons For:

Ellsworth Epiphany SST.2 – 140mm travel aluminum frame with a four-bar suspension.  Check out the videos of Tony Ellsworth explaining the relative benefits of the ICT (Instant Center Tracking) tuning.  The basic idea is their design is highly efficient across the range of rear wheel travel, so you get the most bang for your watts as you pedal through rough terrain.  I cut my teeth on a 4-inch (100mm) bike, so this is a step up in trail capability.  Made either in Vancouver or Portland depending on the build date, but either way the fine craftsmen at Zen Bicycle Fabrication are responsible.

Chris King all-mountain disc hubs and massive 44/56mm InSet headset.  Made in Portland.  My friends work there and I completely agree with the mission and focus of the company.  I already own the hub service tool.  What can I say, I am invested in the system.

Stan’s Flow rims laced with DT Swiss spokes.  Go tubeless or walk home.  This is another non-negotiable part selection for me.  My third set of Stan’s rims, the tubeless setup is so quick and trouble-free I would rather soap up a sidewall than stuff a tube in there.

Schwalbe Nobby Nic tires – I bought the non-Tubeless Ready version, as it’s rumored to work better with the Stan’s rim profile.   On a difficulty scale where 1 is the best and 5 is Continental, I would give these a 2 for setup effort.  Not totally seamless, but very manageable.  They required a few rounds of the Stan sealant shake before they stopped seeping air at the bead.

Fox Racing Shox Talas 140 – in beautiful sparkly black with Kashima coated stanchions.  Matches the frame design and the RP23 rear shock.  Did I mention it comes in beautiful Diamond Black?

Shimano XTR Shadow Plus rear derailleur – it’s got the little gold switch which toggles the rear cage pivot between ‘setup’ and ‘shred’.  With this feature, chain slap should be nothing more than a bad memory.

Thomson X4 stem – just 70mm long.  My gnarly downhill friends are riding such short stems, their next move will probably be to turn them 180° on the steer tube and run a negative length stem!  Another fine US-made component.

Specialized Phenom Pro saddle – I love these Body Geometry saddles.  They just disappear under my tukhus.

Shimano XT 2×10 front drive, and XT brakes with ICE – meaning heat sinks on the pads and triple-layer construction on the rotors.  Most of the time, XT is plenty of kit for my money.  The XT cranks are blacker than the XTR, and therefore match my overall theme perfectly.

The Build

Wheels first

Lacing these wheels up went really well.  I dab a little tung oil in each spoke socket, and some spoke prep on the male spoke threads.  The tung oil lubricates the under the nipple for easy assembly, but dries sticky and works like thread locker after the build is complete.  A lot of people use linseed oil for the same purpose.  I bought tung oil for another project which never got started.

Somehow every spoke in my build was the same length within 1mm, so I had no issues of keeping multiple lengths separate.  A little Todd Snider on the stereo, a nice cold IPA on the table, and I was finished in a couple hours.  I used my new dishing gauge for the first time, and despite a few rumblings from another unnamed gearhead at the office about their utility, I’m sold.

The drive train

It’s easy to appreciate Shimano: clear and simple instructions coupled with excellent quality and feel.  They also give you torque specifications for everything.  I bolted all the controls up with a rigid carbon fork as a place-holder.  My teammates have promised lots of beers if I show up to trail ride with this setup.

The Big Finish

The fork arrived last, so this Saturday I fit it up, cut the steer tube and finished the assembly.  It took a couple laps around the neighborhood to get everything adjusted.  Then it was onto the back of the Mini for a blast around Brown’s Camp.   Stay tuned for an extended ride report from Chris and me after we get a few rides under our belts.  –> Dave

Team VanDammage Finish 23rd out of 500 teams
Seeds finish 13th Overall

100 Year anniversary of the Ski to Sea race in Bellingham WA. 100 Miles – Seven Sports

The MTB leg was lengthened to 20 miles this year with a mix of trail, road, and technical features. It was super muddy, but fast with fast times just under 1 hour. I was able to pass 7 other racers putting our team into 20th place after my leg, our kayaker got passed up by 3 boats putting us as the 23rd team to cross the line in 7 hours 27 minutes.

mountain bike cue sheet
More info on Ski to Sea

“I should get some early XC races in this year.”

“The course is firm, very little mud, if any.”

“I remember that last cross race at Horning’s, it was really tough.”

Darrin, Tony, Dave and a cast of other characters headed out to Horning’s Hustle this weekend in search of a nice cross-country race. They got a 2+ hour, late-season cyclocross mudfest.

Our numbers disintegrated, some of us did an extra lap, and none of us really know how we finished. Two things we know for sure: we all crashed at least once, and the post-race milkshake was well earned.

We’ll let you know how the results look once they’re posted.
Special thanks to Robin for providing official photography.

As always, Dave Roth took some great shots.   Here are a couple of highlights.

Darrin flying down for the win

Joe set up for 3rd

We forgot to shout out from Echo Red 2 Red a couple weeks back. A few of us were out there representing.

Jet setter Nick Gibson dualed with big fancy pro (bfp) DJ Birch all day. He survived a full-ejection wipe out and a poke in the spokes with a sharp stick and still brought home second in the Pro category.  Nick even made it onto the front page of the East Oregonian sports section.

Dave Condon delighted the hometown crowd with a podium as well. He was nipped at the line but still got a third in the Cat 2 younger men division.

Jason Crago, James Buckroyd and Tony Ohotto also raced like crazy.

See you at Hornings

More pics here

One Mini loaded for adventure

Due to some late winter weather along with a lack of planning on this posse’s part, our dirt ride at the Historical Hiking Trail near Brown’s Camp turned into a snow hike.   A couple of feet of wet snow over the whole trail changed our plans and we settled for riding dirt roads and loops past the shooting range.  For this ride, skis and guns would have been a better fit than bikes.

photo by arobinslife

Note how Ryan Weaver shown here in black is clearly an impostor. If you see his bike locked up at the grocery go ahead and deflate his tires. If he rides up next to you jam your pump in his spokes. Do whatever you can to take out the impostors. Big Boi on the other hand is clearly joining the blood line of the vigilante ranks.

Team Beer Pizza Race from Dylan VanWeelden on Vimeo.

Story by Mike Z.

Portland, Oregon is famous for many things. Our microbrews are world-renowned, the local cuisine is top notch, the weather absolutely blows in the wintertime and the cycling community is always ready for an adventure.

How could an enterprising team put all this together…? Well it turns out Team Beer managed to do just that.

The email came across my desk about a month ago. “The Bike Yakima Vigilantes are Invited to the first annual Pizza Race”.

The note went on to describe an event that tours Portland with four stops. At each of the stops, each team of five riders (with at least two girls) must each one large cheese pizza and drink five 16oz. beers. Oh and, by the way, it’s going to be at night. K?
Fabulous. Terrific. Suberb. Brilliant. Alcohol, pizza AND night riding. “What could possibly go wrong?” I thought to myself.
Well for the Vigilantes, things started to go wrong right away. We had racers to spare, right up until the day before the race. Then the excuses started flying. Dead mother. Out of town. Gotta watch the kids. Dog sick. Homework. Too cold. Wife won’t let me. You get the picture…

So seriously, I had no intention of racing this stupid thing. It was about then that Dylan, our intrepid team captain, fearless leader and favorite cross-dresser came to my desk and said, “Z-Man, you are about my last choice for this shit, but we need someone who can balance on two wheels. I’ve seen you eat, it’s impressive. You drink like a big pussy, but we can get through that.”

This is exactly 48 hours before the race starts. How could I resist?

“Uh, sure dude. Let me check with the bride.”

- ring, ring, ring.

“Yeah, honey, it’s me. Soooo, there’s a race this weekend… Yeah, I’d like to do it… Saturday… Seven O’Clock… No, no. Not early, it’s at night…… Hello? Hello? Yeah, it’s, uh, downtown I think. On the road. Yes, I’ll bring my lights. And blinkies… uh-huh… Well, it’s kind of this thing where the teams are supposed to drink a pitcher and eat a pizza and…. Hello? Hello? Anne? Hello?”

“Dylan? Yeah dude, she said it would be fine.”

Photo by Dave Roth

So the plan is to meet at the start, Seven Corners Cycles in SE Portland at about 6:30. I have been starving myself all day for this event, so I’m a little loopy. At about 5:30, I check the weather and start to get dressed. 35 degrees, chance of rain. Perfect.

After putting on basically every piece of lycra I own, I feel like the Michelin man, but am ready to roll.

I get to the area at about 6:20. I drive right by Seven Corners and park a couple blocks away to at least pretend that I road here. I get to the shop at just after 6:30 to find a sea of bikes outside. I walk in and find Team Beer, Rapha, Grundlebruisers, IronClad… and of course the Bike Vigilan… No, no Vigilantes.

No problem. I’ll just go warm up a bit. One block, two blocks. “Hey Fee!” Awesome, David Fee arrives. Level-headed executive, IronMan athlete, spreadsheet god, marathon champion arrives in full team kit (nice touch) with the double beer coozie strapped to his helmet. Perfect.

We roll for a couple laps and then get inside. Sign our lives away on disclaimers and wait for the rest of the dudes. Where’s Dylan? Where’s the girls? Where’s the official Yakima Team Car?

Briefing starts at 7:00 sharp. The rest of our team arrives at 7:01. I am looking around at the collection of people in brightly colored jerseys, purple feather boas, blinky lights, glo-sticks and pink wigs. We are about to drink a bunch of beer and ride through downtown at night. The briefing continues and the ride organizer tells us not to “draw unnecessary attention to ourselves.” Right…

Photo by Jose Sandoval

7:05 – Pizza is thrown down and beers are cracked. My first thoughts are “This is a good fucking pizza” and “I’d forgotten how much I really like PBR”. These were quickly followed by, “What do you mean the other teams are leaving already?”

Photo by Jose Sandoval

Fortunately, pacing ourselves was part of the strategy. That’s what we told ourselves anyway. Dylan distracted himself from shooting video for long enough to pull out the beer bong. The beer bong helped the Vigilantes make up some time and would prove to be either the secret weapon behind our success or our complete undoing.

Once on the road, the Vigilantes were in their element. We were fit, we were fast, we looked good, we felt good, we were pacelining, we were drafting, we were echeloning. We were lost.

In our hurry to de-ass the bike shop, nobody got actual directions to the second stop. We long ago dropped the slower teams, cough, cough, Rapha, and we found ourselves somewhere close to our destination, yet not quite sure.

A mental picture is in order here. It is 8:00 at night. We are wearing spandex. We are on bicycles. We are in North Portland. For our gentle readers who are not from around here, North Portland can best be described at urban blight on a stick, but with less charm. Now if you needed a hit of meth, bad ink or a skanky stripper, you had come to the right place. But for bike racing, this was not quite it.

We located the second stop through a magical combination of cell phones and luck. We pulled into a nice residence of Tony Pereira of which the garage had been converted to a bicycle fab shop and the front entrance had been (temporarily) converted into a pizza / beer bar.

Photo by Dave Roth

When we arrived, we were unceremoniously alerted to the fact that we were either late or last. I couldn’t quite understand which, nor did it really seem to matter. Either way, the plan was to gag the pizza and beer down and get down the road to the next stop, which was Wax-On.

Again, for those who don’t know (I didn’t) Wax-On is a waxing (hair removal) salon. I thought it was a surf shop (SoCal boy). So down the road we go. Slower this time, but at least we know where we are going since one of the girls goes to this place. I make a mental note of this, but am not sure why.

Wax-On is located in a relatively trendy part of town. Right next to a pretty high-end restaurant whose clientele seems a bit put off by a pack of drunk cyclists rolling into their dinner. No matter, in we go. Pizza, beer, lather-rinse-repeat.

Photo by Dave Roth

The party ended at a pet store called Meat at Burnside and 21st. This place is like the Silence of the Lambs meet the Donner Party. I was in heaven. Apparently, there are people who feed their dogs meat. Real meat. Like the stuff I cook up on the BBQ. In this store, you could decide if Fido wanted cow or pig or duck or even alpaca. I have never wanted an alpaca burger before this, but now I must have one. The “Not for Human Consumption” on every label doesn’t dissuade me in the least.

By 10:00 the party is just starting to get out of hand and it’s about past my bedtime. The Vigilante beer bong was flowing as we were lighting off firecrackers in the store. The combined smell of spilled beer and cyclist funk in resulting in bad college flashbacks. I walk outside to find two racers high fiving and barfing in the gutter, which completes the entire flashback. None of this draws a second look from the passers-by.

So thanks Team Beer for a night to remember (or forget, as the case may be). We’ll be back next year.

If you want to waste some more time on the internet check out some more rad photos from Jose Sandoval and Dave Roth.