Soma Buena Vista Build from carytownbicyclecompany on Vimeo.

I just built up this amazing Soma Buena Vista bike for my wife Sarah to ride to and from class on.

I carefully selected parts to maximize both utility and style. Suffice to say she absolutely loves it.

Check it out.

Frame and Fork: Soma Buena Vista
Headset: Velo Orange sealed bearing
Stem: Civia Midtown
Handlebar: Velo Orange Porteur
Brakes: Tektro R559 long reach calipers
Seatpost: Velo Orange Grand Cru
Saddle: Brooks B17 Imperial
Front hub: Shimano Dynamo
Rear hub: Shimano Tiagra
Crank: Shimano Sora compact 50/34 tooth rings
Front derailleur: Shimano Sora
Rear derailleur: Shimano Alivio
Rims: Velo Orange Diagonale 650b
Tires: Panaracer Nifty Swifty
Front headlight: Schmidt Edelux
Fenders: SKS Chromo-plastic
Handlebar tape: Fizik Microtex

B Race Results:
1. Justin Moyer
2. Hale Wilson
3. Andrew Flemming
4. Andrei Pugachev
5. Mathew Ammann

The 90 minute A race was fast from the start. A group of 8-10 riders got away early and stayed 30-60 secs out the entire race. The last 5 laps saw numerous attacks and counters. On the last lap, Tim Mullins and Dan King got away for what looked to be a serious fight. Much to the chagrin of their teammates and spectators, both riders crossed the line, hand-in-hand, in what looked to be a serious love-fest. Who will wear the leader’s jersey next week? Meanwhile, Francois Fabiato, Team Whole Foods got away from the field for 8th, while 75yr old Dave Clarke won the field sprint for 9th!

A Race Results:
1. Tim Mullins/Dan King, Team Love-Fest Combo
2. Tim Mullins/Dan King, Team Love-Fest Combo
3. Jon Wirsing, Team Whole Foods
4. Joe Panella, RVS
5. Mike Stoop, Atlantic Velo
6. Dom Meier, Team Whole Foods
7. Phillip Robb, Team Cuttaway 3sports
8. Francois Fabiato, Team Whole Foods
9. Dave Clarke, Team Whole Foods
10. Johnny Phan, RVS

photo by Marcos marcos@virginia.edu

So much and yet so little can be said about Mike’s new titanium Salsa El Mariachi.

Mike wanted a light, comfortable, and above all reliable 29er hardtail. Salsa supplied the U.S. made ti frame. The Fox F series fork was selected for it’s great performance and handling. Shimano’s proven XT group will provide years of top performance, and the Crest wheels from Notubes are light, durable, and allow easy tubless use with the Maxxis Ignitor tires.

Sometimes the best bikes are the most simple to create. No flashy colors or trick components. Just quality through and through. S

Smart build Mike, glad we were able to make it happen for you.

I could not be happier to be working with these guys again. I worked with Independent Fabrication years before we opened up CBC when I was employed by Rowlett’s Bicycles. Today they are still one of my all time favorite custom builders.

I’ll have much more to say about them when my custom steel “club racer” arrives soon but in the meantime check out this recent video the posted on the IFblog that was shot by one of their racers.

Enjoy.

Independent Fabrication from Logan Hodson on Vimeo.

2×20 minutes is my staple workout. It’s a threshold test, a benchmark, and a default interval set when riding inside. I do it all the time, but don’t blame my level of mediocrity on 2×20, I stunk worse before I started doing this workout. If you start doing this type of drill full tilt all the time, you might be less slow as well.

I used to watch cycling races while doing 2×20 until every race I watched was full of dudes who had been kicked out of the sport. I owned the 2004 Vuelta and it is the worst one, if you have nothing else to do Wiki that race, it’s a who’s who of frauds, freaks and cheats. Then I started watching various acclaimed TV series, which is problematic because both my TV and ears function so poorly that I often miss half the dialogue. Then I switched to bad TV series, and that actually works. But after 18 episodes of “White Collar” and “Veronica Mars” the shame bleeds over from the trainer into regular life. I fell on that sword for you, please don’t make it in vain. So I quit the TV cold turkey and went with just music, and it is the only way. After tons of experimentation, I have developed the perfect playlist model for 2×20 workout. Obviously your taste in music will not coincide perfectly with mine, but pay assiduous attention to the template below, it is 100% gold. Just stick in your own picks.

Perhaps most important is to understand it’s a rookie move to start off with killer rock and roll. Save it, you don’t want to blow your wad 4 minutes in. The first few minutes of 2×20 is about finding your groove and not exploding yourself, so pick a number that has more roll than rock. I use “Green Onions” by Booker T and the MG’s, or” I’d Rather Be with You” by Bootsy Collins. Anything off “What’s Going On” will work. You do not need anything more. Resist and just daydream.

If you are 16 years old you can give in to natural impulses and play “Ace of Spades” or “Good Times, Bad Times” and be done with the whole thing injudiciously. Otherwise you still need to ease into the effort, as you need 20 minute staying power. I use “Prizefighter” by Eels, or maybe Ronnie Lane’s cover of “You Never Can Tell”. Discretion is the better part of valor for minutes 4-8.

At eight minutes into the interval you have to be careful, if you play “Kick Out the Jams” by the MC5, you have no chance of making it to 20 minutes as that song immediately boosts your wattage by 20% and you will be laying there beside your bike, prematurely useless, a feeling that might ring some bells. However it is time to start rocking, just not too much. “Electric Sweat” by The Mooney Suzuki or “Thirty Days in the Hole” by Humble Pie works for me. Mid-tempo rockers like “Web in Front” from Archers of Loaf or “Rocks Off” from Exile can carry me through if I am feeling good.

Again, if Miley Cyrus (Pea-Hen) or Norah Jones (Braden) gets your juices flowing, by all means indulge. The 2×20 playlist is about challenging yourself, but without judgment. It all about you. However if you have even thought about Nickleback at this point, stop reading, as there is a base level at which judgment is inevitable.

Minutes 12-16 are crucial and mentally the hardest to endure. It is here that your wattage can drop if you are not careful. It’s imperative that you select the proper tune. Don’t save the best for last, you need the power of Rock now. Play your ace with a poker face. The aforementioned “Ace of Spades” works, “Sonic Reducer” works. Personally, I have to admit to using some cheese here, “Dream Police” by Cheap Trick supplies the kick I need every time. I have caught Tim Mullins playing Taylor Swift here, but that works for him so don’t snicker.

Uh oh, you got 4 minutes to go, just kicked it out like a mutha, and now you got to go to level 11 to finish. What you need is some song that does not make you think, that evokes no memory of adolescence or possible introspection, one that you only use for emergency purposes, and is seriously heavy. Don’t put your favorite song here, no baggage allowed. Do the last song you last heard on a car radio which compelled you involuntarily crank it and feel good for a few minutes. You cannot listen to this song anytime but the last few minutes of a 20 minute interval when you think you could conceivably vomit and your HR is 180. It’s the real ace up your sleeve. Unless you are certain about this one, let me suggest “Immigrant Song”, “Paranoid”, “Search and Destroy”, “Teenage Lobotomy” or “New Rose”. If you are feeling lucky, you can switch genres for the swan song. It’s a big gamble but we all have a rap or country song we secretly dig. If you have not heard “Hey Ya”, “Bring the Noise”, or “Copperhead Road” or “I’m so Lonesome I could Cry” you can roll the dice and try it. Personally I think it’s a Judas move against the Gods of Rock who have got you this far, but that night be why it works.

Again, the names are fluid, you got to figure what functions for you, but the stencil is solid. There was al lot of failure on the highway to the brilliance above. Block off several hours with youtube-mp3-converter.org. Find a quiet place, tell any loved ones who ask what you are up to is “very important business” and to get lost for while because whatever they want is inconsequential compared to what you are presently undertaking, and start to crack your own 2×20 playlist.

For 2012 Niner Bikes started offering tapered head-tubes on all their aluminum frames including the updated One9 single-speed chassis.  They just so happened to come out with a tapered version of their already super light carbon rigid fork as well.  This gave us the perfect opportunity to build up this super-light bike.

The goal was to build a sub 20 pound race ready machine but at the same time choose components that had proven durability and a reasonable price.  While the end result is hardly “cheap” it’s actually pretty reasonable given the performance level of this trail machine.

Niner’s new tapered RDO carbon fork integrates seamlessly with their One9 frame and the dropouts have been updated to a RockShox QR15 thru-axle set up.  This gives the fork even more lateral stiffness which means this baby will CARVE on the trail and still have the vertical compliance expected of a carbon mountain bike fork.

For brakes we went with the proven performance of Shimano’s XT hydraulic stoppers.  For a fraction of the price of the top-tier offerings from XTR and Sram XX you get great power, modulation, and most importantly… durability.  The brakes are mounted to Niner’s alloy flat top bar while this trick looking alloy stem from Crank Brothers holds everything together.  An aluminum Crank Brothers seat post was chosen as well.

For the cranks we chose the FifteenG single-speed crank.  This crank combines the low weight of a carbon crank with the increased durability of an all aluminum design while keeping things stiff under pedal force thanks to their unique Tri-lobe 30mm spindle.

To connect all of this to the trail there was one obvious choice.  The wheels from Stan’s Notubes prove time and time again to be the best value out there in wheels for your 29er.  At $525 for a set they are lighter than all but the most tricked out wheels and their conventional spoked design means inexpensive repairs should you manage to break them.

Last but not least we mounted some Maxxis Ikon tires.  This super fast rolling tread is perfect prescription when the doctor orders speed.

The only bad news is that this bike might already be sold… a certain someone is interested.

We recently built up a Soma B-Side for a customer of ours and decided to do a little video covering the 650b wheelsize and its advantages. We hope you enjoy!

It left welding today and now they are going to start brazing on all the cable stops, fender mounts, and other cool stuff. Then it’s off to paint and hopefully soon into a box headed my way!

I’m super excited about this project. It’s not often you get to build a dream bike.

First up are some Deep V fixed gear wheels. Bomb proof alloy rims are laced to Origin8 hubs.

For the price it’s pretty hard to beat these hubs. Just like high end hubs from Phil Wood, Paul, and other small manufacturers they use easily serviced or replaced sealed bearings. Unlike those other companies they barely crack the $100 mark for a pair. What they lack in bling factor they certainly make up in value.

This set was going to see plenty of street use so we went with a 32 hole 3 cross lacing pattern with some flashy red Velocity spokes.

Next up is another set of track wheels. These started with the New Sheriff hubs from All City Cycles. All City gave a little nod to the classic Campagnolo C-record “sheriff badge” hubs from the 90′s. They beefed up the design a bit to withstand daily street use and opted for sealed bearings over the unsealed loose bearings of Campy’s track only hubs.

These were laced up to the TB-14 rim from H+Son. 32 hole, three cross with some Sapim CX-ray spokes. The wide and low box profile of the TB-14 rims combines the classic looks of a traditional rim with a wider footprint and modified inner rim profile that allows the tire casing to open up more in the same way that a HED C2 rim works. Bottom line, these wheels are going to ride GREAT and last a long time.

Last on the list this week is something of a long term project. These wheels are going to end up on my personal bike as soon as my Auger frame arrives from Foundry. The Auger is a disc specific cyclocross frame and this build called from something special. I stated with those PINK Industry Nine hubs I posted about a little while back. For the rear wheel I went with a standard 32 hole 3 cross lacing pattern for all around strength. In the front I decided to change it up a bit and do something a little more tricked out.

While it’s not uncommon to do radial (or straight) lacing on a front wheel for road and cross bikes the fact that these are going to be using disc brakes changes things. Disc wheels always need at least one side of the spokes to be crossed to resist the twisting force on the wheel that the disc brake creates. I went for the best of both worlds and laced the disc side 3 cross and stuck with radial for the non-disc side. I nice side effect of mixing lacing like this is that it actually stiffens up the wheel a bit laterally.

I used Sapim CX-ray spokes for this build as well. Bladed spokes certainly cost more and they look cool but what I like best about building with these is that they actually build a stronger wheel. Where the spokes cross the flat bladed shape of the spokes allows each spoke to sit flatter against one another. This allows each spoke to bend less where the cross which strengthens the wheel.

I went with H+son TB-14 rims for these wheels for the same reasons I did with the previous set. Strong, great ride quality, and their all black look will fit in nicely with the stealth look of the Foundry frame. Now all I need is that pesky frame to arrive!

Official prototype or a really clean looking custom job. Either way it’s sick.

My story is not remarkable. It’s not the stuff of cycling legends. It’s not the metoric rise of Ben King or the family destiny of Taylor Phinney. It contains not the glory nor the tragedy of the careers of Pantani and Van Den Broek. It’s probably not all that unlike your story. But while it may lack in brilliance it is mine to tell. So here it is… my history as a cyclist.

I was not destined to get so obsessed with bikes. While I did grow up in the country and often used a bicycle to get around, I was not that kid you hear about who was constantly riding. I rode to my friends houses to play around and do typical kid stuff but most of my friends lived close so there were no epic adventures to be had in my youth. In fact until I went away to college bikes were still just a toy.

In the fall of 1997 I moved from Nokesville to Richmond, VA to attend the fine arts program at VCU. My first year away from home was spent living in the dorms and simply walking most of the time. I brought my car with me and often drove home on the weekends to work and did not even bother to bring my bike with me to school. At the end of my freshman year I, like most VCU students, moved off campus into the fan district. Now I was living several blocks from campus and all of a sudden it made sense to have a bike. So the next time I traveled home I was sure to grab the trusty Novara mountain bike that I had occasionally used since junior high. All of a sudden I found myself riding almost daily and I began to notice other bicycles and their riders with a new level of interest.

At the time all the kids like myself that were into the punk and hardcore scene hung out on campus in Shafer Court. All day long we would come and go between class, hanging out and messing around. I noticed that some of the other kids were riding these strange bikes that looked kind of like road bikes but only had one gear, no brakes, and the pedals moved when they walked them around. Track bikes. A couple guys were bike messengers but most were just students. Looking back it was actually pretty amazing how nice most of these bikes were. The cheapest track bike you might see being walked through campus would be some thing like a GT or Debernardi, a far cry from the $300 fixed gears that are common today. I was fascinated by these bikes as well as some of the more traditional road bikes some other people had.

Around this time I had become friends with a few other guys who were starting to also take an interest in bikes beyond casual transportation. Some time in 2000 I bought a used Raleigh road bike from my roommate, who had in turn bought it from another guy in the music scene. All of sudden I could ride further and faster and things started to click. My friend Jason was also getting much more into riding and we ended up meeting a couple of guys that were a couple years younger that were also going to VCU that a little experience with collegiate racing.

I’m not sure exactly when it was, but my first “group ride” was with Jason, Ben, and a guy named Greg Wittwer that was really into racing. We rode from my house in the fan across the Huguenot bridge and back along Riverside Drive to downtown. At the time I thought I was quite the badass. These days that route is just the 18 mile “riverside loop” but at the time it seem like a small adventure. By the time I got home I officially caught the cycling bug. At the start of the next semester of school I used some of my financial aid money to buy my first NEW road bike. It was the bright yellow and blue Specialized Allez with Shimano 105 components that I had read about in Bicycling Magazine. I had done my research and had decided that it was the perfect bike for me and I had to have it. Soon I had clipless pedals and that winter I got my first pair of bib shorts!

Meanwhile, from the fall in 1998 up to late 2000 I had been going to school and working part time for VCU as a security guard in the dorms. I was getting more and more bored with security work and was having some serious thoughts about dropping out of college. While I thoroughly enjoyed certain aspects of school I lacked the motivation to take it seriously enough to get good grades. I wanted to goof off, go to shows, and ride my bike. So I quit school. I needed a job and ended up working at a Service Merchandise in the west end for a while. As far as mindless retail jobs go it was ok. I showed up, sold some electronics, then punched out and went home. Boring, but it paid what little bills I had.

What happened next seemed so unimportant at the time but ended up being a pivotal moment in my life. In October I had heard from a friend that there was this bike shop called Rowlett’s that this guy I kind of knew worked at sometimes. He would work there in the fall and winter to help build kids bikes for the holiday season. This year he had a real job and was not going to work there. I was told to go mention he was a friend of mine and ask for a job. So I did and it worked. I don’t remember the first day I started working at Rowlett’s but I remember that I could not get enough. I started out building kids bikes, when it was time to clock out I hung around and watched what the more experienced guys were doing. I asked questions, I read catalogs, and I couldn’t help but notice that Surly Steamroller track bike on the floor every day. When the holidays ended they kept me on as a part time bike builder. In the spring it got busy and I learned how to work on the sales floor. I found that my growing love of bikes made it easy for me to talk to other people about why one bike is better than another, or what pedals they should buy.

One of the guys that worked there was named Stratton. Stratton seemed cool. He was always a little bit of a jerk to me but I knew he actually RACED bikes and helped organize a team. I had started following professional cycling at this point but was still really intimidated by the local racing culture. Bike racers seemed like a bunch of rich jerks and did not fit into my early 20′s punk rock mindset. I had bought that Surly Steamroller and was really getting into track bikes. I was drawn to their clean lines and stripped down function. Pedal faster, go faster, pedal slower, go slower. Then at some point in 2003 one of the older guys at the shop by the name of Mark Batterson told me about how they used to race their bikes around the paddle boat pond at Byrd Park and do something called an miss and out. By some strange coincidence Tim Barry (who I knew as, that guy with a really sweet old beat up track bike that is in that band Avail) happened to walk into the conversation and said “man that’s cool, somebody should do that”. I thought to myself… yeah… somebody SHOULD do that. I guess I can do that. So a few weeks later I put on the first “sprint club”. The name was a reference to the movie Fight Club and I envisioned it being this punk rock bike racing league. Something for track bikes only. Something illegal and dangerous. A few of us met at the Byrd Park paddle boat pond. Chad Rathbone, Andrew Wolak, and a guy named Joey, whose last name escapes me were the first competitors. I don’t remember who won that night but it was the beginning of some cool stuff. Between the 3 that raced and a few others we were stoked. We started scouting out other places to ride and stumbled upon Riverview Cemetery. Next to the more famous Hollywood Cemetery, Riverview had all the twists and turns you could want. It was sketchy but not too sketchy. You could ride almost flat out at times and then feel like you were about to crash and try and somehow slow down your brakeless bike.

Our second race was there. This time we had a few more people and we decided to meet every other Sunday that summer to race. And race we did. We bombed around the cemetery, we found some of the steepest hills in downtown to have uphill sprints, we ferreted out empty industrial areas. Basically anywhere there seemed to be little traffic and something we could make into a course we would race. Our little group started to grow. By the following summer of 2004 we would often meet up and ride 20 or more strong to a spot to race. Some would just hang out and drink beer, others would race. It was this amazing micro cycling community and it was OURS.

Then the arms race began. We realized that some of us were getting better at racing and we split the races into categories. The faster guys were pushing bigger gears. Riser bars and bullhorns were being replaced with drop bars. We held time events and created a points series. While things seemed to be getting more serious we made sure to keep it light hearted by throwing in scavenger hunt style races we called “point to points” where you raced to spot, did a mini race, then raced to another spot. Sometimes we would follow our regular races with something we called bar-b-q races where each person was assigned a food item to get and it was a race to the grocery store then back to our house in Oregon Hill to cook out and relax.

Back in bike shop land I had upgraded my ill fitting Specialized to an Orbea with Dura-Ace, my Surly had been replaced with an Olmo. One of the mechanics had taught me to build my first set of custom wheels, and at some point I bought a USA Cycling license and finally decided to try road bike racing at Bryan Park.

I got dropped. And lapped… and lapped again. I’m not sure how many times I was lapped that day but it was more than a few. If it had not been for the encouragement from Stratton and Mark at the bike shop I would have probably quit racing before I ever gave it a chance. So I went back. This time I was less awful. I still got dropped but each time I did I would wait at the top of the hill for the pack to come back around so I could get back onto the group and try to hang on. Eventually I was able to hang on for a whole race. Success! As I kept going out to Bryan Park I realized that the road racing scene was really not that different than what we were doing with the sprint club races. At the root of it both groups were just a bunch of guys that liked to ride as fast as they could with friends.

So at some point those of us that were doing sprint club got this wild idea to drive up to Trexlertown, PA to go ride on the track there. I had met a couple people like our group that raced up there and they were going to meet us there and teach us about the track. We spent HOURS riding that day on the track and I came back to Richmond a changed man. I wanted to race on a track. That’s all I could think about.

I remember hearing that 20 or so years ago some guy had put on races at some old auto track in Midlothian called Southside Speedway and that some guy on the cycling team that Roweltt’s sponsored was family with them. I did a little research and tracked down a woman by the name of Sue Clemets that owned the speedway. She had not been the track owner the last time bicycles raced there but she was amazingly friendly to this guy with a buzz cut and tattoos. She agreed to rent the track out for bike racing and in the fall of 2005 I put on my first sanctioned race. 67 people showed up to the first race and a month later 140 showed up for the second. I held events for road bicycles as well as track bikes. The roadie guys raced around the track and then all of the track bike kids had their turn. But by now the season was winding down and the weather was getting colder. Over the fall and winter I thought constantly about putting on more and better races.

In 2006 I had a plan… three races at the speedway and one new event in Bryan Park. I had this idea to use the larger loop in the park that goes all the way around the Azalea garden. I somehow managed to convince the people at Parks and Rec to let me put on an event. At the time I thought things were all on the up and up but I later realized that things were dangerously close to getting royally screwed up. In my haste to get things put together I only ever had a verbal commitment for the date we wanted to race but never actually acquired an actual permit from the city. Whoops! Suffice to say I lucked out and nothing bad happened that day and when I went to the parks and rec office the following week they were surprisingly understanding. Disaster averted!

The rest of the 2006 season progressed without issues and I put on three events at the speedway mixing road and track events. The season wound down and I went back into winter mode at the bike shop.

While my involvement in racing and race promoting was growing so was my submersion into cycling as a larger entity. I rode to work almost every day, to the grocery store, the record store, shows, parties, wherever. I lived and breathed bicycles. I was dating an awesome girl who was also into bikes which only further fed my obsession.

Then one day that fall, after 5 years at Rowlett’s I realized it was time for a change. Stratton had already left and I was beginning to realize that there really was no future for me there. By this point I had cultivated some good relationships with people in the cycling community and often talked with a regular customer at the shop by the name of Tim Mullins. Some time that winter I had a particularly frustrating day and gave Tim a call. I remembered hearing him talk about investing in a bicycle shop at some point so I convinced him to meet up and talk about things. I explained my frustrations with where I was at now and how I wanted to work in a shop with a fresh approach to not just selling bikes but to being a hub in the community that other cyclists could rely on for more than just the equipment they needed to ride. Strangely enough Tim had been talking to his friend John about exactly the same thing! We met a few more times and finally decided to take the plunge and open a shop.

I put in my notice at Rowlett’s and a few weeks later we were hunting for a space in Carytown to open a shop. By February we were building out a space. I was working most days from 6am to 10 at night… talking to vendors, setting up accounts, getting inventory, setting up fixtures, programming a point of sale and so on… then all at once we were ready to open and that spring the doors opened for the first time at Carytown Bicycle Company.

The rest, as they say, is history.

Since starting Carytown Bicycle Co. with Tim and John my love of the cycling world has only grown. I divide my time in the season between road, track, mountain bike races. I ride to work almost every day and have even started doing some bike touring. I have had the fortune to meet some amazing people both at home here in Richmond and elsewhere as well. Bicycles were my gateway into a community that I could not even imagine giving up being a part of now.

Along the way I have stayed true to my beginnings as a racer and have never lost any of my love for the track. I have tried to infect as many roadies as I can with this same enthusiasm and I have had some luck doing so.

I count myself extremely lucky to get to go to work each day and talk about and work on bikes. It’s not glamorous, nor does it pay a whole lot but I would not trade places with anyone.

In the following years since we opened Carytown Bicycle Co. we managed to establish ourselves as a well know bike shop and now after 5 years we have outgrown our current space and are hard at work preparing to move to a bigger and better space this spring!

So looking back I realize I have been into cycling now for 10 years. Wow. I can’t wait to see what the next 10 years hold.

Thanks for reading all this… now let’s hear your story!

Post Script:

I wanted to mention by name some of the people that were involved in Sprint Club during those few years of bandit racing.

Chad Rathbone. Chad is still a bike messenger in Richmond and focuses on enduro mountain bike racing and having fun.
Andrew Wolak. Andrew is a master mechanic at 3sports and while he does not currently race he is a avid mountain biker.
Joey. I have no idea what he is up to these days.
Dangerous Dan aka Jobless Dan. No longer a messenger but still rides.
Andrew the Wizard. I rarely see him but I know he is very active in the activist community in Richmond.
Stuart Louder. Now a veteran bike messenger and cat 2 racer.
Julie Kulicza. Local elite women’s racer and coach.
Allison Fox. Raced for a time with the Seigler team but not currently racing.
Luke Stevens. Owner of Bunnyhop Bike Shop.
Jason Steed. Now a family man but still rides when he can.
Stuart Squier. Stu was often my right hand man in organizing the sprintclub events. Still a dedicated rider and working at the Martin Agency.
Dennis Throckmorten. Always stoked to ride and often found on the trails.
Mason Haymes. Mason only raced with us a little but eventually caught the road racing bug and is a cat 1.
Jeff Buckles. Raced with us a bit when he moved to Richmond for school. Rekindled his interest in competing with us and was racing at the elite level for several years with Richmond Pro Cycling.
Tony Hall. Also got to the cat 2 level but now focuses on riding for fun and photography.
Joey Jones. Still rides all the time
John Emanuel. Resisted racing outside of Sprintclub for years but is now starting his second full season of road and cyclocross.
Ian Dunwiddie. No longer races but is extremely active in the bike polo community.
Ian Marcuse. Yeah… THAT guy. Does he need an introduction?
Jim Temple. Came out of retirement from doing running races to race track bikes with a bunch of knucklehead kids. Still holding it down like he did back then by still having fun despite being old enough to be our father.

Today after meeting with the contractors at our new location we were able to all get out for a ride together. It’s good to be able to just turn off the business side of things and just go for a ride. Just three dudes on a bike ride. No big deal.

Not to toot our own horn but this is a big part of why we do things the way we do at Carytown Bicycle Co. With all three of us being cyclists first we look at running a bike shop as much more than just running a business. We love to ride and love to talk about geeky bike stuff. When we say we do this out of love we mean it.