Customer of the Year Competition

The 2007 Customer of the Year Competition has been heating up we only have 12 more days of 2007 remaining so don't put off your entry any longer.
Mike Laborde greated us with some holiday cheer a couple of weeks ago to help quench the thrist of our weary shop employees this busy time of the year.What's amazing about this photo that it doesn't look "staged" at all not only a great customer but a fine actor as well.
If you didn't recognize the famous poses of these fine young men they are "Magnum, Blue Steel, and Chucky Cheese"
Mike Perez greeted us today with a feast of a Peperoni and a Canadian Bacon/Pinneapple pizza even cooking it himself in his dutch ovens right in the back of his pickup. To top it all off we were treated with his famous dutch oven peach cobbler and ice cream for dessert. Mike has really taken this competition to the next level. Thanks Mike!

Hamby Trail

Every Tuesday and Thursday at 4:00 pm this Fall and Winter we have been gathering out at the Hamby Mountain Bike trail. We have also been meeting on Sundays at 10:00am. More and more people are making there way out to the trail during the week and on Sunday. Last night we had a good turn out about 12 of us were out there enjoying a great December day with temps in the low 70's. A couple of guys took a lap after the sun went down donning their high powered lights. If you haven't had the chance to mountain bike at night it really is a rush.

The Hamby trail is available to any Longview Bicycle Club Member as this is on private land it needs to be a "Club Ride" consisting of at least 2 bike club members to comply with the bike clubs insurance.

The trail is located 3 miles north of the shop on 259 take a left on Hamby Rd go about 1 1/2 miles and take your first right on Big Woods and then take the first right into a private drive pass through 2 gates and follow the trail back to the woods. The trail is well marked in three loops an A, B and C loop the total length of the trail is about 4.7 miles. We have used about a thrid of the land that is available to us and we plan to add some more to it this year. If you have any questions about the trail come on by the bike shop we would be happy to help you.

Thanksgiving Games

I know that this post is a little delayed but this is from Thanksgiving. The object of this ping pong game is to have everyone play by positioning themselves around the table. The first person serves then immediately sets down the paddle and moves to the left the next in line picks up the paddle and returns. This goes on until someone misses the return then they are out of the game until it comes down to just 2 players. This was a lot of fun and proved to be quite hilarious at times.

Toilet Bowl freeze tag game picked up after ping pong and surprising or maybe not so surprising if you know who was involved it wasnt' just the kids playing tag. The object of Toilet Bowl freeze tag is one person is "it" and tags the others in the game, if you are tagged you have to "freeze" in a toilet bowl positon by kneeling down on one knee and putting one arm out as your "flusher" to get untagged another player needs to sit on your knee and "flush" you by pushing down on your arm.

Wind Tunnel

David Plants had the opportunity to join John Cobb at the wind tunnel last week. John was working with Angelo of Wilier on the Cento Crono time trial bike that John had designed. John fit Angelo to the Cento Crono in the tunnel to give him the best power and aero position possible. If you notice in the pictures above a change in position can change your aerodynamics significantly. The first picture shows smooth air flow over the helmet, notice that the rear tip of the aero helmet is touching his back. In the next picture the rear tip of the helmet is raised from his back as he is looking down and notice the effect of the air flow. So remember when you are wearing an aero helmet to keep your head up to keep that aerodynamic position and save precious time on your time trial. The last pic is of some girl that just happened to be in the wind tunnel that day, I guess you would call her a bicycle groupie. Wilier is our newest bicycle line and we will be one of the first bike shops in the country to have the Cento Crono in stock.

Trigger Point Technologies

If you have ever had issues with Planar Fascitis, tight IT Band, Sciatic Nerve, tight piriformis or any other aches and pains that could be limiting your workouts Trigger Point Technologies has something for you. What Trigger Point is, is essentially a Massage Theripst in a bag allowing you to work on 6 key points on your body to provide you with the best possible preformance. An actual Massage Theripst in your closet may be what we would all wish for but may be prohibitively expensive and it may get the attention of local athorities not to mention your significant other. The tools offered by Trigger Point Technologies give you the ability to give yourself a massage on a daily basis without the time and expense of seeing a Massage Theripist everyday. Check out our website at www.bikeandfitness.com/catalog for more information or stop by the shop and we are happy to give you a personal demonstration.

Best Customer of the Week

Mark Lane has stepped up in the competition as our best customer this week. Marks generous donation of a couple of Double Dave's Pizza's Saturday afternoon greatly improved the moral of our shop employees. Mark is wise beyond his years as he knows that a good shop employee works best when plied with pizza, cookies, cakes, beer, soda really anything consumable. I think that Mark's motivation for said generosity revolves around a new bike in his future, the Wilier Izoard.

Wilier pronounced Vee'-lee-air is a bicycle company from Rossano Veneto, Italy that we had just brought on as a new line of bikes that we will be offering this year. The Wilier does have local ties, John Cobb of Tyler, TX designed Wilier's Tri Bike the Cento Crono, with this connection we are offering a free professional bike fit by John Cobb himself with the purchase of a complete Wilier bike.

Daisy Weekend

We are getting ready for our annual Daisy, Arkansas Mountain Bike weekend. This is a camping, cookout, sit by the fire and squeeze in a little bit of MTB weekend. We ride on the Wambel trail about 40 minutes from Daisy State Park, it is a great trail with a great view and some good challenges along the way.

Last year we rode about 20 miles of trails I took my doberman "Trek" turns out he is good for about 15 miles my Boxer "Calfee" is good for about 2 miles she stayed at camp. At the 15 mile mark I think Trek wasn't quite sure how far we planned on going so he went into conservation mode, just put his head down and slowed to a trot for the last 5 miles. He made it back just fine but I think he was a little upset, we will have to find a shorter route for him this year.

So anyway several of us are getting ready to head to Daisy over the next couple of days. Mike Perez already made it there this morning but not without incident. Mike hit a deer just outside of Jefferson on his way up. Mike is alright the deer did a little re-engineering to his front bumper, I didn't get a status on deer but we may be having Venison at the camp fire this weekend.

Cappella #1

Mike Perez just competed the finishing touches on his first custom made aluminum frame. This particular bike is a 96er mountain bike. The 96er uses a 29" wheel up front with a 26" wheel on the rear. The 29" front wheel provides greater obstacle clearance while the 26" rear wheel maintains great acceleration. We all got a chance to ride it here at the shop we are looking forward to riding it on the trail to see how it preforms. Mike will be leaving the bike here at the shop for anyone to try out at our local Mountain Bike trail off of Hamby Road. Mike looks forward to any comments on the bike and ride qualilty so those suggestions can be used to improve his next frame.

Commercial

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Orbea Onix Dama

We just got the 2008 Orbea Onix Dama in today. It looks fantasic! The Onix is a full carbon frame, womens specific geometry, decked out with ultegra components and Kyrsium Race wheels. This is a sexy bike we expect this to be a popular choice this year.