Swiftwick Four Merino Sock Review

They say one advantage of wearing wool socks is that they will eliminate foot odor.  Wool breathes better than most other materials which means it removes moisture from the skin faster.  This reason alone should be enough to make the Swiftwick Four Merino riding socks worthy foot garments.  Believe it or not though, there’s more to them that might convince you of this.

The Swiftwick Four socks fit like…well, like something that fits perfectly (I want to say like a glove but a glove probably wouldn’t fit a foot very well).  They are a combination of cotton, nylon, and spandex which not only makes your feet smell better (or at least less like sweat), but also form-fits the socks to every contour of your foot.  I usually don’t like tight fitting clothes of any kind but the way these things grip your feet is surprisingly comfortable…especially when you’re on the trail and suddenly realize that your sock isn’t slipping off or bunched up in the toe of your shoe.

If you regularly or even occasionally get blisters from riding then you might consider getting yourself a pair of socks like these.  In addition to some extra padding underneath the foot that might help correct this problem, the Swiftwick Four has a “no seam” design which means, as you might have guessed, there aren’t any unnecessary pressure points or ridges irritating your feet.

With that said, the one gripe I do have about these socks is that the cuff is particularly tall (it stops about four inches above the ankle).  The more I think about it, the more I think that this feature likely does not suggest this is a winter specific riding sock.  If that were the case, the whole thing might be a little thicker.  This leads me to the conclusion that the tall cuff serves as an anchor; to prevent the rest of it from sliding around inside your shoe.  This cuff is mildly uncomfortable and given the way these socks grip the rest of your foot (especially the bear hug they give your arch), this might be a bit of an unnecessary feature.  However, this is more of a personal preference thing than a design flaw.

The bottom line is that the Swiftwick Four Merino is my new favorite riding companion.  The combination of the ultra-comfortable “no seam” design and breathability has me wanting to use these socks not only every time I ride but also for everything else I do.

SKS Airchecker – Duo Head

At first I thought there wouldn’t be much to say about the SKS Airchecker Duo Head Air pressure gauge, but I liked it more than I originally thought. Not a trail tool in my opinion–perhaps for the compulsives and anal-retentives among us that just have to know the exact pressure in their tires in both BAR and PSI (the Airchecker does both!) before a quick ride. You know the ones, the guy wearing a 3000 cubic-inch hydration pack on the local 5-mile loop, with 6,000 calories of carbs (just in case!), a pedal wrench, spare chain, torque wrench, flare gun, and one of those super-shiny NASA blankets to ward off hypothermia. Well he might carry it, but I think it’s a great shop tool or one to keep in the glove box. If you’re new to the sport it might be handy to have a pressure gauge nearby, but soon you should be able to approximate pressure by feel. But when in doubt, the Airchecker with its swiveling Duo Head design is built specifically for cycling. The head supports both Presta and Schrader valves (as it should), swivels ninety degrees for easy placement between spokes, has a digital readout for both PSI and BAR, and a deflation button for bringing down the pressure to exact specifications.

The good news is that SKS has satisfied both the most streamlined minimalist and the chunky-bagged draft horse. Even though I won’t be carrying it on the trail with me, the sleek little beauty has earned a very respectable placement on the top shelf of my shop toolbox. I don’t want to bag on the gearheads too much, afterall the importance of tire pressure has come to light in the last few years with the advent of tubeless tires. I like to know how low I can go, if you catch my drift. It will cost you about $20 more than a cheap tire gauge from Auto Zone, but the Airchecker has all the qualities of a great bike tool: small, light, tough, and simple.

“Black Sheep” is No Misnomer

36″ Wheels?  The ZAMer

The fifth annual National Handmade Bicycle Show (NAHBS) in Indianapolis was overwhelming. Mind blowing, actually. Over one hundred exhibitors laid out their wares to be gawked at by industry professionals and tourists alike. Mountain bikes, road bikes, track bikes, urban fixie commuters, tandems, polo bikes, and just plain ol’ regular (but beautiful) bicycles. Seeing all those beauties in one place made me feel, strangely, a little jaded. “What comes next?” I wondered, “where can we go from here?” I was certain I was standing among some of the finest and most beautiful bikes on Earth. The level of craftsmanship was extraordinary, my mind reeled trying to calculate all the hours of intricate and painstaking work that went into creating such exquisite machines. Hand-polished lugs, seamless welds, expertly executed geometry, and a dizzying array of sparkling paint jobs and powdercoat lay all around me, most of them looking too beautiful to ride (almost). How do you improve on the modern bicycle, right? Humans have been messing around with the general design for about a century, you’d think we’d have figured out the ultimate bike by now. Alas, perfection is unattainable, but the pursuit of it is the sublime quest that defines us as a species. Before I fell into a philosophical gloom (typical), I came upon Black Sheep Bikes‘ exhibition booth.

Standing out in the crowd was the 36-inch-wheeled ZAMer, an eye-catching behemoth of a bike that drew onlookers from all corners of the exhibition hall. Hailing from Fort Collins, Colorado, Black Sheep is notorious for aesthetically-pleasing and mold-breaking designs, and I doubt you’ll find any in your local bike shop. This thing shatters molds. After ogling the impressive if somewhat befuddling 36-inch wheels sitting underneath a flawless titanium frame, the ZAMer solidified my vote for the People’s Choice Award. After about fifty laps around the convention hall, I confidently scribbled its entry number on the voting ballot provided at the door. Boldness deserves recognition.

Black Sheep Bikes didn’t invent the 36-inch wheel–there are a few floating around out there.  However, this was the first 36er I was privileged to examine.

Read more

All Harlot and No STD’s

The snow finally melted enough for me to break out the old steed after her long winter nap. While back in the saddle I tried out the new Harlot Hawkeye mountain bike shorts. These shorts are typically what you would consider a downhill short, but since the downhill trails are covered in snow and mud I figured why not a cross county ride?

These shorts are great, but they are not perfect, so let me start with what I don’t like, then the rest is what I do like. First off, if you are going to name your company Harlot your model names should be Harlot names. Hawkeye was a doctor in the TV show MASH, and he was no harlot. A boozer yes, but not a harlot. Harlot should use names like Jezebel (sounds like a harlot from biblical times) or Mustang Ranch (not really a ranch, but if you are familiar with Nevada you know what I mean). This is more a marketing issue, so Harlot if you want to hire me to make your line sound more sleazy consider me your newest harlot.

Second, and this is a complaint across the board with mountain bike shorts. I have not ordered one pair that fits right. They all run way too small. What is the deal with the mountain bike industry? When I order board shorts in the same size I have way too much crack hanging out. Mountain bike shorts…I feel like Santa Clause climbing into a wet suit. In reality, especially with a downhill short, mountain bike shorts should run big so you can fit pads under them if you so desire. There are some pretty nifty impact shorts on the market, but now in order to wear them I need to get another pair of mountain bike shorts. Sure I could lose a few pounds to fit better into them, but it is still winter here in Utah and I still have my winter coat…if you know what I mean. This must be a conspiracy to make shorts run small to motivate us to ride so those lbs will come off. I am sure this is one of those back smoke filled dark room conversations that take place at Interbike, and oh yes they do exist.  Read more

Ventana Mountain Bikes USA: Still Rockin’ it Gringo Style

Sherwood Gibson, owner of Ventana Mountain Bikes USA, has been enjoying the mountain bike scene longer than most of us have been riding. Coming from a BMX background, Gibson built his first steel hardtail in 1985. The past twenty years or so has seen Ventana catapult from humble beginnings to one of the more recognized high-end mountain bike manufacturers in the United States. Unlike most companies that have been around for the past few decades, Ventana still produces bikes exclusively sourced and assembled in the U.S.A. The company’s philosophy places an extraordinary emphasis on quality control and drive for impeccable manufacturing. Mountain bikers lucky enough to own a Ventana are a critical source of marketing for the company. Like many builders, Sherwood admits he enjoys building bikes more than selling them. He was kind enough to talk with me from his shop outside of Sacramento, California. Feel free to drool at Ventana USA.

MTO: So,where were you guys at the National Handmade Bike Show this past weekend?

GIBSON: We didn’t go.  We were planning on it but my wife ended up having to travel for her work and that kept me home. The other thing about that venue is that there isn’t a category for best aluminum bike or best aluminum weld, so quite honestly it was for the old-school steel guys, it’s a better venue for them, we’re not really even thought of as a custom handmade bike company even though we are.

MTO: That’s what I wanted to touch on right away. Your company, and I hesitate to use the term “boutique,” but being a popular high-end brand that isn’t one of the big three, have truly maintained the “handbuilt in the USA” standard, do you face any challenges in keeping things American? Is any level of production or sourcing done overseas? Is it a point of pride for the company?

GIBSON: Not at all. [As for company pride], I guess you could say that, but really, I like making stuff. I got into making bikes because I like making stuff and I thought I could do a better job. And so with that in mind, since I’m the guy that’s out there making it happen, if we can bring it in house and it makes sense and we can have better control and have a better product, then we do. At some point in time, maybe our customer base shrinks and we’re priced out of the market, but for now people who appreciate that we can give them a product, and so I don’t have any interest in going offshore because quite honestly I’m way better at building bikes than I am selling them. So if I were to go offshore I would have to be better at selling them, and I’m not very good at that! A lot of times I can build a bike quicker than I can tell you about it. It’s crazy that way, but that’s the way it is.

MTO: Before we go any further, you are privately owned?

GIBSON: Yup.

MTO: Would you be willing to divulge your sales in terms of bike production?

GIBSON: In terms of bike production, right now we’re doing between 600 and 800 year, which sounds like a lot, but when you spread it over 15 models it’s not that many. What that has allowed us to do is get really good at doing one-off bikes. We do a lot of custom bikes for people. Of those 600 to 800 bikes, 200 to 300 are customs in one form or another. And we’re able to respond to that demand because we’re in-house. So that works out quite well. In general, a custom frame that gets ordered today likely gets started tomorrow or within the next couple of days. And we also do production of our main selling models, we keep those in stock in various sizes, we do powder coating in-house so I go next door and shoot whatever colors we’re gonna shoot, and that’s how I keep up.

MTO: You say you have 15 different stock models, I’m familiar with the product line, but is that the official number in production right now?

GIBSON: Well, there’s not really an official number, if you go to our website and you change the model name in the URL to a previous model name, all the geometry and information is still on the website, and if someone really wants it, we’ll still build it. As long as we have the capability to build it for someone we will. That 15 is not a hard number. We probably do 10 very regularly, and then we do road and cross bikes, so it’s a fluid number. We used to make bikes for Tomac, Specialized, Ellsworth, a bunch of different bikes for a bunch of different manufacturers. At that time, we were doing about 3500 frames a year. So we have more capacity than what we do, but what that does is allows us to focus on our customs in more detail. I would have to add some employees to get back to that number. We have six employees now, had 11 when we were at that number. Read more

Your First 24 Hour Team Race

So you have been racing your mountain bike for a while and now you are thinking of venturing into 24 hour racing in a team format. I would definitely recommend it—it is a lot of fun. But there are some steps you can take to make it a better experience.

1. Make sure you and the rest of your team have the same expectations. There is nothing worse than not being “on the same page” as another on your team. Whether you are doing it for fun, trying to win it, or somewhere in between, it is important to ensure that everyone has similar expectations. Then no one will be disappointed.
2. Know the course—that means pre-ride it. You can look at a course all you want on a map and study its profile, but it is always different when you are actually riding. In 24 hour racing it is really important to know that crazy turn, obstacle, and the unexpected before you are racing. One of the worse things that can happen is calling it quits because you got taken out by the course. Pre-riding is especially important if there is the potential for your first lap to be a night lap. Ride the course.
3. Eat your food. You have to eat because your team is counting on you. Make sure you have a wide variety food— real food and race food because you never know when your digestive system will decide that it is only going to tolerate X. If you don’t have X, you are screwed. Racing food—gels, bars, drinks—tend to be easier to digest and still provide the needed energy. Electrolyte supplement are also a really good idea.
4. Get good lights. There are a lot of things you can skimp. Generic cereal, brand X jeans, but you get what you pay for with lights. They are expensive, but coming from a frugal person (ie cheapskate) you want to pony up for something decent. You may not need the lightest weight or the quickest charging lights, but you want something good—HID or a high lumen LED. I would also recommend a dual set up—handle bars and helmet. This lets you see what is in front of you and ahead of you at all times. Also set these up the night before just in case you get the transition lap (light to night). It is hard to know where you want your lights aimed when it is light out. And if you can practice your night riding, you will be better for it.
5. Bring your spare parts. If you have a spare part, bring it. You never know what you or someone else is going to need. Make sure you bring the basics—brake pads, tubes, tires (yes, tires not just tubes), chain or extra links, etc.  Read more

Submit a Trail Review and Be Entered to Win $100 of Hoss Technical Gear Merchandise

MTOBikes.com has partnered with Hoss Technical Gear to offer our first-ever contest.  We are giving away $100 worth of Hoss Technical Gear!  All you have to do is submit a trail review and you are entered in a chance to win for “Best Trail Review“.  Enhance your chances of winning by submitting multiple trail reviews.

How Do I Enter This Contest?

Just follow the link below and fill out the form. You can do everything from this simple page!

MTOBikes.com Trail Review Contest Form

What Are The Rules?

The format is pretty simple. Submit a trail review! Please pay close attention to the rules so you qualify.

• Must be 800 words or more.
• Must be original content.
• Must include detailed directions to the location of the trail head.
• Must rate the difficulty of the trail.
• Must have at least 2 pictures of the trail or riders on the trail (a picture of the trail head would be preferable).
• Contest runs from March 1, 2009 until March 31, 2009 and the winner will be announced on April 7, 2009.
• Must include a short 3-5 sentence bio about yourself.
• Must register and submit a photo of yourself on Gravatar.com
• Contest is open to EVERYBODY…yes…that includes you guys overseas!
• Prize winners will be picked by a panel of judges.

* Bonuses – The more pictures, video, descriptions, directions, etc. that you have the better. Really make your trail review stand out from the crowd. Remember this is a contest! You want your trail review to be the best out of the submissions so the more quality you add…the better! GPS overlays, GPS coordinates of the trail head, riding shots, etc. all make the review more attractive.

The Prize

If your trail review is chosen as “Best Trail Review” you are entitled to $100 worth of Hoss Technical Gear merchandise of your choice.

MTOBikes.com Trail Review Contest Form

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NW School of Freeride

NW School of Freeride has created a private 80 acre forest bike-scape. They offer skill building trails and courses for every type of off road bicycle and the pro coaches to back it up. For the past year they have been developing deep woods DH and freeride trails that are guaranteed to improve your skill set. They have street obstacles and dirt jumps to satisfy every BMX and urban assault ripper. They are a full service bicycle skill building center.

NWSOF have been working with the Diamondback Pro BMX team to develop their BMX terrain and many of the Dakine crew out of Hood River. Ben Boyko has been one of the most active, producing some impressive lines over the winter. He took down some big trees and turned them into some big drops. Phil Sundbaum helped design the dirt jump line and the phone calls from interested builders keep coming in. They also have a 14,000 square foot indoor bicycle park with a foam pit.

What sets NWSOF bicycle program apart from the rest?

They have our own 80 acre private bike park. The trails feature drops, skinnies, logs, rocks, roots and steeps. The dirt jumps feature airtime, hangtime, bootertime and perfect landings. So whether you are a freeride mountain biker, trail mountain biker or BMXer, they’ve got the set up for you. No other bike camp in N. America can offer up the menu of options NWSOF can give you. If after a long day building your skills you want to head out on a trail ride, you can! Their private facility borders the Mt Hood National Forest and BLM lands in Oregon. Basically, you have private access to 1000’s of acres of real forest that provide real mountain terrain.

Programs will include the following and then some!

• BMX Street
• BMX Dirt Jumping
• Freeride Technical
• Freeride Fast and Big
• XC and Backcountry Trail Riding
• Women’s Clinics
• Adult Skill Building
• Contests and Events
• Product Demo’s
• Jams and Open Houses

In the words of Kris Jamieson, “Our mission is simple. We want the entire bike industry to benefit from the venue. We are open to hosting jams, photo shoots, build parties, pros, magazines and video shoots. Our lodging and kitchen is quite nice and we are extremely kid friendly. If you can think of it, we can probably do it. We have the ability to keep our prices extremely low, if not free, depending on the group and/or project. We are 1 hour from Portland International Airport and want our venue to inspire and get people on bikes! With that said, I am reaching out to all of you, and letting you know that our doors are open to your team riders, ideas and visions.”

The private campus is located in the foothills of Mt. Hood just 60 minutes east of Portland. NWSOF’s Parent Company, “Windells” was the first Action Sports camp to earn the American Camping Association accreditation. This distinction is credited to those camps complying with standards set well beyond state and federal organizational guidelines.

2009 North American Handmade Bicycle Show Winners

Indianapolis — A crowd of 1728 on the final day of the North American Handmade Bicycle Show resulted in an total of 6,428 attendees over three days of what many exhibitors described as the best NAHBS yet.

As in past years, the show culminated with the awards for the best bicycles at the show. This time for the first time, an awards jury made all selections but two: President’s and People’s choices. The jurors were Dale Brown, Steve Hampsten, Doug Brooks, Mike Barrie, and James Huang.

And the winners are….

Best Road Bike

About nine years ago Roland Della Santa purchased the last 23 sets of Nervex lugs from Geoff Butler Cycles in London, intending to save them for a special project. This project became a limited edition set of 20 bicycles to celebrate his 40th anniversary of frame building. Using old Columbus tubes and offering only three braze-ons (and one waterbottle cage) Della Santa created an Eddy Merckx period piece that the awards jury simply could not resist.

Best Off-Road Bike

Curt Goodrich has always wanted to outfit a cyclocross team, and that that was the inspiration for the bright blue machine on display the weekend of the show. Goodrich started out as an apprentice, and then built bicycles on contract for Rivendell, and began focusing solely on his own creations in 2008. He worked to incorporate classic features like a level top tube on the bike he brought for display, as well as modern features like carbon forks, and a striking blue paint scheme.

Best Track Bike

Shin-Ichi Konno is continuing a family business that has made Cherubim one of the most respected handmade bicycle brands in Japan and a builder for keirin racers there. According to Shin-Ichi, the current design of track/keirin racing frames has been in place since the 1960s. The award-winning Cherubim Pista is made with due respect to the long tradition of track bicycle frame building.

Best Tandem Bike

I want a lugged tandem, what can you do? This request from a customer led Stephen Bilenky to create the tandem that won the NAHBS Award. The customer was interested in a tandem with a classic European look and sent him some lugs from Rivendell, who does not make tandem frames. Several parts needed to be made from scratch, since fabricated lugs for tandems do not exist. To create a classic looking headtube, a bi-laminate piece was created as a substitute for one of the lug. The blades on the fork are original Jack Taylor s from the 1960s, so a fork crown had to be fabricated too.

Best Titanium Bike

Kent Eriksen featured numerous bicycle frames made of titanium at the show. Eriksen, who originally invented the softail mountain bike suspension, always wanted to incorporate titanium with that feature because of the metal s durability. It ll last for generations, he said, of the more modern bicycle he brought to Indianapolis, adding that titanium makes for an incredibly rideable bike. Eriksen added that titanium is also green in that it doesn t require painting and so leaves less of a carbon footprint in its production.

Best Carbon Bike

Nine months of work went into the design of the prototype carbon fiber bike by Independent Fabrication. The crown-themed lugs, which were made with the assistance of Edge, arrived at the IF workshop on Thursday a week before the show, and everything fitted together first time around. For Independent Fabrication, this is a learning journey into a new material as the company continues to expand its knowledge base.

Best Lugged Bike

David Ellis Wages of Ellis Cycles in Waterford, Wisconsin, takes his inspiration from classic bicycles of the early 1980s. Bicycles with intricate lug work and chrome forks and chain stays were the ones with which he first became familiar when he started riding, so, to him, in a way, those features still define classic bicycles. &kind of the bike I always wanted to have, Wages said of one of the fine machines he brought with him to the 2009 NAHBS in Indianapolis. Wages incorporates a modern aesthetic with the classic craftsmanship of lug work in his cycles, adding that using lugwork allows for more artistic detail.

Best TIG Welded Bike

Black, red and white is Carl Strong s favorite color scheme for a bicycle, and that s what he chose for this all-business road stage racer. The bike is also made to fit Strong, a precaution he says he took in case he couldn t sell it. Much of the thinking centered on a new Chris King head inset head tube, which provides a large surface area to connect tubes to, as well as a low stack height, which enhances the aesthetic. With a liquid paintjob by Spectrum Powderworks, the headtube of this titanium frame is left as clearcoat to show of the fine welding of this show display bike, which is a prototype for further models.

Best Fillet Brazed Bike

Mark Nobilette designed this bicycle to be the anti-Herve. He wanted to create a non-traditional touring frame, capable of carrying a full-load, without compromising it. Various parts of the frame deviate from the traditional a wishbone-shaped seat binder, double-bend chain stays, a threadless steerer tube, and fillet brazed joints instead of lugs. The racks, which Nobilette made himself, were powder-coated black instead of the traditional chrome.

Best City Bike

Mitch Pryor of Portland, Oregon s M.A.P. cycles built a beautiful city bike for a customer in Colorado who wanted a commuter cycle. The bike, of a timeless style, is done in a cream color with cork accents and a Brooks saddle. Pryor used selections of Reynolds tubing for its construction and took inspiration from the drawings of French artist Daniel Rebour for the commission. It s cute, said one observer.
I ve heard that a lot, replied Pryor.

Best Paint Job

Toronto painter, Noah Rosen works closely with Mike Barrie, father of the Canadian pro road rider, and a former builder for Mariposa. Barrie wanted Rosen to restore his old 1951 Cinelli to something closely resembling its original condition. They had to go by black and white photos, but Barrie was confident the paint color was a close match.

One of the main challenges, says Rosen, was matching the proportions on the seat tube bands. Getting clean lug edges on a 60-year old bike took a lot of work, since the metal had roughened over the years.
Rosen put some 20 hours into the restoration job.

People s Choice

Naked Bicycles from British Columbia once again won the heart of the NAHBS crowd. Wooden components are used for the seat post, hand grips and pedals, and the frame features particular curves that builder Sam Whittingham states he has a liking for. Bicycles should be more feminine as it softens their lines, he says. The Mountain bike uses the 29 wheel, which Whittingham says is well suited to the BC riding conditions.

President’s Choice

Shin-Ichi Konno is continuing a family business that has made Cherubim one of the most respected handmade bicycle brands in Japan and a builder for keirin racers there. According to Shin-Ichi, the current design of track/keirin racing frames has been in place since the 1960s. The award-winning Cherubim Pista is made with due respect to the long tradition of track bicycle frame building.

Best of Show

Dan Polito of Cicli Polito credits former frame builder Norm Taylor with the inspiration for the Jack Taylor tribute bicycle he brought to the 2009 NAHBS. Polito, who sees making one s own bicycle as the mark of a true cyclist, honored Taylor, who passed away recently, by including elements in this particular bicycle of original grass-track racing bicycles. Laura Long, an associate of Polito s since the shop opened, pointed out cyclists used to compete on horse fields, which explains the wider tires.