Scott Hodge - Addictive Cycles - Support The Cause

Originally Posted on MTBTrailReview.com by Robb Sutton (aka 198).

A friend of mine…pyschobillycadillac…put together this benefit ride to support Scott Hodge. Many of you have no clue who Scott Hodge is or what he has done for the cycling community. Until recently, I had no clue how much influence the man referred to as “Hodge” has done for the community because he does not brag about it. He does it because of his pure love of the sport and its community.

Unfortunately, Hodge got in a terrible motorcycle accident a couple of weeks ago that left several broken vertebrae and very large doctors bills. As a bike shop owner, Addictive Cycles, Hodge doesn’t have the funds (I wouldn’t be able to either!) to get this bills paid off.

So What Can We Do?

It is time to give back to a man who has so freely given his time, money and energy to the sport. Every single little bit helps, so please give what you can. I know times are tight right now all over the world, but it would greatly help him and his family if you could throw a little their way.

Namrita O’Dea and some others have set up a PayPal account to accept the donations. Please donate what you can. Her readers have already done a great job so don’t let her beat me!

Benefit Ride

Before…I mentioned a ride…well here is all the info so try to make it if you are local to the area.

Hey folks as Im sure most everyone knows our dear friend Scott Hodge was involved in a motorcycle accident that has left him layed up with some pretty serious injuries as well as medical expenses. So we’re going to be doing a benefit ride to help out with some of those expenses. The details are as such…
Sat. November 8th at Fort Yargo, we’re going to shoot for a 12:00 (high noon) start time for the rides. We’re doing a later start for a few reasons, one it’s getting on towards winter and this will allow things to warm up a bit for the riding and two we’ve had folks from some pretty far away places express interest and we want to give them the ability to join us!

We will have rides furnished with ride leaders for all abilities! If you want to just do a short easy lap we will have someone for you. If you want to go out and hammer 50 miles, we will have someone there for you as well! Please we’re asking for everyone with every ability to come out, whether you just want to ride around the parking lot or experience all that Fort Yargo has to offer, we want you to feel welcome to join in the fun.

After the ride we will have food available for everyone and the new local and rising band Hammer Down has agreed to come play for us! And if that wasn’t enough our own local legend Bruce “the mouf of da souf” Dickman has graciously agreed to be our master of ceremonies for the day In addition a HUGE thanks go out to the folks at YABA who have donated to us the use of the pavillion there at the park for the day, thanks guys!

So what do we need from you? Well your attendance for starters and we’re asking for donations for the Scott Hodge fund. We’d like to ask for $20 from everyone to help out in the bills but please donate as much or as little as you can. As I said before everyone is welcome so if you can help out a lot and feel the call to do so then please by all means. If you can help out a little then we want you to feel just as important. Above all we just want to see your happy smiling faces out there doing what we all love most and what Scott wishes he could be joining us in. In addition to all of that we are working on some games for everyone, kids rides and a few other things that you’re just going to have to show up for to find out what they’re all about.

Everyone I’m speaking for Hodge and all of us here at the Addictive Cycles family when I say that the overflow of care and support that has been shown so far is amazing. It proves just what an amazing community the cycling world is and how we can all come together when a fellow member needs help. Thank you again from the bottom of our hearts for all that you have done and will do and we look forward to seeing you all on Nov. 8th!
Matt-

Women’s Only MTB Clinic with Pro Mountain Biker Krista Park and Sorella’s Laina Hamilton

Join professional mountain bike racer Krista Park of Team Kenda Titus Hayes and Sorella Sport mountain bike racer Laina Hamilton for a women’s-only mountain bike clinic at the Yellow River Mountain Bike Festival. Krista and Laina will cover topics such as improved vision, balance, cornering, and negotiating obstacles. Come on out for a fun morning in the dirt!

Yellow River Mountain Bike Festival
October 18th, 2008 9am-12pm

Made to Order Bikes, Inc. and The Bicycle Doctor Partner to Provide Custom Built Mountain Bike Service

It is with great excitement that I release news of an agreed partnership between Made to Order Bikes, Inc. (MTOBikes.com) and The Bicycle Doctor.  After a couple months of scouring the internet, reading reviews, and firsthand personal experience, our search connected us with Atlanta’s #1 ranked and most-rated bike shop by Kudzu. The belief in the partnership is that it will strengthen each business while also providing better service and greater benefits to our clients.

The Bicycle Doctor’s shop is built with customer satisfaction as the top priority.  The #1 goal is to make the customer happy and the shop is always willing to go above and beyond to make that happen.  Our goal at MTOBikes.com has always been to provide valuable knowledge by mountain bike enthusiasts for mountain bike enthusiasts.  The partnership with The Bicycle Doctor enables us to fulfill our offering of custom built bicycles.  The Bicycle Doctor has access to all the parts and accessories and the technical expertise to assemble the bikes properly. Never before has the ‘Build-a-Bike’ website and ‘Local Bike Shop’ ideas been so closely intertwined.

The Bicycle Doctor is owned and operated by Scott Mosko. Prior to opening the shop, Scott worked in many of Atlanta’s best bike shops while he attended college.  He holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in electrical engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology.  Scott has raced both mountain and road bikes over the years, but is partial to mountain biking and downhill riding.

Scott had no idea his dream would ever grow this far when the shop was born in 1993. After college, he Simultaneously worked as an engineer for both AT&T and Motorola while maintaining the shop as a side business. In the spring of 2007 Scott was laid off from Motorola and, at the behest of his friends, he decided it was time to take the next step.

Scott has more experience with bikes and repairs than a vast majority of the mechanics in town. His experience coupled with his desire to stay current with developing technologies in the industry is what seperates him from other shops. Having worked as an engineer who interfaced with outsourcing, he is one of the few who understands the manufacturing processes. The Bicycle Doctor caters to top local racers, but is never above working on a basic or low-end bicycle. The goal with a bike sale (or repair) is to find out what the customer truly hopes to achieve. This is what separates the elite from the rest, and this is the methodology behind Scott’s approach to business.

The Made to Order Bike Shop is officially open for business.  If you are interested in receiving a quote for a custom built mountain bike, click on the Build my Bike link located in the sidebar and be as descriptive (and realistic in price) as possible to help us provide you with an accurate quote.

Winner of the CLIX Wheel Release System’s “Fastest Wheel Swap” Contest at Interbike 2008 Expo

From the mouth of Dave Widing, the official timer of the CLIX wheel release system’s “Fastest Wheel Swap” $500 giveaway contest.

The contest took place over the first two days of Interbike 2008 and was incredibly competitive over 100 people were officially timed plus a number of others who forgot to stick around to give their contact info. The latter apparently took place more frequently after the beer was flowing.  When the dust settled mechanical wiz and industry legend Edward Klomp from Chicago Drive Cyclery and Fitness posted a cool 4.57 seconds beating out second place by .69 seconds.  Overall, about 30 people posted times under 10 seconds.  Second place was overheard citing distraction by the two CLIX girls as a possible reason for his slight error although no formal complaint is expected to be filed.

Ed can be seen here in all his winning glory.

Interbike 2008 Expo: Pronghorn Racing Debut of Top Mounted Suspension Mountain Bikes

Interbike 2008 sees the International debut of an innovative line of top mounted suspension bikes from Danish company, Pronghorn.

Definitely one of the more eye catching designs of the show, the complete line of bikes utilizes a top mounted suspension system that maximizes leverage and eliminates pedal bobbing.. Mtobikes.com spoke with CEO and founder of Pronghorn, Kenneth Dalsgaard, about this stylish line of bikes.

“We were looking for a way to take away some of the disadvantages of the range of suspensions systems on the market. We have a team in Denmark that completely engineered this system from scratch. It is a very efficient riding system, and until you try it you cannot believe the quality of the ride”.

Definitely something we would like to get our hands on for a test this fall.

Check out their products and company mission at www.pronghornracing.com

Interbike 2008 Expo Begins Today

Back in the early beginnings of mountain biking it use to be that there were several large mountain bike expos…I attended my first in Chicago somewhere in the late 90s. I remember staring in awe as Hans “No Way Rey” showed his jumping and balancing skills…I was hooked!  In 2000 I attended college at Illinois State University in Normal, Illinois where I quickly became active in racing as part of the mountain bike club.  I only participated and raced my freshman year as my focus turned more towards girls and partying. I find myself here, eight years later, still with a love for mountain biking.

There is now really only one mountain bike expo in North America…Interbike. Today begins the Interbike Expo with over 1,000 of the top brands and nearly 23,000 attendees from over 60 countries.  Interbike is the largest bicycle trade event in North America and one of the most important stops on the global trade show calendar.  Stay tuned as we cover the exhibits, product launches, meetings and a celebration of the bicycle business at Interbike 2008.

Among the Interbike exhibitors unveiling new product launches are:

• Mountain Cycle which will be unveiling its long awaited launch of its slopestyle frame, the Mountain Cycle Battery.  As Eric LaPointe of Mountain Cycle North America says, “The Battery will finally…I repeat, finally…be here in Oct./Nov. of this year.  Although not uber cool to everyone (since the Battery was originally unveiled by old ownership at Interbike 2005)…but very exciting for us at MC…that we will finally bring this Slopestyle creation to market.”
• CLIX wheel release system which will be holding a “Fastest Wheel Swap” competition for a prize of $500 in booth 4409.  If you are going to the show be sure to check this competition out and say hello to Dave from us here at MTOBikes!
• TAG Wheels will feature their new TR3 composite wheelset.  The new wheels are available in some pretty rad colors!
• Pivot Cycles’s new Mach 429 claimed to be the pinnacle of 29er full suspension design. Using designs from Chris Cocalis and DW-Link designer Dave Weagle, the Mach 429 delivers on the promise of ultimate efficiency and unsurpassed performance from its 29″ wheels.
• SRAM’s Truvativ HammerSchmidt, the newest breakthrough in front transmission technology  that provides the same benefits of a duel ring system neatly packed into one single ring.
• And much, much more!

Stay in the loop by signing up for our email updates (just above the “Build my Bike” button) or by subscribing to our RSS feed.  MTOBikes correspondents will be in attendance at this year’s Interbike and we plan to post about what’s getting the most hype at the Expo.

Don’t know who Hans Rey is? Watch the video below.

2008 Interbike OutDoor Demo: Wimmer

The crazy concept bike award: Wimmer

The cool:

• Crazy linkage Downhill Frame inspired by Moto GP suspension designs
• Ti main frame, aluminum sub-frame members
• Next generation will have cast magnesium frame fittings
• Front fork compresses from top and bottom, dual crown only attaches and pivots at the top of the frame head tube (see pic 2).

Shown with Ti front brake rotor
Concept Only – No Test Ride, looking for licensing agreements

Contact:  www.bsiinv.com
email:  rusty@sbt.net

France Takes Gold and Silver in Men’s Mountain Biking at 2008 Olympic Games

France finished one-two in the men’s mountain biking event at the Beijing Olympic games at Laoshan Mountain.

Julien Absalon claimed his second straigh Gold medal with a time of 1:55:59, just over a minute ahead of his compatriot Jean-Christophe Peraud who finsihed second. Julien is a four-time world champion and became the first man with two Olympic mountain biking titles with his win today.

The bronze medal was won by Nino Schurter of Switzerland. He beat out countryman Christoph Sauser who was the 2000 Olympic Bronze medalist by just two seconds!

“I realized that I was better going uphill than he was,” Schurter said afterwards.

“I was able to hold him off on the straights, and the last 15 seconds I definitely had the better of him.

“I really wanted a medal and I am more than happy.”

He added that he would do everything possible to become the favourite to win gold in the 2012 Games in London.

The United States, Adam Craig finished 29th and Todd Wells finished 43rd.

Today’s event was the final cycling competition of the Beijing Games.

Germany’s Sabine Spitz Claims Gold at Beijing Olympics

Veteran racer Sabine Spitz of Germany dominated Laoshan Mountain at the Olympic women’s mountain bike race Saturday, winning the gold medal by 41 seconds over Poland’s Maja Wloszezowska. Spitz becomes Germany’s first gold medalist in Mountain Biking since it became an Olympic sport in 1996.

A world champion in 2003 and bronze medalist at the Athens 2004 Olympic Games, the 36-year-old stopped pedaling just before the finish line and walked over holding her bike over her head crossing the line in 1:45.11.

With Spitz facing nothing but an open trail for gold, the battle for the remaining medals was intense.

Maja Wloszczowska chugged away from a chase group in the second lap and settled into Poland’s first Mountain Bike Olympic medal, taking silver at 41 seconds off the pace in 1:45.52.

Russia’s Irina Kalentyeva battled against Catharine Pendrel of Canada in the final lap for third, with the Russian edging her Canadian rival by just nine seconds to claim bronze in 1:46.28.

The 30-rider Women’s field struggled against the heat and the challenging course that caused scores of riders to crash. Only 18 riders of 30 starters finished; eight riders were lapped and four did not finish.

Three pre-race favorites struggled early on.

Marie-Helene Premont of Canada, silver medalist at the Athens 2004 Olympic Games, defending Olympic champion Gunn-Rita Dahle Flesjaa of Norway and Margarita Fullana of Spain, three-time world champion and Sydney 2000 Olympic Games bronze medalist, all did not finish.

View video footage of the course.

Video Footage of the 2008 Olympic Mountain Biking Course

Before the 2008 Olympic games began there was a test event in 2007 in which the following footage was video taped.  The videographer is German, Manuel Fumic who during one of his traning sessions attached a camera to his helmet and while riding Laoshan Mountain capturing the footage that is split into two episodes.

The video is not of the highest quality, but nonethelss it will provide an opportunity to see the trail the Olympic athletes will be riding.

Read more

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