www.jetsetbikemechanic.wordpress.com  the continuation of the Dave’s bike shop blog.  It began after the closing of the shop-  there is also the FTS cyclocross team website that can be linked via the prvious entry

www.ftscycling.wordpress.com

Congrat’s Meshy on a very commanding win!

Photo: Mason Ibas

I wonder who built her bike???????

Yo….

It is I.  Back from another crazy trip.  Hopped a flight to the PDX in Portland, OR to help establish the Team Expresscopy.com Service course. (that’s euro for warehouse)  Met up with Scott (Director Sportif) and Kiwi Jeff.  We stacked a bunch of shelves, went out to Olive Garden in the sponsors $136,000 Maseratti,( did you know in the PDX you can’t order a beer if you are a Kiwi- drivers license or not- without your passport-  no, it’ s true) bought a box truck. Drank some really good coffee (thank you Riseretta)  Pulled some pimp my ride magic-  custom racks for 40 wheels, 16 bikes and months of parts and food-  some flashy yellow stickers and 4 days labor- Voila!! new team truck.  I was flown out to help with the truyck buil out, but my primary purpose was to build the Girls new Galium Argon 18 Race Bikes and Glue up all of there flashy new Easton Deepdish Carbon Wheels-  1st Problem-  no bikes-  not Sunday, Not Monday, Tuesday or Wedsday.  Thursday they arrived!!!! and needed to be built from Scratch before noon so that we could load everything up and get to Monterey CA, for the Sea Otter Classic by 1:00 Friday (800 miles away) oh yeah and the tubulars were in California with Jim Wannamaker from Kenda- issues, issues, issues.  On to the slideshow portion of our program.

Clif Bar-  This will get the girls through June.  Yup.  June.

Kiwi Jeff and I do good work-  we cleaned Portland out of Wheel holders and still needed another 10-  but the truck is set up very well.

Yes-  Those are all Carbon SRAM Force Cranksets and Easton Carbon EC70 Seatposts.  Mmmm Carbonnnnnnn.

PDX Service Course-  Thursday 2:15pm

PDX Service Course- Thursday 3:45pm.  Gotta go, go, go man…….

Ok-  This is the view of Kiwi Jeff and his van trailer combo.  I saw way to much of this view in the 800+ miles driven from Portland, OR to Monterey CA.  We left late.  The box truck I was driving brole down within the Portland City limits-  TWICE!!!  Man.  We had to do a little wheel sucking-  I actually had to put the box truck about 2 feet behind the van and trailer to catch a draft so that we wouldn’t run out of gas outside SanJose-  We were on Fumes and Jeff gave us a draft for 26 miles and here is what we saw when we stopped for gas….

Truely a man’s gas station!!!!  Girlie mags, Fishin’ mags, stuffed stuff and Coors!!  Yehaw-  Fire up the General Uncle Jessy-  Rosco’s a’ comin!!!  Holy. F’n. Crap.

So Many stories.  So little energy… Much, much more to come from this trip>>>>>>>

Yo-  I am back from Redlands.  It was AWESOME!!!!!!!  Wrenching for a UCI Pro Women’s team is alot of hard work, but man was it cool.  The girls are great-  the support staff is great.  The girls actually took 8th on GC which is pretty good considering that their strongest riders are out at the moment-  two with Injuries and Gina is at the Track World Championships-  So, long story short.  Good racing, got along with the team.  Passed the test-  going to Portland, OR for a few days in a week or so to put together 15 team bikes and then driving to Monterey, CA for the Sea Otter classic.  In May I am going to Europe for a month-  1st stop Antwerp Belgium, then on to the Elite factory in Italy and finally France for the Tour D’ Laude Stage race.  Sweeeeetttttt.  Here are a few pics for your viewing pleasure

This is my view from the team car as we got to join our rider Ann Samplonious who was in a 5 rider break that was able to get 2 minutes on the main field.  The group stayed away until the final climb to Oak Glen-  When the time gap got to 2 minutes-  the chase group formed and hunted down the 5.  They were not caught until the last 3km

Team T-Mobile’s Ina Teutenberg-  one of the fastest women in the world gives an interview to a Journalist in front of our team trailer????????

Loading the trailer for the day…..  Guess how much money is sitting here…. try again!!

Jessica’s 15lb weapon of choice.  mmmmm carbon.  lots of carbon.

Jouelle (“jr”) Numainville-  the Canadian Junior National Champion signs an autograph for one of her many fans.  She is known for her generous nature and charm.

Alison looks almost rested after 105km of very hard road racing in 80 degree weather.  That’s pro!

The Pit at the  Redlands NRC Pro Crit-  crowded, very crowded.

 To all my loyal customers, thank you.   Thank you for believing.  Thank you for being understanding and loyal.  Thank you for being not only customers, but friends as well.  Thank you for allowing me to live the dream for the last 6 years.  I have closed the store but I have not left.  Starting in March I will be spinning wrenches at Plaine’s Bike Shop.  I look forward to seeing you at Plaine’s and out on the trail. 

Sooooooo

To all the local idiots that bought shit on ebay and from faceless online discounters to save a couple of dollars and complained about the cost of labor from “local” shops -  congratulations!!  you contributed in more ways than one to the closing of this shop and will ultimately effect the bottom lines of all the other small IBD’s in this area.  Contrary to popular belief-  we don’t make a million dollars a year.  Most of us aren’t in it for the money.  We are in it because we love cycling.  We love working on bikes and we love being a central part of the bike community.  We want this and we want to be able to pay our bills-  that’s it.  Being a small IBD things are more expensive for us, so they are slightly more expensive for you, but what you get in the form of service far outways the small financial difference-for you.  You actually benefit from this dynamic-  but apparently you don’t get it. So for all of you who didn’t get it-  Do you get it now?  If you still don’t get it-  let me spell it out for you-

BUY LOCAL.  SUPPORT LOCAL. 

We are the ones that are there when your “new bike i got online for $50 bucks less than the local shop” breaks on the trail- and we fix it for free.  We are the ones that gave you the knowledge that allowed you to make your decision to buy that new bike you love so much-  and we are the ones that get fucked in the end.  You know who you are.  I know who you are.  I can’t wait to hear it “why did you close?”  and….. I can’t wait to explain it again.

Those two riders that eat it hard in the begining of this video clip are none other than Belgian favorites Sven Nys and Bart Wellens.  Near the end of the clip you see what appears to be Bart Wellons trying to re connect with the chase group and he eats it hard on the very fast uphill-   OUch!!!! The only good thing to come of this is the Awesome, unbelievable ride of NH native Jonathon Page with a Silver Medal finish.  Congrats JP!!!!!

Mr. Kitty was my friend for nearly 14 years,  This marks the one year anniversary of his passing.  Mr. Kitty was by far the funniest, grumpiest, nastiest cat I have ever known- or ever want to know.  He was very fond of me but when it came to others….. Well he didn’t really like too many people-  it took him nearly 2 years to warm up to Celeste, but he still growled at her and chased her from time to time-  I think he found it to be good sport.  He also thought it was fun to bite my  bicep as hard as he could-  latching on at 2:00a.m. scaring the crap out of me and my wife only to do it again an hour later… this was his way of saying he was hungry NOW and was not about to wait until a decent hour to be fed.  He was a bit of a bully and I loved him very much. 

This picture of Mr. Kitty is one of my favorites and was taken after Celeste and I returned from the Plymouth Cyclocross race a few years ago.  He loved the smell of that mud!  he continued to hug and rub his face into my nasty mud soaked DMT’s purring and drooling-  it was frickin’ weird and funny as hell.  He was a big fan of dirty shoes and Messenger bags-  he could often be found curled up in my messenger bag or lounging on a pile of cycling magazines.  Rest in Peace Mr. Kitty

FTS Cycling’s own Colleen Flaherty with CycloCross Supah Fan Yonkas at her side.  Pictures of the USCX Natz Volunteer Jacket clad yonkers seem to be popping up all over the web.  This pic is from Paul Weiss of ME-  The woman with the camera in the background also has pics of Yonkers on her website www.printroom.com.  Yonkas is wicked famous.