In a recent issue of VeloNews magazine, there was an article on the prospect of building a 100% Made in the USA bicycle.
The idea was intriguing, if not only for the challenge. Ultimately, it wasn’t possible. The tires and most of the drivetrain could not be sourced in the States (with the exception of a singlespeed belt-drive by Gates with a Phil Wood chainring and cog).

Not long after reading that article, we had the opportunity to give the MUSA build a shot.

A good customer of ours, Mr. Burke, has been hunting for the ideal bike for years and settled, quite perfectly, on a custom Waterford SR-33. After a couple conversations, we determined we could exceed his needs and fit within budget with a good number of MUSA components. The notable exceptions were drivetrain & brakes, tires, hbars, and saddle. We had decided on an Ultegra Group for the drivetrain and Continental for tires. We went with an in-house favorite, the Deda RHM02, for the handlebar. And the Fizik Aliante VS is a great saddle that is both super sleek and super comfortable.

The American products included King Headset (OR), Thomson Stem and Hbars (GA) , Velocity A23 rims (production recently moved to FL), White Industries H2 & H3 Hubs (CA), DT Spokes (CO), and, of course, the gorgeous Waterford SR-33 frame and fork (WI).

Mr. Burke was very satisfied with his new bike. He immediate jettisoned to his Iowan testing grounds for a few days of riding.
One of the revelations from the build is the White Ind/A23 wheelset. Super light, super tough, super delicious AND relatively affordable for the final weight (1610g – 32h 3x). You can expect to see more of those around here soon.

More images in our Waterford Gallery here.

We’ve been scrambling to keep up with the shotgun spring we’ve had, so we stuck around last night to get some builds done for some lucky customers and for the floor. Here’s a taste of what we accomplished.

With all this non-stop gabbing about fatbikes, we’ve begun to notice our road bike section looking more and more dejected. It’s not a pretty sight to see carbon fiber mope…

We’ve been advertising our Holiday Sale, but we haven’t been very specific. We have some ridiculous prices on some of the road bikes. We try very hard not to keep bikes around (we’re retailers, not collectors), so we rarely have bikes that are more than one model year old. For reasons we can’t explain, there are a few bikes that have stuck around for (much) longer than that and they need to get out of here.

Some bikes are timeless and model years don’t apply, but the rate of innovation in the bike industry is dizzying and it’s gross when the “hottest thing” becomes stale in less than a year. Road bikes are the worst in this case; they’re sometimes obsolete by the time they become rideable. (Released/Exhibited in September, out of production Nov-February, first good outdoor ride in March or April, and then the sneak peeks of new stuff trickle out in May)[it's stupid].

That all being said, we’ve got some great bikes that we’re tired of looking at and they need some good homes. Here are a few, but be sure to stop in and see the rest.

2008 Trek Madone 4.7 – 52cm – Upgraded to Ultegra SL

This bike originally came with Ultegra, but we upgraded them to Ultegra SL*. Originally, the bike was $2650, but we’ve got it marked down to $1950 even though we hung some better stuff on there.

*Shimano made the Ultegra SL group in 2008 only. It was a fantastic idea for roughly 18 minutes.

2009 Trek TTX 9.0 – Sm (52cm)

There’s no good reason this bike is still in the store. This is a little rocket. Was $3,000 – now $2400

2009 Trek Equinox 7 – 58cm

Beautiful Tri bike desperately seeking small giant. Enjoys long training rides and smashing PRs.

Originally $1900, now $1399

Other bikes on sale:

2010 Trek 1.5 – 54, 56 and 56cm WSD – $829 – $70 off

Salsa Pistola – 58cm (actual) – $1500 – $400 off

2010 Trek Project One Madones - 54, 58, and 54WSD – 15% off (up to $600 off)

There’s more in the store.

See you soon.

Every Fall, as the post-Interbike bliss begins to fade, there is a rush of people looking for the “old” stuff that will soon be superseded by the “new” stuff. Sometimes it’s the color, sometimes it’s the spec, sometimes a little bit of column ‘A’ and a little bit of column ‘B’. This has become a time of year we especially enjoy because, as proud purveyors of “wierdo” bikes, we tend to have some of those bikes ready and waiting. We often joke that we should raise the prices as they get more and more rare, but we’re bike retailers, not bike collectors. We want to sell them… to you.

Exhibit A: The Fargo XT in Fun Guy Green. We have those.

This is an incredible bike that has been spec’d, re-spec’d and re-respec’d. Some people thought Salsa was off their rocker for releasing this build, but we thought it was brilliant. We have some demo’s left – Large and XL. Selling for a song, too.

Next up is the beautiful Salsa Casseroll – geared in Gold and single in Mustard (one of the most delicious colors to date).