SSWC07

Feb 14th, 2007

Somehow this idea of “training” got passed on to me earlier this year. I feel like I may have been the least likely candidate to bring structure into my riding life, but it happened. I’ve always scoffed at the idea of “training”, possibly not wanting to admit that someone else’s ideas might help ME be faster…or maybe that having to try was an admission of failure. Whatever the case, I’m over that silliness. I picked up Joe Friel’s book, bought a trainer, a gym membership and a powertap. All these things I’ve poo-poo’d in the past, but I’m now excited to be using. Having been an obsessive rider for the past sixteen years, I don’t think that making this one all about being fast will detract from my “soul rider” path. Besides, it’s for the Single Speed Worlds in Scotland. How cool will that be?

Enjoying life, relaxing, "just riding".

Dec 2nd, 2006

I haven't posted in some time. In that while, I've taken a step away from being competitive on the bicycle. Rides have been just rides, with no pretence of outdoing my previous best. Recovery doesn't take my day away, which I've been thankful to spend time practicing bass guitar and yoga. It may come as blasphemy to some, but I've found a lot more pleasure in life not being 100% bicycle 24hrs a day. When I do ride, it's just riding, as it was 16 years ago when I discovered the freedom of taking off on a bicycle for the first time. (well...maybe it was 20 years ago...) Whatever. Life IS good.

2006 Pisgah Mountain Bike Adventure Race

May 7th, 2006

My favorite local race is the Pisgah Mountain Bike Adventure Race. The basic premise is 50 teams of 2 people are set loose at once with a map and 5 possible checkpoints, 4 of which must be visited in order to place. Teams that visit all five are rewarded with a time bonus. The course is determined by the pairs, and may be between 50 and 100 miles with 11'000' of elevation or more depending out route taken. I got to race with one of my favorite riding buddy's, Eric Cutlip; a total pleasure to be friends with. We were bent on making top 5, riding all-rigid single speeds. Our game plan was to bring with us as little weight as possible, in order to take advantage of a single speed's climbing prowess. While I could continue for days about the challenges and rewards of riding 80 miles of beautiful Pisgah wilderness, the agony and thrill of climbing 15,500’ of elevation, or just the awesome feeling of being on a bike for 11hrs straight...in the end, we achieved our goal and came in 3rd place, being the only team in the top ten to 1.Ride SS, 2.Ride Rigid, 3. Hit all 5 checkpoints.....pretty awesome feeling.

http://www.pisgahproductions.com/pmbar2006/index.html

 

2006 Georgia Single Speed Championships

March 21st, 2006

Lucky me, I got to catch a ride down to Athens, GA and give the 2006 GA Single Speed Championships a shot. I came feeling pretty good, having been riding my fixed gear road bike on more than a few epics in the past few months, so I figured endurance would be on my side, letting me ride the super fun course as fast as I could wind my bike through the tight trees and over jumpy undulations. Well, such was not the case as I came along the end of my second of three laps, seeing the mile marker, doing the math, and realizing that I would have some 10 miles more and I could already feel my legs wanting to cramp. Oops, too much fun. Long story short, deep breathing and drinking lots of fluids did nothing to prevent my legs from freezing up. Finally dismounting and digging claws into the earth and rolling around litterally screaming into the leaves, I knew I had overdone it. Mustering up the energy to finish, final lap taking 10% longer than the first two laps. In retrospect it was so worth it to have had a full 18 miles of extraordinary fun for just 9 of heinous suffering. I'll definitely go back (so long as someone with a car will bring me)

2006 Icycle at Fontana Villiage, NC

Feb 4th, 2006

I got talked into going to the yearly winter time bicycle celabration of the Icycle. After some reluctancy on my (hungover) part, I entered the SS race and ran to the start line barely in time to watch the Pro/Expert class take off, marking three minutes till SS. Off the Le Mans style start, I was surprised by my ability to speed ahead of the crowd. I guess walking and running around town this winter paid off. Anyways, the race is cold wet and mucky, and short at just 10 miles. I didn't see anyone in SS division the entire race, coming in nearly 5 minutes ahead of second. Having already passed half the Expert class, I went ahead to see what my time would be with their third lap. thirty minutes later I would have been 3rd place behind Sam Koerber and Jacob McGeyhee...the two fastest mtn bikers in the state. I think it's going to be a great year of riding. -Marshall

Cog's are currently available in all sizes, 14t-25t

Aug 7th, 2005

Thankfully after some minor delay in production, we have cogs available in all sizes and should exepct to mainain a good stocking supply from now onwards. Fibonacci Spacer Kits are currently unavailable, however will be also available in mass quantity in roughly two weeks. All orders will be shipped ASAP. Thanks! -Marshall

Kick Ass Cogs Kick Ass

April 25th, 2005

With literally hundreds of Kick-Ass cogs out there at this point, we are damn stoked. We are especially pleased that such a great number of cogs have been sold to repeat customers. Thank you so very much for your support! Keep on the lookout for more single speed specific parts coming down the pipeline.

Fell Off a Cliff

April 11th, 2005

Yesterday’s big ride was a classic loop somewhere 45 minutes from home.
27 miles and some 5000' of climbing.

The ride started with a 2.5hr pedal up a 100yr old forestry rail grade that was predominately rock strewn and sopping wet. We held a very strong pace; having left at 6pm we were trying to beat the sun. Due to a flat tire, we failed and had to climb the final 2 miles up in the dark with lights. The pace dropped significantly not being able to see far enough ahead to miss the harder edged rocks (or rather the few spaces between them all).
On reaching the trail near the white trailer, we cruised down the steep and rocky upper section of our descent and landed in a small meadow with slight views of the small mountain town at the bottom. The sky was clear, and the sliver of a crescent moon and the stars were gave only a hint at the shapes of our surroundings.

After doing a little stretching and getting our heads on straight, we began the 7 mile journey down the backbone of our mountain. With just enough light to see just far enough ahead, the speed that we traveled down this 18" bench cut trail made for an absolutely otherworldly visual experience. The trail is relatively smooth, with the occasional root or stray fist sized rock, making it possible to let go and allow gravity to hurdle you through narrow rhododendron tunnels with total abandon. This continued for maybe 20 minutes, but time was irrelevant and meaningless under such conditions.

There are only three wrong turns that can be made in the ride, and the rule is simply "stay right". Two of the wrong turns are very close together, and when we approached the first, I had somehow thought it was supposed to be a four way intersection instead of a wrong left hand option, 50' of trail, and then a wrong straight ahead option. Confused and wondering what happened to the wrong straight ahead option (which I took last time I was out here past sunset), I forged ahead on foot through the mountain laurel to reaffirm something that wasn't. Two steps in to the blackness, I put my hand on a tree to secure my balance and took another step that wasn't there.
What transpired over the next few seconds was a succession of darkening realizations, beginning with" OOps, I stepped in a hole" to "Dang, I stepped over a 3' ledge" to "where the heck did the ground go" to "Oh my god, I’m still falling". I hit the ground completely disoriented, and was thrilled to be conscious, but before that security could hold fast, I was going end over end again down the mountain side. My greatest fear at this point was that I would soon be going over another larger and rockier drop. Thankfully the ground leveled off enough that I came to a stop. Looking up at a 12-15' vertical to slightly undercut landslide that must have occurred during the big storms last September, I wondered how I made it down alive, and more importantly at this point, how I was going to make it back up.

A little bushwhacking and trudging through exposed roots on the edge of the slide, I pulled up and got back on to the level surface of the trail.
Climbing back on the bike, the remaining decent was taken with a wee more hesitation and caution. Still, regardless of my mental state, I will usually prefer to leave the brakes alone, so long as there is a chance at staying upright and on the trail. Thankfully, it was mostly switchbacks and not the high speed straights of before.

Dropping into the bottom campsite and crossing the creeks, it concluded another awesome run on !@..$$.. idge trail.

Five miles and 700' vertical of gravel road, cranking full on back to the car and it was time to eat. Hot food. Served. But it was 11pm, and this is a small town, in the Bible belt, on a Sunday night. Thankfully we have Waffle House as our salvation, and The All Star Special did me well with its three eggs over easy, two sausage rounds, a pecan waffle, a side of grits and two pieces of toast. I went ahead and ordered up a double cheeseburger all the way to finish off the appetite and went home to clean my wounds and go to sleep.

One Last Wintery Ride

April 3rd, 2005

The ride began with an 8 mile gravel fire road climb that elevated us from 2500' to 4500'....500'/mile always feels pretty good on its own, but the pedal up was highlighted by an unexpected blanket of powdery snow. For having two 60 degree days in a row, and roughly a week of them before, this was quite the end of winter treat. Additionally, at the end of the climb was a slight down hill slope featureing a half mile of technical wet and rocky singletrack that finished at the base of a 70' waterfall: so sweet!

Riding back up the sigletrack was a fantastic chalange, as was the fire road descent down, which with the 4" of snow was no easier than coming up.
While still some 1600' above our start point, we set off on a singletrack offshoot from the fireroad which turned out to be the steepest, yet still very flowy descent I have ever ridden. Ass off the back, carving sweet lines through hardpack and random rock features. Near the base, we crossed a freezing stream that put us knee deep and numb toed. More rocks and speed, and the ride's finish coincided with the sun setting. Awesome!

Kick Ass Cogs and Dirt Rag

February 15th, 2005

It sounds like a few folks got their Dirt-Rag mag a little earlier than we had anticipated! To those of you wondering: Kick-Ass-Cogs will be available on the 15th of Feb.

Short Cut

February 9th, 2005

The Short-Cut simght simply be too nice of a bike for its intended purpose. While we are confident that The Short-Cut is the most potent street mountain bike ever with its innovative geometry and stout tubeset, we just can't risk releasing this groundbreaking frame design at $600 so long as our competitors offer cheap Tawainesse options selling for 25% less.

Lifetime Batch #3 Selling Fast / Short Cut

August 31st, 2004

Batch three of the Endless Lifetime frame is selling super quick, and batch four of Lifetime frames may be a ways off. We've got a totally new frame design that we've been working on for the last two years, prototyping, fine tuning geometry and design detail, etc...and well, we're nearly ready to bring to life the Endless "Short-Cut". Basically, the Short-Cut does half of what the Lifetime does but twice as good. More details will be available as production goes underway!

Lifetime Batch #3

July 29th, 2004

Our third batch of 25 Endless Frames are in and are definitely the nicest yet. S-bend chain stays allowed us better tire and chainring clearance while giving the frames a nice aesthetic touch. We've dropped the ISCG tabs until there is a true chain guide mounting standard (the current one is not well concieved). The colors available in this batch are Dessert Tan, Dry Blood Burgundy, and Saphire Blue. Oh yeah, weight is down to nearly 5.5lbs!

Endless World Updates

June 8th, 2004

Dang, I'm slack as can be on this whole website updateing stuff. In the time since I last typed here a whole lot has happened! Firstly, Morpheus Tattoo went out of business and Pippi's Exchange came in. We now have the coolest thrift shop (and owner) in town above us. Additionally, Monroe the owner married our buddy "Fixed" Mike from Chicago. What a surprise. "Fixed" Mike is a great guy who showed up in town on a swank primer grey Surly Steamroller and has inspired Sean Quigley from Pro-Bikes and myself to start racing track at the Asheville "Mellowdrome", which has been a total blast. Sean and I both placed well in the B class despite our baggy cutoffs and dirty t-shirts.

Anyways, now that we're back on the topic of bikes and whatnot: we've been darn busy with that sort of stuff lately:

We sponsored this whole 3rd Annual Mountain Sports Festival mountain bike street event we called “Urban Decay". We designed the course to complement the specific advantages of bigger wheels in a street environment, and to illustrate our point we let all the Asheville local BMX badasses compete head to head against the likes of Jeff Lenosky and Kyle Ebbett in a slope style street event that offered three tiers of flowing ramps, wall rides, ledges, and rails. Jeff Lenosky took home 1st place in Pro, followed by our own Anson Wellington, with "Toledo" Joe Prisel taking third. I was secretly rooting for Joe, as he rolled up nearly unknown to everybody with the most positive and real attitude which IMO mountain biking is in desperate need of. Thanks Joe for all your help with construction on the course as well as your creative contributions to the second tier design! In the face of a fairly difficult course, the amateur showing was impressive. Loads of North Carolina kids representing! *Amateur results were: 1. Brian Wilkinson 2.(official breakdance world champ) B-rad pastic 3. Heikki Hall 4. Peter Mills 5. Derek Wilson 6. Cory Greennelth 7. Thomas Hosford 8. Chad Stetan 9. Adam Winton 10. Jared McEntire 11. David Bryon 12. Christian Franklin 13. Scott Wilson *Pro results were: 1. Jeff 2. Anson 3. Joe Prisel 4. Joe Haley 5. Jim Dellavalle 6. Justin Swartz t7. Seth Lolli , Wesley McCracken 9. Kyle Ebbett t10. Dave Smutels , Jeremy Demers 12. Stiles Cummings t13. Travis Nevill, Marshall Hance t15. George Ryan , Jason Schwinabart 17. Brian Piper 18. Ryan Smith 19. B. J. Wolfe 20. Jared Berkman

Great photos can be found on Ridemonkey, Sayworks, and Southern Discomfort. Look out for nutty video coverage in an upcoming Match Videozine!

As far as media coverage is concerned, major thanks go out to Martin Edwards and Dirt Rag for their small manufacturer spotlight on us in this months issue. A two page article in the best mountain bike mag ever; We couldn't be more flattered!

Comming up this June 13th, we'll be taking off to head up north for nine days of riding. First stop is Harrisburg, PA for some supposedly super tech singletrack we've been hearing about for years. Then we'll check out Jeff Lenosky's Jump Jam and maybe hang out the following day. We'll move on towards Manhattan to ride the vast ammounts of street there for several days. After we've had our fill, we may check out Boston for the local dirt scene before finishing up with the Rye Airfield comp before comming back home to our third batch of frames!

Preorders for the third round of Lifetime's are stacking up super fast on this small batch of 25 which will be available in Tan, Dark Green, and Dark Blue. There's been some minor changes in design. We've made improvements on chainstay clearances and have decided to drop the soon to be outdated ISCG tabs because a new and improved standard is presently in the works. Also, the dropouts have been tweaked ever so slightly.

Done Moving!

December 28th, 2003

Done Moving! Sweet. New address, new phone numbers. We've got this rad basement office space in the middle of downtown West Asheville, underneath Morpheus Tattoo and Pro-Bikes. More room to spread out and get our shop super organized. BTW, we're down to three frames left from our second batch. The next round of 25 will be ordered from BREW tomorrow, and should be available late Feb, early March.

In the Middle of Moving

November 22nd, 2003

We're in the middle of moving.....so I just wanted to say sorry if we don't get back to your emails and phone calls super duper quick. Its not that we don't care, its just that we've got to get out of this small ghetto place we've been in for over a year now. Man...I just had to remove some sketch ball white trash addict from the porch after typing the last sentence. So yeah, we're moving downtown Asheville into a much nicer place, where things will be running super smooth from there on after.

XC Lifetime?

October 22nd, 2003

So yeah, we designed the Lifetime frame to be a real do it all bike.. but we never really bothered to set one up full XC style before. Well, for the hell of it Adam set his bike up with a 110mm stem and a shorter XC fork and holly shit does that thing feel good. All y'all (the whole 40 of you) who've already got a frame, give a longer stem a shot and see for yourself on your next trail ride.

Lifetime Batch #2

October 19th, 2003

Man, we have neglected this site! Check it out. We ordered up our second round of frames from BREW back in March, and we've been doing nothing but waiting and bugging them to see what the progress was. Well, two weeks ago they were finally done and looking hot. In the past two weeks, we've been working super hard to get all these frames finished up with headbadges and stickers, boxed up and shipped out to their new owners. So anyways, now we've got just 5 left and it's time to do it all again.