Hot Diggity Dogs at Passion Trail Bikes

Sure is warm, and the dogs aren’t moving much today.

This week’s news and info on July 14, 2009

1. New Faces in the Store
2. Wednesday Wrides: Sweaty Singletrack, Super Soakers at 6:30pm
3. Female Friday is July 24th, 6:30pm
4. San Mateo County MTB High School Club/Team
5. Waterdog Trailwork Saturday 7/25 9:30am
6. CJ’s Traveling Toolbox and Parts Kit for Road Trips
7. Auto Rack Coupon


1. New Faces in the Store
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Our search for staff to keep our workbenches humming has concluded and we wanted to let you know about the new kids on the block. Pancho started a week or two ago; he will be helping us keep our sales floor staffed and new bike builds moving from idea to order to box to workstand to trainer to dirt. Oh yeah, we’re happy about that. And Will will be starting later this week, taking over the wrenching space vacated by Sterling.

We hope to have some bios posted on our homepage soon, and we will send you a link next week so you can learn a bit more about our great staff.

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2. Wednesday Wrides: Super Soakers at 6:30pm
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Sunset is at 8:31pm this Wednesday 07/15/09. Twilight ends and darkness falls right around 9:15pm. Next week the Regular Ride launches at 6:30pm

The hot days of Summer are still commanding our attention. Bring your favorite misting device for a little fun with evaporative cooling. All the usual rides will go out. See below. This week’s food fest will once again feature Patty’s famous BBQ, pasta and salad spread. Please remember to feed the tip jar to defray the costs of putting out the yummy stuff.

P. L. E. A. S. E. . . . P. U. T. . . . L. I. G. H. T. S. . . . O. N ! ! ! !

Please remember to put a light on your handlebar and have a blinky ready for the ride back to the shop! CA vehicle code requires it. Don’t get caught out on the streets in the dark! Also, a reminder that we need to be super conscientious about stopping at stop signs and lights, yielding to pedestrians, and operating our bikes predictably and responsibly while on the roads and trails. Let’s be safe and kind out there.

For all the details about what makes each group listed below unique, please refer to this webpage. If your questions aren’t answered there, you can also email us for info at info@passiontrailbikes.com.

All rides start pedaling from the shop: Passion Trail Bikes, 415 Old County Road, Belmont, CA 94002 650-620-9798

Sweet Singletrack on the Wednesday Wride

The EARLY ride will go out at 6:15 PM.
The REGULAR rides will go out between 6:20 and 6:35 PM.
The FBG or Fat Bottomed Girl ride will go out at 6:35 PM.
The WHITE SOCKS ride will go out at 6:35 PM.
The STRAGGLERS ride goes out sometime around6:45 PM.
For future planning, we have the upcoming start times each week for the REGULAR ride posted on our Community Calendar

Note we may not have leaders for each ride but usually someone knows their way around. All groups will meet back here at Passion Trail Bikes right around dark for the usual story telling & beverage enjoyment. We will have stuff for the BBQ along with some carbo laden side dish, chips and fatty snacks and EANABS to pair up with the Devil’s Canyon Brewery’s Full Boar Scotch Ale, Silicon Blonde Ale, and Little Devil Root Beer. We will hang out until about 10pm, so come on down, even if you can’t make the ride! Passion Parties are better with YOU in the mix!

A little bit of balance on the Lower Creek Trail skinny

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3. Female Friday is July 24th, 6:30
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Save the date and tell your girlfriends!. The ladies will gather, pedal about the open space, and return for social hour and fine victuals. Great fun for all the dirt loving women in our lives!

Female Friday rides staging

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4. San Mateo County MTB High School Club/Team
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We know it’s still the middle of summer, but it turns out we have some serious interest in putting together a Club and/or Team for High School kids who want to ride mountain bikes and maybe race this coming school year. We are pretty sure we will have kids from several schools involved, and a variety of interests. We now have an email distribution list going so we can figure out who wants to be a part of this and how we are going to pull it off. If you’d like to be involved, please drop Patty an email at patty@passiontrailbikes.com.

We’ve also put out a jar for donations to help get the club started with some basic expenses, and we are continuing to take donations of new and used cycling equipment, parts, bikes, accessories, clean new or newish clothes, etc. Feel free to bring us your unused stuff and make space in the garage and closet. It’s way easier than selling on Ebay and you can write it off, too.

NorCal League racers giving it

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5. Waterdog Trailwork Saturday 7/25, 9:30am
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After a short break, we are returning to the effort to complete the new trail around the lake at Waterdog. Volunteers are needed for Saturday 7/25 to help finish construction on a number of retaining walls and to push through the trail to the first bridge site on the north side of the lake. Please consider taking half a day to help out on this important project! Volunteers will be treated to coffee and bagels in the morning and will head back to the shop for some burgers and beverages afterwards as a nice reward.

Please RSVP to Patty at patty@passiontrailbikes.com so she can get a firm head count for tools and refreshments.

Drawing for a large retaining wall below some oak trees

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6. CJ’s Traveling Toolbox and Parts Kit for Road Trips
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Well it’s taken a while to get this story up and running. For posterity’s sake, we will have it posted it to our website soon.

Charles’ traveling workbench, contents revealed below

The first thing to know about how Charles travels with his bike, is that he usually leaves town with his bike dialed in. Chain, cassette, and chainrings have matched wear and are clean, lubed, and shift perfectly. Disk brakes have been properly bled, and the pads have life left in them. Tires have adequate wear left and good knobs for the conditions. Wheels are true. Frame has been inspected for cracks, pivots have been lubed, suspension has been tuned. Et cetera. The next thing to know is that he has some confidence that if something breaks, he has the skills to fix it if he’s got the parts and tools.

Having said all this, he sometimes leaves town with a bike that has only had the dust blown off it, if that. And he also knows that his friends’ bikes might not have been dialed. He likes to be prepared to be able to fix problems, whether they are his or someone elses, whether they were predictable or out of left field.

Below, you will find detail pictures of the famous CJ travel kit, as found last week. Some stuff is missing, which is noted in the lists of contents. This is provided for your amusement and edjumacation, not necessarily as a guide or “what to pack” list. You may note that there is stuff in there that is only likely to provide increased drag as the Subaru lumbers along under the overload. Disclaimer: The lists were compiled by Patty and Charles hasn’t exactly spent hours poofreeding to make sure the stuff is correctly labeled and errors most likely exist.

The CJ travel kit prepped for loading on top of or in front of the rear axle of the Subaru

The CJ Parts Box exploded view – click on photo for larger version

	Charles’ Traveling Parts Kit
1	Jar of: cable ends, ferrules,  chainring bolts, knurled nuts, washers, misc small bolts, random hardware
2	Roll of velox rim tape
3	Disk brake caliper shim, universal derailer hanger
4	Jar of: headset spacers, star fangled nut, seat post shims, seat clamp hardware, stem face and bolts
5	Suspension pivot hardware, disk rotor bolts
6	Pre talced tubes in 26”, 29”
7	More tubes, patched and talced
8	Variety of tire levers
9	tubing and bleed bottle for DOT 4 or 5.1 hydraulics, sealed in ziplock
10	ziplock full of zip ties of all sizes
11	a dozen pieces of cable housing, brake and shift, various lengths
12	random seat post, canibalized on last trip for saddle clamp parts
13	a couple pairs of shift and brake cables, new
14	replacement buckles for Specialized MTB shoes
15	pipe cleaner wrapped around a extra large zip tie, wrapped in a plastic bag
16	spare pair of shimano spd pedals
17	spd cleats with bolts and shoe plates
18	spokes in 12 different lengths, with nipples on the ends, bag of nipples
19	torx wrench and brake rotor bolts
20	sram and shimano 9 sp chain bits, SRAM powerlink, shimano 9 sp chainpin, shimano 8 sp chainpin
21	bag of rubber shims for light mounts
22	Seat post collar for 30.9 post with QR
22a	four different sets of used but not useless disk brake pads
23	set of XTR V-brake pads
24	a bagillion tube and tire patches, glue style with glue, glueless, tire boots, etc.
26	missing: 4 ounces of stans, velcro strap

The CJ Tool Box exploded view – click on photo for larger version

	Charles’ Traveling Tool Kit
1	More tire levers
2	8mm allen for crank bolts
3	nylon cleaning brush
4	bondhus allen set 2, 2.5, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
5	2.5mm allen brake lever reach adjuster
6	Park cable cutters
7	Park chain tool
8	Park pre-glued adhesive patches
9	very small crescent wrench
10	torx wrenches for brake rotor bolts
11	needle nose tweezers (for tick removal, shifter repair)
12	steel wire cleaning brush
13	small philips screwdriver
14	lighter
15	Mavic nipple spoke wrench
16	Park spoke wrenches
17	strip of emory cloth
18	ball of size 0 steel wool
19	small flathead screwdriver
20	bolt on a string (plumb bob), utility razor blade
21	wooden pick, blunt curved probe, angle tip tweezers, sharp double end dental probe
22	round files
23	open/closed combo wrench, 8mm
24	snap ring spanner
25	combo wrench, 10mm
26	tape measure, in cm and inches
27	misc zip ties
28	pedal wrenches, with at least one good end
29	scissors
30	narrow and wide Velox rim tape
31	Duct tape
32	sharpies, ball point pen,
33	medium philips screwdriver
34	torx driver
35	medium flathead screwdriver
36	more pedal wrenches, probably serviceable
37	the rest of the combo wrench set (sizes 6mm to 17mm)
38	large crescent wrench
39	assorted cone wrenches
40	socket driver for 5, 6, 7 mm nuts
41	Another Hayes brake bleed kit, including DOT brake fluid, hoses, bleed bottle, in ziplock baggie
42	external BB tool
43	Chris King hub tool
44	Shimano BB tool
45	Shimano freewheel removal tool
46	another BB tool
47	old school crank puller
48	Disc Brake caliper shim
49	Shimano disc brake mineral oil
50	Park external BB spanner
51	chain whip for cassette removal
52	FOX high pressure shock pump (to 300psi)
53	Carbon friction paste
54	Various dry lubes
55	Jonnysnot plastic lube
56	Boeshield T9 chain lube and hallucinogen
57	Good ol’ Tri Flow chain lube
58	Manitou suspension lubricant
59	Bike lust cleaning solution
60	White grease in a tube
61	missing: hammer, hole punch, bandaids, flat file,
62	missing: rags, handwipes, nitrile gloves

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7. Auto Rack Coupon

We don’t like to do things half ast here at Passion Trail Bikes. If we do it, we’re going to do it well; we’re going to be knowledgable about our products, we’re going to figure out what you need and how we can satisfy your needs, and we are going to stand by our work. So we decided not to stock car racks. Cars come in so many sizes, shapes, roof and bumper configurations, and on and on. Just the clips to hold a rack onto a car are amazingly complex, and if you need a hitch installed, well…. we’re not gonna do this well. So we don’t.

Instead, we recommend you go to a place that DOES do racks well. If you need another tray for your roof rack, or an extension to your hitch rack for the next big road trip you’re doing so you can carry all the bikes and friends you’re bringing with you, please stop on by Passion Trail Bikes and pick up a coupon for Rack N Road. Good for $10 off any purchase there, and we are pretty sure they will treat you right and get you equipped. They cary Thule, Yakima and more. Pancho has these coupons at the front counter, and he’s happy to hand one to you.

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Read back issues of the Passion Trail Bikes Community e-Newsletter on our website.

To contact us, email us at info@passiontrailbikes.com, or call the shop at 650-620-9798.

Happy Trails, the PTB crew
Charles, Patty, Berry, John, Bret, Daryl, Pancho, Will, Peter, Reba and Buster