Hollywood Rides

We haven't done this in a while, which is why googling "Hollywood's Rides" will net you a photo of Mariah Carey at an amusement park:



Or some actress I have never heard of with a bike adorned with a basketful of smugness (She's riding a Linus, though):




Or a message of "hope"--let's not even touch this.



Without further ado, I present Hollywood's new ride. As you can see, it's a little overweight now. That' okay, it's winter and I haven't been outside on a bike in months, so I'm a little portly too. By the summer, this bike will have shed five pounds to get down to racing weight.

Guess who...

this belongs to?

Winter Curatorial

Over the weekend, I received several emails from Hollywood containing photos of bikes in his personal quiver. One of the emails was titled, Bike of the Day, so I expect more treasures to be forthcoming.

Check out Hollywood's new crabon belt-drive fixie. The nameless Entourage-member extraordinaire pictured looks non-plussed to be in the photo.



But it's not all new-styling retrofitted Madones. Hollywood goes old-school with his throwback freeride Raven. Check out those carbon spins! Nevermore, nevermore.

New Arrival

BCC congratulates Hollywood on becoming a papa for the 25th time this weekend. Junior weighs in at 23lbs!

Pirate's New Ride

We usually spend our time highlighting any one of the many rides that Hollywood has already or is anticipating the purchase of, but today's Velonews has something different in store. Behold: The Pirate's New Ride.

Okay, not our Pirate but Il Pirata, the deceased Marco Pantani. Close enough, right?This is sort of like the bike industry version of all those postmortem Tupac albums. I guess we'll have to go back to profiling Hollywood's new rides.

More Bounce to the Ounce

[formerly: 'Bouncin' on a Big Bike']

My rides have been few and far between this year, but last Saturday I got to head up the the SMBA trails in Saratoga Springs for their annual 'Mix-Up the Dirt' (aka 'MUD') festival, where beers, burgers, and bikes were in abundance.  It was really a great event, with well over a hundred people there, two or three different shops, representatives from the Luna Chix team, a couple of guys from the White Face downhill park, Sigma Systems accessories, plus the Trek/Gary Fisher demo truck.  I'm not sure how much schwag the different groups handed out, but there was a ton, including tires, pumps, lights, and even a complete bike.  Not bad at all.

The SMBA trails are tight, rocky, technical masterworks of trailbuilding, and the lingering moisture from the rain the night before had everything covered with a thin slime.  I don't know where beginners -- and even intermediates -- go to ride around the area, but they don't go here: SMBA serves up the beatdowns for anyone not on their game.

Before I hit the trail I wandered over to the Trek tent and pick me up a big helping of bounce: a full-XTR Trek Remedy with 6 inches of travel front and rear.  Even with this generous helping of rubble-eating goodness the bike with still under 30 pounds, and while that didn't make it Hollywood-approved, it still weighed a reasonable amount.

This is a lot of bike.  I haven't ridden with gears in quite some time, and I've never owned a full-suspension bike, so this thing took some getting used to, and I'm not sure that I ever got it.  Don't get me wrong, this is a great bike for someone, I'm just not sure that I'm that person.  I felt more like I was guiding a couch through the woods than mountain biking, and there was nothing about the thing that you could call 'flickable,' but it would be great fun on a wide-open, fast trail with lots of drops and rubble. On the tight, slow trails of SMBA it didn't exactly shine, for while it liked to eat up the rocks, it wasn't nearly as nimble as I would have liked.  SMBA has a lot of little-ring plodding through rock fields and quick changes of direction, and the Remedy would much rather have been eating up the high speed descents in Fruita than guiding me deeper into the forests of the Northeast.

That said, gears are nice.  Suspension is nice.  After returning the Remedy I got to spend some time on a Gary Fisher HiFi Pro 29er, a XC full-suspension rig.  Me likey.  Me likey a lot.  I don't know when my finances will allow me to have that kind of ride in my stable, but it was sure nice to be able to down shift when climbs got steep, or sit down through moderate rock gardens rather than stand and pump through.  

Feeding the desire for a new ride was the bike weighing contest hosted by EMS.  The idea was to guess the weight of your bike, and

 while I was pretty close on the ol' Ferrous, I was disappointed to find out that she tips the scale at well over 27 pounds: 27 pounds and 9 ounces, to be exact.  That was only an ounce less than a friend's new Stumpy, and even more than this kid's rad Astana-approved trike.  (Kidz these days, what with their trikes and their casts, I tells ya...)

The Stumpy seems like an ideal platform for the area, by the way, as it manages to balance significant travel (5 inches front and rear) with light weight and trail bike geometry.  (Well, it least the freewheelin' Gary didn't have any trouble flogging it around the trail.)

All-n-all not a bad day, truth be told.  I determined that a) bikes are fun, b) I like to mountain bike, c) I am out of shape, d) my bike is heavy, e) hot dogs taste good, even when burnt, f) trees hurt when you hit them, no matter how much suspension you have, g) rocks are hard, h) I need to stop making lists.  As I cruised back to Albany the skies opened up and the rest of the weekend was spent dodging rain, but this allowed me to lick my wounds and cruise the internet for the light parts that I now 'need.'

Finally, a take-away shot from the trails to give you an idea of what they're like.  Bob was happy to be rolling around on a long-travel Ellsworth.  The pic, isn't great, as I caught him just after he landed the drop, but hopefully it'll give you some flava.

New Bike/Mystery Owner

Who could this belong to?

Hollywood, Colorado

According to the grapevine Hollywood, now transplanted to the Rocky Mountains, is contemplating a new ride(s). Among the rumoured possibilities: S-Works carbon epic dualie, now-local-for-Hollywood maker Yeti. Yet, these are just the XC rigs. What about Hollywood's downhill machine? Now, there comes news of a lighter version of Yeti's 303.

Chill Cruiser Cush

Here at BCC we love shreddin' up some singletrack, leaping cyclocross barriers and grinding away asphalt climbs...but we also know that there is a time to chill and just cruise around on two wheels. Below is my beloved "Star Cruiser" (named for the OEM chainring). Originally, this cruiser was a circa 1960s AMF, fitted with fenders, rack, chainguard and lots of rust.


Before (Circa 2004)

Now the "Star Cruiser" has entered its new life, undergoing a complete makeover. The AMF was stripped and a new seat tube (Columbus FOCO) was welded in and the entire frame was repainted. The frame and chainring are the only original parts remaining. The "Star Cruiser" is equipped with a retro 1999 Rolf Dolomite mountain bike front wheel, Dyno Fireball balloon tires, a rigid triple clamp cruiser fork and a cush cush cush flame embroidered cruiser saddle.


After (Present Day 2009)

Real Vintage Steel

As promised I am putting up some clean images of the Bontrager CX. But before that, seeing the prompt was really for vintage steel I thought I would include some of the pre-CX rides. Enjoy

The original steel machine that made me feel faster than I really am was this Patterson Racing frame from the early days of wishing I was a BMX racer. It needs some love.

Much later I had an 88 Jamis Dakota. You know one of those steel 35lb bombers. Alas no photos I can find now of that one. After getting crushed on some climbs around Boone I went for aluminum (gasp!). After taking a daily pounding on the Pisgah trails I decided I needed to ride on the road some and this Corsa Extra frame came along. The Merckx was never in the best shape but has seem many miles. Today it is the faithful commuter and after work training bike.

Yes, the rumor is true. The Bontrager Race Lite frame does exist and was a shop purchase when I worked at GoPal bikes in Charlottesville. This frame is from 96. From what I understand the race and race lites were still being made in Santa Cruz while the privateer began production at Trek around this time. I have ridden this bike all over the US and it is real steel. Check out the slender rigid seat stays. Want more info go here http://ridesmarter.com/ and http://yojimg.net/bike/bontrager.php
This ride led to my recent search for a Bontrager CX frame. The BCC special teams cyclocross unit fed my appetite for racing cross. While the race lite was fun I had little chance to compete on 26" wheels. After reading this (http://www.belgiumkneewarmers.com/2007/09/bontrager-talks-cx.html) I was on the lookout for another Bontrager. At the end of the NCCX series I was on the verge of buying a Bianchi when this one came along, thanks to TAZ from Atlanta. It has been as sweet as I could have imagined and just in time for the Winter Cup. It is definately vintage steel.

Vintage Steel

At least a couple of us are fans of steel bikes and for that reason, we're waiting to for Jay to deliver on the promised photos of his cleaned-up made-in-Santa-Cruz Bontranger. Rumor has it that he's also got a Bonty mountain bike like the one below, which will have to do for now.

Hollywood's New Whip

Arrivals

This bike is, according to Hollywood, hotness. Expect a full post from Hollywood about his hotness in the coming days.

The anticipation builds...

Word has reached BCC HQ that Hollywood has picked up a new ride. Loyal readers will recall that earlier we speculated over his selection. A Specialized for sure but will it be Epic dualie? 29er? Carbon hardtail? Keep it here folks

New Bike!

What better way to make my first-ever post on a blog than show off my new bike. The purchase was inspired by a recent trip to Pisgah where I decided that if I am only to have one mountain bike, it needs to have gears. Also, I have spent the majority of my mountain biking years on a rigid single speed and have become very accustomed to the feel. That said, in an effort to make this a less abrupt transition, I decided to swap the bike's factory Fox suspension fork for a Salsa rigid. Many thanks to Andrea at Trips for Kids/Grassroots Bikes for the Salsa fork and The Bicycle Chain in Durham for selling me the bike. For those with a sharp eye, ignore the lack of a front brake, the proper adapter is making its way to me posthaste.

The Professor's Circle A

Chris posted a link to the final shots of his new 'cross bike below, but the thing looks so sweet I think it's worth putting a couple of shots on our page, too. To review, Circle A is the company that's doing the work, and if you want to see the full portfolio of his build click here.

Forkin' sweet:

Luggety-lug-lugs:

The headbadge:

Classic panel cool:

*All pictures shamelessly stolen from the Circle A site -- thanks guys!

The Professor of Smooth gets even smoother

And no, I'm not talking about his (our?) newfound BMX skills. Exciting though the General Lees are (and yes, pics are coming), Chris has an even more exciting bike in the works -- and being worked on -- all custom-like.

Check out the sweet, sweet love at Circle A Cycles. And I mean it: Chris's bike gets front page billing on the blog, and you get to see the tubing as it slowly emerges as the Professor's fastest new ride.

Be sure that you click the "slideshow" button as it will guide you through Chris's bike as it comes into being. With all due credit to the photogs at Circle A, I stole one pic to give you a little taste:


I promise that the pics on their blog only get better from here. There's no word on what the paint scheme will look like... Chris?

Hollywood's New Ride

Loyal readers will recall that Hollywood announced his plans to purchase a new mountain bike at the end of the season earlier this year. After Sauser's win at mountain bike world's H. told me that the 2009 Specialized Epic would be his chariot. But at other times, our star has indicated acting on his long held preference for hardtails. In the spirit of the Professor's query, it's time for the readers to decide Hollywood's new ride. Specialized rolled out its 2009 models this week and Hollywood is among many things, a Specialized man. What will it be friends? The 21 lbs carbon Epic dualie? The 19 lbs carbon Stumpjumper, billed the "new hardtail for hardcore riders"? Who is more hardcore than Hollywood?

Easy B's new ride- part 2

Brian's thinking about getting new wheels for his mountain bike. He says there are a ton of options. I ask really? Could Easy B roll on anything but Reynolds' Carbon Hoops? Here's a pic to help y'all spot B's new ride.

Easy B's new ride

Brian's been telling us about his new ride for sometime. He has it picked out: an S-works carbon dualie like the one in the photo. For some reason, he's stalling on pulling the trigger and needs our encouragement. So next time you see him, ask Brian about his new ride.