Ultimate Ride II

I promised more would come later. I was hoping it wouldn't be this much later but here it is all the same. On the second day of the Ultimate Ride we headed up to the Warm Springs Trail and although we couldn't do the upper part of the trail due to Elk calving, we had a great time on this perfectly built trail. Hats off to the group that built the trail it really was superb!

The highlight of the week for me was heading down to the Warm Springs Lodge on amazing single track following Gary Fisher with Keith Bontrager and Travis Brown somewhere behind me (not that either of them couldn't have been miles ahead of me, they just happend to be in the group behind me this time :) )

Keith Bontrager and Travis Brown

Some of the other dealers as we wait to regroup at the top of a climb.

Gary Fisher enjoying the day like only he can!

Some of the bikes I got to ride. The Trek EX9.5 and the Gary Fisher HiFi 29er. Both bikes that will be available in 2008.

A close up of the APB on the '08 Trek EX series of trail bikes. Coming soon to a dealer near you!

Here's a close up of the "Full Floater" which makes the EX feel like it has at least 6 inches of travel. (It only has 4 inches, but you'd never know it!)

A quick look at the 69er Top Fuel with the "Inverse Mullet" design. Party up front, business in the back!

Another look at the HiFi 29er. Probably the most stable bike I've ever ridden. Just point and shoot down just about any trail. Just make sure you keep your momentum up as you climb.

Sneak peak on this one. It wasn't ready to ride but I sure looked cool. This is the all new, all carbon Gary Fisher Supercaliber. It just looks fast doesn't it?

All in all it was a great week of riding and learning about the the '08 Trek Mountain Bike line up. The hardest thing for me to do was stay objective during the whole thing and not drink too much kool aid. I've ridden a lot of bikes (Rocky Mountain, Specialized, Santa Cruz, Cannondale, Ventana... the list goes on) and the new EX series stacks right up with the best of them. Like I said in my last post about this topic, Trek Mountain Bikes haven't been that exciting for the last few years (even they admitted it) but that will change in 2008. Look for Trek to be launch a serious challenge to the leading Mt. Bike brands.

For Immediate Release - A Word from Stan

Gregg's Cycle Inc.
7007 Woodlawn Ave. NE Seattle, WA
www.greggscycles.com
Stan Gregg / Martin Pluth / Jeremy McKinley
(206) 523-1822
info@greggscycles.com

For Immediate Release - 6/27/07

Re: Gregg’s Cycle Renovation/Addition to Greenlake store, move of Aurora Store to Alderwood and construction of larger Bellevue location.

The Gregg’s Cycle building located at Ravenna Blvd. and Greenlake Way has been undergoing a major remodel and expansion that is slated for completion by mid July. Approximately 40% of the existing structure was demolished and replaced with a two-story 10,000 square foot addition. The new facility will have 18,400 Square feet of space and will be the largest cycle store in the Northwest. The 80 year old Gregg’s building has become a familiar Greenlake landmark and one of the longest operating businesses in the Greenlake area. Gregg’s Cycle originally opened in 1932 in a small portion of the southeast corner of the building with a bicycle rental operation. Renting a bicycle for a ride around Greenlake became a popular and inexpensive form of recreation during the lean economic times of the Great Depression. Bicycle sales and service were added in the late 1930’s and soon became the dominant portion of Gregg’s business.

Celebrating its 75th year of operation and now in the 4th generation of operation by the Gregg family, the store occupies the entire block. Gregg’s had leased offsite space near the store since the 1970’s as the business had outgrown the existing building. With the popularity of the Greenlake area for condominium projects, available nearby commercial space has all, but disappeared.

2007 has been a busy year for Gregg’s with the move of their Aurora Cycle store to a new location near Alderwood Mall. The Aurora store had operated continuously at 74th and Aurora Avenue North since 1937. To cap off a year of moves and construction, Gregg’s Bellevue store was moved in April to a new 11,500 square foot facility that was specifically designed and built to be a bicycle shop. The new store is a three-story facility located on Bellevue Way just south of Bellevue Square. This move was also prompted by development plans for the location at Bellevue Plaza that Gregg’s had occupied since 1984.

The new stores will allow for more selection and greater customer convenience and we cannot thank our customers enough for their support and patience during the construction and other disruptions. Gregg’s is planning Grand Openings for both the expanded Greenlake store and new Bellevue store later this summer.
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Greenlake Construction : Closer and Closer!

The Greenlake construction project is getting closer and closer to being completed. This is good news as we are currently having to send people on a little trek to get to our service area. When all is done we'll get moved in as soon as possible and be able to get back to a better than normal operation. Below we've got a bunch of pictures of the new space. Check it out!

This is the north end of the second floor which will eventually hold our expanded service department. Our service guys and gals are pretty excited to be up stairs in this space where they can get things done much more efficiently. We're looking forward to being able to expand our ability to build bikes for the sales floor and get service work done in a more timely manner.

With the new construction we've done everything possible to meet the standards set out in our mission statement. And one of the most important aspects of that is to provide our employees with, "a working environment that allows us to attract, develop and retain the best staff members." During this time of construction and re-construction our employees have had to deal with quite a few challenges. The new building will have an updated employee lounge, shower room and sun deck.

And here is the sun deck, right off the back of the employee lounge. It's not huge, but it's got a view of the lake and will be a great place to sit and have lunch or just take a quick break.

This is the south end of the upstairs addition. It will be mostly used for storage and have some service functions as well. This, of course, is all pretty flexible at this stage but we're looking forward to being able to service our customers faster and easier by having all of our bikes under one roof.

More storage space.

The door there on the left will be the new door to what was the Skate and rentals area. For the time being we plan to put everything back the way that it was on the bottom floor. But in the future we'll have the flexibility and space to make sure that everything is in the right place and easy to find. No longer will our customers have to search for the right door or go back outside to find another part of the store. In the new building once you come in any of the three doors to the building you can get to any other part of the store.

Stariway to the service area. Not for customers, as we'll have a check in area downstairs on the first floor and take the bikes up the elevator to get work done on the second floor.

Another view of the first floor of the addition.

This a view from what will be the new serive area looking down the hall where you'll pass two new bathrooms and head down to the skates and rentals area.

All the guys from Foushee are hard at work trying to get things done ASAP. We're still a few weeks out but after all the long hard work it's finally taking shape.

The Ultimate Ride

Sometimes the perks of working in a bike shop really pay off. This year I was lucky enough to be chosen to go to the Trek Ultimate Ride in Sun Valley, Idaho. What is the Ultimate Ride? It's a chance for about 15 or 20 dealers to to get a chance to ride the new '08 Trek and Fisher Mt. bikes in the beautiful setting of Sun Valley. I know, I know... it's a tough job, but someone's got to do it!

We started the day with a presentation on the new technology for the Trek Mt. Bike line. Admittedly, Trek mountain bikes have been less than exciting over the last couple of years. That is all about to change. The Fuel EX has undergone some major changes from the Fuel EX 7 to the carbon fiber Fuel FX 9.5. Most of the changes are in the rear suspension design. Here are the buzzwords:

1. APB - Active Braking Pivot
2. Full Floater
3. EVO Link

All of these things are bringing better handling to bike, but what are they? Quickly, let's go through them.

1. APB: Ok, this a little tough to explain, at least for me. You've heard of "brake jack" right? The tendency for the rear suspension to compress when you brake hard, (try this for a full, really full description) and basically robbing you of the control that rear suspension can offer you in all kinds of terrain. So how does it work? I'm going to quote this just so I don't get it wrong! "APB puts the rear suspension pivot concentric to the rear wheel axle, as opposed it other designs that place the pivot above or below the axle. The new pivot location allows the disc caliper to keep a near constant relationship to the disc rotor so that the caliper's rotation in relation to the disc rotor is minimized through the bike's range of travel. There is one disadvantage that I can see, but it's a minor one. Because the ABP requires bearings at the rear drop out the skewer has to be a little longer and you have to take the skewer completely out of the bike to get the wheel out. There is a good picture and more info on cyclingnews.com


2. Full Floater: The Full Floater promises not more travel but smarter travel. Trek has taken the rear shock off of a fix lower frame mount and placed it on a floating mount letting the rear shock to float between two suspended attachment points. This allows the suspension to be tuned more effectively then ever before. This all means that the Full Floater gives you the suspension feel of a long travel bike without the added weight.

3. EVO Link - They basically made the rear link both stiffer and lighter through a one-piece design which allows the elimination of extra bolts and small cross braces. The difference in stiffness is huge.

All of these upgrades appear on the EX line and having ridden the bike today, I can say that they work. The bike rode great and inspired a giggling last run of the day. The bike did exactly what they said it would, it was laterally stiff and tracked like a hard tail and the rear end stayed on the ground through all of my panic braking as I rode an unfamiliar trail on an unfamiliar bike.
Along with the Trek FX 9.5 I got to ride the new Gary Fisher HiFi 29er and the Hifi Pro. I'm too tired to go into the specs on these but let it be said that 29ers are here to stay and the Hifi is another great trail bike.

The Hifi 29er a really fun bike!

Not a bad way to spend the day!

More to come tomorrow.