Team Campus WheelWorks

Well, admittedly, it’s been far too long since the last update. However, it has been a busy fall of cyclocross, pre-ordering bicycle stuff for Campus WheelWorks for summer 2012, more ‘cross, race planning, and lots of other things that caused this page to fall to the back burner for a bit.

Though Interbike 2011 seems like it was a hundred years ago, I will get part 2 of mine and Etan’s trip up soon. I’ll also give a round up of ‘cross season, which has been far busier and way more awesome than any of us could have anticipated. Our ‘cross practices have had great turnouts every week, and the enthusiasm and interest has grown an insane amount since that first race any Campus WheelWorker did back in 2008.

With that, we have had a huge amount of people riding with us flying the CWW flag and spreading the ethos of cycling, fun, and great times. Therefore, the name of this “blog” will remain Team CWW but truth be told, Team CWW has morphed into something more like the Open Source Team CWW Collective. By that, I mean we have become a non-exclusive band of cyclists that truly love riding, be it ‘cross, commuting, errands, road, off-road, racing, or just tooling around town. And to us, that’s what cycling is about: RIDING!

In the coming weeks, I’ll add more of the people who make up our band of merry cyclists to the Who We Are page. It has been a truly amazing experience to see this turn from a few co-workers riding together to a bunch of people having fun and sharing the pure joy that pushing yourself around on two pedals can bring.

I will end with a shameless plug for our 2nd annual ‘Cross In The Park cyclocross race this Sunday, 11/6, in Delaware Park. The forecast is calling for temperatures near 70 degrees with sunny skies and a ton of fun. We’ll have food trucks, lots of prizes, a raffle, epic racing, and great times guaranteed to be had by all. The racing starts at 11 a.m. sharp and runs through roughly 2 p.m. Check out the flyer or this page for more info. Want to race? Go here to register. We’ll also need volunteers for setting up Sunday morning (and by morning I mean we’re starting to put the course up at 5 a.m.!), taking everything down at the end of the day, and for ensuring the smoothness of everything in between. If you’re interested in volunteering, please e-mail Pete at pcanfield@campuswheelworks.com and let him know you’re interested. This will be a great event to race in, watch, or both. See you there!

Still not convinced? Click here for a teaser/trailer from ‘Cross In The Park 2010.

- Justy

Las Vegas is a pretty tough place to be for more than 24 hours. After spending a week there for the last couple of Septembers, I can fully understand why Raoul Duke (aka Hunter S. Thompson) needed copious amounts of booze and psychotropics to make it through.

Ethan and I were there from Sunday through Saturday last week for the annual overwhelming insanity known as Interbike. Two days of the Outdoor Dirt Demo and three full days of the indoor portion of the show, was, well, brutality. But we made it back alive and, unlike last year, no body broke any bones. 

Our first day consisted of getting acquainted with some of the “locals”. By locals, I mean those that may not have a home but troll The Strip looking to make friends with the out-of-towners. While doing some people watching on The Strip, we met Steve, a pretty intense individual who was sure to tell us where to find the best booze guitars (as in plastic guitar filled with alcohol complete with shoulder strap and long straw), cheapest burgers, and slot machines that yielded the highest return on one’s investment. Sadly, we never looked into any of his recommendations.

Monday, after a pretty decent night’s sleep and fighting off some serious jet lag, Ethan and I awoke before the sun came up (so much for beating jet lag), and prepared for two days of test riding bicycles by giving ourselves stomach aches at Denny’s. Little did we realize we would stumble into Denny’s Bed And Breakfast. We probably would have taken a quick snooze ourselves, but true to our new friend Steve’s word, they’ll arrest you in Vegas for sleeping in public…

The first two days of the show were full of riding bicycles from Felt, Jamis, and many other companies out in the blazing hot Nevada desert. Riding on loose “dirt” which is actually shards of lava rock is tough. On our first lap on the mountain bike course, I was sure to lay down one of the demo bikes and cut up my left elbow and behind my left knee. After a quick visit to the med tent, I was patched and ready to go.

Day two was filled with more riding, and the bike that made Ethan and I collectively shout “YES!” and high five was the Jamis Dragon 650b mountain bike. Fast, nimble, quick, smooth as butter, this thing is the real deal. Still think 29ers are the best? Well, think again. Even Ethan, Mr. 29er Advocate Of The World, said he thinks his next mtb has to be the Dragon 650b.

Ethan and I closed out the second day of the Dirt Demo with a couple of Fat Tire Ales, which, in our neck of the woods, is completely unavailable. Luckily, it was EVERYWHERE, so we made sure to get our fill while we could. We were quite happy with the overcast skies and cooler temps of day 2, which made riding bikes/being in the desert for an entire day more tolerable. After quaffing Fat Tires and other energy drinks, we headed back for our hotel to prepare ourselves for three days of walking around a convention center the size of Rhode Island and CrossVegas…

To Be Continued…

- Justy

Week 2 of CWW’s ‘cross practice is happening tonight at 5 PM. Meet us at the shop and we’ll leave to head over to Delaware Park shortly after that. 

If you can’t meet us at the shop, meet us at the stone bridge over by the soccer field and we’ll catch up with you. If you’re unfamiliar with which stone bridge I’m referring to, it’s not the one that goes over Scajaquada Creek/Hoyt Lake. It looks like this (photo courtesy of Kariel Kohane):

Also, the chances for rain have decreased (at least, as of right now) for this evening, but hopefully we’ll all get a little mud-splattered. 

We’ll do a brief warm-up, work on some skills, and then either do a mini-race/follow-the-leader game with some dismounts, remounts, short ups and downs, and all-around good times!

See you tonight!

- Justy