Seen - The Most Awesome Craigslist "Bike For Sale" Advert

(Image copyright "Ryan", somewhere out on the 'net)

Got wind of this advertisement from a Daily Mile friend, Bob D, when he posted it in his feed. A guy named Ryan in New York posted his 2010 Felt Gridloc 3-speed "fixie" bike for sale on the Manhattan-Greenwich Village sale pages of Craigslist.

I have seen a lot of creative copy in Craigslist advertisements, but this one made me laugh quite hard. I don't know if I would pony up $700 for this bike (New MSRP $1,199.00), but the wording in the advertisement is golden, just dripping with a level of "awesome" that Captain Kirk (the original Shatner version , not the Pine version) would identify with.

Knowing that Craigslist advertisements disappear quite quickly, I archived the images and text here, since I doubt the Library of Congress would think to include this work of art in their collection.  Full text of advertisement may be seen after the jump....

Seen - New Mountain Biking Destination in the works: Groveland, California

(Graphic copyright Groveland Trail Heads)

The Groveland Trail Heads is a new mountain biking club and trail building group in Groveland, California who will be working with IMBA and the United States Forest Service on building trails in a 500 acre section of Stanislaus National Forest.  The intent of this project is to make Groveland a mountain biking destination.  It is the idea of Dwight Follien, MTBR user Scheckler, who wanted to return kindness and assistance received from the Nor Cal mountain bike community when he was facing some heavy duty difficulty in the past few years (Info, Dwight's Blog, MTBR Thread ).

Groveland is located about 20 miles from Yosemite National Park.  It is sited on California State Route 120.  This highway receives an incredible amount of traffic, as it is a main route to Yosemite (the road becomes Tioga Pass Road after entering the national park). The project will be able to take advantage of this traffic and the Forest Service lands to create a focal point for mountain bikers from the area and for those traveling through.

I can certainly see this growing to the point where mountain bike related businesses such as bike shops, outfitters, and guide companies are established, as well as boosting sales at area markets, restaurants, and hotels. There are a lot of mountain bikers visiting Yosemite who are not able to ride off-road there due to the limitations on bicycles within the park (bicycles must stay on paved roads and paved trails).  There are some areas outside of the park where mountain bike-legal trails have been established, but nothing one could call a trail network of any worth or a destination location. 

The Groveland Trail Heads Mountain Biking Club will no doubt need more club members and volunteers for the work ahead.  If you are interested, please contact them using their website contact form or their Face Book page.

I became aware of this when I saw this post on the MTBR NorCal board by user Scheckler. Props to him for deciding to give back to the mountain bike community in this way.

Seen - Sea Otter Classic 2013

(More photos after the jump)

My family went to the 2013 Sea Otter Classic bike race and festival at Laguna Seca Raceway in Monterey California this weekend.

It was a beautiful weekend, only in the mid-60's and clear with a slight cooling breeze.  Perfect for around 50,000 estimated people to come enjoy the sights and sounds of the event.

Seen - SunTour is Back!

Copyright/Trademark - Sun XCD

I came upon the wonderful news that the venerable SunTour bicycle components company is back in business!  What is even more wonderful is their focus: for riders other than the racerboys! 


SunTour was a strong force in the bicycle component market through the 1960's, 70's, and 80's. Headquartered in Japan, they provided components to the bicycle industry the world over.  In the United States, it is said their market share of just the drivetrain market was around 60%.  An early adopter of the mountain bike concept, SunTour was groundbreaking in that new segment of bicycling, introducing components that were of quality and performance that I personally enjoyed having on my bikes.