Day trip to Tahoe - Mr Toads Wild Ride goodness

Well this past Saturday I took a day trip to South Lake Tahoe to ride Mr. Toads Wild Ride. I absolutely love this trail...it's got a little bit of everything. From big rock gardens, flowy berms, loose dirt, awesome scenery and did I mention rocks ;o)

Just a few shots from the ride:



Orange Alpine 160 ready to shred








A nice green meadow off Armstrong Pass



Start of TRT trail right off Armstrong Pass.













Overlooking Lake Tahoe - priceless!!

Bikes are cool - get out and ride!

US Pro goes to Australia on an Unreal

Mikey Haderer, US Pro rider, is on his way to Canberra, Australia on an Unreal Junior.

Mikey has spent a lot of effort making this vision, all stars and stripes gear, a reality for his Australian race . We wish him the best of luck and look forward to hearing his results!



No doubt as soon as he gets back there will be writeups and pictures... I'll keep you posted.

Want to get your hands on an Unreal Junior for just $199?!

http://mtb.unrealcycles.com/catalog/item198.htm

Whyte team rider on Safari

Whyte team rider on safari

Whyte team rider Luke Smith brought his Whyte Carbon 19 mountain bike home to the top step in the 75km Broadhurst road race in Gabarone, Botswana on knobbly tires!

Luke managed to maintain his place in the front of the peloton throughout the race, much to the surprise of the other riders. As the race neared the finish some of the top riders were attacking to break free of the group, only to be sucked back. Coming into the finish straight Luke had himself positioned second wheel behind the lead pro rider. He launched his attack and realized with a quick glance behind him that he had gapped the other riders and would be claiming the top step on the podium.

At the finish he told spectators and riders that Whyte mountain bikes cannot be beaten, however he admitted that he had surprised himself with his result.

Take a look at the brand new 2010 model Carbon 19 frames soon here:

http://mtb.unrealcycles.com/catalog/whyte.htm

Story courtesy of bikeradar.com

Technology at its finest!

Thanks to the wonders of modern technology we are now saving our international customers money on their phone bills!

If you use Skype you can now add us to your contact list by searching for the username name "Unrealcycles". Once we're on we can answer all your questions through the powers of VOIP! Or if it's just a quick question feel free to send us a quick instant message. Please keep in mind we are only here during business hours PST (Pacific Time)

If your a Skype user simply click the button below:

First ride on the Orange Alpine160

This past Friday evening I took delivery of my 18”, 09 RAW Orange Alpine 160.

Saturday, after a nice long morning ride, I locked myself in the garage and proceeded to dress this beauty up so I could take her out for her maiden voyage on Sunday. She came out looking pretty sweet – as pictured the bike is around 29.5 lbs.

Sunday I rode for a few hours at one of our local spots here in the Bay Area. Some of you might be familiar with Soquel Demonstration Forest – it’s got a little bit of everything, including some pretty long extended climbs/descents.

The Alpine reinforces what I've been preaching for years - e.g. geometry/fit is the MOST IMPORTANT thing... if a bike has a wacked up geo or doesn't fit - nothing else matters.

This bike also made me realized how flexy my other current bikes are - I definitely appreciate the stiff back end of the Alpine. The only other trail/AM I recall owning that was remotely this stiff was a SC Nomad. During our ride we did a good amount of climbing (close to 4000 ft) and to be super honest, I was expecting a lot of pedal feedback, especially considering the fact that I use flat pedals (yeah I know, guess my opinion of SP bikes had been a bit skewed by the web naysayers). as a test I did the initial climb with Pro Pedal off... dude I was blown away by how well the bike actually pedals, even with no Pro Pedal.

I had to stop a few times to try and fine tune the shock (e.g. figure out how much air to run). I did try to set SAG before leaving, but once I got on a trail it was too soft. Kept adding air until I got short of bottoming out on hard hits (well tried to). Went up to 170psi’s but was still getting full travel (which isn’t a bad thing) – but with that pressure I started losing a bit of small bump sensitivity. But even without having the shock completely dialed in, it devoured rock gardens and rode like a mini DH bike. Just for reference, I’m about 155 – 160lbs all geared up.

It appears like the bike needs some mid stroke low speed compression to work well. But still, even with lower pressures in the shock I never felt any harsh bottoming. I still need to play with the shock a bit – it’s been a while since I’ve been on an air shock. I’ve been riding a coil shock for a few months, so I’ve been spoiled with good small bump compliance. Even time I make the switch from coil to air, takes me a few rides to get used to it. I also have a RockShox Monarch, Marzocchi Roco and RockShox Vivid at that I can try on that bike down the road.

I’m stoked with the bike so far…I’m sure once I have the shock dialed in, it will be a weapon! I have a new favorite bike in my stable. Can't wait to log more rides on this beauty.

Oh, one thing I forgot to mention. The Alpine will teach you not to use the brakes when you're not supposed to ;o) a few times I came into some sections a bit hot and use a bit to much rear brake - definitely not as active under braking as other bikes. But that's just an incentive to 1) do your braking early 2) don't brake 3) hit stuff to slow you down ;o)~~~~

Thanks to Lewis and Peter for making it happen!

Pimpy Pompino

Jon Wyatt uploaded pictures of his complete Pompino to Fixed Gear Gallery

He's created " an on-one pompino crossbike with a Surly 29er disk fork that's been powercoated white"

"Halo hubs and Aero rims (not sure how long they'll last offroad), Avid BB5 front disk brake = with an ebay purchased 160mm disk. Tektro mini V-brakes on the back. White Industries Eno crankset, Phil Wood shiny fixed rear sprocket, 44:17. Ritchey Pro road bars, Cane Creek SCR-5 levers, some very expensive white outer sheathin= g that I found. FSA stem and Seat post with an SDG saddle. I found some white shimano 520 pedals right at the end to finish it off.
Not sure how long it'll last before it permanently looks dirty but it looks= nice now." -Jon

If you like the look of this and were thinking about getting yourself something similar watch out for Unreal complete bike deals coming soon! Get yourself a complete Pompino, Licolnshire Poacher or any of the Inbred family for your stable. If you're hot for one right now and can't wait for the deals to get posted give us a call on 800 303 2927 and we'll make you your own deal!

Orange Custom Colors...

Also in today along with the Alpine 160 came this beautiful custom painted Orange Five frame. As you can see the Apple Green color turned out great!



If you're interested in having your Orange painted a custom color give me a call 800 303 2927 and we'll get it done!

Acadian has ants in his pants...

Acadian sent me an email telling me he was unable to sit down with anticipation of his now Orange Alpine 160 frame. He said we need to ship it quick or he won't have any energy left to build it what with all the pacing around his office.

I said I didn't believe him...

My First post - and I'm excited

well this is my first contribution to this blog - hope it turns out okay.

So Lewis sent me this pic earlier this morning. After several weeks of waiting, she is finally here (well almost - Lewis still needs to send it to me)
















all I have to say is "COME TO DADDY!"























I will post more pics once I have her all built up.

cheers!

Vuelta launch

As if we didn't have enough to do!

At UnrealCycles we are always looking for great new products to broaden and enhance the options to you the customer.

With Pro Lite product no longer available to us we have been searching for a wheel line that would offer the same breadth and depth with the same (or better) pricing.

Enter Vuelta, a US derived brand with a very similar range of road wheels and the added bonus of Mountain wheels as well.

Quality and design are second to none, with pricing created by the sharpest pencil they could find.

We have even offered some specials to align with the outgoing Pro Lite wheels.

More choice means you will always find the wheel you want right here at Unrealcycles.

Thursday Fruit Special (Oranges)

So now the full fleet is now back at the shop we took the opportunity last night to sample some of the local trails on these top end bikes at our disposal.

We once again met up with Fish and set off to shuttle. The area we were in is of Wagner Creek Rd shown on the map here.



I personally took the Orange Blood out for the fourth ride on it. I’m starting to dig the way this bike handles and in this particular case the Hammerschmidt was key. On the trails in this area there is quite a bit of flat pedaling as well as suddenly turn a corner and run into a short sharp hill situations. The Hammerschmidt is the perfect weapon to counteract this when you’re riding a trail you’re unfamiliar with. When you turn that corner and see that hill, a quick tap on your left trigger and instantly you’re able to spin up that incline.

New comer for this week was the Orange Alpine. One of the other shop employees brought it out and raved about the way it felt up there on the trail. The advantage he had over me on the Blood was the geometry a little better suited to the long flat pedals in the middle of the trail. The Alpine too is fitted with a Hammerschmidt so he enjoyed the ease of dropping major rings to climb.



The most hysterical problem we were both having is once again those FSA bars the demo bikes were built with are 32” wide. A lot of the Wagner trails are fairly tight between trees and simply not 32” apart and thus you see my dilemma. There was a lot of stopping, screaming, and busted knuckles while doing our best to get into the flow on these trails.

I think I'll be getting the hacksaw at both those pairs of bars this week! We won't be suffering with that problem again if I can help it.

I’m going to try and get some action shots next time we ride… you know how it is, once you’re on the trail you don’t want to stop for anything so no pictures got taken.



One of the guys we ride with has a helmet cam, so I’ll see if I can stay in front of him for long enough to get some footage for the next entry.

‘till then, sticky side down, beard side up, and send me some of your ride shots for the gallery! Email ‘em to info@unrealcycles.com

Oh, also, anyone traveling up the I5 corridor to Portland? Seattle? Feel like making a pitstop around here and go for a ride? Send me an email, give me a call, we’ll fit it in!

NWSOF - Action Shots

Barrett Polychronis, instructor at the North West School of Freeride sent us some fantastic action shots showcasing some of the riding over there.


If you're up and around Sandy, OR on your travels NWSoF is worth a stop!

Take a look at what they have to offer here: http://nwsof.com/

Check out the rest of Barrett's shots over on the Flickr site.

Shot on the slopes of Mt. Ashland.

Real or Unreal? You decide...

Latest News

So the latest news is... we now have a blogger account to keep you up to date with the latest news! My top code monkey managed to get it ported on to the front of the website this morning so you can see it any time you stop by the site.

This news feed is going to be full of what's new and exciting, what has just come in, what we have been doing around the shop, where we've been riding and all sorts of other interesting bits of info for you to read about. So become an Unreal News Follower! Let's get some information flowing both ways, if you have a google account or an AIM account you can log in and comment on what we've got to say. So jump online, send us your thoughts and let's get some feedback.

Also, don't forget, we've now got an Unreal online picture gallery in the form of a Flickr account. This can be found HERE

So send us your pics! Riding shots, sick skate park shots, if you're into fixie tricks so are we! Let's see those. Or even just a picture of your latest Unreal Deal fitted to your whip. We at the shop and the viewing public want to see your pride and joy, get those pictures in now! For now you can email them to info@unrealcycles.com.

Stay tuned this week for more on the latest shipment we've just got in, some sizes of On One frames have already sold out, so if you're waiting for the right time... it's right now! Click Here!

Last but by no means least, if you haven't signed up for our Unreal Newsletter yet you are missing out on great opportunities! We are aiming to put one of those out a week going forward and they will be packed with the best value for money on everything you need for your steed.

Sign up for the news letter HERE and get the latest UNREAL DEALS first!