Weather or Not..

This time of year I'm typically hitting the gym quite a bit more, but these past few weeks had been awesome for riding.
This weekend our team participated in the crits at William Land Park and at least one of our riders took 2nd place (women's Cat4). The weather could not have been better! That afternoon, I took my boy over to our friend Asa'a house for another awesome pump track party. I brought my trials bike and played on some logs for a few hours, then took my tired body home and went to bed. I got up this morning feeling like a manhole cover on a busy street, popped some Ibu and went out for some hill training with about 20 team members. We did about 50 at some pretty good paces. Tonight, I'm feeling super crunchy, but I know it's all for the good.

Next weekend we start the TBF MTB series and I'm hoping to do good again. I took 2nd in single-speed open 2 weeks ago and have "upped" the training a bit since. We'll see what happens. At the very least, I'll be riding my bike and that's what really matters to the mind.

peace!

M

Gotta Feel Fast!

It's that time of year where races start kickin in. Do what you can to
be fast and feel fast. I like smooth legs when I'm pushing good speeds
on the bike.
:-)
To each, his own...

Some say I'm in charge

Hank Mini calls me "big cheese", so I couldn't resist grabbing a pic
of this at Disneyland last weekend.

Trialsin'

The first frame has arrived for our 2009 Trials attempt. I ordered myself a 2009 Gu Typhoon 26" stock bike and some parts. I'm running a disc brake up front, hydraulic rear rim brake, Echo cranks and bashguard with some super-beefy wheels. It pops up really easy and feels like it wants to stay up on the back tire all day. It makes a huge difference in my abilities over a standard MTB trials setup. Two of my employees have bikes in the making as well. The Adamant A1 frames will be in this week and we'll have 3 26" stock bikes built up. It should be a fun year! If you're thinking of getting into trials or are intersted in learning more, come by and chat with us. We've been ordering most of our parts through www.midwestbiketrials.com.

peace.

Sacramento CX Series #4

Today, we finally had a CX race with perfect conditions! Rain, cold, a little wind... it was what CX races are supposed to be like. Pics will be posted on our Flickr site soon. go to www.teammadcat.com to see them!

Papa

The Year of Trials!

About 6-7 years ago, I got into a MTB trials riding craze and a few of us would go out and bounce around on our bikes a few times/week. We would go downtown, or to San Francisco quite a few times and look for things to play and practice on. This phase got me really interested in biking skills and how important they are to overall mountain biking and cycling in general. It was during this period of time that I started thinking about teaching skills and started a mental frame-work for how that could be worthwhile occupation. It wasn't until a few years later that I was layed off from CSUS and was forced to put into action, a plan that would involve teaching people to ride, and yes... a job. Long story-short.... I couldn't make it work and came across an opportunity to start a bike shop and quickly switched focus and opened Mad Cat. "The Skills Factory" had to get moved to the back-back burner while we started Mad Cat. Now, almost 5 years later... my passion for trials riding is coming back. I'm still a beginner on the trials bike, but it's soooo much fun and rewarding, not to mention a great workout. So... Why am I babbling? Because I have deemed 2009 the year of trials. I just purchased a 26" trials-specific frame and I want to ride it as much as possible this coming year. For those who are not familiar with trials, let me educate you a little. It's referred to as "Observed Trials" and it's typically a competition to navigate a bike (modified) through obstacles without putting a foot down (dabbing). There are trials-specific bikes/frames out there for competition, or you can modify an existing MTB. I don't plan to compete at all, I just want to play.

Here's a great video of a Ryan Leech, a popular trials rider, playing around in an urban environment. I'll never be this good, but it sure is fun trying...

If you have questions about trials, or are interested in getting into it, come talk to us... "2009 is the year of Trials!"

Papa Cat

Holiday Cheer

Holiday cheer is everywhere.. Today we sold a bunch of kids bikes for Xmas, and quite a few new bikes for people just wanting to buy themselves something fun. The holiday season always seems to help people treat themselves as well as buying gifts for others. "I'm treating myself to an early Xmas gift" is what I hear all the time throughout the month of December. My personal thought is that A) people get a little down when the weather gets a little cold and foggy, so buying something new for yourself is a great way to make the sun shine. and B) Advertisements are running rampant right now inspiring others to spend their hard earned dollars. In any case, we love seeing people getting excited about biking in all facets of the sport.

Happy Holidays and keep your spin on!

-Papa Cat