Mountain Goat Cycles

Bye, bye Goat blog

2011-08-17T09:37:00.000-07:00

As technology marches on, we try to keep up. For awhile blogs were going to be a great marketing tool until they ran into the Facebook juggernaut. A Facebook post just takes a couple of seconds to do and is easy to share with your friends. I always felt that a blog posting needed to be much more informative and formal which took a fair amount of time. So, I would like to invite you to "like" the Mountain Goat Facebook page and keep up with the Goat happenings there.

Escape Route update

2011-01-23T12:59:00.000-08:00

The Escape Route has been our planned import frame. We wanted to be able to offer a less expensive alternative to our custom frames and it looked like we could offer a similar spec frame for about half of what the customs cost. We went through the design phase which includes every conceivable detail. Once we were happy with the design, we had a couple of sample frames made. We built them up so we could put some miles on them. Unfortunately, the orange sample had a quick drop out issue. The drop out was spec'ed as 4130 which should be plenty strong, but the slot was opening up. The black sample lasted a little longer but it also had a widening slot and eventually the drop out cracked. We were able to get enough miles on them to figure out 6 or 7 minor changes. We submitted those and ordered a second round of samples which were produced. This is where we ran into a snag. The factory wanted to charge us for the samples which we believed should be no-cost replacements. I started to worry that the factory was giving us a hard time about a couple of frames while they were trying to earn our business. What would happen if we had issues with 100 frames after the cashed the check??

Anyway, still not sure what will become of the project. We did make a couple of inquiries with a couple other factories but really haven't followed up with them. Watch this space for updates.

F-K-R

2010-11-17T19:39:00.000-08:00

We had this spec frame built up by Curtis Inglis and just got it back from Russ @ AirArt. I originally was going to do a bright red but Russ talked me in to the maroon color and I think it looks fantastic. We are going be be building it up with some vintage-themed parts and will try to post some "in progress" pictures. This is going to be a very cool bike!

Ti Route 29 resplendent in bamboo!

2010-11-04T10:36:00.000-07:00

This has been a fun bike to do. We have been working with the new owner for awhile now and have picked out everything on the bike. He wanted to do a Ti Route 29 but wanted to paint it with the classic bamboo paint. I have always thought that one of the best things about titanium was the lack of the "need" to finish it. You can always go back and brush/polish it to a like new finish. Slap on some new decals and your 5 year old bike looks factory fresh. I guess the problem can be that damn near every Ti bike looks like the next one. I don't think that will be a problem with this bike. I really like the way Russ left a little bit of unpainted Ti in the sliding drop outs. Anyway, this one will be crossing the ocean in the next day or two and I hope to be able to post pictures of the build and maybe even a couple of action shots. And oh yeah, how cool are those bamboo painted Ti Goat Horn handlebars!!

Vintage 1983 Escape Goat

2010-10-22T08:58:00.000-07:00

Just copying this one from the MOMBAT.org blog. Figured it fit pretty easily in both places!

The early Mountain Goats used oval tubing and beautifully finished fillet brazed joints. All of the tubing manipulation and finish work drove the cost of the frames up. The Escape Goat was an effort to bring theses costs down. The frames featured standard round tubing and unfiled fillets. Parts were often less expensive as well with items such as the fork being an off-the-shelf part as opposed to the custom Mountain Goat forks found on the top models. For more pictures, see 1983 Escape Goat page.

Vintage Mountain Goat Deluxe circa 1992

2010-09-13T08:38:00.000-07:00

All of the first Mountain Goat frames used the ovalized Phil Wood tandem boom tubes for the top and down tubes. Later, when the Escape Goat and Whiskeytown Racer models were added, this model became the Deluxe. The idea was to give the frame a little more "give" for a little more comfortable ride. This was the "RAD" or Ride All Day philosophy.

More pictures and details @ 1992 Deluxe page (Twitter and Facebook "share" links)

Goat updates

2010-09-03T18:58:00.000-07:00

Quite a bit going on in Goat-land which makes it a little tough to post more frequently. Anyway, here are a couple of quick updates.
-The Ti Goat is at paint right now. Russ is applying a fresh coat of Bamboo pain to a Ti frame, Rock Shox and Ti Goat Horn handlebars. This one should be sweet!

-Curtis has finished up 2 F-K-R frames which are also heading to AirArt. One will be a root beer brown with cream head and fork panels while the other will be the same except in bright red. We also had to convince Russ to pain and pinstripe some rims for the brown bike. Once this one is assembled, it is off to Mountain Bike Action for some testing! The red bike is a spec bike and is available for purchase. We'll probably build it up for display at the shop.

-Jeremy has another couple of frames in line as well. One will be Team Orange and heading to England while the other is (possibly) slated for a bright Kermit green.

-The whole imported Escape Route frame has been a supreme headache. The first sample frames were pretty close but we changed a handful of dimensions after riding them. The troublesome part was the drop outs, both frames ended up with distorted sliders pretty quickly. Supposedly, they were 4130 cro-moly which should have been fine so I am unsure as to what happened. It is enough to make me wonder what direction to take next. Doesn't seem to be a clear cut direction yet.

Anyway, that is what has been happening. As the temperatures drop a bit, the shop will likley slow a bit and we'll do a better job of keeping everyone up to date.

1992 Deluxe Goat

2010-09-03T18:48:00.000-07:00

This bike was listed on Craigslist in Asheville last week. I generally don't bother looking at the bike listings since very little of interest pops up locally. This ad was forwarded to me by several friends who apparently DO have time to look at Craigslist! I contacted the owner and was able to arrange a pickup at his place of business. He picked this up years ago in trade for a 1970's era tandem and hadn't used it much since then. It was missing the top of the seat which was a little odd. Once we got it home, we figured out it had a stuck seat post which likely explains the missing seat. Someone tried to free up the post by using the seat as leverage and the post was more stuck to the frame than the seat was to its rails! After a liberal dose of Kroil, the seat post finally gave up and came out but probably gave its life in the process. The drivetrain is mostly Suntour XC Pro with Syncros accessories and Sun rims. It also uses Ringle Cam Twist quick releases and a Kona titanium bottom bracket. Not sure what the paint would be called but it has the Nuovo Flames over some type of camoflage pattern.

Goat Horns in Japan

2010-08-09T20:37:00.000-07:00

Just got an email from Japan with pictures of a Goat Horn installation! Looking good.

src=http://www.flickr.com/photos/43759419@N04/4874337502/

Sounds like a satisfied customer "Nice present back sweep, comfortable width, and style with it.
I loved it.

Shiho"

Send us your picture of Goats in the wild (bikes, bars, shirts, bottles......)

Escape Route Update

2010-07-16T19:09:00.000-07:00

We've been getting inquiries about the status of the upcoming imported Escape Route frames. So, here we go.

-We have been riding the initial frames and have made a handful of changes.
-New sample frames with the changes are on order and once we inspect those, we should be ready to order.
-Colors are set. Team Orange with Team Green panels and New Black with Eggshell panels. Sizes will be 17", 19" and 21".
-Working on a metal head badge for the frames.
-May end up using a clear coat over the decals for a more durable finish.
-Once we get new samples, we'll post the pictures.
-If the new samples are acceptable, we'll post the dimensioned frame drawings.

We've heard production should take about 6 weeks after the final samples are approved.

Mountain Goat permission slip (cool!)

2010-06-21T08:14:00.000-07:00

We were told by Jonathan's wife that he wasn't able to buy his new Mountain Goat F-K-R until we had a signed permission slip in hand. Well, looks like we are good to go.

She did give permission for others to use this as well. If you need a blank copy, drop me and email and we'll get it on the way!

Here is the test if you have trouble reading it.

Mountain Goat Permission Slip

I suppose that ________________________ has my permission to buy a Mountain Goat bike.
Rules tied to this permission include:
 A maximum expenditure of $_________. Anything above this requires an additional permission slip.
 All part selections must be approved by the permission giver below to ensure the completed bike is aesthetically pleasing to the eye.
 This bike replaces all Christmas, birthday, and anniversary gifts for the next ___ year(s).
 __________________ shall be extra nice to the permission giver below for _________________ for agreeing to provide permission.

Should any of the above rules be broken, the permission giver below must be provided a sincere apology in the form of _______________________.

Signed _________________________________________ Date __________________

Mountain Goat interview

2010-06-21T06:12:00.000-07:00

Mark, of TwentyNineInches.com did a nice interview with Wes and I for his blog.

Check it out!

More Goat Horns on the ole www.

2010-06-15T09:31:00.000-07:00

Mark has started up the review of the Goat Horns on the TwentyNineInches Blog

Looks good on the OS Blackbuck bike:

Goat Horns in the news

2010-06-11T09:27:00.000-07:00

Guitar Ted is testing as set of the Goat Horn bars, can't wait to see what he thinks of them.

Twenty Nice Inches.com blog

Mountain Goat Ti

2010-05-23T17:46:00.000-07:00

Here is the latest Goat to hit the shop. This is our first frame from David at Pride Cycles and it looks great. Once we get the fork for the frame, we'll be shipping the fork, frame and Ti Goat Horns to AirArt for a new coat of Bamboo paint! Should be a pretty slick ride. Can't wait to get this one back from paint!

Whiskeytown Racer pictures

2010-05-13T18:46:00.000-07:00

Here are some better pictures of the bike from the latest installment of the Specialty Files in Dirt Rag. We recently redid the bike in something of a "neo-retro" style. Phil Wood hubs, Paul Thumbies with carbon SRAM 10 speed shifter, home made 2 x 10, Panaracer Timbuk IIs, silver hubs/rims/spokes, Grab On MTN grip, Ti Goat Horn bars, team orange/green paint, polished crank and brakes, Eriksen Ti post...........I think it came out great and has a neat blend of new/old.

Whiskeytown Racer in Dirt Rag #149

2010-05-12T10:58:00.000-07:00

I've been writing a series of articles for Dirt Rag magazines which they call "The Specialty Files". Each month features a different vintage bike from the MOMBAT collection. I try to come up with a story for each bike. This month, I chose my Whiskeytown Racer which was the first bike from the "new" Mountain Goat Cycles, circa 2006. We chose parts that combined the new and old with thumbshifters on Paul Component mounts which shifts a 10 speed cassette. It also features our reissue Panaracer Timbuk II tires, Grab On MTN1 grips and titanium bull-moose style handlebars.

Imported steel Goat Horn bars IN STOCK!

2010-05-04T12:13:00.000-07:00

Well, the have finally arrived in the shop......steel Goat Horn handlebars. Relive the glory of yesteryear with the glowing chrome of your very own bullmoose-style handlebars. Specs are as follows: roomy 675mm width, 10 degree rise, 95mm extension (c-c)with a 10 degree sweep.

We originally did some of these bars in USA-made titanium but they ran $425 which priced a few of us out of the market. The imported cro-moly bars come in at an easier to swallow $60. Order on the Mountain Goat Parts page.

Smokin' Goat

2010-04-16T18:13:00.000-07:00

We took a couple of bike to Crider's Photography and they came out nice. Here are a couple of our early Mountain Goat with a smoked green finish.

1984 Mountain Goat Whiskeytown Racer

2010-03-24T19:27:00.000-07:00

The Whiskeytown Racer was introduced as the higher performance companion to the Mountain Goat Deluxe model. Named after the famed Whiskeytown Downhill race, the new model featured a more aggressive geometry. The earliest bikes, such as this one, were fillet brazed while the later bikes switched to the lighter TIG welding. One of the stand out features of the early bikes was the Henry James fork crown with custom Mountain Goat inlays. This bike is one of the earliest we have seen with the team orange and green paint scheme which really accents the fork crown.

Escape Route prototype frames

2010-03-02T08:08:00.000-08:00

Here are a couple of pictures of the built Escape Route prototype frames. We just built them out of extra parts that we had lying around so we could ride them. Full ride report soon but the first couple of rides were great!

Escape Route build pics

2010-02-25T13:26:00.000-08:00

OK, these are really crummy pictures but we were trying to get it built up so we could actually go ride it! Probably a couple of little tweaks before we hit production but it is pretty close right out of the box.

Goatcrackers

2010-02-25T12:21:00.000-08:00

Here is a picture of the Goatcracker:

$14.99

I'll try to get them listed on the Goodies page this afternoon for purchase: http://www.firstflightbikes.com/MGGoodies.htm

Goat Horn bars are on the water

2010-02-24T18:05:00.000-08:00

Our new Goat Horn steel bars are finally heading our way. I put one of the samples on the proto Escape Route frame and have been riding them. I do like the little extra width on them, especially when riding single speed. For those you missed it, these are the old style bullmoose bars that were standard on the early mountain bikes. We have updated them to fit the current 1 1/8" threadless setups. 110mm extension with a 10 degree rise and 10 degree sweep. Chrome plated so they will match any frame color!

Escape Route imported frames

2010-01-16T17:30:00.001-08:00

This is a project that we started over 2 years ago and we have finally seen pictures of the sample product. You don't realize how many decisions have to be made when you start a project like this. Colors, model name, logo design, sizes, decals, wheel size, cable guide placement, head badge.......never ends. As soon as we make "final" decisions, three more things pop up.

This whole idea started when we had a fair number of people really liking the Goats but just couldn't come up with the $3K+ that it usually took to buy one. You can't buy a $1500 frame and just put mid-grade stuff on it. The solution was to make the same frame but make 100 of them at one time and have them made overseas. With the same quality of the USA made frames but at about half the price. You lose the option of customizing your geometry and color but that is still available on the USA made frames.

Basic spec:
-29" wheel
-black with cream or orange with green
-4 sizes
-sliding dropouts for single speed or geared use
-80/100mm travel compatible
-double butted cro-moly tubing

We hope to have the samples in hand soon and put some miles on them to confirm the details are where we want them.

Spacers, caps and plugs

2009-12-17T08:27:00.000-08:00

Pictures, we've got pictures!

Plugs $29.99 pair
Spacers $12.99 (20mm)
Caps $12.99

December 2009 updates

2009-12-14T13:56:00.000-08:00

Just a few quick updates on Mountain Goat products:
-Jerseys are in and they look great! Long sleeve and short sleeve, pictures soon.
-Purely Custom sent us a new batch of cool anodized goodies. Restocked all colors of the head set spacers and top caps plus we added some really cool bar end plugs!
-Goat Horn bullmoose style bars are now officially on order. Sample #3 looked great so we are ready to get them made.
-I have actually seen pictures of the front ends of the Escape Route imported 29" wheel frames. This has been a long project but hopefully coming to fruition in the near future.

1984 Escape Goat

2009-12-01T13:32:00.000-08:00

Here is one from the archives. When we picked this one up, the original owner had done some sanding on the original silver finish (which didn't look like it was in that bad of shape) so it needed redone. We took it to our local powder coating place and had them match the original finish. Most of the parts were in decent shape so we just cleaned them up. We did replace a couple of parts with the same part just in better condition. Overall, I think it came out nice.

Goat updates

2009-12-01T06:51:00.000-08:00

Just a couple of quick updates on Goat projects:
-Sample Escape Route frames are in the works. Can't wait to see 'em!
-Goat Fink disc gold discs have been delayed due to a shortage of colored discs. They are supposed to be n stock around the first of next year.
-We have approved sample #3 of the Goat Horn bars so they should be in production soon.
-New shipment of Purely Custom head set caps and spacers have been ordered and should arrive soon. All colors will be back in stock again.

Couple of neat vintage Goat projects under way as well. Pictures soon.

Goat jersey design

2009-11-12T14:17:00.000-08:00

This will likely be the final design for the new Mountain Goat/First Flight jersey. The black jersey has been selling really nicely (we just place our third order for them)but we wanted something a little more visible. Kris Henry of BLACKCAPstudio (http://www.blackcapstudio.com/) designed this on for us. I like the combination of subtle details but not so many that it makes the jersey "busy". We gave shout outs on the previous design to our friends at Fox Racing Shox, Cane Creek Components and IMBA. This time, we went with BLACKCAPstudios (for their excellent design work), Copper Door Coffee (makers of our new Mountain Goat blend coffee and Goat owner, https://www.copperdoorcoffee.com) and our local trail building friends at the Tarheel Trailblazers.

Jerseys should be available in the near future with either long or short sleeves.

Jerseys, Goat discs, spacers, caps and plugs

2009-11-11T19:51:00.000-08:00

OK, I've been really slack on taking pictures lately but here are a few quick updates on recent Mountain Goat happenings.

-The new Goat jerseys are gonna rock! I should have the final-final-final artwork tomorrow of so. Regular short sleeves and thermal long sleeves!
-We've sold Innova golf discs for the past couple of years. Since they offer a custom program, we ordered up a cool 100 rec Polecat discs with the Goat Fink logo. These are great putters or just a nice throw disc.
-Restocking headset caps and spacers from Purely Custom. This should bring all the colors back into stock. We are also adding the logo alloy bar end plugs this time.
-Goat Horns handlebars proto #3 came in and the welds are much improved! (I actually did take some pictures of these but I was forced to take pics inside by Hurricane Ida so they were really awful)

October updates

2009-10-22T13:13:00.000-07:00

It has been a bit sine I updated the blog but since we have finally started slowing down a bit, I guess it is time!

Here are a couple of quick updates:
-Goat #36 is now in line @ Sycip. 16" Route 29 which will probably end up as a dark green frame.

-Darrell should have #35 back from the powder coaters any day now. Color is "Goat Blood" which a nice dark blood red candy over silver base.

-We are waiting on Sample #3 of the Goat Horns handlebars. Also looking at more headset spacers, top caps and end plugs.

-Looking at possibly doing some disc golf discs with the Goat Fink on them. (Remember the Yo Eddy Frisbees!)

-Working with Sinjin @ Copper Door Coffee to come up with a Mountain Goat blend. Should be soon!

-The black First Flight/MOMBAT/Mountain Goat jerseys have been super popular. We just received out THIRD order. We wanted to be able to offer something a little different so we have a new design on the boards. This one will have a bit more orange on it and feature Mountain Goat a little bit more than the previous jersey. Kris @ BlackCap Studios is working his magic on the design.

-Goat #9 has found its way home and is now available as a frame/fork/stem. This was a custom bamboo paint with very little use. Check in with us for details if you are interested in a 17" Route 29 at a very good price (and no waiting!)

That's most of the news for right now.

Laurel Loop @ Lake Norman State Park

2009-10-04T19:23:00.000-07:00

I was able to get out today and run a GPS route on the new Laurel Loop section of the Itusi Trail. Bob has been out and cut the connector route from the parking lot and it looks great. The best part about the day was the total length......just over 4.5 miles! This is from the corner of the lot back to the same corner. Here is a link to the map (hopefully)http://www.mapmyride.com/route//nc/troutman/784125469238849823

Link to 30 pictures http://s59.photobucket.com/albums/g304/firstflightbikes/Laurel%20Loop%20Oct%202009/

Punch list of things to be finished prior to opening:
-hand finish about half of the connector trail
-finish and shape 8 berms
-fill a dozen or so holes in the trail
-still a bit of lopping left to do
-finish crib wall
-finish creek crossing
-blazes in both directions
-signage

Many of these tasks can be done by a couple of people with a couple of hours to spare. They DO NOT have to be done by large groups of people on a specific work day. If you have interest in tackling one of these projects, please let me know and we will work out the details.

Please remember that the Laurel Loop IS NOT OPEN. It is considered trespassing on state property and carries $125 fine.

Limited edition Goat shirt proposals

2009-10-01T14:10:00.001-07:00

Kris has done it again with some very cool designs for our run of limited edition Mountain Goat t-shirts. Let me know whatcha think.

Mountain Goat #29 racing in the Netherlands

2009-09-20T19:14:00.000-07:00

Kees sent us some photos from a race in the Netherlands. Goat #29 included a custom rigid fork and a custom parchment color. We also had a stem made and color matched but it wasn't installed in time for the photos.

Mountain Goat #34, Bamboo!

2009-09-19T19:22:00.000-07:00

This one is heading off to sunny FLA on Monday. Ted built frame, Vicious fork, Air Art paint, 2010 Fox fork and Ritchey WCS stem. Beautiful bike, can't wait to see 'er built up.

Goat Horns pictures

2009-08-20T14:29:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple of picture of prototype #2 bars:

Goat Horns: Round 2

2009-08-18T19:44:00.000-07:00

We got round 2 of the Goat Horn prototypes today. I grabbed a couple of pictures but didn't get a chance to upload them before our evening ride. The clamp is much nicer and these are chrome plated. I am a bit afraid of the chrome but we'll let ya'll weigh in on the decision. The decal looks great but might be a touch too big? Pictures tomorrow.

Panaracer Timbuk II tires for your Goats

2009-07-19T14:09:00.000-07:00

If anyone is interested in a natural skinwall tire for your vintage Mountain Goat, we have them back in stock. Details @ http://www.firstflightbikes.com/TimbukTire.htm

We have also had people run them on their current bikes and they really stand out nicely (especially on black wheels).

Here is what $10,000 worth of tires looks like!

Route 29 proto full suspension frame

2009-07-09T09:48:00.000-07:00

The Route 29 FS bike finally got put back together after be painted. I didn't get a chance to take pictures before riding it so there is a little dirt on it (which is as it should be!) The paint is our new "Goatful Dead" and will be available on all models. Depending on colors, the paint will run about $699.

#9, #9?

2009-07-05T15:53:00.001-07:00

This bike finally made its way back to us for "display". The paint is amazing (almost too pretty to use.......not really).

Wojcik built Goat #2, nekkid

2009-07-05T15:33:00.000-07:00

Latest Goat from the torch of Ted Wojcik. The frame, Vicious fork, Fox fork and Ritchey stem are on the way to Russ Pickett for a bamboo makeover.

1985 Mountain Goat Trials bike

2009-06-29T13:20:00.001-07:00

The Trials model was designed for more extreme obstacle riding and featured a taller bottom bracket (13"), shorter chains stays (16.5") and a steeper head tube. This bike is fully fillet brazed including the high rise stem (there is also a 3/4" headset spacer to bring the bars up higher). Many Trials bikes would have only used a single or double chain ring setup but this one has a three rings.

More details @ http://mombat.org/1985_Mountain_Goat_Trials.htm

Bullmoose changes

2009-06-24T17:49:00.000-07:00

Since we've had some questions on them, these are just a sample pair which is mostly to confirm the dimensions. Changes will include:
-investment cast clamp (not stamped)
-680mm wide instead of 660mm
-much better miters (especially at the bar/strut intersection)
-slightly lighter tubing
-chrome plate

There is another sample in the works so stay tuned for details.

New production bullmoose bar sample

2009-06-23T19:47:00.000-07:00

We've been tossing around the idea of having some new bullmoose type bars produced (AKA: Goat Horns). This was our first sample set and there are some things that need changed. These are the same dimension as the titanium versions we have been selling but will be substantially cheaper (110mm reach, 660mm width, 10 degree rise, 10 degree sweep). We have ordered a second sample with some revisions and in chrome plate. Let me know whatcha think.

Mountain Goat Route 29 #33

2009-06-23T19:29:00.000-07:00

Latest and greatest Mountain Goat Route 29. This was our first frame built by Ted Wojcik and it came out great. Powder coat is a candy blue or silver base and it really pops in the sun. A nod to the vintage crowd with the new old stock Rock Shox RS-1 decals on the new Reba. Our second Ted Goat will be arriving any day and then be heading off to Russ Pickett to get a fresh coat of "bamboo". Should be pretty cool.

Greening the shop

2009-05-05T19:40:00.000-07:00

We received our latest "services" bill from the City of Statesville and it seemed lower than usual so I went back and looked at the last 15 years worth of bills.....and it was the lowest one yet. The city provides our electricity, sewer, water and trash pickup so it is a decent sized bill. The weather was pretty mild last month so I am sure that helped but we have been slowly working to make the shop "greener" over the past couple of years. I guess it started a couple years back when the city stopped picking up cardboard as part of the trash pickup and installed a couple of centrally located dumpsters. A bike shop does generate quite a bit or cardboard including a large box that encloses each bike. The next step was saving inner tubes for Resource Revival which uses them to make neat items from recycled bike parts. When I was dropping off the cardboard, I noticed a miscellaneous paper receptacle so we set aside a trash can where we put all of our scrap office paper and junk mail. So far we have filled 4 big trash cans full. The restaurant next door has a glass recycling bin so we have a place to put our empty adult beverage containers after a ride. It has taken a couple of years but we have been slowly phasing in compact fluorescent bulbs as the older bulbs burn out. In addition to the bulbs, we started turning off more lights at night and the bathroom light now has a motion sensor on it. The final step was installing a new (non leaky) sink in the bathroom next to the low-flow toilet.

It looks like this has all added up to about $30 a month in savings which will help pay for the improvements.

I almost forgot one of our biggest improvements 5 years or so ago. When we moved into the building, it was still using a cooling tower for air conditioning. This primitive system used a large pump to move water up to the roof where is went through a spray head system that sprayed water onto the tower. The tower was about 4' square and 6' tall with multiple slats on each side. The water was sprayed onto the top slat and trickled down the slats to return to the pond which fed back into the building. The water was supposed to cool off and the system used that temp differential to cool the building. We limped this system along for 8 or 9 years which made for some brutal summer days. You'd be standing out in the showroom with a customer and you would hear the system shut down. This usually resulted in a trip to the roof to clear the rust scale out of the spray heads. Did I mention how hot a black tar roof can get in the middle of summer while changing spray heads in 120 degree water? As a bonus, one trip to the roof was to fish a dead pigeon out of the return pipe!

Ahh, the good old days.

LANO trail work April 2009

2009-04-11T10:46:00.000-07:00

Woody Keen, of Trail Dynamics, came down to the Itusi Trial for the weekend to advise us on how to add some more technical trail features. Below are a couple of photos of the weekend.

Mountain Goat #30 full pictures

2009-03-27T13:56:00.000-07:00

We finally got #30 all built up and have her up for sale now. Most of the built kit is from a Trek Fuel EX7 so it is heavy on the Bontrager parts. The frame was built up with an XL top tube but with a lower standover height and is correct for a 100mm fork. The color is a a heavy metallic lime over a black base and it really pops in the sun light! There is a full description @ http://www.firstflightbikes.com/2008_Mountain_Goat_WTR30.htm

Price is $2,499.99 complete as pictured.

Yet another Goat update

2009-03-04T11:59:00.000-08:00

We got hit with about 6" of snow on Sunday which pretty much shuts everything down. School was out Monday and Tuesday and delayed on Wednesday....all from one snow storm. It'll probably take the bread and milk suppliers a month to catch back up. As soon as the forecaster utters the "S" word, the grocery stores are picked clean of sliced bread and liquid moo.

Darrell's Hairy Kay is getting the final buff job today and should be ready by tomorrow. Then, "let the assembly begin!"

I built the wheels for Sean's Ti WTR. The rims, Groovy Luv Handles and Fox fork were all painted a deep cobalt blue. I built the rims up using silver Industry 9 hubs and spokes (with the exception of a single blue anodized spoke per wheel). The wheels look great and the fork should be back from paint tomorrow.

The Route 29 FS is now black and I just have to finalize the artwork.

The "extra" WTR is at the local powder coat place. I picked out a lime metallic over black base which should look pretty damn cool. I just flipped through the powder samples until something grabbed me. This frame should be done in the next couple of days as well. Once we get it back, we'll build it up as a display bike for the shop.

I also got the call yesterday that the Ti bullmoose bars are on the way. We should have them soon in both 100mm and 110mm extensions. pictures when they arrive.

Updates, we've got updates

2009-02-13T18:13:00.000-08:00

Just a couple of quick Goat-related notes to let everyone know where we currently stand:

-Right now, we have 3 Goats at the painters: Darrell is getting a glorious coat of pink on the Hairy Kay, Sean is getting his Fox fork, Groovy Luv Handles and rims painted for the Ti Goat and my Goat FS is getting a coat of paint. On a related note, we got the Industry 9 hubs and spokes for Sean's Ti Goat. Silver hubs and spokes plus one blue spoke per wheel. Should be cool.

-The imported Escape Goat project is still on track, albeit the slow track. We have been working on finalizing the decals for the bike and tidying up some small details. It should be an exciting project and bring some Goat into a more affordable price range.

-The Grab On grips are now in stock and shipping. These are built to the same specs as the original grips and have been selling nicely.

-The second batch of Panaracer Timbuk II tires have been ordered but the date has slipped from March/April to April/May. There are only about 20 tires left from the original batch so if you need them before May, the sooner the better.

-It looks like Lynskey will be making us a batch of Ti bullmoose bars in the near future. I have been testing a set on the F-K-R and have really enjoyed them. Available soon (we hope) in 100mm and 110mm reach. Brushed finish $425 projected price.

-We've also been talking to Ted Wojcik about making some frames. Very cool guy and it would be great to have an East Coast builder. Things look good and we may be working on a sample frame soon.

That's about it for now.

Paintin' the Goats

2009-02-05T14:18:00.000-08:00

Mountain Goats have always been known for their custom paint. The older Goats were painted by Russ Pickett, of AirArt, and when we started making new Goats, we called on Russ to work his magic again. Russ has done a great job resurrecting the vintage paint schemes for us but it is a slow and expensive process. It is frustrating enough to have to wait 4-6 months for a frame to be built but adding on another 3-4 months for paints can make the wait uncomfortable close to a year. Shipping to and from Chico, CA adds a couple of weeks of transit time plus about $80 to the cost. We looked around at some of the local guys and found Peter Weber less than 10 minutes from the shop. He painted one of our customers bikes and it turned out great. Here are a couple of images from his web site:

For more, go to http://www.peterscustomart.com/default.aspx

Obviously, he is more that qualified! We made the trip to his shop yesterday with 3 bikes. Darrell took the Hairy Kay to get a glorious coat of pink applied (Although Peter did as him if he was serious!). Sean took the part from the Ti Whiskeytown Racer for some candy blue. The rims, fork and Luv Handles will all be painted to match. After paint, the rims are heading to I9 for spokes and hubs. I took the Route 29 FS with a couple of ideas in mind. One was a take-off of the old California Yuppie paint except with a North Carolina inspiration (beach, Wright Bros., NASCAR...) and the other was the Goatful Dead with skeletal Goats. If you took a minute to look a Peter's web site, you know which one he preferred.

Hopefully, we'll some cool new stuff to show in the next couple of weeks!

The Hairy Kay

2009-01-31T08:24:00.000-08:00

Darrell was enjoying his Mountain Goat Route 29 single speed so much, he had pretty much quit riding his full suspension Trek. Talk turned to taking the Trek apart and using it as a parts donor for a Whiskeytown Racer. Darrell liked the sound of that so we started designing the frame. Since he already had a single speed, we decided to add the ability to use the gearing on this frame even though it may spend much of its life in ss mode. While the frame was in line to be made, we started to discuss color options. Darrell went to the local GM dealership and got the paint code for the Cadillac Mary Kay pink to match the pink King headset and pink WTB Rocket saddle.

The first race of the local winter short track race was last Sunday and D raced the Route 29 which was apparently way under-geared. The track is just a relatively flat mile loop and at racing speeds, the stock gearing wasn't cutting it. Instead of changing the Route 29 gearing, we decided to build up the WTR and leave it nekkid. The gearing is currently is a 38x16 which is pretty stout. We'll see how it works on Sunday. Since the frame has to be wiped down and oiled pretty frequently to prevent rust, I have a feeling we'll be seeing paint on it pretty soon!

Freecyclin'

2009-01-26T14:07:00.000-08:00

We've been cleaning up around the shop some and there always seems to be some stuff that you really can't find a use for but it is too "good" to toss out........you know exactly what I am talking about! This meant that it just sat there for another round until you finally get tired enough of seeing it that you give it the ole' heave-ho. A couple of years ago, my sister told me about freecycle.org and we have used it ever since. There seems to be local groups pretty much everywhere so check the web site to find them in your area. Once you get signed up, send an email with what you are looking to get rid of and your inbox will fill up pretty quickly. We just posted an old office chair and had 10 interested people within an hour. About a 1/2 hour after responding, someone was at the door and wheeling the chair away. Seems like a better alternative to filling up our landfills.

On the Mountain Goat front, Darrell's Harry K frame plus a second spec frame have shipped and should be arriving in the near future. It will be nice to welcome a couple of new Goats to the herd.

Get a Grip

2009-01-23T14:34:00.000-08:00

We are always on the lookout for "old" mountain bike parts that are still marketable today. The obvious parts are the typical wear parts on the bikes. Parts such as tires, seats and grips wear out with normal use. Many of the parts that are available today don't look "right" on the older bikes. Black wall tires ruin the look of the pre-1990's bikes since they didn't become available until the early 1990's. We worked with Panaracer to remake the classic Timbuk II tire from the original molds. Now there is a classic skin wall tire that you can use with confidence on your bike while maintining the period correct look of the bike. We are down to our last 2 dozen of these at http://www.firstflightbikes.com/TimbukTire.htm

Another problem area can be grips. The Grab On MTN1 was one of the earliest grips made for mountain bikes. The original grips used a 46lb density foam and had a nice firm feel to them. Grab On still has the grip in production but has changed to an 18-20lb foam which is much softer and will wear much quicker. They changed due to a large price increase in the raw materials. The denser foam is right at twice as expensive as the less dense foam. We called Grab On and they agreed to make us a batch using the nicer foam which are now for sale @ http://mombat.org/MOMBAT/PartsForSalePages/bar_stem.html#Tape

You can still find the lighter duty ones for about $10 and these are $15 but it is worth the difference for the feel and durability.

MOMBAT'n

2009-01-17T06:32:00.000-08:00

Wow, it's been cold here that past couple of days: 12 when I woke up yesterday and 11 this morning.

I've been trying to update the format of the www.mombat.org web site into something a little nicer looking. It's a pretty big project so it will take awhile to update all of it but I have to start somewhere. The "top level" pages are all done and I'll start working on the lower level pages as time allows. If you get a chance, check it out and let me know what you think.

Goat frames update

2009-01-10T19:43:00.000-08:00

Jeremy Sycip called yesterday to update the status of the latest frame for Darrell. He asked if it was supposed to have the Salsa drop outs on it since that is what he had put on the frame. On the 26" wheel bikes, the Salsa drop out is stock so I told him we were good.......until wES came in the next day and told me we were supposed to have sliders on it, uh-oh. Quick call to Jeremy with the bad news and now Darrell is first in line for his new new frame. I guess the silver lining would be an extra Goat frame for stock! If anyone has been thinking about a frame and didn't want to wait, this could be a good opportunity. 19" frame for 26" wheels, 100mm fork and disc brakes. The only deviation from stock is the top tube from the 21" frame with a 19" seat tube. We told Jeremy to surprise us with the color so not sure what it will be. He did mention an Azure blue as a possibility but we'll see. wES wanted to get it painted up in Mary Kay pink to mess with Darrell. That is the color of his frame and it would have been cool to see the look on his face when we pulled out the frame with the "wrong" drop outs after a 6 month wait! Then we could pull out the "correct" frame but then Darrell would no longer be the only one with a Mary Kay colored Goat. Maybe we could get some of the make-up sellers to turn in their Cadillacs on a new bike?? Maybe if gas his $4 a gallon again?

Ride a bike, earn money for cycling groups

2009-01-04T14:53:00.000-08:00

Still learning all of the details of the program but it looks like a nice setup. Sign up, choose your cause, ride your bike, submit your mileage and earn money for your cause. I chose IMBA since I think they do some great work but there are a couple of other very worthy causes (Bikes Belong, Rails to Trails..) Check it out at http://www.plus3network.com/

On a more vintage related note, we did order the Grab On MTN-1 grips which should be here in a couple of weeks.

And the number of the count shall be......

2008-12-29T19:19:00.000-08:00

That's right, it is that time of year again.....inventory countin' time! I guess the only thing good about the current counting is the relative ease versus several years ago. Not that many years ago, we would count everything and write it out long hand on pieces of notebook paper. Each line would be entered into a spread sheet with columns for description and quantity. Then it was off to the invoices, catalogs and memory bank to assign costs to each item. It was rough when different distributors had different prices for the same item and we had no way to tell who sold us a particular Shimano Deore XT derailleur. I would manage to spread out this misery for a couple of weeks to come up with a number that was in the ballpark at best. Fast forward to today with each item being tracked on the computer. It is just a matter of calling up the entire inventory, printing it off and comparing the "should have" to the "do have" number. Once the counts are corrected, we get a nice exact (and accurate) inventory amount. All of this can be done in a day or two which is nice. The bad part is having to reconcile the counts. Every time the actual count differs from the computer count, we have to figure out why. Not fun. So if you call us this week and we seem to be grumpy, now you know why!

On another note, I talked to Grab On today about some original style MTN-1 grips. This grip has been around forever and has always been a popular item. The grip is still available but they are using a lower density foam to keep the costs down. The current foam is an 18-24 pound foam while the originals used a 46 pound foam. This made the original grips much firmer plus longer lasting. They are willing to make us a run of the grips using the original weight foam. There seems to be a decent amount of interest in the project, so we will likely order them in the next week and were told to expect a 3-4 week turnaround. So if you like a nice firm grip or are looking for a grip that looks appropriate on your vintage bike, give us a shout in a month or so.

MOMBAT press release

2008-12-19T12:03:00.000-08:00

We sent out a MOMBAT press release, announcing the museum, to about 75 different outlets so it will be interesting to see what comes of it. So fat, Gary at Bike Radar, has picked it up http://tinyurl.com/534g5u . Karen, from Dirt Rag, wants some pictures so hopefully we'll get something there as well.

Here is what we sent around.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Museum of Mountain Bike Art & Technology Opens

Statesville, NC – December 18, 2008 – The sport of mountain biking is celebrating its thirtieth anniversary in 2009, and leading the celebration is The Museum of Mountain Bike Art & Technology, a recently opened museum that preserves and chronicles the evolution of the sport, it’s personalities and products.

In the mid 1970’s, the mountain bike sprang to life as a grassroots effort by a small group of riders in Marin County, California, who converted balloon-tired cruisers into trail bikes by removing superfluous equipment and installing knobby tires. The first purpose-built off road bikes were made in the late 1970's when the term “Mountain Bike’ was first used to describe them, and the sport grew rapidly worldwide in the following years. The original mass produced mountain bike, the Specialized Stumpjumper, arrived in stores in 1981. An example of this model now resides in the Smithsonian Institution, and a similar model is displayed at the Museum of Mountain Bike Art & Technology (MOMBAT).

Technological innovation is evident in the bicycles featured at MOMBAT, with the evolution of front and rear suspension designs, hydraulic disc brakes and the progression from five to 27 gears over the life of the sport. Frame materials also evolved, from basic steel tubes to wildly shaped and extremely lightweight composites and metals. Artistic design and construction is also found on bikes and components as some of the best examples of bicycle fabrication are on display at the museum, including details ranging from experimental to innovative and artful.

The museum’s collection contains over 400 bicycles, including more than 250 mountain bikes. Displayed alongside the bicycles at MOMBAT are hundreds of vintage parts and accessories and thousands of pieces of literature, including period catalogs and magazines that follow the evolution of the sport.

“With our location near the intersection of two major interstates, the museum is convenient for anyone traveling in the area, and we’ve had visitors from all around the U.S. and overseas as well.” said, Jeff Archer, the museum’s curator.

The museum also sponsors the Cackalacky Cup, an increasingly popular vintage-themed mountain bike festival that takes place each summer.

MOMBAT is located within First Flight Bicycles in historic downtown Statesville, NC. Admission is free and the museum is open to the public Monday-Friday, 10-6 and Saturday, 10-5. Visitors are welcomed and encouraged to take their time to view the exhibits. Those unable to visit the museum in person, can view much of the collection on the MOMBAT website, at www.mombat.org.

Contact:
Jeff Archer
Jeff@firstflightbikes.com
216 S. Center St.
Statesville, NC 28677
(704) 878-9683

Feel free to distribute it to anyone who might be interested. Thanks to Greg and Captain Dondo for helping us out on this little project.

An uncommon Thread

2008-12-15T16:01:00.001-08:00

Last Thursday was an all-day meeting for the Carolina Thread Trail. The Thread Trail is an effort to get 15 counties to work together to unify their respective green-way plans. Within these 15 counties, there are probably 75 different municipalities that will need to get along. I am sure getting these folks to play together is like the proverbial kitty herding. The 800 pound gorilla smack dab in the middle of this 15 county universe would be Charlotte which makes all the other towns look like little satellites orbiting the Charlotte "Sun" while trying not to get pulled in and obliterated. The idea is to get each municipality to share their plan while using the counties to fill in the blank space between the towns. In Iredell County, home of Statesville, we have 3 towns plus the county government. What we need to do is get Mooresville, Troutman and Statesville working together to form their own plans and then get Iredell County to join the three plans together. Then Iredell county works with the adjacent counties to plan joining spots at the county borders. Hypothetically, when connected, there could be 500 miles of trails connected together!! This is a huge project and the talk is of 20+ years which likely means 40+ but it has to start somewhere.

Anyway, Thursday brought together 200 of these planners to listen to experts at each phase of green-way building: planning, funding, opposition, construction, maintenace and the selling of the concept to landowners. It sure made for a long day but it was a great learning experience. We even had an exercise at the end where you had to plan and build a trail on a map with your team members. It was interesting to balance the desires of different user groups with the given budget.

All in all, a great (but long) day. We even worked with the organizers to give away a Trek 4300 Disc mountain bike to one of the participants. If you get a chance, check out their web site at www.carolinathreadtrail.org

Trail work @ the Itusi

2008-12-08T09:52:00.000-08:00

We've been gearing up for another big work day at the Itusi Trail. The new loop, when completed, will bump us up to nearly 20 miles of volunteer built trail! bOb and I have been using the machines to rough cut the trail and on December 13, we will be having a large scale work day. This is what we will be working on:

This section is definitely going to be a little tighter and more technical than the existing trail. If you get a chance, come out and help.

December 13, 2008
9:00 - 1:00
Bring your bike and ride the existing trail after trail work.

New Itusi Trail web page

2008-12-03T11:47:00.000-08:00

Forgot to mention that I have been working on improving the Itusi Trail web site. You can check on the progress @ http://www.firstflightbikes.com/Itusi/

Don't forget that we are having a work day on 12/13 from 9-2. We will be working on the new Phase IV which will give us close to 20 miles of trail when finished!

Store remodeling

2008-12-03T10:35:00.000-08:00

Here are a couple of quick pictures of a few of the remodeling projects that we have going one:

Shorts rack on the new porch:

Water bottle "flower boxes":

Work in progress on the clothing racks for the back wall. I think they will end up looking a little different than these but this will give you an idea.

All o' Twitter

2008-11-26T18:40:00.000-08:00

I kept seeing the Twitter site linked on different sites so I decided to check it out. Not 100% sure about what the theory is behind it but it might be kinda neat. The key appears to be only adding folks that might have something interesting to say. There was one that just kept track of who used Twitter most often in the past couple of hours.......nothing too useful there! I will admit to liking the 140 character limit on each entry. I usually spend a little time on each blog entry to make sure it is somewhat organized but with Twitter you don't have space to think. Anyway, if you are interested, we are FirstFlightBike.

After 13 years, it is time!

2008-11-22T14:53:00.000-08:00

We've been in our current location since July of 1995 and really haven't changed the store layout much since we moved in. At the time, I had been working in shops for over 10 years and had read a bunch of retail books, so the initial layout was pretty damn functional. But with the advent of all of these "concept" stores, it is time to take it up another level. Our goal has to make the store more "outdoorsy" by adding some more natural materials inside. So far, we have added some displays using bark nuggets, stone and greenery. The biggest project so far has been to move the counter to the center of the store and put a porch in its place. The 8' x 16' porch has a pergola over the top plus a full cedar shake wall (which really smells nice). Wes posted a couple of pictures on the First Flight Blog @ http://firstflightbikes.blogspot.com/

Here is a photo of the front of the shop, circa late 1950's.

Birth of a trail

2008-11-10T07:10:00.000-08:00

Sam and I took about 4 hours on Sunday and walked the proposed trail line for Phase IV of the Itusi Trail at Lake Norman State Park. Our group/shop has been involved in building this trail for 8 years now and, as implied above, this next section will be the fourth "phase" of the trail. It is always exciting to watch the trail progress through the different stages: lay out, corridor clearing, grubbing, grooming and finally riding (saving the best for last). I tried to take some photos of the area before the trail and will hopefully be able to go out and take pictures of the same area after the trail is constructed.

Interesting ravine that we may be able to use for trail:

Looks like the bird lost this battle:

Nice view of the lake from the trail:

If this was an art exhibit, this would be "leaf on Water":

Old homestead foundation stones:

The Holly bushes are one of the few things that are still green:

Park boundary at the waters edge:

About the only "wild life" we saw all day:

What are they thinking??

2008-11-04T10:06:00.000-08:00

We've been building a decent number of 2009 bikes. Each bike takes around an hour to build which gives you some head-scratchin' time. Couple of examples:

Cable mounts on suspension forks: Several years ago, most bikes used "v" brakes so suspension forks came with the appropriate mounts. Disc brake mounts were eventually added to the forks in addition to the rim brake mounts. During this ere, most of the cable routing duties for the disc brakes was handled by zip ties. As rim brake mounts disappeared, the cable routing didn't necessarily become any more elegant. You have a $500+ fork with zip ties wrapped around the fork legs. Rock Shox puts a couple of bumps on the arch to position the zip tie but that is it. Several of the less expensive forks offer a nice pass through for the housing which works great! I can understand that this type of mount would be a PITA for hydro brakes but can't they even give us a little trough mount for the zip tie like is often used on the frames? At least our friends at Fox have a slick cable mount(even if the bolt is a little undersized for the task).

Disc brake mounts: I sometimes wonder if the people in charge of bike design ever actually assemble any of their bikes. A few of the recent models have the rear brake tucked up in between the stays which is very clean looking. The problem arises when you try to adjust the brake. We had to cut down an Allen wrench to get it to fit the mounting bolts since they were so close to the seat stay. Not a huge deal at the shop but if you ever have to adjust it on the trail, it ain't gonna happen with a regular multi-tool.

Disc brake rotors: While I'm picking on the brake guys, how 'bout a little more clearance between the pads and the rotor. Most of these brake rotors have a mm, or less, clearance per side. Once you finally get the caliper set, it seems like that last torquing of the mounting bolts moves the caliper to one side just enough to make it rub. And thanks to the trucking folks that apparently can't comprehend the English language or at least the words that form "This end UP", it seems like every front rotor we get is warped. The manufacturer puts a big Frisbee-sized piece of plastic in the end of the axle to keep this from happening........doesn't work. Every rotor comes with this nice wave shape built in now. We have the Park tool that is supposed to help bend the rotor back into shape but it only succeeds in moving it to another spot on the rotor. And as a bonus, this all happens with all tne of your fingers nestled right up a piece of stainless steel shaped like a meat cutting blade!

I'm sure I could come up with another dozen of similar things but I'll let my blood pressure return to normal before posting more.

Still working on the Mountain Goat Escape Route (imported) frames. The details are coming together nicely. I think we are going to order a couple of color-matched rigid forks to go with the frames. Speaking of colors, I think I've decided on orange and black as the color options. The orange would have top/down/seat tube panels in the team green color. The black will also have panels except in a cream color. The down tube panel would contain "Mountain Goat", the top tube panel "Escape Route" and the seat tube panel would have the Goat head logo. I can't wait to see 'em.

Parts is parts...

2008-10-24T11:04:00.000-07:00

The other project that we have going on at the shop is cataloging the parts that we have. So far, we have been able to take pictures of most of the parts in the shop area display cases. There are still hundreds of pictures to take but we had to start somewhere. Check out http://mombat.org/Parts_Museum.htm and let us know whatcha think.

How cool is this??

2008-10-16T10:09:00.000-07:00

From the IMBA web site (and if you aren't a member, why not?)

A proposed National Park Service (NPS) regulation change will benefit Americans by improving mountain biking experiences in national parks. The new policy would empower park superintendents to manage trails for bicycles, without sacrificing environmental review or public comment opportunities.

"Bicycling is a good fit for many national parks. It's a quiet, low-impact, family-friendly activity that provides a great way to get adults and kids excited about exploring America's most scenic places," says IMBA Executive Director Mike Van Abel. "We're very pleased that the NPS intends to update its regulations to better serve visitors."

IMBA looks forward to an upcoming NPS announcement on the pending regulation change, and the ensuing public commentary period. Stay tuned to IMBA's website for additional news, and to register your comments with the NPS.
Bicycling Helps National Parks

Expanded opportunities for mountain biking can help energize national parks by attracting new visitors - particularly young ones. According to the Outdoor Industry Association, bicycling is the top gateway activity that gets kids outside and engaged in a variety of outdoor sports.

"Visitation numbers are a concern to the park service at all levels and something we are working with our many tourism partners such as IMBA to address. Having worked with mountain bikers on public lands at gateway communities, I know what a great economic impact they can have on a small town," said NPS National Tourism Director Dean Reeder. "In my experience, we can sustain a balance between resource conservation and appropriate, healthy recreational opportunities such as mountain biking.

Mountain bicycling on appropriate trails in national parks will also enhance visitors' appreciation for the natural world, as parks are better experienced on foot and by bicycle than from inside cars and RVs. Independent scientific studies, including those conducted by the National Park Service, have shown the environmental impacts of mountain biking are similar to those of hiking and less than those of many other user groups.
IMBA's Partnership With National Park Service

Since signing a formal partnership agreement in 2005, IMBA and the NPS have been working together to create and enhance appropriate opportunities for mountain bicycling in national parks. Currently, more than 40 NPS properties host mountain bicycling, on both dirt roads and narrow trails. Each year IMBA leads volunteer work parties to help improve eroded trails and unite trails communities around national parks. Annually, mountain bicyclists contribute almost one million hours of volunteer trailwork on public lands.

"Mountain bicycling is an appropriate activity in many units of the National Park System," says Christopher J. Stubbs, a NPS community planner in Virginia. "I have seen firsthand what bike trails can do for a park. IMBA's folks know how to build sustainable, environmentally sound trails that bring all user groups together. I see a huge potential for bringing a new generation of mountain bicyclists into the park system."
IMBA Has Requested Rule Change for Years

The current policy governing bicycling on NPS trails dates from 1986, and does not account for more than 20 years of research and experience managing bicycling on trails on public lands. The outdated rule is directed at motorized users such as personal watercraft, motorboats, snowmobiles, ORVs and commercial trucking, mining and aircraft. Regulation changes will streamline an overly cumbersome process, while maintaining all review and comment required under the National Environmental Policy Act.

"IMBA first began asking the agency to clarify and streamline this rule in 1992, when IMBA Executive Director Tim Blumenthal met with [then] NPS Director James Ridenour on the subject," says Van Abel. "We hope to see the process for recognizing mountain bike trails will now become more clear and efficient."

Scan, have we got scans!!

2008-10-13T13:10:00.000-07:00

I've been working on the www.mombat.org site quite a bit lately. My goal is to chronicle the histories of the pioneering mountain bike brands. Lately, I have been going through our mountain of older mountain bike magazines and scanning in articles. Each article is then placed onto the history page for that brand on the appropriate MOMBAT page. I have been scanning press releases, advertisements and reviews concentrating on the 1980's stuff right now. There have been some great articles and it was cool to see some of the older hand-drawn stuff. It definitely fit the era. I have found some brands, like Donovan, that I had never heard of before. Apparently, they inserted short pieces of drilled-out aluminum inside of the road gauge tubing to try and achieve a lighter/stronger frame. Kinda cool.

Anyway, if you have a couple of minutes, which could become hours, head over to the MOMBAT site, hit the history link and check it out.

Goat Lovin'

2008-09-20T20:40:00.000-07:00

If you read any of the retail sales guides, they usually mention some large number of people that irritated customers will run out and tell about some type of non-satisfactory interaction with a store. Typically, it is something around 20 people. I am sure the recent guy who thought a new front derailleur would somehow magically fix a worn out bottom bracket is out there right now. We kept his BSO (Bike Shaped Object) with huge miles running on the cheap for 5 years for the guy but now we are suddenly out to take advantage of him. He probably didn't utter a peep of praise in those five years but is probably out their now trying to hit his quota of complaints.

Unfortunately, the satisfied customers somehow don't interact with people and tell right around.....well, let's call it nobody. So, it was a pleasant surprise when the email below arrived from Kees in the Netherlands:

"After I received the photos you made, I was already very eager to get my hands on the frame but when I unpacked it, it looked better than the photos. Man , this is the most beautiful steel frame I have ever seen. I'm very glad that I chose the beige colour with the black and white decals. This makes on chique bike. Actually, I currently own 11 custom built bikes (including steel ones) and have spent more money that I should have on bikes in the past twenty years but this is frame is one of the most beautiful frames I have ever had. The fork is also stunning with the special fork leg tops and reinforcements on the inside. Thank you so much for helping me out with choosing the right geometry and giving me the opportunity to ride a real Mountain Goat"

We always open these email with some hesitation due to the percentage of people complaining vs. praising. It is especially worrisome with overseas buyers due to the language barrier and differing expectations. It is always tough to pick out colors by a description and a small color sample that looks different on every computer monitor.

Two days after the email above arrived, we got this one from Joe in England:

"W.T.R no.7 got put through its paces in the Sierra Nevada mountain range in Spain. Got to say, it still impresses me with its perfect balance and ride. Ive been riding this for 2 1/2 years now and simply love it! I will definitely be interested in a cheaper eastern made Goat if it handles like my No.7."

It is even better when we get a note this far after the purchase. Everyone is excited to get a new toy but it is gratifying to know that it doesn't wear off after the first week.

Ride on guys!

Everbody now......It's a small world after all!

2008-09-19T09:31:00.000-07:00

Occasionally, this big old ball of dirt seems impossibly small.

A couple of years ago, a girl stopped in the shop to check it out. They were traveling from Ohio to Florida. Since I am originally from Ohio as well, asking them from what town, is a good way to start a conversation. She says she is from around Mansfield (know for its ski "resort" and prison which was used in the Shawshank Redemption movie). I replied that was cool since I was from Lexington which is just a handful of miles from Mansfield to which she replies that she is also from Lexington but says Mansfield since more people are familiar with the larger town. We compare notes as to graduations years and figure out that she graduated with my sister and played softball with her. This was from a high school of around 800 students (all grades) that is 8+ hours away.

Last weekend a guy came in to look for a bike. I helped him choose a Trek 820 as a good choice for his 3 mile commute to the gym. He mentioned that he was living out of an RV and was a traveling nurse. While adding accessories to his bike we discuss the nursing profession since my wife is also a nurse. Once again, it is a series of questions that gets us there: where do you work? Charlotte, about an hour away. Oh yeah, what department? Oh, the children's hospital. Levine? Yeah. What department? Emergency room. That's where my wife works. Then we proceed to figure out that they have worked with each other.

So here is the most recent, and most convoluted, one. In our collection of mountain bikes, we have run across a couple that have belonged to the same guy out in Oregon. They have all been high end custom bikes and most have had little wear. I had looked up his phone number a year or so ago but always hate to cold call people. I feel like some hated guy trying to sell them new insulated windows. Anyway, a month ago, Jeff Lindsay (the true father of Mountain Goat) calls up and asks about an older Mountain Goat that we have on the web site. We get to talking and Jeff is going to Oregon and is visiting with the former owner of our bikes. He encourages us to call and tells us what a great guy he is and that he has bought quite a few Goats over the years. So I call him up and leave a message only half expecting a return call.......which came just a day or two later. We talked on the phone and discussed a few of the bikes that he has had over the years. A couple of weeks go by and a good sized box appears from the state of Oregon. OOOOOH, goodies! It is 4 Tyvek envelopes jammed full of old correspondence, pictures, magazine articles and catalogs. This is the kind of stuff that allows us to post more details on our web site and is always appreciated. I call him up to thank him and tell him that we'll get it copied and back out to him. He then tells us that it is ours and as he cleans out the filing cabinet, there may be more heading our way.

OK, this isn't that weird yet? No big deal. As I sort through the literature, there is one hand written note discussing the introduction of the Raven bike and it is signed with a name that starts with a "J". Through our research, we knew that John Olsen had designed the Raven. Putting 2 and 2 together, I figured the signature was Johns. I email John and mention the note. He asked if I was going to scan it and I said probably not since it wasn't that interesting and we didn't have a Raven page on the web site yet. I was scanning some other stuff and just stuck the note on the scanner to send to John. After he received it, he emailed to tell me it wasn't his signature and was actually the signature of Jim Zorn who was the QB for the Seattle Seahawks back then (and now coaches the Washington Redskins). John told me that Jim was friends with the shop owner who was selling the Ravens and helped him sell stuff during the off-season. It was kinda funny to me that a professional starting quarterback was a bike salesman during the off-season. Guess he needed to supplement his income?

When you pull on the end of the thread you never know where it will end up. Makes me wonder how many of these stories we miss by not pulling on every thread that comes our way?

"Free" the Internet

2008-09-14T06:22:00.000-07:00

With our web site, we get inquiries about vintage bike stuff every single day. Some are looking for an old bike that they had growing up or an elusive handlebar to finish their restoration. Some of the other calls are just from folks looking for someone who cares about their passion for older bikes and are just looking for someone who isn't hung up on the new crank arm that is 30% stiffer than its predecessor. We also get a fair number of people who don't have much interest in old bikes but just found an old bike when cleaning out aunt Millie's shed. Most of them are hoping they found a Ferrari in the garage but are OK when it turns out to be a 4 door Chevy. They just want to know what it is so they can tell their friends about it after finishing the rattle-can rehab. It takes some time to answer these questions but that is OK since they are "honest" inquiries.

Along with these questions have come questions of the "dis-honest" kind. Fortunately, they are usually pretty easy to spot. It often starts out as "what can you tell me about" which is code for "can you write my eBay auction description for me". The next most popular one is the "what is it worth" questions posed by folks putting it on Craigslist since they are too cheap to pay eBay fees. I guess this is their version of research. We have spent hundreds of hours studying catalogs that have cost us thousands of dollars to acquire. I often joke that I am studying for my PhD in vintage bikes. If I put the effort into a law degree, I could charge $300 an hour to talk to people about old bikes but I don't see that happening. For some reason, anybody that can be reached via email shouldn't have to be paid since somehow their time isn't worth anything??

What got me thinking about all of this was an email I received over the weekend. The guy wanted to know what bottom bracket he should mail order for his old mountain bike. He complained that if he took it to the local shop, "they would try to rip me off for $50". For some reason, our answer should be free?? Not to mention, the impossibility of really even answering the question without having the bike in the shop plus the need for tools..........I just don't get it. Where is the disconnect? Why should the Internet be "free"?

We have started to see this mentality invade the shop recently as well. These conversations usually start with "what size shoe do I need" or "what size bike do I need"? This is very lightly disguised code for I am buying something online but need you to do all of the work for me. We explain that bike sizes depends on style, brand ,usage, model and preference. Some bikes are measured center to center, some center to top and some along a hypothetical line somewhere in space. Some brands have odd sizes, some even.....riding off road? need more clearance? long legs? riding 6 hours? After all of this, they look at you again and ask "what size bike do I need" but with less patience this time. We usually see these guys back in a couple of weeks with their new pride and joy telling everyone what a great deal they got. Then they are back in another week since they can't seem to get their 6' 3" body comfortable on their 26" bike (which is really a 15" frame with 26" wheels) and wanting to know why the shock is spewing Valdez amount of crude on trail and why a tune up is $60 when they were able to put it together with Vice Grips.

Sooner or later, we'll all figure out that cheapest and smartest don't necessarily go hand in hand. I just hope there are still enough people around with the answers when this happens.

The Escape Route

2008-09-13T13:39:00.001-07:00

We've been contemplating importing a Mountain Goat frame for a couple of months now. I really prefer stuff made in the USA (pops worked at General Motors for 35+ years) but not everyone can swing a $1,400 frame. It has been interesting to see how the whole process works and I am sure there are a couple of wrinkles that I haven't discovered yet. We have worked in the traditional Goat features with the head tube reinforcements and wishbone stays. The tubing will be a good grade double butted cro-moly and will be available in all four sizes. Colors are still undecided but I am leaning towards one "normal" color and one a little bit wilder?

It is always tough to name a bike but we are lucky since we have 20+ years of Goat history to lean on. The late 1980's imported Goat was the Trench Goat which was never one of my favorites but does set something of a precedent for the imported bike. The Escape Goat was the first "budget" oriented Goat which kinda fits. The first batch will all be 29" wheeled frames which will be like our current Route 29 frames. Take the two and put them together and come up with.......Escape Route. I like to think of riding as an Escape Route from the real world so I think it fits.

Anyway, as time get closer and the details get nailed down, we'll wee it here first!

Tar n' gravel is bad....m'kay

2008-09-03T09:28:00.000-07:00

It seems like every time I commute to work, the wonderful state of North Carolina decides to tar and gravel another road on my regular route. This appears to be the process: take used motor oil from cars that get regular 20,000 mile changes, pour it onto the road, throw down what appears to be ground up sharks teeth into the oil, put up a "Caution: loose gravel" sign, wait two weeks until the cars wear it down, come back and Krylon some stripes on the whole mess. I think they pay someone to arrange each individual piece of gravel so the sharpest edge is sticking up. As car pass over the whole mess, they are supposed to pack it down and smooth it out. While we are waiting for that to happen, all of the extra loose bits get piled up on the edge of road right where they expect the bikes to ride. Thank goodness for Bontrager Hard Case tires! Heaven forbid that anyone would ever go down on the road. I can imagine it would be like a sliding board made of cheese graters. Two weeks ago it was Amity Hill Road and today it was Judas Road. Can't wait until the get to the rest of the route.

Cackalacky '08

2008-09-02T08:40:00.000-07:00

Our 8th Annual Cackalacky Cup wrapped up last weekend and it was a blast! We generally try to have some vintage mountain bike "celebrities" attend but it just didn't work out this year. Capt. Dondo was heading our way with FTW in tow and a couple of bonus buddies as well and Rody, from Groovy Cycle Works, was making a return appearance. The bad news started Thursday afternoon when Dondo called to tell us FTW had a paying engagement and his two traveling buds were bailing out. Facing a 14 hour solo commute, Dondo opted out which left Rody. Rody doubles as a fireman and the fellow who was covering his shift had a death in the family so Rodys trip south was put on hold as well.

That was the sad part. The good news was EL, Don and Noah were still winging their way to NC. These guys are part of the vintage ATB brotherhood and come down to check out the bike collection and get in some great riding. After everyone arrived at the shop on Friday, we headed out for some traditional NC BBQ.

Saturday morning brought the competition portion of the weekend. We use the Itusi Trail, at Lake Norman State Park, for this part of the event. It is a great trail network that follows the contours of Lake Norman. We used the 4 mile Hawk Loop for the Technical Time Trial which featured a handful of benign obstacles. Miss an obstacle, get a time penalty. After that, we rode over to the 6 mile Monbo Loop for a full out time trial. The fastest cumulative time won a Fox Racing Shox and Cane Creek donated a set of disc wheels which were awarded randomly to a participant. We doubled the amount of racers we had last year and had a great time. It was nice to see about 15 kids participate. After the time trials, we took a more leisurely ride around the park. This was followed by pizzas and beers at the shop.

Sunday was a gorgeous day and we met at the shop at 8AM. Everyone piled in the cars and we headed to DuPont State Forest. When we got to the trail head, it was already full of cars. We looked at each other and wondered if they were there to ride with us. We took 13 "locals" and were met by 15 people from the Asheville area. 28 was too big of a group so we quickly broke into the "racer" group and "tourist" group. The racers blew by the scenic overlooks while us tourists took in the sights. Big thanks to David, Mike, Woody, Chuck and Ed (plus others) for showing us around.

The worst part about the weekend is that it only happens once a year!

Route 29 FS ride report

2008-08-28T12:09:00.000-07:00

I've been riding the Route 29 FS for a couple of weeks now and have been very impressed. Coming from riding only hard tails, I prefer a fairly rigid bike without a lot of motion. The Trek Fuel EX, that we have had for a demo bike, has a very supple and easily activated suspension, almost feels limitless. To me, it feels like it is hinged in the middle and is always moving which is probably great for those who have always been riding fs bikes. The Goat doesn't feel like it is always moving but when I check the travel on the rear shock (via the O ring) it is definitely moving. The new Fox rear RP23 also has very useful adjustments. It is very easy to feel the differences between settings where some of the older shocks seemed to have very little differences between settings.

For right now, I have been riding the bike without paint......just a little oil between rides! Several of the folks who have seen the bike have encouraged me to leave it raw. It does look pretty cool but I'll probably look into paint in the near future. If you have interest in owning your own Mountain Goat FS bike, give us a shout. They are available in 26" or 29" wheels.

Goat happenings

2008-07-30T12:23:00.000-07:00

Couple of neat things going on at the shop this week. Wes got the last Zanotti built Goat that we had in stock. We got Kees bike in which is a really nice parchment color with a matching segmented fork. The full suspension bike got a green way shake down ride to get it ready for the weekend trip to Dupont State Forest. We are going to check out some potential routes for this years Cackalacky Cup ride. It is still unpainted so I wiped it down with some oil to get it through the weekend. It is actually pretty cool looking. Full ride repost when we get back.

Now is the time......

2008-07-23T07:07:00.000-07:00

....to get cycling onto the governmental radar. I think we have a unique opportunity right now to raise the awareness of cycling. We have been seeing more people looking to bikes as an actual viable alternative to cars for some trips. Folks are buying hybrid bikes with racks to get to work. Most will site rising gas prices as the impetus for looking at cycling but are also attracted to the exercise, weight loss, reduced stress and general "green-ness" of riding. Several of these factors are colliding head first into each other and may give us the best opportunity in our lifetimes to push a cycling agenda. What we need is folks out there telling the money-holders that this is important to us.

The importance of this has been creeping up on me the last handful of years. When we build local trails, I am happy as a pig-in-slop just pushing dirt around. I seem to be much less inclined to sit in front of the TV screen with a keyboard but it seems to be at least as important as pushing dirt. When the IMBA Trail Care Crew visited in 2005, we were able to demo some trail machinery and I told bOb that somehow I was going to find a way to buy us a skid steer of our very own. In 2007 I wrote grants that bought us a Ditch Witch via Lowes Home Improvement, a Volvo mini excavator via Duke Energy and $5K worth of hand tools via the Adopt-a-Trail program. In our estimation, one machine hour is equal to 10 man hours which helps cut down on the number of volunteers that we need to coerce. I probably spent a total of 5 or 6 hours on the grants and they saved us hundreds of volunteer hours already which will increase every time we cut new trail. Sounds like a pretty sound return on investment??

Last month, I was invited to join the board of the Downtown Statesville Development Corporation (DSDC) which is in charge of keeping our downtown healthy and is funded via a property tax on downtown properties. Another project is the beginnings of the Carolina Thread Trail program that aims to tie together 15 counties via a system of greenways. It is a very ambitious program but it won't happen if we don't start somewhere. Because of our involvement with the state park trail, I was invited to join the citizens Park Advisory Committee. It seems like each of these organizations has some overlap in membership which means you see a lot of the same people in different settings. In each of these, I keep pushing cycling with an emphasis on the particular venue. AT DSDC meetings, it is using bikes to get people into town to shop which means more dollars for the merchants. At the LNSP PAC, it is building more trails to get more park attendance which means more dollars for the park. At the Thread trail meetings, it is pushing for more people to visit the area which means more dollars for the county. See a pattern here?

The last meeting we (Daryl, Shawn, wES and I) attended was the public forum for the Iredell County Park and Rec master plan. This is the plan that will guide the parks department for the next 10-15 years. We all gave up a ride night to go sit in and listen to the plan. They did mentions a couple of cycling related options in the plan and we just made sure that they realized there was interest in these activities and that all parks didn't have to be centered around stick and ball fields.

I guess the whole point of this is to go out and do SOMETHING, attend a meeting, push some dirt, call your county commissioners, buy some tools, write a grant proposal.....anything to help improve the atmosphere for cycling. If you don't get involved, you lose the right to complain about it! This is our time.

Bunny Rabbit v. Lincoln Continental

2008-07-16T13:23:00.000-07:00

I've recently started doing a bit of commuting to work which gives me a couple of hours a day to ponder "stuff".

One of the things that I have noticed has been the large number of animals that appear to have had nothing left to live for. Maybe Mrs. Skunk was berating Mr. Skunk about his lack of motivation when searching out grubs for dinner or maybe the chipmunk just couldn't take the daily strain of nut gathering. Thank goodness we humans put a lot of roads through the woods to help with their suicide by automobile. Maybe it isn't that complicated. Maybe it is just the young groundhogs hanging around with nothing to do and playing "chicken" with the tandem axle dump trucks?

I was going to try and count the number of flattened animals on the way in to work but lost count pretty quickly. The early census revealed a chipmunk, two squirrels, a skunk, a groundhog, three birds, 3 snakes (although one may have been a fan belt),two turtles and a couple of unidentifiable fur mounds. I think I feel the worst for the reptiles. The poor old box turtle takes an eternity to clear the traffic lanes and has a couple hundred times the chance of getting crushed than say a hyperactive squirrel. Then you have the snakes. They are relatively slow but their main issue would be length. Most of the black snakes around here run 3' - 4' long which means they've got a high hit ratio when compared to the chipmunk. Now that I think about it, birds have issues too. Not only do they have to watch out for tires, they've got the rest of the vehicle to worry about. Might explain the high number of our winged friends?

If ya'll stop running over our forest friends, I'll have to ponder something else on the ride home!

T-shirt update, call for art work

2008-07-07T14:01:00.000-07:00

If you've been following along, you know we've been doing a run of limited edition Mountain Goat Cycles t-shirts. Each shirt is a run of 100 shirts in miscellaneous sizes but just one color (except the first one which had a few orange shirts accidentally thrown in) .

The first run was the old traditional head tube badge from the original Goats in gray.

The second run was the original catalog artwork circa 1982 in brown. The art work was also used a decal on some of the early bikes.

The third edition was a new design drawn by my brother-in-law (who does newspaper design work and is an accomplished artist) and done in red.

The first edition sold out, the second is down to a handful in XL and XXL and the third is down to a couple of larges, XL and XXL. I guess that makes it time to design another shirt. If anyone out there would like to see their art work on a t-shirt, send it on. No $$$, just fame (and a couple of t-shirts!)

No real rules, I just have to like it and believe that we can sell 100 of them. Feel free to use any of the images from the www.mountaingoatcycles.com web site or make up your own. Send the results to jeff@firstflightbikes.com

July 4 Goat updates

2008-07-04T11:33:00.000-07:00

There have been a few pretty cool developments of late here at Goat-central. I finally got our prototype Route 29 full suspension frame in. This one uses the 4" travel Ventana rear with a Fox shock. I think we are going to try one of the local motorcycle painters who recently painted a bike for one of our customers. It came out looking great and the price was reasonable. I've had a couple of ideas for paint but won't know until I talk to the painter. One possibility was to do a NC Yuppie which would have North Carolina images such as NASCAR, tobacco, Wright Bros, moonshine..........we could start one end of the bike at the beach and finish the other end in the mountains! The other possibility was to try some Goat skeletons. The painter does some really nice skeletons and it would be neat to do some Goats......maybe we could call it the Goatful Dead? Anyway, we are mocking the bike up and ordering some parts so look for the finished product soon!

$4 / gallon

2008-06-27T09:01:00.000-07:00

I suspect the most common question that people in the bike industry get these days would be something along the lines of "bet this $4 gas is great for your business, isn't it?". On the surface, it might look like it but I am not so sure. Bikes are still typically a discretionary purchase. Most people don't "need" a bicycle like they need food. Since most folks have already succumbed to the urban sprawl, and moved 20+ miles from their chosen place of employment, most don't consider commuting a viable option. So $4 a gallon it is, thank you sir may I have another. There goes another $25-$30 out the tail pipe a week and there goes your discretionary, aka bike, funds. And even if your job is on solid ground, the constant background noise about the economy circling the drain works its way into your conscience even if it is just by osmosis.

What we have noticed is increased repairs and accessories. People that bought bikes in the last decade, and let them become garage ornaments, are dragging out the remains to have them rehabilitated. The margins are pretty good on this stuff but it can still be relatively small dollars when compared to full bike sales. Of course, bike parts are getting more and more expensive and it seems like tire/tube prices are tied directly to the price a a barrel of light sweet crude for September delivery (not really sure what that means but it apparently hits a new high on a daily basis now).

There has been the slightest hint of an increase in bike trips but it has mainly been folks who already used a bike for recreation ,which doesn't help the bike shop bottom line to any large degree. We have talked about the tipping point and wondered where it will be........$5 a gallon, $6 a gallon or the $7 they talked about on the radio this morning. What will it take to get more people using bikes for "work" as opposed to "play. Stay tuned, we may be finding out soon.

The 24 hours of Burn

2008-06-24T13:42:00.000-07:00

This year marked the 8th year of the Source Burn 24 hour race which was held just north of Statesville, in Wilkesboro, NC. Since it is so close, we have a good local turn out for the event. The Dark Mountain trails work out nicely for the race and the big field, by the lake, is a great place for set up shop. The last couple of years, we have taken a herd of Goats and let them graze in the field. It has been a nice way to get a little local exposure. There seems to be growing interest in the custom frames and folks like something unique.

This year, Darrell rode his single speed Mountain Goat Route 29 in the solo category and completed 18 laps. Other FoFFB (friends of First Flight Bikes) were Ross, David, Paul, James, Clyde and Carl. They raced in various categories and had a great time. Matt, Sean and Wes hung out for the whole event and supported Darrell, David and Ross. I took the boys up after the shop closed to hang out for a couple of hours and ride the Over Mountain Victory Trail (nice berms!). Last year, Wes crewed for Darrell, Matt and Ross, who all rode solo (Matt and Ross single speed, Darrell geared). In 2005, Ross, Matt and Wes teamed up with Bob to do the 4 man single speed team.
It was good to see that Darrell upped his lap total even though he switched from a geared bike to a single speed bike. I bet Darrell will claim that he upped his mileage by training harder and riding more but I like to think it was Mountain Goat! (Gotta be the shoes)

Bike racing

2008-06-16T13:31:00.000-07:00

I've never been horribly athletic so most competitive sports are not my cup o' tea. I threw discus, a some shop put, in high school but that was about it for actual scored competition. That may be part of the reason the bike riding has always appealed to me. I enjoy riding and can keep up a reasonable pace but have never felt compelled to "race" a bike. With kids, it is tough to find time to ride, let alone train. Fortunately, the boys (Sam 10 and Seth 13) are getting to the age that they can ride along reasonably well. Seth has even gotten to the point that he is probably faster than the old man. When we ride, he can pull away on the open runs but I catch back up on the technical sections (at least for right now).

Neal, who helps us with the Cackalacky Cup, puts on a fantastic summer series of mountain bike races, including a couple of kids categories. With Seth getting a little bit faster, I thought the race series might interest him. I checked the calendar and the race at the Fisher Farm trail was June 11. Fisher Farm is a great local trail that isn't terribly technical and,even more importantly, isn't on the other side of Charlotte (important when registration is @ 5:00 on a week night). We decide to give it a shot and wnet down the Sunday before to ride the trail and check it out. Mark Sullivan, trail boss @ Fisher Farm, was felling a decent sized tree so we stopped to spectate and then help. After the sixth cut or so, the tree was down and we were on our way again.

Wednesday evening came and we headed out to the trail. Seth got all signed up for the 8-13 year olds race which ended up being only one lap. To break up the start, Neal added in a long climb through a grassy field before going into the woods. The entry to the trail is a really quick downhill section so this strung out the field to reduce the carnage. The kids group had 5 racers in it and Seth was first tot he summit of the grassy knoll. There weren't a whole lot of places to pass so I had warned him about letting some of the older, faster riders by. Unfortunately, when one of them called the pass, another kid snuck by Seth along with the expert rider and beat him to the finish by a couple of bike lengths. The kid who beat him was named Anakin (insert, Luke......I am your father joke here).

Anyway, Seth was riding an old school Jamis Diablo with a 1" steerer tube and rigid fork! Looks like it might be time for a little upgrading. Wes had a pair of SPD compatible shoes so we'll start there. Couple other races this summer on the North side of Charlotte so maybe we'll give it a go. Might even see if we could get anyway interested from the Boy Scouts!

May Updates

2008-05-18T19:24:00.000-07:00

For some reason, blog updates always seems to fall to the bottom of the stack of stuff to do! Just a couple of recent happenings.

Both Ti frames are in and we are working on getting pictures of them built up. The etching looks fantastic on the frames but is tough to picture.

We did get some really nice wicking jerseys made up. These are a casual cut without pockets so they work great off the bike as well as on the bike. We have been trying them out the last couple of weeks and they work great. Right now, all sizes (s-xxl) are available in either royal blue or team orange for $34.99

The Source Burn 24 hour race is next week end and is always a great time. Darrell will be rocking the single speed Goat on his first solo single speed effort. Wes is going to be crewing for Darrell as well as Ross and David.

We did sell our first "in-store" spec bike over the weekend. When we built up the last batch of frames, we bought a couple of extras that weren't painted so we could finish them in the customers choice of colors. We wanted to have one built up in the shop so we built up a 19" single speed Route 29 with a nice mix of parts and had it powder coated in red. Lee, a long time customer and trail worker, came in and decided to give 'er a new home. Looks like it is time to built up another.

The National Geographic channel ran a program called "I was Superhuman" which featured Goat Owner, Sinjin. The short story is, Sinjin was trapped under a boulder while hiking and was able to summon up superhuman strength and push the boulder off of him. Towards the end of the segment, there is a great video of Sinjin riding his Mountain Goat. I'm going to try and post a copy of it soon.

Spring is good!

2008-03-28T18:53:00.000-07:00

Man it sure is nice when the weather takes a turn for the good. It is great to ride on a fairly regular basis again. The Goats are all getting their regular exercise now.

A couple of updates:
-#26 arrived, got build up and is out on the trails. Joe was unsure about totally committing to riding a single speed so we set it up with stealth braze-ons so it can be run geared in the future. Pictures are posted on the Mountain Goat web site.
-#27 is the first ever (to my knowledge) titanium Mountain Goat.The etched panels sure do look great. It is a unique and subtle look. We are currently gathering parts to build this one up and will post pictures when it is complete.
-#28 will be the first Ti 29" frame and will also feature the etched panels. ETA is April 10th on this one.
-#29 is in line at Sycip and will be heading to the Netherlands when finished.
-#30 looks to be our first frame built by Carl @ Vicious Cycles. We have talked to Carl for awhile now and will be looking forward to getting our first frame from him. We have been taunting Sean on our local rides about being the only person on a production bike and #30 will take care of that issue. We are still working on the finish options but it is sounding very cool so far.
-#31 Could be you, give us a call!

-The SWOBO jersey may still live but we'll see.

-There is a new wicking t-shirt stype jersey in the works. This one will feature the "cartoon" Goat, by Gabi, standing on top of a bike. Colors will be royal blue or orange and they should run about $35. ETA of about 3 weeks on this one.

-We'll probably end up with a Mountain Goat bar end cap next time we order headset caps and spacers.

That's about it for now.

The girl in the wall

2008-03-04T09:31:00.000-08:00

This is our girl in the wall.

You'll often see bikes with some type of "mojo" zip tied to the handlebars of a bicycle. The girl in the wall is the mojo for our shop. When we first moved into this building, in 1995, the area around the bottom of the stairs was walled off and didn't have much light coming in. I was coming down the stairs with a flash light and as the beam hit the wall, the doll eyes lit up and scared the bejesus out of me. When I calmed down, I took a closer look and saw a disembodied doll head wedged in a hole in the brick wall. It was kinda spooky but neat at the same time.

A couple of years later a guy came into the shop that worked in this building when it was five and dime store in the 1970's. He told stories about going upstairs and pulling out laid-away toys at Christmas time. After we talked for a bit, he asked if the doll head was still in the wall. I told him that she was still there and we went to the stairway so he could check her out. He said that it had been there as long as he remembered. That makes her at least 35 years old!

And now a couple of Goat updates:
-The first Ti Whiskeytown Racer should be here around March 19th. Can't wait to see the panel etchings.
-We have now placed an order for the first Ti Route 29 as well. We are doing the etched panels on this one as well.
-Mark, owner of the purple flamed Goat, has started a Blog to update the building of the beast. Check it out at http://thepurplegoat.blogspot.com/

Goat site overhaul

2008-02-16T13:24:00.000-08:00

I've never been 100% happy with the Goat web site so it has a new "face" as of today! Take a look and see whatcha think. Hopefully it is a little easier to navigate and a little easier on the eyes!

There is a PDF file of the new Ti Goat at http://firstflightbikes.com/Ti_WTR_proof.pdf. If you get a chance, take a look and give us some feedback. The idea was to replicate the panels of the team paint except substituting brushed Ti and etched Ti for the orange and green. I really like the look of it. As soon as we finalize the details, construction should be a short 3 weeks!

The new map on the blog is a kinda neat addition. It is fun to see the location of the blog viewers. The APO flag in the middle of the ocean threw me off at first.

New Goat Goodness

2008-02-14T06:52:00.000-08:00

Lots of pretty cool stuff happening here in Goat land.

Goat #22 finally made the scene after wintering at AirArt to get a shiny new coat of Hot Rod flames over a deep purple base coat. The yellow/orange flames really stand out nicely against the dark purple.

Many more pictures @ http://s59.photobucket.com/albums/g304/firstflightbikes/Goat%20MG/ and I hope to get some pictures of the built bike soon.

The first set of Ti bull moose bars have also landed. These are made exclusively for Mountain Goat by the Lynskey family. We'll be trying this set out before we finalize the specs but they should be pretty close to perfect already.

If you've followed the Goat Droppings since the beginning, you'll remember the nightmare of trying to get wool jerseys made. Well it finally happened and we sold enough that it was time to re-order. Now the minimum quantity has gone up and it just doesn't look like a viable project right now. So......if you are interested in a Goat wool jersey, you need to grab one of the last couple available. We've knocked down the price to $99.99 but in limited sizes.

It's Winter in Goat Land

2008-01-22T19:19:00.001-08:00

wESd here, since Jeff has been spending any spare time on the new www.mombat.com website I figured I would check in and let everyone know what has been going on at the shop.
We measured up Matt's beloved Rock Lobster to get its geometry for his Ti Goat and will hopefully place the order once we go over the details with him next week. Its finally just about to cold for a night ride on Tuesdays so we started our trainer ride tonight and It has reminded me just how bad riding the trainer hurts.
Russ called to let us know that Mark's frame should be headed our way very soon. I can't wait to see how the flames look in another color to compare to Sinjin's.
I called Swobo to order some more wool jerseys and we will have them stitched up as soon as we get them to fill in stock.

Thats about it for now, more soon

Pinewood Derby and "Do your best"

2008-01-21T18:46:00.000-08:00

As a few of you know, I am Cubmaster for Pack 171 here in Mooresville, NC. For those not familiar with the program, Cub Scouts is for boys in Grades 1-5 and our pack has about 75 boys in it. The flagship event each year is the Pinewood Derby.

The Cub Scout motto is "Do your best" but as I have heard, that changes to "Have your dad do his best" when it comes to the Pinewood Derby. Each boy receives a small chunk of pine plus four plastic wheels and four nails. The idea is to sculpt the wood into something that travels down a 20' track as fast as possible. The cars have a maximum height, wheelbase and weight. The wheels and axles can be "smoothed" but not really modified. As with all racing, the winner is th one who can bend the rules the most without actually breaking them.

Dads armed with cordless drills hover near the weigh in area ready to drill out that .005 ounce in order to hit 5.0 ounces exactly. In gravity racing, every ounce counts. Being in the heart of NASCAR country, it seems like half the dads work in race shops and the cars reflect it. Some of these things are works of art with paint work that would put a Mercedes to shame and polished axles gleaming with some unobtanium lubricant.

To try and channel all of these creative juices, I started an adults/siblings race last year. We changed the rules to allow axle and wheel modifications and upped the weight to 10 ounces. There ended up being 15 adult/sibling cars which was great but there were still a lot of "adult" kids cars. Not everyone got the memo! It's tough to see the kids who actually built their own cars (as evidenced by the hand painted racing stripes on the asymmetrical body) get whooped on by kids who had no part of the building process (as evidenced by the look on the kids face when he sees his car for the first time at check in). Not sure who the "winners" and "losers" are in this process?

It is a tough process to sort out and we generally get a pretty short time to do it. Typically, a Cubmaster serves two years and the first one is spend trying to learn the system. The second year you get to improve on the mistakes made the first year and then it is time to pass it on to the next generation of leaders. Maybe, some future leader will figure out the Pinewood conundrum, since I wasn't able to.

Goat Ti

2007-12-12T18:29:00.000-08:00

A month or so ago, Mark Lynskey stopped by the shop. Some of you might recognize the name from Lynskey Performance Bikes but most would remember the name as the founding family of the Litespeed brand. After the family parted way with Litespeed (and after serving an appropriate non-compete sentence)they are back building titanium bikes. Mark had a blast going through the archives and looking for ideas. The talk then turned to building titanium goodies for Mountain Goat.

We had Paul, of Rock Lobster fame, build us some bull moose handlebars out of steel. We had them made to fit the now-standard 1 1/8" thread less set up. We have a couple extra sets that we sell for $175. The bars are raw steel so they need to be finished. We talked about plating them and someone suggested that we could do them in titanium for not a whole lot more. When Mark got back to the shop, he drew up some bars. As soon as we finalize the drawings, we'll get some made up. Looks like $399 for the Ti bars.

We've contemplated the "stock" frame and came up with a couple of great ideas. We wanted to keep as much "goat-ness" as possible. The wishbone stays are pretty easy. Next was the head tube reinforcing rings and that is where it got tough. About the only way to make them work was to carve up a head tube to the tune of about $600......think we'll pass on that one. Next up was the finish. To me, there is something inherently wrong about painting Ti. Part of the appeal is the durability of the finish (no chips!). Fortunately, Lynskey has a really nice etching option that we really liked on their sample frame. We spend some time on the phone with David Cash, from Lynskey, and worked out a really nice scheme. We are going to duplicate the panels using the etching process. It will be like the team paint with top tube, down tube and seat tube panels. The top tube panel will feature the model name, the down tube will have the Mountain Goat logo and the seat tube has the goat head.

We are currently working on nailing down the details and hoped to have one ordered in the next couple of week.s Once we do, we'll check it out to nail down the final details and pricing. Expect somewhere in the neighborhood of $2,500 for the frame.

Birth of a MOMBAT

2007-12-11T19:22:00.000-08:00

We've been looking to "formalize" the bike collection for awhile now. It wouldn't change a lot of what we do but a "museum" sounds a little better than "bike shop" when we go out looking for donations, help, grants.....so the search was on.

The first step was to check into 501(c)(3) non profit status. We have had several folks willing to donate bikes to the cause but they were also interested in the potential tax benefits. The call went out to several different lists trying to find someone who could give us an idea of what we would be getting into. By accident, we were talking to a fellow with a cool old Moots bike who happened to specialize in setting up non-profits (like your neighborhood bike shop......unfortunately!). It appeared that there were a couple of issues: first,how to separate the collection from the shop, and secondly, the ownership of the bikes. The separation issue would be tough but it could be solved. The ownership issue pretty much killed the deal. To set up the non-profit, I would have to give all of the bikes to the non-profit entity. Since we have been using the bike collection as something of a stand-in for our 401k, that wasn't really a viable option. The only way around it would be for the non-profit to purchase the bikes at a reasonable cost from the shop which sounds great until you realize the non-profit has very little way to raise money. Oh well.

So we went on to step two which was to set up a separate identity for the collection. I've always been a fan of making the name pretty obvious. If you sell cakes, have "cake" in your name. If you have a mountain bike museum, you damn well better have "mountain bike" and "museum" in the name. Once again, we leaned on our list of friends for some ideas. There were quite a few different suggestions and four or five of them would have done a fine job. Ross Shafer submitted the Museum of Mountain Bike Art and History. The first time I said it out loud, it just kinda rolled of the tongue. I also really liked the art and technology part. Looking at many of our bikes, the word art comes easily to mind. The technology part is pretty obvious and helps make sure we didn't end up being thought of as a place with pictures of bikes hanging on the wall! As a bonus, MOMBAT has a neat ring to it and it could even be seen as a very small tribute to Jacquie Phelan's WOMBATS (Womens Mountain Bike and Tea Society).

With the name out of the way, a logo would be up next. And if you haven't figured out the pattern yet, we put a shout out to our various groups of friends looking for suggestions. Captain Dondo has a couple up @ www.captaindondo.com that we have been working on. We've tried to include a few touchstones such as a Breezer Series I (SeeKays bike no less), a 1" pitch chain ring and the outline of the Schwinn Excelsior badge. Take a look and let us know whatcha think or even better, send us your ideas.

As the search goes on, we've been working on selling off a few bikes that might not qualify as museum specimens. This should give us a little more breathing room to display the remaining bikes better (quality over quantity). Other than that, a couple of idea brewing but nothing definite. Maybe a series of t-shirts in limited quantities to members? Vintage bike of the year? We'll see where it takes us.

And since you have read this, you are obviously in one of our groups of friends that we lean on heavily. If you have ideas or suggestions, please pass them along.

The status quo

2007-11-14T16:22:00.000-08:00

Just a quick update on the current state of the Mountain Goat herd:

#20 is the 20" wheeled bike being done in a reverse team splatter (but in pink and white instead of green and orange)with a matching fork and stem. This one shipped from Russ and should be getting to us next week. We'll check it out, take pictures, attach the head badge and send it to its new home in Germany.

#21 is heading our way and is available for purchase. we have kept it unpainted so it can be done in your choice of colors. 17" w/ Paragon sliders.

#22 is being painted by Russ and should also be heading our way soon.Purple with Hot Rod flames should be very nice. This one has already been adopted.

#23 is now at the shop and is complete. 19" Route 29 single speed with Paragon sliders, finished in red powder coat. We have built this one up with a Bontrager Switchblade fork, El Camino disc brakes, Salsa rims, Thomson post.....I'll post pictures soon. If we built this one up for you, it would have been $3,300 but since it is a spec bike, $2,999

#24 is also available now and is awaiting your choice of finishes.

#25 is being built as a Surly Puglsey replica bike using the 26" x 3.7" tires on Large Marge rims with a Rohloff internal 14 speed hub. This should be a fun bike to play with.

There are a couple of bike that we will hopefully be ordering soon. Just finishing up the details.

Mark Lynskey, of Litespeed fame, stopped in the shop last week and we had a productive talk about titanium Goats. The Lynskey family has set up shop under the family name and is building bikes again. I think we have most of the details figured out so if you are ready for a Ti Goat, we can make it happen.

The Humble T-shirt

2007-11-03T19:00:00.000-07:00

Working around the shop is hard on the ole wardrobe. Over-lubed chains,greasy bearings, dripping hydraulic lines, Chinese food........all take their toll. This is probably why the t-shirt has almost become the business card of the bike industry. They get used until they are demoted to shop rag status and replaced by the next one in line. This is probably the reason that we have done literally every-color-under-the-sun in the First Flight Bikes t-shirts.

When we brought Mountain Goat Cycles back, it was time to work on t-shirt designs. The first one we did was the old style head badge shirt. After we designed the new decals and modernized the Goat, we did a two color design. This has become our "stock" shirt that we will keep on making. It was kinda fun to come up with new designs and we decided to offer the t-shirts in limited numbers, like Princess Di commemorative plates. We had done about 85 of the first design which seemed like a weird number so we decide to go with 100 for the second edition shirt. The original
Mountain Goat catalog art, circa 1981, was a great design so it became number 2 in the series. We ordered 100 of them divided amongst 5 sizes.

Number two was selling nicely so we wanted to have number 3 waiting in the wings. I talked to my brother-in-law, Gabi Campanario , who has worked in the art departments of various newspapers, including the USA Today, for ideas. He sent a couple of designs and they were all great. We chose the
artwork for number 3 and had a run of 100 shirts done in this design. We have only had them for a week and it has proven to be very popular already. Check it out If you like 'em, go to www.mountaingoatcycles.com and pick one up.

As the old commercials used to advise "collect 'em all"

The donate porch

2007-10-18T18:23:00.000-07:00

I am something of a pack rat which has become abundantly clear while cleaning up a couple of unused rooms on the second floor. I just can't ever seem to toss anything out since it might come in handy some day (if I could find it when the need actually arose). And I think everyone has tossed something out and find a use for it the very next week! So anyway, we had collected bikes for a local club and helped them fix them up four or five years ago. One year, they got a trucking company to haul a truckload up to NYC for distribution at Christmas time. For the next couple of years, we distributed them locally. Well, we still get people drop off old bikes or decide not to get a bike repaired so we accumulate stray bikes. We have a good sized shop but it's not big enough to store a bunch of random semi-usable bikes. On the other hand, I hate to see usable stuff get buried in a landfill.........enter the donate porch.

On the back of the building, there is a concrete cap over what used to be the coal chute which was used to deliver coal to feed the boiler in the basement. We decided it would be a good place to set a bike and allow it to find a new owner. Sometimes a bike lasts out there a couple of days and sometimes it leaves immediately. A couple months back, we rolled out a 24" wheeled girls mountain bike and one of the cooks form the restaurant next door was out back on his cancer break (I swear people start smoking just so they can take 15 minute breaks twice a day). He started asking what we were doing and we explained the concept. He kept asking how much we wanted for the bike and we told him it was on the donate porch to be taken by the first person who could use it. We must have finally gotten through to him since he rolled it into the storage room of the restaurant.

What I would really like to do is set a camera out and capture the "taking" on film. Do they just stroll up ,pick one out and head home? Like they were shopping at teh local ****-Mart? Or, do they stand there looking over their shoulder waiting for the non-existent law enforcement agents to jump out from behind the fence and yell "gotcha"? Maybe someday.

A pretty rusty 1960's era bike has continued to rust out on the porch for about a week now and seemed lonely so we added to the pile yesterday. A gigantic black Schwinn 10 speed World Sport, a cool gold Miyata mixte bike and a red Raleigh 10 speed were added after a fit of cleaning out the upstairs. Everybody was still hangin' on the porch this morning but around lunch time the black Schwinn had made a break for it. We'll watch and see how everybody else makes out but I am worried about the old rusty Western Flyer.

Let's see if this works!

2007-10-12T14:47:00.000-07:00

We'll try a new post and see how it goes. Just to catch up with the last weeks or so worths of news. The Industry 9 wheels came in (2-3 weeks AHEAD of schedule) and we got #19 all built up and it looks great. The gold wheels, headset and seat collar really blend nicely with the gold fleck on the black paint. Pictures are now up on the Gallery page.

New T-shirts are shipping on Tuesday so we should have them close to the end of next week or beginning of the next. Can't wait!

The next batch of frames should be hitting any day now. Two are going to Russ for paint and 3 are heading here to the shop. One of the Russ bikes will be done in a pink/white 3 panel team splatter (with 20" wheels) and the other will be purple with hot rod flames. Those will be sweet! The three that we have coming to the shop will be raw so we can get them finished in your choice of colors!

We have been working on the Pugsley prototype details. I have received some of the parts and built up the front wheel which found its way onto the Nontrager. I rode it last night and it was pretty cool. There is one sandy area that I just floated right through.

We've been cleaning out the attic and put a dozen or so bikes for sale on the First Flight Bikes web site. There are a couple of duplicate bikes or ones that are a little more pieced together on there. They would make a nice vintage ride though!

We sold one of our vintage Mountain Goat frames to Scant in England and he is sending it to Russ for the California Yuppie paint.

That'a about it for now. We'll see if this new format is going to work and if so, I'll make it the default.