2nd Annual Great Southwest Bicycle Swap Meet

Get ready for the second annual "Great Southwest Bicycle Swap Meet". We have also added the "Crossaholics Last Call For Cyclocross" cross race at the same location on the same day. Space is still available for those that would like to purchase a booth. The date is January 11, 2009. Details can be found here .

$60 and a Hooters calender

$60 is a pretty good prize for second place in a cross race but the Hooters calender is priceless. Justin Wallace can't get the grin off his face after placing second at the Hooters Cyclocross Rumble in Dallas. Please feel free to come by the shop and check out the calender (it's hanging in the mens room). Please limit your time to five minutes!

Sully's Ibis Lugi

I have been meaning to post this Ibis on the blog for quite some time but fortunately things at the shop have been busy and I haven't found the time until now. This is another hand built Ibis cross bike that belongs to Colonel's employee Randy Sullivan (better known as "Sully"). Sully bought this beauty in 1997 when he was an employee of Ibis Bicycles. The bike is currently set up as a single speed with 42 x 17 gearing and an old Shimano Biopace chainring. The frame is constructed from Ibis butted cromo tubing. Ibis called their tubing "Moron" tubing because the butts put "more on the ends". Check the frame decal on the seat tube in the photo. Sully's favorite thing about his machine is the Ibis hand built titanium stem. The Syncros Ti post and Brooks saddle rounds out the package. Oh yea, don't overlook the crizzzome bar tape! Great riding bike. If your in town on Wednesday night please come by and do our urban single speed ride.

What's new in service

This 1998 Ibis Hakklugi in mint condition came in to be built up with a new Ultegra kit. Check out the rear brake cable hanger(known as the hand job for obvious reasons). The Hakkalugi was a hand built steel cyclo cross frame with a flair toward the mountain bike side of things. This particular machine belongs to Clark Million. Clark had one of these stolen from his home years ago and was happy to purchase this frame on ebay recently.

Texas Custom Bicycle Show

Saturday November 1st there will be a custom bicycle show in Frisco, Texas at the superdrome velodrome. In addition to the bike show there will be some events held on the track. Should be well worth the hour drive from Fort Worth. Former Colonel's Bicycles MTB team member Brad Cason, better known as "homegrown", will be there representing KirkLee bicycles. Brad builds high end custom carbon bicycles out of his Austin, Texas garage based shop. Tyler Hamilton of Rock Racing currently rides and raves about his custom KirkLee bike. Check out KirkLee Bicycles at www.kirkleebicycles.com . Anyway, looks like it should be a good event. For more inflamtion go to www.superdrome.com .

Mas Muy Macho Hombre

Keith Gray could be the most macho man around these parts. He completed the Leadville 100 in 11 hours. The chrome belt buckle is his trophy. The race covers 100 miles of double and singletrack in the mountains around Leadville Colorado. The race was won by Dave Weins with lance Armstrong a close second. Check out the race report at here .

Hemp Smoothie

There's a new smoothie king in town and his name is Brent Poulsen. Brent is a professional triathelete who splits time between Ft. Worth and his homeland in Canada. The Cervelo P3 is an awesome tri bike but Brent had never been positioned properly on the bike. After three hours of work Brent was putting out some incredible wattage. If you see him on the road give him a shout. To read more about Brent, including his hemp smoothie recipe click here to visit his Blog. 

2008 Tour de France

The Tour starts Saturday without an opening time trial. Instead there will be 197.5 KM of hills on the first stage. Plenty of good articles related to the tour on velonews.com. Here is a good one titled "The Great Eight"
http://tour-de-france.velonews.com/article/79162/these-eight-favorites-will-battle-for-victory-in-the-2008 . Who is the favorite?

New Dude at Colonel's

Colonel's has a new dude in the service/sales department. His handle is Josh Clark. Many of you already know him as an employee of other local bike shops but his latest tour stops here at Colonel's and we all hope he stays for a while. Josh is easy to identify by his studded soul patch and perky disposition. When he isn't wrenching on bikes he is working over the drum kit with his band Villain Vanguard http://www.myspace.com/villainvanguard . Bikes include: Scott Addict R4, Trek 69er single speed, old school steel Colnago single speed, and a patched together wheeler commuter. If you do not already know Josh please stop by and meet him. Unlike the rest of the grumpy old guys in the shop, Josh is easy to approach and never met a stranger.

Weight Weenies Delight

The Scott Addict R2 weighs 14.6 Lbs straight out of the box. Put some carbon tubulars on it and you could have a sub 14 pound bike. This thing is light, stiff and has a great ride quality. The fact that it's on sale makes it even sweeter! Sale Price is $5200.00 Retail price was $5775.00 Call us if you have any questions at (817) 924-1333

More Positioning

Madison Flowers came by the shop looking for a little more speed. He has been a busy guy, working hard and a new baby to boot, so when he gets a chance to ride he wants to be sure that time is not wasted with a poor position. Madison is fit and flexible with no leg length discrepancy but his seat was way too low and arm rests too high as shown in the before and after pics. Looks like he is now putting out more watts in a more aero position. Good Luck!

Fit, Fit, Fit!

Maybe the title of this post should be: Position, Position, Position. Anyway, lots of folks have been in to improve their bike position over the last few weeks. Most of the riders have been on tri bikes but James (the guy on the road bike) came by to work on his road position since he is steadily increasing mileage in order to train for the Leadville 100. The Leadville 100 is an off road mountain bike event that covers 100 miles in the mountains around Leadville Colorado. The other people in the pictures are training for various Triathlons. Cody Brewer on the Trek road bike has completed five Iron Man Competitions and needed to adapt the bike to a tri position. Tim Walls on the Kuota just wants to haul-A. Doug Smith on the Cervelo just wants to crush the competition and then challenge you to a cage fight!

Slam Position

Look out for Sebastian Gracki at the next event. I spent a couple of hours with Sebastian working on his position and improving his power output while addressing some knee issues. When we started his seat was too low and too far forward (wish I had taken a before photo). Sebastian also had a leg length discrepancy in which his right leg was shorter than the left. We shimmed the right cleat in order to even them up and put him in a modified slam position. After the session he was generating more watts and using more of the abductor muscles. Watch out!

Orbea Demo Bike For Sale

We now have one of our Orbea demo bikes for sale. This is a 51cm Orbea Opal with Campagnolo Veloce components. This paticular bike is like new! Ridden only twice. This bike would sell for about $3500 new and we are clearing it out for $2600. Come by and give it a test ride!

2009 Orbea Orca In Stock

Come by and check out the new 2009 Orbea Orca. Now even lighter and stiffer. Stiffer: Orbea uses a 70/30 blend of Toray M40j and M30 fibers which are the stiffest fibers in the industry, making for a super responsive frame with a lifetime warranty. Lighter: The new 2009 Orca weighs in at just 875 grams due to a new alloy front derailleur hanger, alloy dropouts, carbon head badge/cable stop and magnesium seat clamp. This is the same frame that team Euskatel-Euskadi will ride in the major tours.

Try It, You Might Like It!

How do I know that I'm going to like it? That's a common question here at Colonel's. A legitimate question at that. We're going to try to help you make the decision to purchase a set of carbon wheels or titanium railed saddle or pedals or Orbea bike or whatever as painless as possible this season. We now have several items in store for you to try before you buy and are adding new items all the time. Here is a list of some current demo items: Blackwell Research 100mm tubular carbon wheels as well as their 50 mm carbon clinchers http://www.blackwellresearch.com/ . , Speedplay light action and zero pedals, a variety of Selle San Marco saddles, Orbea Opal complete bicycles in size 51cm, 54cm and 57cm. Call to make an appointment. (817) 924-1333

Single Speed Of The Week

The plan here is to show a different single speed each week. We love single speeds for their simplicity, utilitarianism, and fun. We love em so much that we have a Thursday night single speed ride/race each week. It makes for an interesting Friday at the shop with plenty to argue about and cuss your co-worker for. We've even had a man start a fight with a yard light thinking it was the headlight of another rider who dropped him. I'll start it out with my own single. This was a Bianchi Veloce 56cm frame. I toted it over to Boyd Atherton our local frame builder and asked him to install Paul's single speed dropouts http://www.paulcomp.com/. I also requested that he knock off anything that was needed for gears (cable stops etc.). When that was finished, the guys at Top Koat put a flat black powder coat on it. The rest of the kit goes something like this: old Dura Ace square taper crank with a 42T Salsa ring and 105 pedals, Dura Ace 7800 wheelset with a Redline 17t alloy cog (probably needs replacing by now), Continental Grand Prix Four Season 700/25 tires, Moots layback seatpost with Fizik Aliante Ti/Carbon Saddle, Mavic brakeset (under rated), Cane Creek brake levers, Sram chain, Bianchi carbon fork, Chris King threadless headset, ITM Visia 120mm stem, Truvativ 42 cm handlebar, Nite Rider Minewt headlight, bear creek road mud on downtube, Arundel Daveo carbon cages from my friends at http://www.arundelbike.com/. Loss of hair courtesy of 7th street barber shop. Photo of dog (jackie), just for good measure.

Bar H Bash

Colonel's/Orbea USA sponsored mountain biker Justin Wallace (better known as jaywall) unleashed some pent up roadie aggression in his first race back on the mountain bike in several years. When the dust had cleared Justin came in a solid second with several minutes between him and third place. Racing the expert 19-29 class, Justin got a clean start and slowly sliced his way through the pro men's field. Matt Kocian of Big Pig racing also came on strong to finish fourth in the same class. Matt was mounted on his new Orbea Alma carbon 29er and rode a steady strong race. Keep an eye on the blog for future results and interviews.

Orbea Demo Bikes Available

We now have three Orbea Opal complete bicycles available for customers to demo. Of course we would like to keep this program open to customers who are interested in purchasing a new Orbea bicycle from us here at Colonel's. This is an opportunity for you to try out a great carbon bicycle in real world conditions. The blue bike is a 54cm with Sram Force components and the big red one is a 57cm with Campagnolo Centaur. The third bike is a 51cm red Opal with Campagnolo Veloce parts. All we require is a credit card deposit which we refund when the bike is returned in the same condition it left in. Please come by or call (817) 924-1333 if interested.

Cold Weather Riding Apparel In Stock

Looks like we are in the middle of a north Texas cold snap. That basically means that it's cold enough to keep you off the bike unless you have the correct riding apparel. We just happen to have what you need here at Colonel's. Come by and take a look at our Craft and Garneau cold weather stuff. We have base layer, gloves, hats, arm warmers, leg warmers and jerseys in stock.

Bicycles On sale Now

Following is a list of bicycles on sale now at Colonel's Bicycles. Check below for sizes and prices. Thanks, Doug

Huge Bicycle Sale

We have several 2007 and 2006 model bicycle on sale. We're trying to clear some room for the 2008 models so this is your chance to scoop up a bargain. Believe it or not spring is just a short time away with warmer days and great riding weather. Here are some of the specials giong on now at Colonel's Bicycles.

Orbea Opal 54Cm with Sram Force Was $4499.99 Now $3499.99

Orbea Line 57Cm with Shimano 105 Was $1599.99 Now $1199.99

Kona Fire Mountain 16" Was $499.99 Now $399.99

Kona Blast 14" Was $599.99 Now $499.99

Kona Cinder Cone 18" Was $699.99 Now $599.99

Kona Kula Deluxe 18" Was $1599.99 Now $1299.99

Kona Dawg 19" Was $1499.99 Now $1199.99

Giant Rincon 19" Was $340.00 Now $279.99

Bianchi Nirone 53Cm with Shimano Tiagra was $949.99 Now $749.99