Rides.

On Friday, we mentioned the epic 200+ mile weekend ride some of the Velocity crew was going on. From all the stories from the trip, it ended up being a great ride for all despite the rain, the mud, and the Amish. Yes, Amish. One of the riders and friends of ours, Bob, posted some of his photos over on Facebook. Check it out.

We'll be the first to boast about it, Grand Rapids has some of the best bike shops around and some of the most knowledgeable staff with a passion for all things cycling. One of those is the manager of the Village Bike Cascade, Brian Krause, who recently took gold in the mountain tandem division at this past weekend at the State Games of Michigan held here at Cannonsburg Ski Area just outside of Grand Rapids. Brian and his stoker, Nick Fortney, road to victory on a custom set of wheels we built for Brian: 700c 40 hole Cliffhangers laced up with half white and half red spokes to our tandem disc hubs. Hats off to you, maybe a precursor to Iceman this fall?

Brian and Nick weren't the only ones rocking Velocity wheels to the podium at the games; the Founders Racing Team also had a strong presence at Cannonsburg. With Nicola Fester and Sue Swinger taking Gold and Silver in the Female Expert/Elite SS, Scott Thenikl taking Gold in the sport 30-39, Josh Hogeterp taking Bronze in Expert 30-39, Wade Bagnall taking Bronze in the Expert 40-49 and Rick Plite and Dennis Murphy taking Silver and Bronze in the Expert 50+. For a full write up on the games from the Founders crew, check it out here.

This year we have also had the privilege to sponsor the Steven K Sports Race Team from out in California. The Steven K team has been ranked the #1 team in California the last 5 years, competing in a full spectrum of mountain cycling: cross-country, Super D, marathon, downhill and also cyclecross. This year, the team looks to have kicked off just as strong, claiming victory and strong finishes on some of our VXC and Blunt pro level wheelsets check out their team site along with their Facebook page.

Jacobi's Tandem

Some of you might remember back in November our post from Ryan and Jacobi on their Iceman experience. For this weeks '...because we ride' post we have their Iceman Tandem rig. Jacobi was kind enough to do a nice little write up on the one race this bike competed in:

So this was going to be the year I get my wife out and do the Iceman Cometh Mountain Bike Rice. It's a 28 mile point-to-point race in northern Michigan. It's a lot of fun and a great place to see old friends and meet new ones.

Well, it didn't work out with my wifes work schedule. So I hired a surefire animal to be my stoker. Ryan Olthouse a.k.a. the bear. He is a short guy not much taller than myself but boy does he pack a punch. Out of the gate we were in the thick of a heated battle between 1-5 place. There were a total of 25 tandems racing that day and we were out for blood.

About 10 minutes into the race we were in second place behind Dan 'The Man' Janson and his wife, Tara. They were more focused on training than us, considering they have been riding the tandem all summer; compared to Ryan and I only squeaked out 5 good rides on the thing. Just as we thought we had a clear shot at second place here came Matt Gaffner pulling up on our rear. We battled with him for about an hour, pulling away at the end to take secure second place by a mere 30 seconds. Hats off to you Matt.

We finished strong and vowed to never do that again! It was a hell of a race. My Cannondale held up flawlessly and here is a rundown on my Cannondale Street Tandem Highly Modified:

Big Shock
Big Breaks
X9 Shifter
X9 Deraileur setup 1x9 [I custom made bash guard plates to guide the connector cranks so we wouldn't throw the chain]
Custom Velocity 20mm Blunt Front wheel
Custom Velocity Aeroheat 40H tandem disc in the rear.

*Every part was scrutinized for weight [~37 lbs race day] and comfort
Foam Stoker grips, oh yeah!