Dancing in the Park

Skipped out on work on Tuesday and headed down to Wilderness Park to help out with another Salsa Demo Day. Weather was absolutely perfect for it and the park was in pretty good shape considering all the rain we had gotten just a few days prior... seems like rain right before the Salsa Demo Days is getting to be a trend.



Being a mid day, weekday demo ride the setup went really smooth and we were done in plenty of time before the bulk of the riders would show up. Workday demo rides might not be ideal but I know that all the manufacturers and busy, busy, busy with demo rides and sometimes you draw the short straw as they make their way across their territories.


One plus about a workday demo is that once the bikes, tents, etc. are all setup there is usually a little bit of time to take a spin on the demos yourself. Knowing it would probably be a popular choice since it was brand new, I opted to take the Redpoint out for an early spin. This is Salsa's new trail bike sporting 27.5" tires, 150 mm or front and rear squish and Boost hub spacing. While 150 mm, or 6" if you prefer, of travel sounds like way too much for Nebraska, I see this bike being snatched up by those people out there who want or can afford only one bike and they want that bike to be able to do almost anything. Sure you're never going to use 6" of travel in Wilderness Park or any other trail around here but it also isn't going to hinder you either, I've never heard anyone say that they wished their bike had less travel. On the plus side though, if you frequent places outside the confines of the Nebraska border, places like Colorado, Montana, Oregon or Utah that 6" of travel would probably be very appreciated.  It rode really nice and as you can imagine smoothed out the earthen imperfections of the park like nobody's business... it's like the suddenly paved over the singletrack.


Bill grabbed himself a Bucksaw and joined me for a few mile romp through the trees, that Redpoint absolutely carved up the trail for having that much travel.


Of course preferring my bikes with a little bit more girth around the middle, I didn't pass up the opportunity to take the Bucksaw for a spin myself. This bike is by far my favorite mountain bike I have ever ridden... yes, I typed that right, while it is also a bike with fat tires it is a mountain bike. Fat Bikes have come a long way since their heavy, lumbering and often sluggish days to what you see here in this beautiful 100 mm travel, 4" tire, carbon beauty. If I had the coin to get me one of these it would already be a done deal and I'd happily give up a slight weight penalty over a traditional anorexic mountain bike for a ton more smiles per miles.


It wasn't all riding bikes for me though and by the time I got back people were starting to show up at a pretty good pace. I might have only gotten to ride two bikes but I'm not complaining, I got to take the new Redpoint out and see what it was all about and then ride my girl again.

Not much more for story from here on out, just some pictures of people riding bikes and having a great time and that's better than any yarn I could weave anyway.



















And just like that it was a wrap, 5 hours of bikes, dirt, smiles and laughter and another successful demo day was in the books leaving nothing left but the tear down and of course beer-thirty.

Thanks to everyone who came out, it was a blast.


Parting thought, while not part of QBP or the demo at all, if you're into fat biking, bike packing or gravel/adventure racing; check out the folks at BarYak. They make some pretty light weight and innovative handlebar mounting systems for attaching all sorts of equipment and devices to while providing additional hand placement options. More options for hand placement is always good when piling up the miles on the bike to help prevent hand, arm, shoulder issues from being in the same riding position for hours and who can't use more attachment points when hauling some gear. These bars belong to fellow Rasta Rider and BarYak sponsored superwoman Jamie, so if you want to see them close up and personal just ask her and I'm sure she'd let you have a look. Plus they are made right here in the good ole US of A in South Dakota by the Stillers, who not only manufacture the products but do their fare share of riding themselves so they know what works and what doesn't.