Unless otherwise scheduled, these classes will take place on the 1st and 2nd Thursdays of the month at 6 pm. (Please bring your bike)

When Joe got his very first full suspension trail bike, he couldn’t believe how great it was. Joe had left the factory settings on the front and rear shock, assuming that the shop or the factory knew better than him exactly how this fancy bike should feel. He POGO’d around for a while with the biggest grin ever before going to the trail to meet his friend. As they started their ride, his friend stopped him. Here is the paraphrased conversation that ensued:
Not Joe: “Nice bike”
Joe: “Thanks”
Not Joe: “Do you know what any of these knobs are for?”
Joe: “Nope”
(The miracle of knowledge about suspension occurs)
Not Joe: “See how much better your bike feels?”
Joe: “Holy Sheep Sh*t”
Not Joe: “Pass it on”

And so we are. We want to show you what is going on with your suspension frame and/or your suspension fork. All those knobs are there for a reason. And we understand how confusing setting suspension up on your bike up can be. Our solution is a hands on real world class.

SUSPENSION THEORY

Forks: We want to show you how suspension forks work. We will cover the premise behind how suspension mechanics work, so you can have a grasp on what is happening when you turn a knob and how it will change your ride. This understanding leads to seeing how different adjustments make certain aspects better/worse/indifferent.
Goal: Tune your fork properly for your ride to make you safer, faster and so you just have more fun on your bike.

Fox Fork!

Rear Shocks: Rear shocks work much the same way as front shocks, so this will be a brief review more of the differences than the similarities. The class will have you understanding what you are feeling on the trail, so that you can make adjustments to your likes and dislikes.
Goal: Tune your rear shock so that your bike handles predictably up and down.

Frame Designs: We are going to cover the basics of pivot placement and wheel path theory. We have to call it theory because in the end: you will like what you will like, despite how the marketing appeals to you. Upon having this information within your grasp, you can make informed decisions regarding future purchases (and forum debates).
Goal: To empower you with the knowledge to pick a full suspension bike that works for you, without having to listen to a bunch of marketing fluff.

TIRES

Tires make the difference between pretty fast and oh-my-god-my-eyes-are-burning-from-flying-through-that-corner fast.
We want to teach you how to read a tire. This is a pretty simple thing once you know what to look for. We want to give you a peek into the thinking behind the engineers at companies like WTB, Maxxis, Kenda and Continental. They (for the most part) aren’t just making patterns and crossing their fingers that you will buy it. Each tire has a story that it wants to tell, you just have to know how to listen. Different riders and different trails have a multitude of variable that the right tire can help. Once you get a feel for this, you will be faster.
Goal: You will be able to pick out tires that help your riding.

Maxxis Ignitor

COST (IT IS FREE, BUT NOT REALLY)
Signing up for our Suspension and Tire Class is free. We ask that if you sign up, you show up, because seats are limited.
Contact Joe at Salvagetti dot com to sign up.

FULL DISCLOSURE
In the grand scheme of things, we want you to enjoy cycling. That is why this class is free. We are only charging to ensure that you make it to the class.

And by taking this class (for free), you will absolutely learn something that will make your cycling experience better. But our plan does not stop with you taking our class and having more fun. Oh no no no. We want you to spread your knowledge like wild fire. Get everyone to set up their suspension correctly. Make everyone realize that tires make a HUGE difference on the trail. Give the gift of knowledge to anyone who will listen, so the good times keep on coming. And if they need more info than you can throw at them, send them down for a class. JUST MAKE IT HAPPEN, DAMMIT!

We here this statement pretty regularly. The story goes that a cyclist is just riding along minding his own business when POW, they got their clock cleaned by a car pulling out of an alley. But, the cyclist gets the ticket and has to pay for the damage to the car. All because they were riding their bike on the sidewalk.

Lots of people ride on the sidewalk. And lots of people have no idea that it is illegal. But, the law is very clear about it:

Sec. 54-576. Riding on sidewalks.
(a) Riding bicycles upon or along sidewalks, whether on public property or private property opened for use by the general public, shall be unlawful except when the operator or rider thereof is a uniformed city employee riding a bicycle or a police officer riding a bicycle is a marked or unmarked official police bicycle while engaged in the discharge of his or her official duties, or when the operator or rider thereof is engaged in the delivery of newspapers or where the sidewalk is part of a designated bicycleroute. Bicyclists shall yield the right-of-way to pedestrians on the sidewalks, and shall leave the sidewalk or dismount if necessary to yield such right-of-way.
(b) Riding motorized bicycles upon or along sidewalks shall be unlawful.
(Code 1950, §§ 522.19-1, 522.19-2, 852.5; Ord. No. 464-02, § 1, 6-17-02)

Taken straight from here.

So, tell your friends. Tell your neighbors. Yell self-righteously at the dude who almost mows you over every morning when you are walking to the corner store. But, most of all, lead by example whenever possible.

IT SHOULDN’T BE SCARY
Coming into a new sport that uses words like chamois and derailleur is scary enough. Now you are telling me I need to get some arm warmers? Aren’t those just sleeves?

WE KNOW, WE USED TO NOT WEAR LYCRA, TOO
We are gonna start at the tip of your head and move down to the bottom of your feet in the first of our Demystification Series Workshops. We want you to know for yourself what you need to wear for your style of cycling and why you need it. We would like to set you free from all the hype and marketing and give you some good old fashioned facts about technical bicycling apparel for Spring and Summer.

Having the right gear makes life on a bicycle so much better. Being happy with your gear will help you to want to ride further and more frequently. We want to help you select what you need based on just that: WHAT YOU NEED. We are going to arm you with just enough knowledge to be dangerous.

APPAREL WILL INCLUDE:

Helmets
Sunglasses
Jerseys
Arm Warmers
Gloves
Bibs
Shorts
Socks
Shoes

NO NEED TO SIGN UP
Come in on Monday at 6:30pm and we will get started. We should have everything pretty wrapped up by about 7:30pm unless the crowd gets a little too restless!

And bring questions, we love questions.

So much gear, so much gear

No, seriously. We are going to take you through building a wheel.

We’ll take you all the way from picking out quality components to finishing with those touches that cause your wheel to pretty well never break.

We are limiting each workshop to only a few students: 3 to be exact.
Contact phillip@salvagetti.com to sign up. The first 3 (three) to pay for the class will get in.

We are having two of these workshops for March.

The first workshop is broken down into these 2 sessions:
1. Parts and Lacing – Monday 3/8/10 at 5:30pm until you are done around 8ish.
2. Tension and Finishing – Saturday 3/13/10 at 9:00am until you have an amazing wheel (about 1:00pm).

The second workshop is broken down into these 2 sessions:
1. Parts and Lacing – Monday 3/22/10 at 5:30pm until you are done around 8ish.
2. Tension and Finishing – Saturday 3/27/10 at 9:00am until you have an amazing wheel (about 1:00pm).

Sign up quickly, the price is sliding depending on what parts you buy from us. It will range from $50 to $90 (as you buy more to less stuff.) You are also welcome to tip if you like Phillip’s work.

If you want to take the class, but these days don’t work. Let us know what will.

This is what it sounds like. Our free (FREE!) flat change class, twice a week.

We are going to empower you to change your own flat. You will know how to figure out what caused your flat, make the necessary changes and get rolling again.

And to make matters even better, we are going to give you a free tube for listening to our entire class. (Regular tubes, not sealant or long valves).

WHAT THE HECK?
You will be shown what the heck can cause a flat tire through investigating the rim, tire and tube. This can help prevent future flats as well.

HOW THE HECK?
How the heck to remove the wheel, take off the tire and tube and put it all back together.

WHY THE HECK?
Why the heck there are all these numbers on the tire and what are these spoons? Why are there two types of valves on tubes? Why do I have to fill my tires so often if there isn’t a big hole in it?

WHEN THE HECK?
Thursdays at closing (7pm) and Sundays at 5pm. It’s free and (even) you will learn something.

If you are the type of person who rides your bike to get into trouble, but prefer to make it out the other side unscathed, please allow us to introduce you to Knolly.

Knolly Bikes are tough, robust and beautiful.
The people of Knolly bikes, however:

The bikes themselves are overbuilt. But, that is kind of the point.
We will be adding the Delirium-T and Endorphin to our demo fleet, so you can test ride these as soon as we get them.

We have a set of the very limited edition Phil Wood Track Hubs coming to us. One set.
Before we move on any further, the price is $575 for the set. So, now that we are clear. Here are some pictures.

Bigger Pictures!

OF COURSE WE WILL
When we were offered these, we jumped at the chance. After all, Phil Wood makes the nicest stuff around. As of this posting, we still haven’t held these in our hands, but we are eager to see them in person. If you *have to* have these, please give us a call and they will be yours**.

**Unless, someone else pays us first.

Pictures tell it all. So here you go.

Depending on where you are riding, how far you want to ride and who you are, your bike needs to be set up with proper gearing.

This is accomplished by daydreaming a little about everywhere you want to ride. Do you want to go into the mountain for all day excursions? Do you want to race on the bike path and pass everyone at light speed?

After you decide where you are riding, move on to how far you will ride at a given time. Do you want to complete a century? Do you only have 30 minutes to ride at any given time?

And the hardest part is to examine what kind of shape you are in (or hope to be very soon). Are you fresh off of the college track team? Is you husband talking you into your first bike in 25 years?

This tells us how to set up your bike. The two factors are chainrings and cassette.

CHAINRINGS

53/39 – The chainrings can be set up as the normal road ratio of 53 big ring and 39 small ring. This is going to be ideal for people who have the intention of going fast, not doing a great deal of long uphill and/or who are in great shape.

50/30 - The next step down is called a compact chainring setup. That is typically around 50 teeth for the big ring and 30 for the small. This allows for a much easier climbing gear, but not quite as fast of a true downhill gear. These need to be high quality because of the large difference in the number of teeth.

30/39/50 – This is called a triple chainring setup. It offers the widest variety of gearing. This is going to allow for a good climbing, flat and modest downhill gear.

CASSETTE

The range for a cassette is described by their smallest, then biggest gear. So an 11-23 has a tiny 11 tooth cog for going fast and a much bigger (while not that big) 23 tooth climbing cog.
There are a huge variety of cassettes on the market. SRAM in particular has a huge variety of 9 and 10 speed cassettes.

Within the chainrings listed above and the choices of cassettes, you can make a bike that does damn near everything that you would like.

Just like everything else on a bike, as you spend more you get better performance and everything gets lighter.

Once you start using good sticky tires, you will scoff at the idea of getting anything else. We see it all the time; People walk in and grab our favorite tire in the store (which we’ll get to in a second) and walk to the counter. No questions asked, because we understand completely.

As you spend more on tires, to a point, you should get a couple of big advantages over the less expensive tires. Typically, you should expect more miles per dollar out of the nicer tires. ALL OF THOSE MILES will be with fewer flats and better cornering. Your acceleration will be better because of the sticky rubber and because of the lighter bead material.

Our short list of great tires:

1. Continental Grand Prix 4 Season
This is the best tire we sell for Denver. It gets the miles done quickly and comfortably. The rubber is exceptional for grip. And the casing is tough enough to resist most everything that Denver can throw at a bike tire. And lastly, they are so light, it is cheating. But, cheat if you want to.

2. Continental Ultra Gatorskin
The Gatorskin is a tough tire, as the name implies. It also is a great performing tire. Many of these tires live on messenger bikes because of the mile to cost ratio. They also need a tire that is efficient and great handling.

3. Maxxis Detonator
The Detonator is made up of 2 types of rubber. The middle is a harder material that will last longer, while the sides are more of a grippy material for cornering. It really lasts a good long time, with few problems of flats. As a side note, they also come in some great colors, which never hurts.