FOR OUR BIRTHDAY

We have almost always had a birthday party for ourselves. But this year we had a movie premiere and a huge party in February, so instead we decided to relax on our birthday and have a little sale instead. Also, our friends at Trve Brewing are doing some fun stuff on Saturday night and that is where we will be… after our sale.

We will do our damnedest to have a party next month just because BIKES ARE AWESOME, but you’ll have to wait to see when.

THE BIRTHDAY SALE DETAIL

In stock only. Saturday and Sunday. No substitutions.
2013 Giant Defy 1 Road Bikes $1350 Now $1150
2013 Salsa Warbird $2499 Now $2125
Salvagetti T-shirts – 30% off
Icebreaker Merino – 50% off
See? We said small.

ONE MORE FUN THING!

We are having a Smith Optics Clinic on Thursday, April 25th at 6:30pm at Salvagetti on 38th. We will be serving up wine, knowledge, cheese and discounts on Smith Products. We would love for you to come out, learn about how Smith will make riding your bike more fun (and safer) and then get a deserved 25% off of in-stock (and we have plenty) Smith Optics.

We’ll remind you on Facebook and Twitter, so don’t you worry.

We had Hendrick’s Gin. Of which we drank ALL OF IT. Many compliments were heard of the fine drinks.

We had Basic Kneads Pizza. The best damned pizza in Denver.

We premiered a film about loving bikes called InRoads. It was scary in the dark, but everyone was okay.

We had all the fancy Brooks stuff you can imagine. The most comfy leather in the cycling industry today.

But, mostly, we had fun. And here is the proof.

All Smiles

Back in Denver for a moment

The crew

Basic Kneads!

Oh Dear

The fuzz (aka security)

This is our next installation of Better, Faster, Funner (on Dirt). This free class is an easy going class to learn more about Mountain Bikes. Specifically, the things that you need to know to have a better, faster, funner(funnest) time on your bike. We will go over suspension, tires and bike position setup. It is a great way to be more comfortable with all the fun stuff your trail bike can do. More info here.

FRIDAY

Friday is the start of the 2013 North American Handbuilt Bicycle Show. It is the nerdiest of nerdy bicycle events. There will be elegant steel, titanium, bamboo and leather all over the Convention Center. Here is the official site.

SATURDAY

We are hosing the Brooks Dashing Bicycle Show on Saturday,the 23rd of February. This party kicks off at 6pm at 3800 Irving Street. Salvagetti will be supplying music, a movie premier (called InRoads), some amazing food trucks and a place to park your bike. Brooks Saddles is providing FREE DRINKS (Hendrick’s Gin), some beautiful bikes/bags/art for us to feel good around. And Mosaic Cycles is stopping by with some of our customer’s builds. It promises to be fun, nerdy and intoxicating. Please bring your friends.

SUNDAY

The day to recover. Maybe take out one of our Fat Bike Demos or just sleep in? Maybe make a Harlem Shake video?

Happy beginning of Spring. See you soon!

Carl’s Surly Crosscheck

Dirty Blue Frame, Honey Brooks B-17, Honey Brooks Bar Tape.  Meow…

The number one question we are getting from customers is “WHY DID YOU MOVE FROM THAT COOL LOCATION?” We would love to make it sound like it was complicated, but it wasn’t.

Growing Pains
When we first moved into the Platte location, we were so excited by how much space we had. We talked of events and workshops and making a difference. Within the first year, we found that we were very pinched. Watching customers try to navigate with their bike to the service department became painful.

Hanging Our New Sign

Our Vision Had Not Changed
We realized about 2 years into being on Platte that we were sacrificing our vision of education and community by squeezing so much into such a small space. The new space is allowing us to have classes and workshops that meet our customers needs without completely interrupting the store. As you will see, we are going to offer more events over the coming year than ever before.

What Happens Next?
We realize that we moved to the top of a big hill this year and that many of our old customers feel like we completely abandoned them. Our plan is to NO LONGER MOVE SALVAGETTI, but continue to add little Annex stores where they are *needed* for our customers. Our next idea is to open up on Capital Hill. More on that as we find out.

As soon as we could spring into action, we started removing EVERYTHING we could out of the building. In some rooms, there were 2 drop ceilings. In other rooms, there were giant heating units only for that room. And there were filing cabinets all over the place.
Step One: Demo

Step Two: More Demo

We Clarified Things Here and There:

And We Discovered Some History:
Salvagetti’s new location used to be a King Soopers Market. In fact, it was the first King Soopers in Denver. But, even stranger than that, we found out there was a fire in the 40s that did about $140,000 in damages. Quite the story, so we left everything as we found it, except we cleaned it. The new (in 1940) wood looks like this.

Time To Rebuild What We Have Destroyed

We Closed, So We Could Move

We Weren’t Ready, But We Sure Did Open

And Then We Finally Got Our Signage

by Scott T.

I got to take out the Surly Necromancer Pug for a little spin in Golden yesterday. The weather was perfect, the trail was easy and I was feeling pretty f’ing rough.

When riding in Golden, you climb first, especially when you ride your trail bike to the trail head. After letting a little air pressure out, but not too much, we started our tiny but nasty steep climb. It was there, 4.5 seconds into the ride that I knew this bike was going to be my friend. On this steep, techy, rocky accent the tires stuck like glue all the way up. I picked crappy lines on the way up and it BLOB BLOB BLOBBED right over the rocks.

Since this trail was far from technical for the most part, anytime a rock was on the trail, riders were trying to pop off of them or rumble through them. My comfy couch loved all of it. It was slow going on the smooth uphill, but felt fast in the rough stuff. It really didn’t take much time to get used to. It is still a two-wheeled upright trail bike, after all.

We stopped at the top of the trail for a photo session.

Now comes the fun part: THE DOWN.

Descending on a fat bike is attention grabbing. You may think you are on a regular bike, but you aren’t. In deep rutty trails, the bike has a seeming need to wander. In the air, the bike makes sure you are in your zen place. And plowing into rocky sections reminds you that your tire is not in fact a 2.4″-little-tiny-trail tire; It just doesn’t fit through the same pockets in the rock. All this may sound negative, but it wasn’t at all. I was smiling and laughing out loud. I caught myself two wheel drifting at times. And to top it all off, I started feeling better. Yes, fat bikes can cure a cold it seems.

My only complaints about this bike are simple changes. I, personally, like a wider bar. Salsa now makes a super wide bar which would fix that right up. My other complaint was the rear tire that this bike had. At “high” speed, if I lightly feathered the rear brake, the tire would break loose of the dirt and slide like I was riding on marbles. The first time is was alarming (to say the least), the second time I almost ate it into a bunch of rocks at a corner and the third time I did it on purpose and it was fun. Give me a meaty slow climbing tire, knobby please.

Will I ride this bike again? Yup. Am I still coughing and sputtering this morning? Less.

Very rarely do we get a chance to see people explode with happiness. And even less frequently do we get to serve people delicious bacon. But, thanks to the ingenuity of Surly and Salvagetti coming together, we had both happen in the same splendid weekend.
The situation was this: Surly brought a fleet of FAT BIKES for our customers to consume. In exchange, we did things we cannot talk about and then also got a campsite or 3 at Buffalo Creek. Next, we called on our favorite pizza truck to come out. Oh, and we called in a favor from our bacon sponsor, too, just to round things out. No wait, wait! We also got some amazing beer.

We camped.

We ate. And we wore all blue.

And we took dirty pictures of a Surly Krampus.

(Incidentally, using a 29er Fox fork with the big nasty 29+ tire called the Surly Knard is fun. Anytime we rode in kitty litter, we heard tick tick tick tick until a little rock flew out of the tire. In any other trail condition, it would work dramatically better.)

Through it all, the Surly guys put up with our shit, made people happy and helped us with one of the finest events we have ever put on.

First of all, we are starting a spin series for you to stay in shape, to meet nice people and to beat all of your friends next Spring. It is called Velosass. You may read this as Velo Sass or the more crude Velo’s Ass.
More info? Sure, don’t mind if we do… http://velosasscycling.wordpress.com/ Come get a punch card and make yourself stronger.

Second, we are carrying many, many fat bikes for your pleasure. We have both Surly and Salsa in stock, but only the bikes that are gonna treat you right for a long time. We will also have the Surly Krampus in stock and ready for you to fight over in the next few weeks. We have prototype Krampi at the store right this moment.

Perfect gift? Yes, it is Icebreaker. And we have lots of it, so that you can get thanked for years to come and someone you like/love/desire will be happy. Come check it out.

And lastly, thank you. Thank you for sending your friends over to our new location at 3800 Irving St. Thank you for letting us do what we love to do. Thank you for making our shop successful. We won’t let you down, we promise. To say thank you to our staff, we took everyone to Moab for a “Professional Development Trip”. Read all about it here.

See you soon!