Repack Rider
Senior Retro Guru
It probably doesn't matter which bike magazine you read, you will probably see an article soon about the Specialized product introduction party for their 2009 lines.
They rented Tamarancho, the private mountain bike preserve where I ride every weekend, and brought in representatives from 40 or so cycling publications worldwide for three days of camping, riding, and sales pitches.
The event was a well-kept secret, and very few locals even knew about it, but it was the logistic equivalent of the Normandy landing, with catered food, a tent city, a cappucino and smoothie bar, mechanics, demo bikes to ride, and of course the world-class single track, all staged for the benefit of about fifty people and the Specialized staff who got to join in.
In addition to the sales pitches, I had been asked to show the cycling press Repack, and maybe give them a run down the world's most famous downhill course, and Billy Savage was giving a showing of "Klunkerz."
This was a pretty good three day mountain bike party, and I rode my own bike from my house to get to it in about twenty minutes.
I already wrote the story for Dirt Rag, and I'd like to hold off on publishing it anywhere else before it comes out there, but suffice to say that Mike Sinyard and I shredded singletrack together, we ran Repack, got lost with Ned Overend and found by Jacquie Phelan and Joe Breeze, but in spite of all that we had fun too.
Of interest to this board, Specialized have made 700 replicas of the 1982 model of the Stumpjumper, and many of them were used at the Repack run that I put together for the event. You might see a few of these coming on the market as mint condition old bikes.
They rented Tamarancho, the private mountain bike preserve where I ride every weekend, and brought in representatives from 40 or so cycling publications worldwide for three days of camping, riding, and sales pitches.
The event was a well-kept secret, and very few locals even knew about it, but it was the logistic equivalent of the Normandy landing, with catered food, a tent city, a cappucino and smoothie bar, mechanics, demo bikes to ride, and of course the world-class single track, all staged for the benefit of about fifty people and the Specialized staff who got to join in.
In addition to the sales pitches, I had been asked to show the cycling press Repack, and maybe give them a run down the world's most famous downhill course, and Billy Savage was giving a showing of "Klunkerz."
This was a pretty good three day mountain bike party, and I rode my own bike from my house to get to it in about twenty minutes.
I already wrote the story for Dirt Rag, and I'd like to hold off on publishing it anywhere else before it comes out there, but suffice to say that Mike Sinyard and I shredded singletrack together, we ran Repack, got lost with Ned Overend and found by Jacquie Phelan and Joe Breeze, but in spite of all that we had fun too.
Of interest to this board, Specialized have made 700 replicas of the 1982 model of the Stumpjumper, and many of them were used at the Repack run that I put together for the event. You might see a few of these coming on the market as mint condition old bikes.
sweet,look forward to reading this,cheers.
