This..
Is the result of this....

Nice huck, Dave. You'll get yours. And thanks Jonny C for the CrackBerry pic.

Earlier this year I started up this series of posts on local businesses here in Boulder...businesses circulating in an around the cycling industry. I did the first one with The Pro's Closet and now am bringing you the second in this series with a company and a more importantly a person near and dear to my heart: Bobby 'Bring The' Noyes, owner and creator of RockyMounts bicycle carrying systems here in Boulder.

GREG: So Bobby, tell me a little bit about the genesis of RockyMounts. When did you start up this franchise and what was the inspiration?

BOBBY: Every bike shop i worked at, i always ended up as the "rack guy", for better or worse. After listening to customers complaints about the, literally, two choices they had in racks, I set up shop in my garage on 34th and Baseline. It was pretty ghetto at first selling them out of the trunk of my car. Money was tight, so I kept my bike shop job and tried to sell them in my free time.

GREG: What inspired you to move away from the stove-top black color schemes the ‘other’ roof rack makers are still to this day rolling out and offer such a variety of colors and patterns? Further, how are these designs actually created/applied on your racks?

BOBBY: It was purely by chance. We sponsored the CU cycling team, and made them some yellow ones. They came out pretty cool, and riders started asking for them, so we obliged. We have our powder coatings done out in Platteville, CO, by a good ol' boy we refer to as Smokin' Joe. Watching him spray powder smokin a Kool Menthol earned him the name. The printed patterns are done in Denver by a Kolorfusion the patterns are printed on fabric, wrapped on the aluminum trays and baked on. Most of their business is doing Mossy Oak Camo on Polaris ATV, but they manage to sneak in a coupla bike racks.

GREG: Talk to me about bicycle advocacy here in Boulder, Bobby. You are ALWAYS involved and donate so much of your time to ensure cyclists can…well cycle! In your opinion, what is the most important issue cyclists face here in town and in the region?

BOBBY: Boulder has always done a good job with transportation for cycling, but they have never completed the mission and left the sporting component off the table. The wind has been changing, and city officials realize how big a factor we are. The Parks Department especially has been fantastic to deal with lately. When we first asked for facilities, they asked us why we could not use the bike path. Now, we are working on a full blown bike park on the north side of Valmont. Although it is not a done deal, we should have an announcement in early July.

GREG: What kind of changes have you seen in the bike industry all these years have been immersed in it?

BOBBY: The bar keeps getting raised. Through both people's passion and down right greed, last year's designs must constantly be improved. Most for the better, but some for the worst.

GREG: OK, so lastly, Bobby: Slipstream or 7-11? Who’s cooler?

BOBBY: That's a tough call, i would like to see a Cage Match to decide it. Andy Hampsten/Davis Phinney vs. Christian Vande Velde/Jonny Coln, loser buys small house coffees at Amante.

Bobby, thanks my brother.

When you drive around town, nearly every roof is covered with an array of reds, cammo's, yellos, blues etc. When you see a stove top black rack, it's noticeable....and then you see that they are not RockyMount racks!

Make your region colorful and bring some of those back home! Visit the store www.RockyMounts.com and get some PRO racks for your rig...but as Bobby says:

Use 'em ONLY if you absolutely, positively can't ride there...

It's now a few days into all this. My wife is by every definition a hero. She was able to be by her sister's side in under 10 hours. She has turned off her instinct which is to feel for the situation and emote on it...instead to be stoic and strong and be the hand that her sister is holding during this period...even while her sister may not even realize she's gripping a hand.

She's just there for her.

Dealing with estate planners. Dealing with funeral homes. Dealing with...honestly just dealing to keep her sister's family strong.

I am manning the fort. I am answering my sons' questions on Uncle Darren's passing. I am not comfortable in explaining how it all occurred as I am in the air 3 times a month at a minimum.

I got the kids to school today and I started working and then had a categorical f-it moment. I can't focus and I went to purge. Jumped on the 9'er and rolled Heil from home. I bomb up the road in the AM sun and see some things moving and they are just MONSTER turkeys. So I snap pics and day dream....

We go up to Madison to hang with Darren and family. We are tight cousins with children the same age...perfect. We've been to Italy together, Disney Land together..you name it. D takes me on his greatest passion: a hunting trip for the day. He's a Utah boy and it's in his blood. We're going for Turkey and we've got 12g over/unders and some food and a whole day to chill. In fact, I get to use his dad's prized Browning Field Grade that day so I am honored.

We go out a hiking in these epic pastures of Wisconsin. Shots here and there but I get squat. It's beautiful and freezing cold. D's all gussied up in his hunting best...I'm in sweat pants, Wellingtons and invariably making WAY too much noise for a purist like Darren. We get ourselves to a point where there is a small brook crossing...about 3 feet wide and sincerely about 2 to 2.5 inches deep water. A "no brainer" as it were.

I take a casual step across this mellow trickling brook and HOLY SHI*T!!! I sink up top my pathetic yang in quicksand.

Loser.

Darren is on the stream's bank about crapping himself laughing at me. So, I open the chambers and eject the shells and have to hurl his papas Browning at him (which he caught).

I'm an awesome hunter.

D did end up getting a fatty for us all which we Q'd up that evening. He should me how to clean and prep that beast for dinner.

It goes by quick folks. It ain't a dress rehearsal. Live this shit like you have no idea.

Which you don't.

The ride was purging. Beautiful. Now to continue the balance. It is easier with that ever so small adjustment to the mind's lens. I need no large wake up calls. I live life I feel as fully as I can. But to ensure it is as clean and pure as I can...that is another level of balance.

Can I? Are you?

So this AM I read some chatter from team mates...then I was linked in to other stories of cyclists riding the roads up in Larimer this weekend about frequent pull-overs by Sherrif Department personnel who proceed to question riders on where they are from and why they are riding Larimer County roads. When riders said they were from Boulder (County), citations were threatened but if the riders returned to Boulder, they would be overlooked.

Huh? What century is this? This is not the Wild West where local badges can just lob out a "Y'all just git on outta this here town, y'hear?".

Further, the cyclists were wrongly informed by the Sherrifs about single-file riding (it *is* legal in the correct conditions). The following is the official statement on single file riding:

Colorado Statutes : 42-4-1412
(6)(a) Persons operating bicycles on roadways shall ride single file; except that riding no more than two abreast is permitted in the following circumstances:
(i)When riding two abreast will not impede the normal and reasonable movement of traffic; or
(ii)When riding on paths or parts of roadways set aside for the exclusive use of bicycles.
(b) Persons riding two abreast shall ride within a single lane.
Your incident and the outcomes (good or bad) may help us reach out to Larimer County and other law enforcement agencies. Please think about if you would be willing to let us use this story in our share the road campaign? You don't have to decide now, but I can give my ideas on how we might be able to use it for education. My guess is that there are other bicyclists out there with similar stories and I would like to collect those too.

Anyways, if you have similar stories, it is advised that you contact Bicycle Colorado for guidance and to ensure the collective voice is heard:

Bicycle Colorado
1525 Market Street, Suite 100
Denver, CO 80202
303-417-1544

Katie sent me this clip which sent a while back but I've only now been able to post it. It sent a bunch of the smile hormones through me and God knows we need it this week.

She knows I am all about the kids getting down on the bike tip and this pseudo clip is hilarious. Possibly a prototype for an upcoming ad? Who knows. You be the judge!

So VeloNews has a 'New Products' section which just helps to expose new items coming out to us consumers. Today they posted the new Titus TRX cross bike for this year.

Steel: Good. Carbon infused tubing: Sweet. But I just don't see this as a mature cross bike yet although quite stunning visually. Sloping tubes reduce shouldering clearance while down tube routed cabling make it annoying to grab the down tube on porting....and stretch cables pulling the bike out of gear often when you remount and go. You want those cables protected from as much of the elements as possible...e.g. from hands and/or mud build up which can easily get caught when you are riding wet grassy courses. I really want to take a look at this bike in close detail and look at teh other small details like tire clearance and geometry to study how it handles.

Again, it looks stunning visually but the small details make all the difference in the frame as it relates to your performance.

Thanks so much to all the friends out there who sent a note or said something yesterday. This has been an enormously difficult two days.

Hold on to yours tightly every day!

It continues to be unthinkable as I type this. It continues to be...as it is often suggested...like a nightmare that you phase in and out of during the waking hours and yet when the mind's haze realizes once again like a wave that it is real and he's never coming back, the wave happens again and engulfs you. It starts as this rush of heat and panic somehow intertwined with one another with a race of the heart that feels more rooted in the stomach than in the chest. The moment your mind settles in to its normal peaceful rhythm it is shattered.

We lost him last night.

Christ please stop this. We lost him and that wave is back and it again is real.

Darren.

The ring woke us shockingly at 3 AM. Those calls occur at night occasionally but thankfully they're often by mis-dials and you settle yourself back down in bed once the heart stops racing and your eyes, which remain open for a bit thinking and refuse to shut, close themselves on their own and allow you back to your peaceful sleep.

The caller ID this time was our loved one.

It is too soon to know why or what or how. The helicopter was brand new. Maintenance perfect. The pilot and doctor on this med-flight dear friends. 100's...1000's of flying hours. The nurse on board a compatriot.

Three souls.

They delivered their human cargo like an angel would have done...safe....at the hospital. And they flew off again to repeat this mission of life saving like they have done 100's of times before.

They fell off the grid. It lies in pieces. It is our lives.

Darren, can you hear me? I've nothing but a key board right now and the wave of heat that keeps going through me will not stop. Can you hear us? We love you our lawful brother, our husband, our father our son. You have two children my children's age. You have a wife...the sister of mine. Darren....please Christ wrap him in your love.

You need to look outside right now whoever reads this. You need to find a way to do this. For one second in your life heed this. Read the characters on your screen but listen to the message. You need to find light right now and you need to feel it on your face. You need to listen to me like no one has ever talked to you before and do nothing but breathe once you have found that source of light.

Reflect. On what is important.

The next mission is to reach out. You need to embrace those that enable you to be a better person. A better husband. A better cyclist. A better father. A better son. Find them and touch them. Even if it is as inconspicuous as putting a hand on their shoulder...or engulfing them in a hug.

Exchange love with them. For Christ or whomever you need to you feel light on your face and you feel that love of yours being exchanged.

It can not be replaced.

The pieces are scattered. My love is with her sister. They are facing something that should never be faced. But must.

This is not a dress rehearsal. There are no winners, only those who have acted beautifully in the play we're born into.

Darren, I love you.

What do we do.

Nice to see Boulder get some with Christian and the Slipstream's Giro squad getting the pink jersey today after the Team Time Trail.

Jonny C has been madly snapping stuff on his CrackBerry and mailing them to us. This one is special with Matty White cheers-ing on the squad after their day with a well earned bubbly.

Race smart fellas!

Wow things have positively changed. When you put it out there and you trust yourself and have absolute faith that you have not f'd with the universe....all the while doing what you think and feel in your gut is the best you can do...and the right thing to do....the dominoes tend to fall in the direction you want them too.

It's been a rush the past 2 weeks and I am trying to ride/train when I can but life is moving extremely fast. The 3rd side of the teeter totter has been resolved in ways that I didn't anticipate and not scraping the ground so much...at least affecting my brain in bad ways like it was. I exhausted/belabored/dragged you all through the BS but now I feel like I am flying again.

Can I balance all of this new exciting stuff with my goals in racing and the eternal goal not to be an absent/angry/lifeless father/lump of a husband? Well, there is no option so I'll have to figure out new levels of balance. I will make it so.

Onward....