Taylor House Century Ride

So this past Saturday i rode in the 10th annual Taylor House Century ride, doing the 90+ mile distance.. on my wonderful Bondye! All I have to say is wow! This ride was thrown off because of flooding in the traditional route of going through Wupatki national park. The fire left enough damage to cause a terrible flood, not only in peoples houses but in main roads. Therefore we were left with riding to Leupp, the views were still amazing! We started off with about 300 people and each climb was dividing the group more and more.. at about mile 35 we had ourselves the main peleton.. at this point they started attacking and i managed to stay at the front the entire time! We quickly filled our waters and before much of us were ready they were off. I sprinted to catch the group and slowly fadded with a lack of nutrition on my part. Overall i finished the entire ride in about 3hours and 58 minutes. I would say a success for bonking on mile 50! Hope everyone is riding and enjoying their summer days.
-Tyler

Well...the forest is closed and so are the trails. A fire broke out in the Schultz pass area burning over 11,000 acres of wilderness. To take precautions they have shut the forest down until July 21st. To avoid possibly getting a 2,000 dollar fine we decided to drive down to Sedona. Sedona doesn't have a fire but it sure is hot! After suffering a flat tire on the way down there we managed to still get in a good ride with some great shredding. You never get bored with the trails down there, its either slick rock, tacky goodness, or the little loose rocks that let you rip corners! The Sobo like allways handled everything like a champ. When your out of the saddle the stiffness just lets you charge climbs and when it comes to decending the carbon seat stays flex so it makes for a smoothe ride. Anyways the riding is great and am still stoked to be training for next season.

Fwd: 18 Hours of Fruita - Champion!!

From: gearexchange@comcast.net
Date: June 2, 2010 8:31:56 AM PDT
To: info@voodoocycles.net
Subject: 18 Hours of Fruita - Champion!!

Hey all,

Just competed in my first solo race ever a few weeks back in the 18 Hrs. of Fruita. I have to let you know that I have never ridden my bike for 177 miles and almost 18,000 vert, all on singletrack!! Anyway I raced it on your fabulous Zaka and I won!! The Zaka may be the "Earth Guardian" but it was my guardian for the race, Thanks for making such a kick ass ride, makes me want to ride for very very long time!! thanks again, darin binion

The Gear Exchange
212 6th St.
Glenwood Springs, CO 81601
970-945-8500
thegearexchange.blogspot.com

It's Final Curtain for Captain Balljack!

We have ALL of the final batch of Captain Balljack framesets available direct on closeout. Right now you can get a frame, fork, and handlebar for $295.00. If you are interested email us at info@voodoocycles.net. For more information click this link: CBJ.htm. Frames are dark blue with matte finish. Fork and handlbar are gloss black. All forks have canti bosses.

Fwd: Soukri Fan

> I would love for you to post a pic of my new Sourki on your website.
> - Josh
>

Soukri SS

Shred-dy for dirt!

Zobop Returns

Last month Joe and I brought a prototype full suspension frame back from Taiwan called Zobop. The new design shows great promise as an all around trail bike using a floating pivot design to resist pedal induced bobbing and be plush over rocks, bumps, and drops. Floating pivot bikes are gaining a lot of attention and popularity for riding on all types of trails.

Our friends at BTI joined me for a ride in Sedona recently and here is what they said:

  

Earlier this month we took a trip to Sedona's red rock country to pay a visit to Voodoo Cycles. We took the opportunity to test ride ah  prototype of the new Zobop, Voodoo's replacement for the venerable Canzo 26.

The Zobop is an all purpose XC trail bike with five and a half inches of travel. Aside from the terrific new lines, the most noticable feature of the Zobop is its new Floating Pivot Point suspension (FPP) designed by Joe Murray. Differentially pivoting links constantly adjust to pedaling forces, rider weight distribution and bump frequency. For a full suspension bike, the Zobop has very little sag, but offers tons of usable travel while remaining very active. The ride was plush, so plush in fact that we couldn't help checking the tire pressure every so often. This is a 2011 bike with an expected release of July/August 2010. Can't wait for this bike to hit production.

Zobop Ride Impression

I haven't ridden a 26" wheel bike on dirt in at least 8 years. I have now had two rides in Sedona on our new Zobop full suspension prototype and have been blown away. The new frame uses a floating pivot point linkage and Joe's legendary geometry to make one hell of a bike. It did take me a bit to get used to the smaller wheels and the 67 degree head angle (with the Talus set at 140mm) but once I got into the flow of the trail the bike was superb.

Riding in Sedona is such a challenge, it has tight windy singletrack with short steep climbs, 4 foot drops, slick rock, and lots of cactus to dodge. This floating pivot really makes this terrain manageable: stiff suspension on the climbs transmitting all your power, and soft supple active suspension for all the bumps, drops, and descents. I had no idea how well this could work!

So from my first impression you can say that I am stoked on our new frame. Joe has done a great job indeed. With just a few more tweaks we should have these available by mid-Summer this year along with the new Bokor 29"er, Nakisi, and Maji.

Bondye Badness

Well.. after 4 hours of J.B. showing me how to build up a road bike its done, and sick. Weighed it and it came out to be just over 17.5 lbs. The new Ultegra grupo looked really nice with the Bondye frame. Rode it out lake Marry the next day on a 60miler and the geometry could not of felt better, everything was perfect! The Fi'Zi'k saddle was also amazing! So anyway here is a picture, and thanks again Benson for the help building it up....

Breaking out the new Hotness

We are just back from the 2010 Taipei Bike Show where we unveiled our new FPP Full Suspension called Zobop: Secret Society. Joe Murray worked long and hard designing this frame to be our new flagship. My reaction of the first ride: bitchin! I went for a ride in Sedona with a couple pals from BTI the other day and we all agreed the bike climbs great and eats up the twisty singletrack like it knew the trail better than we did! I have only ridden 29'ers for the last 8 years so it was an adjustment for me to ride this 26"er with a much slacker head angle (67 degrees) than I have ever ridden. But after just a few minutes it felt totally normal. Descending and riding off drops and jumps became second nature. I have to say that 5.5" bikes seem like the best all around trail bike when they climb and handle this well!

Here is a pic of our first production sample. There are still a few tweaks to be made but we expect these to be available through our distributors by September this year. ~jb

Racing Ralph

Update 4/5/2010: These tires stretched so much that the rear will no longer pass through the seatstay brace. Look for an update to Canzo 29 in 2011 to fix this! ~jb

Just mounted some Schwalbe Racing Ralph 29x2.4" tires on my Canzo 29
and they fit! Though I'm sure the small rocks will get caught in
there at times. Good to know they will roll and we will put -more tire
clearance on the list of updates for the 2012 model! ~ jb

Update: The Ralph's stretched and would no longer roll past the seat stay bridge. This tire will not work on the back of a Canzo 29!!

Soukri Photo

Feast your eyes on this!

Balljack is back!

We are bringing the last 14 Captain Balljack framesets here to sell direct to you VooDoo fans! We will sell frame, fork, and handlebars for $295! Email us at sales@voodoocycles.net for more info or to order.

Been having fun with my helmet cam down in Sedona. Single track down there is absolutely amazing! Perfect terrain for our bikes! ~jb

Fwd: Voodoo Bizango Video

Got this email from VooDoo Fan Raymond Howard today. Video is posted below. This reminds me I should post some helmet cam vids I have taken while riding in Sedona... ~jb

Begin forwarded message:

From: Raymond Howard

Date: December 28, 2009 6:58:24 PM MST

To: info@voodoocycles.net

Subject: Voodoo Bizango Video

My brother and I both purchased Bizangos back int the late 90's and we still love them and ride them today. Here's a video of us riding that you guys should put on your site. I get a few close ups of the bike as we're racing up our local trail. Thanks for making a sick steel steed. It's the only part on my bike that still from the 90's. Oh yeah, you have my permission to use on your site. Raymond Howard.

Soukri - Sacred Temple

Check out the new graphic style of our new 29'er due out Spring 2010. The name Soukri is a 'sacred temple' in the Voodoo religion. This frame should have no problems becoming the temple of your daily trail worship! We decided to route the cables under the top tube and improve the gusset under the down tube. And it will be made from Reynolds 631 tubing. Run it with either a 100mm or 120mm travel fork. Single or geared. Disc or linear pull "v-brake". Don't run it rigid unless you can find a fork that is at least 490mm long from axle to crown though!!

Hopefully we'll have more new stuff to show you early in the new year. Until then... ~jb

Friends from Malaga!

From: José 

Date: October 8, 2009 4:04:23 AM GMT-07:00

To: <info@voodoocycles.net>

Hi.
 
Just wanted to send you all some pictures of our bikes. We are fans of Voodoo. In southern Europe there is a small city (Malaga) where we enjoyed the Joe Murray design by our mountains. The bikes are fantastic and fun. 
 

We would like to show our Voodoos.

Thanks Voodoo's team and especially to Joe Murray for making us happy with their bikes.

 

Cheers.

J.M.-

 

 

---

Fwd: voodoo bakka pic

Just wanted to send you all a pic of my bakka that i picked up from milewide about a year ago.. I built it up as a 96r with the rigid voodoo fork..  Im running a 1x9 drivetrain. Its a great bike in the rock gardens and the frame lent it self well for the 96 conversion.. the bottom bracket is nice and high (13.25) and great for all the logs and rocks here central maryland. I work part time at a local shop and have  had all sorts of custom and high end stuff, but this is by far the most fun I have had on a mountainbike in a long time..This bike is a keeper.. If you want some more high res shots for the sight let me know..Any new jerseys avail to the public any time soon.??   keep up the good work.. I like reading the blog as I am from the left coast   greg

High on Victory at the High Cascade 100 (Bend, Oregon)

It’s been five days now, and I’m still coughing up the dust I swallowed last Sunday, August 23, while competing in the inaugural High Cascade 100 endurance mountain bike race in Bend, Oregon.

The air I had been breathing for half the day was suffused with tiny particles of sand, kicked up by nearly a hundred riders spinning their wheels thousands of times to complete the epic century distance and rack up 11,000 feet of climbing. Whether I was leading the charge, hot in pursuit of another racer or riding a segment of trail all by my lonesome, there was a constant cloud of dust hanging suspended in the air like a layer of smoke. My lungs protested, of course, but after winning the women’s race and finishing in the top half of the men’s field, a little sand on the lungs didn’t seem all that bad.

The Course
The race began in Wanoga Sno-Park 11 miles west of Bend and featured 70 percent singletrack, 10 percent ATV trail and 20 percent doubletrack across high-desert terrain. My lungs held up through the first 45-mile loop around Mt Bachelor, where racers climbed up well over 7,000 feet and dropped down through threatening lava rock fields. Next came two 20+ mile loops around Old Swampy (the dry, dusty singletrack proved the name a misnomer). The last 11-mile loop brought riders back to town for some fun technical descents down such popular trails as “Tiddlywinks” and “Funner,” followed by a seven-mile ascent to the finish line. Throughout the day, the soft sand sucked our wheels, making us work absurdly hard to power through even the smallest patch of momentum-stealing soil. It also made for some quite scary, nearly-out-of-control descents at speed. But that’s not the half of it.

The Race
We began early—at 6:15am—and we began cold, amid near-freezing temperatures. But once we started spinning our wheels on the slight-incline up the dusty doubletrack toward Mt. Bachelor, we forgot the chill and concentrated on the long, long day ahead. Chris Sheppard was an early leader, attacking from the start and taking only a few pro men along with him. Sheppard would go on to win the event handily, with Sloane Anderson taking second. I settled into a manageable pace, concentrating on having an efficient race, fueling well and keeping myself out of trouble. Of course, the harsh desert conditions (wheel-sucking sand, choking clouds of dust, tube-puncturing lava rock, etc.) took out nearly a third of the entire field. We racers were warned about the “über-technical” Kwol Butte section ahead of time, but to be honest, I felt far more at ease riding the rocky sections to bombing down the miles of sandy trail that never failed to surprise with sporadic, traction-less slides atop soft sand. But at least it’s soft sand, right? It could be worse. . .

Doh! Mechanical.
Mid-way into the race—at 45 miles—my free hub began to act up. And by “act up,” I mean, every time I began to descend, my bike would make the sound of a swarm of angry bees—or of a prop plane coming in for a crash landing. My bike would shake like it was falling to pieces, and the rear hub would begin to seize up until I slowed down. And I still had 55 miles left to go.

The volunteer mechanics at each of the three aide stations assured me that my bike would not explode, though they could not fix the loose bearing in the hub on the fly. So I kept riding, albeit at half-pace on the descents. I did "Big Ring" it on the less steep descents, pedaling for as long as the terrain would allow me on my hard tail. But when the trail got steep and I had to coast, the angry sound returned. I surely must have scared several riders half to death as I passed them on my deafening bike.

I may have lost tons of time on the descents (descending is my riding strength), but I still managed to cross the line in first place out of the women’s field at 11 hours, 55 minutes. I finished thirtieth overall. I was also thrilled to win a pair of DT Swiss wheels at the post-race raffle. Extra wheels—exactly what I could have used during the race!

Many Thanks
Mike Ripley and Mudslinger Events put on a great show, as always, and they raised $3,500 from the inaugural race to help support COTA (Central Oregon Trail Alliance) in future trail construction efforts. Thanks to all for putting on a well-organized event on a challenging course—and thanks to all the other racers who suffered along with me. It was great to play in Oregon’s biggest sandbox with you.

You can read other coverage of the event on cyclingnews.com and singletrack.com.

Until next time—see you on the trail!
Angela + Sobo = :)

Angela Sucich,
Freelance Copywriter
http://www.angelasucich.com/

Voodoo Kids’ Series: Cascade Bicycle Club’s Dirt Camp ‘09

Don’t you wish you had learned to mountain bike when you were kid instead of in your mid-to-late 20’s? I do! By the time I finally learned to ride, I was already somewhat breakable. So when I was asked to be a guest speaker at Cascade Bicycle Club’s Dirt Camp ’09 a few weeks ago, I jumped at the chance to help kids learn and hone the skills I didn’t acquire until a more “mature” age.

Led by instructors Kat and Jay Sweet and two assistant instructors, the CBC Dirt Camp was a week-long play date on two wheels at Saint Edward State Park in Kenmore, Washington. The curriculum included bike handling and survival skills, covering everything from Negotiating Obstacles 101 to Special Topics: Fixing a Flat.

The camp also featured guest speakers, such as trials rider Joel Moreland, who inspired the camp kids with trick riding and general coolness. The kids took Joel’s energy and intrepid spirit to heart as they themselves rallied over ramps, teeters and small jumps. The kids even practiced manuals! You can check out their accomplishments in filmmaker Jay Sweet’s Dirt Camp ‘09 movie.

My task as a guest speaker was to talk about XC and endurance racing. As a Voodoo Cycles rider, I was thrilled to share some of my racing experiences and teach the kids about the equipment, training regimen and racing strategies that are part of those disciplines.

We played a fun game of name-that-racing-accessory: “What’s this? “A tube!” “What’s this?” “A chain-breaker!” “What’s this?” “CO2!” “What’s this?” “Electrolytes!” (Okay, so they didn’t get that one). As it turns out, a couple of them had already jump-started their young racing careers this year at the local Indie Series. Ah, can you imagine how fast those racers are going to be when they’re our age?

All in all, we had a great time together, fixing flats and riding through the park. Then we finished the day with cookies. I tell you, it's good to be a kid again!

Until next time, see you on the trail!

Angela Sucich,

Freelance Copywriter

www.angelasucich.com