A lot transpired in the last week or so since the last transmission from planet Blackstone. One half of the shop made the trip "all the way" up to the Redbones Bike Party in Somerville . This event was a blast with a ton of bike minded people of every ilk and vice imaginable making an appearance. It was great to see so many familiar NEMBA folks and a host of others in attendance. The raffle prizes were ridiculous; an ANT bikes complete bike, a $500 gift certificate from Geekhouse bikes , Highland Mountain Bike Park prize packs and a whole lot more. The good folks at Harpoon were there to compliment the super awesome Redbones BBQ . Check out the pics from the event, you might see a few people you know here and there. Consider heading up to this event next year as it is a great time, and it is one of the few events where all kinds of cyclists come together in one spot for a few good causes (Massbike and NEMBA). Now on to the Big River segment of this report... Mike Iafrate...

Yeah, so, we're sorry about this. Not to sound too much like the non-stop cyclocross daydreamer that is Gewilli , but I just took receipt of a new Redline Conquest Pro and I felt compelled to post a few words about it here. I'll try to keep this brief so we can all go back to our regularly scheduled summertime cycling escapades. Simply put this is the nicest 'cross bike someone such as myself should be allowed to ride. One as ill equipped in the fitness department as I am should probably be relegated to singlespeed 'cross bikes (for the convenient poor performance excuses), or really low end bikes that can handle stupid human tricks. That said the first few outings on the Conquest Pro involved plenty of dirt, some mountain biking inspired stupidity and some real random "trails" north of the shop in the vicinity of Cumberland and Manville . The bike comes with some tubeless ready Hutchinson Bulldog 34s that are pretty comfy even with tubes, and they sport...

Yesterday we made the trek down to Arcadia for the annual RI NEMBA Spring Fun Ride. The early wake up call was worth it as Jim G laid out a great loop(s) for all to enjoy. We also had a rare opportunity to ride bikes with the legendary Travsquatch of Thule fame. Try as he might he didn't even manage to break anything on Mike's D660. We rode the first 9 miles and then improvised our own loop at the end finishing with a ripping descent back down to Arcadia Rd. While the 95 trail is not to be missed time constraints led to the unfortunate decision to skip it. We picked up a bunch of RI NEMBA T shirts at the ride, they are for sale for $15 with all the cash going to RI NEMBA. I hear it's so they can buy a big screen TV for their palatial club house... Seriously, they are great shirts and the blaze orange shirt might save you the hassle of not riding somewhere when you arrive at the trailhead and realize that you forgot your blaze orange vest. Buy one and throw it in your tru...

Watch out for nails, eh? Maybe I should ask Mavic to warranty my ancient hard anodized rim... For what it's worth it didn't make it all the way through so it's still rideable. On that note, happy Bike to Work Day kids!

D660's are in stock in both size 17" & 19". These 29ers are the best bang for your buck with how they come spec'd. So come get 'em before they ride on out the door under someone else. If you fit a 19" you're more than welcome to swing by and take my personal D660 out for a spin on the local trails to experience how sweet they ride. Redline really has their 29er geometry nailed across the board. And, not to be forgotten, we do have a D440 in stock as well. Also new in the shop this week is the Redline Device D26 frames. They're not supposed to be out until June but we got a couple early. DJ, street or park... these things are dialed. They sport a 100% post-weld heat-treated Sanko chromoly frame, 100% ED plated and painted for maximum corrosion resistance, a Mid BB and an integrated head tube. They also feature suspension ready geometry that feels just right. Here's my own personal D26 I built up for myself. Yeah... I love it.

The shop was closed and it was beautiful outside today so I opted for another solo ride at the Blue Hills. I rode nearly the same loop from last week backwards and added some trails into the mix before heading up Coon Hollow for the observation tower. Today couldn't have been any more different than last Monday in terms of humidity and temperature. It's amazing how much more fun it is to ride when you can actually breathe! Who knew? I climbed an assload and even broke down and tried out the 22t ring. This almost immediately made my left leg all crampy (probably because I never, ever spin and usually ride a 1x8, or a singlespeed) but I figured out how to use the damn thing anyhow. The new bike was great , lots of fun on the descents and I was digging the all the neat noises it made when oddly shaped rocks slammed into the downtube at speed. Did I mention all the loose rock up there? Speaking of trail obstacles, we have nothing to complain about when it comes to horse poop at Lin...

The 26er singlespeed that is. So many have been quick to announce the demise of this style of bike, but it's not quite ready to be relegated to the annals of MTB history. Case in point, the Surly 1x1 we just built for a customer below. After killing his previous steel hardtail (that shall remain nameless) the Surly was an obvious choice. We think it turned out pretty nicely. We can do the same for your derelict old beater if you'd like. We snuck out to ride the Rocky Mountains again after work yesterday. Here's the only decent picture from the lot. Mike looks like a psycho killer and all but that's just because he's concentratin' real hard. No pics of me as I usually just look like a spaz on whatever it is I'm riding anyways...