G-Haus

Welcome Geekhouse to our offering of handmade works of art to be ridden. We are proudly representing the brand from Marty Walsh in Central Europe and will have two of his beautiful frames on hand in the near future.

Come check out the Geekhouse line at the Berliner Fahrrad Schau 06.-07.03.2010 or drop us line for more info.

Spring in the SW

About this time back in my past life in Colorado, while full in nordic/ winter sport stride, thoughts began to drift from the trainer towards the warmth of the desert. Fruita, Moab and Cortez offered up some great early season riding and some tanning time for those pale legs. Here is a sampling of that riding poached of my old friend and coffee junkie Jason Grove of ElCamino Fab MySpace page... I belive this was shot near the OTE Sports shop in Hurricane UT.


Flight of Icaraus

El Camino Fab | MySpace Video

IFBRT

2010 IF Biciclista Racing Team

Skate Night

Lead group under the lights in Schwangau

Sandi & I decided to jump into the 2 annaul Skate Night, a night skate skiing race on the lighted loop in Schwangau, at the base of the famous Neuschwanstein Castle. The local sport club puts it on as a fundraiser for local charity, donating 1 EUR per lap from each participant who try turn as many as they can in one hour. This year's edition drew out 122 skiers from ultra-fast to the average hobby skier.

With our first ski-marathon just two weeks out, this would be a great tune up for that along with being a good time racing at night. The 1.5km loop starts off flat for about 100m before going up for short bit and then dropping down into the valley. A ninety-degree bend at speed at the bottom of the first descent has you dancing the skis around the apex and pushing you back to the outside of the track, milking the speed on the next short rise before dropping all the way down into the valley. Through the flats there are some small rises and rollers as you wind around the valley back towards the start/ finish area. A long climb with a a steep section at the end is the last bit on the lap before leveling off and heading back into the start/ finish chute.

The tempo started out easy enough, I was sloughing off not too be out front at the start, but suddenly the pack started to swallow me from behind, so throttling it it I started to try to move up before the first descent and be in a good spot for the fast sharp first corner. Tucked in around eighth, I drafted the first half a lap comfortably, but then daylight started to open a few skiers ahead, and not wanting to be left behind, I jumped out of line and bridged up. We hit the final climb for the first time, it quickly sorted out the contenders from the pretenders, and people were quickly shelled. I made it over the top in fifth and in contact with the lead group.

Things stayed this way for the next couple of laps, before some attacks went off the front. A group of three went, and I was not closing this one. Rather was settled into my pace and would wait and see if they would come back to us. A couple of laps later, one of the three did come back, and we formed a group of three in the chase group with the two about :30sec up on us.

We were making good pace lap after lap, I would pull on the climbs and one other guy pulled on the flats, the third I honestly don't think he could do much and was just hanging on. The climbs was becoming more and more difficult to navigate with the back markers clogging up the lines, and with two to go one moved over right into my line, hanging me up long enough the other two got away. The chase was on. The next two laps I was drilling it to get back on, and I made it at the base of the final climb before the finish sprint. I knew if I wanted 3rd, i had to go and not wait to recover, because there was not going to be enough time. So I tried blowing by them but they both sat right on my heels and went back by at the top.

I would come in 5th, which was awesome for me. I skied exactly how I planned to, up front all race and finished in the top five as I had wished. It was also a super result considering the level of skiers there, former Olympians and National skiers. Best of all it was a fun course, tactical race and some great racing. At the end my HRM read avg = 176 max = 190.

Next weekend - Ski Trail 55k Marathon...

New and improved!

We are live with the new and improved www.ifbikes.de site. Check it out, take it for a spin and tell us what you think.

Enjoy the ride!

things to come...

Ti Deluxe 29er XC race machine for 2010

2010

Another year, a new decade and we continue down the road where it leads no one knows. We had a great time during the holidays, some biking, some skiing and lots of playing. We try to tune Colin in to the European and American cultures and traditions which can be a challenge. But he takes it all in stride and does well with all of the activities and ongoings. He wished for a bike this year with no influence from me...but then again I am not surprised because that is what mommy and daddy do - a lot! But I have to admit there was a bit of pride when he would answer the all to often question "what did you wish for Christmas Colin?" An immediate, firm answer was "a bike." He got his wish, a Laufrad (walking bike) and he has been cruising our apartment since. Can't wait to get him outside this spring.

But I want to ride outside

ifbikes.de had a great year in 2009 and we are off to a great start in 2010. Lots of really cool bikes in the system right now and some sick builds happening around here. This Crown Jewel we are doing for Alek almost makes me want a road bike...almost. If I would, it would be something like this though for sure, absolutely gorgeous!

Alex's Crown Jewel

details...

More details



Mmmm - paint



LaMarzocco will be giving us a sweet espresso machine for events in 2010, we will use it at special dealer and larger events and festivals. We are getting the Linea which is a Barista's dream. Add to that we will have some of our own coffee roasted for us by Speicherstadt, we will have some great espresso and brews for IF fans this year!

Linea - a handmade, stainless steel work of art that happens to pull some of the best shots.

Final touches are going on our website and 2010 Team kit, we will be stylin' for sure this year!

Wish everyone the best in 2010, may it be a peaceful, prosperous and joyful one for all. See you on the trails!

Seasons Greetings

I ♥ Italians

Andrea doing some skinsuit testing for Biciclista


you have to love the land that brought us espresso, grappa and the vespa... Italians above all are passionate, every experience I have had with people from the country shaped like a boot has been a memorable one (sometimes I wish I could forget...). Since Gardasee this eyar I have found some new friends south of Austria who are a passionate bunch of single speeding hooligans. In envy I have followed their antics from a far, as they bolg their exploits on LosLobos. Lead by SS-Mafia kingpin Stefano Spedini (whom I affectionately refer to Speedo) who also runs Biciclista, a sweet small manufacture of some of the most original bad ass cyclingwear you will lay your eyes on. They happen also to be our team clothing supplier for 2010.

Andrea Compri and Luca Bassi have recently joined the ranks of ifbikes.de customers, both taking bitchin' 29ers to race/ ride on next season. Andrea went with a sweet rigid 29er single speed steel Deluxe with IF rigid fork, while Luca went with a Ti 29 Deluxe corrected for 80mm - a cross country speed weapon! Speedo has a Planet X thus far, we will have to see about getting him a limited edition Bicilista Deluxe 29er next year...

Others on the team include our good friend out of France David Guillot is also in the mix with a sick rigid steel 29er, can't wait to see his paint!

A new 29er for one lucky Mr. Wenzel

Add Wolfgang Seyfried, Jochen Schäffler, Sandi and myself to the mix, and you have a pretty diverse sick team! We will be killing it at events around Europe next year with some killer Apres event parties... Look out Gardasee, we are coming and will be taking over the place.

skid marks

coffee ride

Chris Sheppard coined the phrase in one of his training articles that appeared in Mountain Bike Magazine. A coffee ride is when you go for an easy spin around some local trails and end up at a local coffee shop/ café for a good cup of joe. My old buddy DG used to pull this one back in the day when I lived in Germany the first time around, but instead of a café it was a gas station and instead of coffee it was red Bull...



Now serving a delectable variety of delicious singletrack.

After two harder days this week, the legs were asking for something on the lighter side, but the grey matter wanted something fun, besides we have been enjoying super late fall weather via the "fern". Fern is German for hairdryer or warm wind, and that is exactly what we have. The warm air comes pouring over the Alps from Italy making for sunny warm days, we had nearly 70F today!

Would you like another serving?

On the riding menu today was the locals loop which includes a spin out to the Alatsee, climb up to the Kolberweg, a sweet techy single track, and back into Füssen. I ended up making two rounds as I thought I had lost some money on the trail, but instead of stuffing it into my rear pocket, it ended up somewhere down my bibs...

Eine tasse Espresso, yummy

Back in town I rolled the Fußgangerzone in the Altstadt over the cobbles. Füssen is actually a very scenic old town surrounded by spectacular castles and town wall. We are looking forward to the Advent Zeit (Christmas time and markets) here and they have already put up the Weihnachtsbaum.

29er squeezed in at the café

The rest of the week and weekend should be this nice as well. Darn it, I guess I will have to keep on riding...

Füssen Altstadt loking up toward the Schloß. Notice the Christmas tree is up already, top left corner of the picture?

Trick Teil

Ralph Berner(former top MTB World Cup racer) and his brother Timo have made a name for themselves in cyclocross here in Germany both through racing and product design. They design and offer carbon cross frames, but also have an interesting line of side products in addition. Some of these products include aftermarket carbon pulley cages for derailuers that they will install, and even have an 'areo' version for the road. They also have cross brakes, touted as the lightest on the market, but one of the neat little trinkets I found was this carbon cable hangar.

the Berner Cable Hangar neatly goes between your spacer stack and headset

What is cool about this part is not that it is carbon, but rather how it works. The carbon plate flexes under braking aiding in preventing fork stutter, you know that sometimes violent shudder under heavy braking? One German magazine tested the hangar and reported that it increases braking power. While I believ with properly tuned brakes you can have both power and no fork-shudder, this is still a neat little part. It is light weight and looks trick.

Cable goes into a stainless steel cable stop.


More info available at: http://berner-bikes.com/

somewhere in between

still chasing the dream
I used to have a saying in my profile on this blog, it read something like "If you write it down, post it on the wall and read it everyday, it will come true," it is something I really believe in. Self-confidence can go along ways, sometimes all the way, in making the difference. There were poinent times in my life where I was sure of myself and my abilities, at those moments little if anything could have stopped me accomplishing my goals. That goes for all facets of my life, not just racing.

The writing is on the wall and I am already on my way along my next journey to the top.

Karlsruhe City Cross

if there were ever 'ideal' cross weather, that is what the conditions were today in Karlsruhe. Cold, damp so moist air that you could almost cut it with a knife, with weeks worth of precipitation softening up the ground. The venue was awesome with a big hill in the middle where one could spectate the whole race from the single vantage point. The course had power sections, up and down and many other varibles with little place to rest. The sand pit was some of the deepest heaviest sand I have ever encountered, wreaking havoc on many.

After a way cool ride on trails with Big Wheel brothers Michael and Justin in the Pfalz the day before, we met up with Basti, Holger and some others for 40 mins of doing circles on grass. I pre-rode with Holger and I have to say his techniques for 'surfing' his singloe fixed cross bike was very impressive - too bad there were no points for style, Holger would have won with those skids and white Sidi's...

Not sure what to expect from the 30+ field, Justin and myself took up spots in the 2nd row. Waiting for your typical sprint at the start, the slow roll off took me be surprise, so I quickly nabbed the hole-shot and ran with it. Not punching too hard, I still strung the field out and quickly made a selection of three riders off the front.

But it felt like I was missing just a tick of speed and could not quite dig in all the way. So one slipped by and rode away. My brakes sucked and I rode timid to put it nicely on the descents, kind of bummed I did not go for it more in the early going. As the race progressed so did my confidence, able later in the going to take faster more aggressive lines.

The third guy wanted my spot, and even took it for half of a lap, but a bobble in the sand trap and I had it back and from there opened the gap. Late in the race I caught Michael to put him down a lap, but he slugged it out. His converted road Schwinn Paramount looked pretty cool, but probably was serving him well on the very slick, steep off-camber sections doted around the course.

A mechanical took Holger out, or so he claims... Justin wasn't that far behind me in the end, something like 6th or 8th. Good race, lots of fun. It will be one we come back to for sure. Next weekend: Rosenheim.

not yet

we drove up from Bayern today to the Pfalz, the weather is pretty much late fall all across the fatherland right now...cold and wt! We had snow back in our forecast the last few days but still had some great rides in Hopfen.

Sandi & I spun around the villages around her hometown, sandstone famrhouses with red ivy pitted against a grey skyed backdrop provided some cool scenes during our ride. Looking forward to FINALLY racing again, seems like ages since Oberstdorf... Normally this time in the season we have quite a few CX races in the skinsuits and are thinking of off season. This year it seems I am just getting going and the party is already over... Still, we will get our licks in and then get on the nordic skis for some solid off-season training and prep for 2010. We have a very cool group forming for the IF Euro Grassroots program - stay tuned!

the downward swing

these are beautiful days, deep into autumn, thinking about winter (sounds like who cannot think about with all of the early snow around the globe everyone is talking about...). Football (both the round and oblongkind) and cyclocross are in the meaty part of the season - I still have yet to race, but in training I am a champion... Next weekend we get to drill ourselves, and I even conned some unsuspecting cyclists to join me in an hour of pain worship to the grass gods - good times. IF vs. Fixie Inc is the billing, I have carved Holger's name into my EDGE carbon bar and I look forward to taking him to the ropes on his disc-brake, single speed, fixed geared Pure Blood. Sorry Holger - but this ain't bike polo. I still want to see him bunny hop that bad boy.

We live in Füssen which fortunate for us happens to be one of the more beautiful spots on the face of the planet. here are some pics:








Overtime I have built up a tasty selection of gnarly technical singletrails, fast forest road, back-woods cyclocross and high alpine rides to select from - and we haven't even scratched the riding potential surface yet.

I have the craving for slow food as of late and have been experimenting in the kitchen, homemade Pumpkin Raviolis were my last creation, next up, sweet potato/ apple soup.

Sandi pulled her Pro license from the BDR, she's rolling in the big leagues again, lok out Fraulein!

Anyone up form some cross and beers next weekend?

speed of life

Life blurring by

Memorable quote from Ferris Bueller's Day Off

Ferris: Life moves pretty fast. You don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.

Profound but true. My struggle is to stay grounded, in the moment and it is hard sometimes. My awareness that the days, weeks and years are just reeling off has been compounded by the existence of Colin in my life. He is visual proof we are not getting any younger. He also grounds me, I love every minute with him and it is a refreshing view to see the world through his eyes. There is so much I want to do and share with the little man. Not too mention his own experiences he needs to make.





Year 2 for ifbikes.de is winding down, but there is no sign of slowing down. My dream was always to combine a passion of mine with work and the sum of that is taking the plunge off the deep end not only as a entrepenuer, but in a foreign land. It has had its challenges, but anything worth while does. If it were easy...




We broke away from our daily routine (not that there is anything routine about them) ato take in the fall colors with Colin, gather some leaves and buckeyes, and to stop and look around - sure was beautiful.


Colin and me

Garmisch

The C-Man and me
Me leadingthem through the wiesen
Sandi post race w/ splatter
Back in the day, Garmisch was the highlight of sorts of the season, but then again I hadn't been exposed to Colorado racing yet... But none the less, I was looking forward to this one, racing on some old turf in perfect conditions, wet, cold and sloppy. Like in the old days, there were some fast Germans on hand led by Marathon maverick Andi Stroebl. The field was about 50/50 with US military guys towing the line with some ueber-trained locals, and like in years past, local nation was out front quick. Vying for Andi's wheel were myself and about five others, a little twist of the throttle on my behalf and I had his wheel and the line. Andi and his Teammate led out the first lap and would slowly pull away throughout the race, we were left fighting for the scrpas and podiums. After a bobble from Justin Pocca, Big Wheel team rider, I had a grip on third for the middle sector of the race, leaving Justin to fight off some locals. But in the latter, one guy picked me up and dropped me, while Justin was quickly reversing his deficit to me. With one to go I kept the gas on just enought to keep Justin at bay and preserve my fourth overall and second in the Masters (first American and 29er - right Justin ;P). This was a fun course, no difficult and more like a cyclocross including two run-ups per lap...hopefully Rapha will send my cross bike soon so i can break here in.

Sandi took over on riding duties on Sunday, piloting her way into the mtb marathon scene over here by doing the Oberammergau Mountainbike Marathon. There is a complete seris on along the Alps that inlcudes an early season stop in Grand Canaria for all of the ueber-athletes. Riding the middle distance, there was still over 50km and 1600hm on the menu for here and some fast chicas. Sandi rode quickly to the front at the start opening what would be over a 5 min lead by mid-way. But she would be denied after fading in the latter half, barely getting nipped out for the overall buy a mere two minutes, and would have to settle for second. Still estactic as she should be, she was stoked to be racing and was all smiles afterwards. That was until the totally f-ed up the results leaving us to protest and straighten out the results. which they did fix but here is the kicker, we had to go to the start finish to get things sorted, and then walk 5 min back to the awards and when we got back, they had already done hers. Then the organizers tried to give her a cheap jacket as the prize when in reality she had won money! Fortunately we got that fixed as well.

We were both stoked to be racing once again and are looking forward to more, up next for me is the Oberstdorf Marathon on the 26th and then Sandi is competing in our own Crossduathlon (www.crossracer.eu) on the 04, Oktober.

EuroBike

Eurobike Award
some sick custom IF Dugasts
slick cable hanger from Berner Bikes, it is suppose to stop fork chatter from braking
Joe's 'Tune'ed out Ti Deluxe



Another year, another EuroBike, well almost... This EB for us was awesome. Thanks to economic stimulus from EDGE and IF we ended up in a sweet booth in one of the first halls at the show, the only downer was we were not in the official guide. The booth features two freshly minted Corvid's courtesy of Kevin at IF and Kevin from EDGE. My newly dressed SSX and Joe's Ti Deluxe (which was the real draw adorned in Tune bits - German's like that sort of thing...) rounded out our custom bike palette. The icing on the cake was my, I mean er, Michael's SSR out front at the main entrance as part of the EuroBike Award display having taken home the award for "Best Frame".

Too much happened during the show to comb through it all here, but our booth had all of the major media roll though, bikes went all sorts of directions following the show for photo shoots and articles and there are a few more on the horizon. Beside EDGE and IF, we had Rapha in out booth, not too mention some sweet Fixed shirts complete with IF embroidery. Many players rolled through for meetings and visits, FOX, Rapha, Roleur, Dugast and so on... We also had the pleasure of dining with Rob V from Seven and Bob Parlee and many more industry insiders.

The Leipzig crew was once again in full force, Gerolf and Co. kept us company on serveral occasions and we had the chance to make some plans for 2010. While I did not get to see much of the show myself with meetings all of the time I did get to see a few goodies along the way.

We are still playing catch up from the show, but we can say it was a success on all fronts. Just a little more follow up and we will be ready for some cross racing! MTB race this weekend in Garmisch for me and a marathon for Sandi in Oberammergau on Sunday.

EB Preview

Eurobike for us is the biggest show in Europe, a great opportunity make contact with dealers and consumers while gaining all important media coverage. One has to have a nice stand that is a bit creative and stylish to stand out. I don't even want to begin to calculate what the big guys spend on their booths - you could probably wipe out some small third world countries debt...

IF is teaming up with EDGE (which if you know our history there is a bit of irony there) and I am bringing not just the bikes but the 'display furniture' for our stand. Luckily for us we have an awesome friend who is a master woodworker who had built us a stand already for EHBE. Some additions and tweaks, and we will have a sharp stand for EuroBike.

First off on Tuesday is DemoDay, we are teaming up with Connex, makers of some of the finest chains in the industry, where people will have chance to throw a leg over one of our two 29ers or 2 26ers on hand. All bikes are outfitted with EDGE wheels and top kits from FOX, Shimano, SRAM, Thomson, Chris King among other shiny bits. We are building our demo fleet up so that people can try it before they buy it. I was even thinking of providing demo bikes for races next season...

Handcrafted beverages for your enjoyment (if you are so lucky...)

You have to be creative to stand out, and it doesn't always have to cost you a fortune to do that, sometimes sweat equity is enough. If you read this blog on a semi-regular basis (it's not that I post regularly...)than you know I like to make my own schnapps (brandy). Last year we made a small batch of apple and our favorite graphic artist Marco P who designed our new logos made us some sweet brown-paper bag looking labels for the schnapps. We will give these out to soem customers, dealers, media and industry types. Did I tell you how good it is, amazing! The good news is that Sandi & I have already gathered Maribellen (they are like a cherry but more yellowish), and will be doing Plum and another batch of apple as well this year - yummy! I figure the schnapps will be a great gift and someone in the media will pick up on it.

nicht nur "white sex", aber IF-sexiness dazu.

Stunning bikes is another sure fire way to get noticed, which is not too difficult with a brand like IF. Toss some EDGE parts on there and you have show stoppers. But sometimes you have to go extra measures, thus I give you ltd edition ifbikes.de Dugast tires. These white babies would make even Greg lust to be on one of our ferrous beauties. These will be glued up on my SSX just back from the painters and will go on a Rapha shoot in Sweden following the show (now if only the owner could go with...)

Green with envy

hard to tell in these photos, but the IF crown logo on the seattube is out new suds crown logo, we will do lots of pics at the show. If that all were not enough to garner us the spotlight, then walking up on stage to accept the 2009 EuroBike Gold Award for Best Frame surely ought to do the trick. Joe and I will accept the award in the evening on the 2nd for our incredible SSR we did for Wiesmann that is in the current issue of RennRad.

It's Hammer Time!

Not that this has anything to do with EuroBike (wouldn't it be sweet to see LA cruising the halls of the show in these pants!), but it is good stuff none the less. I could opt for your standard "Does MC Hammer know you were in his closet?" joke, but I mean come on! Seriously?!? What fashion malfunction occured to make LA adorn a podium in these? Maybe he forgot his pants and these are his girlfriends maternity clothes...

See you at the show!