Testing Tucson

I was fortunate to get invited to Test some bikes with Paintrain, LB, Aaron and Jen from Outside mag for a few days this past week down in Tucson. I was only man enough for two days of riding and I now have a lot more respect for product tests like this: they spent 6 days riding 4-5 laps on a set course with almost 60 bikes (road and MTB) with help from out of town friends and Tucson locals to bring some real world info to the magazine readers. After every ride we filled out a form describing our thoughts about the bike and then we set up another bike and rode again on the same course. Bikes had to be arranged, built, maintained, ridden, and photographed. That is a TON of work! And it was mainly done by 3 people. Props to them and their effort. It was great to be a part of it and hang out with these really cool people.

They also let me borrow two bikes to ride before leaving town. I would not have been able to ride either of these anytime soon or possibly ever: Cannondale Scalpel 29 carbon and a Jones Ti w/ fat front. Both of those bike were exceptional and I had a blast on both!!

Look for the article in mid-summer. I took just a few pics and here they are…

 A not uncommon beautiful desert sunset.

 View from staging area.

 Jones. Sick.

 Awesome fast.

 Stable, comfortable and powerful.

 Light and fast! Just have to get used to the fork handling.

 Gratuitous jersey pic.

 Fake shred face.