Posted By chuck_clark on 08/30/2008 11:20 PM
So, I ventured out today to get an item or two for the BCSP ride tomorrow. So, as I ventured from the Mountain Bike Depot on toward all the shops in St. Matthews and lastly to Cycler's Cafe, I found out a very frustrating fact: all bike shop guys like to sleep late on Saturday mornings as none opened earlier than 10. So, I ran a couple of other errands and headed back after 10. One item I was looking for was Dumonde Tech lube. No one had that from all the shops mentioned above. Cycler's used to have it, but they were out. I wasted a lot of gas to see that every one wanted me to buy Finish Line products which I don't like.

I did walk into St. Matthews Schwinn for the first time in quite a while. I was very surprised the place looked nearly empty. Only 1 or 2 of a few items and very few bikes. There were a few customers in there or I would have asked if they were closing. Found out from someone at Cycler's they claim to be staying open although that is hard to believe if you have been in there. It looks like they are trying to do enough business to keep the rent paid till the lease runs out.

After making my way to Cycler's, my last stop, I happened to run into the Lynskey rep from Indiana. He had several nice road frames with quite a bit of manipulated Ti tubing. One actually had the top tup cold worked into a square and then twisted. Looks like you heated up a square tube and twisted 3 complete revolutions. The star of the show for me though, was a fully built Ti hardtail 29er. It had a swoopy top tube that was curved downward for extra clearance for the fellas. No tube appeared to be left alone in terms of retaining a straight and/or round profile. It also had a White Brothers rigid carbon fork, '09 XTR kit, carbon seatpost and plenty of other bling.

Then, lo and behold, I see a Titus Exogrid FS frame with a rear Crank Brother's wheel hanging up. First, exogrid refers to how the ti tube has been cut in a certain pattern and essentially they lay carbon fiber in the cutout. What was interesting was how smooth the transition was between materials. Then the wheels sort of stole the show. Basically, you have an extended nipple spanning 1/2 the distance between the rim and hub. Love to hear how they work, but they sure look need. Makes my I-9s look pretty mundane.

Lastly, I noticed that tri geeks like to ride through eastern Jefferson County before their Ironman. Never seen so many Zipp discs and aerobars in one day.