Holiday Gift Ideas for Cyclists

Mike and Hubert discuss some of this year's latest and greatest gift ideas for the cyclist in your life. Graciously presented by the folks at Active.com

B+L's Black Friday Sale Starts TODAY

It's time to take a break from the turkey and take this opportunity to stock up and save on all your favorite bikes and gear!*


All 2011 bikes are at least 5% off, with even greater savings on all remaining 2010 and 2009 bikes. 


All clothing is 30% off. 


All accessories are 30% off.


All Garmin, Polar and Niterider items are 10% off.


All non-drivetrain parts (i.e., saddles, stems, bars, tires, and pedals) are 30% off.  


All drivetrain components (i.e., cranks, derailleurs, cassettes, and brakes) are 15% off.

See you this weekend, 

B+L Bikes

*The only items that aren't featured are ZIPP products, and sale pricing is limited to stock on hand.

Danny MacAskill - "Way Back Home" - NEW street trials riding short film

Some amazing riding...err, not amazing...more like...ridiculously amazing.

Specialized Camber Pro – First Ride Review - BikeRadar

Specialized Camber Pro – First Ride Review - BikeRadar

Click the link above to check out what BikeRadar thinks of the 2011 Camber Pro!

Chris Horner WBR Event Recap

Well the Chris Horner meet & greet and dinner event was a huge success and both exceeded everyone's expectations, but it couldn't have happened without the generosity of our generous event sponsors: John Wallace (JW Flooring/Resource Floors), UCCyclery, B+L Bike and Sport, Zipp, Mission Skincare, Cowboy Star Restaurant, Lefty's Chicago Pizzeria, Reynolds, SRAM, SockGuy, San Diego Sports Medicine, Sun Coast Velo (Patrick and Joey were instrumental in making this event happen), The Farmhouse Cafe, SDBC, Karl Strauss, Squadra, Nate Loyal (Loyal Coaching and Fitting), and Cane Creek. Last, but certainly not least, we should thank Katie Bolling, Rebecca Much and Jill Reid for their support of the event from the get-go.

The meet and greet was fun, causal and everyone had a great time chatting with Chris, grabbing goodies and enjoying themselves in support of World Bicycle Relief. The dinner at The Farmhouse Cafe was outstanding; the food was perfect, the company was outstanding and the setting was incredible.


I also don't want to forget to thank our incredible guest, Chris Horner, and to thank each and everyone of the attendees of both events for coming out as a community to support World Bicycle Relief and to make this a truly special event and for being part of the start of a growing and exciting grassroots movement in San Diego.

Both events combined, grossed just over $21,000 for World Bicycle Relief. Which surpassed my own, personal goal of raising $15,000 by the end of 2010. To say that we're happy would be a gross understatement.

In addition to the great time that everyone had, the 11/5 event also got a lot of coverage in the cycling media. Both Neil Shirley (former Kelly Benefits pro, now editor for Road Bike Action Magazine) and Mark Johnson (of Competitor Group/VeloNews) were gracious enough to attend the events and to cover them for their respective publications. Mark Johnson also took some spectacular photos of both events. To read Mark's piece for VeloNews click, here. To read Neil's piece for Road Bike Action magazine click, here.

Thanks again to everyone for their support of the event. We hope that you had a good time and that you'll join us next year for an even bigger event. To keep tabs on what's happening locally with World Bicycle Relief, check out the San Diego Cyclist for World Bicycle Relief's blog by clicking here.

To see Mark Johnson's photos please click, here .

To view photos from the meet and greet, check out our slideshow below:

Thank you again for supporting poverty relief through sustainable mobility!

Ride safe,

B+L Bikes

SBCU...Random Photos

SBCU...Day Three

Sadly, day three of SBCU had finally arrived. Nonetheless, it looked to be another great day in Morgan Hill. The rain had stayed away and that meant that we'd be riding mountain bikes today!

The day began with a series of lectures, led by our SBCU professor John, on Specialized's philosophy pertaining to mountain bike design,suspension technology (i.e., FSR = fully active, fully independent), and suspension set-up basics. Part of the suspension technology lecture was to compare and contrast Specialized's FSR suspension to other systems on the market: single pivot, complex single pivot, and VPP.

In addition we discussed S-Tune, a program offered by Specialized that provides custom valving for your forks and shock. It's a good resource for riders that have a very specific riding style or who may fall outside the bell curve average. We then talked about the Epic (the new 2011 S-Works Epic 29er is a work of art), the Era and the Stumpjumper HT line. After which we covered the Stumpjumper FSR, Safire, Camber and Myka FSR.

Then, a quick lunch and another visit to the bike cage:

After setting up our bikes' suspensions, we got loaded into the van and headed for Santa Teresa Park where we'd explore the Rocky Ridge Trail:

For today's ride, I was going to start the day on this:

Words truly don't do this bike justice; it's exceptional. The XX components are super crisp, and the bike just goes and goes (the carbon wheels don't hurt either!).

The first part of the ride was a switchback climb, followed by a rolling descent, then another fire road climb and a gnarly, rocky descent. My SBCU classmates and I traded off bike throughout the day; after the SWorks HT 29er I rode the Epic 29er and then, for the rocky descent, the SWorks Enduro.

It was great to try out the different bikes, back-to-back, and compare them directly to one another. Even still, I think I'm a hardtail 29er type of rider...for now. Althought it was fun to just roll over everything and anything on the Enduro.

Here are a couple shots from the top of the fire road climb (it topped out next to an electrical tower):

After topping out, we headed down Rocky Ridge and packed up the vans:

Once back in the building, I hopped in the shower and went back into the classroom for a discussion on the Enduro, Pitch, SX Trail, BigHit and Demo.

Rounding out the night was a really interesting presentation by Deacon James, director of recreational and cross country bikes at Specialized. Falling under his direction are the Rockhopper, Crosstrail, Ariel, P.Series (Deacon's an ex-BMXer), Hardrock, MYKA and the children's bike.

I truly enjoyed his talk because of how passionate he was about helping new riders discover the pleasure of cycling, in an affordable way, while giving them a quality product. The drive behind this boiled down to: figure out what people want, what they can afford, and giving them a product of the highest quality, that isn't compromised because of its price point.

A prime example of this is Ned Overend winning the 2010 Single Speed National Championships on a Rockhopper 29er (albeit a modified one, but the frame is just like the one you or I can buy). And that was a key principle throughout Deacon's presentation: the quality and value must be present throughout the entry level bike line, because for many people this is their first (or perhaps only) bike and they deserve a positive experience. And with that, my time at SBCU was over. I'd like to sincerely thank everyone at Specialized, SBCU and B+L for giving me the opportunity to attend. I had a blast.

Thanks for reading,

Hubert