We felt it was time to visit Tri-City Bicycles in Rochester NH and throw down with all of the Surly hooligans lurking in those New England woods. We're not supposed to play favorites when it comes to our dealers but I've got a soft spot in my heart for Tri-City Bikes and in particular for the owner Mark Traeger. Mark is a huge Surly champion and has brought a lot of his customers over to the dark side. Mark is the kind of guy that calls sometimes just to shoot the shit and brainstorm. Those calls are never short and you never know where they may lead you. All I know is that I'm always in a better place when I get off of the phone with him.
Monday morning Traeger
A demo was in order and as luck would have it Trevor would be out on the East coast with the Demo van packed with bikes, beer and black metal. Plans were made and ideas were hatched. Mark decided to open his beautiful house to us and put us up in the "Cthulhu room" as he calls it. That's where I found Trevor, asleep in a pile of H.P. Lovecraft zines at 4:00 AM. Mark had picked me up at the Boston airport at around midnight, drove me back to his place and introduced me to a fridgerator packed full of some of the best beer I've ever seen. Needless to say we had a couple before calling it a night. Friday "morning" came all too quick. We stubmbled downstairs to the kitchen to find a nice breakfast spread laid out for us and a note saying "see you at the shop", or something like that. A shower was in order.
We grabbed a couple of bikes out of the demo van and headed out to the shop. Mark, with his neighbors permission, built some great single track that went all the way into town. My favorite part was that it was literally all down hill. I was pretty surprised that Trevor actually remembered how to get there.
Mark was way too chipper Friday "morning"
Inside Tri-City Bicycles
Trevor is a nice guy. Really.
Tri-City has a great vibe. To me, this is what a bike shop should be.Throughout the day Friday people were showing up at the shop to talk bikes, have a beer and listen to death metal. I finally got to meet some of the people I've been speaking to and emailing the last couple of years. I'm sure I disappointed them all. Everyone was pretty excited for the bonfire that was happening at Mark's house that evening so when closing time came around people scattered to take of family things and promised to see us later.
We had a fire.
I remember very little from the bonfire. It might of had to do with the lack of sleep combined with a staggering amount of beer or soemthing like that. I do remember thinking that's a shit load of pallets and Christmas trees.
Saturday morning it was off to Bear Brook State Park for the Surly demo and a chance to hit some rocky and rooty NH single track. The weather was perfect and the people were even better. The Krampus seemed to shine here and the Instigator's were constantly checked out. The Karate Monkey was a huge hit as well and a lot of people showed up just to give that a try. Good times were had by everyone.
Dave Mustaine in the house. No, not really.
Mark worked his ass off.
Rambo approves.
Cool dog.
I'd never seen anyone playing cribbage between rides before.
Clark Brothers Racing showed up with a cooler full of
Moat Mountain beer. We drank it. Then we filled it back up with
some Surly Brewing beer. Everyone was happy.
Sunday rolled around a bit too early but we were excited to get going because we were in for a special treat. Cat from Ace Wheel Works in MA was coming up to see us and we going to shoot some guns! Kevin, one of the fore mentioned Surly hooligans, invited us over to his place for a BBQ and fun with firearms. Now, if for some reason firearms upset you it might be time to go because we got a chance to shoot some serious weapons. It's time to get some freedom on!
I was shaking with anticipation.
Trevor blows some shit up.
I Show how it's done.
After cleaning ourselves up we took the Traegers out for dinner to say thank you.
Sissy drink.
Manly oysters.
Mark and his lovely bride Jenny show us how to eat lobster.
All in all I think it was a great trip and I can't wait to see everyone again. We're doing more of these types of trips so if you're a Surly dealer and you have an idea for a event please let us know. We'll need to know about it at least six months in advance. A huge thank you to the Traegers for putting us up. They opened their house to us and we couldn't have asked for a nicer place to stay. Also I'd like to thank Surly Brewing for sending us on our way with a staggering amount of beer.
Keep the rubber side down,
BoB