Somehow this phrase always brings a smile to my face. I know that I am going to experience great snow, beautiful scenery, killer mountains and a lots of fun. One of the many cool things about my job is I get to travel to awesome places, meet new people, talk about Surly and even ride a bit.
This November, we cooked up the idea to host a demo/party in the mountains of Colorado along with one of our dealers, Salvagetti. Here is the poster Wood created.
It took us a while to get off the ground, but some Bloody Mary’s helped that cause.
We toured some interesting bike shops while visiting with our dealers. Our first stop was at Cycle Analyst and I was amazed by the endless categorized archive of vintage bike parts.
Next stop was Happy Coffee for some kick you in the pants coffee, followed by delicious Sushi at Go Fish then ElDiablo for a couple of Coronas.
From there went to Trve Brewing Company to get supplies for the party. Trevor was amazed and delighted to find it was a heavy metal brewub. It was hard to get him out of there and I was diggin’ the beer. However, another keg was needed for camping so it was on to the Great Divide Brewery, which was a much larger operation but pretty cool in its own right. But what kind of keg should we get? We’ll just have to try them. With another keg tow we were off to Salvagetti to build up the Moonlanders and Krampi we had shipped.
The folks at Salvagetti were kind enough to put us up for the weekend where we sat around the fire and drank whiskey. Next morning we loaded up the bikes, played keep-away with a Knard, got some breakfast and went off to the mountains.
Gotta stop off for some beef Jerky and supplies. "Pardon me sir, do you have any grey poupon?"
We set up the demos and got the standard comments from folks. “Geez those are some big tires!", "Don’t you go slow on those things?”, "Aren't those things heavy?" My standard reply is “ride them." That is what changes people’s minds. There was not one person who wasn’t smiling after thier ride which is extremely rewarding to me. Many of them were surprised how the well Krampus performed on the trail and others had no idea that Moonlander or Pug are much fun to ride.
Then it was time for lunch supplied by Basic Kneads. Yep, a wood fired pizza truck, bikes, camping, and beer= Baaaad Ass! It didn’t even bother me nearly getting shot by on overzealous deer hunter.
We camped out that night and had a great time with all who came to hang out. Whiskey, fire, keg beer and more wood fired pizza. The Pizza oven was in operation all night. Someone even supplled bacon candy. Basic Kneads indeed.
The next morning we had fresh made tortillas, eggs, bacon, and fresh pressed coffee for everyone. Afer getting fixed up right, I finally got to ride later that afternoon. The trails up there are pretty rad for a flatlander like me. The scenery alone made the ride. I did not want to leave but we rounded up everything and I was on the plane the next day.
Thanks to Scott, Maggie, Phillip, everyone at Salvagetti and Basic Kneads for heping us put on a kick ass event. Who knows we could be commin’ to your hood next.
I made a litte slideshow with music from Woodtekr.
See you guys on the water.