Had a very interesting morning yesterday. It all started with a bright-and-early 7 A.M. breakfast with a representative of SRAM (which was super fun to wake up for after the premiere of and party for Kranked 7: The Cackle Factor held Sea Otter in Monterey over the weekend).

One of the great things about this blog is that I get to cover industry news, parts and personal experiences. When it comes down to it, my greatest joy is getting out on the trail, and now I get to share it with the woman that I am going to spend my life with. Things couldn’t be any better.

Some time ago, on our local board we had a “discussion” on the pros and cons of square taper bottom brackets vs. external bearing bottom brackets. The mountain biking crowd has basically split into two camps.

1. Square Taper Devotees
2. External Bearing (X-Type) Riders

In my attempt to populate the world with more mountain bikers, I thought I would start at home! Most of you have probably already seen the thread on Johnny’s girlfriend aka. my future wife’s new bike. Yesterday we got the change to get it dirty for the first time at Blankets Creek in Woodstock, GA. Blankets Creek is probably the best beginner trail that I am aware of.

Fred at Wolfhound Cycles hooked me up with a set of sandblasted and powder coated XT cranks to go on the Terremoto. The black powder coat matches the frame exactly. I really couldn’t have asked for a better crankset for this frame.

I think I have mentioned this before, but from time to time…I am going to post up the blogs that I read on a daily basis. These are some of the ones that I have found that have really caught my interest.

Ok…so here is the story. For awhile now, Jenn (my other half…and the better half) has been wanting to get into riding. As you can imagine…I am all for this, but with the wedding coming up and other expenses, she didn’t think she would be getting a bike any time soon. With the help of Chad at Red Barn Bikes, I surprised her with her first real mountain bike.

I think we have some great things to look forward to over the next year. These releases should make Interbike very interesting. I expect to see even more 650B offerings along with complete lineup changes from the major fork manufacturers.

Overall, the forks look great even if I don’t agree with going to 15mm. Fox has consistently put out high quality products, so we are safe to say these will be as well. It does appear that they are adding more features that the Rock Shox users have gotten used to for several years now.