Salsa Winter Weekend 2016
At 718 Cyclery, we value our relationship with Salsa Cycles. So, when we had the chance to get Jeremy from Salsa up to Brooklyn for a Bikepacking Class and a Demo Ride, we jumped at the chance.
Bikepacking Class 2/5/16
The weekend started on Friday, with Jeremy hosting a class on bikepacking in the shop. Salsa didn't invent the sport, but they certainly make many bikes and products that promote and support it. You would be hard-pressed to find a bike company more committed to "Adventure" (heck, its in their motto).
Pizza and beer were served, and Jeremy detailed some of his equipment choices and experiences. Many folks who are heading out on our
this Spring and Summer were in attendance. He also showed off his
29+ Bikepacking rig.
Demo Ride 2/6/16
Saturday dawned cold and still at
in Queens, NYC. In addition to the blizzard we had 2 weeks ago, we had additional snow the day before the ride. Working directly with
, it was determined that the conditions would be satisfactory for our Saturday morning ride. We never want any of our rides or events to be destructive to our local trail network.
After staying at a classy hotel near the Belmont Racetrack, Jeremy showed up with the big red Salsa van filled with 22 bikes.
Befitting the season and conditions, the bike roster included
,
,
,
,
a
and a
.
Having the
helps in events like these, as we had a great
turnout to assist Jeremy. We would need it, as a steady stream of riders descended on the registration tent right at our 9:30am open.
Conditions were in the mid-30's at start of the ride, climbing to the low 40's by the time we ended the day. We had 35 riders fill out waivers, and it was estimated that each rider took at least 2 different bikes on a spin around
It's hard to say which bike was the most popular, as all bikes were checked out and ridden. The prevailing thought was the
was the big crowd winner.