Shenandoah Bicycle Company

 Winter in the bike shop means projects for team SBC.  First on our list of changes was moving the register to a more central location in the store.  Part of the new counter space is an electronic register which we are working to get up to speed now. When we lifted the counter from its old location we found 11 years of bike shop detritus: pens, razors, old receipts, inner tubes, a pair of pedals, lots of change and more all perfectly outlining the counters footprint! here is how the old counter zone looks  now,  full of fixed gears! skinny jeans rejoice

The skies opened up on Friday and Saturday as the snow fell for almost a 24 hour period. The shop was closed on Saturday as downtown was mostly deserted, except for those with cross country skis. All day Saturday you could ski the paved roads of Harrisonburg including main st, Cantrell, Mason and Chicago. It was a nice change to see people on skis or on foot taking over the roads from cars. The occasional car was forced to drive slow and carefully unlike when the streets are clear and wide. Ski tracks were set in Hillandale, Rock garden and the Arboretum but the real treat has been skiing the SVBC built trails over at Massanutten. The Upper Ravine and lower Ravine are particularity fun and exciting with many grade reversals and banked turns. The shop is all clear of snow and as you can see from the picture, Thomas made sure to shovel out the bike rack on main st (despite the snowplow's efforts to thwart bicycle parking). Jeremiah, Andy and Kyle got their picture taken as they sk

If you ever find yourself south of here in Asheville North Carolina make sure that you stop by Industry Nine and take a brief tour of the factory. I-9 is a small company with only 8 employees, one of who use to work here at SBC. Their wheels are 100% made in their Asheville, NC facility. They outsource rims and bearings…that’s it. Now you can even get an I-9 rim on your wheelset (as pictured) or most other rims of your choice. They make beautiful wheels with aluminum spokes and without nipples. The aluminum spokes are super large, drop into the rim, and thread directly into the hub. So that there is much less wiggle than on a normal wheel. Flats are machined into the spokes so that you can true the wheel like any other wheel. They have some of the best engagement of any wheel, 3-degree engagement ensures that you can ride all your favorite rock lines. Anyhow we are a dealer so if you get the itch come on down. Wheels are available with multiple colors of hubs and spokes.

Free Grassroots racing was in top form this fall cross season with the second installment of the Blue Ridge Cyclocross Cup . A local series between Staunton, Harrisonburg, and Charlotesville, saw 2 races in each town spaced out across the fall riding season. Every other Tuesday afternoon a race was held in one of the towns. Points were awarded not only for the top 10 positions but also for new riders, number of spectators and participation. The races in Harrisonburg saw 40-60 people turn out for each event, an amazing turnout for such a small local race series. Each race was at a different venue, in town we used Westover for the first race and Ralph Sampson park (in the dark) for the second. Fooftown and Rocktown battled it out for points the entire series but a weak showing but the Foof led to a Rocktown landslide bashing at the last race of the year. Look forward to an even bigger series next year.

IBEX Merino Wool , not the scratchy itchy wool that your grandmother's sweater is made out of. Instead imagine silky smooth, soft, warm, and insulating even when damp or wet. Once you try on IBEX products you won't want to every put your "plastic" cycling clothes back on. Some of our most popular products this time of year have been the new IBEX 3/4 Bib knickers, come by the shop and check them out. We can order ANY products you see from the IBEX website and we can match any of the Sales IBEX has on their site and have it delivered to the bike shop with free shipping.

The Right side bar of this blog will now serve as the temporary mini-online SBC store so that you can purchase SBC products online through pay pal. Simply click on the add to cart button on the right side of the screen and then use your preexisting pay pal account or, if you do not yet have one, make a new account. If you click on the description of the item it will link you to a picture of the item on our picassa site. Now you can feed the itch and purchase SBC products at all hours of the night and they will ship the next day. No more sleepless nights wondering what you will do without that soft, warm, and stylish SBC wool IBEX jersey.

Sambazon Acai Berry products are now available at SBC. We have a tiny fridge next to the register packed full of Acai energy drinks just waiting to satisfy your energy needs. There has been a lot of talk lately of Acai berry products and many companies are selling some sort of Acai blend. Sambazon is a unique company that is committed to sustainable development, preserving the rain forest, and promoting economic development for local indigenous people in the Brazilian rain forest.

Here at SBC we are finally jumping on the bandwagon, joining all the other cool kids at the lunch table and creating a Facebook page, this blog and even a twitter account. Our goal is to leave the shop homepage www.shenandoahbicycle.com largely unchanged. Everyone still wants to check Thomas' updates as to what is going on in the community and the shop. These other sources will help us share with everyone what all of us here at the shop are doing from rides to trips. We will also be able to share any new products with everyone that you may or may not have seen while poking around the shop.