The elusive Surly Moonlander has found a home at our shop, but it would probably be a whole lot happier out on the trails.  The Bike Doctor has one 18″ Moonlander in stock.

For those of you who are not yet familiar with the Moonlander, here is what the boys at Surly have to say….

Years ago, our Pugsley’s 3.8″ Endomorph tires and 65mm-wide Large Marge rims introduced the cycling world to new riding possibilities. Our big tires, run at low pressures, get you over terrain that is difficult or impossible to ride on a ‘regular’ bike. That original Pugsley tire/rim format certainly changed the game, but there are places and conditions that beg for a larger tire footprint. So, to satisfy our cravings for increased traction action, we introduced the 82mm-wide Rolling Darryl rim. Darryl spreads out the tire more than Marge does, effectively presenting more tread to the trail and adding traction potential. Bigger can be better.

Not wanting to be limited to using the 82mm rim/3.8″ tire combo (the largest recommended for the Pugsley), we decided that it was time to raise the bar and develop higher-volume tires, wider rims and a frame to accommodate them. So, this year, we offer you the Big Fat Larry 4.7″ tire, the 100mm-wide Clown Shoe rim and, of course, the Moonlander frameset. Like all of our framesets, the Moonlander is made of Surly 4130 CroMoly steel. It features 135mm-spaced, 28mm-offset, rear-loading Surly horizontal dropouts (track ends) with a derailleur hanger…meaning you can set it up as a singlespeed or geared bike, derailleured or internally geared. The bottom bracket height gives you clearance for bushwhacking and monster-trucking. The dropped and gusseted top tube maximizes standover height. And the tallish headtube allows you to set your rig up with a comfortable riding position for those long days grinding out miles in the saddle.

Moonlander’s fork measures 447mm axle-to-crown…same as the Pug, so all of our fat forks are interchangeable between the two models. The disc mount allows you to use a front disc brake caliper with a 135mm O.L.D. rear hub…or with a 135mm-spaced Surly front hub. Mid-blade thru-eyelets and lower rack barrels are included for installing fenders and racks. We offer the Moonlander as a frameset and as a complete bike. The complete bike components were chosen for their durability and their suitability to the task at hand. We chose thumbshifters because they allow you to shift even when wearing mittens. To accommodate the Clown Shoe rim/Big Fat Larry tire spec, the frame design pushes the chainline even farther outboard than that of the Pugsley. So we spec’d Moonlander with our new MWOD crank system. The MWOD (Mr. Whirly Offset Double) ditches the big ring and moves the middle and granny ring outboard. The 2 x 9 drivetrain offers the gear ratios most applicable to a bike of this type while avoiding chain/tire interference. Works like a charm.

If you’ve ever wanted a little more float and traction to get you over the hills and through the woods to Grandmother’s House of Ill Repute and Freestyle Taxidermy, consider the Moonlander.

Hi everyone!

I’m writing to you now from a comfortable chair in one of Fredericton’s public libraries where I have less than an hour to attempt to convey what this week has meant for both myself and the team. For the past six days, the Rising Tide team and I have been extremely busy. This past week, we’ve had the opportunity to stay at a lodge in Odell Park, a beautiful green space situated within the city (every morning I’ve had the treat of listening to the songs of crows and chickadees, an appreciated reminder of home). During our stay at Odell lodge, we’ve been getting to know each other, learning about our bikes (“bike love,” as Otesha affectionately refers to bike repairs), thinking about what we want our community standards to be, learning about decision making models (especially consensus, by which we will make most of our decisions as a group), developing our food mandate (which will act as a filter for our purchase and consumption decisions, ie. local, organic, vegetarian/vegan, etc.), learning the workshops that we will be facilitating this summer (such as the life-cycle of a banana, which I learned is actually quite elaborate), not to mention practicing our play, Cycling Through Change! We’ve also been learning about on-the-road safety and thinking about division of labour and group roles, among many other things. Although these learning opportunities have been intense and information-laden, our group has managed to make them more enjoyable through various outbursts of singing and dancing, playing games, and generally being down for anything – I didn’t realize how much fun and stress-relieving it could be to harmonize with people that I considered strangers at the beginning of this week. In terms of community living, it’s something that I haven’t done to this degree for about 5 years, where the last time I had the opportunity to do so was with my participation with Outdoor School in grade 11. In the years that have passed, I’ve seemingly forgotten about but was quickly reminded of both the challenges and joys of intense communal living, such as feeling incredibly connected to other people through a shared common purpose but also feeling like “if I don’t get some alone time soon, I’m going to claw my eyes out!” Indeed, one of many discussions this week on group dynamics and community building have included how to best balance solo and group time, especially when on the road. So, in that regard, this week has been a wonderful re-introduction for me on not only community living, but also interpersonal relationships in general, especially knowing when “me” and “we” need to be aligned or can diverge from one another.

ON A LESS SERIOUS NOTE, this week has been amazing in how many laughs we’ve been able to share together! In the course of a few days, we’ve packed as much fun as intensity into this experience that will continue to sustain us through-out the tour, such as a “Toys R Us entrance” issue (which refers to bringing something completely irrelevant into a conversation or moment, I’ll explain more later), inserting lines from the play into every conversation (even with New Brunswick’s NDP leader), singing said lines in one’s sleep (actually, that was just Benoit), or memories of dressing up as super heros for breakfast (I was the Water Ninja and used my two bike doctor water bottles as nun-chucks). As well, as soon as someone starts to hum the tune of song “Home” by Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros, you can expect at least five other people to join in the singing of the entire song (in case you feel like getting it stuck in your head as well, here’s the link to it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHEOF_rcND8&ob=av2n).

Before I forget to mention it, I’ve been re-introduced to how bodies can sometimes hurt not only in terms of sore muscles (Ow, my butt…Ow, my legs…Ow, in general) but also in terms of how it can hurt to cut your finger open with a bread knife! The story is not as long as it may sound and essentially involved me wanting to have a snack of bread that was so hard to cut and resulted in my lacerating my finger…Nearly 4 hours later, I had 3 stitches and an abundance of gauze. Interestingly enough, my time in hospital waiting room in Ormocto (which is about a 20 minute drive away from Fredericton, whose own hospital apparently has 10 + hour wait times) allowed me to enjoy a nap alongside my events coordinator, Kira. While she napped on my shoulder, I kept my finger in a upright position against her forehead which I’m sure was an odd sight for the other waiting room patrons. To add insult to injury (literally), I fell off my bike and scraped up my bottom yesterday while practicing quick stops and forgetting to clip out in time – oops! Fortunately my bike wasn’t too scratched up and only suffered a slightly bent fender. Other than that, the day went smooth and the team and I enjoyed a 20ish km ride which was almost entirely uphill. Being able to start to biking together as a team and practice our newly enhanced manoeuvring skills was absolutely exhilirating, and only a few of us got lost. Our first performance of our play is this Wednesday at 6:30pm (keep your fingers crossed for us to remember our lines) and the next day, our touring officially begins although we’ll still be in Fredericton staying in a middle school. Things I’m most looking forward to this week? Smoothing out our play, performing the play for an audience, beginning touring, visiting Fredericton’s farmers’ market this Saturday, and being able to absorb this city a little more.

To conclude today’s post, I will leave you with an oft-quoted sentiment by Albert Einstein: “Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving”.

(PS. If you have any questions for me, feel free to post them on the blog or email me at vicj.cowan@gmail.com and I will attempt to get to them for my next post).

Bike wheels and ethical meals,

Victoria

Eleven hours later and my fellow travellers and I have finally made it into the open arms of Fredericton, NB, our first stop on our 7 week cycling tour! In case this is the first you’ve heard of me or The Otesha Project, I’ll give you a quick intro to both. First off, my name is Victoria Cowan and I’m a 20 year old student at the University of Saskatchewan who wanted to do something different with her summer. In terms of what that “different” looks like, I’ve taken the opportunity to connect with The Otesha Project (www.otesha.ca), a nation-wide organization that focuses on mobilizing youth to think about how their daily consumer choices affect the world they live in, especially the environment. For my part, I will be joining 9 other young adults and we will be biking and camping from Fredericton to Halifax, giving environmentally-themed performances to people of all ages. I like to say that we’re cycling actors. Today marks the second day of my journey to begin my journey with Otesha; to say that the day was long is perhaps an overstatement as this is another day that I’ve awoken at 3:30 am, which you can imagine has left me looking my “best.”  Nevertheless, the roadtrip was a wonderful experience and has already compensated and then some for my lack of sleep; my teammate Benoit and his father Pierre shared the task of driving while my other teammate Andrea and I were able to relax in the backseat, snacking, sleeping, and singing to our favorite songs, even at 6 in the morning (Goyte’s “Somebody I Used to Know” comes to mind). The view from the vehicle also made our long travel worthwhile; the scenery, both in terms of the cityscapes and the surrounding natural landscape of Ontario, Quebec, and New Brunswick, was breathtaking – there were many tall trees, rolling hills, and deep valleys punctuated by incredibly blue streams and lakes. I hope that some of my blurry shots taken from the car window will give a sense of the immense beauty of these provinces:

Upon arrival in Fredericton, my comrades and I were treated further by our hosts for the evening, David and Jocelyne, who spoiled us vegans-to-be with lasagna, caesar salad, and apple crumbler – what more could one ask for, really? After dinner, Ben, Andrea, and I went out for a walk around the neighbourhood and had a good conversation about movies, including the Hunger Games series (Otesha-ites love the environment AND popular movies). Fredericton is also incredibly green and clean and, seeing as this is the first of our ten days spent in Fredericton, I am very much looking forward to seeing the rest of this beautiful city, though I hope that we do not have to bike up too many of the hills right off the bat.

Before I forget to mention this, a serious shout-out needs to be given to Dave  at the Bike Doctor who packaged up my Indie for the flight – not only did he box up my bike up for me the day before I left (I tend to do things last minute – oops!), he also expertly packaged my Indie with foam and bubble wrap which allowed it to arrive safely in Ottawa unharmed, which was a true relief for this weary traveller. Thank you, Dave!

Tomorrow marks the first day of our week long training session which includes meeting the rest of our tour members, exploring the parameters of camping, food preparation (David refers to it as the “vegan thing”), tour safety, and, of course, bike care and maintenance. I am incredibly excited for both the beginning of the tour and a full night’s sleep. As I type this, the rest of the crew is relaxing with popcorn and a movie and seeing I have one ear to the television and one ear to the computer, I think it’s about time I join them, not to mention that a couch is looking mighty comfortable at this point in the day (it’s only 9:30 pm here but like I said, it’s been a long day). Thanks for reading; I plan to post again within the next week and will have many exciting things to share with you. I will leave you with a cycling-themed pickup line courtesy of Ben: “Hey, do you need a commuting partner? I’m great in the bike lane.”

Talk to you soon! Peace & bicycle grease!

Victoria

Registration for the Bike Doctor’s 2012 Moe’s Triathlon is now open.  Space is limited, so sign up soon.

The race will take place on Sunday, June 3rd, beginning at 9 a.m.

This year’s race features two distances:
Larry’s Long Course – 500m Swim, 15km bike, 5km run
Curly’s Short Circuit – 300m swim, 9km bike, 2.5km run

Entry fee: 

$45, after May 15th $55

Participants must be 13 or older as of June 3, 2012

Maximum of 230 entries, so sign up early.

World famous Moe’s t-shirts and Patti’s marvelous treats for all!

Registration for this event is now full.  We are however always looking for volunteers to help out.  Give us an email at bikedoctor@bikedoctor.ca if you would like to volunteer for Moe’s this year. 

We are searching for qualified coaches for our new Tri For Life program that will be starting up very soon. Please see below for more information.

Fall 2011 will see the launch of Bike Doctor University. This comes from feedback from our customers who are wanting to learn how to build, fix, and maintain bicycles. We will be offering two levels of training. Novice and Intermediate.

Novice

8 hours of instruction, 2 students per class, 1 instructor

The course will cover how to maintain a bike, select the proper tools, attend to tires and tubes, true wheels, remove and replace cassettes, remove and inspect pedals, inspect a drive train, repair and maintain a chain, maintain, adjust and troubleshoot a derailleur, inspect, maintain and adjust brakes, and adjust seat posts, handlebars and stems. Students should come prepared to take notes.

Dates:

Session 1 Mondays 4-6pm November 21, 28, December 4, 6, 2011

Session 2 Thursdays 6-8pm November 24, December 1, 8, 15, 2011

Session 3 Fridays 1-3pm November 25, December 2, 9, 16, 2011

Session 4 Mondays 10am-12pm January 9, 16, 23, 30, 2012

Session 5 Mondays 1-3pm January 9, 16, 23, 30, 2012

Space is limited to two students per class, and you may only attend the classes in which you are registered. Cost: $250 including taxes, shop apron and Park Tool’s Big Blue Book of Bicycle Repair.

Intermediate

12 hours of instruction, 2 students per class, 1 instructor

This course will cover cable replacement, part replacement, hub assembly and replacement, wheel truing and spoke replacement, crank service and replacement, and bottom bracket inspection. Students should come prepared to take notes.

Dates:

Session 1 Fridays 10am-12pm January 13, 20, 27, February 10, 17, 24, 2012

Session 2 Fridays 1-3pm January 13, 20, 27, February 10, 17, 24, 2012

Space is limited to two students per class, and you may only attend the classes in which you are registered.

Cost: $325 including taxes

While you are enrolled at Bike Doctor University you also have the opportunity to purchase select tools at a substantial discount.

Here are some of the deals that will be made available to you:

Park Tool Home Mechanic Starter Kit SK-1

Regular Price $124.95

Student Price $105.95

Park Tool Advanced Mechanic Tool Kit AK-37

Regular Price $399.95

Student Price $319.95

Park Tool Professional Wheel Truing Stand TS-2.2

Regular Price $359.95

Student Price $287.95

Feedback Pro Classic Repair Stand

Regular Price $309.95

Student Price $247.95

Park Tool 4th Hand Tool BT-2

Regular Price $59.95

Student Price $50.95

Park Tool Three Way Socket Wrench ST-3

Regular Price $16.95

Student Price $13.95

Park Metric Wrench Set MW-SET

Regular Price $82.95

Student Price $70.95

Park Tool Side Cutters SP-7

Regular Price $29.95

Student Price $25.95

Park Tool 12” Adjustable Wrench

Regular Price $39.95

Student Price $33.95

It seems in between selling bikes and keeping the store fresh that our web page sometimes lacks the updating that it needs. Do not fret, we are working on something new to be launched later this Winter. But in the mean time you should be checking out our Facebook page. We update it almost daily and have some crazy specials that are only posted there.

Become a “fan” or “like” us, or do what ever the kids these days do…

The Take It Easy Sale is here!!!!! We rarely do a sale of this nature in the peak of the season, so come in and take advantage of these deals. Sale ends July24, and only while quantities last.

Ever wonder what kind of bikes our staff ride? Yeah I though you did. Here is the first installment of our staff bike profiles.

Stephen Cooley has been working at The Bike Doctor for years, but has higher aspirations. When he is not working at the shop, or reading Pynchon, he might be found riding his 2010 Norco Faze SL. Although it may not be visible in the photo, Stephen got rid of the XTR shifters on the bike and replaced them with Grip Shift. Weird to say the least.

A.  Pedal Platform Fit

Pedal-Shoe-Cleat Interface Analysis

$50 Plus Wedges And Spacers

(Provides A Solid Platform For Pedaling Efficiently And Comfortably. Best Done On Your Bike)

B.  Future Bike Fit

Fit Test

Pedal-Shoe-Cleat Interface Analysis

Fit Machine With Motion Capture

$150 Includes Wedges, But Not Spacers

(This Provides Data For The Purchase And Set Up Of A New Bike)

$100 credit toward the purchase of a new bike from the Bike Doctor

C.  Existing Bike Fit

Fit Test

Pedal-Shoe-Cleat Interface Analysis

Bike Set Up On Your Bike With Motion Capture

$150 Includes Wedges, But Not Spacers

(Optimizes Your Fit To Your Existing Bike)

D. Ultimate Bike Fit

Fit Test

Pedal-Shoe-Cleat Interface Analysis

Fit Machine With Motion Capture

Your Bike Set Up

$250 Includes Wedges, But Not Spacers

(The Ultimate Bike Fit)