Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Winter Update

We've got a Med in this color...
Winter is nigh upon us at Europa Cycle and Ski, and we have some updates concerning winter stuff for ya'all.

...plus this Large Beargrease....
XC skis are in along with boots, bindings,  and poles. Come in and check out the stuff and get ready for the XC skiing season. Plus, we just got in a shipment of Easton snow shoes for those who would like to enjoy walking through the woods in that way. Snow shoes and XC skies are also available for rent. just give the shop a call for details.

Trek and Raleigh 2013 bikes grace the floor. We've sold a few Trek Domanes already, and again I will say it- this is going to be the hot road rocket sled for 2013. I am betting these will sell through quickly, so come on in and check out these comfortable yet fast road machines.

Raleigh sent us a cool commuter rig that features a Nexus internal 8spd hub and a Patterson 2 speed crank set. So.......what does that mean? It means sixteen speeds of goodness without a single derailleur, that's what it means. You have an internally geared hub mated to an internally geared crank set. one big, meaty single speed type chain, and two cogs. That's it! Plus it is easy to shift. Come on in and check it out soon.

...and we have tires!
We've been seeing a lot of interest in the fat bikes too. We have already sold some, a few sets of tires, and we would love to get some more bikes and tires out there as well. Check out our Muk 3, Beargrease, or our special Muk 2 frame/fork for your own customized build. We also have a set of 120TPI Nate tires, a couple sets of Big Fat Larry tires, and more cold weather cycling gear as well.

Finally, there is some planning to have a Film Night at Europa. We are planning to show two short films. One will be a film by Salsa Cycles called "So far To Go" which is a film about a couple of guys that did the Tour Divide and how they managed that. We'll also show the film "300 Miles Of Gravel", which is a documentary on Trans Iowa V7. This film recently won an Emmy in the Chicago Region for Best Sports Programming: One Time Event. Come and see a rare public showing of this flick and find out more about Trans Iowa, and about Tour Divide.

More details on the Film Night soon.

Friday, November 16, 2012

Greased Lightning! Salsa Cycles Beargrease

Large sized Beargrease
Europa Cycle and Ski now has in stock a Beargrease in size Large. This is Salsa Cycles premier fat bike offering for 2013.

The Beargrease differs significantly from Salsa's other fat bikes- the Mukluks. For instance, the Beargrease features a hydroformed aluminum frame with main tubes borrowed from Salsa's XC hard tail weapon, the Mamasita. A tapered head tube holds a Beargrease fork, which is a tapered, 1 1/8th- 1 1/2" steer tube aluminum constructed fork. This fork does not feature the braze ons seen on Salsa's Enabler fork used on the Mukluk. The Beargrease fork is also anodized to save even more weight. In fact, the uncut fork with a crown race mounted weighed 760 grams for this bike. Pretty awesome.

The frame is also anodized, again saving weight over a painted frame. The frame does not feature rack braze ons, but it does have two water bottle mounting positions, one on the down tube, one on the seat tube.

The components are worthy of such a light, high tech frame. SRAM provides the derailleurs, shifters, and Avid Elixir hydraulic brakes with a 160mm frt and 140mm rear rotor. The crank set is a special, exclusive to Salsa Cycles model from e-13 which has a fat bike optimized chain line and improved seals on the outboard bearing cups. Husker Du 26 X 4.0 tires are mounted on specially colored Rolling Darryl rims with cut outs for lightening the ride even further. Salsa stem, seat post, and a WTB saddle with some Salsa lock on grips steering a Salsa bar round out the components here.

The Beargrease isn't a cheap bike, but it is the lightest production series fat bike out now, and our size Large example tips the scales at well under 30lbs. This is far lighter than most any other fat bike currently offered as a complete bike. Salsa Cycles sold out their entire production of this bike to dealers and many of those bikes will be out on trails by the time you read this. Get this while you can, because their won't be many available, and none from Salsa until they introduce 2014 product next summer.

Tires: We also have fat bike tires and tubes in stock including Big Fat Larrys and  the Husker Du. Don't forget our size large Muk 2 and Medium Muk 3 as well. See ya soon.

We've got the coffee on waiting for ya!