Watson Cycles - Misc

A few more bikes from Watson Cycles that were on display at CT NEMBA's Biketember Fest on Saturday, September 10th.  Above is Andrew Watson's personal Ruination.

One of this cross bikes

And a not yet finished custom bike for his wife!

29er Single Speeds at Rocky Neck

The bike on the left is a Chumba with an EBB and a Rockshock 100mm
The bike on the right is a Niner Air9 that weighed 18 lbs!

Watson Cycles - Ruination

The Watson Cycles Ruination is one sick bike.  This bike is a belt driven, 650b mountain bike that is so beautiful that if I were to own it I am not sure if I would ride it or just put it up on a wall somewhere and admire it.  Last Saturday, CT NEMBA held Biketember Fest at Rocky Neck State Park and while we were sampling some of BBC's finest selection of hand crafted, NO PRESERVATIVES beer, we got the opportunity to check out  Watson Cycles bikes, an Eastern Connecticut Custom Bike Manufacturer.

Anodized Chris King Hubs and Headset!

Belt Drives are so sexy!

And so are Paragon Drops with built in tensioners!

This is one sweet bike!

Mountain Bike of Death

When I saw this guy's gear I couldn't decide whether he was going down hilling or to Deicide Concert.

Apparently, he is a drummer in a metal band and his bike looks like it goes with him to gigs!

The spikes on the rear fender makes be wonder how he rides downhill - Ouch!

Watson Cycles - Great Divide Fat Tire

Watson Cycles, an Eastern Connecticut Custom Bike Manufacturer, was on hand at CT NEMBA's Biketember Fest Saturday, September 10th.  The bike pictured here is the Great Divide Fat Tire Fat Bike sporting 4 inch wheels on 160mm QR axles!

Painstakingly attention to detail with wooden platforms both fore and aft.

Custom Phil Wood anodized purple hubs.  Andrew Watson happens to be a personal friend of Phil and these hubs were made specifically this bike.

Beers and Gears - Helmet Cam

I know it's a little light, that's because I had the exposure set to +2.0 stops by accident. Didn't realize how bright it would be in the woods midday.

Gears and Beers

CT NEMBA's Bikes, Brats and Beers Ride was held on Saturday and it was AWESOME!  We had 15 riders show up for a fantastic 2 hour tour of Rocky Neck State Park, which by the way was holding up nicely after a hurricane and a tropical storm in the past two weeks.  This event came about while I was vacationing at Giants Neck earlier this summer and after settling in at the beach house I went out to the local Packy to see if I could find some BBC (Berkshire Brewing Company) and while the closest Package Store (Divine Wine) didn't carry it, ironically, the owner had been contacted by the local BBC rep about stocking BBC.  

Thom Lamourine, who is local to the area (lives right around the corner in Old Lyme) and a complete bike mechanic wizard and whom I spent a lot of time riding with during the vacation, and I got to talking about trying to do a Mountain Bike Ride event coordinated with a beer sampling (BBC of course) at Rocky Neck.  Since Divine Wine is located across the street from the trail head at Rocky Neck, it was the perfect set up!  

First time out on the diSSent with gears!

Rocky Neck State Park might not be the most challenging of riding locations in Connecticut but it certainly is fun.  We had 15 riders in our group ranging from Free Riders riding monster free ride bikes to rigid singlespeeders on 29er wheels.  Just about every type of bike was represented on this ride, including a full suspension 650b from Jamis!

I was really surprised with the turn out and where everybody came from.  We had people from the western part of Fairfield County (Shelton & Newtown), Oxford, South Windsor, Deep River, Rocky Hill, Middletown, Brewster, MA (I think he was vacationing at Giants Neck this week), and a handful of local NEMBA members!

Steve Eldridge (l) was our ride leader who, along with Corey Stiff and Thom Lamourine, are local CT NEMBA Trail Ambassadors and did a phenomenal job opening Rocky Neck State Park after Hurricane Irene and getting ready for today's ride.

We rode just about everything there was to ride at Rocky Neck.  On the Red and White Trails there were quite a few blow downs and with this big group of riders coming to a halt at the obstruction it looked like a conga line of people trying to get around or under the blowdown.

After the ride we were treated to a beer tasting supplied by my favorite brewery, Berkshire Brewing Company!  We also had frankfurters and bratwurst to go with the beer at the same time drool over hand built bikes from a local bike builder, Andrew Watson, Watson Cycles.