Got Bikes? 2013 Spring Road Bike Sale is on NOW!



We're not even done skiing yet, and our Spring Road Bike Sale is upon us! Through April 22nd, save big on brand-new, 2013 Specialized road bikes - the immensely popular Roubaix model, as well as the Tarmac, Venge, and Ruby bike model families. This is a rare opportunity to get "closeout" pricing on current model bikes. We're even extending sale pricing to qualifying special-order bikes. As an added bonus, we do a free professional fitting with all new bike purchases. So, plan a day at New Moon soon and we'll help you pick your new carbon fiber road-rocket! See you on the road...

Note: This is an in-store only promotion; Specialized bikes are not available through mail-order.

Come ride with us!

Birkie country has great road cycling and some of the very best singletrack mountain biking in North America. Join us for our Tuesday night group road rides, or for a guided tour of the famous CAMBA trail network. Coming up soon is the "Cable Classic" mountain bike race. We'll be offering free tech support at the Lakewoods Resort start area again this year - a 16-year tradition for us. We'll also be providing free tech support at the new Mt Borah Epic mountain bike race. The "Epic" is 30-mile point to point singletrack journey from the start at Telemark Resort to Hatchery Park near Hayward held in conjuction with CAMBA's Festival Of Trails. This one is sure to sell-out soon.

New Moon is a busy, full-service bike shop from March to November. We offer professional bike fitting, bike and accessory sales, apparel sales, repair service, and rental and demo bikes including Specialized Epic 29ers. We're here to help you with all of your cycling needs!

Rollerskis – Skiers Are Made in the Summer!

Now is the time to start your training plan for next season, and rollerskiing is a key tool for off-season training. New Moon is proud to handle American-made V2 brand rollerskis. Based in New Hampshire, V2 has long been the choice of many World Cup and Olympic racers. In fact, many pro athletes have passed on sponsorship contracts with various European rollerski brands because they prefer V2. V2 was also the rollerski of choice for Carolyn and Santi Ocariz when they rollerskied coast to coast last year for their Ski Across America project (see "Where Are They Now" below).

V2 has a ski for everyone – the Aero XL150S Skate for gravel and poor pavement, the light and efficient 98XLR Skate , the 900XLC Classic for a near-perfect "snow" feel, and more. A range of accessories is also available for V2 including brakes and speed reducers. We're glad to help you find the rollerski that's right for you.

Equipment Highlights

Fischer Skis continues pushing the boundaries of ski design with the all new new 2013/14 Speedmax Skis. Speedmax takes refinement to the next level with exciting new technology - the Speedmax Cold-Bonded Base. Traditionally, base material is bonded to the ski core in a high-temp curing process. This process is essential to standard ski construction methods. This method also heats the base, altering it in the process and potentially reducing its wax holding ability – not unlike over-heating your ski with a wax iron. Cold-Bonding fuses the base material to the core after the ski is oven-cured, preserving the original, porous, base properties. The results are profound. These skis are exceptionally fast! We used the Speedmax Skate extensively the week before the Birkie, and we fell in love. These were skis straight from the Fischer factory in Reid, Austria, with little or no waxing prep. One coat of wax and right onto the trail at -5f. They had better breakaway on the steeps and faster top-end speed on the downhills than our trusty cold skis with countless applications of Start Green! Keep in mind, these were brand-new skis with no special fitting, little wax prep, and clearly the wrong grind for cold, fresh snow. For elites only? Not a chance! We had middle-wave Birkie skaters purchase these the day before the race, and they came back praising them not only for the speed, but also for how remarkably stable and forgiving they are.

For more info on Speedmax, watch this video from Fischer. We're excited about this amazing Speedmax line-up. Don't hesitate to call for more information.

In other equipment news, Swix has outdone itself again with the Triac 2.0. The revolutionary Triac 1.0 shocked skiers 3 years ago with remarkable stiffness and feather-light swing weight. Amazingly, the 2.0 is lighter, and, yes, stiffer, too! Available early fall, 2013 - enjoy!

That just scratches the surface - look for great new boots from Fischer and Salomon, more outstanding poles from Swix, and of course, the best Nordic apparel from across the industry at New Moon this fall.

2012/13 season in review: A tale of two winters...

Here at New Moon, we saw a similar story as much of the country. We received our first good snow on Thanksgiving evening with a few more inches a few days later. We were skiing! Then it melted. Then it snowed again, and that melted. This happened again in January, claiming three “victims” in our region- the popular Seeley Hills Classic, Birkie Tour, and the Sisu Ski Fest across the state line in Ironwood, Michigan were all canceled. Despite being a month out at that point, many were beginning to seriously doubt whether the 2013 Birkie was going to happen at all. Slowly but surely, our base started rebuilding; we were optimistically measuring our snowfalls in ¼ and ½ inch increments. Then, around February 1st, it snowed... 4-5 inches! Then it snowed again, and then again. The Hayward Lion's Prebirkie Ski Race came off without a hitch, same with the North End Classic in Cable, and the Mora Vasaloppet (on a modifed course), too. We were back in business! Noreasters pounded the East Coast with snow, and our fellow skiers out west were on good snow also. Winter had come to the rescue!

With all the new snow, the 2013 40th Anniversary Birkie was a tough one for many skiers, both elite and casual. The Birkie Trail Crew did a remarkable job of firming up the new snow, but there was simply too much new snow, and too little time to groom the trail into a hard track. Kick waxing was tricky for some classic skiers with high morning humidity and temps in the mid- to upper-twenties; a good 5-10 degrees warmer than forecasts were predicting. Many classic racers had to "warm up" their kick zone with a grippier wax at the start or early on in the race. Rode Multigrade Violet and Violet, Toko Red with a very thin wisp of Yellow over the top, and various Swix Kickers – V45, VR45, and even a thin layer of VR 60 for some, all produced good results. Skaters struggled with a soft track and good glide was elusive for some. Skiers using relatively soft skis with fine structures generally had great results. Those with coarse structures and stiffer skis had disappointing glide for the most part. Humidity was very high, so fluoros for glide were important, but flex and structure were probably the most important keys to success this year.

Fast forward to late March... We've had the best late-season skiing in many years. The Birkie trail still has excellent skiing, and will through Easter weekend, possibly longer. As April approaches, grooming coverage on the Birkie Trail will likely be reduced somewhat for budget considerations. Expect grooming from “OO” up to Bodecker Rd on the Skate and Classic trails, and south to Gravel Pit Rd., possibly further. OO is always a safe place to start. Grooming also continues at the North End Trailhead. Call us for the latest reports or check Skinnyski.com for reports from other skiers. Birkie.com regularly updates the trail page with the latest grooming info. Come on up and enjoy the best skiing in years! Bring your t-shirt and sunscreen, too!

Once a champ, always a champ!

Sweden's Sam "Eric" Ersson was the first winner of the fledgling American Birkebeiner back in 1973. Birkie creator, Tony Wise, joked that “Sam” didn't sound Scandinavian enough, so he called him Eric and it stuck. This year, Sam and his wife, Helena, made the long journey from northern Sweden to participate in the Birkie again. New Moon had the honor of outfitting Sam and Helena with ski equipment for the race, in fact, Sam used New Moon Co-owner Joel's personal classic skis and Helena, Joel's daughter's skis. He finished in a respectable 4:53, winning the Men's Classic 75-79 age group, naturally – once a champ, always a champ! Helena finished with a smile in 5:15. We hope this is not their last trip to Hayward.

Where are they now?

Speaking of Birkie champs, we've had questions about where Carolyn and Santi Ocariz were this year. We're delighted to report 2012 women's Birkie Classic Champ, Carolyn and her husband Santi welcomed their new daughter, Sonia, into the world on March 8th! If ever there was an excuse to not race the Birkie, this was it. Future Women's Classic Birkie champ? We think yes, of course!

A year before Sonia was born, Carolyn and Santi embarked on a nobel journey called "Ski Across America", rollerskiing from the Atlantic Ocean in South Carolina to The Pacific Ocean in California. They skied long, brutal days to raise awareness of world hunger and funds for the charity, Food For The Poor. Two months and five days later, and they arrived safely at the Pacific, near San Francisco. They now make their home in Bend, Oregon. Expect more great things from this bunch! Congrats, you guys!

The Crew at New Moon