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Tri Shop El paso
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Reading the thread about the Texas tri shop review...

Here, in El Paso, we have 4 bike shops. One, crazy cat cyclery, that I really like.

However, there are no tri shops. Heck there isn't even a good running store (with real running shoes and no bozo telling you that asics DS trainers are trail shoes...reading this Shawn? wanna know where they say that? ;-) )

However, there is a pretty big group of triathletes (about 40 of them going to IMAZ this year) in both El Paso, and Las Cruces. Add to that Ciudad Juarez and you have roughly quite a few triathletes to take care off.

Besides, SAC, Olaf and I are starting the first EP camp this coming september and will likely have others in the future...(Think of a really cheap Boulder, Co, with only 3' tall trees, no snow and a lot of wind ;-)

So, is anyone stepping up? We NEED a trishop here!!!

Danois, konabro2, jmhtx...you guys gotta say something!
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Re: Tri Shop El paso [Francois] [ In reply to ]
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I was pretty amazed that El Paso did not even have a decent outdoor store when I moved here 18 months ago. We have 100+ miles of trails in the Franklin Mtns, and no freakin' outdoor store.

I will agree with you comments on Crazy Cat. They are one of the best shops I have dealt with in living in about 8 different cities. While they don't have a huge selection on hand, it is better than mosts. However they are great folks, with great service.

My last business trip to Atlanta I went to All3sports to get a decent pair of goggles. In the last year I have been to Demerly's shop, All3sports, Nytro, Bonazi (in Northern VA), Final Kick in VA Beach and at each picked up some tri specific item. What is common about these shops--- they are all in an area that has the triathlon demographics to support a dedicated shop. The reality is El Paso is very much a working class town, without a robust Triathlon race presence.

Francois, I will take a slightly different approach. We need to get some decent RACES in El Paso. The races drive the participants, participants drive retail sales. The nearest races are in New Mexico and they are sprints, and are reverse order. Maybe you and I should put together a race.... but we need to find a decent swim location.

Suffer Well.
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Re: Tri Shop El paso [jmhtx] [ In reply to ]
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I would love to. But apparently, there are only 2 decent swim locations in the 'area'. One is Elephant butte lake which is a 1h30 drive from El Paso, and there is an other one at some lake in the northeast I believe.

Obviously, it would be a lot easier to organize a duathlon here. Maybe something like 10-60-10 (km that is) and a 5-30-5...lots of places to do that...including columbus road which would make things interesting it was was windy!! ;-)
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Re: Tri Shop El paso [Francois] [ In reply to ]
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What I loved was heading to El Paso to head out to Hueco Tanks. Its one of the premier bouldering climbing spots in the country. Nowhere is there a store to buy chalk or new shoes if you blow a pair out.

Weird place, can't wait to go back to climb there again.
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Re: Tri Shop El paso [Misfit4] [ In reply to ]
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Actually, the clostest outdoor store is REI in Albuquerque I believe! 5h drive...oh but then 'foot locker' pops up everywhere...these kids don't know anything about running (or shoes altogether)
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Re: Tri Shop El paso [Francois] [ In reply to ]
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Again, I think while we have the weather, trails, (even rock climbing as noted above), etc- El Paso does not have the sports related demographics to support high end stores or competive events.

Francois, a couple of observations about El Paso:

1. I see lots of people running every morning, but not that many road races-- except for Transmountain, and a couple of 5ks. No dedicated running store.

2. Tons of folks out riding on Sat and Sun mornings, great group rides on Sat and Wed, but few road bike races, 2 good bike shops (both Crazy Cat Locations) and two below average bike shops.

3. 100+ miles of hiking trails, rock climbing at Franklin and Hueco, backcountry campsites, no outdoor store.

Okay, maybe these aren't mainstream sports, but there are only a couple of golf courses in the city.

I think the bottom line is this is not a very active city, and one where expensive sports like triathlon, golf, climbing, etc don't have the base to support dedicated shops. Good thing I have internet access and Trisports is one day via UPS ground.

Maybe you and I can discuss further tomorrow morning on a ride?

Suffer Well.
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Re: Tri Shop El paso [Francois] [ In reply to ]
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"there are no tri shops"

How about Jaurez? :)
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Re: Tri Shop El paso [jmhtx] [ In reply to ]
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Actually, there are quite a few crits, probably a good 30 a year between El Paso and Juarez, more if you count Las Cruces. Then there is an annual stage race (aida's around the clock), a road race on the extension of resler (9 loops + finish at the top of TM road). Although the year I arrived, there were an other 4-5 road races in Town.
There are also some road races (foot). Scenic Half marathon, TM challenge, some 5 and 10k races (all on the east side) + some trails races + some in LC. Add to this about 6-7 duathlon in White Sands/Las Cruces...You can race every weekend from febuary to november.

The problem though is that there is NO ad whatsoever for most of these races...unless you've lived here for a while, you don't even hear about them (well, you should have heard of the Scenic half marathon though).
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Re: Tri Shop El paso [jmhtx] [ In reply to ]
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High school football, college hoops.

_________________________________
I'll be what I am
A solitary man
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Re: Tri Shop El paso [Francois] [ In reply to ]
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Yeah! and EP is not small. I think the population is up to 750,000.

BTW. I saw a Bike shop over off of Redd Road, next to one of those chain sub shops. It looked, from the window that they had some TRi stuff, but it was closed.

_________________
Dick

Take everything I say with a grain of salt. I know nothing.
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Re: Tri Shop El paso [docfuel] [ In reply to ]
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Revolution cyclery...they are just starting.

Crazy cat is nearly NEVER closed...10m-8pm from monday through sat and noon to 6pm on sunday!
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Re: Tri Shop El paso [Misfit4] [ In reply to ]
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"What I loved was heading to El Paso to head out to Hueco Tanks. Its one of the premier bouldering climbing spots in the country. Nowhere is there a store to buy chalk or new shoes if you blow a pair out."



Back when I was climbing full time, I would live at Hueco for a month or so every winter. This was ten years ago, but there WAS a little climbing/outdoor store in town; I seem to remember that it was in the same mini mall as the Sooper Salad. We would re-load on chalk there after we pulled the bags of all-you-can-eat salad out of our pockets...





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Tech writer/support on this here site. FIST school instructor and certified bike fitter. Formerly at Diamondback Bikes, LeMond Fitness, FSA, TiCycles, etc.
Coaching and bike fit - http://source-e.net/ Cyclocross blog - https://crosssports.net/ BJJ instruction - https://ballardbjj.com/
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Re: Tri Shop El paso [fredly] [ In reply to ]
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if it's the mini mall with Souper Salad next to UTEP, then that shop is long gone. It wasn't there when i arrived in 2001.
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Re: Tri Shop El paso [Francois] [ In reply to ]
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Yup, I think that was the one. Bummer.

Is the one and only giant pink drive in porn movie theatre still there? I nearly crashed my car the first time I drove through EP and realized what it was...









.

Tech writer/support on this here site. FIST school instructor and certified bike fitter. Formerly at Diamondback Bikes, LeMond Fitness, FSA, TiCycles, etc.
Coaching and bike fit - http://source-e.net/ Cyclocross blog - https://crosssports.net/ BJJ instruction - https://ballardbjj.com/
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Re: Tri Shop El paso [fredly] [ In reply to ]
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yep! that was is still there :-) LOL...shows that people are a lot more interested in porn than outdoor sports...(not counting outdoor sex of course)
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Re: Tri Shop El paso [Francois] [ In reply to ]
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I'm really glad!

That giant pink obelisk will always stand out in my mind as the quintessential statement/summary of life in El Paso.

Giant pink porn screen, miles of barbed wire, pullin' pockets with blown tips (the best bouldering on the planet,) a pocket full of contraband all-you-can-eat salad, drunken brits huddled around the pot belly stove eatin' Hueco Pete's Burritos.... that's El Paso to me.





.

Tech writer/support on this here site. FIST school instructor and certified bike fitter. Formerly at Diamondback Bikes, LeMond Fitness, FSA, TiCycles, etc.
Coaching and bike fit - http://source-e.net/ Cyclocross blog - https://crosssports.net/ BJJ instruction - https://ballardbjj.com/
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Re: Tri Shop El paso [Francois] [ In reply to ]
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[reply]Revolution cyclery...they are just starting.

Crazy cat is nearly NEVER closed...10m-8pm from monday through sat and noon to 6pm on sunday![/reply]

Wow! those are amazing hours.

_________________
Dick

Take everything I say with a grain of salt. I know nothing.
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Re: Tri Shop El paso [fredly] [ In reply to ]
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Porn Screen. Was it the Trail? overr on the west side. there are all sorts of malls there now.

_________________
Dick

Take everything I say with a grain of salt. I know nothing.
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Re: Tri Shop El paso [docfuel] [ In reply to ]
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on loop 375 on the east side. north east I think
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Re: Tri Shop El paso [Francois] [ In reply to ]
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Great to see that El Paso is getting more attention for a porn screen..... maybe THAT is why there is not a tri shop here.

Suffer Well.
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Re: Tri Shop El paso [Francois] [ In reply to ]
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You could call the race IMEP. Hopefully some people would get confused and sign up, thinking they were going to Placid. How sad they will be come race day...

Hey Frenchy, are you in my hometown (Seattle) now? If do, please do the following: On any one of the many gorgeous days this time of year, head over to GasWorks park at around 7:30 pm. Climb the hill amongst all the frisbee players and kite flyers, and sit down and check out the view of the city and lake union, with all the boats and (hopefully) some float planes. That's one of the best times/places in the city in the summer. Sometimes, people tell me that they can't stand the dreary winters (40-50 F, lots of drizzle), but scenes such as this one keep them in Seattle. I can't wait to move back to the west coast.

Check it out.

-Colin

------------------------------------------------------------
Any run that doesn't include pooping in someone's front yard is a win.
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Re: Tri Shop El paso [CCF] [ In reply to ]
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getting there thursday
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Re: Tri Shop El paso [Francois] [ In reply to ]
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Where is there a body of water for swimming for triathlons there? Ascarate used to be filthy. The Rio Grande used to have feces floating in it, when I lived there. Elephant Butte is 2 hours away. Any of the golf courses have a clean lake?

_________________
Dick

Take everything I say with a grain of salt. I know nothing.
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Re: Tri Shop El paso [Francois] [ In reply to ]
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Correct me if I am wrong, but it seems to me that a tri shop in El Paso/Las Cruces (or any tri shop for that matter) really has to establish itself as a mail/internet order shop first if it wants to survive long term. Although there are many athletes in our area, none of us buy the really expesive stuff on a regular basis (except for Konabro2 :) ) that is needed for a shop to have any staying power. Trisports in Tucson is a great example of this. They began as a mail order shop out of a warehouse, that only within the past few years have they been able to "upgrade" and have a nice "walk in" shop.

I was approached about 2 years ago by the owner of our LBS (Outdoor Adventure) for some advise on how to make the shop more "triathlete" friendly. Aside from caring about 3 tri bikes, aero waterbottles, and aerobars, he really could not financially justify pouring tons of money into "special" items that triathletes need. He's better off investing in low end mountain and road bikes that move off the shelves to college students or begining athletes.

I think a Supergo or REI would fair better in El Paso than a stand alone tri shop.
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Re: Tri Shop El paso [Danois] [ In reply to ]
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Jmhtx and I discussed this yesterday and I guess you guys are right.
I am certainly not a business man...On the other hand, in EP, there is a bunch of guys buying some really expensive stuff on quite a regular basis.
One guy rides the top of the line trek and showed up at a ride recently with the top of the line lightweight wheels (obermayer)...$4300 for the set and if a spoke breaks, you can toss it.
I can think of a bunch of docs/surgeons etc. that buy a lot of nice stuff often. Probably not enough to sustain one more shop though.

Maybe the first thing we need is a big race (duathlon I guess) in El Paso/Las Cruces.
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