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For those of you lucky enough to find yourselves close enough to New York City, you owe it those of us that aren’t to attend the Bicycle Film Festival that kicks off tonight. Look for parties, rides and oh, yeah, films from today (June 17) through Sunday the 21st. The event is sponsored by beverage company42Below and a bunch of other forward thinking brands and organizations.

Check out their website for the schedule and details. Here’s the trailer for the 2009 BFF:

Wouldn’t it be cool to have a BFF event in Vegas in September?

My kids and I took a trip down to tiny Gillespie Field east of San Diego for their semi-annual airshow, “Wings Over Gillespie,” this past Saturday. As with any such show, the focus is on military aircraft and it just happened to be the weekend of the 65th anniversary of the Normandy D-Day invasion that was the beginning of the end of World War Two.

I wasn’t thinking of this anniversary when we decided to make the trip, but when we got there, the first demonstration we caught was of a paratrooper deployment featuring a plane that actually dropped soldiers into Normandy on that June 6th day back in 1944 (in the background of the photos below). After watching the precision landings of the parachutists, we heard some loud popping sounds and followed the crowds over to a re-enactment of a battle between US and British allies and the Germans. It was all very exciting with incredibly detailed outfits and gear assembled by the re-enactors. Oh, and the Allies won (in case you were wondering).

I also wasn’t thinking of D-Day when we walked over to the US, German and British ‘camps’ set up by the actors to see their gear up close and found a bicycle on display. It was a replica of a BSA folding military bike in matte green paint. I took a couple of photos that I posted on Twitter, but later in the day, we came across Private Ken of the British Army riding his BSA (Birmingham Small Arms) across the tarmac.

We flagged the friendly soldier down, and in typical ‘Brit’ (he was actually from Riverside or San Bernardino) fashion he enthusiastically and patiently entertained all our questions and requests for photos. What we learned was that some of the paratroopers deployed in the D-Day invasion were equipped with these folding BSA’s along with their weapons, rations and other gear. With a bike, the troopers could cover more ground more quickly than on foot. A rifle could be be mounted along the top tube and he described a range of other packs and panniers that the bikes would have setup with back in the day.

Ken showed us the simple and sturdy folding mechanism using wing nuts. I asked him about the coaster brake, and he admitted that this was only major difference between this Norwegian-made replica and an actual BSA that would have had caliper brakes.

I’d always known about the Swiss army’s use of bikes fairly recently (I think Ochsner used to distribute them a while back) and that other armies had used them over the years, but to learn that bikes were used during the Normandy invasion was fascinating. And not just behind the lines, but actually inserted behind enemy lines right in the thick of things.

As my 3 year old son said throughout the day, “that’s pretty cool.”

[Update: Make sure to read the comments to this post since Ken Glaze (Private Ken in the post) fills us in on a few more details about his bike.]

From Interbike show director, Andy Tompkins, on his first trip to the big Philly races, now know as the Philadelphia International Cycling Championship.

I had the pleasure of attending the Philadelphia International Cycling Championship this past Sunday, June 7.

It seemed that the entire city embraced this race; I’ve never seen a sporting event touch so many in one community. It was the 25th edition, and an estimated three hundred thousand people lined the streets and outpoured respect and excitement for the field. Andre Greipel and Ina Teutenberg, both of Columbia-Highroad took top honors in their respective divisions, but in my opinion that was only part of the story.

In business we know that which gets attention gets done, and the 2009 event was a model of this persistence. Due to the recent economic upheaval, this years race almost didn’t stage, however local banks and casinos, along with the mayors office made sure this PA classic stayed alive. Mayor Michael Nutter was omnipresent, thanking all who took part for attending this marquis event, understanding that the race is special and important for his city.

And what a legacy to protect – while it was amazing to see the pros in action, ride the course in the Fuji-Servetto team car, and spend time with the great people of ASI (Fuji’s parent company) camped on top of Manayunk Wall (special thanks to Pat Cunnane, of ASI, and his entire crew for their hospitality), my favorite moment came courtesy of a two year old boy. His grandfather held him up to give the youngster his first glimpse of a peloton – I’ve rarely seen such an expression of unadulterated joy. The grandfather explained to me with pride twenty four years before he had taken his daughter to see the race as well, and he shared that she gave him a similar smile.

Pastimes are really shared history – common bonds of lessons and love shared through generations. Sports seem to offer this special link, but in America rarely is cycling mentioned in this context. But maybe if more cities take Philadelphia’s lead cycling may indeed become a great American pastime.

Andy Tompkins

15 weeks, everybody…

Just a quick note here to beware of hotel scams leading up to the show. Recently we have learned from a few exhibitors, unfortunately, that there are a few unscrupulous companies that are calling Interbike exhibitors with hotel and travel offers and who claim to be representing Interbike. Worse still, there is at least one travel company that has told exhibitors that they will cancel their Interbike booth if they did not book their hotel through them. We have heard in the past, also, that a few of these travel companies have done worse than just lie about their connection to Interbike.

Rest assured that no travel company has the authority or ability to interfere with your Interbike booth and the only company that can claim to have any relationship with Interbike is our official travel partner, Travel Planners Inc. You can access their site securely through the Hotel & Travel page of Interbike.com.

While we do guarantee the lowest rates at the hotels on our list through Travel Planners and carefully monitor and adjust your rate if the hotel lowers prices after you make your reservation, there is no obligation to use them in booking your travel and housing for the show. If you choose to use another travel company, we strongly recommend that you choose a well-known and reputable company to avoid any disappointments or problems down the road.

Had the pleasure of recording a new episode of The Spokesmen Cycling Roundtable podcast this morning. Other participants this week were host David Bernstein, Donna Tocci of Ingersol-Rand/Kryptonite, and DL Byron of BikeHugger.com. Special guest this week was the inimitable Bob Roll of pro cycling and Tour day France tv commentary fame.

Bob was an awesome guest as we talked about a variety of subjects. We were able to coax some old ‘88 Giro memories ofu the epic snowy Gavia Pass stage. Great stuff. Definitely worth a listen.

Check it out on iTunes or at www.the-spokesmen.com .

As most of you have heard by now, former pro Steve Larsen passed away earlier this week while out training. It was a shock to me for two reasons. First, was that I had the pleasure of getting to know the man about 10 years ago and second, I just turned the age that he was when he died.

While I can’t claim that Steve and I were friends, at a previous employer of mine we sponsored his mtb racing career and I was able to speak with him fairly regularly and met him at a few races during the season. Eventually, he purchased a shop in his native Davis, California, and he became a customer of mine, too. Always a great person, very professional as a representative of our brand, appreciative of our sponsorship and a fast and savvy racer. When I heard of his passing, I dug through my pile of memento jerseys and photo albums to find the items in the two photos accompanying this post.

The photo of me with him was taken circa 2000 when he was dividing his time between his mtb racing career and doing a few choice road races for the old Prime Alliance team. We were at the USPro race in Philadelphia in the photo. I don’t remember how he did there, but as you can see in the photo of the jersey, he had just won back the stars and stripes jersey as NORBA National champ.

The bike community lost a great man and racer. Our thoughts go out to his family and friends at this time.

A memorial service is planned for Saturday at 1 pm in his hometown of Bend, Oregon. Information about the service, a memorial ride and memorial fund that has been set up can be found over at VeloNews.

Just had the pleasure of participating in the latest episode of the Spokesmen Roundtable Podcast, hosted by David Bernstein. The other guests were Tim Jackson, brand manager of Masi Bicycles, Carlton Reid, editor of Bike Biz, and Donna Tocci, director of social media for Ingersoll Rand/Kryptonite Locks. We typically record these on Saturday mornings at 7:30 am California time.

Click the image above or subscribe in iTunes to listen.

Current events last week leaned more heavily toward pro cycling issues this week, but there were equally interesting discussions of the UCI’s recent decision to crackdown on innovative bicycle design and helmet non-use as a mitigating factor in determining punishment in fatal car-cyclist accidents.

My tip this show was in the spirit of the racing theme of the show. I recommended a book by former pro, Thomas Prehn, called Racing Tactics for Cyclists. With all the books available on how to achieve fitness to race, this book teaches you what to do now that you’re fit and standing on the starting line of your race. Good stuff.

While at the recent Sea Otter Classic event in Monterey, CA, I was really pleased to be able to run into Maurice Tierney, publisher of the new Bicycle Times magazine and the venerable Dirt Rag, in the media center. He was kind enough to step outside into the unseasonably sunny Monterey weather for a quick interview.

The inaugural issue of BT had just been published and I was very excited to finally lay eyes on it since it further extends the reach of urban and transportation cycling in the media. I’ve really enjoyed the passion for cycling and the personality that the Dirt Rag team has always put into that magazine and have great expectations for what they can do with BT. Best of luck, guys!

TALES FROM SEA OTTER 2009 - Bicycle Times from CYCLEFILM on Vimeo.

Funny story about this video. So I start interviewing Maurice and notice that he’s got a clear plastic disposable fork sticking out of the right side of his cap. Now as a straight-laced native New Englander, who am I to question Maurice on his sense of style? Maybe all the cool kids are sporting plastic fork head gear these days. So I say nothing and continue the interview. After we’re done and just chatting a bit, he leans his head over and out falls the fork with a plunk on the concrete. He says, “Hey, was this fork sicking out of my hat the whole time?” Turns out he was camping out while at SOC and had just left his camping fork in his cap by accident. So don’t go getting any strange ideas about Maurice from his, um, accessorizing.

Bicycle Times on the web: www.bicycletimesmag.com
Follow Bicycle Times on Twitter: @bicycletimes
Video produced by Cyclefilm

At the Bicycle Leadership Conference that took place in Monterey, California, just before Sea Otter this year, I gave a presentation to the attendees on the topic of social media marketing. It was an interesting opportunity given the make up of the audience at the BLC: primarily the executive leadership of all the major brands in the bike industry. That’s an interesting group to speak to on the topic because at most other seminars, talks and panel sessions on the subject, the audience is typically made up of people in marketing that already “get it” about SM for the most part. What many of these marketing professionals and SM evangelists are looking for are tools to use when trying to explain the value of SM to upper management at their companies - exactly who I would be speaking directly to.

In framing the “why” of SM to executives, I believe that it’s imperative to address the value proposition that SM can bring to their companies. What is it that CEO’s and presidents need to hear to be convinced? It’s not just the fact that conversations are happening online (yawn…) - it’s how engaging these people through SM can add value to their companies and empower and excite employees and customers. I hope that we - I asked Chris Matthews of Specialized’s marketing department to co-present with me - were able to do that. (I’m still planning a full post on this as soon as I can finish writing it up.)

With that said, one of the examples we gave in our presentation (along with the photo above from fisherbikes.com) when describing the importance of *authenticity* and *personality* when engaging in social media, was Mr. Gary Fisher. If you’re at all familiar with the bike industry, you know what we mean about Gary. I was really hoping to run into Gary in the expo area of Sea Otter to ask him a few questions about his use of SM since he’s become a very active - and interesting - user of Twitter over the last few months. As you can see below, I did and was able to get some great insight into his use of the tool and what it means to his mom, of all people. Again, with the great video skills of Markus from Cyclefilm.

TALES FROM SEA OTTER 2009 - Gary Fisher from CYCLEFILM on Vimeo.

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