Apr
23
Guess the Gas Price…
Filed Under Deep Thoughts, Interbike | 3 Comments
If you guessed “obscene”, you win! (I know, Carlton, it’s still a pittance compared to UK and Euro prices…) And we’re all riding our bikes to work and store so it should be irrelevant, right?
The station around the corner from our office in San Juan Capistrano, California, had these prices posted this week as I walked to lunch. We’re well on our way to $5/gallon and there still seems to be no major shift in driving habits. Minor adjustments and more hybrid car sales, yes. But no major impacts that I can see on true alternatives to car use at this point.
Speaking of shifts in driving habits, at Sea Otter I overheard someone commenting on how places with poor weather seem to have more utilitarian bike use than those places with more agreeable weather. Think Portland, Seattle, New York, Boston… Now think L.A., Miami, Phoenix. Which ones come to mind when you think “city with lots of bike commuters”?
Apr
21
Sea Otter Video - Tim Blumenthal of Bikes Belong
Filed Under Advocacy, Deep Thoughts, Interbike, Video | 1 Comment
In light of my recent introduction into local bicycle advocacy, I thought I’d go to the source for some expert advice. As I mention in my intro in the video, I have some experience with some pretty big advocacy efforts like the National Bike Summit, but when it came to actually effecting some advocacy close to home, I really had no idea where to start. I guess the nitty gritty of the work had been left to the professionals at the League of American Bicyclists, Bikes Belong or IMBA, to name a few, in the advocacy that I had been a part of.
Tim Blumenthal, executive director of Bikes Belong, kindly accepted my request for an interview during his busy schedule at the Sea Otter Classic when I called him a few days prior to the event. Tim is always a pleasure to speak with and I’ve been lucky to be able to spend time with him at the last two Sea Otter events now. He’s a great advocate and representative for the industry. And he tells a great story.
The theme of this interview is advice for cyclists wanting to effect bicycle advocacy on a local level. Good stuff.
Technical note: I need to figure out how to turn my left channel only sound (from my mono microphone plugged into the stereo input on the camera) into left and right mono. Not so bad through speakers, but very noticeable with headphones. Maybe I just need to invest in some better video editing software.
Apr
18
Sea Otter Video - Pedro’s Chris Zigmont
Filed Under Deep Thoughts, Exhibitor News, Green Efforts, Industry News, Video | 4 Comments
Man, doing the video thing is alot more work than just posting. Finally after some quality time in the Sea Otter Media Center, I’ve got something to show. I interviewed Pedro’s current GM and soon to be CEO, Chris Zigmont, about their efforts to be green and a socially responsible company. Good stuff from a passionate member of our industry. Also includes news about the management buyout of Pedro’s back from Swix. (Please excuse my noobi-ness as an on-camera interviewer…) More videos to come.
Apr
4
This is a Good Thing, Right?
Filed Under Deep Thoughts, Green Efforts | 1 Comment
Leaving work at the end of the day earlier this week, I snapped this photo while stopped at a light just around the corner from our offices here in San Juan Capistrano in Southern California. This particular station has always had obscenely high prices, but now premium gas is well beyond the $4 per gallon threshold. And this morning I noticed that they’ve adjusted the price up to $4.13 with super at over $4 now.
While I never buy from this station, the overall trend is now REALLY starting to play with the economics of bike and mass transit commuting options versus driving. SoCal is not exactly designed for easy mass transportation use given the infamous suburban sprawl of the region and car-centric mentality of the original urban planners (effectively the developers and politicians), but I think it will finally start to noticeably affect pocketbooks and wallets.
I’ve got to start up the bike commute again now that there’s enough daylight at the end of the day for the 14 mile bike leg of my multi-modal commute (which includes a train ride up the coast to Orange County). With my kids’ school schedules in the morning and wife’s work, I can only do it two days per week, but gas prices should now make it a financial win as well as a Wilford Brimley-esque “right thing to do”?
So the high gas prices are painful, but it’s a good thing for the bike industry, right?
Mar
18
Thank You Dick Burke and Trek
Filed Under Cycling, Deep Thoughts, Photos | 5 Comments
Chip Smith, our main PR guy and great friend at SOAR Communications, wrote a nice story on their blog last week about hearing of Trek founder Dick Burke’s passing recently and his memories of his first bike - a Trek - and how it inspired him to start riding. My plan was to just re-print an excerpt here and link to the whole piece and as I started writing this, I remembered that it was a Trek that got me into riding, too. While Chip’s was a ‘79 touring model, mine was a circa ‘90 930 mountain bike. Here’s a picture of Chip and his bike (and a bit more hair, as he put it):
My Trek was definitely a child of the late ’80’s. And not just because it was a mountain bike. It was mostly black, but had fluorescent green lettering and highlights. I thought it was a hot looking bike at the time.
Not having ridden since I was a kid back in junior high, I borrowed by Brazilian college roommate’s bike for the Summer. I was staying in my college town to do an internship and said I’d hold onto his bike for the Summer while he was back home in Rio. I was on the rowing team in college and thought that the biking would help me stay in shape for my senior year season. Even though it was an mtb, I don’t think I took it off-road once that summer. The Trek and I just did long rides on the road everyday. The bike had those crazy Scott mtb handlbars (with lime green grips and bar wrap) that curved around to the front into an aero-bar position that I used alot. I thought I was all aero on my off-road bike with knobby tires. Groups of roadies going the other way gave me funny looks. The baggy soccer shorts probably added to the visual humor.
One of the things on that bike that got me hooked on riding and on bikes themselves was a piece of technology: push-button Rapid-Fire shifters. Not the more-recent trigger-style, mind you, but the original two thumb-actuated button shifters. I thought it was so cool that you could just push a button and the bike would shift. That was my first experience with indexed shifting. And while the shifter self-destructed later that Summer, it was enough to get me hooked on bike technology.
When I graduated from college a year later, my parents offered to buy me a graduation gift. I asked for a bike. And since I only ever rode on the road, I asked for a road bike. Even though I lusted after those carbon tubes-bonded-to-aluminum-lug Treks that my college town shop sold (Bicycle Alley in Worcester, MA), back home at my local shop (Greenwich Bicycles in Greenwich, CT) I ended up buying another brand (a ‘92 Bridgestone RB-1 that I still have, btw). My dad was so impressed with that Trek I borrowed, that he bought his own Trek mtb (”for more than I paid for my first motorcycle!” he commented) that same Summer and eventually an OCLV road bike (the’99 Lance Armstrong Tour win commemorative model) and got into riding seriously.
So while I never met the guy and didn’t have an opportunity to meet his son John at the BLC recently, his efforts in founding Trek back ‘76 played a role in Chip and I getting into cycling. Thanks, Mr. Burke!
Feb
25
Let Alberto Ride
Filed Under Attendee News, Deep Thoughts, Racing, humor | 3 Comments
Was up at the Tour of California on Saturday and noticed t-shirts with “Let Levi Ride” on them for the first time. Also saw them on display at my local bike shop on Sunday. Now, all issues of right or wrong, guilt or innocence aside, I love BikeSnobNYC’s observation (as always, tongue in cheek) that the Let Levi Ride campaign ought actually be for Levi’s teammate, Alberto Contador - the guy that actually won the Tour de France. I’ve got nothing against the guy, but why focus on the third place finisher, right?
If an online petition can actually have an effect on the ASO’s decision, isn’t the real injustice leaving the winner out?
(If you’ve never checked out the BikeSnob blog before, it’s definitely worth a visit. And with upwards of 100(!) comments to each of his almost daily posts, I’m not the only one who feels that way. Bring your sense of humor.)
Feb
1
Vacuums, Zipper Hospitals and Bike Shops
Filed Under Deep Thoughts, Interbike | 1 Comment
I broke our fifteen-year-old vacuum cleaner’s carpet cleaning attachment over the holidays when I tried to repack the bearings on the roller brush with fresh bike grease (my favorite lime green Shimano Dura-Ace grease, by the way). As a bike geek, I was pleasantly surprised when I discovered that the vacuum’s roller brush spun on tiny cartridge bearings. “Hey, I’ll just clean them out and inject some fresh grease in them!” They were pretty much were shot, though, and as I tried to clean them out, one of them just felt apart and there was no way it was going to go back together.
As is now the norm, my first reaction was to Google “Eureka vacuum spare parts” to see if I could just order up some new bearings or something online. No such luck since our vac is a bit old for the online sellers. I knew there was a vacuum store in the next town over so I brought the attachment over to my LVS (local vacuum shop) to see if there was any hope for it.
Where am I going with this story? Well, it dawned on me as I was being helped by the man at the vacuum store that I was taking part in an increasingly rare activity: having something repaired rather than throwing it out and buying a new one. It also occurred to me that bikes and bike shops continue to part of this great legacy of non-disposable machines and their service centers.
What got me thinking this way was the way the gentleman at the store looked. He must have been in his seventies with white hair and a cardigan sweater and he walked a bit slow. He also had on one of those Navy baseball hats with “U.S.S. Midway” embroidered on it in gold. He wore it as if it meant something to him - as if he had served on it much earlier in his life but remembered it as if it were yesterday. Standing there telling him my name and phone number and describing the problem I was having with my vacuum, I found myself wondering whether there would there be anyone to take over and continue the vacuum cleaner repair shop when this man decided to finally retire.
I can’t imagine that the shop would continue. When was the last time you saw an appliance or electronics repair shop? Or even a shoe repair shop? We used to be able to take our VCR down to the local electronics repairman to get it back up and running if it stopped working back when I was a kid. I remember I had a nice Patagonia jacket back in college that I kept breaking the zipper on. I used to hang it behind my dorm room’s door, and every now an then, someone would throw open the door, and the zipper would get crushed against the wall. Luckily, just down the street from school there was a “zipper hospital.” It was mainly a tailor shop, but they had a sign out front that looked like an emergency room sign with the red cross and text on a white background. I could bring in my jacket and 5 minutes and a few bucks later the zipper would be as good as new
Regardless of whether you have a repair shop close by, I understand the realities of modern technology and the fact that it’s usually much less expensive to buy a new iPod or blender than it is to have it repaired. There is something very satisfying, though, about avoiding sending something else to the landfill, or as is often the case, having it sit in a drawer unusable, by having it fixed.
Now, while you could argue that bikes today are slightly less repairable, to a degree, than in the past with all the cartridge-style bearings and parts like bottom brackets, I think it’s great that they are still easily serviced, maintained and repaired by any one of several thousand great local bike shops around the country or by its mechanically-inclined owner. I think that this is a great legacy to keep alive and one that we should be proud of as an industry.
The man at the store called me up two days later saying that the vacuum was ready to be picked up. He had replaced the roller brush and checked out the motor, too. He also noticed that the drive belt was old and replaced it. Since the belts come in two-packs, he gave me the second one to keep as a spare. $30 in parts and labor. What a bargain. I hope he’s still around the next time the Eureka needs some work, but I’m not holding my breath.
Just a thought that occurred to me this week…