Nov
13
BikeHugger and Russell the Nippletwister
Filed Under Gear, Interbike, Photos, Rides | 2 Comments
Arriving back at my cube yesterday morning after a trip to visit a client, I was pleasantly surprised to find a box with the Sun-Ringle logo on it waiting for me. I guess I knew the wheels were coming, I just didn’t know what model to expect. Turns out that the wheels I won at BikeHugger.com’s Interbike Mobile Social raffle are a set of Sun-Ringle Accelerator X2.0 wheels. In swanky gold, no less!
I’ve always had good luck with Sun’s rims, so I can’t wait to throw a cassette and some tires on them this weekend and take them out for a spin. SR’s website describes the intended use of this model as “cyclocross or performance commuter riding conditions.” From the tough looking design and build and the kind of riding I do, I’d put them in the “spring classics riding conditions” category. I don’t race any more, but I still like to ride like I do. I also don’t plan on running with a bike over my shoulder anytime soon, so the cross use is out the picture. And having a tougher set of wheels on the bike for when I commute will be very welcome, too.
I can’t say I’m familiar with their hubs, but they look solid and feel smooth.
While I don’t consider their just over 1,800-and-change gram weight unreasonable, I think most reviewers today would fall into the trap of calling them heavy because of the seeming abundance of sub 1,500 gram aluminum rimmed wheels on the market. The X2.0’s look like they’ll be able to take anything you throw their way without complaint: wide rim, eyelets, 32 14gauge db Wheelsmith spokes in a classic reliable lacing pattern. And while I can’t confirm this at the moment, from the hand-written sign included in the box, it looks like the wheels were built by one “Russell the Nippletwister.” A wheelbuilder with a name like that guarantees a quality build, right? Anyways, I like the personal touch, Sun-Ringle.
And that’s the kind of component I like on my bike: reliable, reasonably light, attractive and tough. I also like having some insight into the people behind the brand and design (like Russell here). I drool over the cool high end stuff as much as the most passionate bike geek (I still have to post my review of Shimano’s Di2 that I rode at the OutDoor Demo), but I’ve been pretty good at reigning myself back in to what I should be riding. Oh, and it shouldn’t cost an arm and a leg (I have two kids and a mortgage, you know?). Come to think of it, before I get a bruise from patting myself on the back too much for my practicality, maybe economics play the biggest role in the selection of parts that I ride.
On a fun note, you can see in the photo that Sun-Ringle include a bunch of stickers with the wheels. This is a nice unexpected touch that I’d recommend to all manufacturers. It’s a small gesture, but adds to the overall experience of buying something in a not too expensive way. They’ll be going right up on my tool chest at home.
Much to my surprise, I was the lucky winner of one of the many raffles that the BikeHugger crew held at their tent at the USA Crits Finals, part of their Mobile Social ride down the Strip from the Sands Expo Center to Mandalay bay. By the time I realized I was free to do the ride, it was too late to secure a bike. I ended up just watching and photographing the start of the ride and then meeting up with them at the crit. Someone handed me a raffle ticket, and lo-and-behold, they called out my number. Can’t rememebr the last time I won anything – much less something as nice as a set of wheels!
Byron and his team at BikeHugger had some great schwag to give away and I came back home with a Breezer Bikes t-shirt and cool mini Swiss Army Knife/USB flash drive along with the promise that they would ship me the wheels I had won. I felt a little funny as the “Interbike Guy” winning a prize, but everyone good naturedly insisted that I accept. As the host of the event, I don’t ask for or get much schwag (everyone there is my customer, essentially, and it’s best reserved for the retailers in attendance), so to actually come away with something like this was a real treat and definitely appreciated. I also remember seeing a set of Hed wheels and a Novara bike raffled off that night to happy attendees.
Despite the somewhat bewildering summary of Interbike 2009 in theirwrap-up story, I like what BikeHugger.com is trying to do and had a lot of fun the crew at the Mobile Social this year. You should visit their site and read up about their M.S. MoSo events that they piggyback off of various trade shows and conferences around the country like Interbike and South-By-Southwest. As the intersection of social media and riding, they’re a blast and a great way to bring passionate cyclists together.
I’ll end by saying thanks to Byron and the BikeHugger team once more for a great event and a big thanks to Sun-Ringle for supporting the Mobile Social with these wheels – I’m really looking forward to enjoying the fruits of Russell’s handiwork!
Jun
9
Bikes on D-Day
Filed Under Cycling, Interbike, Photos | 10 Comments
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.]
May
22
Memories of Steve Larsen
Filed Under Cycling, Industry News, Photos, Racing | 1 Comment
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.
Apr
13
Hope for the mass channel?
Filed Under Cycling, Gear, Photos | 3 Comments
Was at one of the big national big box mass merchant chain stores over the weekend. Of all the large chains, it’s the one I tolerate the best because of their tasteful sense of design and style and general (perceived?) quality of the merchandise. Unfortunately, that well known sense of style has not generally extended to the bikes they sell. So I was surprised last night to see a bike that transcended the typical mass merchant offerings of triple crown-equipped full-suspension downhill racing-inspired tanks and Barbie themed kid’s bikes last night.
The usual path to the Star Wars (sorry, Clone Wars, according to our 3 year old obsessed fanboy) section leads past the bike aisle. We don’t usually stop in there, but with our daughter’s birthday coming up, and a new bike high on her list, I was curious about her opinion of BMX vs. beach cruiser bike style (about all that’s available in 20″ wheel bikes for 7-year-olds), so we took a detour.
I casually followed an online discussion recently about the role that mass merchants like these could play in getting more people on bikes. For a while now, I’ve felt that the mass is the perfect channel to introduce the non-cycling population to cycling by offering the right bike in a non-threatening environment that they are comfortable in. A fairly practical, easy to ride, sharp-looking bike in a store they already feel comfortable in. It would follow the same lessons that Shimano learned in researching their Coasting project on why 161 million Americans avoid specialty bike shops: They’re apparently intimidated by the perceived complexity of the bikes, the crowded technology-laden merchandising and oft elitist staff.
Here’s what caught my eye:
It’s a “just a bike” bike. With some added style thrown in. The Schwinn Tourist is a decent sporty-looking bike with light 700c aero-profile, paired-spoke wheels; flat bars; linear-pull brakes; tapered straight blade fork; quick release skewers; tasteful satin metallic gray paint. Didn’t really look into other component details, but at a quick glance it’s not exactly your typical department store bike. I know some of you are thinking “yeah, but it’s not a 3-speed internal hub.” Or it’s not a single speed, or have wide enough tires, or have fenders, or dyno powered light or a rack.
Curiosity piqued, I poked around their website when I got home to try to see full specs and how they describe the bike. I was surprised to find a number of other “urban” styled bikes and even two that approached full-on commuter status.
Check out the Schwinn Gridlock with fenders, rack, transparent chain guard, aluminum frame and Amsterdam-esque all black paint scheme:
Or how about the Huffy Commuter (bet you never expected to see those two words together)? Also with fenders and rack and simplified 1×5 drivetrain.
According to the website, these models are only available online and not in stores, which is a shame. It would be great to have models like this in front of the non-cycling public. Still, I think it’s another sign of the organic growth of the bicycle as a means of transportation that we’ve been experiencing over the last few years. (Though with most of these big box stores located in suburbia, you would expect the demand for this category to be weaker than if they were in urban areas.)
But alas, back at the store, I was jerked back to the reality of my surroundings and reminded of one of the top reasons why independent, specialty bike stores are by far the best choice for your next (or first) bike purchase. Just down the aisle from the Tourist was this beauty of a build:
It sort of looks like the curved down tube was designed to actually accommodate the occasional improper fork assembly by store staff, huh? With our litigious society, shouldn’t this scare the heck out of mass market suppliers like Magna? (If you’re new to cycling or didn’t notice, the fork is mounted backwards).
Any other examples of general merchandise or mass merchants starting to catch on to the growth in transportation/utility cycling?
Apr
7
San Diego Custom Bike Show
Filed Under Industry News, Interbike, Photos | 3 Comments
This last Saturday was a busy day for me and cycling. First up at 7:30 am was a date with David Bernstein and several other bike industry types for a recording of the Spokes Cycling Roundtable podcast. I’ve done it once before in addition to recording a holiday gift picks piece back in December. I love listening to the podcast myself, and the chance to participate and chat with David, Tim Jackson of Masi Bikes, Carlton Reid of Bike Biz UK and Richard Masoner (better know by the name Fritz) of the Cyclelicio.us was something I wasn’t about to pass up. Had a good time talking about a range of topics going on the industry lately. You should give it a listen. Check it out at www.the-spokesmen.com.
Following the recording (via Skype) and while Julie and the kids were still out at a friend’s, I managed to squeeze in a couple hour ride out to PCH. It was a gorgeous day and I missed riding all last week with the work load.
To top off the day, after a show and lunch, I headed down to the Mission Valley area of San Diego for the inaugural San Diego Custom Bike Show. Having followed the success of the 3 year old North American Handmade Bike Show from a distance, I was really looking forward to seeing some of the craftsmanship first hand. As an added bonus, Tim – a fellow San Diegan – was going to be there.
While I expected to be floored by aisles full of of amazing bikes, I am really amazed by the sheer number of custom builders that are out there now. Truly unbelievable the quantity of creative craftsmen (and women) that have sprung up over the last 5-10 years. The SD show attracted builder from a number of staes including Oregon and Arizona. Wish I could have taken literature from each, but I didn’t have that much time to spend at the show.
I snapped a bunch of photos of all the beautiful bikes, but am having some trouble with my Flickr account and Wordpress’ image uploading is too slow and cumbersome to handle so many photos, so I’ll post the rest in a bit. Here’s a selection of some of the scenery at the Town & Country Resort and Convention Center:
I love kids’ road bikes an I saw a few here. Abby’s a lucky girl.
Argonaut Cycles had some just beautiful work and attention to detail like this treatment of a new Dura Ace crankset. Improvement over the matte finish, I say.
I had never heard of Argonaut before checking the show’s website for the exhibitor list. I have to say, from top to bottom, they’ve got every detail covered: clean building, awesome paint and professionally designed logo. Argonaut is based in Portland, OR.
Feb
2
Watching the Tour of California on Palomar & Meeting Floyd
Filed Under Cycling, Interbike, Photos, Racing | 4 Comments
On Saturday the Julie and I piled the kids into the car for a ride out to the top of Palomar Mountain, site of the major climb of this year’s Amgen Tour of California on the last stage of the race. I think that it’s safe to assume that Palomar will be the most popular viewing spot for locals since this will be the first time the race has visited deprived San Diego cycling fans on their own turf. The problem is, there’s limited access and it’s not like there are parking spaces lining the narrow two ane access road all the way up to the top. Our plan was to see the climb from a fans point of view and get some idea of what we will need to do to watch the race from a decent spot on the climb without too much stress.
Now if you promise to save us a spot if we’re running late that morning, I’ll let you know what I found out. OK?
Jan
16
Make your own bike lane as you ride?
Filed Under Cycling, Photos | 2 Comments
How about this for a novel approach to bike lights and visibility? Bring your own bike lane with you wherever you go.
Now aren’t freakin’ lasers the solution to all of society’s ills?
The idea – called the LightLane – (just a concept at this point as far as I can tell) comes from two designers that work for a design firm called Altitude, Inc. Read their original post about the light here.
From the posts by pro- and anti-bikes-on-the-road people on another blog, this would be either a revolutionary enhancement in cyclist safety or the final straw to encourage acts of rage against cyclists by motorists harboring some latent hatred of us.
Nov
17
Final Day of the SoCal Bike Dealer Tour
Filed Under Attendee News, Cycling, Exhibitor News, Industry News, Interbike, Photos, Rides | 5 Comments
Last day of the Bicycle Retailer & Industry News SoCal Bike Dealer Tour was a big one. Just about 15 riders on today’s route including Tony Lo, CEO of Giant Bicycles who had flown in from Taiwan. A few more Giant staffers joined us for the ride from the BRAIN offices to dealers in Dana Point and San Juan Capistrano, California. It’s been a great week of riding, chatting with fellow industry members and hearing insightful comments from retailers. I took some notes, but so far have just had time to post photos and quick comments about the shosps we’ve visited and some of the people I rode with and met on the tour.
This has been a great concept and all of us basked in the neutral BRAIN glow as dealers opened up to us and expressed their hopes, expectations, results and experiences of the past and future of the bike business. And it was a good excuse to get out of the office and ride a really nice bike for a week…
At Interbike in 2007, I was walking around with a camera crew from Cycling.TV looking for footage of interesting sites and events to capture. I led them over to the MirraCo booth where bmx legend Dave Mirra was supposed to be wrapping up an autograph session. Since the booth looked quiet, I walked up to the guy standing near the entrance to the booth and ended up asking Dave Mirra himself if “Dave was coming back to sign more autographs” later that day. Mr. Foot, meet Mr. Mouth. Without saying a word, Dave pointed to his head with both hands and smiled. Now, I don’t think I can be faulted for not recognizing fellow-bmx kegend, Perry Kramer, he of PK Ripper fame, last Tuesday on our tour, but I was darn happy to see him in the BRAIN office again on Friday so that I could properly introduce myself and express my excitement in meeting the Man. Turns out we’re almost neighbors and he offered to show me some trails near my house. The fact that he is PK would explain why he was jumping every curb and bunny-hopping sewer greats the whole ride on his flat-bar road bike.
Another very familiar face (and new ex-coworker) getting ready for the day’s ride was Robert Roman, now in the employs of Bicycle Retailer. After 9 years serving Interbike exhibitors, Robert decided to make a change and move a few exits north on the 5 freeway to our industry’s trade mag. We’ll miss his wit and sense of humor here, but will hopefully still get to experience his powerful turn of the pedals on a regular basis as BRAIN’s lunch rides frequently go past Interbike’s HQ.
Nice to see Fred Clements, executive director of the NBDA, working from the saddle of a bike. This is why we all work in this industry, right?
Mr. Tony Lo, CEO of Giant Bicycles. Guest of honor on today’s ride and inspiration for the whole tour itself. Tony’s industry tour of Taiwan last year planted the seed for this Stateside version. Tony is an avid cyclist and rides with style and class.
Nov
12
Day Two on the SoCal Bike Dealer Tour
Filed Under Attendee News, Cycling, Exhibitor News, Industry News, Interbike, Photos, Rides | 1 Comment
Setting out for day two of our tour of SoCal bike dealers, we made a friend. One of the best parts of road riding is running into other riders along the way and then spending the next few miles chatting. I forget this rider’s name, but when he heard we were all from the industry, he told us that he used to work for GT back in the day.
One constant at all but one shop we’ve visited so far is that fixed gear bikes are firmly entrenched in their shops. Most had a special section devoted to fixie gear, but even traditionally mountain bike focused shops like The Path in Tustin have seen fixie cultire become an important catgory and visible presence on the show floor as evidenced by the MKS and Nitto caps for sale.
Here’s part of The Path’s fixie parts and accessories section that was typical of most shops on out tour. And remember, this is Orange County – not New York, San Francisco or even LA. The fixed gear phenomenon has hit suburbia pretty hard.
Nov
11
Day One Visiting SoCal Bike Dealers
Filed Under Attendee News, Cycling, Events, Industry News, Interbike, Photos, Rides | Comments Off
Great first day riding to shops in Orange County here in Southern California. Saw a real range of business models and shop types. Just a few brief notes and photos sonce time has been tight and at the end of the day I was just exhausted. Happily, we haven’t heard any gloom and doom stories related to the poor state of the economy and newly low(er) gas prices. Although, the OC is not exactly your typical demographic when it comes to the economy.
Here’s the gang at the Bicycle Retailer & Industry News world headquarters before we set off. We’re all on very nice Giants and are sporting Giant and Pedro’s jerseys courtesy of the ride sponsors. Thanks! Left to right: Chris Zigmont of Pedro’s, Jason Norman, Megan Tompkins and Marc Sani of BRAIN, An Le of Giant, Lynette Carpiet of BRAIN, myself, and Nicole Formosa of BRAIN.
First stop was Ladera Cyclery in Ladera Ranch. Nice higher end shop with a range of family to high end road and tri gear. Jeff is the owner and is passionate about cycling.
Very different and up next is the classic shop Bicic Sports owned by Marcel Calborn. BS is in the vein of classic road shops. They definitely speak Campy here. I remember first seeing him almost 10 years ago at the ol LA Bike Expo selling Mapei team bikes since he was friends with someoneo on the team. Very cool. Still has tons of classic bikes and gear in the shop. Endless trove of stories to go along with them.
Marcel has made his own brand of frames for over 20 years including this old school time trial bike with the Silva aluminum disc wheels. I love this stuff. The counter displays are full of old cranks and Delta Brakes.
How many shops have Colnago and Pogliaghi tandems in stock?
Any shop can have a shop-brnaded water bottle, but how many have shop pantographed cranksets?
If you’re ever in the shop, ask Marcel about his Jacques Villeneuve Vespa. If you don’t know who Villeneuve was, don’t bother.
Edge Cyclesports in Laguna Woods is a contrast to Bici Sports: high end boutique road and tri shop. Only the latest bikes and gear, all super high end. Most striking, though, is how nice and welcoming co-owner Mary Ann is. Maybe it’s because she’s from Ohio. One of the niceset and most fiercely knowledgeable people in the bike industry I’ve met. I’ve been to many high end shops in my life, and unfortunately, many of them come with a high dose of arrogance. Not so at Edge.
Mary Anne made sure to point out the (hard to miss) Ridely Dean – one of the only that have made their way into a shop in the US so far. This was one of THE hot bikes at Interbike this year.
They love Made in USA (and Canada) brands like IF, Calfee and Guru. This IF fixie is beautiful.
On our way to the next shop, we came upon this group of OC fixie hipsters. There’s even a Bianchi Pista in there to complete the look. It’s amazing to me how much fixies have infiltrated suburbia. Where are suburban kids seeing them to get the influence?
When we got to Jax Bicycles in Irvine, we were welcomed by this nice display of balloons, snacks and cool drinks (hope the rest of our tour stops are reading this…).
Dave Hansen, the owner, is passionate about his business and gave us a great presentation on his business philosophy. Jax is a Trek concept store and is very nicely laid out and designed. He’s really focused into the numbers of his business and should be an inspiration to all retailers in that regard. “What gets measured gets done.” He’s very open about his business with both employees and his suppliers. He’s also very willing to help out his fellow retailers as it will elevate the bike retail business for all if all are stronger and doing better. amen.
We’ve got four more shops on the schedule for today. Weather looks good again this morning. Ride on!