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Aug
12
New Interbike Jersey by Hincapie Sports
Filed Under Interbike, Photos | 8 Comments
“Our jerseys arrived!”
Is there a more anticipated event than the arrival of your new custom designed bike jersey? The agonizing (arguing?) over the final design with your team mates or co-workers is well behind you, and now you’re just waiting for the actual physical manifestations of that illustration that you all agreed to. Well, for us, the payoff for the wait happened this week.
Several boxes from our long time (8 years now?) jersey partners at Hincapie Sports arrived, and were summarily ripped open. We’re super happy with the design that Jennie Brewton, our art director, came up with celebrating the 30th edition of the show this year. I goes without saying the quality of the jersey and the sublimation of the designs are first class. Big thanks go to the team at Hincapie for always doing a great job!
May
16
Are We There Yet?
Filed Under Deep Thoughts, Green Efforts, Interbike, Photos | Comments Off
Now is it high enough now to get people to step away from the car?
Happy Bike to Work Week!
Apr
20
The Angry Birds Ride Super Record
Filed Under Cycling, humor, Interbike, Photos | 2 Comments
Apparently the Angry Birds have good taste in bike components. Or at least the owner of this app-inspired bike I came across at the Sea Otter Classic last week does. Considering Sea Otter is held not far from the valley of silicon, maybe this bike is owned by someone who’s profited from the game. Given the price of Super Record and the gazillion downloads of the addictive mobile game, that wouldn’t be so far fetched…
Update: Seems like the bike was from Inertai Racing Technology’s booth at Sea Otter. Apparently it’s a custom painted Giant SL Advance. See more about the bike and the company here.
Apr
4
For Those That Say Cycling is the New Golf
Filed Under Photos | Comments Off
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I say, why give up one for the other?
This was one of the finalists in the International Bicycle Design Competition shown at the 2011 Taipei Cycle Show recently. All of the finalists were displayed as models. To see a few more of the bikes from the competition, visit our Facebook page here.
Dec
16
Campy USA Holiday Ride
Filed Under Cycling, Industry News, Interbike, Photos, Rides | Comments Off
A holiday cycling event is the perfect catalyst to get us back into the blogging swing of things after having fallen off the wagon earlier this year. And since it’s still twenty ten, I get to avoid being lumped in with all the new years resolutions of “I’ll post more frequently this year.”
The guys at Campagnolo North America have hosted an annual holiday ride and gift drive here in Southern California for the last 3 years now. It’s a great cause and a nice chance to meet up and ride with fellow bike industry members and cyclists. Campy’s headquarters in the USA are in Carlsbad, California – about 35 miles up the coast from San Diego. You can tell the location when walking through the office and seeing the stash of employee surfboards in the back room. They’re literally about a few minute ride from some prime SoCal surf spots.
The ride took place two weekends ago, and I had the rare pleasure of also being able to ride with my wife Julie. I’m really lucky to have married a passionate cyclist, but with two small kids at home, the chances to ride together are very infrequent. With the kids settled at their Sunday morning play date, off we went.
There were about 60 people on the ride this year. MUCH better weather than last year’s un-San Diego like cold rain contributed to the the good showing. Riders from a bunch of the region’s bike companies showed up like Focus Bikes, SockGuy, Canari Cyclewear, Road Bike Action Magazine, RedKitePrayer.com, Peloton Magazine, Campagnolo (obviously) and a good showing from local bike shops. I wish I could have met everyone.
The ride rolled down the Pacific Coast Highway from Carlsbad. We first stopped at Swami’s Beach in Encinitas to regroup. This is one of the great surf spots in SoCal. Don’t let all the long sleeves and tights fool you. It wasn’t that cold. We’re just soft in this part of the country.
The ride turnaround for most of us at the top of the Torrey Pines climb near the famous golf course. Anywherebicyclerepair.com was kind to provide support and snacks at the turn around. With all the industry types and bike experts, it didn’t seem like anyone needed much help, though. Thanks, guys!
This is Julie (my lovely bride) and Mark from Canari Cyclewear. mark handles the custom apparel division for Canari. If you order your team or club stuff from them, Mark makes sure that it gets done right.
That’s Tom Kattus, the general manager of Campagnolo USA in the blue Campy jersey and our ride’s host and MC. Campy has a good man in charge of the brand here in the US. Thanks for putting the ride on, Tom!
This journalist and blogger Patrick Brady of RedKitePrayer.com. You might also know him as Padraig, formerly of BelgiumKneeWarmers fame. He came down from the LA area for the ride. Nice RKP kit, Patrick! No sign of Radio Freddy, though.
Bicycle John’s made it down to the ride. BJ’s is a great shop with a bunch of locations in the LA area. I visited their Burbank location about 8 years ago and remember being impressed that they were located right in the middle of all the Hollywood film and TV studios.
Me and the missus at Torrey Pines. She’s been riding more and even talking about getting back into racing after an 8 year sabbatical raising two kids (one of whom asked for a “road bike like mommy and daddy’s” for Christmas this year. Don’t tell her, but she’s getting a cool 24″ Schwinn Midi Fastback…). Julie retired as a Cat 2, so I’m sure she won’t have any problems.
This is what it’s really all about. The guys at Campy were able to collect two huge boxes of toys to donate to kids who will need some extra love this holiday season. Personally, I’m jealous of the kid who’s getting that Campy gift in the picture. I’m still a kid in spirit, Tom…
Thanks again to Tom Kattus and the team at Campy USA for getting us all out for a ride together for a great cause. Looking forward to next year’s ride!
Jun
2
You know, when we launched the Urban Legend fashion show at the 2008 show, we really tried to create a different kind of fashion show. The focus of the show would be on urban and utilitarian cycling wear, emphasizing the growing community of designers of cycling apparel that deliberately didn’t look like traditional technical cycling clothes. This was apparel designed so that the wearer would not draw a second glance from others when not astride a bike. With the growing use of bikes for everyday transportation in recent years, we endeavored to give members of the industry a glimpse at a trend that was largely being created outside of the mainstream bike industry.
While the concept of models dancing on a stage in bike wear seems to work in Europe, we didn’t believe that the format was ideal for the US market and the style of apparel we were looking to feature. In search of the right format to showcase this apparel at the show, I came across a video of Momentum Magazine‘s small fashion show that they had put on in an art gallery in Vancouver the previous year. The concept of the models actually showing the outfits while riding bikes on a small bike path throughout the audience was genius. A quick phone call to Mia at Momentum got the ball rolling and we’ve had two great fashion shows so far that have really struck a cord with the industry and cycling community.
But while the dancing-models-on-a-stage concept might not have worked for Urban Legend in the late 2000′s (aughts? ’00′s?), it obviously has worked at Interbikes past. Take a look at this scan that I took from the 1984 Interbike event guide.
In 1984, Interbike was in Las Vegas and the Rams were still based in Los Angeles. For those not in North America, the Rams – now based in St. Louis – are a professional gridiron football team. I can’t think of a choice of models more diametrically opposed in both appearance and spirit to those we’ve used in Urban Legend than pro football cheerleaders. Though judging by the number of ads in the magazine for super shiny bright skin-tight Lycra jerseys and shorts, I suppose they were an appropriate choice for the styles popular at the time.
There are some choice quotes from the text to enjoy along with the mental image that the thought of mid ’80′s cheerleaders conjures, too:
Star attractions of the show will be the L.A. Rams Cheerleaders, fresh from an appearance on the George Burns television special.
I’d bet that they’d also been featured in an episode of the Love Boat.
While she wouldn’t reveal specifics prior to curtain time, she hinted at some truly memorable moments–including a slow-motion triathlon…
Now that’s a coincidence. I performed a slow-motion triathlon once, too. But unfortunately, it was at the Cape Cod Sprint Triathlon back in ’93.
Not surprisingly, it was my one and only tri.
I’m clearly having some fun at the expense of my predecessors here at Interbike who worked hard to bring you this show. But lest you think that I have something against cheerleaders, here’s a photo of me at the Tour of Palm Springs a few years back with the Xavier Prep School Saints cheerleaders who were enthusiastically welcoming all riders into one of the rest stops.
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?