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Nov
19
CNN: Coming to a store near you: chainless bicycles
Filed Under Exhibitor News, Industry News, Interbike | 6 Comments
At a time when gas prices are dropping faster than the stock market these days, the number of non-endemic, mainstream media pieces on bikes as transportation has really started to dwindle, unfortunately. This is despite the fact that shops still seem to be benefitting from this movement toward the bike over other energy-wasting forms of locomotion.
So it was refreshing to see bike story on the front page of a mainstream media outlet this morning. CNN.com featured a story about how belt drives for bicycles may be set to revolutionize cycling and commuting cycling especially. As can be expected from the non-cycling press, it’s a little behind the times as belt drives have been around for a while now and they really came out as the latest “overnight success” story at Interbike in 2007 under the Spot brand.
The CNN piece focuses on the fact that Trek is releasing their District belt-driven model and it is the first production-level effort in the category. I can’t think of any evidence to the contrary, so I’ll take their word for it.
From what I’ve read about the bike, it seems like a really nice package. The style is very current fixie-hipster with the de rigeur colored deep-v rims (Velocity?), leather saddle and grips, and low-slung flat bars – though it seems like it won’t be easy to convert to actual fixed gear operation. The bike uses the Gates belt drive system.
An interesting little tidbit at the end of the article is a quote from David Oakley, a manager at Agee’s Bikes in Richmond, VA:
“From a maintenance standpoint, it’s huge,” he said. “If this really, completely takes off, the lubricant industry is probably not going to be excited.”
Look for Pedro’s, Finish Line, White Lightning and the rest of the bike lube cartel to buy up belt drive patents and hide them away in some safe deposit box.
While searching for belt drive info for this post, I found this video from Interbike 2007 on the “Unofficial Trek District Blog.”
Apr
22
Sea Otter Video – Trek’s Women Who Ride Club
Filed Under Advocacy, Blogging, Exhibitor News, Interbike, Video | 1 Comment
More video from Sea Otter. This time I had the pleasure of sitting with Krista Rettig of Trek Bicycles. Krista is the brand manager for their women’s division and Sea Otter was her first duty back on the job following maternity leave. The tent we were sitting under was for their new “Women Who Ride” club program that they were launching in a few days time. From the jackets we’re wearing, you can see that the weather was turning a bit more Sea Otter-like on day two. Day three would bring a high of 52F.
The new club is designed to encourage women to overcome real or perceived challenges to riding by being a part of an online community of fellow women cyclists. Members can share stories and successes and follow the blogs of 5 women selected from a writing contest to describe their journeys in cycling.
Programs to encourage greater women’s participation in cycling are important to me not only as the father of a girl, but as the husband of a Cat 2 racer (semi-retired) who credits a women-only, season-long race series as getting her started in racing. If it weren’t for her racing, we never would have met on that Tuesday night training ride.
Along with their “One World, Two Wheels” advocacy program (which I called “Two Wheels, One Planet” in the interview), this new effort shows Trek’s continuing commitment to getting more people riding.
You can read more about the club here: www.trekbikes.com/women
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!