A comment from reader Johnny C prompted me to look a little more closely at the press releases from BRAIN and Velonews regarding the Cannondale buy out.
It appears I was wrong. On first read, I thought the BRAIN article said that Cannondale would be split into two divisions, which was also the way Big Jonny hinted that it would be, but it is actually parent company Dorel they were talking about.
Anyway, sorry for spreading false rumors.
Dan
Saturday, February 9, 2008
Friday, February 8, 2008
Charlie can type!
Turns out Charlie can type! And he put his typing skills to good use, and penned a very well thought out review of his Rocky Mountain ETSX Team, published over on Bikefix, the ultimate unbiased bike review site. I believe Charlie was inspired to write a review, after reading this review of the ETSX, that was brought to our attention by our Rocky rep.
Funny, as we're trying to sell this bike and all, that Charlie's review is decided less positive than the other one. It's not negative by any means, but surprisingly objective coming from a retailer of said bike. Perhaps we're just too honest to be good salesmen? Or perhaps Charlie's just a little too picky?
I know it's getting to be short notice, but a little reminder about tomorrows alleycat in Albuquerque, Going Postal, starting at Noon at the Duck Pond. Rumor has it, the race will be ending at Bikeworks, and another rumor has it that there will be copious amounts of free beer and food there. I'm planning on attending, while Senior Swinton will be singlehandedly running the store.
We sent a set of White Industries Double Double cranks, chainring, and freewheel out the door today. It was a sweet setup, and very very shiny. We like shiny.
This video was brought to our attention recently, plucked from the cornucopia of awesomeness that is How To Avoid The Bummer Life
Having thrown a few "parent out of town, let get rowdy" parties in my youth, I found the video and it's star very amusing. The best thing about it though, is how he didn't let the uppity TV woman bully him.
A little bit of industry news making the rounds lately is that Cannondale has been bought by the same company that owns Schwinn and Pacific, and Cannondale labeled bikes will become available in department stores in the near future. Having never been much of a Crackandfail fan, I found the news mostly entertaining. But it is a bit sad, as that is one less company of that size to compete with the mega brands such as Spez and Trek, and that much less variety will be available. On the up side, maybe this means that a few more people will buy a bike that actually rides well.
That's about all the pseudo-cleverness I can muster for now. Til next time.
Funny, as we're trying to sell this bike and all, that Charlie's review is decided less positive than the other one. It's not negative by any means, but surprisingly objective coming from a retailer of said bike. Perhaps we're just too honest to be good salesmen? Or perhaps Charlie's just a little too picky?
I know it's getting to be short notice, but a little reminder about tomorrows alleycat in Albuquerque, Going Postal, starting at Noon at the Duck Pond. Rumor has it, the race will be ending at Bikeworks, and another rumor has it that there will be copious amounts of free beer and food there. I'm planning on attending, while Senior Swinton will be singlehandedly running the store.
We sent a set of White Industries Double Double cranks, chainring, and freewheel out the door today. It was a sweet setup, and very very shiny. We like shiny.
This video was brought to our attention recently, plucked from the cornucopia of awesomeness that is How To Avoid The Bummer Life
Having thrown a few "parent out of town, let get rowdy" parties in my youth, I found the video and it's star very amusing. The best thing about it though, is how he didn't let the uppity TV woman bully him.
A little bit of industry news making the rounds lately is that Cannondale has been bought by the same company that owns Schwinn and Pacific, and Cannondale labeled bikes will become available in department stores in the near future. Having never been much of a Crackandfail fan, I found the news mostly entertaining. But it is a bit sad, as that is one less company of that size to compete with the mega brands such as Spez and Trek, and that much less variety will be available. On the up side, maybe this means that a few more people will buy a bike that actually rides well.
That's about all the pseudo-cleverness I can muster for now. Til next time.
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Sad News In The Cycling World
As many of you have already heard, Sheldon Brown died this week.
Wonderful tributes to Sheldon can already be found all over the internet, check out Bikesnob NYC
for some very thoughtful and eloquent words.
If any of you aren't familiar with Sheldon Brown, I strongly recommend you spend some time looking through the articles on his website. It will show you very clearly how much you don't know about bikes. His dedication and knowledge are a huge loss to the cycling community, and we are very fortunate that he took the time and effort to put as much of his knowledge that he did down in writing.
Wonderful tributes to Sheldon can already be found all over the internet, check out Bikesnob NYC
for some very thoughtful and eloquent words.
If any of you aren't familiar with Sheldon Brown, I strongly recommend you spend some time looking through the articles on his website. It will show you very clearly how much you don't know about bikes. His dedication and knowledge are a huge loss to the cycling community, and we are very fortunate that he took the time and effort to put as much of his knowledge that he did down in writing.
Monday, February 4, 2008
Busy Day on Saturday, Danny gets a new fixie
So Saturday was probably the busiest day we've had to date. It wasn't the most we've done through the register (although it was pretty good), but the amount of people coming through the door was amazing. Well, it was amazing for us, and our tiny little store, and the three of us working. We all spent the whole day talking to one person after the next, and it was quite enjoyable. Made us start thinking that we might need some help this spring, when it finally gets nice out again.
I was starting to wonder how so many people are hearing about us. We only advertised for three weeks when we first opened, and haven't had any ads out since the first week of December. I guess it's mainly word of mouth. Albuquerque sure can seem like a small city some times. We've had tremendous feedback so far. Despite the number of bike shops in town, people are really excited about what we're doing, our approach, our inventory, and in general, they just love the Dans (they think Charlie is ok, but I wouldn't say they love him. The Dans love him though, so therefore through the transitive property of loviness, they people love Charlie too, so he shouldn't go feeling bad about anything).
I sold a Country Road Bob, which leaves us with just one more, in a 56. Word on the street is, the lovely gal that bought it likes it a lot, which makes us happy.
We're starting to wonder if in the future we should stock more frames, less complete bikes, and put emphasis on custom builds. Does anybody have an opinion on that? We're always looking for feedback and suggestions from customers, since we're all new to this whole business ownership gig.
Danny's new Sanchez frame came in, and he built it promptly.
So we no longer have a pair of those sweet "wood" rims I was bragging about a few weeks ago. But I imagine we'll be getting some more soon. You can't really tell too well from the pic, but those rims go very well with the faux galvanized finish of the Sanchez frame. Best looking bike I've ever seen Danny ride.
He said it got very positive feedback when parked at his second home, the Anodyne, last night. And in all honesty, that's the whole point of a sweet fixie, looking good at the bar, is it not? Danny said as he was leaving work today that he was heading over to Buffalo Exchange to look for a nice pair of girl jeans that he could barely fit into to go along with his new bike. And tomorrow we're gonna take that ridiculous track bar off his track bike and replace it with a pair of 2 inch riser mtn bars, cut down just wide enough so that we can fit a pair of Oury grips on them, probably pink ones if we can find them. Of course he'll then have to flip his stem. Then, all he will have to do is stop wearing a helmet, stop riding his bike more than 10 miles at a time (which is good advice if your wearing girl jeans), and then start talking about how he's gonna move to New York and start messengering. That's my grand plan for Danny, I wonder how he feels about it?
I was starting to wonder how so many people are hearing about us. We only advertised for three weeks when we first opened, and haven't had any ads out since the first week of December. I guess it's mainly word of mouth. Albuquerque sure can seem like a small city some times. We've had tremendous feedback so far. Despite the number of bike shops in town, people are really excited about what we're doing, our approach, our inventory, and in general, they just love the Dans (they think Charlie is ok, but I wouldn't say they love him. The Dans love him though, so therefore through the transitive property of loviness, they people love Charlie too, so he shouldn't go feeling bad about anything).
I sold a Country Road Bob, which leaves us with just one more, in a 56. Word on the street is, the lovely gal that bought it likes it a lot, which makes us happy.
We're starting to wonder if in the future we should stock more frames, less complete bikes, and put emphasis on custom builds. Does anybody have an opinion on that? We're always looking for feedback and suggestions from customers, since we're all new to this whole business ownership gig.
Danny's new Sanchez frame came in, and he built it promptly.
So we no longer have a pair of those sweet "wood" rims I was bragging about a few weeks ago. But I imagine we'll be getting some more soon. You can't really tell too well from the pic, but those rims go very well with the faux galvanized finish of the Sanchez frame. Best looking bike I've ever seen Danny ride.
He said it got very positive feedback when parked at his second home, the Anodyne, last night. And in all honesty, that's the whole point of a sweet fixie, looking good at the bar, is it not? Danny said as he was leaving work today that he was heading over to Buffalo Exchange to look for a nice pair of girl jeans that he could barely fit into to go along with his new bike. And tomorrow we're gonna take that ridiculous track bar off his track bike and replace it with a pair of 2 inch riser mtn bars, cut down just wide enough so that we can fit a pair of Oury grips on them, probably pink ones if we can find them. Of course he'll then have to flip his stem. Then, all he will have to do is stop wearing a helmet, stop riding his bike more than 10 miles at a time (which is good advice if your wearing girl jeans), and then start talking about how he's gonna move to New York and start messengering. That's my grand plan for Danny, I wonder how he feels about it?
Adventures with Maverick
Went to Maverick Tech School at Maverick headquarters in Boulder this weeks with Danny, it was a very educational and fun trip.
The guys at Maverick totally styled us out and treated us like kings. Their hospitality and generosity was amazing.
Wednesday morning was spent meeting everybody at Maverick, which surprisingly consists of just about 8 people, all of whom are totally rad and exactly the sort of people you think should be running a bike company. We had a nice long chat with the guys from the other bike shops that were there and Maverick co-owner Frank Vogel.
We then got a tour of the facilities, and then suited up for a ride on a nearby trail.
It was a short ride, but a very cool trail that was ideal for suspension testing; fast, with lots of square edge hits, a good number of baby heads, some hard cornering, a few g-outs, and more than a few places to get off the ground. The ride was just long enough to help Dan and I sweat out a little beer from the night before, and prep us to start drinking again, which happened to be in the parking lot.
Then off to burgers and more beer, back to the shop for a few hours of tech talk, and back out to dinner and more beers.
Thursday we met in the morning again, and had a pretty intensive couple hour talk with Frank about the finer points of suspension design, wheel path, chain growth, leverage ratios, and a whole bunch of other things that had a suspension dork such as myself very excited.
We spent some time examining a video that they made to analyze wheel paths of several different suspension designs, which can be found here. If anybody would like to have their ear talked off about the finer points of wheel path and chain growth, give me a call at the shop, and get ready to geek out.
I learned quite a bit, and I am now much more suited to put into words what I already knew from riding my Maverick, and explain what exactly it is that makes them ride so well.
Then we finished off the visit with a hands on tech session with Ethan, which covered hints and tips on tuning and rebuilding Maverick forks and shocks, which I enjoyed thoroughly.
Here are a few pics that I took during the trip.
A Maverick townie, with some of the sweetest bars and fender I've seen.
A plethora of Mavericks at the trailhead. This is what we're gonna have the trailheads around Albuquerque looking like in a couple years.
This is a very early prototype that I spotted hanging from the ceiling. Things have changed a lot with them since 2000. I particularly like the Maverick tuned dual crown SID, I wonder why Rock Shox doesn't make those anymore, I mean, who doesn't want 3 foot long 28.6 mm stanchions?
I was born in Boulder, and lived there until I was 13 years old. Every time I go back to visit, I wonder if I'll run into somebody I knew from childhood. Don't really expect it to happen since it's been 12 years since I left. But surprisingly, I happened to go to Jr. High with one of the guys at Maverick, Andy Emanuel. Also surprisingly, we both remembered each other. It's amazing the amount of stuff that floats around in your brain that you don't realize is there, like the face of somebody you went to school with 12 years ago, who wasn't even one of your close buddies.
I found it kind of funny how we both went to college at the same time, graduated in 5 years with Mechanical Engineering degrees, and then went to work in the bike industry. And, I had actually applied at Maverick, probably right around the time that he was hired on, about 2 years ago.
Anyways, it was pretty cool seeing him again.
All in all, the trip was a lot of fun, and we want to say thanks again to all the guys at Maverick for spending their time and money to have us out.
All in all, it was a very fun
The guys at Maverick totally styled us out and treated us like kings. Their hospitality and generosity was amazing.
Wednesday morning was spent meeting everybody at Maverick, which surprisingly consists of just about 8 people, all of whom are totally rad and exactly the sort of people you think should be running a bike company. We had a nice long chat with the guys from the other bike shops that were there and Maverick co-owner Frank Vogel.
We then got a tour of the facilities, and then suited up for a ride on a nearby trail.
It was a short ride, but a very cool trail that was ideal for suspension testing; fast, with lots of square edge hits, a good number of baby heads, some hard cornering, a few g-outs, and more than a few places to get off the ground. The ride was just long enough to help Dan and I sweat out a little beer from the night before, and prep us to start drinking again, which happened to be in the parking lot.
Then off to burgers and more beer, back to the shop for a few hours of tech talk, and back out to dinner and more beers.
Thursday we met in the morning again, and had a pretty intensive couple hour talk with Frank about the finer points of suspension design, wheel path, chain growth, leverage ratios, and a whole bunch of other things that had a suspension dork such as myself very excited.
We spent some time examining a video that they made to analyze wheel paths of several different suspension designs, which can be found here. If anybody would like to have their ear talked off about the finer points of wheel path and chain growth, give me a call at the shop, and get ready to geek out.
I learned quite a bit, and I am now much more suited to put into words what I already knew from riding my Maverick, and explain what exactly it is that makes them ride so well.
Then we finished off the visit with a hands on tech session with Ethan, which covered hints and tips on tuning and rebuilding Maverick forks and shocks, which I enjoyed thoroughly.
Here are a few pics that I took during the trip.
A Maverick townie, with some of the sweetest bars and fender I've seen.
A plethora of Mavericks at the trailhead. This is what we're gonna have the trailheads around Albuquerque looking like in a couple years.
This is a very early prototype that I spotted hanging from the ceiling. Things have changed a lot with them since 2000. I particularly like the Maverick tuned dual crown SID, I wonder why Rock Shox doesn't make those anymore, I mean, who doesn't want 3 foot long 28.6 mm stanchions?
I was born in Boulder, and lived there until I was 13 years old. Every time I go back to visit, I wonder if I'll run into somebody I knew from childhood. Don't really expect it to happen since it's been 12 years since I left. But surprisingly, I happened to go to Jr. High with one of the guys at Maverick, Andy Emanuel. Also surprisingly, we both remembered each other. It's amazing the amount of stuff that floats around in your brain that you don't realize is there, like the face of somebody you went to school with 12 years ago, who wasn't even one of your close buddies.
I found it kind of funny how we both went to college at the same time, graduated in 5 years with Mechanical Engineering degrees, and then went to work in the bike industry. And, I had actually applied at Maverick, probably right around the time that he was hired on, about 2 years ago.
Anyways, it was pretty cool seeing him again.
All in all, the trip was a lot of fun, and we want to say thanks again to all the guys at Maverick for spending their time and money to have us out.
All in all, it was a very fun
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