Haven't been posting much lately, as we've had all sorts of stuff going on, and the shop has been busier than ever.
Starting with last weekend, we all went and raced the La Tierra Torture on Sunday in Santa Fe. It was a good time. We had myself, Danny, Charlie, Marc, and Travitron all rocking the Bikeworks jerseys and racing singlespeeds. Danny got second place, Marc got third, I got winded trying to keep up with them, thought I was going to die, and then wisely slowed way down. It was a really fun race, a challenging course, beautiful weather, and a great way to spend a Sunday.
Then on Tuesday, we had the Rocky Mtn. demo tour van in town, and we all went to the Tuesday Night Crit. We brought our BBQ, handed out several dozen Sausages and beers, did a giveaway for a Polar heart rate monitor and bike computer, and generally hijacked the race and used it for our own promotional purposes. In the end, everybody seemed to think it was cool (mostly because of the free food and beer, I think).
Wednesday followed with our Rocky Mtn. demo day up at Elena Gallegos. It turned out to be another beautiful day, and we had a pretty large turnout. I got to ride a little on an Element 70, which was a bad idea, because now I want one. The whole event was a great success, and I'm pretty sure we're gonna sell a couple of bikes because of it. Thanks to Rocky for offering such an awesome service for it's shops.
Thursday was just a busy day at the shop. It was Danny's last day before he went on vacation, I think he went alligator hunting in the Bayou or something, so there was a lot of odds and ends to wrap up. We were pretty nervous about being away from each other for more than one day at a time, as we've been spending 6 days a week together for quite some time now, but I think we'll find a way to get through it.
Yesterday was another very busy day, largely thanks to Tony, who has already had an impact on our sales volume, and now here I am, Saturday morning, talking about the shop, before I go to the shop. When I get home tonight, I'll undoubtedly continue talking about the shop, and maybe on Sunday I'll pop in for a little while to get some things organized.
I've been working six days a week, but like Tony told a customer, as they sat on the couch drinking beer yesterday afternoon, "my job is way cooler than yours."
Saturday, May 10, 2008
Bikeworks ABQ Corporate News!
In a move that's making major headlines on Wallstreet, Bikeworks ABQ LLC has recently merged with Gradillas Enterprises Inc.
Tony Gradillas, CEO of Gradillas Enterprises, has already begun working with Bikeworks ABQ as of this week. As a result of Gradillas' involvement, several changes at Bikeworks are already noticeable, such a significant increase in downhill bike business, a significant decrease in unsightly clutter, and an exponential increase in use of the phrase "by chance".
Bikeworks and Gradillas Ent. began negotiations several months ago, when Gradillas expressed interest in someday starting a bike shop. Bikeworks knew that competing with Gradillas would be extremely difficult, and made an offer of partial ownership, very low pay, extremely long hours, and lots and lots of beer. Gradillas countered, demanding significant cereal and milk supplies be kept on hand at all times, and an agreement was made.
If you happen to be part of the 87% of the earths population with whom Tony Gradillas is on a first name basis, come by and say hi, have a beer, and say congrats to Tony.
Tony Gradillas, CEO of Gradillas Enterprises, has already begun working with Bikeworks ABQ as of this week. As a result of Gradillas' involvement, several changes at Bikeworks are already noticeable, such a significant increase in downhill bike business, a significant decrease in unsightly clutter, and an exponential increase in use of the phrase "by chance".
Bikeworks and Gradillas Ent. began negotiations several months ago, when Gradillas expressed interest in someday starting a bike shop. Bikeworks knew that competing with Gradillas would be extremely difficult, and made an offer of partial ownership, very low pay, extremely long hours, and lots and lots of beer. Gradillas countered, demanding significant cereal and milk supplies be kept on hand at all times, and an agreement was made.
If you happen to be part of the 87% of the earths population with whom Tony Gradillas is on a first name basis, come by and say hi, have a beer, and say congrats to Tony.
Monday, May 5, 2008
Rocky Mountain Demo Update!
We've made a last minute change of plans.
We are relocating our Rocky Mtn. Bike-BQ to the Tuesday Night Crit, which starts tomorrow (May 6th) at the Baloon Fiesta Park.
Tuesday Night Crit info can be found here....
http://www.nmcycling.org/flyers/TNC_flyer.pdf
We think it will be fun, there should be a lot of bikers there, the crit is always a good time, and Danny and I wanted to race, so we decided to move our shenanegans to the crit.
We'll be bringing our BBQ and beverages, and tail-gating bike dork style.
Hope you all can make it.
We are relocating our Rocky Mtn. Bike-BQ to the Tuesday Night Crit, which starts tomorrow (May 6th) at the Baloon Fiesta Park.
Tuesday Night Crit info can be found here....
http://www.nmcycling.org/flyers/TNC_flyer.pdf
We think it will be fun, there should be a lot of bikers there, the crit is always a good time, and Danny and I wanted to race, so we decided to move our shenanegans to the crit.
We'll be bringing our BBQ and beverages, and tail-gating bike dork style.
Hope you all can make it.
Monday, April 28, 2008
Cycling Safety Statistics
I've mentioned Dave Moulton's bike blog before, and I link it in our link section.
His most recent post lays out a number of statistics about the safety of cycling in comparison to other activities, mostly driving. I'm not sure where these numbers come from, but they are some numbers that I've been wondering about for a while.
There are some crazy stats, such as, per million hours spent cycling the fatality rate is 0.26, as compared to 0.47 for driving.
Check it out.... http://davesbikeblog.blogspot.com/2008/04/cyclists-live-longer.html
I'm interested in this because of how often I meet people who don't ride bikes because they think it too dangerous. Or they think I am crazy because I ride my bike in the city every day, or they only ride bike paths, and often drive their bike somewhere to ride it.
I found it a very interesting post, hope you do to.
His most recent post lays out a number of statistics about the safety of cycling in comparison to other activities, mostly driving. I'm not sure where these numbers come from, but they are some numbers that I've been wondering about for a while.
There are some crazy stats, such as, per million hours spent cycling the fatality rate is 0.26, as compared to 0.47 for driving.
Check it out.... http://davesbikeblog.blogspot.com/2008/04/cyclists-live-longer.html
I'm interested in this because of how often I meet people who don't ride bikes because they think it too dangerous. Or they think I am crazy because I ride my bike in the city every day, or they only ride bike paths, and often drive their bike somewhere to ride it.
I found it a very interesting post, hope you do to.
Bikes, biking, bike shops, and bike dorks
Went out Sunday morning for some more fun up in Otero. I didn't ride up there for a while, I guess a little discouraged by the closing of trails and not wanting to get gunned down by overzealous MP's on 4 wheelers who thought I was smuggling WMD's in my Chamois. So I had kind of forgotten how incredibly nice the biking is up there. It's really hard to believe while riding some of those trails that you're only 20 minutes away from Albuquerque.
I'm clearly not alone in feeling this way, as the Tunnel parking lot was full at 9:30 when I arrived, and parking had extended about 15 cars down the road at around 1:30 when I left. Strangely enough, we saw very few other people out on the trail, certainly not as many as you'd expect. And the one large group of bikers that we encountered, about 10 women, had parked elsewhere.
We ran into said large group of women bikers (not to be confused with a group of large women bikers, which would most likely be riding Harleys not Spez's) on that new section of trail I was talking about last week. These gals were calling it "Crazy Johnny", which seemed appropriate, as I have learned that Johnny V played a large part in building the trail, and Johnny V is at least a little bit crazy. We rode the trail the opposite direction, starting at Turkey Trot and heading toward Blue Ribbon, and it was a blast. Definitely one of the best stretches of trail out there. I also take back my comment from last week, accompanying a pic of Charlie pushing his bike up a stretch of that trail. I thought that the trail was lacking a switchback, but I now see that when coming from the opposite direction, that part of the trail is steep and awesome. Also, I've learned that Salinas rode up that section no problem on our demo Slayer SXC90 more than once. Which means that either Salinas has mad skills (possible), or that the Slayer is an amazing bike that will make the impossible possible and everybody should come to the shop and buy one from me (more likely).
We were riding yesterday with Chris, a long time Albuquerque mountain biker who seems to know everybody we know that has ever ridden a bike. I believe this was the second time I have ever ridden with Chris. The first time was several years ago, also at Otero, for the FOO ride where we hung a banner and organized to try and keep Otero open. Here's a few pics of Dan and I from that day, that were recently sent to me by Jeni Turgeon.
Those pics were taken just briefly before a massive hail storm blew in and Dan and I proceeded to get hypothermia very quickly (as you can see from the pics, my pack was one of those silly small ones that doesn't fit a jacket, and Dan's pack didn't exist).
While descending Otero canyon, hub deep in runoff and hail, just trying to keep our numb hands on the bars, Danny got a flat. He was unable to fix it, on account having no feeling in his hands, and wanted to thrown the bike up in a tree and make a run for it. I find this amusing for 2 reasons. 1) Danny has probably changed hundreds of thousands of flats in his life, and 2) I just noticed in the pic, that it wasn't his bike, it was demo, so the lack of concern of the bike is a little more understandable.
Anyway, Chris and our former fearless leader Stevie changed the flat for us, and in the end we all made it back to the car alive. Proving that although having more than 4% body fat can make you slower going up the hill, it can go a long way in making you not die when the temp drops below 70 deg.
I also rode yesterday with our favorite Doc, Dave. He was on his new custom 29er Ti folding DeSalvo with a Rohloff 14 spd hub that we built for him recently. It's a sweet ride.
Rounding out our group was Travitron, Charlie and Sihu. Travis told me stories of MTB racing in the glory days for TWP (which I believe stood for Travis Will Prevail) with a 16 year old Floyd Landis. Then he rode wheelies for the next 10 miles. Charlie was very excitable and loud, as expected, and Sihu, sadly, did nothing hilarious for me to write about. Maybe next time Sihu, maybe next time.
Lastly, I have decided that descending Blue Ribbon is the best place to test a full suspension bike that I can currently think of. It has all sizes of rocks, you can go really fast, a few good launches, and it is really really fun.
Thanks for reading.
I'm clearly not alone in feeling this way, as the Tunnel parking lot was full at 9:30 when I arrived, and parking had extended about 15 cars down the road at around 1:30 when I left. Strangely enough, we saw very few other people out on the trail, certainly not as many as you'd expect. And the one large group of bikers that we encountered, about 10 women, had parked elsewhere.
We ran into said large group of women bikers (not to be confused with a group of large women bikers, which would most likely be riding Harleys not Spez's) on that new section of trail I was talking about last week. These gals were calling it "Crazy Johnny", which seemed appropriate, as I have learned that Johnny V played a large part in building the trail, and Johnny V is at least a little bit crazy. We rode the trail the opposite direction, starting at Turkey Trot and heading toward Blue Ribbon, and it was a blast. Definitely one of the best stretches of trail out there. I also take back my comment from last week, accompanying a pic of Charlie pushing his bike up a stretch of that trail. I thought that the trail was lacking a switchback, but I now see that when coming from the opposite direction, that part of the trail is steep and awesome. Also, I've learned that Salinas rode up that section no problem on our demo Slayer SXC90 more than once. Which means that either Salinas has mad skills (possible), or that the Slayer is an amazing bike that will make the impossible possible and everybody should come to the shop and buy one from me (more likely).
We were riding yesterday with Chris, a long time Albuquerque mountain biker who seems to know everybody we know that has ever ridden a bike. I believe this was the second time I have ever ridden with Chris. The first time was several years ago, also at Otero, for the FOO ride where we hung a banner and organized to try and keep Otero open. Here's a few pics of Dan and I from that day, that were recently sent to me by Jeni Turgeon.
Those pics were taken just briefly before a massive hail storm blew in and Dan and I proceeded to get hypothermia very quickly (as you can see from the pics, my pack was one of those silly small ones that doesn't fit a jacket, and Dan's pack didn't exist).
While descending Otero canyon, hub deep in runoff and hail, just trying to keep our numb hands on the bars, Danny got a flat. He was unable to fix it, on account having no feeling in his hands, and wanted to thrown the bike up in a tree and make a run for it. I find this amusing for 2 reasons. 1) Danny has probably changed hundreds of thousands of flats in his life, and 2) I just noticed in the pic, that it wasn't his bike, it was demo, so the lack of concern of the bike is a little more understandable.
Anyway, Chris and our former fearless leader Stevie changed the flat for us, and in the end we all made it back to the car alive. Proving that although having more than 4% body fat can make you slower going up the hill, it can go a long way in making you not die when the temp drops below 70 deg.
I also rode yesterday with our favorite Doc, Dave. He was on his new custom 29er Ti folding DeSalvo with a Rohloff 14 spd hub that we built for him recently. It's a sweet ride.
Rounding out our group was Travitron, Charlie and Sihu. Travis told me stories of MTB racing in the glory days for TWP (which I believe stood for Travis Will Prevail) with a 16 year old Floyd Landis. Then he rode wheelies for the next 10 miles. Charlie was very excitable and loud, as expected, and Sihu, sadly, did nothing hilarious for me to write about. Maybe next time Sihu, maybe next time.
Lastly, I have decided that descending Blue Ribbon is the best place to test a full suspension bike that I can currently think of. It has all sizes of rocks, you can go really fast, a few good launches, and it is really really fun.
Thanks for reading.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
