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Swobo introduces new urban bike collection

Cult favorite cycling apparel company Swobo has entered into the bike building business in a serious way. Last year they hired Sky Yaeger, former brand/product manager at Bianchi to develop their new line of urban bikes.

Swobo's outlook on the cycling industry is both unique and refreshing. Instead of looking at the market in segments like road or mountain, etc., they design bikes that will have a cultural fit for certain groups of people. So, for example, their urban bikes are not just road bikes with tougher components, but instead a whole new breed of bikes that allow a canvas for personalization and can withstand the abuse that a city puts on a bike everyday.

For more insight on the happenings at Swobo check out the most recent Crooked Cog Podcast where, Tim Grahl interviewed founder Tim Parr. Also, Dirt Rag has an interview with Sky Yeager specifically detailing the inspiration of the new line of bikes. I love this quote from Sky on the new Folsom street bike:

I used the coaster brake so you can ride with one hand on the bar and still brake. Say you're coming home from the bar with a 12-pack... you can carry it and still slam on the brakes.

Declaring your single speed pride

Stolen from the Lunatic Biker.

The Urban Dictionary of mountain bike slang

Just surfing around and came across the Farkin Wiki Slang Glossary. Check it out if you need a few phrases to impress the gang on your next group ride. Here's a good one:

Yard sale - When your crash is so bad they find you by following the trail of debris you left behind in your path. “A pedal broke off, lost my chain, my pack ripped open and I lost all my tools....it was a total yard sale!”

It's a Wiki so you can add your own slang if you're so inclined. Here's another good list that's slightly more conventional.

So is there a definitive list of jargon out there?

Back to basics

Freewheeling Spirit is returning to his roots:

Bikes, babes, and beer. Whenever life gets me down, I return to fundamentals.

Doesn't get simpler than that.

Ode to Elizabeth Furnace

JoeP, the Fearless Dogeater, with an ode to Elizabeth Furnace, a popular and punishing trail in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia:

Your unpredictable and spontaneous nature, your naturally beautiful and perfectly formed curves, the subtle ways with which you dominate every man or woman seeking to master you. My body still hurts from those wild afternoons when you threw me to the ground and ravaged me against the rocks after I had gotten too haughty and thought I had you under my control. Artful temptress! You knew the pain would not keep me away! I had to have you again and again!

Read the whole letter, very well done.

So what if "cycling is the new golf?"

After reading "You paid how much for that bike" in the New York Times, most long time cyclists will be disgusted (or at least roll their eyes). The article begins with a story of a woman who is just learning to ride that starts out buying a $9,000 custom bike. Next it details a New York City bike shop that is reminiscent of the Harvard Club, including  massage tables, showers, espresso machines, and top shelf wine and liquor.

Yeah...I know...crazy, right?!

But why do we, pragmatic cyclists, get so up in arms when this seemingly over the top exuberance pervades our beloved activity? Why not embrace it?

For some, cycling has just become a more approachable sport. And not all of these new bandwagon hoppers are assholes.

I say, the more the merrier.

As we roll our eyes and shun the invasion of the ultra-rich newbies we are essentially closing our activity to only those that we want to join our "cult." It reminds me of the surly shopkeeper we all know and love...you know...the one that makes you feel like shit, because you don't know as much as he does about bikes.

So let's learn something about service. Let's open up our approach. Find the positives in this new "user" group and it's potential to influence the industry. An industry executive in the Times article summed it up best:

It’s no secret to anyone who has ever endured an encounter with a grease-stained, eye-rolling, heavily sighing bicycle shop employee that customer service in the industry has historically ranged from sullen to supercilious to overtly hateful. (“It’s one of the few retail industries where a condition for employment seems to be utter contempt for the customer,” said one industry executive.)

Of course, I would add the airline and department store industries to the list, but nonetheless, the point is that we need to open our minds a bit and be inclusive even as the sport becomes more exclusive.

Will carbon fiber dominate the full suspension bike market?

There's an interesting article in Bicycle Retailer and Industry News (BRaIN) about the possibility that carbon fiber could become the dominant choice of materials for full suspension mountain bikes. (Just noticed the article is old, despite it showing up in my feed reader for the first time). The article cites the fact that major manufacturers such as Giant, Scott, and Specialized are having success with their carbon fiber, full suspension frames and implies that the mountain bike market will follow the road market that has embraced carbon as the high-end material of choice by consumers.

If true, this may have a negative impact on smaller niche manufacturers that produce high-end aluminum full suspension bikes. Here's Santa Cruz's president Rob Roskopp on the likelihood of this happening in the near term:

Compare the cars road bikers drive and the type of car a full-suspension guy rides. Road riders put their $7,000 bike on top of shiny $50,000 cars. But the average full-suspension rider puts his $4,000 bike on top of a beat-up barely-hanging-together car that costs a fraction of what their bike costs. For them their bike is their life.

Gross generalizations aside, I'd have to agree that if the price of carbon fiber doesn't come down it will always remain a high-end niche product. I will say, however, that carbon fiber should be the material of the future. If you've ever ridden Cannondale's Rush Carbon or the Trek Top Fuel 98 and compared them to their aluminum cousins, the ride is much smoother.

Missy Giove waxes poetic

Ah yes...another installment of the soon to be famous Cool Bike Quotes, or CBQ.

I get a monthly e-mail newsletter from the Adventure Cycling Association that promotes the organization's work and inspires people to travel by bike. This month's edition carried the following quote from famous retired mountain biker Missy Giove:

Mountain biking can't be square and clean-cut 'cause it's not a square sport. It's gotta stay tribal.

Seems Missy is full of poetic cycling quotes. Here she is quoted in an article back in 1996:

I don't want cycling to become an elite sport like skiing. To me it's a soul sport, an art form. I see the world in a different light when I'm looking at it from a bicycle.

The essence of mountain biking and cycling in general boiled down into two succinct quotes.

The Headless Bikeman

I'm going to start a new segment here on the old blog called CBQ or Cool Bike Quotes. We'll see where this goes, but when I read someone's story or blog post with a quote that catches my eye I'll link it up.

So the first installment comes from Freewheeling Spirit recanting the story of how a Headless Bikeman beared down on him last night.

Soon I began to hear a thumping noise. I knew it wasn't coming from my bike - I lube with Tri-flow.

Now there's a slogan fit for an ad campaign if I ever saw one. Ladies and gentlemen don't go getting any other ideas now.