Shopcast

  1. Panaracer RiBMo Tire

    Panaracer has come out with an urban commuting tire that uses Protex Shield Technology. This is a lightweight and supple protection layer that we will likely see on more tires in the future. A supple tire is a nice, smooth riding tire while a more rigid tire can be harsh. The combination of highly supple, yet lightweight make the RiBMo (Ride Bicycle More) special.
    We have it available in 700 x 25, 700 x 28 and 700 x 32. Check them all out on this webpage.

    Here's some info from the Panaracer website:

    Protex Shield Technology

    RiBMo is the first Panaracer tire to utilize the all new Protex® Shield. Protex Shield is a revolutionary and proprietary tire and tube puncture protection component. The Protex Shield fabric layer creates a tire that is three times more puncture resistant than an un-shielded tire of comparable weight. This also applies to tires with other currently available casing reinforcement systems. Super light-weight, Protex Shield provides sidewall to sidewall tube and tire protection. A perfect urban warrior, RiBMo is available in the following sizes for your cycling joy.

    RiBMo, the first tire with Protex Shield

    • The Protex Shield fabric layer is over 3 times more puncture resistance for a tire of comparable weight than other currently available casing reinforcement systems.
    • Super light-weight, Protex Shield provides sidewall to sidewall tube protection without compromising the weight and performance of the tire.
    • Protex Shield offers twice the pinch-flat protection of a Kevlar® belted tire.
    • RiBMo is the first tire available with Protex Shield in 2008. Other road and mtb models will be available during the year incorporating Protex Shield technology.

    Panaracer RiBMo
  2. 2008 Brompton World Championship

    The first wave of racers begin their 2 lap race

    The Brompton World Championship was 10 days back on the 28th of September. I've had a chance to take a look at some of the pictures and read blogs of the event and it looks like a fun time that I'd love to participate in. While I'm tempted to think that I would one day do an insane event like the Paris-Brest-Paris (1,200 kilometer race...not in stages), I am probably more inclined to jump onboard a fun and wacky event like this.

    What's not to LOVE about this!

    Not to say that there aren't some people taking this event seriously. A former Tour de France rider and three time winner of the Tour of Spain Robert Herras rode hard and was the winner of his group, but the start wasn't a mass start and it turned out that the next group of riders had a speedy rider in Alastair Kay who is York Cycle Work's Premier Calendar rider. The winners podium was a chaotic place to be when Robert Herras' name was not called as the victor (oops, it seems he forgot to look at the results and walked up to the podium thinking he was the victor).

    Tejkan Pettinger has a report and some great pictures on his Cycling Info blog.

    Brompton Bikes have evolved into an amazing folding bike with many very practical and functional accessories. We have seen their growth as a very positive sign of things to come. Stop in and give one a ride and have us show you how amazingly small they fold in about a 10 second stretch of time (wow is right!). Learn more about the Brompton Bikes and accessories (Including the B & W hardcase) at our website.

  3. Bike Club

    Bike Club Group

    Bike Club Rides Again!

    My good friend Derek runs a great Bike Club at Lake Harriet Community School. Lucky for me he always gets a big enough group that he needs an assistant. This fall he's got about 50 kids signed up to get out and ride together for an hour after school. Lake Harriet is about 6 blocks away from the school, so we typically ride to the lake and do one loop of the lake after a quick stop at the bandshell concessions stand (mini donuts, popcorn, cookies and more!).

    There's always a lot of fun and smiles mixed with a bit of drama at bike club. At today's ride we got to the lake and through the snack stop, but shortly after that one of the boy's bikes had a major bike break down (oops, my pedals won't spin... well son, it appears that your derailleur fell off). So as I'm looking over the bike to determine if anything can be done (not really, just pretending I might be able to do something, but clearly there are absolutely no options here) the bike club quickly disappears around the corner. Being that I'm on my nifty Airnimal Joey I realize that I can get my seat low enough for this 4th grader to ride it. So I send off my new Airnimal rider to be with the group. I turn back before I took off kickbiking the other direction to see him ride off on my beautiful bike with my Arkel Briefcase pannier fully loaded (Powerbook, cameras (still and video) and many other daily essentials.

    Good news! When I got back with the group my rider, bike and pannier were all with them. Whew! That loss would be difficult to explain without me looking like an idiot.

    When I got home my daughter who should have been at high school tennis was home. When I inquired about this she pointed out that it totally looked like a storm after school so tennis practice was called off. Bike Club 1, Southwest High School Tennis Team 0!

    Great Job Bike Club.

    Bike Club - Snack time at the Harriet Bandshell!
  4. Handsome Cycle Co. : Local Folks Doin' It Up!

    Handsome Cycle Co.

    Over 20 years ago I got a job at Alternative Bikes in uptown Minneapolis. Jay Erickson was the owner of this upstanding neighborhood bike shop that specializes in selling Bridgestone bikes, skateboards and snowboards (early adopters). Another big specialty was overnight repairs. I worked as an overnight repairman. I learned a lot from Jay. Plenty about repairs and bike shops, and whole lot about myself (working late with the pressure of getting through a massive pile of repairs will do that to you). I worked for the Alt for 2 years and it was the last place that my paycheck was signed by someone other than myself.

    Jay's sons were little kids going to elementary school back then, but now one of them (Jesse) has teamed up with a workmate (Ben) to design a nice quality, highly versatile frame that they are marketing as a Handsome Cycle Co. bike.

    Handsome Bike Co. - Local Folks doing it MN style!

    I spotted this frame at the big industry trade show (Interbike). It was being used to showcase some accessories in the Topeak booth. This model was labelled  as a "Devil". It sure looked like a nice start from which Handsome can grow from. The catalog lying below the bike was nicely styled without being over-designed. Cool.  Good work guys!