Hello! I’m sending this out a little bit early to remind everyone that we’ll be closed next Tuesday and again on Labor Day.Just to recap: Tuesday, August 31: We’re closed for Employee Appreciation Day. Monday, September 6: We’re closed for Labor Day. Enjoy! In The Shops Clothing is on sale! 25% off all in-stock clothing. […]
Happy Thanksgiving! Everyone’s favorite turkey-flavored holiday is so close to the end of the month that I thought I’d publish the Best Bike Shop Newsletter on Romence Road a few days early. Pedal will be closed on Black Friday, and we invite you to ride with us at 11:00am from Texas Drive Park. We’ll have […]
Hello, and happy All Saints Day,Good speed and fortune to the hearty souls racing Iceman in uncertain weather tomorrow. Go go go!It’s back! The Pedal Winter Service Special, now through the end of January. It’s a thorough, get-your-bike-ready-for-next-season service including a drivetrain cleaning for the low, low price of $87. If you want your bearings overhauled, […]
Hello! May was just about fantastic. We went on lots of great rides and met lots of neat people. Thanks for hanging out with us and enjoying the unexpectedly wonderful weather. We had opportunity to enjoy an escorted ride around the Maple Hill Trail at Markin Glen last week, and I’m here to tell you […]
Hi! Gird yourself! Lots of data this time around. First thing, I’d like to ask a favor. Go out to the garage and check out the blinky light on the back of your road bike. Is it bright? Does it point behind you, or at your rear tire? Does it need new batteries? I’ve been […]
Hello! Wanna hear something crazy? We’re 25% of the way through 2017. The good news is that the remaining 75% is the good stuff. There’s a lot to talk about this month, so I’ll try to keep my loquacious self in check. Never is a word that’ll often cause problems. When I started Pedal I […]
Hello! December? Holy smokes! That concise email of last month will stand in stark contrast to the information density contained herein. I invite you to pour another glass of eggnog, grab a seat by the fire and read along. Ride All Year (code name: RAY) is something a friend and I have been working on […]
Hello! My goodness! What a tremendous Autumn. I hope you’ve had a chance to enjoy it. Everybody around here is talking about how “they” say it’s gonna be a hard, cold winter with lots of snow and blah blah blah. Bring it on. It’s a fair price to pay for the past two months. A […]
February brought us a little bit of everything, some things we wanted and some we maybe could have done without: cold toes on the fat bike, fun dirt road miles on the cross bike, time on the trainer watching the tube, a snowy ride to a bar after work.. Around the Shop Yoga: you were […]
Just like that, a month is gone! Pedal’s managers and I meet once a week for breakfast and work talk. As I was driving to our meeting/feast last week, WIDR was on the radio, and the DJ was talking about the weather and said something like, “This winter that just won’t end!” Hmmm. Around the Shop Thanks […]
Hello, and happy November, I don’t want to get anyone in trouble or incite unrest, but you really ought to talk to your employer about taking tomorrow afternoon off to ride at Custer. SWMMBA has done a marvelous job with the trails recently and the weather — holy smokes! I worked out a deal with […]
Hello! Indian Summer, I love you. It has been just a wonderful late summer/early autumn around here. The weather is terrific. The roads are less traveled. The kids are alright. Tough to beat. Goodness! We had a spectacular time at the Ramona Park cyclocross race last Sunday. Wonderful weather. Lots of racers. Tons of enthusiastic […]
Hello! Well. That was an incredibly rainy June, but fun nonetheless. Ongoing Fun: Despite the fact that wet trails forced us to cancel fully 75% of all Monday Night Mountain Bike rides in June, the ride last Monday was great. Super bunch of folks hustling through the lush countryside on bikes. Come join us. We […]
Hello! Real quickly, let’s talk about the Trek recall. You are affected if you have a Trek or Gary Fisher with a front disc brake and a quick-release skewer that opens past 180 degrees. If you are unsure if your bike qualifies, please bring it to us and we will happily check it out. We […]
Happy April! One of my favorite authors, Kurt Vonnegut, said that when he wrote he felt, “Like an armless, legless man with a crayon in his mouth.” I’m feeling similarly capable of organizing my thoughts for this month’s Bicyclical. Let’s see how it turns out. The Past: The ice and frozen ruts in the roads […]
Hello! Bad news: My driveway does not shovel itself. Good news: Longer days. Does it even out? Hmmmmmm. My wife, true love and proofreader is of the opinion that this issue of the Bicyclical should come with a minor warning: much information is contained herein. February is definitely a time of great anticipation. People are […]
Hello! If ever there was a meteorological term that strikes crud into the heart of a cyclist, it has to be “wintry mix,” the perfect storm of wet skin and slick roads. Yuck. Wintry mix aside, welcome to 2015! Beer Week! Let’s kick off Kalamazoo Beer Week at Boatyard Brewing with a fundraiser for Open Roads. Check out the syntactical […]
Winter is here, and I already feel a bit wistful for 2014. So let’s pull a chair by the fireplace, grab a good book and hunker down for a few months of cycle-unfriendly weather. This is a great time to recharge the batteries, to perhaps catch up on some projects around the house that were […]
Hello! I cannot believe that we’re staring October in the face. Wow. Around the Shop Cool bikes are coming in. Of special note are some very nice cyclocross and gravel road bikes. Delicious. We have some sweet long-sleeve shirts that you could stylishly wear while: – Riding – Drinking a beer – Being cool Quantities […]
Gracious! What a positively magnificent summer. I write this on my back porch after today’s Kal-Tour, a beautiful ride through the county sponsored by the Kalamazoo Bicycle Club. A buddy of mine and I hooked up with other friends for a brisk (cough) ride with a little rain, a little sun, a little wind and […]
Holy crud bucket! Can you believe it’s May, the fifth month of the year? Me neither. And look at me: late with the newsletter. Stuff is happening. Please allow me to say this first and foremost: Way to go Ryan. 19 credit hours and a full time job is a hard way to finish up […]
Hello! I once worked for a company that provided lunch for its employees. After a really tasty meal, one of my coworkers would often say, “Enough is never enough, but too much is too much!” Such are my feelings about the current season. Yesterday as I was putting on my long johns, I thought about […]
Holy Guacamole! What a winter wonderland we have here. Very quick thoughts: If I could have back all the time I’ve spent maintaining my driveway this past month, I could have written six Bicyclicals. Very Much is the amount that I regret wasting Snowpocalypse on last month’s issue. The days are getting longer, right? Right? […]
January, the month of introspection, of resolutions kept and abandoned. This issue of the Bicyclical is generally addressed to those subjects. One word of warning. Remember last month’s issue that was so short and sweet and quickly readable? This month won’t be like that, so you might want to grab a cup of coffee in […]
Hello! Regrettably this issue of the Bicyclical is a rather more jumbled mess than usual. Still, perhaps one might be able to find a pearl in this ocean of words. Hey! It’s Iceman weekend. Of course, if you didn’t sign up a few hundred months ago it’s too late to race, but the party is pretty good […]
Hello! Since winter appears to have arrived and this note is from a bike shop, I wouldn’t expect it to be terribly long. Thanks to everyone who came to our birthday celebration. Great to see you. To those of you who couldn’t’ make it, I wish you had. There was just too much cake, and I […]
