Shake Hands with October

October 1, 2015 | Tim Krone | Newsletter

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 spectators. Great fun. Our friend Mike took some really nice pictures you can see here. Thanks to RunUp for their help with the course and to the city of Portage for allowing us to use its park.

We have one more local race at Kindleberger Park on October 18th. I’m not sure I’ve been to a better CX venue than Kindleberger, and I hope to see you there. You can find more local-ish cyclocross here and here.

Don’t forget the Founder’s Fall Fondo on October 10th. Fun for everyone!

Alas, the days have become too short for us to safely host the Thursday night shop ride. Likewise, it’s getting dark in the woods quickly, so Monday Night Mountain Bike also draws to a seasonal end. It was a wonderful summer of riding with you folks, and I very much look forward to another great summer in 2016.

While there is a melancholy feeling surrounding these shorter days, we have a LOT going on during the cooler months:

  • We’ll have spinning downtown two nights a week. $150 gets you three months of spinning AND an overhaul of your bike. Signup for this will start on November 10th and will be first come, first served. Space is limited to the first 45 folks, and we’ll start the first Monday in December.
  • We’ll have Wednesday fat bike rides from Portage starting in December.
  • We’ll have Saturday morning Yoga at the Portage shop starting in December. We’ll have a bona fide yoga instructor, and cost will be around $7/visit. More details next month.
  • We’ll have half-price overhauls in both shops from November through January. How much is half price? It’s $90 for an incredibly thorough cleaning, lubrication and adjustment of your machine.
  • More? Yeah, there might be more.

We’ve begun a moderately substantial remodel of our Portage store. As signs in hotels and airports across this great country read, please excuse our mess. I think it’ll be great when we’re done, but it’ll take a few minutes/hours/days/weeks to get there. Thanks for your understanding.

These ever-shrinking days make for ever-lengthening dawns and evenings. If you’re a commuter or early morning rider, we’ve got the lights you need. Look into your immediate future with a brighter bulb.

Cooler-weather clothing is arriving in the shop every day. Some smarty-pants somewhere allegedly said that there is no bad weather, only poor clothing choices. I suppose that’s close enough. There is bad weather, but it can be overcome with proper clothing. I once wrote a really long and boring article on the subject.

A little nip in the air and a few falling leaves, it’s easy to be bummed that summer left town so quickly. But there’s still plenty of accessible fun. It’s a great experience to rip through the colorful forest on a clear fall day. It’s very satisfying to see your breath when you stop at an intersection while riding with your friends. Great things abound, and I hope you find them.

Hey! I appreciate you and thank you for your patronage. Please let me know how we can help.

Sincerely,
Tim