Your Bicyclical – It’s Happening

May 8, 2014 | Tim Krone | Newsletter

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 college, but the deal is done and we’re just as happy and proud as can be. Nice work.

My wife just said, ‘You should say something in that thing of yours about how much women’s clothing you have.” Her wish is my command.

We have a wonderful customer who’s been asking me to stock Swiftwick socks for longer than I would like to admit. Turns out that all I needed to do was try a pair and, lo, we started stocking them shortly thereafter. Fancy cuffs with cool designs aren’t really Swiftwick’s thing. Instead they make super comfortable, supportive socks. Check ‘em out!

Just today we inked a deal to sell Sarma carbon fat bikes, rims and forks. Why? Fat bikes are exploding. While we are totally happy with Kona and 616, there definitely is a place in Kalamazoo for carbon fat bikes. So that’s the bikes. The neat-o carbon rims and forks allow us to zestify (new word, look for it in the 2015 OED) your existent fat bike for less than a grocery bag of dollars. We have wheels and forks now, with bikes and frames expected before Labor Day.

A few shop folk and several friends raced (term used loosely in some cases) the Ft. Custer Stampede mountain bike race last Sunday, which is *the* major fundraiser for our local mountain bike chapter, SWMMBA. I could write lots of words about the wonder of riding in the woods. I could write about the fun of adding an element of adrenaline (or fear or something) to the already nifty sport of cycling. We’re very lucky to have the trails at Fort Custer in our back yard, but I’ll tell you this: those trails didn’t build themselves. If you have a mountain bike or want to mountain bike or maybe even build trails on the odd Saturday, I very much encourage you to join the Southwest Michigan Mountain Bike Association. They’re good folks doing good work and could use your support.

Speaking of riding mountain bikes, Mountain Bike Monday is happening. All are welcome. The last three Mondays have been terrific.

Shop rides. Get your shop rides here. Actually, get a pile of road riding here.

What would May be without Kalamazoo Bike Week? Less awesome. Cool things to note are:

  • The Trail Blazer is this Saturday the 10th. Some years ago the TB was my first century, and I have fond memories of the event. It’s a good event benefitting the Kal-Haven Trail.
  • Also on Saturday is the Mayors’ City to City Ride. Join Mayors Hopewell and Strazdas at 9:00 at the Portage Creek Bicentennial Park. Yeah, mayors on bikes. Spring is happening.
  • More? You need more on Saturday? How about the Spring into Summer Family Bike Fest at Mayors Riverfront Park at 10:00.
  • Ward off evil at the Blessing of the Bikes at 10:30 at the Climax/Scotts Jr./Sr. High School, sponsored by the Climax United Methodist Church.
  • The Kalamazoo Bicycle Film Festival featuring short movies on May 13 at Bell’s Eccentric Cafe. Shows are at 6:00 for all ages and 8:15 for those over 21. Admission is a paltry five clams.
  • Our community Ride of Silence takes place on Wednesday, May 14th. The Ride of Silence honors those cyclists who have been injured or killed, raises awareness and asks that we all share the road. Good stuff.
  • Lots of cool stuff including the Bells to Bells ride on Saturday the 17th can be found on the Kalamazoo Bike Week web site.

Look at all this fun stuff. Three years ago there were relatively few activities during Bike Week. Now: lots. I think this is nothing but terrific.

Speaking of advocacy, our state Advocacy Day is in Lansing on May 21st, and you can read all of the detail on LMB’s very informative web site. I did something incredibly similar to this on a national level in March, and was really impressed.

I know what you want. Fun things to do.

“They” changed the date of the Yankee Springs Time Trial at almost exactly the moment last month’s Bicyclical hit the presses. It’s now May 18th and would be a perfect way to wind down (hah!) from Bike Week. Srsly: whip out that mountain bike and (ahem) redeem yourself from that Stampede fiasco.

Bike Camp starts on May 14th. Think you might like to road ride but are nervous about the whole thing? Bike Camp is opportunity knocking. Hear that? It’s opportunity.

If Tour de Taylor were an indie rock band I would own all their albums (which begs the question, how much does usage of the word album date a person? I suspect the answer is: significantly). Anywho, TdT is June 14th.

Kal Tour is June 29th and is a heckuva local thing. There are routes of 13, 15, 31, 62 and 100 miles. We’ve been kicking it around the shop and think it would be fun for all of us to ride bikes together. More details next month, but slap an X on June 29th to save the date. One note: register before June 15th for the good deal.

The weekend of July 12th and 13th is a monster. The Miller Energy BTR Crit happens on Saturday and the Race for Wishes in Lawton occurs on Sunday. Good fun all around.

I love riding bikes. I love bicycling machines. But, as I told my buddy recently, I really love being a part of the Kalamazoo bicycling community. Part of being from Kalamazoo, in my opinion, means that we acknowledge the fantastic philanthropic tradition of our community. Another part is acknowledging that there are many — too many — poor among Kalamazoo’s citizens. The Kalamazoo Dream Center exists to help the truly needy among Kalamazoo’s population, and they have a bike ride to help them raise funds toward that end. The Kalamazoo Dream Ride takes place on August 9th. I’ll tell you right now that it’s not your typical $20 century. It’s a ride to benefit a mission. If that sounds like the kind of thing that you can get behind, please do so. I’m not in the business of vetting nonprofit organizations, but I like the people I’ve met from this place.

Big Finish

As mentioned earlier, the cycling season is happening, and I’d like to get out of the way and allow you to enjoy it. If we can help, say the word. Otherwise I wish you many fun, untroubled miles.

Sincerely,
Tim