January 2009

Unsold cars are piling up all over the world. Here is a picture of unsold Nissan vehicles being stored on their test track:

It is getting to be that time of year again where many folks in the bike game start packing a suitcase for the annual sales trip season. While neither one of us is a huge fan of business travel (who is?), it is nice to see places you don't normally see, and meet folks who you only know from email. Erik left yesterday for Canada, so I'm holding down the fort today solo. Before he boarded his plane, he sent me this image of the plane. From the terse sentence that followed the picture, I could tell he wasn't really stoked about the lack of jet engines for props...I'll be heading to the east coast at the end of next month, getting kind of excited to see New York again! Next week it sounds like we're going to take our bikes and grab the train up to Seattle. Maybe we'll see you out there?

Yesterday our friend and distributor in Japan, Teisuke Morimoto, sent us the cool pic below that he shot recently.  He also explained to me how to play the mysterious kirin racing game that you can check out if you go here and click "linemaster."  If you want to give it a shot, here is how:

You can choose 3 types of racers. Green (senkou) is very fast when just starting. Red (makuri) is strong for chasing from outside of bank. Blue(oikomi) is very fast in the last straight.

After you choose a rider, you should check start list. If some red signs are blinking at the bottom, they are from the same area of Japan and will
help each other in the race. You should mark the group. If you are the Blue (oikomi), just stay behind them.

Beginner race is auto play before bell is rung. In the last 1 1/2 laps, you can speed up by hitting the space bar many times.  It's best to stay in a draft as long as possible.

Probably the main reason neither of us could ever leave the bicycle industry is that there are just too many great folks in it, and we'd miss working with them. When we started talking about our own business, several of our friends stepped forward to help. I see their efforts in every aspect of PDW, and from time to time I'm going to mention them here on our weblog.

Leah Stargardter is an artist and a welder who learned to lay a bead while working for Seven Cycles. She moved to Madison with her parter Ahren Rodgers a couple of years ago from Boston and started building frames and really beautiful racks in a space they shared with ZR Cycles and Jonny Cycles. Both Erik and I were into some of the work she did for a bicycle art show last winter, and she offered to let us use some of it. We've incorporated them into our packaging and on the banner images of the website. This pic of her that I got from Jonny's flickr site shows her work space at the shop, and you can see some of her art on the wall behind her. Thanks, Leah!