Hello and goodbye.

I’m leaving, on a jet plane.


I’m fairly certain when I’ll be back again…

It is with that tip of the hat to Peter, Paul and Mary that I announce today will be the last post until Friday, the 27th of July due to my presence being requested at the dealer camp which is occurring in Dear Valley, Utah.

This came as much of a surprise to me as anyone primarily due to the fact that I am as useful at these sorts of functions as ten gallons of crap in a five gallon bucket.
Apparently Raleigh Bicycles feels differently on the matter however, and thought my presence would be of some sort of benefit. I humbly thank them for their short sightedness, and look forward to rubbing elbow’s with the bicycle industry elite.

Really, any way you slice it, It would appear as though I came out on top;

To once again quote The Thermals, “I can’t believe I got so far with a head so empty.”

I haven’t been to Utah since the 2000 Park City NORBA Nationals, where I kicked the crap out of all comers in the men’s singlespeed race, back when I was hungry and mad and mad about being hungry. Those were truly the salad days of my bike racing career, which I fear are now well in the distance in my rear view mirror.

At any rate, it will be a pleasure to ride bikecycles at some semblance of altitude and I will have a full report on the debacle upon my return.

Now let’s get on to some business.

At this point in the week it’s known far and wide that Radioshack-Nissan rider Frank Schleck recently got popped on the juice.

This comes on the heels of Schleck brothers as well as Fabian Cancellara complaining to the UCI about non-payment and Jakob Fuglsang going so far as to file a suit against the team owners for the same offense.

As of last Sunday, Radioshack-Nissan’s official comment was that “there is no comment“.

Is this, I wonder, the initial sounds of the other shoe dropping?

Somebody had better call their congressman.

But what the hell do I know? I’m just a blogger, which is simply another word for ‘random nobody with vague opinions’.

How’s that for ‘sticking to bikes‘?

A bit more bikecycle related fodder that I have recently come across was this Ebay listing for a Speedvagen;

Lee, who originally brought the ad to my attention stated, “Question: Is this the “famous” one that’s been tossed in the bushes at a local CX race?

Only the perpetrator of said tossing knows for sure.

If that is in fact the same bike, I guess we know where its “two small paint chips on the frame” came from.

In late breaking news, I’d like to remind anyone who might appreciate such things, that tomorrow is the second installment of the Meet Your Maker Tour, this time launching from Paragon Machine Works’ Richmond California headquarters. If the smell of cutting oil and titanium shavings is something that you get off on, book your spot and come ride around a little traveled and under appreciated corner of the East Bay.

Photo of Mark Norstad courtesy of Adam Hunt, via Dirt Rag Magazine.

Now we will touch on a bit of the bikecycle industry inner-workings. Murph, who is the sales maven at Maximo Supremo residents, Minneapolis West Design Works darkened my door recently as he covered a number of Bay Area bike shops to discuss their ever expanding line of doo-dads and gizmos.

In one day we covered 30 miles and hit over a half a dozen shops. This might not seem terribly noteworthy had it not been for the fact that we made all of his appointments via bicycle;

In the above photo Murph, (who clearly is very committed to safety), Jedi Mind Tricks the newly opened Blue Heron Bike’s mechanic Jeremy into buying up a boatload of goods for the shop.

Like I said, maybe this might not seem like much of a big deal, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that never once, in all the years I worked in shops, did a salesperson cover their territory by bicycle. I felt as though we were on the tip of a revolution, or if you will pardon the play on words, a velolution.

…Sorry. Sometimes I can’t help myself.

Finally, in closing and speaking of Minneapolis West Design Works, from DPow!, I received notification that their baby is back in one piece;

“Just got off the phone with Jeff Frane. Circulus has been assembled in the 4th State! He called it a death trap.

BE AFRAID.”

I wouldn’t go so far as to call it a death trap, though frankly I’m surprised no one has been met their maker on it thus far.

In the realm of what is and what is not safe however, it certainly can’t be as sketchy as flying in a plane piloted by a giant baby.

Spread this like it's sick

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10 Responses to “Hello and goodbye.”

  1. pedalman July 20, 2012 at 5:27 am #

    Be carefull Stevil, It sounds like one of those “We’re having a little party at the yacht club on Sunday, maybe you could come by and…..mow the lawn” type of invitations.

  2. trama July 20, 2012 at 8:32 am #

    Dealercamp??? Really?

    What’s next….

    PIMP CAMP

  3. dayton July 20, 2012 at 8:49 am #

    I once was a sales rep for Jandd, kinda hated the driving constantly from one side of the golden state to the other, but for the 3 months I put up with it, the best were my visits to bay area shops when I could park the battleship truck on the outskirts, and load up my bag and pedal to the accounts. Sf and santa cruz were my favorites for this. (in SF, I think I hit all 7 or 8 on our list via bicycle in one day)

    I remember the same sort of shock in the shops: “You rode your BIKE? to sell bike products!?”

  4. Ty! July 20, 2012 at 10:54 am #

    Now that you mention it, it was pretty bad ass to have a rep stop through on a bike. It will now be a requirement that all our reps do this if they want an order, that and yelling “goat titty” at the top of their lungs.

  5. Andrei July 20, 2012 at 4:32 pm #

    You might want to bring your own beer. There’s only swill around here unless you decide to meander into one of the State liquor stores and they will be closed sunday AND Tuesday! That’s how we roll around these parts.

    On the other hand, I’m a huge fan and would absolutely love sharing a cold one or ten with you in the city where movie stars can pretend they know how to ski…

    Also, make sure you hit the Mid Mountain trail (It starts at Deer Valley) with a possible detour for Wasatch Crest. Both, a must ride classics.

  6. Chris July 20, 2012 at 10:00 pm #

    Frandy’s sporting some nice arm legs.

  7. Virgil_MF_Rufus July 23, 2012 at 11:54 am #

    Stevil,

    Mr. Vittoria/Castelli/Kask aka Sean KaaaaNeale does the ride around to shops thing down here in Orange County. The guy is a badass and one of my favorite reps when I was working at the “Banning’s Bikes”. A rep that cares about his customer not just the $’s they make him. Always came through for me in clutch situations with demanding customers.

    • Stevil July 25, 2012 at 1:21 pm #

      It does my heart good to know hat there is at least a few people putting their money where their mouths are.

      • Virgil_MF_Rufus July 25, 2012 at 1:59 pm #

        He does it about once a month and he still races road as well as cyclocross. I think he is doing the race at Inter-hell this year again. I’m probably going to make sure he gets beer showers every lap.

  8. Sally July 24, 2012 at 6:21 am #

    Oh no…we totally feel you’ll be as useful as “ten gallons of crap in a five gallon bucket”…we just need some comic relief.