New Shoes at the Shop

It is always exciting when we bring a new product or product line into the shop, and Skate shoes have been a long time comming. Since the first week we decided to expand into the skateboard market the question has always been, "what lines of shoes are you going to carry?" Now, half a year later that question has been answered, but who would have thought it would be such a journey.

With most of our products, picking a company has been as simple as trying a bunch of products, seeing what we like, and ordering the product. As it turns out shoes are a bit different, so for 7 months now, skateboarders in LaGrange have been skating in BMX shoes.

When we first sat down with our list of 30 shoe manufactures the early eliminations were easy. We got rid of all the ones that had a history of low quality right off the bat. We then took polls of out skaters to see who liked what an why. More brands were eliminated based on style and fashion (I was kept out of this process, because I have neither style or fashion sense).

Then we hit the snag that we hadn't expected. Manufacturers of nice skate shoes are fiercly protective of their immage, and as we are both a bike and a skate shop, on paper we don't look "skate core" enough for the reps who don't bother walking through our door. Never mind that we have one of the best in store selections of skateboard products in the state, and a dedicated skateboard staff, on paper we are still not "skate core".

This left us with a decision to make. Do we just open up an account with one of these big sell to anybody, reasonable to questionable quality, shoe lines that you find in the big box stores, or do we hold out for a nice shoe company and try to convince them to send a rep out. We decided not to comprimise on quality so for a long time LaGrange skateboarders stayed in BMX shoes.

And then we discovered Dekline

Dekline is a small company that has only been on the scene for a couple of years. This is long enough to establish themselves as a quality shoe, but not so long that we had to fight over dealer territories. Finally we had found the perfect match. A young high quality comapany that was not afraid to take a chance on another young company. Now with everything in place, we are proud to introduce Dekline Shoes.
The spring order will be showing up on Monday. A more complete line will be here this summer.

So if you are a skater who needs shoes, or a biker who needs something comportable to wear in the pits, come on down and check out the new line. I think you will like it.

The Worst Cup of Coffee

Ok, I probably shouldn't share this, and Mark Ritz will be disappointed in me, but now that I have had a decent cup of coffee and the sun is almost up, I have to share the story of my morning and the worst cup of coffee in recorded history.

Those of you who know us at the shop know we are caffeine driven. A couple of years ago we started carrying Kinetic Koffee as a nod to a fellow team sponsor. What started as a nod became an addiction, and I now am used to drinking good coffee.

Recently we started carrying the AeroPress coffee maker which we talk up as both a better way to make coffee, and also a great tool for camping. What I am ashamed to admit is that I don't actually own one yet.

Now the transition to our new website has not only lead to some late nights, but an increased importance of caffeine in my life. So last night I was up until the wee hours of morning entering in all 130 of our Derailleur Hangers. When I finally got them all into the system I dropped bleary-eyed into bed.

The next thing I remember was a pair of cold feet on my face as my two year old crawled into bed on top of me. As my clock wasn't visible I had no idea what time it was, but all I new is that it wasn't time to get up and it was still dark. I made all attempts to get him to go back to sleep, but he wasn't having it, so I gave in and decided it was time to start the day. Once downstairs I discovered that it was only 4am, but I was in it now, and I just started on my day. And that was when the trouble started…

Lane and I were just working on our bowls of oatmeal, and I was about to brew a pot when the power went out. We have a gas stove, so hot water wasn't a problem, but like I said before I was not yet a proud owner of an aeropress. Now I could have gone without, but trust me when you go to bed at 2, get up at 4 and you are playing with Choo Choo Trains by candlelight, coffee is important.

So here was the issue. No Coffee pot, no Coffee grinder, no light. Fortunately I had some Folgers in the cupboard that I save for emergencies so I didn't have to grind anything, and as I said, I did have a gas burner so I had hot water. So here was the brilliant solution I came up with. Boil water in a teapot, dump in some coffee grounds, let it sit for a bit and then dump it into a cup, let it settle and drink.

How did it turn out? Let me just say that if you ever find yourself in this situation, you have two options. Option 1: use your aeropress. Option2: just wait for the power to come back on.

Incidentally I was chewing on my second cup when the power came back on. We are now half way through watching the Lion King, and the sun is coming up. This is going to be an interesting day.

Turns out buying stuff is fun

Ok, Happy newyear everyone. I have finally emergeg from having my head in a hole trying to figgure out end of year numbers, and I am back to getting the shop in order and talking to people again.

So this is the fun part of the year. We go from trying to thin out inventory so we don't have to pay taxes on it to replentishing inventory with NEW product.

As it turns out I really enjoy buying stuff, so I highly recoment that everyone come in, check out the new product as it arrives, and most importantly, keep buying it, so I can keep these big orders comming in.

For you bikers the last big order was relativly unexciting as most of it was just repletishing products that haven't changed much. The big changes are in the Minoura line of trainers. Minoura has finally reorganized their line after years or no change. I am still sorting out opinions on the new system so I will let you know when I have a good opinion.

We have seen a lot of new clothing come in in the past couple of weeks. Most of it winter stuff, and there is more on the way, so if you are needing clothing the inventory is on the rise.

For you Skaters, things are a little more interesting right now. We just had a huge batch of decks, completes, and clothing show up, but the big addition is
DVD's!!!!!

I am sitting here looking at 20 or so new titles Including some pretty hefty box sets, instructional DVDs and your traditional hard core sountrack crazy skating videos. So if you can get out there and skate, get in here.

Other than the huge amount of stuff comming in the front door, things are a little slow here, so if nothing else, come in and bother Will, Seth, Schoen, Luke, Lane and Me. We are here and hanging out.

Solution to the enegy crisis.

Energy crisis? Wait I though we were in an economic crisis.

Lest we forget, our economy, and the economy of the world, is very closely linked to the energy that powers it. So what fuels our economy right now? The quick answers are Coal, Oil, Natural Gas. People thinking a little further will start listing our electicity sources, Solar, Nucular, Wind, Hydro etc. But the one we often forget is food.

A huge segment of our productivity is human powered which means that the energy source is cheeseburgers, Clif Bars and sweetpotatos, and pasta. The beauty is that most food stuffs are domestically produced, renewable resources. So while our politicians work out all the details of trying to find ways to get greener sources of energy for our big machines, we have the ability to change many things in our lives over to food fuel.

Now I want everyone to stop and examine the treadmill.

A treadmill is a machine designed specificly to waste energy. The average treadmill user will get in their car, drive 2-8 miles to a gym, get on the treadmill, run for fourty minutes, get back in their car and go home. Now lets look at that in terms of energy.

Our treadmill runner had a cheeseburger for lunch which was 400 Calories which she now feels guilty about because she thinks it is going to make her look fat, so she heads to the gym. Assuming 5 miles each way in a car that gets 20 miles per gallon, the car ride to and from the gym will burn 1/2 gallon of fuel. At the gym she is on the treadmill for 40 minutes to burn the 400 Calories. Now remember that the treadmill is an electrically powered device with a roughly 2.5 horsepower motor that will be running for 40 minutes. The calculation of how much coal you have to burn to create the electricity to run a treadmill for 40 minutes is beyond me, so let it suffice to say that it is an amount that exists.

So in sum we are out the 400 Calories in the Cheeseburger, 1/2 gallon of gas, and some coal to power the treadmill. Net work done? zero.

All of this energy was wasted by design.

Alternativly, our heroin could have simply eaten the cheeseburger and ridden her bike home from work. The 400 Calories that she didn't want in her body would be gone, but they would have been used for productive means, and we would have saved the energy consumption of the trip to the gym.

Now I am not saying that we should stop using the gym, but I wonder if we all converted a fraction of the energy we waste by design into productive energy what kind of effect we could have on the energy market. Understanding that biking to work is not always logistically possible, here are the two big things that cyclist can do than many of us neglect.

#1. Ride to the Gym. If you go to the gym for your winter workout, ride your bike there and back. It makes for a great warmup and cooldown.

#2 Ride to your Ride. How many times have you gotten in your car and gone to meet someone to go riding? Next time ride your bike to the start of the ride, it saves you the effort of loading up your car, and you also get to feel smug about having ridden more miles than anyone else there.

Your bike is a great toy. It is also an amazing tool, and too many of us forget to use it as such.

Stans in my car?

Okay, I have recently had a rash of slow leaks in my car tires. Normally when I get a flat I check the tires and see if it is time to replace them. If it is, I just do that. If not, I use a plug kit. But these last two flats have been slow leaks. These are the kind that you pump up and the tire stays inflated as long as the car is sitting, but as you drive you slowly lose air. I coundn't plug them because I couldn't find the hole, and I was not due for a change in tires, so I decided to put Stan's in.

Considering that I have had better luck with Stans than Slime on my bike, it seemed to be the way to go in my car as well, but I checked with Stan first. So the things you will proabably want to know.

#1: Yes the normal Stan's is the same as the Lawn and Garden Stans. They just put it in a different bottle.

#2: The recomended volume of Stans in an Auto tire is 2oz. More that that may mess with your balance at high speeds.

#3: The best way to get it into the tire is to remove the valve core, then use and injector to measure and inject the Stans, then put the valve core back in, pump up the tire and drive around your neighborhood to spread the Stans around in the tire.

#4: The soulution remains liquid down to about -40degF so it will work fine in the winter

#5: The solution may dry up in a few months, depending on how many flats it prevents, so you can either add a little two or three times a year, or you can wait until you get a flat as a sure indicator that the sealant has dried up and then add solution.

All of this was done with the same tools and solutions I use on my bikes, so other than being out 8oz of solution this (about $4 retail) This was a very inexpensive fix to what would have otherwise meant buying new tires. This should also prevent further flats in those tires. So again I have found new uses for my bike stuff. If you care to join me in my worry free driving experiance, everything you need to get your car proteted is at the link below.

Stans Stuff

Stans sues Specialized

Ok, I just got the press release today that Stan's No-Tubes is filing a suit against Specialized asserting that some of Specialized Wheels infringe on patents that Stan holds. It will be interesting to see what happens with this. Comparativly, Stan is a very small company and so if Specialzed wanted to they could probably just burry them in paperwork until such time as they didn't want to produce that wheel anymore, but who knows. Anyway, press release is below

NoTubes.com Files Lawsuit against Specialized Bicycle Components Inc.

BIG FLATS, N.Y. – Nov 12, 2008 - On September 15, 2008, NoTubes.com® filed a lawsuit against Specialized Bicycle Components Inc. (“Specialized”) alleging that certain rims and wheels of Specialized infringe U.S. Patent No. 7,334,846 (the “‘846 patent”). This lawsuit, styled K.G. Motors, Inc. v. Specialized Bicycle Components, Inc., is currently pending in the United States District Court for the Western District of New York.

As set forth in NoTubes’s complaint, Specialized is alleged to infringe the ‘846 patent by making, using, selling, offering for sale, and/or importing into the United States certain tubeless wheels and rims, including without limitation Specialized’s Roval brand wheels. The technology disclosed and claimed in the ‘846 patent was invented by NoTubes’s founder and owner, Stan Koziatek, while pursuing a better solution for tubeless bicycle wheels and rims.

Georgia Gould wins at USGP.

Yeah so Georgia Gould took the win, but the cool thing is Goose Creek Cycle Rider Caitlyn Swinford got her picture taken with her...