Moratorium

The actual word should be armistice. 

 I believe that cyclists everywhere should call to an armistice of the rim wars. 700c carbon rims are now coming in at over 100mm tall. With ERD's in the 420's they are quickly approaching the halfway point between hub and tread. Therefore I would like to impose an arbitrary number and say enough is enough, if you want to go any deeper, let's cut these poor spokes out of the equation. Not only are is the region of carbon fiber at war... but the alloy front is no less secure. Companies are one upping each other. If we let the situation continue to run out of hand the only assurance will be mutual annihilation. 

 So in closing I propose standardization. No 700c rim should be any deeper than to yield an erd below 430(or looking at it another way no rim depth above 110). If you are wrongly convinced that you need more aero advantage than you must go ahead and get a disk. And when you find out that you aren't fast enough for rims that aero or disks that sweet well there is a conversion waiting for your leftovers. The more touchy task will be dividing the line between carbon and alloy. Unlike the carbon rim/disk divide which is a sharp cutoff point. I propose a no mans land between the alloy and carbon camps. And I say that rim depths in the 40s are a toss up. Both sides should fully entrench themselves in the 30's and 50s respectively but should know that any trespass into the others territory will be short-lived and mainly inconsequential in the long war ahead. 

A shop for cyclists.

 In my campaign to write and ride more often(actual pedaling could potentially cut into the writing portion of my day today). I must set goals, and it's nearing time for me to come up with a formula, such as i must do x posts within y time. Instead i set a mini goal of doing a post this week. So bear with me if this is a bit headier than normal, because I'm really just shooting at vague ideas that have been floating around all week.

 On our site if you go to our tumblr(link down on the right), and then click on READER on the top of our tumblr, you come to a little idea that I,at the time thought that I, came up with and Jon had the skills to make actually exist(I know that this exists all ready for personal use, and even in public use among big companies). I thought it would be a good idea to save everyone at the shop the time of looking at ten million different blogs every day web address by web address, and that it'd be neat for anyone interested in our little shop to see what ten million different blogs we were looking at and being influenced by.

 Because of my less than polished skills in the department of technology(Justin and I once couldn't figure out how to use photoshop to make a flyer or something the correct way, so we used our nice expensive computer as though it was only a copier and cut and pasted our way to glory) this leap was new to me even if it had been traveled by many before.

 I have no idea how much this is all ready used(that's more Jon's type of thing). I can however promise you that it is useful to me. I imagine it or something like it being very critical to anyone whose scope of business extends outside of the scope of a bodega(one of my dream businesses to own by the way). Not only is it informative as to the scope of the bicycle business, but it's also pretty entertaining, and even educational at times.  A bit of espn meets cnn(or whichever ones "reporters" couldn't contain their bias/bliss this last election) with a dash of discovery channel and skinemax, but all about bikes. 

 One particular post caught my eye recently. The short of it(I'll admit I skimmed) seemed to be that the cycle industry is really just a writhing mass of cut-throat competition and cramped quarters. It goes on to suppose that there are bluer waters that one can safely sail to and nothing other than narrow scope confining us to this well illustrated death zone.

 This idea immediately intrigued me, and due to synchronicity or whatever you'd like to call it. I had been talking to a couple of friends about their ideas about getting into the bluer cycle specific waters(though the sharks couldn't be so stupid as to not smell the faint traces of blood in those waters either). The main point of our conversation effectively turned into, jump into the abyss too soon and there won't be enough....well let's quit with the stupid ocean analogy.  

 Invest in a specialized market too soon(before there is enough interest or customer base) and you end up having to create customers and interest in your products. For some this can end up great, and you can position yourself apropriately to be one of the more established companies in your field, respected by your peers, and even sought out by customers on up to the global scale. Based upon our experience and the amount of money we had at our disposal I would say investing a little early beat out too late within our niche cycle market, if only so that we had enough time to get our shit together by the time that our local customers became interested in track bikes. 

 Diving deeper into the blue market theory(back to analogies!). I came to realize that no part of the ocean no matter how calm is devoid of life. You are unlikely to be the first(though there always is one, whether it's Trackstar or Gary Fischer), and the news is allready out and everyone is rushing in with money to flood the shit out of "your" market, so you won't be the last. 

 So after all that rethinking I went back to that post and checked the comments, and low and behold someone pretty much calls the bluer waters theory out as being a bunch of shit. Now I won't go that far but I would say that if you like pie charts as a way of looking at things that that blood zone of competition doesn't stay still. And that parts of that blue ocean are way to devoid of life to support anything more than plankton, let alone a hungry bike mechanic(at least locally). Oh and that there have got to be something like 500 different little mini blood zones. Essentially it'd be one huge blue, red, and well there'd be a bunch of other colors in there as well.....psychadelic pie chart. Oh and that it's getting bigger.

 So where can you find a focus in all of that for some hole in the wall local bike shop? I like to think that it really only makes sense to some who can walk into any bikeshop and immediately make the call. It contains in it's simple statement much more than meets the eye. We(and many others not only in this town, but globally), are at the end of the day... A shop for CYCLISTS.

 And that is what I plan to write about next...week?

 

 

 

 

Tattoo stops.

 While good ideas have come to me lately for posts and widely sweeping internet campaigns of epic proportions. I have not acted upon them. Instead I have been actually doing some riding and things that I enjoy as of late. Went to the track tonight, and felt like I was comfortable in the saddle as well as in my jersey. 

 

 I will expand on one idea as of late that I have had. And keeping with my ever negative and critical theme it is me suggesting in a not so nice way how other people should avoid failures. This post in particular relates to a race put on by our local co-op here in Atlanta last week. While I have never been one to take crap or criticism for how i score the races I put on from my participants, I am exempt from this rule in this instance because I didn't race this year. Every year for three years running victory has narrowly escaped my clutches and I find the routes to be overlong for what my view of what the scope of an alleycat should be, and under-creative in the checkpoint department for what I know can be pulled off. Of the length and checkpoints I will make no judgement as I was not there, and of my previous years experience with the race those opinions are no secret and so long ago that no one is likely to care. I "wouldn't" have raced for those reasons but would have been open to last minute ridicule or peer pressure to end up doing it begrudgingly. I didn't race because of a mean case of food poisoning that only allowed me to choke down two packets of ramen the 30 some odd hours before the race. Either way I heard many people complaining about how they handled the tattoo stop scoring.

 

What I have an opinion of is "THE TATTOO STOP." 

 Before I begin let me say that this criticism is in no way directed towards THE TATTOO SHOP that essentially donates their time and supplies to make the race better for anyone who has the balls to get a stupid race tattoo. I have no idea how they get enough stencils and patience and etc. to make it happen. The only thing I ask of whichever shop I work with for a stop is some slight input in design of the tattoo or tattoos available to riders, and I ask them how much to tell the people to bring, and let them know that they have the power to disqualify a rider if they're being a dick and I'll stick by it, and suggest that they use a sign up sheet because that has always worked in the past.

 My problem is in the SCORING of the tattoo. 

 In any race I have ever been through or put on with a tattoo stop the timing of the tattoo varies. One person can get through in ten to twenty minutes, and the person who arrives four people after them will be there for an hour. Thats the nature of the beast, and racing, like tattoos and life is unpredictable. When you know it's going to take an hour, maybe go knock out a couple of other checkpoints, or if you know everybody is going straight to the tattoo stop be sure to beat everyone else so that you can be first on that list. Or if you know you can't beat everyone there, count on hitting the tattoo stop last thing when you can hope the line has thinned out. Whatever not my beef still. My problem is that when it's all said and done you end up with some arbitrary and uneducated number of minutes subtracted from your total time.  Like let's just pick 15. Not for any real good reason but just because well you have to give them something extra to get people to do it? Wrong. 

 The correct and it should be universally standard way to score a race involving a tattoo stop is thus. You take the time of the first person to complete the race without a tattoo. Let us for easy maths sake say 60 minutes. You then take the time of the first person to come in with a tattoo. Let us say that this persons time was 87minutes.  You subtract b from a and you get 27. Now here is the key you add one minute to that and you get the time bonus for getting the tattoo in that particular race(28minutes if you aren't catching my drift). Thus the first rider to come in with a tattoo(more dedication/pain etc. put into race) becomes your first place winner. You explain this ahead of time, and people who want the first place  shut the fuck up and get the tattoo(this is what you want anyways right? more potential customers getting to meet the artists at your favorite tattoo shop right? that's what they would want right?). This takes the tattoo stop from the realm of it could be worth it but maybe not? to the realm of fuck yeah i'm getting the race tattoo I want to win don't I. 

Possible arguments?

What about people who are under 18? 

What are you doing at my illegal race anyways? Isn't it past your bedtime? Do your parents know what time it is and you are all ready annoying me by having to pour you a loogie hotsauce shot in place of the tall boy you would have to swig at the drinking stop,(you do know that you need a drinking stop don't you?)

I don't get tattoos?

Well time to get your first. Oh religious reasons? Well religious fanatics have ruled the world since forever, so here is my hour of payback. Oh you just don't want to? Well I just don't want you to personally win...grow some thicker skin and let somebody pound ink into it with needles.

Unfair advantage?

 Look roadie your legs are allready shaved so not only does that cut down your wind resistance but that would further cut down your tattoo time so shut the fuck up.

So anyways this is how I feel about this, and you can rest assured it is the way I and my shop will score tattoo stops whenever they happen, all I can hope to do is change the world one trivial bike related nuance at a time.