commentary and news

July 22, 2010

I don't actually care who wins the Not-At-All-a-Tour de France, and I'm proud to say I can't name more than 5 riders in it (Contador, Schleck, Zsa Zsa Zabriskie, Armstrong, and---well, I bet there's a Lopez in there somewhere, or maybe a Stein or LaPierre). I watch it a little, a half an hour or so every fourth day, and if YOU follow it you know that a few stages ago on a climb, Contador---the favorite and last year's winner---didn't wait for his arch rival Schleck when Schleck hit a little bump and dropped his chain. They were both going at it, and this happened, and it took Schleck a whole thirty seconds to remount his chain.
Contador has been criticized for not wating for him. There's something of a tradition to wait until the bad luck guy is back in action, and if you don't, you're a scoundrel unworthy of the yellow jersey. I disagree. It's a Big Old Race Around France, not a club ride, not a Tour de anything, and these riders have every technological advantage going for them, and lots of illegal ones in the van. If Andy Schleck hit a bump, bad luck, but luck is always part of it. If it were a tour or club ride, yep, you stop and wait. In a marathon, if a a frontrunner gets a sideache, the leader doesn't wait. If a hurdler trips, everybody keeps going. In Nascar Racing......and so on. Too bad, but it shouldn't have taken 30 seconds, and he was the captain of his bike, and he didn't see the bump, and...anyway, I hope Contador wins by more than the half a minute, just so people don't say it's a tainted win.

I don't expect to write about the race in question anymore, and no disrepect meant to its history etc, but from now on it's BORAF, not TdeF.
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We got in some black MUSA shorts, and some Navy ones. Spencer and John, I think, wanted the black. We've had many requests, and let's see how they go. Maybe getting black AND navy at the same time wasn't a fantastic move, but we got 'em.

The Cowboy shirts are selling OK. I think we'll find a horse-type charity and maybe give half the profits to it. That seems fine. We have a few members who are super horse people, and maybe we'll ask them. Or, looking online.  Maybe another charity. MISSSY (with three esses) is a good, local one. We've given to them a little here and there, and this That's how we often do it when we go outside our area (that would be bikes) with something. Also, for every cowboy shirt you buy, you'll get a $5 credit toward the next one we get in. Since it can't go on forever, if we stop with the shirts, you can apply the credit toward something else within the calendar year.

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Today we got in some double-pull mountainy brake levers, for one-handed riders or riders who (like me in May and June). We'll put them up in a few days after we confirm whether they're for V-brakes or cantilevers. We have lefts and rights, two versions of each, I thik about 15 of each, and I expect it's a lifetime supply. They were cheap, and we'll sell them cheap. Not a bottom-line influencer, unless the bottom line is offering something for one-handed riders.

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Sally ended up with a carbon bike. It's fine.
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We should have AMOS #2 prototype in three weeks, but it seems to be happening so slowly.

Hey, the oil is getting capped!
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Hey, the dollar is at a 14-year low against the Yen, and we have a shipment due at the end of this month.

(Every time I mention that, at least ONE guy sends me a note saying quitcherwhining, and that's kind of harsh. It affects our  prices tremendously, and we absorb all we can, and we'll absorb this one, but it's quite like watching stocks drop.)

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Keven is back from Italy-Germany-seeing his brother now.

We're moving along with T-shirts, posters, print catalogue, and Renovelos.

Remember the fancy one we took back and were going to turn it from stripped-down fancy to useful and plain? Jay picked the color. I was expecting brown or grey, but he picked green and cream, and it came out kind of a tealy-green, not what Jay was hoping for, and now it looks like we tried on it. Anyway, we're awaiting the head tube decal for that and a couple of other RENOVELOs, and we'll have them up mid-next week. Two 64 Atlantises, and this Fancy one. Details later. Maybe we'll sell as frames, maybe as complete bikes only (with U-pick the parts).

G