MID APRIL
This is a short one, and I'm kind of ashamed of the mailbox infatuation. I've had it a long time, though. I really love mailboxes and I notice every one.
Here's a photo Sergio got of Will on a recent S24O/Campout. With a Bessa Rangefinder and I don't know what film:
It's one of my fav Will photos, for sure.
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I got a note a couple of weeks ago that scolded me for (1) the Black stuff; (2) For squawking about supply problems with Shimano and other distant mfrs; and (3) suggested I hire American welders to make all of our bikes. It's not that easy. To borrow a line from The Music Man, this guy "doesn't know the territory." That is a 2:30 link you won't want to miss.
MicroShift's lead times are 785 days. They may rush it for Specialized and Trek and all the bigs, but for us, that's the lead time if we place an order now. They don't care about our small-time niche-y stuff.
Shimano is better, actually. They can't say when we'll get anything, but sometimes it's four months, sometimes nine, and now it's over a year, but they have a record of beating that. We can't get it in Taiwan for complete bikes assembled there--so there won't be any $1,650 CLEMS for a while. We can get it over here and build up bikes, but that's way more time and $. We'll do what we can, but it takes four to five hours to turn a frame into a bike, and that's what we'll be handing out for the next couple of years. We do a lot of it, anyway---always have, we're good at it--but holy cow, it's going to be challenging to get enough bikes out in time.
We are still in a better situation than many small bike companies. The big shots are (understandably) getting 100 percent of the attention.
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Eighty-six year old with the Mt. Diablo Record:
Tragic irony story of the month.
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PENCIL
Reparations stuff in the news.
Our Black Reparations Pricing and Black Reparations Fund are essentially dead. We can't go big-time with them in the hopes of inspiring other businesses, and we aren't going to live up to the plan. We sell Mugs & Trinkets and donate the profits and often the proceeds to legitimate charities that push the ball in the same direction—so please continue to buy them knowing we're making bupkis on them and the $ goes to---- well let's just say it will help fund diversity in cycling, which shouldn't be a hot topic.
-PENCIL
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Mailboxes, continued
How to tell when you're dealing with somebody who just wants to be left alone or needs to be checked on.
Listen, this is free. No ads, no dues...and you're not going to like everything I post, like this next thing, which could be really fun:
Mailbox stands get overlooked while the box gets all the glory...but take away the stand, and you'll have a riot of letter carriers on your hands, tired of bending down. Let's see what your town has to offer.
Send to info@rivbike.com.
Your name, your town, photo of the mailbox stand with the mailbox on it, for sensible context. The ten top ones will win $25 gift certificates (credits on your account). Deadline for entry: April 29. If you know how to crop the images tight, do that. I don't need to see the house, or picket fences. See examples below. Enter as many as you like, no questions asked.
These are just examples. Show creativity, beauty, crudeness, stupidity, whatever.
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The future is now. This is what bike techies want bikes to be like:
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PENCIL
Here's an interesting turn-o'-events or something.
PENCIL
Below this is a rattlesnake photo, the second one I've seen this year, but it's early. They're generally easy to avoid. Some people really hate snakes, even pictures of them, so this is the last thing in this BLAHG. It's a short Blahg, the last for a while. Short vacation, lots of side projects. Snake scroll down:
It was short, about 24 inches long, but pretty fat, or maybe just full.
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B,
Grant