I’m somewhat late to the party in posting this — life got in the way of timeliness, what with the full-time job hunt and the new baby and such.
With all the hubbub regarding Specialized’s lawsuit against Cafe Roubiax, I’ve noticed that people are generally willing to raise a shitstorm when someone (in this case, Specialized) does wrong, but are unwilling to come forward and say something…
It’s 2014, obviously, and I’ve been in the process of prepping for a big year for Pallas Athena. Specifically, I’ve been doing some planning work — the garage workshop is far too cold to actually accomplish anything in (insert heavy sigh here), so I’m resorting to crafting a battle plan for the year. It’s been rewarding and eye-opening.
Business Plan
I started with a business plan, using a…
Bicycle innovations come and go. That’s just the nature of the beast—in a market saturated with manufacturers, there is a great deal of innovation as businesses try to out-do one another in the rush for sales, and the results can vary. Ultimately, I’d argue that the nature of innovation in the industry, while frustrating at times, has been highly beneficial for riders.
In som…
Omnium Bike Shop is far and away my favorite bike shop in the Twin Cities area, and last night I had the opportunity to go to their end-of-season party. I’d been invited before, but this year was my first chance to go. Primarily, this is an opportunity to catch up with friends and socialize under the auspices of drinking free beer (thanks, Lucid!). During the evening, they also run a liv…
If you’re part of the cycling community that putters around online, you’ll likely have heard about the kerfluffle going around regarding the name “Roubaix” — to wit, Specialized, a large U.S.-based bike manufacturer, is threatening legal action against Café Roubaix, a small bike shop in Alberta, Canada, over the use of “Roubaix” in its name.
You see, Specialized makes a bike called t…
My Bringheli fixture came into my hands at a time when I desperately needed it, thanks to a generous guy whole only asked for a frameset in return. As time has gone on, I’ve come to realize the limitations of the fixture, and while it’s made me lust after an Anvil Journeyman 3.1, I simply don’t have the money at the moment to purchase one.
Rear Axle Truck
One of my big pain points is…
As you can probably guess, with my background I spend a lot of time thinking about how technology can best serve this little business venture of mine. Lately, I’ve been focused on three things, each of which is useful in its own way.
Bitcoins
If you have no idea what these are, you’re not alone. Lately, I’ve been looking into the idea of accepting them as a form of payment for my…
The curse of the aspiring framebuilder is starting too fast. I understand that extremely well because, honestly, I’m guilty of it. I started too fast. I bit off more than I could reasonably be expected to chew, and as a result, it’s created bad blood with the friends who ordered bikes from me, it’s diminished my enthusiasm for the craft to the point where I’ve considered taking a very long…
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“With every project must come profanity.”
When I made that quip to Don Ferris a few weeks ago, I knew I had the slogan for the new t-shirt I’d been wanting to do for some time. And thus, the new design was born — I already had sketches for the new head badge logo (originally pioneered by Aaron Smith of Mpls Musette), so I just had to find the time to piece it all together.
Availab…
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The last time I did a drive to sell t-shirts, I sold a pretty good sized batch of them. But getting them printed and delivered was a monumental hassle and took far too long. I decided to do it again — this time, using Teespring, which has a model like Kickstarter. You create your design, you post it, you set a goal for the number of sales. People come, they agree to buy. If you hit the goal,…
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