Bikes and PMA Every Darn Day

As we start reflecting on the past year and looking forward to the one ahead, it's important to keep this in mind.  Amirite?

Christmas Hours

Please Note Our Holiday Hours:

Saturday 11-6
Sunday Closed
Monday (Christmas Eve) 11-5
Tuesday (Christmas Day) Closed
Returning to normal schedule Wednesday Through Saturday.

Thank You!
Merry Christmas

Tuesday Sale

Tuesday, December 18 we will be having another one-day sale.

Come by and get 10% off all Levi's Commuter apparel. Just for 1 day, Tuesday.

 


Pants, jackets, and shirts, all are great holiday gift items!

Holiday Specials

It's Hannukah, Christmas is coming, Winter solstice is just a week or so away. In order to make all of your gift giving slightly more affordable we will be doing some daily sales. Each sale will be good for one day only. No you can not get that discount next week, or get tomorrow's offer on Friday. So if you have been wanting or needing something, keep checking here, it might be the sale of the day.

First up on Wednesday 12/12/12 will be Chrome bags. And hey, in honor of the date why don't we take 12% off of all of them. In stock items only. 

Bike Jerks/All-City: Bandit Cross, Ruining It For Everybody!

 Our favorite bike jerks have released the Bandit Cross movie in its entirety. This is what I love about "Cross Racing"...

Bandit Cross: Ruining It For Everybody from Quality Bicycle Products on Vimeo.

So, It is that time of year... Again.

Thanksgiving is upon us, and it is important to note, that we will be closed Turkey Thursday November 22nd, and Black Friday November 23rd. We here at Bicycle Revolutions will be scattered about visiting our friends and family, giving thanks and breaking bread. Hopefully you will all be doing the same, instead of fighting your way into Target and Wal-Mart Thursday night.

That said, we will be open again for our regular hours on Saturday November 24th.

Now for the good part, We are hoping to start of the holiday season with a BANG! We will be offering special discounts throughout the store Saturday and Monday only. Savings from 10% to 20% and even more on select closeout models.

Happy Thanksgiving to you!

Gravel Grind Short Stack: Nature Boy

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"Gravel grind short stack. Boxer-Belmont loop. #allcitycycles #natureboy #fuzzybuilt #gravelgrinder #forestcycling"
(taken at Belmont Plateau)

Salsa Warbird, Down and Dirty.

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"Salsa Warbird, down and dirty. #salsacycles #gravelgrinder #fuzzybuilt"
(taken at Wissahickon Valley; Fairmount Park)

Fall Back, Winter Hours...

So it would seem that the days are getting shorter, fall is starting to remind us that winter is not far away.
We are still here till 7pm on Monday and Friday, but are now observing our shorter hours on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

So today I finished this...

Our dear friend, Chicken Man, has been holding onto this frame for ever. "It was still in bubble wrap!" He has been bringing me bits and pieces for months to build this thing. It is finally finished! This is going to be his winter/snow bike, slow and low is how he rolls.
Thanks Chick!

Blogging about blogging

Dudes out eating, drinking, and blogging. Dorks...

Shop closed, riding out the storm!

FYI, we will be closed. Riding out the storm, better head to higher ground! See you all when this thing blows over.

Salsa Warbird!

Just received my Salsa Warbird frameset, shuffled some parts around from 3 of my other bikes to make this into something resembling a bike. Going to be getting out on it early tomorrow morning, more gravel grind recon for the Philly Bike Expo.
Hopefully more pics to come from the "road" test.

All-City Space Horse: A gentleman's cruiser.

Put this All-City Space horse together for my friend Jon. Born from the ashes of his San Jose single speed, and turned into a 1x8 with some nice shiny bits. Thanks Jon!

Fall Clearance Bikes! 20% Off

The weather might be getting cooler, and the leaves are falling, but there is still alot of adventuring to be done. We are starting to receive 2013 bikes on a daily basis, and need to make a little room. We have chosen a few models that are already a great value, and we are taking 20% OFF! There is limited inventory, once they are gone they are gone. In stock bikes only.

 2012 Masi CX SS: Cromoly frame with a carbon fork, one speed and big ol' knobby tires for trail shredding fun!

-MSRP $950, Regular Price $870, Clearance Price $696.

 2012 Fuji Cross 3.0: Alloy frame and fork, Shimano Tiagra 2x10 speed drivetrain. Whether you are looking for a versatile all-rounder, trail shredding machine, or an all-weather commuter, this bike has all of that and more.
-MSRP $1279, Regular Price $1079, Clearance Price $863.

 2012 Civia Twin Cities, Step-Over and Step-Through cromoly frames with intigrated rear rack and either Single Speed/ Coaster Brake Drivetrain or Shimano Nexus 7spd Drivetrain. These bikes are designed to be stylish and comfortable, while wizzing you around town or off the beaten path.
-Single Speed: MSRP $595, Clearance Price $428.
-7 Speed: MSRP $850, Clearance Price $680.

Joshua Tree, Key's View!

Rode to Key's View this morning, 5100ft of vertical and 22 miles all uphill. You can see into the San Andreas Fault, feels like you could just fall in. It was an interplanetary experience!

Life's a beach!

Heather and I took a little spin this morning along the beach. Paused for a photo op in front of the Santa Monica Pier.
Headed to Joshua Tree today, its gonna be awesome!

West Coast Style!

Heather and I are in LA for a few days, on our way to Joshua Tree for a friends wedding.
Got a chance to meet up with an OLD friend, Phil. We rode Topanga Canyon this morning, it was awesome! I love the hills rising up right out of the ocean.

Sock It To Me

Holy heck do we have socks! Our Fall sockguy order just came in, and boy are there some good ones. Pizza, monkeys, mythical creatures, we've got all that. Just in time for sock wearing season and starting at a mere $10 to keep your feeties cozy and stylish. A sampling of the the new offerings...

2013 Salsa Mukluk 2's are here!

Got our first shipment of the new Mukluks in and got our first one built, come check it out. Can't wait to hit some trails on it!

Hey there ya Big Dummy!

You or it, another Surly Big Dummy goes into the world to haul Ted and his family here and there. Give him a wave and a smile when you see them around town.

Landlords/Sterling Couriers Philli T's!

If you are down then you already know, if you are not then now you do.
Small-XLarge in stock now for $20.

Labor day, putting in work.

Dave and I rode down to Ocean City NJ on Sunday, our lovely wives drove down to meet us. We ate and drank and hung out with my family. This is what it is all about.

Closed for labor day!

Enjoy the long weekend, go ride your bikes!

New R.E.Load Saddle Rolls, In Stock Now!

Local heroes R.E.Load have done it again!  Their new Saddle Roll wraps all the durability and smarts we've come to expect from their bags and accessories into a stable little tool pouch you can clip under your saddle.  They are easy to use and roomy enough for all that you might need for a long ride.  We've got a couple in the shop now in some really zesty color combinations!  Come check them out.

Macho Man, maiden voyage!

Hills, dirt, and gravel were on the menu this morning.

All-City Macho Man!

I've got macho madness! Here's a preview, more to come...

Saddle Drive, Utah!

Made it home from Utah in one piece. We have been playing catch up all week. But we promise to fill you in on the details. Some awesome new bikes coming for 2013, and a bunch of them are from Salsa Cycles! The Colossal disk brake road bike pictured here is among them.

New kit, action shot!

Out on the road.

Shop Kits Have Arrived!

They are finally here! If you ordered one then you are probably almost as excited as I am. After six years of growing this little bike shop, we have a real kit to show off our style and colors.

Made by Sommerville Sports, they are clean and comfortable.

I had the day off today and managed to get out on the bike in it for some miles and hills. I am really proud of how they turned out, many thanks to Lauren and Leah who helped me sort out what I wanted in the design process. And of course, to my lovely wife Heather for working through the production process and making sure that all of the details were covered.

Heather even snuck in this little detail to make me smile!

I already feel like a winner!

If you didn't get in on this first order, do not fret. Once we get a little caught up we will be doing another order late summer/early fall.

Mission Accomplished

Last year Bryan and one of our BFF's Dave Looby rode the ACS bike-a-thon. When I went to pick them up at the finish I said that I would be doing it as well in 2012. After several false starts and much procrastination I started to do some real training in the Spring. And by training I mean being dragged around the greater Philadelphia area by Bryan, complaining all the while. As seen here:

Don't I look super happy in all of these flattering pictures?! You should have seen me after I accidentally ran over a chipmunk. And a certain rider behind me *ahem, Chris Fox I am looking at you* didn't have the sympathy to put the poor thing out of its misery. Oy, the guilt! Where was I going with this. . .

So I trained, and I rode many many miles, I climbed as few hills as was humanly possible, and I learned all about dehydration. We are just finishing up our second heat wave of the summer, this one lasting
10 + days.

In June I was up to doing rides of 50 miles. I felt confident enough to register for the ACS ride that Bryan told me would be 60 miles. Guess what, Lying McLiar-Pants, it is 65 miles. But I was signed up and doing it.

A week before the ride I got nervous. I was going to be left by the side of the road for dead. There was no way I could ride this far in the heat. Maybe it would rain and I wouldn't have to go. What if it rained and I had to ride anyway? This all was a terrible idea.

Yesterday, I got up at the ass-crack of dawn and put on all of my gear, got on my bike and left the house at 6:30 in the a.m. Then I rode 66.34 miles.
 

Many thanks to; Bryan for pushing me and making sure I really was ready, my Mom for inspiring me not just to do this but in roughly one million ways, Looby for being behind me pretty much the whole way and also downwind of my ranting, to the always incredible Miss Molly for driving to jabib and picking up our tired selves, and of course to Leah for not going into labor while I was off doing this.

*h

No Garm, No Foul...

Its a brave new world for me, tracking my cycling using the Garmin Edge 500!

Bike Jerks Cycling Kit Preorder!

Be sure to go get yours, deadline June 15th.

http://bikejerksmpls.blogspot.com/2012/06/bike-jerks-kit-preorder.html

Nice work Jeffey!

Monday Morning

Things are feeling a bit sleepy and slow around the shop this morning. Maybe it is from all of the bike race festivities yesterday.

George has the right idea.

Closed Monday For Memorial Day

Have a great weekend, ride your bike until you have to go back to work on Tuesday! See you then.

Finally, Bicycle Revolutions Shop Cycling Kits!

6 years later, we are finally getting our sh*t together and producing shop cycling kits; jersey and shorts.

Here are the 3D mock ups of the short sleeve jersey and bib shorts. They are being produced by Sommerville Sports, CHECK THEM OUT HERE! We are making these in the "elite" level, race or club cut with full hidden zipper.

As we need to get the order in ASAP, we are looking to get pre-orders finalized by May 15th.

please email me: bryan(at)bicyclerevolutions(dot)com
subject: Shop Kit Pre-Order
And I will forward the order form and payment info.

Salsa Mid-Atlantic Demo Tour: Coming our way, Thursday May 17th!

We are very excited to announce that we will be Co-Hosting the local stop of the Salsa Demo Tour. Come ride with us on Thursday May 17th at the Brandywine Creek State Park/Woodlawn Trustees Trails from 1pm-7pm.

Check out more info on the SALSA BLOG.

Salsa is bringing a full range of bikes, we are bringing the FUN!

Gizmodo explains it all!

Just the other day, I mentioned the awesomely sensible Civia Halsted cargo bike in a short but prescient blog entry.  I should have also mentioned our other cargo options, the Surly Big Dummy and the Cetma cargo bike.  If I were a better writer, I would have written this, from Gizmodo.com:

By Mat Honan

Apr 25, 2012 2:20 PM

Why You Should Be On A Cargo Bike

I used to care about weight. I'm one of those OCD types who meticulously weighed components out on my gram scale. I'm the jerk with the hollow pin chain and all Dura Ace on his carbon fiber LOOK 595. I stripped my mountain bike down to its frame, and replaced every. single. part. Every one. All in order to shave seconds. I have strong opinions about rotational weight, and when, exactly, you should take on water during a race, if at all.
I mean, I weigh my damn clothes. Sure, it's a little weird, but talk to me on mile 53 of Vineman, or day two of the Epic at Bend's Big Fat Tour and see if you don't agree that I may have a point.
Yet today, my favorite thing to ride is a burly beast of a bike, laden with as much gear as I can load on it. I want to stack as much stuff as I can on there, and then ride it everywhere, all the time. I want to ride it to the store and the bar and the park and the playground. But mostly, I want to ride it into your heart. Because, see, I'm a heavy bike convert. And like all converts, I'm kind of a zealot. Which means I'm not going to be happy until you're riding some Magnus Van Magnussen style contraption too. I want to see you on a cargo bike, because you are so going to love it.

Meet The Cargo Bike

Let's say this up front: Cargo and utility bikes are the new fixies. They are the in bike. They're positively trendy. Which, in all honesty, is a little off-putting. But there's a great reason for that: they're amazing bikes. They're practical, beautiful, and damn fun to ride. They can haul everything from babies, to groceries, to large pieces of furniture. They make moving gear through traffic-choked cities faster, and more fun, than any pickup truck. I'm totally smitten.
After our daughter was born, we started looking around for a new bike. We had performance road and mountain bikes, the kind you wouldn't dare drop a rack on. Yeah, they're light and fast and can drop down some serious Downieville shit. But they're not very good for groceries, you know? We needed something that could haul the kid, baby gear, our gear, and the extra stuff that life often dictates you lug from place to place.
The obvious answer was a cargo bike. I knew one would get me where I needed to go, but until I dove in, I had no idea how many sizes, shapes and wonderful variants they came in. Here's a little bit about these wonderful bikes, and why I love them so much.

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Bakfiets-style Front Loaders

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A Metrofiets cargo bike
Holland is awesome. Not only does it have the sense to legalize prostitution and marijuana, but its flat terrain has spawned a massive cycling culture. One bike that has really taken off in recent years is the Bakfiets, which has a large cargo bay or platform for hauling gear or kids that sits just a few inches off the street and right behind the front wheel. This front side cargo beds keep weight low-to-the-ground and on balance. Not only are original Bakfiets becoming increasingly common in the U.S. now, but they've given rise to lots of other bikes made in a similar style, like that gorgeous Metrofiets pictured above.

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They're especially popular with parents—putting a kid in the cargo bay keeps him up front where he can see, rather than stuck in a wagon behind the bike with nothing but a view of your sweaty old dad ass. And of course, they make a fashion statement. Many sport bold designs, with lacquered wooden cargo beds and brightly colored frames. These are the ultimate gee-whiz bikes. All the better if you're a gear head because they are wrench heaven. They're massively popular in Portland, where specialty shops and garage manufacturers are cranking out gorgeous rigs. Even here in San Francisco, where the hills are alive with the sound of cyclists gasping for breath, there are already multiple shops specializing in these long, low-slung, very heavy cargo bikes.
 
Photo by Mark Iverson
My favorite of these is probably the Cetma. Not only is it a stunningly beautiful, exceptionally utilitarian ride, but as it proudly boasts, "CETMA IS RUN BY ONE GUY IN A SIMPLE SHOP WITHOUT AUTOMATION, MECHANIZED ASSEMBLY, ROBOTS, LASERS, SORCERY, SUPERPOWERS, OR PSYCHIC BEAVERS."
I mean, YES! Shouting aside, if you don't love that sales pitch, something is just wrong with you. Here's a delightful video.

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Long Tails

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Long Tails are becoming so popular I fully expect to have one pants me at any moment. In my Ocean Beach neighborhood, they are utterly everywhere, often with a surf board in tow. On the beachside promenade, and at aprés surf spots like Trouble Coffee, long tails very literally typically outnumber bikes with a more familiar geometry.
The Xtracycle platform really kicked this trend off. Xtracycle is an open source design, and several other manufacturers like Yuba and Surly are building bikes to its specs, which means all the accessories—racks, panniers, and more—will work on any of the bikes that follow its guidelines. Xtracycle sells an extension called the Free Radical that will turn just about any bike into a longtail, and a fully built bike, the Radish. Both come in all sorts of configurations, to trick out however you need.

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The Kona Ute
The biggest indication long tails are about to have a serious moment? Even Trek—a company that makes excellent-but-boring bikes—has gotten in on long tails.
The Trek Transport

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Cycle Trucks

The cycle truck typically has a 20-inch front wheel (and often a 26-inch rear wheel) with a frontside rack that's connected directly to the frame—which means it doesn't turn with the handlebars. They're lighter, and can't carry quite as much gear as a longtail. But man, do they ride. Not only will they carry a ton of gear, but they'll also accelerate quickly and turn on a dime. They've also been around, approximately, since the dawn of man.
Okay, that's an exaggeration, but they were certainly one of the first bike geometries used as load-haulers. The Schwinn Cycle Truck, for example, went into production in 1939, and was widely used as a delivery vehicle. Many of them are still on the road today. They have something of a cult following, even. And, look at this bike. How could they not start a cult?
This cycle truck that James Black had custom made by David Wilson is a gorgeous example of the cargo bike trend, showing how it values both form and function, and veers towards custom craftsmanship.
James Black's New Cycle Truck
When it came to buying a bike for our family, after shopping around, we went with a cycle truck, the Civia Halsted. It's fast and responsive and great on hills. We put a Yepp Maxi kid carrier on the back, and even when we load the front up with cargo and the back end with an extra 25 pounds of miniature human, it still rides pretty much like every bike you've been on since you were a kid.
The author's Civia Halsted with a box full of junk in the front
And what's more, it makes me feel like a kid. It makes me feel alive and powerful and like I'm in control of my own fate. I ride it almost every day. I make up excuses to go do things. I can't get enough, I just can't get enough. Simply put, it's a blast.

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And So Many More

Madsen's take on the cargo bike puts the load in the rear
And, again, this is just a small sampling of what's out there. There are so many different shapes and sizes and geometries. I mean, we haven't even gotten into cargo trikes yet. Cargo trikes! How can you ride one of those and not feel utterly childlike, even with the heaviest load?
Wheelburro cargo trike
Look, I know, light bikes are fun, fixed gears are fast, and carbon fiber is quite possibly the greatest material molded yet by man. I have loved them all, too. But these fat functional bikes with their oblong racks and their impossible geometries are fun in ways I'd never imagined. You really need to ride one.