News

Shop News, weird stories and the occasional social commentary. It can all be found here. If any of you have some news, results or anything that you feel is a benefit to the www send it along.

Misc. Ramblings and other such stuff.

• Whew! It only took forever but we finally fixed the Picture Galley page. It's amazing to me how ling it takes to find a problem, even if it's easy, then figure out how to fix it. Sure it was simple, just a pointer going to the wrong link, but on which computer? Agh. Anyway now that hurdle is done, we can move on to some more fun things.

• 150 Reasons!  If you've been in recently then you've noticed that we're hard at work and there are quite a few boxes about. Our friends at Blue Ribbon have decided to give back to their employees in a big way. Any of their employees that sigh up for the October 3rd MS ride in NYC are eligible for a free bicycle. We started talking and getting ideas for what type of bike we should get, and for that matter could get. Gince Blue Ribbon has over 600 employees, the number of bikes could be quite large. Many employees have bikes so the number ended up at 150. So here we are the bikes arrived a week ago we have over 100 done and 50 to go. That is just built, mind you, we still have to apply the custom decals and deliver them to NYC on Sept 15th. We still have some big hurdles as the decals don't arrive till the 9th or 10th and we're not positive that 150 bikes will fit into the 28 foot box truck. But no matter what we'll make it happen.   The Press release is below. We've also put up some pictures of the project if anyone cares for a visual of the chaos. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=205060&id=53638494140

• Blue Ribbon Restaurant Employees To Get A Healthier And Greener Way to Get Around NYC With Cannondale Quick Bikes

  Blue Ribbon Restaurants Purchases 160 Cannondale Quick Bicycles for Employees

  Bethel, CT, (August 10, 2010) -- Cannondale is pleased to announce today that it will be working with Bromberg Brothers’ Blue Ribbon Restaurants this fall to provide 160 new Cannondale Quick bicycles to Blue Ribbon’s restaurant employees.   Encouraging health and wellness and greener business practices, the Cannondale Quick bike will allow restaurant employees to commute in comfort and style.  The new bikes will also be ridden by Blue Ribbon employees as part of the 200 plus  member strong “Blue Ribbon Restaurants/Naked Nuggets Charity Bike Team” participating in the upcoming National MS Society’s Bike NYC Event on October 3^rd, 2010 in New York raising money to fight MS.

  “As more cities, such as New York, embrace and make riding in city streets easier and safer, leading companies like Bromberg Brothers’ Blue Ribbon Restaurants are coming to the table with innovative and exciting ways to encourage their employees to enjoy a healthier and greener way to get to work,” said Bob Burbank, General Manager, Cannondale.  “We are thrilled to further develop our relationship with Blue Ribbon Restaurants this year by equipping their employees with one of our favorite recreational and urban bikes: the Quick.” 

  Cannondale's Recreation bikes are versatile and dependable, designed to take riders of all levels from back trails and winding dirt roads to morning commutes and endurance races.  Cannondale's full-carbon Quick brings the industrial design of recent concept bikes to the street.  With the performance-oriented System Integration, comfort features like S.A.V.E. and the utility features of Cannondale’s Urban bikes – such as eyelets for rack and fenders, the Quick is the top commuter bike on the market.  Cannondale is working with Bike Express of Danbury, CT to provide the bikes to Blue Ribbon.

  “We are proud to be partnering with a leading company like Cannondale to provide to our employees bikes they can use to commute to work, exercise, help the environment, and raise money with us in charity rides,” said Ken Bromberg, Chief Operating Officer of Blue Ribbon Restaurants, “ It’s a win/win/win if there ever was one.  Last year, many of our employees were unable to ride with us in the MS Charity Ride because they did not have bikes.  We were determined to solve that problem and we are grateful to Cannondale for working with us to provide the Quick - a perfect solution.” 

• J.R.A. (Just riding along) Usually a term used for explaining the circumstances resulting in a broken bicycle part, however this time ....a certain fellow named Alberto rolled by and allowed me float along for 2k till the little town of Jalon. One word of advice to all you kids out there, stay in school, learn a second language, you never know when when you'll find yourself J.R.A.

• Finally after much waiting the Giant Twist Express bike have arrived. After playing with the A2B we realized the potential of electric assisted bikes. While we loved the A2B as a fun play bike for zipping about town. The weight made transportation a big question and without the motor no real joy to pedal. Quite honestly it needed the motor and you used it wide open for all but the down hills. Moving on, the Giant Twist at 50 lbs, was about 40lbs. lighter. and with a computer controlled motor far easier than holding a twist throttle open for your journey.On the Twist the motor is controlled by a torque sensor, the harder you pedal the more that the motor will assist.  The feeling is like having a push on the slight and not so slight up-hills. You still have to pedal but you don't have to get out the saddle and really "honk" on the pedals to get over the top. Finally a bike that makes every journey feel like a walk in the park. Check out the Video <here> Download the Hybrid Brochure (pdf)

• From our friends at T.Edwards.

• ***Update Omni Media , owners of Martha Stewart and Emril look to be interested in the concept! Bikes and food, what's not to love.         The Tour De Food is moving along. They've got a brand new web site. BlueRibbonTourdeFood.com Watch the video, check out the pictures, you might recognize a few people and their bikes. You might also notice a link to our resident RAAM Rider as well. Who also just happened to grace the pages of a new book about the RAAM with this spectacular photo. Oh yeah, nothing like a long straight road to make 3000 miles go by. Only 50 miles to the next tree or is that a mirage?

  Tour de Food 2010 from Tour de Food on Vimeo. Perhaps you'll recognize some of those jerseys and that little mountain at the end.

   
• Di2 is Here. Since we're getting all electronic, how about batteries to help you shift rather than helping you pedal. I know all you "nay sayers" are rolling your eyes. Why electronic shifting? Yes a cable can and has moved a derailleur effectively for years. But what you can't do with a cable is program it. This is where the electronic shifting has surpassed the mechanical systems. The fact that the shifter and derailleur "know" what gear your in and perform their actions accordingly. It would be like taking someone that knows what they are doing and all you have to do is push a button to make them go. For most people this hits home when they see the Di2 front derailleur automatically trim over to avoid chain rub as they shift through the gears. Did I also mention that there are now no cables to get dirty, degrade or need to be replaced. Electronic automatically adjusts and stays where you put it time after time. Pretty cool.  Check out the photo gallery for a few shots of Di2
• clothing, rocking the new year. Our good friend Gary V. over at  Upland Sports Group is receiving all sorts of good press about the Capo Clothing line.  Capo cold weather gear. <CyclingNews> Or a chance to win an entire team kit for you and your mates. More winter goodies reviewed at Pez as well.
• Lupine Lights are here. If you don't know anything about them, they are quite simply the best LED lighting systems out there. Watch and be amazed. Just FYI the new Wilma systems are 1100 lumens. 
• Blogs of Paradise. After spending a few minutes ranting to myself after someone sent me a link to this blog, I was happy to find the redeeming qualities of the web log. If you haven't seen it yet. Fat Cyclist decided that he needed a change of careers and sent off a resume' to Team Radioshack. Perhaps you've heard that a guy named Lance is going to riding for them. Anyway, Johan Bruyneel actually responds with an offer, a few actually. Fattie with the help of BikeSnobNYC and other bloggers spread the word. Well under the deadline the money poured in and the goal was reached. Because some guy sent a resume'. Read the whole story on Fatties Blog and the links to Bruyneel. 
• Get your copy today. Okay, order your copy today the cookbook isn't due out till April. The rough draft looked great. I also stumbled across a few of Bruce and Eric's Recipes at Food&Wine.
• More Pictures from France, courtesy of T.Edwards.
• Hopefully this doesn't offend anyone but it's something that we feel passionate about. Without getting to in depth it's all tied together, Bikes, sustainability, food, music, locally produced and healthy. You can check out out links page for more information on local food and businesses.