ALS Double Day Ride 2007

For the fourth year in a row we've supported the ALS Double Day Ride. Just what is ALS? Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is a motor neuron disease, first described in 1869 by the noted French neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot. Although the cause of ALS is not completely understood, the last decade has brought a wealth of new scientific understanding about the disease that provides hope for the future. Lou Gehrig first brought national and international attention to the disease in 1939 when he abruptly retired from baseball after being diagnosed with ALS. Most commonly, the disease strikes people between the ages of 40 and 70, and as many as 30,000 Americans have the disease at any given time. We're very proud to support this ride and it's been great to see it grow over the years. This year the riders raised at least $80,000 for the cause and after the matching gifts they are sure to break last year's record of $100,000.

We were out there to make sure all the bikes were running properly and provide support on the road. We also donated some prizes to the event for the great raffle that the event puts on during their annual Pasta4PALS Dinner.

The weather was great for the ride. It started out a little cloudy in the morning but the temperature was great and the sun made an appearance later in the day.

While these riders look pretty serious, the ride was great for all abilities. The people that came out to ride (close to 200 people) almost all have a direct connection with ALS and ride as part of a team supporting a family member or friend with ALS or in remembrance of someone who has passed from the disease.

ALS is takes people, often in their prime, and takes them quickly. The average lifespan after a diagnosis is less than 3 years. The families and sufferers of this disease are amazingly brave and generous.

Click here for a slide show of pictures from the event

Helping Out

Cycling has always been considered a great way to stay in shape and in the last few months we've had a number of requests (3 or maybe 4) from people who would like us to support them in their quest to lose some weight. We're not always able to help out with much but every once in a while we are. Here are two links to people we have been able to help out.

Shane at: http://fatsweatandtears.blogspot.com/

Shane came to us back in May and told the story about how he'd been riding for 4 months in an effort to lose some weight. Shane was "tired of being obese and all of the health problems associated with being fat". At the time we were unable to donate a bike but we were able to help him out with some gear to make his ride easier. Shane has been blogging about his successess since May and has just lost 50lbs. Way to go Shane!

Another great story is Tryfena Lee. In 2005 after 2 years of trying to lose weight the old fashioned way (excercise and diet) Lee decided she needed medical help and underwent Gastric Bypass surgery as a last resort. Since then Lee has lost 110 lbs and has now become interested in cycling and hiking. A few months ago a friend of Lee's called us to ask if we would be interested in helping out with a bike. As luck would have it we were able to help. Here's a link to her story.

We get 4 to 5 requests a week from people and individuals asking for support for one cause or another. We are not able to help all of them but we help where we can and are happy to do it.

The Ultimate Ride Comes to Greenlake

The Trek Ultimate Ride has come to us! Dax and Kurt from Trek drove in this morning in the "Ride the Best" truck to give our employees a day long clinic on the new EX trail bikes and the new 2008 Madones.

Both bikes are radically different then the 2007 models that they are replacing so a little extra knowledge is needed to sell them effectively. We want to make sure that we get our customers on the best bike for them so we have to know as much as we possibly can about each bike.

Trek does a great job makeing sure that our employees understand the new technology. We need to learn how to size these bikes correctly and also we need to get out and ride them.

The 2008 Madone has created a huge amount of buzz this summer. We recieved ten of them earlier in the summer and sold them all in about 8 days. So far people have loved this bike and we already have orders for a few more Madones. We do have a few in stock right now in the triple configuration but they are sure to go fast.

All Under One Roof!

We've done it! It's taken a while and it's not completely done just yet but we're all under one roof again. No need to walk up the street to a temporary service department. No need to walk around the store to find an open door. We're now open for business in the Greenlake Service Department. Thank you all for your patience during our remodel.

The new service area is operational. We're still organizing and setting things up but we are fully operational and ready to go! Bring your bike into the huge automatic sliding doors on the east side of the building and check your bike into service. We'll make an appointment for you or do any "instant" work you need done. If you do make appointment we'll whisk your bike...

Upstairs where all the real service work is done. This way our service technicians can take care of your bike with little distraction and all the space they need. When you come back to pick it up we'll run up stairs (or take the elevator) and grab your bike off of the...

hanging racks in our second floor warehouse and bring it right down to you. No more having to run up the street to the warehouse or searching for your bike. We're looking forward to being able to service our customers much more quickly than in the past.

Come in and check it out. There is still more to be done so stay tuned!

Construction in Greenlake

Now that our project is just about done and things are starting to get back to normal for us, a look around the neighborhood shows that the Greenlake area is changing quite a bit. Gregg's has been right here at the same spot for 75 years now but it looks like some others have finally caught on to what a great place Greenlake is. While construction always disrupts the area, we're really excited about the growth around the Greenlake and welcome all the new construction and new people in the area. Below you'll find some pictures of some of the other construction going on in the area.

This is the Florera. As their website says, "it’s a place where eco-friendly design meets luxurious lakeside accommodations, where sustainable resources save you money while helping to save the planet, and where residents can take part in unlimited activities (cycling!) right outside their door."

Albertson's was a fixture in Greenlake for 50 years. The sudden closing of the store shocked the neighborhood and it's standing empty for over a year has been "your worst nightmare" according to Ref Lindmark of the Greenlake Community Council. We're not sure what the plan is at this point but the building has started to come down and we're all excited to see what is going to take it's place.

The largest project in the area has also just started. The Vitamilk Dairy has recently started to come down and according to a 2004 Seattle PI article, the developer "envisions an anchoring grocery store, underground parking and ground-floor shops. Upward of 250 housing units, likely to be apartments, could be built above."

Change can be tough but like I said before, we are very excited about the growth in Greenlake. All of this construction has of course been a little tough on parking in the area but in the end it will all be worth it.

Greenlake Expansion Opening Soon!

It's been a long process for everyone invloved, but the end is in sight. We're planning on having our service department up and running in the new expanded area of Greenlake sometime around the middle of this week.

We've started to get all the bikes sorted out and stored in our new warehouse space on the second floor and were pretty excited to get everything under one roof.

We've already got some mechanics working in the new area and everyone should be at the main location by the end of the week. No more walking down the street to service or to grab a new bike.

Our parts area has also started moving into their new storage area. It'll be a while before we get everything completely organized but we're on our way.

The doors are open to the new area but we're still "employees only" at this point. When the process is completed our customers will no longer have to go outside to get to another part of our store. The whole store will be connected and under one roof!

STP 2007

The 28th annual Group Health Seattle To Portland Bicycle Classic was sold out this year and we were there to experience it. It was just getting light when we left Seattle and drove to the halfway point at Centrailia Community College. Once there we set up and got ready for the some 9000 people challenging themselves to ride from Seattle to Portland in one or two days.

We starting seeing riders come through at about 9am and the work began. We fixed everything from broken spokes to shaky bottom brackets. We helped with shifting and with tracking down annoying noises. It was a busy day and John and I worked pretty much non stop from 9am until 7pm.

It's always great to go out and see all the people riding their bikes. Getting a chance to talk to people that ride but don't work in a bike shop is great to do. We get to hear about real bike people that are out there every day on all different kinds of bikes in all different conditions.

All in all a great day helping people on bikes. It was amazing to see all of these people and the dedication that they put in to do this great ride.

Gregg's Picnic 2007

Every year we have a Summer picnic here at Gregg's. It can get pretty hectic around here in the summer and people look forward to the picnic to take a bit of a break, get to know people in the other stores and just kind of hang out. This year has been espcially hectic as we've been crazy with construction and moving. So the picnic is a way for Gregg's to say thanks to all of our employees. By the looks of everyone had a great time!

Wamu Family Fourth

As part of our ongoing support of the cycling community we recently partnered up with One Reel to offer free bicycle parking at Seattle's largest 4th of July Celebration. With upwards of 70,000 people showing up to watch the firworks, One Reel and their commitment to be "dedicated to invigorating broad and diverse live audiences through imaginative and creative arts events of all disciplines in traditional and non-traditional venues" realized that promoting cycling as an alternative to driving to events made great sense. Here at Gregg's we believe that the more people that ride bikes the better we'll all be so it was easy to see that a partnership would benefit everyone involved and hopefully help people realize that it's easy to ride a bike to many of the great events around the city.

At about 10:00 we started setting up our tent near the official Family Fourth Bike Entrance to Gasworks park. We were there to provide friendly help in racking bikes, emergency repairs and, while not being officially responsible for the bikes in the racks, offer a bit of extra security.

All went well. We helped a few people with some shifting problems, tightened a few headsets, fixed a few flats and answered a lot of questions. The only problem was that we didn't have enough room for everyone that rode their bike down. Next time we'll have double the racks!

Thanks to One Reel for giving us the opportunity to come out and support the people riding to the event and thanks to all the people that rode their bikes. Way to ride!

The BBTC Rocks!

A couple of friends and I went and did an "epic ride" this weekend. It had it all; mechanicals, long climbs, good lunch, tight switchbacks, epic views, a little bit of snow, outstanding single track, creek crossings, lung busting single track climbs and at least one cramp. It was a great ride on Sun Top this Saturday. But that's not what I want to talk about. Our ride was great but it was made great through the efforts of three unnamed members of the BBTC (Backcrountry Bicycle Trails Club). These nameless (nameless only because we forgot to ask their names) club members were not only great riders (tight switchbacks pulling a trailer with a chainsaw in it!) but great stewards of the trails. When we talked to them at the trail head they told us that there were a total of 26 blown down trees across the trail and that we should ride slow and maybe they'd get some of them out of the way before we got there.


Turns out we did ride slow and to slow us even more was John shifting his chain into his spokes and getting it nicely wedged between the cassette and the spokes. After we disconnected the chain, took the wheel out of the bike and pulled harder than we should have we managed to only loose two links and get the chain back on the bike. By the time we got on to the single track after our lunch the BBTC guys had been hard at work.

We had a great descent down some of the sweetest single track around and noticed as we rode by a good deal of sawdust and freshly cut logs. If not for the BBTC guys we would have been stopping and hopping quite a bit. Instead, due to their work, we got to flow down the trail and have a great time.

Eventually we caught up to them (it took us much longer than we thought it might) and saw that they had a pretty great system figured out. There were three guys, one was what I call the scout and then the cutter and the spotter. The scout would ride ahead to find a fallen tree and then call to his buddies who were cleaning up the last cut. They'd ride down to him with the chainsaw and as soon as they arrived he'd pull the saw off the Bob and and start cutting while the others made sure that people coming down the trail knew what was going on. When the cutter was done he'd put the saw down and ride ahead again while the others cleaned up. Great system. Very fast, very efficient and as safe as possible.

If it wasn't for organizations like the BBTC we would have far fewer trails to ride on and the trails that we did have wouldn't be half as fun. So thank you to the nameless stewards of the trails and thank you to the BBTC. You rock!