Things We Can't Control

Back in October we decided to change our business model. We took a hard look at our new store configuration and the market and decided that it was time to pull the plug on inline skates, snowboards and rentals. This decision caused a few ripples with our customers and our employees. There were questions about "the soul of Gregg's" and there was also a lot of support and understanding for the decision.

We knew that discontinuing rentals was going to be difficult. What has made it even more difficult is, well, the internet. And to some extent, the phone book. Seems that there a few sites out there, that we don't have much control over, that still list us as place for rentals. Try as I might, there isn't a good way to change this. The other problem has to do with the phone book. As it works out, the 2007 book is put together in 2006 and the 2008 books don't come out right away. So, some phone books also have us listed for rentals. So, we still get a few people in on a nice weekend who are a bit confused that we aren't doing rentals anymore. We certainly want to apologize for the confusion and we hope that in the future there won't be so much misleading content out there. Please give us a call at (206) 523-1822 ext. 119 if you have any questions or you can email us at info@greggscycles.com.

Test The Best

Here comes another opportunity to "Try it before you buy it". We certainly understand that it's tough to throw down hundreds or even thousands of dollars for a bike that you've ridden around the block once or twice. Because of this we've done our best to work with our suppliers and get them to come out and give people a chance to test ride bikes in real world conditions. Earlier this season Trek came out with their "Ride the Best" tour and now Specialized is here with their "Test the Best" tour. Now, we won't get into any discussion about who's product is "the Best", all we know is that this is a great opportunity for people to really get out and ride the bikes.

The Test the Best program comes to your neighborhood to give you a
chance to test ride a wide array of mountain bikes, road bikes, and
equipment. You provide the desire to ride and we'll provide everything
else. Our highly educated Demo Team will be there to answer any
questions and better inform you about the Specialized product line.

Here are the details for the Specialized "Test the Best" event:

• May 10 and 11th: Dirt and Road demo at St. Edwards Park in Kenmore, WA
• May 17th: Women's Specific Product Demo at Gregg's Greenlake Cycle

Go Ride Some Hills

"Go climb hills", says Craig Undem. And with that cycling is in the news again. This time as a great way to get in shape. In the article Craig points out that just going on moderate to long rides doesn't always give you all the health benefits possible from cycling. Sometimes you have to push it a bit and hills are the best way to do it.

Increasing your intensity levels in short bursts (enough to be out of breath but not gagging) elevates cycling to one of the best calorie-burners among all physical activities. In fact, statistics from the American Council on Exercise (the primary certification group for personal trainers) equates bicycle racing with a vigorous game of basketball and not far off running at a brisk clip that would leave most people gasping.

Many people who ride their bike for fitness forget or don't understand this idea. Most go out for a ride and like to stay on the Burke Gilman Trail doing a long, flat, mostly one speed ride. Don't get me wrong, any riding is better than no riding but like Craig says, "Hills give you more bang for the buck".

Great to see this in the news and a good reminder to all of us who don't love the hill rides but know we should do them.

Read the article here.

Opening Weekend at Tiger Mountain

Tiger Mountain, one of the most used mt. bike trails in the state is open and mostly ready to go. The BBTC has done a huge amount of work over the last few years to keep this trail open to bikers and in good shape. The area is closed from October 15 - April 15 so this was actually the second open weekend of 2008. While the weather was outstanding, the last few weeks of cold weather left a good 4 - 6 inches of snow at the top of the climb. Snow didn't keep the masses from coming out to ride. In fact the parking lot was full for most of the day with both bikers and hikers.

To help people enjoy the day even more the BBTC put together a BBQ for the riders and we came out to do some mechanical support and give some swag out. People that came out to ride (and people that came out to hike) were treated to some great hot dogs, hamburgers and assorted grilled veggie stuff when they finished up their riding. Most were pretty hungry because as it turned out the ride was a little longer then usual. With at least a mile of tromping through 6 inches of snow at the top of Preston, it became a pretty epic day. The trail still needs a little work and there were volunteers up there cutting some trees out of the trail. As is the case with early season riding around here, the trail has changed quite a bit. The trail still bends and turns the way you remember, but there were a few extra challenges in the way of rocks, mud, logs and other assorted debris that had moved around over the winter. Hats off the the BBTC once again for the advocacy that they do and the work they do on the trails to keep us all riding. If you're interested in getting involved or want to do some trail work, check this out: http://bbtc.org/recreation/calendar.php?view=all&event_type=W

Why Washington Rules

I love to see this stuff! Being a life long Washington native and living in Seattle for the 18 years, it always makes me a little proud to see our fair city written up in a national magazine. It's even better when they mention Gregg's Cycle by name!

Why Washington Rules: Seattle Hoods
So you're sold on going to Seattle to visit or to live (and if you aren't, you should be). The question is, where do you go once you're there? Here are the three best answers.

Green Lake
What and Where: Easy-to-access north-central Seattle, with turn-of-the-century Craftsman homes and 324-acre (131-hectare) Green Lake Park, a huge draw for cyclists and runners

Who Rules: Thirtysomething avant-greens, baby boomers

The Haunts: Gregg's Greenlake Cycles is the place to pick up new rides (greggscycles.com). The new bistro Joule features a New York–
trained chef and French- and Korean-inspired cuisine (joulerestaurant.com).

Check out the whole article here.

Morning Colonnade Ride

This morning I joined the crew at the weekly I-5 Colonnade ride. For those of you who haven't heard of it before the I-5 Colonnade is:

the first ever urban mountain bike skills park. It's part of a City of Seattle park, but was funded and constructed by the BBTC (Backcountry Bicycle Trails Club). Limestone Loop is complete and offers a 1/2-mile tight'n'twisty Cross Country loop with several intermediate to advanced options.

There were only 5 of us this morning but the riding was nice and it's always dry under I-5. While this might not be the best place to have the first ride on my new Fuel, it was fun to hit a few jumps, ride some skinnies and do some wall rides. All things that I haven't done too very often. It was even more fun to see John, Fritz and Ryan really do some jumps (pictures to come) and ride some walls. I'm always amazed at how far people have pushed mountain biking in the last ten years or so. The emergence of freeriding has been well chronicled in many places so I won't go into it here but watching people pull some of the stunts that they do now and make it look so easy makes this 36 year old dude feel just a little old and behind the times.

This looks to be a weekly event so if you're in to it, come on out next Friday and ride. Usually there around 7:30am.

Thanks to Ryan for the pics. For more of his artistry check out:
http://harboo.pinkbike.com/album/Ride-Photos/

Me and My Bicycle

More cycling culture online.

meandmybicycle is about you and your bike. Show off your wheels, find
like minded cyclists and join in discussions about all things cycling
related.

Haven't take a good look at it yet but the idea looks promising and there is no doubt a lot of passion to keep it going.

http://www.meandmybicycle.com/

April 1

April has begun and there have already been a few small jokes in the shop today and online. My favorite so far is this gem from Cyclingnews.com:

"Carbon-wrapped aluminum seems to be the next frontier of materials technology and at least one company thinks the benefits may be easier to come by than previously thought. Cyclingnews technical editor James Huang pulls up his sleeves to see if there's any truth to the company hype."

I got all excited to wrap my old Diamondback cross frame until I read this little part and I figured it out, "Even more unexpected, however, was the decreased weight of our guinea pig.
Actual weight of our frame actually dropped about 100g; Jacobsen says
other frames should yield similar results while most components should drop
about 20g or so depending on what they are."

All in good fun, now if I can just get on with that Gmail Custom Time beta!

Fun Online Stuff with Bikes

Every once in a while we run across some cool websites out there that have to do with cycling. Seems that there are hundreds of new sites popping up weekly but here's one that we thought was pretty cool. It's called 10speedtraveler.com. Like many social or web2.0 sites it allows users to post, save and share their favorite spots so that others might find that info useful. The difference with this site is that it's focused on active people that love to "bike, ski, travel, eat and drink". Here's a quote from their site:

"We don't provide a rating system and we don't receive money from those
featured. The intent is not to show every restaurant or trail in an area,
rather only those unique or enjoyable enough to make the cut. Our goal is
that if you like one location, you will like them all."

We had a good time looking around and I thought you might as well. Check it out: www.10speedtraveler.com

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