Moving assembly back to the states makes sense from a bottom line perspective. Could we see more of this in the industry?
+++
MUKILTEO, WA (BRAIN) Feb 24, 09:18 MT—FSA technicians will start hand-building a small number of Vision wheels at the company’s Seattle-area North American headquarters this spring with the eventual goal of assembling all the brand’s aftermarket wheelsets in-house.
FSA, which owns Vision, will start the project this spring with Vision’s new top-of-the-line Metron 81 carbon fiber wheels. Depending on how that goes, FSA would expand assembly to include all Vision and FSA wheels for the North American aftermarket, said Fletch Newland, FSA’s marketing manager. About 40 percent of Vision’s wheels are sold in the aftermarket.
“We have not had an assembly set up for our wheels previously so we’ll start off still sourcing some,” Newland said. FSA currently imports wheels assembled from the TH Industries’ factory in Taichung. TH, parent company of FSA, runs a dedicated carbon fiber rim production facility and also builds all hubs in-house. Spokes are sourced from a third party.
Shifting assembly to North America will reduce import duties, helping to keep prices competitive and potentially increase margins, Newland said. Duties on wheelsets are 10 percent from Taiwan. Hubs are duty free, rims are 1.8 percent and spokes are 10 percent, but more spokes can be packed into a container than complete wheels.
Free Forest Park! Stickers will be available next week on the store.
Here at Zendoughnut we love our dirt.
Whether it be riding around in circles in the fall listening to cowbell and drums or flying through the woods in the summer listening to the bees. While it is great to drive out to Sandy or to Tillamook State Forest to ride we would really love to have something closer to ride. Forest Park in Portland is one of the nations largest city parks and covers an amazing amount of land (5100 acres). We want to ride it and enjoy it like the other trail users! There have been many attempts to open up the trails to cycling on multiple occasions. All of which failed due to random stalling or NIMBY’s blocking access.
This sticker is a venting and an awareness tool. We could just ride the hiking trails at night like los banditos. But in the end that just gets us cyclists bad press and actually works against the cause. A simple sticker won’t change the world, but can be an effective tool to affect change. One of the cores of ZD is to affect social change. Here is one way we can help.
75% of the proceeds from this sticker go directly towards the NWTA our local IMBA chapter. They have fought for and have built some sweet trails for us. Please help out and put a cool sticker on your car, bike, or dog. Or click on the link and donate to the NWTA directly.
Focusing on the doughnut,
Jeremy
NOTE: After the stickers sell through. I will donate the moneys earned to NWTA and then I will be releasing the image above as Creative Commons Commercial Use License so others can use it.
Free Forest Park! by Jeremy Schroeder is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
I pulled the trigger and ordered up a bunch of Free Forest Park! stickers. Check out the zendoughnut store to order. 75% of sales goes to the NWTA for trail building and access rights.
Please contribute and get a sticker.
Jeremy
note: Sticker are designed for indoor/outdoor use.
Looks like Portland’s model is expanding to other major cities. RE: Sunday Parkways
Families riding bikes, children on roller skates and barely a car in sight; it’s hard to believe this is usually one of the busiest roads in Mexico City.
It’s an eerily calm Sunday morning on the city’s Avenida Reforma, an avenue which is grid-locked on weekdays by tens of thousands of cars sitting bumper-to-bumper. The Reforma’s closure to to car traffic on Sundays in 2007 kickstarted the capital’s attempts to make life easier for cyclists. In 2010 a 17km-long bike lane through the city opened - and more efforts to promote pedal power are being unveiled in the coming few months.
Via BBC
Again with another revolutionary release, On-One breaks the mold and creates something we cyclists all need. These guys are geniuses, it must be something in the water over there.
Contact me to get your hands one of these pumps. Orders are flying now, you may want to get in on this before they sell out.
NOTE: THESE HAVE BEEN UCI “OFFICIALLY APPROVED” FOR THE TOUR THIS YEAR!
Hooray! my OBRA essentials came in the mail.
I almost fainted when I pulled it out of the envelope. I thought for a second my number was going to be 1337 which we all know in Leetspeak would make me an uber hacker elite, but 5337 equals Seet in Leetspeak, which is lame. I think OBRA is trying to say something here.
Seet
A contraction of the word sweet, it is often spoken sarcastically and carries a negative connotation. The word conveys the most meaning when responding to a conversation that one simply does not care about, or finds silly and childish (Example 1). While the response doesn’t seem rude on paper, the word alone can make a person feel inferior and inadequate. Also, when used as part of a conversation, it can be used to show disappointment, or anger (Example 2). It can be used as an adjective, describing a specific situation, article of clothing, hair style, someone’s house or car, and so on (Example 3). While most users understand the sarcasm behind the word, some use the word as a replacement for the word sweet, and adapt it into their vocabulary. These people are called seetsters.Example 1:
Alex: “This weekend I got so drunk I couldn’t even speak English anymore.”
Kevin: “Seet.”
Example 2:
Alex: “Hey baby, I’m not gonna be able to take you to that movie on Friday night anymore. The guys wanna get some grub and go to the game.”
Kelly: “Seet, we’ve had these plans for two weeks.”
Alex: “I know baby, I’m sorry.”
Example 3:
Zach: “Whoa dude, look at Alex’s jeans today.”
Kenny: “Who does he think he is, Tupac or something?”
Zach: “Yeah, maybe. Seet jeans Alex.”
Fausto Coppi by Italian artist Claudio Pesci.
These were done in 09’ (I think). Claudio recently illustrated the cover for a charitable calendar seen here.
Wonderful watercolors of Il Campionissimo.
Someone with great photoshop skills could have some fun with this. Water color Coppi on an Lion?
Get paid to ride. I’d like to see this in action. I wonder how the shop is doing this? Can it be replicated through out the bike industry?
Shop’s promotion targets resolute riders WOODLAND HILLS, CA (BRAIN)—Santa Monica Mountains Cyclery is looking to help customers stick to their New Year’s riding resolutions—and sell a few extra bikes in the process. Cyclists who purchase a bike from the Woodland Hills, California, retailer before Jan. 22 will be eligible to earn 10 cents per mile for every mile ridden on that bike in 2012, up to 50 percent of the bicycle’s purchase price. “We know that many people out there want to improve their fitness and maybe lose a few pounds, and we just want to give them a little nudge in the right direction,” shop owner David Kooi said.
FYI - Go to Eugene February 26th for bike jobs.
Cycling job fair seeks industry partners EUGENE, OR (BRAIN)—Collins Cycle Shop is seeking industry participants for the inaugural Eugene Bike Fair, aimed at connecting job seekers in the Pacific Northwest with human resources representatives from cycling companies. “It’s a way to give back to the community, to let people who are unemployed know the cycling industry is strong in the Northwest,” said Collins Cycle Shop partner Jay Loew, who is organizing the event. “We want to highlight the cycling industry and make some small contribution to people getting jobs in it.” Several companies both in and outside the region have committed to the Feb. 26 nonretail event, including Garmin of Olathe, Kansas (two HR representatives); Specialized of Morgan Hill, California (head of HR); Castelli USA of Portland, Oregon (HR rep); Cyclone Bicycle Supply of Portland (HR manager); Seattle Bicycle Supply of Seattle, Washington (sales manager and HR manager); Giant Bicycles of Newbury Park, California (HR rep); and Rolf Prima of Eugene.
10 speed is so last yea…oh wait what?!?
This cassette goes to 12. KCNC is going to be shipping this 12 speed road and a 11 speed mountain cassette. The MTB cassette looks beautiful, like a piece of art. One could run a 1x11 on a 29er and be happy I think.
Found via BikeBiz
“I thought I’d just killed a good friend in the name of telling rich folks which expensive wheels to buy”
I think this may be the best quote from a bike pundit this year.
From the VeloNews article about disc brakes coming to road bikes soon.
I am trying to start something, but realize it is bigger than one man and a computer with a love to ride his bike. I am trying to now start a 501c3 non-profit corporation and would like the proceeds to go to fighting children’s cancer. I think of what I went through more than five years ago and…
Cyclists’ Road Map of Portland District, 1896
The map is filled with fascinating features. “Information for wheelmen” explains that road quality is determined by riding speeds, with good road allowing travel at 10-12mph. Though “allowance will have to be made, of course, for mud and dust”.
One of the most eye catching elements of this bike map is the concentric mile wide rings showing distance. … [T]his was Washington & 3rd, the ticket office for the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company. Inside the neat line on the lower left side is an ad for the O.R & N, bearing that same address.
History of the Bike There! map
This first map also showed information to help cyclists combine a bike ride with transit. “Cycle to Oregon City, spend the night at the Oregon City Electric Hotel, and take the interurban railroad home the next day!”
Portland, Oregon. Cycling city since 1896
(via jennlevo)
Putting a flywheel on a bike.
Maxwell von Stein, a 22-year-old graduate of The Cooper Union, built bicycle that uses a flywheel to store energy. Instead of braking, Max can transfer energy from the wheel to the flywheel, which spins between the crossbars. The flywheel stores the kinetic energy until Max wants a boost, then he can transfer the energy back to the wheel using a shifter on the handlebars. production, filming: ian chant, aleszu bajak, flora lichtman. music: prelinger archives. additional images: Maxwell von Stein. Source: NPR
SPiNe - Secure your city bike by Ronen Spector.
Fun little vid showing the product. It is a interesting concept. Very clever. I like not having to carry a lock around.
Thanks BikeBiz for the link.




![buchino:
Cyclists’ Road Map of Portland District, 1896
The map is filled with fascinating features. “Information for wheelmen” explains that road quality is determined by riding speeds, with good road allowing travel at 10-12mph. Though “allowance will have to be made, of course, for mud and dust”.
One of the most eye catching elements of this bike map is the concentric mile wide rings showing distance. … [T]his was Washington & 3rd, the ticket office for the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company. Inside the neat line on the lower left side is an ad for the O.R & N, bearing that same address.
History of the Bike There! map
This first map also showed information to help cyclists combine a bike ride with transit. “Cycle to Oregon City, spend the night at the Oregon City Electric Hotel, and take the interurban railroad home the next day!”
Portland, Oregon. Cycling city since 1896](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lvuxk11oZ01qz8xtho1_500.jpg)