HI!

Sales Meeting is done! I'm still here. Lots to talk about... when I catch my breath again.

I'll be back tomorrow with a meatier post, complete with pictures, so just hang on a little longer.

You KNOW I love you all and will be back. Promise.

Tim

Back. Tired. Buried.

Back from Boulder City, Nevada now. Our trip went very well- our customer was very happy with each of our product presentations, as well as the nice fleet of demo bikes we brought (between all the Haro MTB and Masi road bikes). All in all, reports are that things went well.

The first day there, as mentioned before, was freezing! For a SoCal boy (even though originally from Alabama), 26 degrees is danged cold... especially when you only packed for 50 degree weather! The second and third days were warmer, though still quite cool. But, the good news is that the wind died down a bit as well and made the riding much more enjoyable.

Wednesday provided two different rides- one with our fantastic customer/ host and the other with my fantastic coworkers! And then Thursday served up one more group ride with the fine folks from Sun & Ski.


James Ayres (our Eastern Regional Sales Manager), me (duh) and our good friend and customer TJ (after all these years, I still can't remember if TJ even has a last name or what his official title is- he's just always been TJ to me) standing on the Hoover Dam.


My fat head/ helmet, Jill Hamilton (Haro MTB/ Lifestyle Brand Manager) and the peeking-around-my-shoulder head of Bryan Hayman (our Western Regional Sales Manager) down near Lake Mead.


I didn't really get any good group pictures on Thursday, but I did get this great shot of a chipmunk hanging around at our scenic stop. He looked hungry and not at all bashful.


Here's Bryan getting bikes out and ready to be ridden by some happy guys. Between the Masi bikes and all the Haro MTB bikes, we had around 30 bikes being ridden... and we saw lots and lots of smiles!

Though it was "work", it was also a lot of fun. Getting to ride and talk bikes for a few days is not a bad job... I admit I dig this gig (as if I really need to repeat that). The riding in Boulder City really is quite good. There's hardly a flat spot anywhere- it seems like you are either climbing or descending nearly the entire time- and even though the shoulder is very narrow and roads are heavily trafficked in places (mostly in the construction areas), the riding is still great. The views are incredible as well- the Lake Mead and Hoover Dam areas are really quite beautiful. BUT... Boulder City, and to some degree Henderson, have also really embraced cycling. In fact, there is now a fully separated bike/ pedestrian path that goes 31 miles along the lake and then into and around Boulder City/ Henderson. It is smooth, fast and fun to ride. It's a beautiful place to ride a bike. So much so, I can easily see myself going back for a cycling vacation... and you should too. If I were to organize a team training camp of my own, it would likely be in Boulder City... if you're reading this, Squirrel...

Now the work restarts though... now I have to get our catalog finished for Spring. The copy is all done, but now I have to work with my Product Manager (Wayne Doran) to make sure all the bikes have been photographed by our Photo-God (Pete Demos). Then I have to work with our Catalog-Dog (Rick- the Hispanic Panic- Ortiz) to finish layout and work with Pete some more for some nice action/ lifestyle/ image pics for the catalog as well. All of this has to be done so that we can turn in our catalog layout to the printer by February 19th. Yeah, the February 19th that is only 11 days away... that one. AND our Spring sales Meeting is the first week of March. AND then I head to Taiwan on March 10th. At least all the stress has helped me lose weight and keep it off. That's cool... right?


Yeah, the happy me... the one riding his bike... he'll be back in a while...
(Sorry for the spotty posting as of late... again. I'll be back with more posts, more podcasts and hopefully more video as well.)

Tim

Not dead, just busy...

Sorry for the drop in posts and podcasts and vidcasts... it's been a very hectic December/ January time period. Lots happening. Finally finished the copy for the Spring '08 catalog that will be done and printed in March. Just going over the final tweaks of spec information and assessing the last photo needs. All of the Spring sample bikes are done and in our hot little hands. My Product Manager, Wayne Doran, scrambled and managed to get the samples delivered to us and built... so at least we'll have pretty pictures of pretty bikes in the catalog. Also have to work up a PowerPoint presentation for a very important retailer training camp next week out in Boulder City NV... but the good news is that I get 4 days of riding in warm, dry weather in Nevada. Bonus!

Tomorrow is Thursday and already this week is a total blur. Hard to believe I came off of a 4 day weekend because I'm already wiped out... though that could have something to do with the cold I'm still fighting off. Hopefully I can get healthy by Sunday, as one of my all-time favorite crits is this weekend. I don't think I've ever finished out of the top 10 on this course and I've won once and been on the podium a few times, so I have a soft spot for this course. If my head clears up from this cold enough (and I can get my sister or mother to watch my daughter for a couple hours), I'm gonna try to get in the race and mix things up. The last time I did the race was two years ago- and it was won by '84 Olympic gold medalist Steve Hegg. I was 8th that day and I would argue that I have better legs this year. So we'll see.

Ok, I have a lot of work to do tomorrow and need to get a little sleep... so good night folks!

Tim

One step down...

So this week I finished my color selections for the Fall 2008 range of bikes (including some new bikes you're gonna love). Now I am in the midst of writing new copy for the Spring 2008 catalog- mostly a revamp of the existing Fall 2007/Winter 08 catalog. The new Fall '07 website is almost ready to unveil as well. Soon you'll be able to see all the lovely images of the Fall '07 bikes and then we'll be getting ready to plug in the new Spring '08 bikes in just a few more months. Oy... I'm getting dizzy now.

Lots of good development has been going on and I am really excited about the bikes that are coming in Spring and those coming on their heels in Fall. It's a pretty exciting time to be a bike nerd... I promise. If you are one of the many folks who like the steel bikes we're doing at the moment, then you'll be pretty happy with what is coming.

Christmas is just a few days away and I'm looking forward to some quality time with my kids. I'll get a chance to ride a little as well, which is good because I hop back on a plane and head back over to Taiwan in the first week of January... so building a little base fitness before losing another week of training will be good. But this time, I swear, I'm gonna try to fight my jetlag and actually go to the "fitness center" at the hotel. No really... I mean it this time.

So much going on and so many things to update you on and post about. I'll get caught up soon and will get back on schedule... I hope. Thanks for your patience- in advance.

Tim

Still breathing, if only slightly...

I know, I know, I know... I said I'd be trying harder to be a better blogger. Well... I AM trying... I'm just not succeeding. On top of being exceptionally busy, my laptop has been limping along, thanks to the fact that I almost never delete any email files. So my Outlook file has been dead for the past few days, but thanks to the IT magic of George Nunez (our IT demi-God), I'm up and running again. I am convinced that I am singlehandedly moving George into a higher tax bracket.

I'm hoping that I'm actually back now... hoping.

Anyway, on to the stuff.

Here's where I will be November 15th until the 19th...I plan to sense bodily all that I can while in Tokyo and am sincerely looking forward to attending the show. Japan has always been a place of great interest to me and the Japanese cycling market is totally different than the US or European ones, so this will be a great learning experience. Plus, I'm fairly sure that I'm huge in Japan.

Before getting to Tokyo, I'll be in Taiwan (specifically Taichung) for another week. While there, hopefully I'll get to see the production of the SoulVille bikes. It's always a rush to see your own bikes flowing down the assembly line- especially when it is the bike you have the greatest amount of demand for.

Spring '08 bikes are getting wrapped up now. Colors have been selected and now the "sexing up" with graphics and component color choices is underway. I feel pretty confident you're going to be as excited about the Spring bikes as you have been so far for the Fall bikes. Now I have to push to get sample bikes in time to shoot the next catalog... which is coming sooner, rather than later.

At least I can try to catch up on my sleep during my flight to Taiwan. Unless I'm nervously awake, trying to make sure we come up with more cool bikes.

I guess we'll find out soon enough...

Tim

Yes, I'm still alive.

I know it's been a while since I've posted and the posts have been a little "light"... but it's still amazingly busy after Interbike. You may remember that I've talked for the past few years about working towards getting away from model years with our products. Well, we've done that, but we've also decided to go to two product releases a year as well. That means that the Fall '07 products you see in the new catalog (which you can download from the current company website) are not even on the ground yet and I am wrapping up design of the Spring '08 products. In fact, my esteemed colleague and Product Manager (Wayne- "Fuzzy"- Doran) is headed to Taiwan next week to work out a bunch of product details. Shortly afterwards, in early November, I'll be headed to Taiwan again and then on to Tokyo for the Japanese version of Interbike- called Cycle Mode. So, I think maybe, just maybe you can see why the posting has been light and why I'm slowly, but certainly, losing my mind. (Not that I'm complaining because I still feel like a lucky bastard to have this job... just in case the bosses are reading...)

Anyway, there has been plenty to talk about over this gap in my posting and I really don't even know where to begin. I never really finished posting about the Eurobike show and the products there, I didn't really talk about all the Initerbike stuff, I've skipped over lots of the cool things that have been going on with people, places and things... and the ongoing saga that is professional bike racing. BUT... I will do my best to get back on track and back to covering it all.

I have recently been riding my Speciale Fixed a lot and have been enjoying it immensely. I had been riding it for the past several months set up very close to my Kilo position, so that I could do the occasional Kilo workout on my lunch rides (thinking I was going to be racing a lot more than I did this year... once). I recently rebuilt it with a more traditional track/ road set up;

It's set up with a bunch of parts I've been holding on to for a while-

• SunTour Superbe Pro track cranks (167.5mm length) and NOS Superbe Pro bottom bracket- NJS stamped!
• Sugino Mighty Comp 46t chainring and Campagnolo 16t cog.
• TTT Mod Dazzan alloy track sprint bars- a whopping 39cm wide too!
• Deda Zero stem.
• Old Lorica bar tape that was on my first track bike from 1992/93- complete with all the scuffs from crashes.

The saddle is a sample, with a couple colors wrong, of what we will be using for the new artwork on our Masi-branded saddles. The "Masi" lettering is not going to be yellow, as it is shown, nor is the Masi "M". However, the rest is pretty close- though the off-center Masi headbadge artwork will be black. The cool thing is that the saddle sample is of our low-end saddle... but it rides really, really well. With some nice Ti rails, this thing would be on a few more of my bikes. With the shape, curved at the rear, it kinda reminds me of an old San Marco Concor (my second most favorite saddle ever- behind the Arione).All in all, it feels really good to be riding my bikes again. All the travel has made it very difficult to keep any kind of rhythm and I'm sure to lose it again with the travel on the horizon. Still, I'm enjoying each revolution of the cranks I am able to get.

I've also been spending a lot of time on my SoulVille. Yep, I'm cruising around in mega style on a 20" SoulVille from our demo fleet from Vegas. It's a pre-production bike, so the fender rubs the tire in the rear, the fork axle-to-crown height is short and the virtual top tube length is too short so I get toe overlap on the fender. Still, even though it is a little small for me, it is a dream to ride. Once the final version is done, it'll danged-near perfect. You folks will LOVE this bike when it finally arrives- most likely in late December or early January. I'm actually going to be playing around with this bike quite a bit. I'm planning to load it with a rack and baskets.. more on that later... and will be testing the platform for a true utility bike. More to follow on that, so stay tuned. I'll also have photos soon too. I may remove the fenders and do some other mods, so it won't likely look like the catalog bike... at all.

Ok, time to get ready for my nephew's christening. It's raining here today, so like a true SoCal resident, I'm not out riding. Hey, it only rains twice a year here... so why bother?

Tim
(Let's see if the BSNYC comes by to rip my bike apart... go easy- I'm delicate.)

Not as late tonight...

Today I got to leave work at 7:00PM and got home just in time to tuck my daughter in to bed and read her a short book. So it ain't all bad... plus I just made myself a nice, cool Pina Colada (yeah, I know it's foofy... but it's also tasty and it's hotter-n-hell here right now).

Today, thanks to Jim and Susan and the entire crew at CyclArt, I got all of my last remaining samples of new products... and damn do they look great! I am supper excited about the bikes and I am confident you will all be pretty impressed too. A big thanks has to go to the fine folks who did a lot of work at Masi/ Haro to help make this happen; Wayne Doran (my Product Manager), Rick Ortiz (my graphic artist who created the look of the new bikes), Pat Crosby (who is the MTB Product Manager) and Brian Hayman (who has recently moved into a new sales roll with Haro, but has been an employee with the company for many years). It's a huge effort to get bikes into the world, from concept to artwork to parts spec and final product... it's a big effort. Needless to say, it's a very stressful and wonderful experience when the first bikes show up... and I'm pretty fried at the moment. The new stuff makes it all worth the headache and long hours.

Yesterday, I took a short break from work and left the office long enough to take part in a blog related talk show. One of my BBF's- Best Blogging Friends- Toby Bloomberg has a show on Blog Talk Radio and I got to be a guest, along with Donna Lyons-Miller. The topic was Leveraging Social Media to Support Niche Consumer Brands. It was a great conversation, so go give it a listen! Thanks again to Toby for being kind enough to invite me and to Donna for suffering through my usual ramblings.

Ok, I gotta finish my laundry before the sales meeting starts on Friday. Tomorrow is final prep and set up, so it's gonna be another very long day. I'll try to get a few more spy pics for you though... so be patient.

Tim

Another late night...

Still at work and will be for hours...

... for the record, I hate PowerPoint and Excel with the white hot intensity of a thousand burning suns!


Tim

Update- As Al points out... I'm a whiner. The two benefits to working late/ after hours; 1) no phones ringing and no emergencies and B) I get to drink a beer at my desk while I try to dislodge some creativity.

Thanks for the reminder Al!

What a day...

Today was one of those 12 hour days that just seemed to drag on forever. 8:00AM to 8:00PM in the office...

... and I'm really tired. I know, I know, I know... a) I'm doing what I love, 2) tons of people work long days too. I know. I'm a whiner.

In the end, it should be worth it. The new (newerest?) bikes are going to be sweet! Lots of cool new stuff happening with the products. Today, one of my many complicated tasks, I delivered 7 frames and forks to local bike painting gurus CyclArt (thank you Jim and Susan!). They are going to paint my pre-production samples so I can have them in time for our National Sales Meeting and for Interbike. Without their help, it might not be possible to pull of what I'm trying to pull off... not that I can tell you yet.

(Photo- Pete Demos; you can see this one since I've already shown it to you anyway.)

So, yeah... I'm cooked. Very, very cooked. AND... I still have a ton of work to do before the Sales Meeting and Interbike... and I have a week in Germany in the middle of the two. Yeah! (I know, I'm whining again...)

Tim

Yeah, I'm still here...

So the whole #1 thing was short lived, as I knew it would be. Technorati finally "fixed the glitch" and now I'm back to being about as big as a freckle on a gnat's ass. I'm now back to being ranked number 18, 285... but who's counting?

Things at Masi Global World Domination Headquarters are in full-blown warp factor 9 mode right now. Our National Sales Meeting is on our heels now... like just two weeks away. This means I have to get my act together, both figuratively and literally. Lots and lots of work goes into this meeting and it really does set the tone for the remainder of the year heading into the tradeshows and then into the rest of the year. It's kind of a big deal... ok, it's a huge deal. So, there's no pressure at all... nope, not even a little. CRAP!

The good news is that there are so many exciting and cool things to talk about this year that my usual excitement and passion is going to easily get kicked up a notch or two without even trying. I know that for as long as I've been blogging here, I've been saying that the new products coming out are going to be great... but those words feel like such an understatement now. Seriously folks, I've never been more excited (and even a little scared) about any other project I've worked on with a company. The new bikes, the new looks and new product categories are going to really impress. I know that I am way beyond the usual level of excited and anxious. I am confident though, that it will show in the products that all of you will get to see more of in the coming weeks and months.

It's an exciting time to be a Masi fan. My product manager that I work with, Waynebow- AKA Wayne Doran, and I have been busting some serious butt to make these new bikes happen. We've even enlisted the help of Pat "What's that Smell" Crosby for some frame drawing assistance. Pat works with Jill Hamilton, our MTB Brand Manager over on the Haro side of the building. All of this points to the massive amount of teamwork needed to make a bike line happen.

So with all that is cooking right now, well more like boiling, the posting here may get a little spotty again. Fear not, I will be back. Then I have to leave for Germany and Eurobike at the end of the month. Then I have to get ready for Interbike in Vegas at the end of September. Then I think I may be headed back to Taiwan. Then... a nap... I hope.

Tim

Playing catch up...

Now that the Tour is over and I'm trying to distance myself from all the doping scandals (Mayo revealed to have doped too...), I can get back to being a regular blogger again... I hope.

In the past few weeks, with all the stuff that has been going on with the Tour and the tons of stuff going on with work, I've been a pretty lousy blogger (outside of the Tour reports, for the most part). Lots has been going on within the blogging community that I am actually proud to be a part of. I've been tagged a few times and haven't been playing along, like I normally would. SO now I have some catching up to do...

Both Giandrea (my friend in Italy) and Becky Carroll (my friend in San Diego) tagged me with the "8 Random Things" meme that was going around, so now I have to come up with 8 things you might not know about me; (I actually think a few other people might've hit me with this too...)

1) I can no longer scream after I was run over by a car almost 3 years ago. The impact with the car/ ground did something to my vocal chords or the muscles in my neck. Since that time, I have been unable to raise my voice to scream. Bummer.

2) My nickname when I was growing up and playing baseball as a kid was "Leggs". I was the tallest (and skinniest) kid on my tee ball team and when I ran, my legs were a wacky whirlwind. My coach called me "Legs" and it stuck... all my life growing up in Alabama. He asked me, "how you wanna spell that?" And I said, "l-e-g-g-s"... because my mom's pantyhose were Leggs brand pantyhose and I just assumed that was the right spelling. Does that explain things or what?

3) I worked all kinds of odd jobs growing up as a kid, trying to earn money for bike stuff usually. One of my favorites was working in a pecan orchard. I was super skinny as a kid (I was 6' tall in 9th grade and finally reached 100 pounds that same year) so I got to climb out on the limbs of the pecan trees with a wooden baseball bat and beat the hell out of the limbs to shake out the nuts. Yeah, you heard me...

4) My first car was given to me by one of my uncles (my middle name sake- Vance). It was a 1960's Chevy Apache 100... it was my uncles old surf truck and we went on lots of epic surf outings in that truck. I was happy to get it too, even though it took some work to get it running. The master brake cylinder was blown and it ran on 4.5 of 6 cylinders. But it ran! It also had a busted fuel gauge, so I had to do accurate math to keep track of the mileage on each tank of gas. Yes, I ran out several times, so I kept a tank for gas in the bed of the truck and a couple bucks stashed in the glove box. The passenger side door didn't stay locked and would fly open on hard or fast left hand turns on occasion... like the time I was driving with a girlfriend of mine and she nearly slid out the door; she never rode in the truck again. Oh, and the gas tank was behind the bench seat and had a slight leak, so I frequently smelled of gas and was sometimes high as a kite when I drove more than an hour. But it ran!

5) I have a serious weakness for certain foods. Two of the biggest being fried chicken and beef jerky. I'm already salivating...

6) In light of #5 above, my entire family was shocked and amazed by the fact that I was once a vegetarian for about 9 months several years ago. I decided that I wanted to have a cleaner diet and better fuel source for racing. It was awesome! Except that when I was off the bike, I was frequently dizzy and lightheaded and walked into a lot of walls or fell over for no reason. Weird, I know... but I felt fantastic ON the bike. I rode super well and had great results, but it was really hard for me to plan my meals and eat properly. One night, on my usual ride home from work, like I did nearly every night... I rode by the KFC near my house. I rode home and showered and then rode back to KFC and got an 8 piece bucket of chicken- all white meat, half original and half extra crispy. I was sick for days. But I haven't been a vegetarian since.

7) The very first time I ever shaved my legs (I think I was 12), I shaved them completely dry and without any water or soap. Nothing went wrong- no nicks, no razor burn, no nothing. Ever since then, whether I shave in the tub, in the shower, with an electric, with a razor... I always get razor burn to some degree. Where is the justice in that?

8) I have had several fish hooks embedded in me in one place or another in my life. I grew up fishing- my first deep sea fishing trip was when I was just a few months old. I had sea legs long before I could even stand up on dry land. One of the best was when I was fishing after school- when I wasn't supposed to be- and I somehow managed to snag myself in the back of my head while casting. The lure was a big MirrOLure that I had borrowed from my uncle. With no other options and the lure firmly embedded in my scalp, I had to call my mom from the house of some people who lived next to the creek I was fishing in. Mom was pissed! I wasn't supposed to be fishing and I certainly wasn't supposed to be going to the doctor's office after normal hours so the doc could pull a lure out of my head! I was actually more upset thinking that the lure would be ruined by cutting off the hook. The good doc was able to push the hook out of my head without destroying the hook or ripping my head off... though my mom was willing to let him try. I fished with the same lure a couple days later.

Cam Beck, a blog buddy of mine in Texas, tagged me with his own version of a tagging meme; 5 Taglines about other blogs you read. So now I have to put on my marketer's cap and try to come up with some good one-liners...

Fritz- All the bike news fit to print.
CK- Who says smart can't be sexy?
Anne Handley- Bringing the brightest minds in marketing and one dim bulb (that's me) to one place.
Donna Tocci- "Feel Free to Stop" (Ok, so I stole that...)
Phil Gomes- The cycling way of life/ living.

Are you happy now, Cam?

Ok... I think that fulfills my immediate obligations, but I'll be back with more stuff soon.

More Masi World Domination News and other announcements coming soon, I promise.

Tim

"So, where you been?"

I swear, I go a couple days without posting and I get a bunch of emails asking if I've fallen into some huge chasm or something. Jeesh...

If you haven't already seen this, go check it out. It's an interview that I did with Tim Parr and Sky Yaeger, of SWOBO, on my other blog. It's actually a really good read- if you allow yourself to get past my yammering. (I've heard somewhere that the interviewer is supposed to talk less than than interviewees... but I never studied Journalism in college.)

The Spokesmen have done episodes 19 and 20 without me... and they sound even more intelligent. I find that disturbing.

Lots of other cool stuff has been happening, but frankly my brain is just a tad too fried to remember it all. Things have remained super busy at Masi Global Domination Headquarters. Lots of cool stuff is percolating away. Really cool stuff. Stuff you're gonna like/ love/ want/ need/ desire... promise. It's a very exciting time to be a product dork. At least to me. It's also very frustrating and maddening and enough to make you wanna scream from time to time, but it's worth it. I mean, you can't make an omelet without braking a few eggs (and you can't make butter with a toothpick). All the labor that goes into creating a new and better bike is worth it when that first sample shows up.


I've had this frame and fork for months now and still haven't built it up... even though I have one of these for it... I know- I should be shot. I'm thinking that I will build it up with a full-on race kit with the coolest parts I can gather and turn it into my cross racing bike. I mean, the CXR is a runaway hit, but I'm nowhere near fast enough (or good enough) at cross to really compete on the thing, so I might as well rock the way cool steel and at least look good at the back of the field. Oh yeah, as a reminder- this is the frame and fork we are using on the new Speciale CX that is coming out late this summer/ early fall. A sweet bike with rack and fender mounts as well for commuting or even light touring. And, yes, that's a lugged, flat crown fork with really cool lugged dropouts too... and a further yes, the color is a metallic burgundy. As a first year product for us, supply will be limited as we start off, so visit your retailer now and beg them to get an order in for you- otherwise, you might not get one when you want it. I'm just sayin'...

Le Tour starts in just a couple days, in London. That means I gotta get my act together so I can start doing my daily updates on the race. I'm hoping to do at least as well as I did with the Giro and post more often than not. Updates may come late in the evening, but I will do my best to get updates posted each day. I'll also post tomorrow with my pre-race predictions, prognostications and general know-it-all comments. Prediction one- Christoph Moreau is NOT going to win the Tour. Sorry folks... it ain't gonna happen. He may once again be the highest placed French rider in the final GC, but he ain't winning. You can quote me on that.

More tomorrow.

Tim
(PS- Thanks for sticking around during these quiet periods; I do truly appreciate it.)

Back from The Otter...

I'm back from The Otter.

Unearthing myself from hundreds of emails, etc.

Will post lots of pictures and stories very soon- promise.


Tim

Some of the reasons why my head hurts.

The blogging has been taking a hit around here for a long time (too long really). Between health, travel and other issues, it has been really difficult to get back into a rhythm. It hasn't been a conscious decision, just a matter of division of labor.

There are a lot of different issues that have been consuming my time (some that I won't cover here), but one of the biggest right now is wrapping up all of the bikes for the next series of product. For the record- I am very, very excited about these bikes and the new models that will be coming out. Ooh, wait... did I say new models? Forget I said that. No... really. There are some really, really cool things on the horizon and I am really confident that you will be really happy with these bikes. I feel pretty confident about that statement, given the success of the new models introduced recently like the Speciale Fixed, Coltello, Coltello Aero and CXR. Things are only getting better... trust me on this.

The thing is, all of these new bikes (I didn't say that), require a lot of work to create. From the very mundane detail of selecting a color to the much more rigorous task of determining the target retail price and the needed parts/ features. It's such a difficult process, for a new product or product category, but it is also very rewarding. Let me tell you, working on the models listed above was a labor of love, but when the bikes showed up and they started selling... my heart skipped a few beats. The bikes I'm working on now are every bit as exciting to me and I am pretty sure that you will like them too. I'm pretty lucky to be working with my new Product Manager, Wayne Doran- you may remember Wayne as our former QC Manager. Now he's a full time nuts-n-bolts guy and works with me to make Masi the coolest road brand around.

Here you see Wayne inspecting the structural integrity of a Taiwan beer pyramid. He's very detail oriented.

The point is, it really is a huge process, even for a very small company like Masi, to bring a bike to market. Again though, it's worth every single moment spent sweating the details. Especially when the feedback starts rolling in and folks utter those first "wow" comments.

On top of all the product stuff, lots of travel is on the horizon. Just got back from Taiwan at the end of January and now I am heading to Washington DC for the National Bike Summit next week and then it is back to Taiwan for the Taipei Cycle Show and then Sea Otter in April... so it's a busy time. The travel is great fun, but also a lot of work. Sure, I get to do what I love doing for a living... but I also have to do the run around stuff and spend a lot of time away from home and the office. When I'm gone, especially when there is such a time difference, work gets done at a much slower pace. Since I have a lot of work to do... that kind of becomes an issue. However, I'm not complaining because I realize that I am lucky to have a job I enjoy so much. I know there are a lot of people waiting for me to get fired so they can take over when I am gone (give up already).

Ok, my eyes are crossing because I am really tired, so I'm going to bed.

Here are a few bonus items for this evening:
1) Finally got back in on the Spokesmen Podcast- episode #13 is now up for your listening pleasure. (I need to learn to shut up.)

2) My friend, Skinny, conducted a little informal interview with me. It's fun, so give it a read. Maybe it's scary... maybe it's not. I'll let you decide for yourselves. I'll be paying him back with a little interview over here soon too... that'll teach him a lesson.

Good night!

Tim