Gimme a B... Gimme a U... Gimme a S... Gimme a Y... Gimme a few minutes....

It's busy... really busy. Next week we have our yearly Marketing Summit. We bring a handful of our sales reps and then a handful of our retailers out to see us and discuss everything we do. We hear about the hits and misses and then we talk about how we can improve things and give them a sneak peak into our thinking for the upcoming line. The bills from Vegas aren't even paid yet and we're on to the next thing... it's a lengthy process that requires a lot of work and feedback from the folks out in the field. Needless to say, we have a lot of work ahead of us as we get prepared for this coming week. I've been putting the initial pegs in the holes and trying to pencil out the next series of bikes. No, I'm not leaking anything to you right now... well, except that I promise all the bikes will only have two wheels and none of them will be recumbents. There, now you know what's happening.

I had a great visit with my buddy Kendall from Ritchey yesterday. He had bags and bags of samples and we talked bikes and bike parts. Then we just talked. That's the best part of this goofy business; the people you get to know and befriend.

Roberto Heras? Tour of California? What do they have in common? The grim specter of doping. Heras is waiting for his B sample to be tested and hopefully clear him of the possibility of a doping suspension that would effectively end his career. The new Tour of California is sponsored by Amgen, who makes EPO. EPO, the very drug that has been at the center of so many drug controversies in sport, especially cycling. On the one hand, I think it was savvy of Amgen to try and give a positive spin on their image, related to cycling. On the other hand, what on earth were they and the organizers thinking? I am really torn over this because a race is going to happen, that might not otherwise. Still, it's kind of like letting Smith & Wesson sponsor the high school football team at Columbine. "We're sorry. Here's some money."

Ok, I have to go again. There are other things I was going to talk about, but I can't remember and I have way to much staring at me that is time sensitive. Gotta run...

Tim

Swapmeet stuff...

The swapmeet was a great success for us and we sold lots of crap... I mean stuff... to a lot of people. Swapmeets are a great chance for me to completely geek-out over cool stuff from track disk wheels to old Raleigh 3-speed bikes and ratty old wool jerseys. It's pretty cool...

It was a little foggy and cold when we got there to get in line with the truck at 6:00AM on Sunday morning. That's 6:00AM people... that's what a bike geek I am.
The sun did come out during unloading. All those folks rummaging through our stuff; other vendors looking to score stuff before the real buyers were allowed in.
The buyers did show up though... in droves. At one point, we just kind of looked at each other and realized we had no way of knowing who was or wasn't paying for stuff. It was complete chaos!

The Haro Hotties did make an appearance later in the day and the crowds went wild. They've been crowd favorites for many a swapmeet.

Can you believe this guy owns a bike shop? Andrew Lee of Adams Avenue Bike Shop. Andrew has one of the coolest little shops in town. He doesn't even sell Masi and I love him anyway...

Meet Ernesto, also known as Beanerello (long story, ask me over a beer). He's a great guy, a great wrench and as you can see, quite the lady. That tank top was a small, but since he's about 6' 4"... it isn't anymore.

I didn't get any pictures of these folks, but they were a cool group. Bicycle Kitchen, in Los Angeles, is a really cool shop and concept. If in the area, you better go check'em out. Your cool factor will increase exponentially. What a cool concept they have. I'd love to see their project grow and spread all over.

Anyway, that's the wrap-up I promised. Gotta get back to creating something you are going to sell your car to buy. Working on the next big thing/s right now... busy, busy...

Tim

More to follow...

The bike swapmeet over the weekend was a big success. I will have lots of pictures and more commentary either tonight or tomorrow morning.

Busy up to my ears right now, so I can't update now... but I'll be back- you know I will.

Tim

Don't be stupid.

If you live in or near San Diego, you'd have to be insane if you skip the bike swapmeet at the velodrome this Sunday (that's tomorrow 11/6). Not only is Masi/ Haro going to have a 26' truck full of crap... stuff... to sell, but there are going to be a bunch of other folks there selling stuff. Each swapmeet offers up something cool and unexpected. Don't be an idiot; go to the swap.

You know you need a Maillard Helicomatic freewheel removal tool.

Tim

When a door closes, a window opens.

Last night, a group of us from work went out for beer, darts, cigars and a casual "send off" for former Prez and Grand Poobah Jim Ford. We didn't succeed in getting him to dance on a table, but I did give him a box of cigars and got him talked into going flyfishing with me one of these nights soon. He did however threaten to fire me if I didn't buy a round of Tequila shots and it wasn't until I was paying the bar tab that I remembered he was no longer the mighty Overlord and Signer of Paychecks.

This guy does however sign my checks now. Notice how big he's smiling with that glass of Hefeweizen in front of him. It does appear that he and I are getting the one-finger salute here, so you can see that it's a pretty stuffy group of folks here.

This is where things start to get stinky and the stogies started getting smoked. The guy in the back right is our former Inside Sales Manager, Mike Russell... notice the wild and crazy eyes going on there. Makes me nervous... (Hi Mike!)This is our pro downhill rider and current National Champion, Cody Warren and his mother Kim. You really couldn't ask for a nicer kid to have on your team. He's a very nice guy and a very talented rider... and he's only 19! This fella has a heck of a future ahead of him.

This is Jill Hamilton. Jill has just been snookered into taking a job like mine (poor girl) and is now the newly created Haro Mountain Bike Brand Manager. Jill knows a little about riding a mountain bike too... she used to race Pro downhill. I'm scared to ride a mountain bike down a paved road and she hucks'em off drops that make me faint. Honestly, between the two of us, I'm the one who "rides like a girl" (to all the women who read this blog, I am not insulting you... I swear- no hate mail please).

I'm not sure how I got a picture of my own nose and mouth, but I have a feeling it might be cigar related. That's what happens when you ask a non-cigar smoker to hold your camera...

Tim

I don't think so...

Ok, so our Senior Product Manager has recently informed me that I bare a striking resemblance to a certain Muppet character;

(Copyright Muppets- please don't sue me for pulling this picture off the internet.)

So, A) I don't have red hair that stands on end and 2) I have never worn a lab coat and tie in my entire life, let alone to work.

(No copyright- I took the picture myself.)

Now, I admit that I have spent time around beakers, but I refuse to admit to looking like Beeker.

Meaningless poll time now; by way of comment, you can vote to settle this little dispute. Voting ends tomorrow. I hate to think that my name may have to be changed to Beeker, so throw me a bone here...

Tim

It doesn't get much better than this...

First, thanks for all the comments to yesterday's post- much appreciated. (Honey, really, don't read that post!)

My daughter is a budding Van Gogh or maybe a Dali, I'm not sure. However, today I got a new portrait from her; Daddy on his bike

Notice the wild, wide-open bug-eyes. That's probably my "oh crap" face. I have no pupils in my eyes and my hair is bright red (which it isn't really), but at least I have that nice manic smile going on.

This one is a family portrait. My wife is pictured to the left, kinda, but I swear she isn't actually taller than me. I'm the ant-like character in the middle. I've been told that I am holding my daughter because she is crying about losing her balloon (I'm not sure about the balloon thing). The green puff on the brown circle is a tree on a hill. I don't know where she got the whole Japanese anime-style eyes for us. Notice how we have big bug-eyes, but we all have one really big bug-eye.

This one is my favorite though. Guess what it is... nope. It's a dragon with a baby dragon. Why the dragon doesn't get bug-eyes, I'm not sure. The "baby" looks a lot like a hairball to me. The pink things on top are the wings. The red/orange ring around the dragon is fire from the dragon's "breath". I think the fire is what happened to the face too... sort of looks like a scab to me. I thought it was a bunny with chicken legs and an egg... but I was wrong.

Tim

Honey; don't read this post. Please.

My wife reads this blog frequently, trying to spy on me and make sure I'm actually at work and not off on a bike ride or something. So honey, if you've gotten this far despite the warning, turn away and run now.

Today on my ride, on my way back to the office, I was flying up a shallow climb. Seated, big ring, hammering away and feeling pretty good actually. I was on a section of the climb that is essentially a false flat, so I was moving pretty quick. Just as the climb started to get steep again, I stood up to maintain my speed. At that precise moment, a car load of teenage/ twenty-something guys drives by and throws a full Super-Big-Gulp-Soda-Supertanker at me and the bike. Fortunately it happened as I was standing so I acclerated and the soda bomb nailed the rear wheel and sent ice and soda all over the back of the bike and not into the front wheel and spokes. I skid a little on the ice and soda, but was otherwise unhurt and didn't crash. Had I been seated, with my weight on the rear wheel and going slightly slower, the tanker would have hit my front wheel and would have likely caused me to crash. The jackasses sped off, directly behind another car and then passed them in a turn, going uphill. The car that was behind them and closest to me honked and waved to them, so I'm not sure if they were expressing a show of support or what. All in all, the experience was a bit unreal.

Now, this occurrence is nowhere near uncommon to me, as I seem to have a bullseye painted on my back. I have had so many close calls, and direct hits, over the years that I ride very defensively and pretty much assume that most people are out to kill me. Paranoid, I know, but with two children and a wife, I believe in watching my back closely. Very closely.

This is the kind of thing that makes my wife scared to let me out of the house to ride at all. I can't even ride my rollers in the driveway without her getting a little jumpy. She did, after all, see me after I was hit and nearly killed last year. She has good reason to be nervous, as do all of our friends, loved ones and spouses/ significant others.

I drive a car too, but I have never had the thought to toss crap out of my car with the intent to scare or injure somebody else. What sort of tweaked pathology are we looking at here? What crazy group mentality overtook the passengers in the car? Where did the thrill of trying to kill me come from?

If you follow the conversations going on these days and see the cycling news, lots of people are getting killed on their bikes. It just crushes me each time I read or hear of another cyclist getting killed by a motorist.

If I would have caught the car, and I sprinted my ass off to try, I would have enjoyed busting a window or two. Idiots...

Ultimately, I'm glad I wasn't hurt and I was having a great ride on a gorgeous day. I was doing something I enjoy, planning new ways to take over the bike world. I was distracted by the attack, but I still finished my ride and got to come back to a job I enjoy and will see my family tonight.

I am lucky. You stay lucky too.

Tim

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss...

Now, I know that when the Who penned that particular lyric, it wasn't intended as a good thing. However, in this case it is a very good thing.

Joe Hawk is now the head of Haro Bicycles and the family of brands. Joe has been in the business for a long damn time. He's been with Haro for the past 12 years as the VP of Sales and was with Raleigh for a bunch of years before that. It is easy to say that he has plenty of experience and knowledge of the industry. Plus, he's a darned nice guy (can I have an office with a window now?).

Sadly, about two weeks ago, Joe had an unfortunate surfing accident. As in he surfed the pavement on his arse while on a road ride. He tore up his shorts on both cheeks, so I'm not exactly sure how he did that. He also ripped up the Masi-embossed bar tape that I painstakingly wrapped his bars with. However, his Speciale Carbon frame is unscathed and will live to ride again. Once Joe is back to "normal", we'll get back to our usual routine of sprint workouts and hill repeat intervals. He's a workhorse and a lot faster than he looks, sitting there at his desk. His legs are like coiled springs, ready to pounce into action. He runs a tight ship and the sales people will be glad that he will now have more things to concentrate on, sharing the attention with the rest of us now.

All kidding aside, Joe really is a great guy and I have really enjoyed working with him so far. He and Jim Ford were/are very close and I know that Joe will work hard to maintain all the positives Jim worked so long to create. There is something very good about continuity sometimes. Joe is already busy rolling up his sleeves and investigating the new task at hand. Well, one of the first tasks is learning how to wrap handle bar tape.

Joe will hopefully have the kind of history to look back on that Jim Ford did. Though that is a tough task, Joe's got a good chance to do some significant good with this company.

So Boss, congratulations on the move up the ladder. Let me know if I can get you a coffee or wax your car. (I can use a little extra vacation time.)

Tim

This is an idea worth supporting.

James, over at bicycledesign, has a great essay {Tim- I had the wrong link up originally, but it has been corrected} on his blog about car companies and the deaths of cyclists. It isn't an inflammatory diatribe, so give it a read. He has a great idea that would be nice to see get some support and circulation through the various advocacy groups.

We can and should all be advocates for bicycle safety and a peaceful coexistence with car drivers. No matter how radical your beliefs, we have to acknowledge that we are not ever getting rid of cars or getting our own roads totally free of cars. Something has to change to make things better. Every little bit helps and I think James makes a very good point.

Tim