What's in the box?

What's in the box?

a) Gwyneth Paltrow's head
b) MD
c) Interbike stuff
d) all of the above

For how much I would love to say the correct answer is D; it is, as you could have guessed it, C. Not only do our counter parts over in Australia make incredible rims, most of our Interbike booth for this coming September was designed and constructed by them. We're looking forward to mocking it up here in the coming weeks.

Some of you might be wondering who took home the prize of our Temporary Tat Bag-O-Goodies Give A Way. Although, Velocity tats where sent out, after searching both my in-box and junk-mail folder, only a submission from a cyclist here in Grand Rapids was received, 3 photos from Nicola Fester of the Founders Alger Racing Team were submitted. We'll let you decide your favorite and the winner.

Rides.

On Friday, we mentioned the epic 200+ mile weekend ride some of the Velocity crew was going on. From all the stories from the trip, it ended up being a great ride for all despite the rain, the mud, and the Amish. Yes, Amish. One of the riders and friends of ours, Bob, posted some of his photos over on Facebook. Check it out.

We'll be the first to boast about it, Grand Rapids has some of the best bike shops around and some of the most knowledgeable staff with a passion for all things cycling. One of those is the manager of the Village Bike Cascade, Brian Krause, who recently took gold in the mountain tandem division at this past weekend at the State Games of Michigan held here at Cannonsburg Ski Area just outside of Grand Rapids. Brian and his stoker, Nick Fortney, road to victory on a custom set of wheels we built for Brian: 700c 40 hole Cliffhangers laced up with half white and half red spokes to our tandem disc hubs. Hats off to you, maybe a precursor to Iceman this fall?

Brian and Nick weren't the only ones rocking Velocity wheels to the podium at the games; the Founders Racing Team also had a strong presence at Cannonsburg. With Nicola Fester and Sue Swinger taking Gold and Silver in the Female Expert/Elite SS, Scott Thenikl taking Gold in the sport 30-39, Josh Hogeterp taking Bronze in Expert 30-39, Wade Bagnall taking Bronze in the Expert 40-49 and Rick Plite and Dennis Murphy taking Silver and Bronze in the Expert 50+. For a full write up on the games from the Founders crew, check it out here.

This year we have also had the privilege to sponsor the Steven K Sports Race Team from out in California. The Steven K team has been ranked the #1 team in California the last 5 years, competing in a full spectrum of mountain cycling: cross-country, Super D, marathon, downhill and also cyclecross. This year, the team looks to have kicked off just as strong, claiming victory and strong finishes on some of our VXC and Blunt pro level wheelsets check out their team site along with their Facebook page.

What a weekend.

It's been a full week since our last post. I had part of last week off and the Velocity train doesn't stop, so a few other things took precedence over blog posts. It is important to note that we do have some pretty amazing things up our sleeves for the coming months and I can't wait for the launch of them!

This weekend I would say it's safe to say summer has hit here in west Michigan. Sure, June 21st is the official date for summer but with temperatures in the 80's and look to be that way for the coming week, it's hard to argue differently. Any excuse not to ride is now out the door.

Yesterday, the wMMBA put on it's first Misery Loves Company free time trial race down on the gravel roads around Yankee Springs and on some the Barry Roubaix course. With the solid presence of the Founders Ale Racing team along with our very own, Ryan and Jacobi, and around 30 other riders from all accounts the event was a success. With the 80 degree temps and some humidity topped with an solid amount of sand, the race lived up to its name and provided enough misery a 12 mile time trial could.

Jacobi decided to try out an interesting approach with his bike set-up for this race; with his Fisher Super Fly rocking a P35 front wheel partnered with a 700 x 40 tire and on the rear going with the B43, yes a B43, and a 700 x 32 tire. In traditional Jacobi logic this would provide a 'roller coaster' effect once up to speed, mirroring his success on his Iver Johnson in gravel races. Sure, it would fight you on hills but given Jacobi's size it would increase downhill speed and help cut through the wind. Needless to say, he admits the 'roller coaster' effect worked but having more float [which the P35 front and rear would have provided] is what he would have ideally needed for this course. Even with that, Jacobi still won the Men's 35 and under category and Ryan took home first in the Men's Single Speed.

There is another Misery Loves Company time trial planned by the wMMBA for Saturday, August 28th at 2pm. For the second edition they are doubling the length to 25 miles of gravel/sand goodness. Check out the wMMBA site and their Facebook page for updates on all of the WMMBA/MMBA events.

In other weekend news, our fearless GM, Matt headed to Minneapolis on Friday to participate in the the Midwest Bike Polo Championship 8. We don't know how the tournament went so far since Matt is traveling back today and I'll see if I can get him to do a little write up about it. From all that I can gather from the Twitter feeds, this was another great event with a solid turn out with lots of bike polo had by all.

Remember, there is still a week left of Bike Month.

Get out. Ride. Advocate.

R-n-R

[R]ESULTS

Yankee Results are up... I think this was the hardest I've searched for some thing in awhile:

Expert/Elite
Sport
Beginner
SS Sport/Tandem

[N]

Some pictures from the TT are starting to show themselves. The Founders Team has a pretty solid presence and you can see Jacobi rocking both his Fisher and his SS Klunker [sub 1 hour on a 40+ lbs bike? Yes!]. A special thanks to Jack Kunnen Photography for getting these up and for always doing a stellar job of getting shot from most of the Western Michigan cycling events.

[R]EVIVAL

In other news, after a series of showings around North America and a few showings over across the pond in Europe, The Revival is now available for you to get your dirty hands on. The first run is being sold here.

The Revival - DVD Teaser from Corey MacGregor on Vimeo.