ഇരോണ്‍ Horse

Iron Horse is dumping all of their IBD's - Independant bicycle Dealers - Hello Walmart!!!
They've also lost their DW link license... All Old news, I know...

Here's a fun article that you might enjoy, written by Nicole Formosa, formerly of the Summit Vail and Vail News - now with Bicycle Retailer and Industry News



Fun Quotes -
Bob Allen, sales manager for Mojo Wheels in Denver, Colorado, did well selling Sundays, but said there’s no love lost for Iron Horse, which was difficult to deal with in warranty situations and forced independent dealers to compete with wholesale online prices.

“I’m not going to miss their business, I’m not going to miss their company, I’m not going to miss their bike,” Allen said.




Iron Horse Pulls Out Of Specialty Channel


BY NICOLE FORMOSA

HOLBROOK, NY—News that Iron Horse Bicycle Company would discontinue sales of its bikes in the independent bicycle dealer channel drew mixed reactions from the brand’s retailers—some were let down, while others said they saw the move coming.

“It’s a big disappointment for us. We have a lot invested in the brand and we have for a number of years supported the brand in terms of how we represented it in the shop and how our sales staff sold the brand,” said Tani Walling, owner of The Path Bike Shop in Tustin, California.

Walling had carried Iron Horse bikes since 2004 and said the brand made up about 20 percent of the shop’s complete bike sales. He has pulled his remaining Iron Horse stock from the sales floor and will liquidate the product.

Cliff Weidberg, chief executive officer of Iron Horse Bicycle Company and World Wide Cycle Supply announced last month that, as of Sept. 1, Iron Horse would sell its middle and lower priced bicycles only in the sporting goods channel in the United States.

Its high-end bikes will be sold exclusively through Randall Scott Cycle Company, an online outlet with a showroom in Boulder, Colorado.

That company’s president, Randall Scott, is Weidberg’s son, according to several former Iron Horse employees who asked not to be named. Weidberg refused to comment on his relationship with Scott, but said that he has no financial stake in Randall Scott Cycle Company and that it’s a “separate, independent company.”

Weidberg maintains the reason for the change in business strategy stemmed from competition from companies like Trek and Specialized who ask dealers to make their bikes the No. 1 or No. 2 brands sold in their stores, pushing out niche brands like Iron Horse.

Over the past five years, the sporting goods channel had overtaken the specialty channel in terms of sales of Iron Horse bikes, Weidberg said.

“It became clear to us that we had to do something to protect our brand because we didn’t want to be the third, fourth, fifth, sixth brand in a store. You really don’t have a lot of possibility to be important if that’s where your position is,” Weidberg said. Iron Horse will be the top brand in Randall Scott’s retail store.

Weidberg views the Internet as playing a larger role in the future of bicycle sales and doesn’t believe that ramping up online sales will hurt the brand’s reputation.

“I think that probably is the way it’s been characterized for many years and I think it’s an old-fashioned view. I think the Internet represents a faster and more efficient way for the consumer to buy products,” he said.

International distribution channels will not change, Weidberg said.

Former Iron Horse dealer Brian McInnis, owner of JRA Cycles in Medford, Massachusetts, wasn’t surprised to hear the brand was pulling out of the IBD, and even says he saw it coming.

McInnis dropped the brand last year after hearing that Iron Horse’s license with Dave Weagle for his DW Link suspension system would not be renewed. He picked up Pivot, which uses the DW Link, and filled the void left by Iron Horse’s bread-and-butter, $300 to $400 bikes with GT’s pricepoint line.

“Luckily I went with my gut feeling and we decided not to take the bikes (in 2008),” McInnis said. “I just had a feeling that something was going wrong.”

Weagle said he decided in July 2007 not to renew the license with Iron Horse, which runs through March 31, 2009, because he wanted to take the DW Link in a different direction.

Along with Pivot, Independent Fabrication and Ibis also hold licenses for the DW Link, and Weagle will announce a fourth licensee before Interbike that will develop a downhill bike using his suspension system. Many gravity riders consider Iron Horse’s DW Link Sunday to be one of the best downhill bikes available.

For its 2010 bikes, Iron Horse has a license for a new suspension system, although Weidberg declined to elaborate on the specifics or whether the company would change its existing line-up.

It wasn’t just the impending loss of the DW Link that had JRA’s McInnis questioning Iron Horse. He had also grown frustrated vying against the Internet for sales of Iron Horse bikes. At first, Iron Horse would allow him to match online prices and offset the difference so he could keep his margins intact, but when the company changed that position, he was out of luck.

“Increasingly people would come in here, they’d test ride the bikes and buy them elsewhere,” McInnis said.

Bob Allen, sales manager for Mojo Wheels in Denver, Colorado, did well selling Sundays, but said there’s no love lost for Iron Horse, which was difficult to deal with in warranty situations and forced independent dealers to compete with wholesale online prices.

“I’m not going to miss their business, I’m not going to miss their company, I’m not going to miss their bike,” Allen said.

Gitmo/Denver

Check this out - Amnsty International is supporting a demonstration in Denver that overlaps with the Democratic National Convention.

Click here for the site and details
Visit a Replica of a Guantanamo Prison Cell in Denver, Aug 24 - 26, to coincide with the Democratic National Convention

Urge the U.S. government to do the right thing: stop torture, charge detainees and give them fair trials or release them, and close Guantánamo.

Where: City of Cuernavaca Park, 20th street and Little Raven (across from the skate park); Denver, CO

Open Hours
Sunday, August 24th, 3pm - 8pm
Monday, August 25th, 11am - 8pm
Tuesday, August 26th, 11am - 8pm

SPECIAL EVENT : On Wednesday, August 27th, the cell will move to the Denver Coliseum Parking Lot for the Rage Against The Machine show. The cell will be open from 10:30am – 5pm

Admission to the cell and all events is free

If you need more information, email ctwj@aiusa.org

solvista

cyclocross

Give this guy some money - he makes movies about racing cyclocross and gives it to the world for free
http://www.littlebelgiummovie.com/
He's 14, goes to school in Boulder (fairview) and could use the cash
And don't be cheap... give him more than $5 or I'll punch you in the nutsack


Little Belgium - The 2007 New England Cyclocross Season from Andy Frothingham on Vimeo.

സ്നോവ്മസ് ൩ Report

Here's my chaotic race report... I raced stages 1 and 2, but not 3. I had only 1 practice run for stage 1's course before I raced it, have a little damage to the DH bike, but had a great time in Aspen!


Practice day (friday)
here's the deal -
Stage Race style
DH course 1 on Sat
Super D on Sat
DH Course 2 on Sun


got to practice 2 runs on DH course 2
Got to do 1 Full run on DH course 1 (behind Aaron Gwin)

did a second run on Course 1 behind Gwin and other yeti riders (felt closer to their speed this time), and tried jumping a section that was kicking most everyone around ( it was super wet, off camber, and wooped out with moto bumps)
I jumped the whole section (maybe 40 feet at about 40 miles and hour??) - but landed on a stump and flat spotted my rim so bad it wouldn't hold a tire. The flat spot was maybe 5 inches deep?
Had to re-build my wheel in my hotel room Friday night.... Lots of Fun!

The end of the course has a section that's got to be close to 3/4 of a mile that's SUPER fast... seriously - I pedaled out of my top gear and didn't touch my brakes for any of the corners for the ENTIRE 3/4 mile. Top gear for my Aspen setup is 40/11. I don't know how fast that is... 42mph at full pedal? I wish a brought a 42 tooth ring!


Race day (sat)
I got excited because of the rain the Mud - I grew up racing out east in the mud and always get great results in the mud!
But then, apparently, I forgot how to race. We'll get to that in a minute...

It was nasty mud (that slick snot like mud), so I felt like I had a chance to podium. I practiced with the pro's the morning of, and was ripping.
and oh yea - Aaron Gwin is the most impressive rider I've ever seen in my life. He's only been racing for like 7 months and he rides on rails. Seriously - he's that smooth. he'll be up there with peat, minnar, atherton and hill next year.
I did a couple of runs with him and he never looked like he was looking for traction. Even in the deepest of the moto-whoops and the crazy nasty mud it looked like he was riding on a sidewalk.


Downhill -
The top of the course was wide open flat turns in the mud. - I ripped this section
The middle of the course was off camber turns in deep mud - I ripped this section (i don't know how, but I railed the deep mud off camber stuff)
Late middle section was a pedally, grassy, muddy bog - i did pretty good here, but was getting tired
Lower section was SUPER moto-whooped and crazy choppy with nasty mud and rocks - very very fast section, and then opens up into an even faster smooth, but turny section. Lots of pedaling - but SUPER fast.
I crashed on the entrance to the lower section - I was drifting an off camber left hand corner (I was drifting early and sliding into a burm before I pedaled out during practice), and the berm I was using at the end of the drift wasn't there anymore. My wheels sunk into deep mud and I got ejected - like a cartoon. I ended up in some trees and brush - had to go find my bike (literally).

I think that I had a 12th place finish (would have gotten 12th in semi pro too with that time)... but I should have had a podium - I was riding really fast.


Props -
Kenda KOD tires were key here - it made a huge difference and gave me the confidence to say that I thought I was going to podium. Rider error was at fault here, not the gear.
WTB wheels helped me accelerate out of the corners faster than the other guys - props to WTB for light DH wheels that are still strong!
Everyone had problems with their goggles int he mixed conditions - but my Smith Goggles were perfect
With back to back races, tons of practice, and the very physical nature of the courses - The Endurox and Accelerade came into play for sure! I could tell that I was fresh for longer periods of time than my comptetition.
I'll be heading to John's Auto Care and Lotus Message for some post race recovery (both my car and body are suffering!!!)
And you know I had the Avery Brew flowing! Best Belgian Style brews on this side fo the big pond!!



Super -D

This wasn't a super-d, it was a DH that was called Super-D.
I have no idea how I did -but I was one of 2 people in expert not riding a DH bike (it was basically a DH course). I didn't even ride with DH tires - I had a kenda nevegal up front and a small block 8 in the rear (and yea - it was muddy). DH bikes had a huge advantage - but I was able to out pedal everyone, so it probably evened out.
This race was SOOOOO much FUN!! The race entailed going elbow to elbow with 20 other DH'ers on a DH course. Tons of passing, tons of crashes, tons of mud, SUPER FAST- it ended on the 4x course, so I go to show off on the jumps and berms... it was the funnest thing I've done on a bike in a really long time. I don't care how I did - it was great.
I did run into some guy that fell in front of me in a rutted out corner.. I hit him REALLY hard... I got passed by like 4-5 people, then I passed like 4-5 in the next corner - this continued for about 8 more corners. Crashes, passing, and sprinting all makes for a good time!
In the last section of trail before the 4x course merge (end of the course), there was a stream crossing... if you had speed, you could jump the whole thing (alternative line with a rock lip) - I was 3rd going into this jump, the guy in 1st crashed when he landed (way too much mud on the lander), the guy in 2nd landed on 1st place's bike, and I ran into the back of 2nd place when I landed (we were all like 6 inches apart on the trail).... then we all got passed by a huge group behind us while we were slipping in the mud trying to get back on the trail.

All in all - the Super D was awesome, tons of fun! The DH course was pretty good - really fast!!
I made a huge mistake during my dh run - but that's racing!!
The guys who win don't make mistakes!


So here' the props again -
Even though I should have used mud tires - my nevegal's and small block 8's got the job done impressivly!
WTB for making Wheels that should have collapsed but didn't - i don't know how those wheels stay true - but they do!!!!
Accelerade for keeping me fresh! Everyone was worked after Early morning practice, A DH race, and then Afternoon practice. I was definetly riding strong where other's couldn't
Commencal - Damn! They make the best bikes in the world!!!
Smith - Super clear, Super detailed, no fog goggles!
Avery - For the post ride brew!!!



Race Day (sunday)
With my Dh bike in disrepair from the race run and stump, I didn't get to race on sunday
No Stage 3 for me!!


I learned some valuable lessons and look forward to next year, and have a result that reflects my potential.
Thanks to all of our sponsors for having such great products!

൨൦൦൯ ഇരോണ്‍ ഹോര്‍സ് Sunday

2009 iron horse sunday's -

it's important to note that the DW link contract expired in 2008, and the 2009 bikes will literally be 2008 frames painted differently

ലനെ ടോ രാസ് ഇന്‍ Leadville

yea yea!!!!

Looks here for forum feedback

look here for the news story

ബൌല്ടെര്‍ മൌന്റൈന്‍ ബൈക്ക് പാര്ക്ക്

Finally!!!! a bike park in Boulder....



The Northwest has been doing this for years - Seattle has some of the best riding in the country right under a highway (read: bikepark)

Check it out here