Boulder, CO

My new job took me to Boulder, Colorado last week. I liked it. Felt somehow like a small college town to me - though there are 260,000 residents in the Boulder Metro Area. Sadly, since this was a two day business trip, I could not bring one of my bikes or snowboard - the near-miss on snowboarding being the real tragedy for me. I've never spent any time near any mountains in my whole life. The only places I've boarded are hills right around my Wisconsin home. So for me to travel to Boulder and see the Rocky Mountains - the honest-to-God Rocky Mountains - seemed a little like being a "Seeing Eye Dog" in a steakhouse...you know you are there just to do your job, but damn, you sure wish you could get a little taste of that delicious Filet Mignon that everyone else is enjoying.

And it seemed like everyone in Boulder was ready to take advantage of the their surroundings. Yakima or Thule cartop carriers abounded - set up either for skis, boards or bikes.

Well, even though our schedule did not permit me get loose in the powder, I wasn't going to visit Boulder and just look at the Rockies. So I got up early on day 2, put on my running shoes and left the hotel heading west. I was a little worried about my fitness level (our unseasonably cold Spring in Wisconsin has conspired to keep me from getting into my running/biking workouts like I had intended) and also worried about the elevation difference, so I jogged at a comfortable pace. As I ran, any fatigue I felt melted away as the sun came over the horizon behind me and lit up my goal in front of me like it was an exquisitely painted backdrop of a 1960's Technicolor film (my only reference for comparison.) I made the 2.5 miles to the foothills of the Rockies in about 25 minutes, and from there I scrambled up the first tall mound in sight. From this dimunitive peak, only 100 or so feet above the city, I felt like I was on top of the world. I had a wonderful view of Boulder below, as it awoke to just another Tuesday morning for so many residents. As I took it all in, I was only mildly disappointed to realize I had left my camera in my hotel room. I'm no photographer anyway - so go google image search Boulder CO to see what I was seeing.

Mission accomplished. I touched the Rockies. And as I bonus: I got into double-digits on my run back, sprinting past one of the many Radar Speed Signs posted on Boulder's neighborhood streets. Next time I visit, I'll make sure it includes a weekend so I can see more of this wonderous place - and hopefully some high-altitude powder.

Oh yeah...

That new seat logo below, that was a big part of delaying the seats, and it was a bust. It just did not look good when it was embroidered.

I'm gonna look into hot stamping...like the Original seat was done...

What I would do if I were rich...

Ken Block knows how to treat a Subaru WRX.

Ack...forgot something

In my excitement of my last post, I forgot that there is an engraving step. So the lot of georgeous machined billet aluminum is at the engraving shop, where it has been all week. Patience...the mark of a RetroBMX customer.

Seats are being held up as we rework the logo. Here is the new seat logo for your perusal...



It may not look like much, but it is a direct knock-off of the old Elina Logo.


Thanks Bill Sympson, for all your graphic design expertise! You are the unpaid creative genius of RetroBMX!

Here's a bit of drivel...back on Dec. 17, I said:

Two other things to do today: run to downtown MPLS to the Star-Tribune to drop off my daughter's entry for the "Color this Christmas tree" contest...yeah, mail would have been a better way to get it there, but this one I can blame on her...and get my wife a Christmas present.

Well the Christmas present has probably been forgotten by now, but I'm pleased to report that a letter from the Star-Tribune arrived yesterday - Emily was a runner up in the "Color this Christmas Tree" contest. Her prize was two four-packs of tickets to the MN Science Museum and the MN History Museum. She was stoked. But this reminded her that she had submitted an entry to Pepperidge Farm's "Create a new Friend for Finn" contest at about the same time...not a winner there. That would have been nice...the winner gets a trip to Florida. Mmmmmmm, Florida would be mighty nice right now (see previous post.)

Minus Sixteen

-16 degrees below zero degrees Farenheidt. That's what my car thermometer told me the temp was this morning, when I drove my kids to school (I remember what it was like to ride a school bus when it got cold like that...not doing that to my kids.)

The bank clock said -20.

Couldn't have been much better last night, when I went snowboarding. I don't know what I was thinking. It was miserable. I don't get too many chances to ride my board these days so when my church's youth group asked me to chaperone, I thought I should go. I should have put my foot down and said "Let's reschedule". Oh well. I guess I survived it.

The machine shop sez the new batch of stems are in process. That's better than them saying "Stems? What stems?"

Seats now available on ebay!

I threw in the towel...I can't make my online store work. I decided that I might as well fill up my ebay store...so I did.

Check it out at this link... http://stores.ebay.com/retroBMX

I hope you check out my seats - maybe get the custom color one that you have always dreamed about!! Thanks for your support!

Seats update

So the seats you see in the picture below are all going to be for sale. I'm going to focus on getting them into an online store for you to buy easily.

There are 6 more odd-ball color-combo seats that are being assembled this week with my assembly guy.

After that, my embroidery supplier is embroidering the next batch, which will be a big. In this batch we will have all the standard colors, plus a few odd balls.

I'll let you know here as soon as the webstore is operational.

Thanks Bros.

Retro Pro Necks

Lots of people have been inquiring about the status of the Pro Neck stems.

I've wanted to implement an improvement to the stem for a little while now (adding to the thickness of the stem to make it even more torsionally stiffer), but needed to get back on a CAD system to make the necessary design changes.

This was complicated by the fact that I lost my "real job" at the end of September - downsizing, you've heard it before. My design work was done in the past by using the CAD stations at work after-hours.

I recently got a chance to get on a CAD system at an old friend's place, and now the new blueprint is at my Machine Shop and he's moving ahead with production. We'll have new and improved stems available in January, though I don't know exactly the date. I'll keep you posted!

Condo Classic

Just back from the Condo Classic. For those of you who have no idea what that means, it is the reprise of the old Rondo Classic BMX race which was held indoors in St Paul MN in January of 1981 and 1982 and maybe 80 or 83, I can't quite remember.

Anyway, Mark Conley of AllTheRacing.com (see link to the right) put this together and it was a blast! All kinds of "Vintage" Minnesota Racers came out of the woodwork for this race held at Rehbein's BMX. It was just awesome to see some of my childhood heros like Shawn Sheely, Dave Christiansen, John Sandberg and Gene Oberprillar going at it on the track like it was 1980 again. I was moto-filler, just like back in the day. I took home a 7th place plaque, but that suits me fine. It was a great time and I wish to thank Mark Conley for his vision in pulling this together. I hope that next year's event is even bigger and better.

I debuted my new batch seats at the race and donated one to the door prize raffle. Gene-O won it and had just the bike in mind for it. I look forward to seeing it on his ride. I hooked up Jayson Lindsey with a long-awaited camo seat for his cruiser and he gave it a big thumbs up for both the looks and the comfort. Jayson is ABA National Age Group #2 on his Cruiser and NAG #4 on his 20", so I am glad to get a seal of approval from him.

The rest of you who are looking for seats, well, hang in there!! The time is coming!!

Seats, Baby, Seats!

OK, check this out. Here's the first batch of the long-awaited seats. I am going to be donating some of these to the Condo Classic on Friday night. I'll write a follow up post to let you know how they are received. Later, Gator.

Holiday Hangover

Wow. I sure got slack on this blogging stuff pretty quickly. Been a few weeks. I'm gonna use the excuse that it was too much stuff going on with the Holidays. Yeah, that's it.




In addition to making sure that my kids had a great Christmas, I did manage to get out on the snowboard once. Also, I did get to the skatepark last Friday. Didn't take much for pictures though...but here's one of Minneapolis Legend, Mark Lukens. That's a pocket wallride for you. Awesome rider at age 40-something.

Hey, my first pic. I could try to put up a pic of the seats, but jeez that's a lot for one day.

2 days 'til Condo.

Seats

The seats are coming together nicely. So nicely, that I might as well start batch #2.

First batch was a dozen, second batch will be about the same. More tomorrow, including pics.

Hey, here's a link for something I'm pretty stoked about right now...check it: http://www.stokedonbeingpumped.com/

Working on seats today.

When I figure out how to post a picture in here, it will be a picture of the new seats.

Two other things to do today: run to downtown MPLS to the Star-Tribune to drop off my daughter's entry for the "Color this Christmas tree" contest...yeah, mail would have been a better way to get it there, but this one I can blame on her...oh, and find a Christmas present for my wife. At least I am slightly ahead of the deadline for that...

Did you notice I like ellipses? (For those of you who were reading BMX Action in English class instead of listening to Mrs. Jones: ellipses are those three dot-dot-dots that end many of my sentences.)

Get used to them...for some reason, I use them alot...

The time has come...

Today we kick-start the RetroBMX blog. It is the perfect time, since I just finished a four-year commitment. No, not to the Marines. It was a much more demanding commitment: coaching pre-teen girl basketball players.

Four years ago, I introduced a dozen 5th grade girls to Mikan drills, denial defense, and the pick-and-roll. They've grown bunch, they've shown courage and toughness, they've won some and lost some, and now I send them off to "school ball." I send them with the hopes that "1-2-3-HUSTLE!" is not seen as a corny mantra repeated at the conclusion of each timeout, but a concept for life which will forever reverberate in their heads and hearts.

I know I am not done with coaching (this was the oldest daughter's team - I have two younger girls who play too) but the conclusion of this season definitely represents the closure of a chapter in my life. And it means a there will be a just bit more time to get some other things done...

Should any of the girls I coached on this team (Osceola's class of 2012) ever find this post, know that I am as proud of you as any coach could ever be!

Onward....2008 looms ahead!