End of Summer? Already?!

Do you ever find yourself saying at say 7pm on a Sunday night, "Where did the weekend go?" I do it constantly. I'm never sure how I got from 6pm on Friday night to...woosh...Sunday night. How did it happen? I don't ever get enough done or relax enough or hang out enough. Two days is just too short.

But, summer here in the US is really, in my mind, from Memorial Day to Labor Day. That's 3 months. Not two days...three months. And, I still find myself saying today on the eve of Labor Day Weekend, "Where did the summer go?" Really. The days are already getting much shorter - like an hour more of darkness than in the middle of summer. Nights are a little cool sometimes now.

Where did it go? Does anyone have an answer for that?

Fall holds great things, too. My Facebook Countdown Calendar tells me that Interbike (the bicycle trade show in the US) is in 26 days (yikes!!) so we'll be off to Vegas soon. But, before that I'm up at the NASCAR track in NH for the race September 16 (woo-hoo!). And, the Fall Foliage Run Weekend with the Perewitz Family soon after. So, there are many things to look forward to in the fall, but I'd still like to stretch out summer a little longer, just like I would every weekend of the year.

For those of you in the US - have a great long weekend. Ride safe.

Jody on Super Bikes!

So, I'm watching Super Bikes! last night on Speed to catch up with Jason Britton and his team adventures at Sturgis and who do I see at the end of the show? Jody Perewitz! Yup, that's her. She was cruising along the roads of Sturgis when the camera caught her. And I wasn't seeing things because Don (one of our category managers) caught the show this morning and saw her, too!

If you want to catch the show - lots of stunts being done by Jason and his team as well as some of the Sturgis sites in and around the Top 50 Park - it's being re-run on Speed on Saturday. For some reason it's being shown as either the "Florida" show or the "Sport Bikes and Law Enforcement" show. I think it's the "Florida" one. Which is strange to me, but that's what popped up as the show I was watching last night and the one on this morning - but they are grouped together so check 'em both out. And, right at the end, you'll see Jody.

Congrats Jody. You are a star!

Sturgis Trip

by Craig Glab, Central Regional Manager



My little rascals on the motorcycle as I was getting ready to leave for Sturgis.



Here's the hotel - Holiday Inn Spearfish. It's the official Hamster hotel for the week.



Main Street in Sturgis.



This is only one block and there's got to be at least 10 blocks. They all look alike, with hundreds, no thousands, of motorcycles on each block.



The Stugis bike was designed and built by Sabers Specialties to be the official Sturgis motorcycle. It was raffled off in Sturgis.

The Sturgis bike was just off Main Street. Check out the lock hanging from the tent.

Thursday the Hamsters USA hold their annual ride for Hamsters and invited friends. We road from Spearfish into Sturgis which is 17 miles out.

I think there were about 350 motorcycles in the ride. The mayor of Sturgis came out to talk to us all before we left and he was asked to pick his favorite motorcycle of the bunch. Keith Terry, owner of Terry Components, has the nicest bike, according to the mayor.

Thursday was a busy day. After the Hamster ride, I rode out to Jesse Jurens' Top 50 Rally Park to see what was going on.

Dave Perewitz and Jody and Susan were there. Dave was signing autographs.



The Annual Bike Show was Thursday. They also had a motocross exhibition that could be seen from the freeway, too.

Giving away Kryptonite locks to people at the Top 50 Park with my friend Rob Buydos who announced at the Top 50 Park all week.

Congratulations Perewitz Family!

While at Sturgis the Perewitz family was presented with the 2nd Annual Chrome Heart Award from the Children's Care Hospital & School. The award is given each year to someone "in the motorcycle world whose philanthropic support and civic duty represents everything positive in the motorcycle industry". This year they chose Dave & his family. Very cool!

Since we've known them, we have seen first hand just how much this family gives of themselves to support different charities and funds. I don't know how they do it! I'm glad that the whole family was recognized because Dave is truly the front person but Susan, Jody, Jesse and Jaren help to make it all happen, too. They work the logistics and back end details of all their charity work. It's not easy, but they work together to give back and it's truly special to see. I can't think of a better family that deserved the award this year. Great photo of Dave & Susan with the award from Iron Works Magazine!

Not to mention....while they were in Sturgis, Dave played auctioneer for the annual Hamster USA auction and dinner where they raised over $200,000 for the Children's Care Center. The funds will help with physical, occupational and speech therapies to children with special needs in Western South Dakota, Wyoming and Nebraska.

The press release about this says..."Children’s Care of Rapid City served over 1200 children in the region last year through outpatient and outreach programs. It is affiliated with Children’s Care Hospital & School, based in Sioux Falls. Children’s Care is a private, independent, non-profit organization with a mission to help children with special needs reach their full potential. The organization as a whole served over 2500 children last year."

Pretty cool that the Perewitz family and the Hamsters help out this cause each year. Oh, what are the Hamsters? It's an international motorcycle group founded by Dave and some of his friends years ago. From what I can tell, they are a great group of guys who all give of their time, talent and monetary donations to many, many charities across the country. Clearly, they were all more than generous out in Sturgis at their annual banquet!

While we are talking Perewitz....here are some photos from this month's Bike Night.

All set up and ready....a big kudos to Tim Clifford who

was on vacation but came to work the event anyway!

All kinds of motorcycles filled the parking lot.

CALL FOR VIDEO ENTRIES

A few months ago now, Carlton Reid from BikeBiz and Quickrelease.tv announced a video contest, I Want to Ride My Bicycle that anyone can enter over on YouTube.

It's a fun contest and there are some pretty cool prizes for the winner. According to Carlton, "The competition winners get Shimano schwag, including top-end components. The competition is also sponsored by New Belgium Brewing Co. of the US, maker of Fat Tire Amber Ale." Sweet!

Get in your entries!!! You have until next week. August 30, to be exact. That gives you one more weekend to film your video.

Now, I won't be doing a video....but for an extremely cool reason. I'm a judge. Little ole me. Seriously. And I'm not the only one (did you think Carlton would leave this all to me and my wacky ways?). My fellow judges humble me....Carlton will be there....and David Bernstein from The Fredcast and Spokesmen Podcast....and Tim Grahl from Crooked Cog Network....and my friend Tim "Masiguy" Jackson...AND...get this...Phil Liggett (yikes!)....AND (yes, there's more)....Bob Roll! HOW did I end up in this great company? I have no idea! I'm just happy to be included.

Now, it actually does get a little bit cooler. We aren't all going to be around the world watching videos and emailing in our favorites...oh, no....we'll all be together at the bicycle trade show, Interbike, next month (Sept. 26-28). Voting together. Me. Phil. Bob. Masiguy. David. Carlton. Tim. All together. I'm speechless....ok, seriously, y'all know me...when it comes time to voice my opinion I will not be speechless....but for now, I'm just happy to be included with this group.

So get in your videos! There are 126 so far....so start thinking of your own Tour Day Neighborhood, film it and get it in.

Why We Do What We Do

Everyone has days where they sit in their office and wonder if what they do makes a difference. Ok, maybe it's just me....but then there are days when you know exactly why you do what you do...at least I do....

Here are two excellent examples of why everyone here at Kryptonite does what we do.

First up, Jorge is putting on an alleycat in a couple of weeks to honor a friend of his who died this spring, way too soon. His friend did a lot of charity work and the proceeds of the race will go to his favorite charities. Nice tribute, Jorge. We gladly gave a prize and Jorge wrote about it on his blog. Only he did one better - he talked about what's protected his bike for six years on the streets of a couple of different cities. Protecting Jorge's bike is what it's all about for us.

Then, today Roberta, our customer service supervisor, forwarded an email to me from Seth. Seems like some thief (or thieves) tried to steal his bike yesterday. He/She/They didn't get it. HA! Protecting Seth's bike is what it's all about for us, too.

Protecting what is yours, so it stays yours...that's what it's all about for us.

Thanks for reminding me of that guys....makes me work harder. Makes us all work harder.

Bike Riding Alive and Well

After this year's The Tour Day France, I wondered what the impact of all the drug stories would be on cycling, in general. I'm sure there were similar thoughts at other bike companies and bike industry rated companies.

This weekend, I was pleasantly surprised during a road trip and now I know - bike riding in the US is just fine. I don't know how many youngsters are going to turn to bike racing, but bike riding is just fine.

I was traveling down Rt. 95 from Massachusetts to Connecticut (and back) this Saturday. I went to visit my best friend and her family - I don't get to see her much since she lives in Boulder, but she visits family in CT a couple of times a year and I never miss an opportunity to see her.

As I was driving down the highway, with the music on, enjoying the absolutely perfect day (blue skies, big puffy white clouds, clear air...and traffic that wasn't stopped!), I started to notice something...bicycles...everywhere. No, people weren't riding them (we're on the highway remember) but they were being carried in twos, threes, fours, fives and even, in 2 cases, six bikes at once! It seemed like every 10th car or so had bikes attached. All kinds of bikes - mountain bikes, kids bikes, road bikes - all sizes and shapes. I couldn't believe the volume of bikes I saw all the way from Mass, through Rhode Island and through CT.

It was reassuring to see all those bikes and think about all the fun adventures people either had had over the last week with them, or were headed to have on vacation with them that weekend. I just hope that when these groups got home they would ride as much as they did on vacation - take a Tour Day Neighborhood every day - or at least on the weekends, when there is a little more time.

When I got to CT, we took my friend's little boy to a big, huge park with ponds and bike paths and he started to count the bike riders that went by us...1...2...3...4...he got up to 10 before he got distracted by the lily pads (hey, lily pads are cool to a kid who isn't five yet). But, still, we were only in that particular spot for 10-15 minutes and I counted 20 people on bikes riding around the park. Again, good reassurance that bike riding is just fine!

Booty Update

Last month, Stuart N. checked in from our parent company to talk about a team doing the 24-Hours of Booty down in North Carolina. Turns out the whole team survived and raised a lot of money....here's his update.....




Who would have thought? They closed the Booty Loop for 45 minutes at this year’s 24 Hours of Booty in Charlotte, NC. However, the thunderstorms did not prevent the Ingersoll Rand/Cool Breeze Cyclery team from raising over $16,000 for the Lance Armstrong Foundation, The Keep Pounding Fund, and The Brain Tumor Fund for the Carolinas. The event as a whole raised $736,925 for these noteworthy charities.

The 24 Hours of Booty is the one and only 24-hour road cycling charity event in the country. This unique and exciting event is fully supported on a traffic-free, gently rolling loop - known for years as the "Booty Loop" - that is situated in the beautiful Myers Park neighborhood in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Once a year the Booty Loop is closed to traffic to host cyclists from around the country as they ride in honor and support of the cancer community. The goal of the 24 Hours of Booty is to provide an extraordinary event that is safe, fun, and open to all levels of cycling ability, while bringing cancer awareness to the community and raising funds for noteworthy cancer charities.

This marked the third year that Ingersoll Rand employees teamed up to raise money for the Lance Armstrong Foundation and local cancer initiatives. This year’s team consisted of more than 20 individuals from Ingersoll Rand, Cool Breeze Cyclery, and Cisco Systems. In total, the team rode over 1700 miles and 130 hours in honor and support of those whose lives have been affected by cancer.

The Ingersoll Rand/Cool Breeze Cyclery Team would like to thank all of those people who supported this year’s event. We look forward to riding again next year!!!

Our New Employee

by Jody Perewitz

Unfortunately for us, my brother Jesse decided to follow his dream rather than my father's. Jesse ran our parts department until about a month ago. We had to find a replacement, well not a replacement because some people can never be replaced, but a new parts person. This is where Jeff comes in!

Jeff has become our new parts man. He honestly didn’t have a ton of knowledge about motorcycles when he first started but he is an extremely fast learner. Answering calls, looking through catalogs and magazines, talking with customers, and helping the guys is the best schooling Jeff could get.

The New Guy

It couldn’t have been a better time to start learning fast. Sturgis, the biggest bike rally in the country, was just around the corner. This means that everyone including the new guy would be working around the clock to get things finished.

Kory and Jeff Out West

Working out back with Kory or Jay after hours, Jeff quickly caught on to concepts, components, and designs of motorcycles. Before we knew it is was time to load the trailers for the 34 hour journey to South Dakota. Jeff has been able to make the journey out to Sturgis with us and learned first hand about the custom motorcycle world. He even got to ride a few customs!

Stop by the shop and challenge our new parts guy Jeff! He will impress you with his personality and knowledge.

Bob Roll & Kryptonite Visit West Broward Bicycle Center

At the bicycle industry trade show, Interbike, Kryptonite holds a dealer contest each year. Some years it's been a treasure hunt type of event, sometimes an event of olympic proportions, but the last few years it's simply been a business card drop and a lucky dealer has won "An Evening with Bob Roll".

Our last lucky winner was Kryptonite dealer Jose Pardo, owner of West Broward Bicycle Center. Bob recently visited his store and spent the evening chatting with customers about Le Tour, cycling in general and the future of the sport.

Our Eastern Regional Manager, Eric Anastasia, was with Bob and said it was a blast. Come to think of it Jose said it was great, too. And, Bob loved all the good questions. Sounds like I missed a fun time.....hmmm...I need to see about getting in on one of these nights soon...

Here are some more photos of the event. There is a strange effect to the photos that makes it look smoky or something in the room...it wasn't...just the photo itself...

Enjoy.

A full house!

Vintage Bob

I don't know....driving somewhere? Classic!

Winner #2 - Thomas K!

Thanks to everyone who guessed about Superman's mother's name. We put the names of the folks who answered correctly into a hat and Thomas K's name was chosen. Congratulations Thomas!

Here is Thomas' answer:

Lara Lor-Van or Lora Lor-Van.
Lara was first referred to in the Superman newspaper comic strip in 1939, where her name was spelled as "Lora"; her name first appeared as being spelled "Lara" in a 1942 Superman novel. After the establishment of DC's multiverse system in the 1960s, it was retroactively shown that "Lora" was the name of Superman's mother in the Earth-Two universe, while "Lara" was Superman's mother in the Earth-One universe.


Yes, it seems that Thomas knows his Superman - he even provided all the links himself. We've sent him an email to get his address and the Superman padlock will be on its way shortly to him.

Please stay tuned...another super hero contest question coming up soon....

See You at the Perewitz Bike Night Tonight!

Tim and I will both be at the Perewitz Bike Night tonight. If you are in the area, c'mon down and say 'hi'. I haven't seen Dave, Jody, Susan and the rest of the team since Sturgis so I'm looking forward to hearing all about it. That, and seeing my four legged friends, too, of course.

Zipp's the official greeter at Perewitz Cycle Fab

See you there!

In Falmouth!

Each of the last 16 years I've headed to Falmouth, MA for the internationally famous Falmouth Road Race. This year is no different; I arrived yesterday afternoon and started working on getting organized and settled.

During my morning walk, I was reminded why I love it so much here - there's such a wonderful, vacation atmosphere in the whole town. Everyone you meet along the way says 'good morning' or 'hello'. There are walkers, runners and cyclists out early on the roads enjoying the nice sea air during their rides/walks. Me, included. It was lovely breathing in that salt air along the finish line route. And, yes, I even visited my special brick at the finish line park.

Interestingly enough, I saw as many cyclists as runners this morning, which is amazing considering that it is road race weekend. But, this is a great cycling town - a couple of people riding to work, a mother and daughter out for a morning Tour Day Neighborhood and two guys in their Discovery kits out for a training ride, among others. It's good to see.

I even saw a two seater at the hotel.

But, this weekend is mainly about running so, good luck to all the runners. I hope you all enjoy the 35th running of the CIGNA Falmouth Road Race!

Portland, San Fran & Del Sol

Last week we had photos of our new billboards in Austin. This week we have photos of some new placements in San Francisco and Portland, Oregon. This is pretty exciting stuff to us because we've never done anything like this before.

Here are some shots from Portland, Oregon..

My favorite is the penguin one. I just love them. They are too cute.

Here's a shot in San Francisco...

Why the crazy, "out there" places to secure a bike? Part of that is to catch your eye as you are going by the photos. Part is to really convey that we know there are fascinating adventures to be had off the bike - Go. Do. Explore. We've got your back; no matter where you properly lock your bike.

Speaking of bikes....I'd like to thank Del Sol for jumping right in and providing the bikes for our new campaign. They were so eager to help and got a bike right to us for photography; they made the whole process an easy one. The bike is perfect for the photos. I hope they are happy with the results, too. Thanks, Jill!

So, look around when you are riding or walking in Portland and San Fran....I'll bet you'll see some of these placements. Let us know what you think. And, if you see one while you are out and about, let us know!

CMWC & Mountain Mayhem

Since our home office is in the US, we tend to talk a lot about events and such here. But, we are a worldwide company and we are involved in some pretty cool things in other countries, too.

Here's a shot of the bike parking area at Mountain Mayhem at Eastnor Castle this summer.

Thanks to our great distributor partner, Madison, it looks pretty snazzy doesn't it? This was during set-up. I'm told that once the event got started it was a madhouse!

Look for this same set up at the Tour of Britain at Crystal Palace in London on September 9th. Madison set this up last year, too, but this year the parking area will be much bigger. Way to go, guys!

Off to Ireland....

This past weekend was the 15th Annual Cycle Messenger World Championships in Dublin. I haven't heard from the event organizer yet. I'm assuming he's still recovering. But, he'll check in soon.

In the mean time, here are some photos of the event from a participant in Germany. They really capture the fun of the event.

There are a few on the CMWC MySpace page, too. And a few here...my favorite of this bunch? This one, of course. And there are more here and a couple here.

We have been a proud supporter of most of the CMWC events and look forward to being involved next year, too!

Crazy Busy with Trade Shows

Wow - it's been awhile since we posted here. It's just been crazy busy. Although our dealers will know, most people don't know that the trade show season is upon us. There's Eurobike at the end of this month in Germany. Then the Canadian bike show. Then Interbike in Las Vegas. And then Intermot back in Germany. All before the middle of October.

We need new catalogs for the shows, give-aways, design trade show booths, order show shirts, arrange travel and shipping and...oh, yes, get the products there and display them so they all look pretty. Does a lock look pretty? Hmmm....

Our photographer tries to make them all look great. What starts out as just a lock laying on a table....

..ends up as a great 'beauty shot'.

This is the one we are using in our catalog - it shows off the oval pretty well rather than just a straight vertical shot. Oh, did I mention that we finished the catalog today!? It's off to the printer. Yiiipppppeeee!

Man of Steel Padlock Contest

Hi everyone! I’m Ryan, Kryptonite’s recently-acquired graphic and packaging designer. Being a huge comic book geek, I am thrilled to be assigned the task of blogging about Superman. What can I say about the Man of Steel that hasn’t been said a thousand times in books, news articles, psychiatric journals (the interplay of the Superman/Clark Kent/Kal-El personalities is quite interesting), physics books, Biblical parallels…the cultural impact that Superman has brought to the world is mind-boggling.

Before radio, television and comic books, stories about our heroes were communicated through oral tradition. People like Paul Bunyan and Pecos Bill were told to have incredible powers and perform awesome feats of strength. Naturally, the key to good storytelling is embellishment, and while many of these stories were either exaggerated or just flat-out untrue, you couldn’t help but look up to the courage and strength of these heroes. Superman is the closest thing we have to folklore in America today. He’s the ultimate hero…the strength of Paul Bunyan, the moral steadfastness of Atticus Finch…and despite being 100% alien, he has a unique "Americanity" (yup, I’m making up words now) that’s rivaled only by Captain America (rest in peace, Cap).

I could go on and on, but I’m going to restrain my inner-geek and wrap this up. If comic books could be boiled down to only ONE hero, I have no doubt that it would be Superman. He wasn’t the first superhero…we’ve been telling stories of super-powered people for thousands of years…but for the past 70 years, he’s been far and above the most loved and recognized. One day, many years from now, when WWIII has wiped out all electronics on Earth and we’re living by candlelight once again, I hope to tell my grandchildren the stories of a young child, sent from the doomed planet of Krypton to a small blue marble in the Milky Way galaxy.

And now, on to the trivia question. I was going to ask what Clark Kent’s middle name is, but there’s some dispute over whether it’s Joseph or Jerome (see, this is what happens when you ret-con stories, it screws everything up). Therefore, I decided to go with something a little less debatable. And don’t cheat by going to Wikipedia!

What is the full name of Superman birth mother?

Please email your answers to Donna -- donna(underscore)tocci(at)irco(dot)com

The correct answers will be placed into a hat and the randomly-chosen winner gets a cool Superman combination padlock, which is perfect for lockers...or telephone booths. ;)

The New York Times & Urban Velo

Our friend Brad over at Urban Velo teamed up with The New York Times to do a review of some bike locks. We think Brad did a great job! You can see most of the piece online, but what you will only see in print is a photo of Brad, his bike and the New York Fahgettaboudit U-lock that keeps it safe. Go pick one up; you'll find him in the Style section.

Also today over at Urban Velo is a very good reminder of why you should always wear a helmet when riding your bike. We are just thankful that Jeff is ok and hope he mends quickly.

Safe riding to you all.

Hellllooooo Austin!

As part of our brand relaunch this year we've done some 'out of home' advertising. Check out these billboards in Austin, Texas.

There are more than two in Austin. Let us know if you spy one. Send a photo, we'd love to see it.

We aren't stopping there either, Austin. There is more to come...something very different - on ground level. Stay tuned!