A Deer Cycles to End Hunger

Yes, these are tough times...enough said about that. But, there are still many people in our company (Ingersoll Rand) and elsewhere looking for ways to make the lives of others easier. I am humbled by those people. One I'll mention today is a new friend, Trish Karter, founder of Dancing Deer Bakery, soon to embark on a 1500 bike ride from Atlanta to Boston, to raise attention to, and financial support for, feeding hungry families. She doens't need to put her body out there, just her celebrity. But, she wouldn't be satisfied with that. Follow her on twitter to learn about her progress and give her moral support.

Alternative Transportation Day at Ingersoll Rand

by Holly Emerson, Ingersoll Rand


Wednesday, October 22nd 2008 proved to be a beautiful day here at the Davidson campus of Ingersoll Rand for our inaugural Alternative Transportation Day and a great opportunity for employees to learn more about greener ways of getting to work and how we can reduce traffic congestion and help clean the air.

The day started off at a crisp 37degF and dark. Four of us, that would be Elizabeth Newidomy (a true greeney), me and my assistants, Ryan (9) and Kayla (7), froze for about 90 minutes handing out lunch vouchers and Starbucks gift cards to alert carpoolers and some very dedicated bicyclists. One woman rode in at about 7am on her beach cruzer. How cool is that? I think she gets the prize for most creative alternative transportation method, whenever I decide what that is.

Several carpoolers sped right past us, apparently we looked like some crazy family waiting for a ride. Lesson learned: wear the Progress is greener gear so people can spot you. We were soon joined by Gabe Workman from Clean Air Works! and Michael Gart, an energenic young grad. All in all we recorded almost 100 carpoolers, three bike commuters and one vanpool group.

As the day warmed up so did the activities. Chris Vasiloff, Arleigh Jenkins, Steve Doolittle, John Wilcox and Sarah Matchett from Cool Breeze Cyclery were on hand to inspect bikes and lead a lunch ride through Davidson. Their large yellow and black tent was a good draw for the avid cyclists on campus. Also joining them was Lauren Blackburn, Davidson town planner. The town of Davidson recently approved a bicycle transportation plan which will improve bicycling conditions on many roads and eventually link a Mooresville to Charlotte route, encouraging more to commute by bike.

Elizabeth Lintner, also from Clean Air Works!, and Gabe had a table with lots of information about reducing traffic congestion and improving air quality. And Dan McGuinness and Michael were on hand to answer any questions about carpooling and recruit new Green Team members.

Folks from Industrial Technologies, led by Dipen Shah, dedicated their time to help with a jam-packed Nitrogen fill day. They filled the tires of 31 cars with Nitrogen! With an increase of approximately 3.3% in fuel efficiency gained from properly inflated tires, this could potentially prevent 50 tons of CO2 from entering the atmosphere in just one week! The Nitrogen fill is always a big draw. It's great to see people taking advantage of it.

Charlotte Mecklenburg Air Quality gave free gas cap checks and gas cap replacements for those getting Nitrogen in their tires. Up to 30 gallons of gasoline can be released from a leaking gas cap, in just one year.

And saving the best for last, many thanks to Kryptonite for the donation of four KryptoLok ®s for our raffle.

We wanted to educate people about greener commuting options, encourage commuting by bike, and tell employees about all the good things the transportation committee is doing. I think we accomplished our goals. It was a good day.

(Pictures by roaming photographer Harry Owanesian.)

Cha-cha-cha-changes....

Thanks to my very good friends at Bicycle Retailer & Industry News, the cat's out of the bag on some big news for me personally.

After 8+ great, great years here at Kryptonite I'll be starting a new adventure on July 1st. I've been holding off writing about it here because then that makes it very real and, to be honest, although it's a fabulous opportunity and I'm excited about it, I'll very much miss both the bike and motorcycle industries. This has been my home for all these years and I'm grateful to the people in both industries for welcoming me with open arms and making me part of these fabulous groups.

The element of any job that makes it or breaks it is the people. I've been extremely fortunate to work with some of the best people in the industry here at Kryptonite. And, I've interacted with some other intelligent, wonderful people throughout both these markets. It's been a blast and I'll miss the daily interaction. But, I am happy knowing that some of those friendships can't be broken by just a job change. For that I'm extremely thankful.

However...having said all of that....I'm not going to far...well, it's a big leap in some respects and not so much in another. Next week I'll start my new role as Director of Web/New Media for our parent company, Ingersoll Rand. So, if you think you've seen the last of me online, you are sadly, sadly mistaken! The absolute passion that I have for all things new & social media will be parlayed into a full time job! How cool is that?! I'm like a little kid waiting for Christmas!!

Know what's cooler? I'll be working in Ingersoll Rand's New Jersey office a couple of days a week and then I'll be spending the rest of the time here in the Kryptonite office. Although I won't be doing any Kryptonite work, I'll still be at the same email and phone number. Yes, I'm a lucky duck.

And...to continue the good luck....because she knows it would be like quitting an addiction cold turkey, Karen has decided to let me still be a guest blogger here! You know I'll have rants about the Tour Day France and, like it or not, you'll be hearing them. I'll still be down at the Perewitz shop and will let you know what's going on there, from time to time. And, in general, I might just have some fun action sports things to say - I'll jump on and let you know what's on my mind.

Kryptonite is currently looking for a new marketing manager; you can find the Monster.com listing here. So, it won't be long before you are being introduced to another Team Kryptonite member right here. Until then, I'm still around...you can't get rid of me that easily! And, don't worry, there's plenty for me to write about before the 1st...stay tuned!

Ride safe.

Welcome TRANE!

As part of Ingersoll Rand, we have some very big news to share. Ingersoll Rand, as of yesterday, has completed its acquisition of Trane. No, I didn't spell that wrong and we aren't going to complete with Amtrak.

Trane is "an acknowledged world leader in air conditioning systems, services and solutions that provide heating, cooling and clean air in commercial buildings and residences around the globe. From the world's tallest skyscrapers to the house next door, Trane's diverse offerings of products, services and systems provide comfort, energy efficiency and peace of mind for millions of people."

I can speak for that last part about "comfort" and, to an extent about "world leader". When we went to iceBike in the UK earlier this spring check out what was in my room....

And then, when we went to the All-Star Race at Lowe's Motor Speedway, check out what was in my room at the DoubleTree.

Trane takes care of me wherever I go! I'll bet that the next time you go into a hotel you'll see them, too, especially where I'm two for two.

Everyone here at Kryptonite welcomes the Trane employees to Ingersoll Rand. We can't wait to get to know you all and find out how many of you are action sports nuts like us!

The life of the traveling salesman

by Craig Glab, Central Regional Manager


The four weeks. The whole month. It’s just about over and I’ve been gone all month.

Week 1 – Minneapolis/St. Paul. After the fine experience of my first tattoo, Don Shipman and myself traveled with the Tucker Rocky reps in Minneapolis/St. Paul. We went to both motorcycle and bicycle shops, sharing our experiences and fine tuning each other.

Week 2 – I drove down to Chicago, IL and Roby Holland, might I say, our National Sales Manager, came out and traveled with me that Monday and Tuesday. He was showing me the city of Chicago through his eyes. We also did a Lexco open house (one of our distributors) that Tuesday night while we were there.

Week 3 – I was in Portland, Oregon to meet with a potential new customer. We’ll be excited to bring them on board! Flew to Charlotte, NC to attend Ingersoll Rand’s internal school – IRU. I was sharpening up my skills to be a better salesman.

Now I’m home; it’s 80 degrees out but I’ve got emails to read and mail to go through. I can’t wait for next week. I’m on vacation! I’m turning my cell phone and everything else off. I’ll be working on my custom motorcycle.

See you in May – I’ll be back in Charlotte, NC for the May 17th race at Lowe’s Motor Speedway where we are the official motorcycle parking area of the speedway.

Bomb Blast Protection

I got this email from Karen the other day that said I really needed to see what the Ingersoll Rand European safety team was working on and she gave me a link. Now, I'm sorry, I'm not into doors....doesn't get me excited. I walk threw two here at the office every morning and don't even think about it. I'm sure the door folks think the same about us sometimes (geez, it's just a lock..). But, being a good corporate citizen, I clicked on the link.

Holy Moly...click on the Bomb Blast Doors Link here and watch the video. Bombs. They set of bombs in front of the doors. Crazy people. I want those doors here on this building. Ok, we are in a safe suburb with not much going on here but still....after you see the video you'll know why I want those doors here. Too, too cool. These are sliding doors that can withstand a vehicle bomb. I'm not kidding. It blew me away (oh, bad pun, I know).

Father & Son Bond

We want this blog to be a place where people talk about the bonds they have with cycling, motorcycling, skiing, snowmobiling and anything else action sports related. We want to hear from people, in their own words, why they have such a bond to these sports.

Today, we kick off a series of profiles of people and their unbreakable bonds with bikes, motorcycles, ATVs etc. We’ll profile people that work here, partners of ours and people we meet through the blog, at events and out on the road. It will be an ongoing feature here.

In his own words, meet Scott…..

As an accounting manager for Ingersoll Rand, I sit in an office all day so on the weekends I love to be outside as much as I can. For me that’s being on my Yamaha YZ250F along side my 15 year old son, Bryan. Sharing my passion for motocross with him is just a great thing for me.

My love of motorcycles started when I was a kid. I enjoyed them, but my parents didn’t like them at all. If I wanted to do anything with motorcycles I had to pay for it myself. I had to earn money for the motorcycle, parts, racing, for everything. When Christmas would roll around there weren’t any gloves or helmets as presents. I had to get a job and earn everything on my own.

As a kid, I enjoyed the mechanical side, too. I’d like tearing into mechanical devices and figuring out how they worked. I’d buy an old motorcycle and fix it up. The resulting mess was also annoying for my parents.

When I got older I became more responsible. I went to school, got married, had kids and put my love of motocross aside. About 6 or 7 years ago a friend called and wanted me to go to Baja with him on one of these extreme motocross trips. He’s an adrenaline junkie like me. I went with him and decided that this is what life is all about. This is why I work so hard. I went out and bought a motorcycle. There was a local motocross track near my home.

My young son, Bryan, would come and watch me ride at the track. He started to get interested in riding, but his grades were suffering. We made an agreement. If he got all B’s I’d buy him a motorcycle. For 2 years he was known at the track as the kid without a motorcycle. I felt bad, I wanted him to enjoy motorcycling as much as I did, but I held on to our agreement. I wanted to teach him the value of working to achieve a goal.

Bryan

Now that he has the motorcycle, Bryan has to keep his grades up to continue riding. He also has to pay for half of everything – if something breaks, he pays half. He has paid half for his current motorcycle. It took him over a year to save the money for his half. This is my way of sharing my passion with him and instilling some valuable lessons as well.

Riding also allows me to stay in touch with my son in ways that we wouldn’t otherwise. He’s into hockey, too, and there are a group of dads and sons that are into both hockey and riding. Fathers and sons travel to tracks and ride together. Last year a friend let us use his RV, and we took a group trip for 8 days riding different tracks in different states.

Fathers and sons

Riding fuels my passion and helps me bond with my son.

Scott B Seibert
Adrenaline Junkie and Father

Scott and his son Bryan