¡LOS MARCOS MADNESS!

HI KRIPTONITE! THIS IS EL MARCO BUENO FROM WORLDS GREATAST POLO TEAM LOS MARCOS POLOS. ¡VIVA LOS MARCOS! SO HEY, THANKS YOU FOR SPONSOR OUR TORNAMENT WE HAVE IN NEW YORK CITY. IS SECOND YEAR NOW FOR TOURNAMENT AND WE MAKE IT TWICE AS BIG. MORE PRIZE! MORE MADNESS! MORE CHANCE FOR YOU FOR BRIBE US WITH WHAT LOS MARCOS LIKE BEST: BOOZE, WOMEN, AND FOUL PLAY. TWO DAY ONLY! OKTOBARE THREE AND 4. THEN GO HOEM AND CRY BECAUSE LOS MARCOS TOOK ALL PRIZE. YOU TRY BETTER NEXT TIME! HAHAHAHAH! HAHA IS JUST KIDDING. LOS MARCOS NO NEED MORE THINGS. WE HAS AVARYTHING WE WANT IN LOS MARCOSTAN. BUT MAYBE WE TAKE YOU WOMEN BACK AYNWAY. YOU NO SHOULD MISS LOS MARCOS MADNESS BECAUSE YOU REGREAT IT. BIKE POLO IT IS TRADITIONING SPORT OF LOS MARCOSTAN BECAUSE IT WAS INFENTED THERE, JUST LIKE OL KERNEL MARCOS INVANT BIKE FROM HALUSSINOGENIC FLAMSE OF MOUNT MARCOSTAN. NOW IT SO POPULAR EVRYWARE IT GO IN NEW YROK TIME ONCE AN WALL ST JERNEL WE THINK. IT SPORT OF FUTURE, JUST LIKE KICKPOXING. ¡VIVA!

And, now for a translation from our friend Ken Stanek, who has been a close observer of the Los Marcos Madness phenomena.... First of all, there's Bike Polo. If you've never heard of it, it's probably exactly what you think it is. It's got roots in the back lots of Seattle courier companies and 19th century Irish fields.

Then there's Los Marcos Polos. There's no rational explanation for them. They claim to have dominated the sport for somewhere between two years and two centuries. They appear infrequently, and sometimes only in rare footage captured by unknowing, camera weilding tourists. The only thing anyone knows for certain is that they throw the most ridiculous "tournament" anyone could imagine each October in New York City. Catch them and teams from as far away as Chicago, Ottawa, Richmond, East Vancouver, and Seattle this coming weekend at
Los Marcos Madness. For more information, visit http://www.losmarcospolos.com/

Kryptonite Mini Protects Bikes and.....

Got a message this weekend from my friend Chris. Said that he was out riding late Friday night - about 20mph through the streets of Boston. Something happened (didn't quite get that part) and he ended up sliding down the street on none other than his Evolution Mini that was in his back pocket. He didn't get a scratch on him, and his bike seemed fine, although his new jeans weren't as fortunate......

So, Chris is proof that, when used properly, the Kryptonite Mini protects your bike and your body. Although, I have to think landing on a steel lock must cause bruising, but....no road rash!

Do I even have to say "don't try this at home, folks"? Just don't. But, we are all happy that Chris is safe and sound...and it looks like the Mini is even still functional, doesn't look too bad considering.

Cool Video & Photos

The talented Amy Bolger did a photo shoot recently that will be part of a project benefiting the New York Bicycle Messenger Foundation and a couple of other messenger groups around the country. What is it? Here's the scoop from CycleHawk:
"A deck of cards, featuring messengers from four cities. Each city will take a suit, thirteen messengers per city"

Pretty cool concept, but that's not why I'm sharing it. Amy created a video of the photo shoot the other day. It kicks some serious butt! Check it out! You'll be glad you did!

I'm sure there will be info on the card decks when they are complete over on Cycle Hawk, too.

Check out the new faces on Kryptonitelock.com

So, we made a pretty significant change to the Kryptonite website this week. We changed the home page to show 4 different people and hear, in their words, why they are bonded to their lifestyle. We’d like to thank Tim Masiguy Jackson for being the official greeter to the site for so long as well as Jody Perewitz, Kate Cross and Rob Zuraski for being the illustrious first group on the site. But, when we debuted the site it was with the understanding that the group on the front would be ever changing every 6-8 weeks or so. Ok, so it’s more than 6 weeks since April, but hey, we finally got there.

We’re pumped to have this next group of folks on our site. They represent Kryptonite through either their employment here or their great partnership with us. Not to mention they are darn cool people. Here’s a little more on each of them.


The Bike Tab
Roland Burns is the co-founder/owner of R.E.Load Bags in Philly. Have you seen the exquisite custom bags that come out of there? No? Go look. Right now. I’ll wait…..Did you check out the custom stock? No? Seriously, these are some kick *ss bags. Go back…I’ll wait….

Roland with his custom Bilenky and one of his custom bags

Not only does Roland create art, he’s also a blogger. Check it out – he puts up some photos of the total custom bags there. Sweet!

Out and about in Philly

Ro organizes messenger races in Philly, too, and he couldn’t be nicer to work with- The Rocky races, North American Championships and a bunch others I’m sure I don’t know about. He’s a man on the move – all the time. But, he did slow down long enough to come visit the booth at Interbike where he and his friends got a sneak peek at his new page. I think it’s great that he’ll be the welcoming face to Kryptonite for the next couple of months.

The Motorcycle Tab
Jeff Clark’s from North Carolina and is the co-founder/owner of The Cycle Xchange (TCX), a custom motorcycle shop. They both build and service all kinds of custom bikes – one of which you see on the front of our website. Jeff is also the driver of the TCX/Budweiser Burnout Bike. It’s a TCX built bike that has a NASCAR back tire that they do burnouts with…and then the crew changes the tire and Jeff goes at it again. It’s kinda fun to watch. Check it out.

Jeff at TCX in January when I had a chance to hang out with him for a bit.

Not only does he put in more than a full week at The Cycle Xchange, but he’s a pretty busy guy on the weekends, too. He’s a proud dad of very active kids who are off at one sporting event or another and then on Sundays it’s all about racing. Not in front of the TV or in the stands like you and me….he’s a member of Dale Earnhardt Junior’s pit crew! He’s the guy that keeps Dale Junior fueled up during the race. You can see Jeff, Dale Junior and Brandon Bernstein together in this new video from Sturgis this year.

The TCX showroom. To see more, hit their MySpace page

The Ski/Snowboard Tab
Chances are that if you have visited Perewitz Cycle Fab you’ve met Kory Souza. If you’ve brought your motorcycle in for service, he’s worked on it and ‘made it all better’, I’m sure. He’s the behind the scenes guy that gets it done. He works hard on all the motorcycles that come in, he loads and unloads the haulers going to the shows and he’s part of the road crew that makes sure all those gorgeous bikes get where they are going safely.

Kory racin' to the max

When he’s not in the shop, you can find Kory racing around on one of his “50s”, mini bike. I’ve seen the impromptu races in the parking lot on a slow day, which are too fun. Last year he organized an inside 50s bike race inside at a local go-kart track. All the proceeds went to the National MS Society. Kory has a heart of gold for sure.

Getting ready to ride

With all this powersports action, why the ski/snowboard tab? Easy….it's hard to keep any action sports person quiet for too long. When there’s too much snow on the ground to ride motorcycles, Kory heads for New Hampshire to snowboard, of course. He's equally as passionate about that.

Specialty Tab
Eric Anastasia is truly a member of Team Kryptonite. He’s our Eastern Regional Manager and resident hiking and climbing nut. All of that gear that you see in the photo isn’t staged or borrowed; it’s all his. The guy has toys – something tells me that this isn’t all the gear either. It’s just a feeling I have. And, I’m not talking about the motorcycle either (yup, he’s got one of those, too).

Eric hanging out in the mountains of New Hampshire

Eric started in the marketing department here, but recently "defected" to sales. We tease him about that all the time, but it’s been a great move for him and he’s good at what he does. I think he likes traveling around the East Coast to find more places to hike and camp…just a theory.

If you are on the East Coast and own a bicycle or powersports shop or frequent one, chances are you'll meet Eric.

Thanks to all of these guys for participating in the fun. Now, if you haven't been over to the site, go check it out and read, in their own words, why they have an unbreakable bond to these sports.

Congrats to Andy Zalan - 2007 Markus Cook Award Winner

Congrats to our friend Andy Z down in DC - he's the recipient of the prestigious Markus Cook Award this year. The official press release from the IFBMA is below because they can say it much better than I.....

Congrats Andy from all of your friends here at Kryptonite!

The International Federation of Bicycle Messenger Associations (IFBMA) is pleased to announce that Washington DC messenger Andy Zalan has been awarded the 2007 Markus Cook Award. The Cook Award is given annually to bike messengers who best represent the camaraderie and community spirit of the international messenger community. In the past year, Andy set up the Destination Dublin race series in Washington that enabled several DC messengers to travel to the Cycle Messenger World Championships in Dublin , Ireland . His annual bike messenger calendar is a tribute to those who work day in and day out.

However, beyond Andy¢s accomplishments of the last year, lies a decade long history of community advocacy and bridge building among American and European messengers. Andy is one of the founders of the District of Columbia Bike Couriers Association, one of the first organizers of alleycat racing in Washington and he brought the world to his city as host of the
1998 Cycle Messenger World Championships. Andy has been instrumental to the continued success of the CMWC and is a critical component of the international messenger community. In his nomination for the award, veteran Swiss messenger, Luk Keller accurately summed up the international messenger community¢s appreciation of Andy Zalan: "He never loses the spirit. He unites every aspect of what I like about messengers (he¢s uncomplicated, he can race, he can party, he's good-looking, he's smart, friendly, badass...helpful) and by being the way he is he unites the messenger mob with the messenger snob."

With all this in mind, the IFBMA and previous Markus Cook Award winners are pleased to welcome Andy to the list of winners.

Interbike Wrap-Up - Inside Our Booth in Photos

Ok, so here's the last batch of photos from Interbike. As I mentioned, I'd try to do a little different spin on Interbike at times - life from inside a booth. Here are some more things I saw from inside our booth....

Karen and Craig take a short break to smile for the camera before getting back to talking with customers. Our booth was jammed pretty much from the get-go right up until Friday afternoon when it was very sloooowww...so slow all around that I heard booths coming down by 4ish (the show is open until 6pm).

Simon and Lisa from Colin Lewis Cycles in the UK were greeted by our in-transition European/South American Sales Manager, Gustavo. They won a trip to Interbike through a Kryptonite contest held this past winter. It was great having them with us. Last I heard they were headed for some sight seeing and shopping....hope they had fun on the rest of their trip.

Bob Roll chats with and signs a poster for one of our customers. Bob joined us in the morning both Wednesday and Thursday and was, as usual, a crowd favorite!

Craig and Eric serve up some coffee to the folks that stopped by to see Bob. They did a great job! Sandy, too, but I learned during this show that Sandy is about as comfortable in front of the camera as I am.

Chris and Cyndie from Cool Breeze Cyclery stopped by to say 'hello' to Bob. It was so much fun meeting them in person!

Eric Hawkins, owner of Park Tool, also stopped by to greet Bobke. The Park Tool booth is right near ours at Interbike, which is great because we've known those guys forever and they are always fun to hang out with.


Through the power of the internet and the telephone, I've "known" Mark Alker from Singletrack Magazine for years. We are even Facebook friends and connect on MySpace. However, since I think he is never allowed out of the office for some reason, I've never met him in person....until Interbike! It was great meeting him in person. From what I can gather, Mark's first trip to Vegas was a full experience....he needed the coffee we were serving, big time!

Century Cycles in Ohio won "An Evening with Bob Roll" during our Interbike contest a few years ago. Scott, the owner, came by to say a quick hello and drop his card in to win a ride with Bob this year.

Craig checks out a funky bike that made its way to the booth.

One of our favorite visitors to the booth every year is Marilyn Price from Trips for Kids. She was telling Karen here about all the new chapters she's opening. Bravo!!

Tim Grahl stopped by for a bit at the show and showed us that he's all in tune with our new Justice League padlocks. By the way, he was telling me some amazing things about the growth of his Commute By Bike site. Check it out!

Our friend Eric from Pedro's stopped by on Friday at just the right time. We asked him to pick the winners for our 'Win a Ride with Bob' contest and he did a great job. And the winners are....

Nevrik and Hrach from Velo Pasadena are the grand prize winners! Bob's going to be visiting their shop the first week of November. We are very happy they won since they are such great customers.

Christian (MN), Kevin/Squid (NY) and Billy (CA) are way loyal Kryptonite customers. Each has been a bike messenger for more years than they'd probably want me to tell you about and have become friends over the years. Ok, I just met Billy, but he was hanging with Kevin so it's all good. I know they don't go anywhere with their bikes without a Kryptonite lock. Congrats to Kevin on opening is own messenger company recently.

Lucky gal, version 2. The best part of any job, for me, has always been the people I meet along the way. I've been truly lucky in this job to meet some wonderful folks. Some I am fortunate enough to see more than once a year, some I only see at Interbike and some only come to the show every other year or so. This was a special year...the gang's just about all here (John seemed to be missing during this photo, but he was there, too).

And that's Interbike for another year. I think that Bob may have his own wrap-up later this week, but his will be very different from any of ours and I'm sure it will include a mention of the 7-Eleven team reunion. Stay tuned for that.

Now, on to the fall...

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.

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!

Bonding with Kevin Dillard

Kevin Dillard and Kryptonite have a bond all our own. Kevin has kindly provided some of his photography for our brand website and even this blog (see photo to the right...it's a Dillard original). We thought he'd be a perfect person to ask about his bond with cycling.

He didn't send us a picture of himself - like every good photographer, we think he likes to stay behind the lens, but you can see his work on our site or on his. (Update: our apologies to Kevin...he has another photo site, too - check it out here. The photos are very cool.)

Here's Kevin...telling us about his bond to cycling.....

I'm a former messenger. 2 years ago I started as an agent that processes documents for companies that want to do business overseas.

My First bike; I can't really remember my first bike, but the really good one that I saved up for was a 10-speed Atala. It was red and white and beautiful. It cost $500 and worth every penny. I felt like a real racer on that bike and it started me on my love of cycling.

My bond with cycling is that it has made me a better person, I feel free when I'm riding. I feel free to talk to people I might not have. Cycling is the only reason I started photographing. I would do an alleycat, and saw this amazing group of people, of every race and gender just hanging out.

And couriers dress like no one else; they have their own style. It had to be photographed. Couriers are the only group of people that looks good getting ready for a race.

So, my bond with cycling has led me to a new career path, photography.I'm bonded forever to anyone that loves to be on 2 wheels.

Photo by Kevin Dillard for Kryptonite

Rumor Patrol - Evolution Mini Stays Put!

We've talked about rumors before. Some make us laugh, some make our eyes roll and some just confound us. This one just astounds me...it was a jaw dropper, actually.

I'm surfing around Bikeforums yesterday afternoon and see that someone heard that the Evolution Mini is being discontinued. What?!

Not true. Not true. Not true.



Yes, the Evolution series 4 is new in the standard and long shackle size, but the Mini is not going anywhere! Holy schmoly. No Mini? Really? That's just silly!

Check out these photos from North American Cycle Courier Championships this past weekend in San Francisco (here, here, here and here). You'll see bits of orange around bikes and in messengers pockets...that's the Evolution Mini. The Mini that isn't going anywhere. The Mini that we love.

Oh, we love it so much, we added another Mini - the KryptoLok Mini. You should be seeing that soon at bike dealers worldwide. Right next to the Evolution Mini. The Evolution Mini that isn't going anywhere. Did I say that already? Got it? Good.

Future NYC Bike Rider

A future bicycle rider if ever there was one

Kevin "Squid" Bolger has been a bike messenger in New York City for 15 years. Pretty much everyone involved with the messenger community knows him. He's also been interviewed countless times on television whenever a strong rider and fun person is needed for a comment on cycling or messengering in NYC. He's married to one fantastic lady and talented photographer, Amy Bolger, and together they are extremely active in the messenger community worldwide.


This weekend they expanded their family and welcomed their son Keiran Wolf Bolger. Hope they don't mind, but I snatched the above photo from Kevin's website.


Bravo, Amy! Congrats and good wishes to the Bolger family from all of your friends at Kryptonite.

Bike to Work w/the EPA and Messenger Friends

We had a great time sponsoring DC bike to work day! I met all kinds of folks and we even lucked out with the rain. It was pretty cool to be all set up with the Capitol building over my left shoulder.

We had lots of visitors including several peeps from the EPA!!!! I LOVE their jerseys...so cool! We had free lanyards for riders' keys (which went pretty quick) and reflective stickers for the ride home. Those were a big hit as you can see.

I also got to see some friends that now live in the DC Area. Below is a DC messenger, AJ Grim, with his bike that matches his New York Lock. AJ and I worked (many moons ago) at a shop up here in Boston, it was great to see him and another former co-worker, Matt Hughes. Good luck on the Bar Exam Matt!!!

And on my way home I stopped by my favorite shop in DC, District Hardware on P Street. It is run by two of the nicest people I know in the cycling industry, Neil and Mr. David. If you stop by, please tell them I said hi, as they were both skipping out of work on a Friday!!!

That's all from the road, I am still a little punchy after all that driving, Boston-DC-Boston in 36 hours!
Cheers!
-Nadine

Kryptonite & CMWC

Kryptonite has supported the Cycle Messenger World Championships (CMWC) many times and this year will be no different. We're going to Ireland this year! We just signed on to support CMWC this August in Dublin. Ok, 'we' just means the brand, not 'me'....I'm excited about this partnership, but I'd be more excited if I actually got to go (tiny hint).

This is Graham White. He's one of the organizers of the event and my contact there. He also made my day with this quote, "Who in their right mind doesn't use Kryptonite anyway?" Thanks!

More info on this fun event as it gets closer. Stay tuned...

Behind the Scenes

A blog is not the work of just one person and this one certainly isn't and won't be. If it is a company blog ideas for posts come not only from the author, but from customers, associates, co-workers, colleagues and issues in the marketplace, too. If it is a personal blog ideas can come from conversations with friends and family and just about anywhere else, too.

As I mentioned, as we evolve this blog more people from here will chime in and I expect that all of you will have quite a few things to contribute, too. I'm counting on both those things, actually.

But, there are also the contributions that happened behind the scenes that got this blog started. Support from 'the top', of course. Not only the director of marketing here, but also our GM and the head of corporate communications for our parent company. They are all very supportive and, to be honest, this blog wouldn't be here without that support.

Then there is the creative. Do you think that I created the banner at the top of the page? I'm lucky I can draw stick figures, even on the computer. Our graphic designer did that and I think it's kind of cool. He also created the little lock icons at the start of each post. That, to me anyway, is a nice touch.

And, a big thank you goes out to photographer Kevin Dillard who not only provided some photos for our new brand website (live next week!), but he also took the photo to the right especially for us a week or so ago at a messenger event in Richmond, Virginia. How nice is that? We certainly appreciate that and it is the perfect compliment to the design of this blog.

Thank you one and all. I think this is going to be a great adventure for our brand.