AT&T Austin Downtown Crit

This past weekend we had one of my favorite local events take place. The AT&T Austin Downtown Criterium unfolded on Saturday, June 16th with many pro's from around the country flying in to race our bumpy downtown streets.

Among those were some of my buds from Abercrombie & Fitch who I was able to attend a training camp with in the spring of '06. Mark Hekman who is leading in the US Crit Series points was joined by Rich Harper who was looking sleeker than ever after losing his fro. Brandon Gavic who is new to the team was also there proving his worth as he worked plenty to help Hekman retain his lead in the points, even after crashing on the 2nd lap of the race.

Hekman recognized as series leader

Rich Harper and Mark Hekman strike a pose with local fans

I set up a booth at this race to see exactly how our "triathlete designed" bags would be received by the genuinely "roadie" crowd. I'm happy to say that we scored big! Really, I didn't have any doubt but Marcin, as humble as he is, was not sure they would be so accepted. Not only were they accepted, I was asked by a very familiar pro team executive director to consider sponsoring his team with our bags and water bottles!

Jen McRae won the women's pro race. Her daughter Henna in matching kit is my son's officially unofficial girlfriend. She regularly beats my son Niko in the kid's race on Thursday nights. Niko didn't race the kids race downtown due to recovering from walking pneumonia. He was bummed of course, but I did get to take him around the course between races later in the day on his new bike that I got through my friend at Masi/Haro, Tim Jackson.

These wonderful pictures are by local photographer Rick Kent. Thank you Rick!

Cheers!

Danskin Dilemma

This past weekend Marcin and I were given the opportunity to show and sell our products through Austin's Bicycle Sport Shop at the Danskin Triathlon. Instead of the expo, we were set up next to their mechanics in the transition area in the 10x10 retail tent.

It wasn't long before the women started showing up in droves to rack their bikes. As they came in, we got a lot of attention simply because we had the only tents in the transition area and most of the women wanted to have a final check done on their bikes. Having not worked next to the mechanics in a transition area the day before the race prior to that day, I was surprised to find that most competitors were unprepared for the race. Many had no means of hydration either, not owning a water bottle or cage to put it in. Many others needed bar end plugs which BSS happily supplied.

Things quickly turned from us showing our product to helping out the ever growing line of women heading to the mechanics with simple things. Things like putting air back in their tires after someone at the expo was telling them all to let the air out "because the tires would pop from sitting in the sun"! What? You're kidding me, right? We race on fully inflated tires on pavement that is bubbling up from the heat, with the friction of the tires on that melting pavement making it even hotter, and someone thinks that tires pop while just sitting there in the transition area?

Let's clarify. TIRES DON'T POP FROM AIR EXPANDING IN THEM IN HOT WEATHER. If this were the case there would be warnings on all tubes, tires and bicycles warning of imminent danger in hot weather. A warning might look like this: WARNING: DO NOT RIDE IN HOT WEATHER. AIR EXPANSION IN TIRE MAY CAUSE INNER TUBE FAILURE LEADING TO LOSS OF CONTROL AND SERIOUS INJURY OR DEATH.

Have you ever seen a warning like this in the bicycle industry? Can you imagine the flurry of lawsuits such a failure would cause if this were a problem?

So what does cause tires to pop? Several things. One of which is old, dry rotted tubes. I can tell you I pumped up my share of tires that day, and there were quite a few that had old tires and wheels covered in cob webs. Incorrectly installed tubes that are twisted or caught in the bead can also add to the issue. I know that of all the thousands of bikes there, some are going to pop, and unfortunatly, I'm guessing the heat is still going to be blamed, and we, the heroes of the pit are going to be blamed for telling them different.

They say women are good communicators, this I can attest is true. However when given bad information it can truly cause a lot of havoc. The guys from Austin's Bicycle Sport Shop really stepped up, gave the correct information and pumped tires till they were sunburned and blue in the face.

This is Chris Carter. He was suppose to be doing retail.
Instead he's pumping hundreds of tires and getting a
"pumper's high". This guy must have lost 10 pounds
of water and a bit of skin from his hands as well.

Here is Chris after the event. Rest in peace Chris, rest in peace.

So remember boys and girls, don't let air out of your tires. If you must, at least wait until the race is over. Save those who have donated their time for your support from unneaded pumpers high. Pumpers high can kill. Just ask Chris.

Cheers!

Shipping Woes

Do you use DHL for your business? I have, and had lots of trouble with mis-billing. Everyone I know that has used them have shared their own horror stories.

Since last November I've been fighting DHL about a shipment of 4 boxes sent, 4 boxes received. What's hard about that? They are charging me for 16 boxes! Our representative from where the boxes were shipped from may have mislabled as 4 boxes per shipping label (4 labels) but wouldn't DHL have a clued as to how many physical boxes they actually handled? Apparently not! Not only that, but they automatically upgraded the ground shipping to overnight because of the number of boxes listed on each shipping label. Huh? Yup! Four stinking boxes cost me over $800!!!

Every month I call to straighten this out. I have gotten it knocked down to about half price, only $436, but this shipment should have only cost about $100. Every month I call, get transferred a few times, explain the situation about 3 times and am told that I will be credited and to wait 2-3 weeks for verification of the credit. Does it ever come? NO!

The latest with RSS shipments through DHL from over seas is that they lost 72 of our top end wetsuits for 2 weeks. Not only that, but once they found them, they shipped them from Californial, to Waco Tx (a 1 1/2 hour drive from it's Austin destination), only to be flown to Ohio,
split up and half sent back to Austin and the other half sent to California again. I am happy to say that we have finally received all the packages. Most of them are not in very good condition however. The outer boxes were torn, and some of the inner boxes were flattened and scraped up. Lucky for us the merchandise was squishy wetsuits, not something that would break from all the extra mishandling.

Now we are having more special customer deliveries shipped from our warehouse screwed up by DHL. Where does it end? My guess is when we ship through another company.

What good does great prices do you if you end up spending all your time tracking and managing what the heck DHL is doing with your packages? Our time is worth money isn't it? I think I'd rather pay a little extra and not worry about it then continue with DHL. What do you say? Join me in a strike against DHL? Let's go!

Happy shipping! Cheers!