The last few weeks in Flagstaff have been dry like it has been in most of the country up until this point. Unlike most of the country we did start out the winter with some decent storms. Here are a few photos from early winter bike commuting.

We’ve been selling Chrome Bags for about a year now.  I’m not sure if its made us any more stylish than we were before, but as I’m  noticing who is carrying them around Flagstaff, I’m a little bit more aware of the current fashion trends, as I was here spotting this Chrome Citizen Messenger Bags making its way up San Francisco Street over this cyclist’s shoulder.

What seems like an “Internet Marketer” sent in the following graphic to post to Commute By Bike. As we recently posted a thinly veiled link farming attempt with this not very expert post about mountain bike commuting, I didn’t want to subject our readers to two in a row.

For what appears to be a vehicle for getting a link onto sites, I have to say I like the message of this graphic. It’s a comprehensive summary in graphic form of some of the benefits of cycling with info on how some places have made it happen. In summary I think they earned their link but we’re done for awhile.

Created by: Healthcare Management Degree

Hey look! Someone is using our bike rack! Since Stu built this incredible bike rack, I think that I’ve only seen people lock up their bike to it 5 or 6 times. Perhaps its just so amazing that people are scared to scratch it. I think it just needs to get a little weather worn to be more inviting.

I was happy to see that this Salsa Fargo came by for a visit a few weeks ago. This Fargo was even nice enough to pose for a little modeling of the Racktime DoubleIt Panniers while it was at it.

I thought today would be a good day to post some silly photos of Robin wearing some of his packing material based hats for two reasons. #1 Robin is our own in-house turkey keeping us all entertained with his antics and this is the day of Turkeys. #2 it just so happens today is Robin’s birthday, so Happy Turkey Birthday Robin!
Robin’s many hats go beyond just the entertaining ones, generally made from the boxes of the various brands we carry. Robin started out with us assembling the in-house Wandertec products we carry. He quickly joined in full time handling shipping and receiving. From there, Robin has rapidly expanded into a wide range of tasks that have help Bike Shop Hub grow and thrive including, among many other tasks and projects, handling our in-house product photography, uploading products to the shops with all the relevant data and most recently managing all aspects of our customer service.

There is a multitude of behind the scene tasks that go on here and Robin’s abilities to switch hats at the drop of a hat has brought this hat trick +1 (our 4 specialty cycling accessory shops) together. Thanks for all of the great work over the years Robin and enjoy the Turkey and Birthday Cake!
I thought I should include a photo of Robin without a hat on. Here he is doing some final prep for our show room Grand Opening last May.

I was downtown this weekend and spotted this pedaling party on wheels rolling down the street. I fumbled for my camera and got this somewhat blurry shot. This is a new business here in Flagstaff for pedaling parties through the downtown area. Looks like a blast and I think I’m going to have to get the Bike Shop Hub crew a ride one of these nights. Check out the website of this 15-person bike over at AlpinePedaler.com.

We woke up to our first substantial snow fall of the coming winter season this morning here in Flagstaff with about 3″ on the ground. I suited up the Kahlkoff E-Bike that I’ve been testing with my Schwalbe Winter Marathons for the ride into work. I put on rain pants and rain booties to keep the slush off my feet and my Bar Mitts to keep my hands cozy and arrived dry and happy to work.
BTW – We’d love it if you sent in photos of your winter bike commutes!

Its been a tough summer and fall as I’ve been scraping the bottom of the barrel when it comes to the finances of our business here at BikeShopHub.com. As I scramble to make ends meet and make some tough choices to get our business plans in line with reality, I’m very glad that I’m doing this for a business that I believe in. Everyday I’m inspired and excited to be working for cyclists trying to do more with their bicycles. I don’t think I could sustain the same stamina if I was trying to repair a business with a primary motivation of accumulating wealth.

While money is a necessary elixir to solve our current financial issues, the accumulation of wealth is not a driving component of what makes this business work unlike many business models. Our financial equation is much more about finding a balance. I believe that this part of our business plan equation is an essential piece of what has allowed this business to grow rapidly over the past 5 years.

It is difficult to know whether growing a business rapidly and collecting debt is the right direction when you are in the middle of the experiment. I’ll need time to know how our rapid growth while building up debt will play out for the long term. But even if our moves forward were off the mark, because wealth accumulation was not the driving force, I’m confident that we are fully capable of handling the issues in our current lack of financial balance. We’ve pushed our growth to the limit and now we are in the tough process of rebalancing. And with our customers motivating us, we are finding our footing and moving forward with steadiness and a new understanding of how to maintain our financial equilibrium.

I was quite pleased with the strange colors and shapes that my camera was capturing a few nights ago. Not that there is that much to do with what we do here at Bike Shop Hub other than these photos were taken down the block from us and you can make out cyclists in the shot.

With our recent move into selling Electric Bikes here at the BikeShopHub.com, we’ve been boning up on both our electric bike skills as well as some of our out dated bike mechanic skills. Those of us handling the bike wrenching around here, Stu and I came into cycling during the 1990′s mountain biking boom when caliper brakes were the standard. Since than, both of us have tended to stick with caliper brakes on our personal bikes while disc brakes have slowly been creeping in as the new norm.

With our electric bike lineup, there was no longer any option to avoid disc brakes. Almost every e-bike that we brought in had them. One day I finally told Stu, that we needed to move beyond our narrow focus on caliper brakes and accept the dominance of rotor stopping power.

So we called up the best bike mechanic in town that we knew CJ of Flagstaff Bike Revolution for some schooling. And he taught us good. Along with being an astounding bike mechanic and shop owner, CJ teaches courses in bike mechanics for the local university.

Facing the Caliper Mounts

Basic Tools for Disc Brake Adjustments

Lining up the Caliper