Trek Goes Hollywood

This past weekend, yours truly hit the City of Angels as Lance Armstrong hosted a couple thousand of his friends for some seriously positive LiveSTRONG vibes.

We're painting a series of bikes for Lance this year around the LiveSTRONG theme and we've partnered up with a few artists to crank out some custom paint schemes for the man to race throughout the year. Lance is a bit of an art-buff and we couldn't be happier to provide the canvas to some of his favorites. This event would kick off LiveSTRONG's "Stages" art show and we hooked up with the guys at Nike to help make it all happen. The first two bikes are by iconic pop artists, Barry McGee and KAWS. The KAWS bike is going to make an appearance at Milan-San Remo (Euro Race) next week and is sure to blow some minds. The McGee bike is a serious piece of work with a vintage look and some unbelievable graphics. The bike is made to look as if it's rusted steel which is quite a feat when you're actually working with carbon fiber. Will any of these bikes be production? No promises.

The night kicked off with an open invite to anybody who wanted to take a two mile bike ride from the Los Angeles Children's hospital to the Montalban Theatre. The ride was fun but honestly the story of the evening was that for a solid hour on a Saturday night, major streets in Los Angeles were closed to nothing but bicycle traffic. There's something so gratifying about flying past a line of exotic cars waiting at a police barrier while thousands of bicycles get waived through.

After the arrival at the theatre, invitees were treated to free bike valet, some cool refreshments, and a preview of the hottest bikes on the entire face of the earth. Ben Stiller kicked the evening off with a little stand-up and intro'd Lance for a Q and A with Nike CEO, Mark Parker and artist Shepard Fairey, of the iconic Obama poster print. Shep did a huge wall mural for the event that is currently on the side of the Montalban Theatre if anybody from LA is reading this and wants to check it out. Corner of Hollywood and Vine. Big Lance face. Can't miss it.
The surprise of the night was when Ben Harper hit the stage to do his thing and brought the house down with his band, Relentless 7. I've seen the guy only once before and if you get a chance, make it happen. He's an incredible musician.

Overall, an absolutely amazing event. Those peeps at Nike know how to get down, no doubt. The biggest winner of the night was the LiveSTRONG movement and the Lance Armstrong Foundation which is the reason for all the hoopla. Never has the fight against cancer been more important and that is an organization that is doing amazing things for victims, survivors, and anybody that's been touched by the disease.

If you dig the bikes, check back in from time to time as we'll be posting more as they become available.

For an insider's recap on the event, as well as a list of artists you can expect to see pieces from, click here.

The Laufmaschine

It is said that "necessity is the mother of innovation." So when it's 1818 and you're hit with two bad oat crops in a row and all of the horses (or "1818 Cars") are dying you've got to come up with some alternative transportation. Enter Baron Karl Christian Ludwig von Drais de Sauerbrun, a forester by upbringing but a self-proclaimed inventor at heart. After a little tinkering with some previous models, the Baron came up with the contraption that you see above. It would be 189 years later when a bicycle company in Wisconsin would introduce a similar model called the Float (Don't be fooled by the picture, the pedals come off to help children learn how to ride a bicycle). The Baron's "Laufmaschine" or "Running Machine" was devoid of pedals and a drivetrain but it is one of the first examples of what would later grow into the modern bicycle. The bike was technically a fixie in that it had no brakes (apparently the Baron was a hipster before there was such a thing) but I guess it's not really anything in that it has no gears to begin with. When revolution came to Germany in 1848, the Baron renounced his title, declared himself a democrat, and adopted the more common moniker of "Karl Drais". Apparently, bikes have always been revolutionary.

Drais passed away in 1851 but his contraption is what would become the modern bicycle and motorcycle. In many ways, the world would be a much different place without him. So today, I'll raise a glass of Hefeweizen and toast to the Baron. Without him, there'd be no bikes. And without bikes, no bike blogs. And that, my friends, is no world I want a part of.

Thanks to Wired for the original story.
Photo Credit: Corbis
Source: Institute and Museum of the History of Science (Florence, Italy), Baden-Baden City Guide (Germany)

Mod Racing!

A couple of posts back we defied better judgement by showing you what the Trek Mod was really capable of. Look, we designed the bikes for kids but some people just refuse to grow up. Apparently when you've conquered just about every X-Games category there is, the only thing left is to race some pink Mods. Are we bummed they called them "Big Wheels"? Only if Puffs is pissed off when somebody calls them Kleenex. We'll be on the lookout for some more madcap Mod capers but we might be on hold with that until Trekworld in August.

Tour of California next week! If you're going, be sure to stop by the Trek booth and score yourself one of these limited Levi shirts. Levi's going for his third but it's the people that make the race interesting. Who can forget "Junior" from the 08 campaign? 
 

A Guide For Your Life

If you're a guy, which I am, it's obvious that you have no idea what's going on. If you're unsure of this, ask your significant other. They'll tell you.
And if you don't know what's going on, you obviously don't know how best to spend the quan and time you suffer for tirelessly day in and day out. It's hard, I'll admit. Lots of choices. What liquor do I drink? What car do I drive? What band is cool to listen to? What sports do I watch? Should I be on Twitter? What's this rash all about? They want how much for a watch? And you don't want to make the wrong decision. The wrong decision could be disasterous with long lasting social consequences.
So thank God there's a veritable buffet of buyers guides out there to help in you in such decisions. Online buyers guides are awesome because A) They're timely and frequently updated and B) They often include items that are so Blinglicious (you didn't even know that you should be using that word) that the mere thought of trying to obtain one is laughable. But at least you know the $800,000 concept car that Enzo is only making 150 of exists lest you be unable to contribute to an enevitable conversation about luxury cars at the bar over Schlitz's that everybody's drinking now because some delegation of the tragically hip has decided that only people that drink cheap beer are cool. That wasn't a rant, it's just my interpretation. Sometimes they do include some more obtainable product. Like bicycles. Bicycles that I'm charged with marketing. And I appreciate that.

Now, it may seem that I'm Charlie Browning on the Buyer's Guide but there are a few I do follow. I've done all the work of sifting through the troubled sea that is the world wide interweb and deliver to you my top 3 in no particular order:
1. Uncrate - Great diversity of product, always fresh, Good writing (They also have Outblush for the ladies, which seems to drive my wife's buying habits)
2. Gear Patrol - Everything from Superbowl Ads to the latest in tie wear. Gear Girls. Nice.
3. Cool Material - Provides Guides within their own Guide. "What not to buy your girlfriend for Christmas" literally saved the life of a good friend of mine.

Thing One

A couple of weeks back everybody at the saltmine received a cryptic email that only instructed that we "Save The Date of January 23rd" because "Something was coming...". It turned out that we have a mole amongst us as the email was leaked to some online bike media sources. January's a rough time for bike media since half the country is just trying to stay warm enough to survive and I'm sure they were hungry for a lead. They must've been because they printed an internal email that had no visual connection to anything bike related. As is the norm with those interested in bicycles with an internet connection and too much free time, the speculation went rampant. "What is Trek doing? Are they releasing a new bike? It must be big if they won't tell anybody what it is." Well the 23rd came and something did happen. Something artsy.

Thing One, not to be confused with Project One, R1, or any other word/letter + number naming scheme you see from Trek, is the moniker of our new design studios. Opened in August of 2008, the design studios have been a scene of ongoing construction for the past few months. Housed within its creative walls are the Trek Industrial, Bike Graphic, Print, Web, Retail, and Environmental design departments. With the dust finally settled, the heat turned on, and the foundation re-sealed (we had a "soggy" morning last summer), it was time to crack a Leine's and break in the new space. Let's not forget though, these people are artists and you can't just have an open house. It's gotta be an art show. Hence the email.

The theme was simple. Create anything you like using the icons from the "Wingdings" font. For those of you not cool enough to have studied such trivial things like fonts, Wingdings is an alphabet made up of images rather than characters. For my money, I'll take Times New Roman although I believe the font this is printed in is Verdana. Either way, I doubt it really makes a difference to anybody. The art was pretty outstanding as you might imagine. Posted on this story are several of The Bike Lane's personal favorites. The social report from the evening was that the drinks were cold, the beats were funky, and the art was off the hook. Literally off the hook in the case of one piece that turned out to be an entire room of Wingdings-inspired decore. The Thing One party set the standard for all Trek internal department openings. A standard that will undoubtedly never be met because i don't think anybody else at Trek can throw down on the 1's and 2's quite like the design crowd. Look out later this year when we relaunch the marketing department as "The People Who Sit By The Big Windows". RC Colas and Little Debbies for everybody!

Most Dedicated Blog Ever

Typically I'd have phoned this week in on the blog tip. After all, I'm on my honeymoon and my wife confiscated my Blackberry. I'm on the beautiful island of Kauai and there's more than enough distractions to keep me away from the HP. 7 inches of snow at home. 80 degrees and sunshine here. But it's not about me, it's about you. And that's why I can't let you down. Without you, this window into the soul of the greatest bike brand on the whole planet does not exist. So tell you what, I'll keep this short and sweet, for both of our benefit. Guess what? After a whole lot of persuasion and some Billy Mays-esque selling, the cruiser team secured the fundage for a full cruiser catalog. Kauai's on the short list of location shoots for sure. Got any suggestions? Remember, it's a rough economy so keep it in the states.

The Crew Cap

 

A baseball game is simply a nervous breakdown divided into nine innings.  - Earl Wilson

There's nothing quite like a day in which the mercury doesn't reach the 0 mark to make you count the things that you love about summer. Somewhere near the very top of my list in between my body being exposed to enough vitamin D and and actually seeing the sun when i go to work AND after I leave, would be the sweetest of American pastimes, baseball. And while, yes, I love bicycles and riding bikes and all that goes along with it, if you gave me a choice between sipping pinot while chewing on a croissant at the Tour de France or guzzling Old Style with a 2 pound hot dog with all the trimmings in the bleachers at Wrigley Field, it would be a pretty easy choice for me. I'm not saying the Cubs are my team (they are my wife's team and it will remain a point of contention for a while), I'm just saying as far as atmosphere goes you can't beat the Friendly Confines. The Cubs are fine for some people but the team that owns my heart is the Milwaukee Brewers. Probably not a more fun team to root for in the game. If we win we're stoked. If we lose we're bummed. But not to the point of depression. Either way, the beer is cold and the bratwurst delicious.
So how to marry the two things of summer that are most awesome? The Crew and Bicycles? Enter the custom Brewers cycling cap. My Marketing Coordinator (pictured above) stumbled upon the company Cognition Caps a couple weeks back and we sat admiring the Pittsburgh Pirates lid that the company had just finished. We figured that if they could do the Steel City, they could definitely hook us up with some Beer City cotton. The result? A sweet old-school Crew lid made specially for a few of their more bicycle-centric fans. Interested in repping your own team or scoring a custom cycling cap? Check out Cognition Caps of Madison, WI. Next year I'm thinking a houndstooth Green Bay Packers lid. Sweet.

Euro Trippin'

While it was wasn't exactly the National Lampoon version, Last week's pavement team Euro trip was still pretty fly. The team decided to skip across the pond to the land wooden shoes and windmills to figure out how they get down dutch-style. Listen, those people are bike-sick. I'm not talking sick as in "wicked". I mean sick as in, a disease that has taken over every aspect of your being. Amsterdam is like a some kind of crazy bike Willy Wonka land. Three piece suits with three kids in tow sick. Cop on a folding bike sick. Buy a Christmas Tree and take it home with me on my bike sick (check out the Flickr stream). We hopped on some crappy rental bikes and hit the city. The thing is, everybody's got crappy bikes. The coffee was not crappy. I will say that.

London was next and the bike scene is ridiculous. Hand it to the women of the Empire. Not only do they rock the sexiest of all accents, but they ride just as much as the guys do. Tons of fixies. Expected and nothing shocking but some hot whips for sure. We stumbled across a guy who builds custom colored fixies out of a garage for around 200 pounds (that's money, remember we're on the metric system here). The bikes are "gahbage" but it's a sweet business model. Tip: If you want great Indian food, go to London. Go to  Amaya in Chelsea. Get the Madras chicken. 

#1 Thing I learned: Obey all cops. Even if they are on folding bikes.
#2 Thing I learned: Dutch cyclists do not know any more about bikes that American cyclists. They just view the bicycle differently.
 - Think about that one. 40% of all trips in the Netherlands are on bikes. In the US, it's less that 0.5%. If we could get ourselves up to even 5%, that would be a revolution.

Halloween At The Saltmine: Part Deux

As you will recall, last year's Halloween featured an entire department rocking the 80's TV character theme. We had Knight Rider, Fred and Daphne of Scooby Doo fame, Magnum PI, and even a Punky Brewster.This year the team phoned it in and left it to the rest of the company to try and throw down costume style and I have to say, a few of them came correct.

Some of our favorites:

She-ra and Xena - answering the ages old question of which fictional warrior princess was the hottest. The answer: Undecided. While Xena's got the whole, "I fight injustice in a leather bustier" thing going, She-ra was blonde and fought Skeletor in a white strapless. This will take further investigation.

Cinko the Ugly Doll - One of our designer's kids. Leave it to our designers to dress their kids up as pop-art/toys. Winner in the "Child Exploitation" category. This costume shows me that my parents totally gave up on Halloween when I was a kid.

12 Popped Collars - Sorry International Sales Guy, nobody is 12 popped collars cool. Your costume is truly fictional.

Sarah Palin - A popular, and very topical, choice for this year. We'll hold our breath to see if anybody is dressing as her next Halloween.

Lego Man - A toy made for kids becomes a costume that scares the crap out of kids. Genius!

Here's hoping your Halloween is filled with treats, a few tricks, and loads of fun!

I Can't Believe We Did That

"Never regret. If it's good, it's wonderful. If it's bad, it's experience." - Victoria Holt

Every company is guilty of it. The refrigerator magnet that seemed so cute at the tradeshow, the chip clip that just had to have our corporate logo plastered on it, or the ever-ubiquitos logo pen. I probably have ten pens at my desk right now. I'll bet at least eight of them feature a logo somewhere that is completely seperate from the actual manufacturer of the pen. What does Bic do when they need to swag somebody?

SWAG: Stuff We Always Get

Think of where we'd be without SWAG. Endless seas of keys going lannier-less. Countless amounts of chips that have suffered the indignaty of going unclipped for so long. How is somebody going to remember your company if you didn't give them the logo balloon? The prospects of a SWAGless world are too frightening to even contemplate.

SWAG, when done responsibly, can be cool. A nice t-shirt from a company that you admire is always welcome. The Livestrong laptop that we had a few years back was on the dope side of the highest end of SWAG. A canvas shopping bag that isn't heinous to replace your paper or plastic grocery bags sends a nice message about your brand and might actually get used. But what about the crap? The custom yo-yo's of the world. Isn't there an air of arrogance among many of these SWAGoffenders? The assumption that a consumer would rather interact with your brand in a "nontraditional method" rather than spare the additional landfill space is a bit of a stretch, isn't it? It's gotta be some rule like "people don't care what it is as long as it's free." Tradeshows must've been created by some genious at a plastics company; for the amount of crap that is unloaded on doctors and salespeople by various vendors has to be in the astronomical regions.

Fact is, we're guilty of it too. I remember cleaning out a whole closet of logo'd garbage that I'm sure looked like a creative idea in 1998. So we've made a pact in Trek's marketing realm. No more trash and trinkets. We're saying no to the 0-weight load bearing carabiners. Sorry Consumers, you'll never have access to a Trek logo mouse pad. Hoping for a Lance Armstrong bobble-head snow globe? Look elsewhere. The Trek pleather-covered daily planner? Not on my watch. We've also sworn off the customized paperweights. Paperweights. What a joke. As if the offices of the world have all been exposed to Poseidon-induced gales moving through them. I know i haven't been in the game that long but I'm yet to have ever encountered a situation that required the use of a paperweight. When I do, it'll have to come from some other company.

I've included some regrettable examples of our offenses and some that were not so bad.
Left To Right:
Shop Apron - Nice concept. Bikes can get dirty and shop rats need to protect their skinny jeans. Old school logo, not so bueno. The straps were tricky so loses points for that. Bad SWAG Score: 5
Liquid floppy frisbee - A classic example of bad SWAG. No practical application. I'm guessing whoever ordered this no longer collects a paycheck here. BSS: 9
Gary Fisher Pom Pom Hat - Dope. This is the kind of stuff people go crazy for at events. BSS: 0
Trek Shades - One side says: "Trek Bicycle Corporation". The other side says: "The Future Is So Bright." Comically terrible. I feel like I have to apologize for these and they preceded my employment by 7 years. BSS: 10
Lance Lunchbox - A must-have. On the outside, bad SWAG - dated and impractical. Dig deeper and there's a ton of applications for this and they're totally rare. Very niche item. Ebay gold! BSS: 3
Wasabi Sandals - Original idea but a little overdone. the bottom is cut out so it says "Trek" in the sand. Velcro is out. BSS: 6
Shimano's Coasting Combs - Landfill content. Awful. BSS: 9
Tour de France Champion Yo-Yo - Nothing says, "We're awesome! We've won the Tour 3 times!" like a yo-yo. um.........we're sorry? BSS: 10