The farthest South I've ever been

Cycling posts will be non-existent for a while longer. I’m currently in Santiago Chile on business, and it is a busy, busy trip. I’m being rushed from meeting to meeting, squeezing in email correspondence, visiting new people in new offices and the hectic crazy schedule that makes up business travel.

In spite of all of that, I am actually soaking up the Chilean culture as much as I can. I’ve learned that in Chilean culture, people are very important. We stopped off at one office, just go walk through the place, and literally be introduced to every single person in the office and shake their hands. Took about 20 minutes going from person to person. Will I ever actually work with any of them on this upcoming project, or will I ever even meet any of them again. I don’t know, but it was important that I am introduced. That to me is a very interesting culture. People are very important here. I like that.

Anyway, I hope to have a chance to just walk around the city with my camera, but we’ll see. Lots of bikes here, and the city has a very European flair to it, and I would love to capture some of that on film (or memory cards). Thank goodness for Google reader though. I can still get my cycling fix, even way down here.

Peace.

A big day

My oldest (4) learned to ride a two wheeler today. I'm one proud dad!

Karate (monkey) Lessons

Got up with the sun this morning to sweat out an hour long bike ride on the new Monkey. Kind of felt like a training ride. I was pushing hard the whole time, and forced myself to sweat and be huffing. Good times. The bike feels great. A few changes will be coming though. I will be looking for a different saddle. I’ve got a WTB Speed V on my fixie, and I love it. I tried the WTB that came on the bike briefly, and may give it one more chance, but I wasn’t too impressed with a quick ride right after I brought the bike home. Today I tried the Velo saddle that came stock on my LHT. This wasn’t too bad, but it wasn’t too good either. Every time I’ve set up my Speed V, I’ve been immediately comfortable on it, even if the angle or height of the saddle needed a bit of tweaking.

SPDs will be going onto this bike. I won’t be commuting on this stead, except maybe in the winter, we’ll see. And, a few times I was hauling over some wash-board and my feet were moving on the pedal. I had to stop pedaling and re-position my foot, which is very distracting and makes you momentarily loose the line you were riding.

Brakes are great. Size still feels excellent, but I might want a slightly longer stem. I don’t feel uncomfortable, but I kind of wish I were in a more aggressive riding position. I’ve got one that’s 20mm longer and I might give that a try.

Road find: Remnants of last nights "picnic"?

Eventually I’d like to get some Ergon grips, but I’m not in a huge rush for those. I’ll probably wait until these stock ones start to show some wear.

All in all, what a great and fun bike. Very smooth on the gravel (which is mostly what I rode this morning) and I’m really excited to log more and more miles on this bike

Surly, you make good bicycles.

Karate Monkey

Picked up a new bike last night. Surly Karate Monkey – complete build. Via Bowcycle.

Big wheels rolling to work. Distant reminder of my old snowbike, only more refined.

Avid BB7s rocked like they did on my last bike.
20” frame feels just right. Still need to tweak saddle angle, and even saddle choice. Maybe my Sella-an-atomic that Vik gave me?
Pink MTB shall become the new Xtra Platform.
Current Xtra platform shall return to the recycling yard for someone else to enjoy.
Can’t wait to log some gravel miles on my 29er!

Can you say Karate Monkey?

Kula Lisa It Is

We picked up a nice 14" Kula Lisa last night for my sweet wife. The good guys at Bow Cycle hooked us up with a sweet deal. Can't wait to hit the trails with the whole family!

Looking for advice and or opinions

My wife and I are looking to get her a hard tail MTB. Mostly just for hauling the kids around on the dirt paths along the canals that snake through town, for taking camping and maybe the odd gravel ride. No competitive riding will be done, but with me being a bike geek, bottom end won't do either. She test rode a Kona Kula Lisa yesterday, and loved it. Oh yeah, it also has to look girly. Pink is good. Gender-neutral looking bikes would have to be super comfortable, high end and well priced to make the list. We're looking at spending $1000 - $1500. Any insight you might be able to share would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

New Photo Blog

I've started up a new blog, just for photos. I've got a website online, and eventually I would like to have that set up with galleries, contact info and all the rest. Right now it's nothing special. I will use this new blog just to post recent photos that I've been taking.

Currently I'm just shooting as much as I can for free. Anyone local who would want some family photo, or couples who want engagement photos, I'll do them all for free. I'm just trying to build up a portfolio right now. Eventually I would like to be able to do weddings. Not that I want to make huge money as a photographer, but if I could make some extra cash to buy more camera gear, that would be a success to my plan.

Was I wrong about Sigg?

I received an email Wednesday morning from the General Manager of Sigg Canada. He had read my blog post and was sorry to hear that I had not had a good experience with Sigg water bottles. He asked for a phone number that I could be reached at and assured me that this situation was not up to Sigg standards and they want to make things right. He wanted to know exactly what problems I was having with Sigg.

Just the fact that I heard from him kind of took me by surprise. I’ve gone the route of customer service when I’ve had a poor experience with a product, and based on my past experiences, I’ve learned that unless you’re talking about a bike ticket item, it’s not worth it. I was planning on just throwing my Sigg out.

Mr. GM (I’ll keep his identity private) did call my cell phone, and was very helpful and understanding. If one were to write the book on customer service, one would just write down everything that Mr. GM did. It was a very personal call, and he wanted to find out why I wasn’t enjoying my Sigg. Never was the bad press mentioned and never was there a mentioned of me removing my post. This guy is good. This guy knows how to deal with customers. I think that Sigg should do seminars on customer service, they get it. Other companies could learn much from them.

I’ll be sending my bottles to Sigg Canada, and they will forward them to their test lab in Switzerland. They are going to give me a full lab report once they find out what the problem is. In the mean time, they are sending me replacement bottles, and even asked if I wanted to try out the new wide mouth bottle. As well they are going to send me some brushes, and tablets and various maintenance products.

In going through this little issue, I asked myself if I was too hard on Sigg. I work in a customer driven industry, as almost all industries are, and I know what it’s like when you have one noisy loud mouth and what kind of headaches they can create. I’ve lived through those ordeals. I certainly don’t want to be that noisy loud mouth, and maybe I was a little too forceful and judgmental with my post. Having said that, I did have a bad experience with my Sigg bottle, and I post good and bad reviews to help other customers make wise decisions. I’ve got no bent to run a product into the ground, and I don’t give praise unless I would buy the given product again.

In a recent managers meeting we had at work, we all watched the United Breaks Guitars video. I can identify. As a guitar player, as someone who flies (and sometimes contracts to) United Airlines, and as one who typically not too pleased with the service. In watching the video, I kind of felt like there was little bit of justice done for the average person. Going against an airline can be nasty and intimidating, even when they are blatantly in the wrong. After watching the video our president simply said “this is a new age with new media and that customer service more important now than ever.” I believe the average person has been given so much more power to get their voice out to the masses and that the power of the consumer is at an all time high. We must, however, be careful in using this power.

This is not done, and I have not come to a firm conclusion as of yet, but I will say this: Sigg as a company have earned my respect in regard to valuing a customer’s opinion and working to correct a “bad” situation. Maybe I just got a bum bottle? Maybe I wasn’t caring for it properly? I’m not sure, but we’ll find out. I might retract my harsh statements on my blog post and apologize to Sigg and apologize on this blog for my harsh words. I’m willing to do that. My opinion can’t be bought, but it can be changed. I might very well be wrong.

Stay tuned……

My Favorite Bike

One thing about riding bikes every day, you’re favorites become even more favorite. Between my LHT and my fixie, I think I could give up every other bike that I own. Not that I’m planning on it, but I could. Now, between the two, that’s a hard call. Obviously for rain, it’s the fendered LHT, as would be the case when I was making longer trips and need to carry stuff. But for commuting and general running around the favorite is whichever one I happen to be riding.
For the last few days, it’s been the fixie.

Until I ride the Trucker next, I can’t think of a bike I like more.

Sigg's Suck!

I don't care what anyone might say, I wish I hadn't bought my Sigg water bottle. These things taste nasty after not too long of time. Sad thing is this was to replace my BPA riddled Nalgene bottle. I've had Klean Kanteens for quite some time now, and so far, I've got nothing but good to say about KK. If you're in the market for a new water bottle, save your pennies and stay away from Siggs. Unless you enjoy highly dent-able bottles that make you water taste nasty.

Business Travel

Flying from Fresno, to San Fransisco. I had a noisy seat.

A little Xtra goes a long way

I finally got the Xtracycle back onto a bike. A cheap crappy by at that, but it is a bike. The drive train is deore and I've been saving those funky Egg shaped chain rings. I figured it make sense to have those on a bike that will be carrying heavy loads. They are the Suguino Cycloid rings. I need to pick up some longer cables to get the shifters dialed in perfectly, but I've managed to get the rear 7 sprockets taking their turns. I've got the front derailleur jammed at the center chain ring with the high and low adjuster screws keeping it there. 2 laptops and nothing on my back. Man these things are handy.

Cycling has always been about how fast and how far you can go.

Those are my thoughts, not yours.

Peace.

Canada Day Recap

Canada's birthday party, as my sons refer to it as. And it is. A great time it was yesterday. 142 years old this young little (well, geographically very large, but from a populous stand point, quite little) country of ours.

Playgrounds were in order. Canoe races eh?
Of course the guys with the maple leaf Canada toques won.

Lots of photographers out, shooting all manner of things. Birds,

other photographers,

more birds,

and people. I had an idea yesterday, to start shooting people I don't even know. Just people at random. I'm sure there may be issues in trying to sell these later without model release forms and whatnot, but for my simple purpose of practicing making pictures, I'm not too worried.

All kinds of weirdos out.

Canada's finest. - For those who don't know, those baggy pants were invented shortly after the doughnut. When the mounties first roamed the Canadian prairies, sometimes it was several hours or even days between towns. They needed somewhere to keep a multi-hour stash of doughnuts, hence the development of the "Mountie-pant." Even today, they are highly utilized between Timmy's stops.

This dude is a firefighter. Dude.

This lady was walking around for quite a while. She didn't seem to be part of any group or performance or anything. Just a Canadian nut-job who is trying to bring back the glory days.

This kid sleeping?This young man is quite bored. Sleeping I think. What's up with kids these days? Two different shoes?

Ah, this might explain. I found these little babies growing on the bank of the lake here in town. Quite creative I must say. I witnessed the mounties walk right past these, twice. My youngest son ended up picking one and carrying it around for a little bit. I noticed and immediately took it way from him and threw it into the lake. I'd hate for him to start wearing mis-matched shoes...

My little girly girl enjoyed much attention from strangers. Some how foot sucking gets all kinds of "ah, she's so cute" reaction from ladies. Young and old. Actually, she gets that reaction regardless of what she's doing.

This was the reaction that a sound-check-gone-bad from a hip-hop artist created in my youngest son.

And of course, we did lost of what little boys love doing, picking up rocks and throwing them. Into the lake, at trees, at each other, you know, just throwing rocks around. Good times.

Happy Canada Day!

Jeremy Goertz