By Kevin Dwyer —
Retail
Salt Lake City Bicycle Company founder, Brent Hulme, is going for a long bike ride across the US, after selling the store to Trek Bicycle Corporation. Opened in 2008 as the area’s first Trek concept store, SLCBCo offers a comprehensive line of Trek products and specializes in custom fitting through its fit studio. After more than 30 years in the bicycle industry, Brent has decided to take a break, and make a coast to coast run with an old friend. He assures us, that when he is back in the fall, he will be applying himself to other bicycle ventures, likely with a shorter commute from his Utah county home. In the meantime, SLCBCo will continue operations at 247 South 500 East in SLC with the same staff and Trek offerings. Look for expanded hours, events and greater access to new Trek products soon!7 SOUT
Go-Ride.com is on the move, defying its gravity oriented roots by moving the 33rd South mothership up the hill to a new 21st South and 21st East location. The new location, across the street from the Blue Plate Diner, boasts over 5000 sq feet with high ceilings and open rafters (a bicycle collection, perhaps?). After successfully opening a Go-Ride store in Draper last year, near the Corner Canyon Trails, Owner, Scott Crabill, is excited about being located near the PRATT Trail and Hogle Zoo access to the Bonneville Shoreline Trail. Always a specialist in suspension, and now dropper post, service, Go-Ride will continue to provide custom tuning and suspension set up utilizing Shock Whiz analytics, combined with their own data driven algorithms and spreadsheet analysis. As SLC’s MTB specialty shop, look for the new location to open in early May, giving you the chance to easily demo a bike on the BST or get your bike primed for the Utah Gravity Series.
Moab is certainly in the running for cities with the most bike shops per capita, especially now that Dustin Dickey and Pat Scherer are opening Double Down Bike Shop. A veteran of Poison Spider Bicycles, Dustin is striking out on his own with a specialty shop that features 35 Canfield Brothers MTBs and shuttle services from Porcupine Shuttle. Double Down, which gets its name from a favorite Amasa Back-Ahab-Jackson’s combo of Dustin’s, will be renting Riot, Balance and EPO models from its Williams Way location, just west of the Rio Restaurant, on your way to the dirt jumps or Amasa Back. Look for the store to open by June, so that you can demo a steed or get your own some overnight service or suspension tuning.
In other Moab shuttle news, The Whole Enchilada Shuttle Company, operated by Kyle Mears, has decided to combine forces with Poison Spider Bicycles, who has been offering a limited shuttle service out to the Moab Brand trails. Both operations will be operating under Poison Spider Bicycles permit, which will enable them to offer a broad range of shuttle services, including custom routes and vehicle transport. Just north of the store, Scott Newton, owner of Poison Spider Bicycles has developed convenient auxiliary parking for shuttle riders and customers.
Manufacturing
The Rossignol Group, a leading ski and snowsports manufacturer, with US offices in Park City and Ogden, Utah has purchased Felt Bicycles. Founded in 1994 in Irvine, CA, Felt initially developed triathlon bicycles, later expanding to a diverse lineup that includes virtually every bicycle category from beach cruisers to MTBs. Like many ski areas developing MTB parks, in an era of climate change, Rossignol’s move counters the seasonality of the winter sports business, while moving into an adjacent market that utilizes similar composite construction manufacturing. Rossignol expects to launch a line of bikes in 2018.
Patents
9,561,834-Yeti Non-orthogonal Link Suspension
Peter Zawistowski appears to have had plenty of time to play with an X-link suspension and shock actuation system that he developed for Yeti Cycling, disclosed in the ‘834 patent. Utilizing 2 or more links in a crossing fashion, Zawistowski has applied this motion control, similar to how some flat screen TV support/extension arms work, to a variety of rear triangle and/or shock actuation applications. The links, each comprised of two hinged pieces, unlike a single-pivot, have the ability to control the wheel path in either an arcing or straight vertical path. With the multitude of configurations and claims, it may take some time before the precise and best applications for this technology are Yeti ready.
9,550,394-Reynolds Asymmetrical Carbon Rim
The ‘394 patent describes a new type of carbon rim developed by Paul Lew for Reynolds Cycling. Radically asymmetric, with one rim wall vertical and the other arcing, the rim design accounts for the differential spoke stresses caused by dishing a wheel to accommodate for the gear cluster. Interestingly, the patent discloses very precise wall thicknesses and ratios for drive and non-drive side construction. Because of these and the verticallity of one rim wall, the rims are most likely to be developed in a deep aero profile for time trialists and triathletes.
9,545,972-Williams Magnetic Clipless Pedal
Inventor, David Williams, has developed a new clipless pedal system that relies on an array of magnets to hold the cleat to the pedal. Observing that it is possible to twist magnets apart, the ’972 patent allows a cyclist to add and subtract magnets, also possibly with different strengths, to accommodate a wide range of user strength and experience. Marketed under the MagLock name and started with a Kickstarter, the pedals had a coming out at the recent North American Handmade Bicycle Show. There, inventor Williams showed off the unique float properties and flat pedal-style construction that makes the pedals readily street shoe compatible and comfortable.
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