Articles

· Tim's Bikes by Tim Fricker

· Bruce's Bikes by Bruce Wright

· Tire and Rim sizes by Bruce Wright

· John Brunow looks back and forward, respectively, to RAGBRAI and happenings around the store, September 10, 2003

· John Brunow observes a season of change, September 24, 2001

· John Brunow issues a bikes@vienna update, February 5, 2001

· Advice on purchase of recumbent bicycles by Steve Malone, February 5, 2000

· Products and happenings by John Brunow, February 3, 2000

· The basics of bicycle maintenance by Adam Ward, March 11, 1999

Spring fever at bikes@vienna

by John Brunow, February 5, 2001

Hello,

We’re back, new Web site thanks to Etan Wexler. We have a new look, new information, and new links. The website is in a “no-nonsense” format. There aren’t lots of gee-whiz graphics. The idea is to have it load fast and give you information with the option to link to photos. We hope you will enjoy this new format. Etan, thank you for all your work.

Beginning a fourth year

Time continues to rush by. This cycling season will be bikes@vienna’s fourth. This is a community bike store that encourages riding a bike for fun, better health, saving money, and saving the environment. Vienna is home, but we serve customers from throughout the area. We strive to provide personalized service. Our unique attributes include a wide selection of recumbents and recumbent tandems, cycling equipment rentals, trade-in policy, sale of used equipment, and sale of Kettler bikes, which feature mutliple speeds with coaster brakes.

We continue to have (and I expect will always have) people come into the store and say, “I didn’t know there was a bike store here, how long have you been open?” When you’re back on an alley that is going to be the situation. The store is not easy to locate, but I like where we are. I like it even more since we expanded last fall and doubled our available space.

We now have 128-A and 128-C. The retail space is 128-A and the repair area and storage is 128-C. I like the parking area we have in front of the store for test rides (especially nice for supervising younger riders). It’s nice for people to take longer test rides on the W&OD Trail which is a block and a half from the store. While we’re doing a quick repair we can suggest people visit Great Harvest Bread for a free slice of bread, Starbucks for coffee, or Yaz Café (next door to us) for pastries. Longer repairs may “require” chili dogs from Vienna Inn, tacos from Anita’s, or a Veghead sandwich from Fresh Fields. I’m one of those people that rides a bike so I can eat good things.

Barcroft and Easy Racers

bikes@vienna is now a test ride center for Barcroft Cycles. We have the Barcroft Dakota available for you to ride. I’ve been enjoying running errands around town on the Dakota. We have had several riders take the bike for longer spins on the W&OD and return with praise for the Dakota. Bill Cook, Barcroft’s CEO, has promised me that he’ll bring a Barcroft Columbia tandem over to leave at the store for test rides this spring.

The EZ-1, designed by Gardner Martin of Easy Racers, has become one of bikes@vienna’s best selling recumbents. It was only logical that we begin stocking Easy Racers’ Tour Easy. This long-wheelbase classic has an enthusiastic following in the recumbent world. Come visit us and try out the EZ-1 or the Tour Easy.

WABA bike swaps

The Washington Area Bicyclist Association (WABA) will be holding four bike swaps at bikes@vienna during 2001. The schedule is for April 14, May 12, June 9, and September 8, the second Saturdays of the respective months.

The workers get here about 7:30 am to set up. They begin accepting bikes and other cycling equipment from the sellers at 8:00 am and open for business to the buyers at 9:00 am. The fee for selling items at the swap is 15% of the sale price. You can stay around and talk cycling, go for a ride on the W&OD or go off to run Saturday morning errands. The swap ends at noon and you need to return to get your cash or recover your equipment.

If you have a bike which you would like to donate to a good cause then check with us to see whether Pedals for Progress (now Bikes for the World) will attend the swap. Pedals for Progress rescues bikes and puts them to productive use overseas.

A resolution

Spring is coming. It has to be. I’m amazed that, as a person who grew up in Iowa and spent most of the 80s in New Hampshire, I have become a winter-weather whiner. Northern Viriginia winters have been moderate in recent years and I’ve wholeheartedly adopted the warmer average temperatures.

Although I have been able to ride my bike back and forth from home to the store (big deal: it’s less than a mile), I haven’t been able to ride tandem on Tuesday with my friend, Bud Keith. The W&OD has several stretches where the sun doesn’t get to the trail to melt the ice or snow. Another problem has been Bud’s active social schedule.

So I have good intentions and some weak excuses for not riding more. Ces (my wife and, as Steve Malone calls her, Mrs. bikes@vienna) and I have started planning another effort to ride the C&O in August. We had planned to do this for our 25th anniversary over five years ago and we both came down with the flu. This time it’s going to happen.

What bicycling fun are you going to enjoy this year? Let us help.

Happy trails to you.