Fossil Creek Family Bike Festival

This Sunday I will be at the Fossil Creek Family Bike Festival. Leigh and I will pedal our bikes there and meet and chat with fellow bike lovers.

This event is put on by City of Fort Collins for our Bike month. A lot of other bike related activities are coming up this month too. If you are in town, please do stop by. Here is the event poster. Hope to see you there.

Bike to Work

Although it is not Bike to Work day here in Fort Collins, but it seems the rest of the country is going strong on this day. And NPR is also taking the opportunity mention the hand made commuter bicycles.

I guess Sunflower is out there this morning too.

Polka Dots

It has been a while since I last updated. I have been busy building. NAHBS and the San Diego Show just took quite some time and energy out of me, but I am happy how it all turned out.

I have finally updated my website with some of the interviews I did during the shows. One of them focuses on the Sunflower bike, and since the bike is so far away from CO, it will be a good record for future reference.

Just send this out recently to Illinois and I am happy how it all turns out. Polka dots on a singlespeed.

Spokes

What a nice way to end my week. Having finished a tedious project of modifying a Nitto rack, and on top, saw myself on the cover of Spokes Magazine. Spokes is a regional cycling magazine for the Mid Atlantic region. I read them every month when I was living in MD. You can subscribe to it too.

Have a good weekend.

NAHBS 2010 show interview

During NAHBS, I was interviewed by Marty for a DVD he is producing. Here is a teaser clip. I am on the second half in this clip. Can't wait to watch the complete DVD when it comes out.

NAHBS 2010

NAHBS 2010 had come and gone, it was a very quick week for me. We left Colorado early on 2/24 to attend an event at The Bicycle Escape where I got to meet local bike enthusiasts and some of my customers. It was a great event, lots of cool cyclists and lots of delicious treat too.

The next day, we packed up our rental van and headed down to Richmond, VA to set up our show booth. Timing and weather all worked very well, although setup took us a bit longer than expected. We were both hungry and grumpy after a long day and decided to just eat at the restaurant at the hotel. And this changed the mood of the evening, we bumped into Roger (the man who truly runs TBE : ) and Ann at the restaurant and ended up eating together and having great conversations.

Then the 3 days of show happened in a blur. Lots of great conversations with showgoers, exhibitors, fellow frame builders whom we only get to meet and talk face to face once a year during this event. Again, it took us a while to pack up and leave town. We had some dinner along the way and drove back to MD where a friend was housing us for a couple of nights so we can drop off the 2 bikes that belong to customers and 1 demo. The rest of the things were packed and shipped on Monday.

We flew home on Tuesday and were re-united with Lucky who was expressing some upset from our disappearance. I am still very stoked to have won 2 awards at the show. The story of the Sunflower bike will live on forever and holds a special place in my heart.

The year 2010

While watching the Vancouver winter Olympics opening ceremony, I cannot help but think about when Leigh and I arrived in Seattle back in 2002. The 2002 winter Olympics started shortly after our arrival. Fortunately we have friends in Seattle and they have kindly lent us a TV, a couple of lawn chairs and had it set up in our rental apartment. We spent quite some of our evening hours watching the winter games. Although we do not play any of the winter sports, it was a nice distraction for us.

8 years had passed and I almost cannot believe that we have moved a few times, lived in both coasts of the US and are now happily living in Colorado. I was unemployable (no work visa) back then, and now self employed doing what I love.

It is the busiest time of the year preparing for NAHBS and I am very much looking forward to meeting fellow builders again, introducing myself to show going enthusiasts and on top of all this - having a pre-show meet and greet at my friend's bike shop.

Chinese New Year and Valentine's Day happen to be on the same day this year. I wish you all the very best for the year of Tiger and a happy Valentine's day. I shall be cooking something different tomorrow after my recent shopping spree in one of the asian markets in Denver. I hope Leigh can handle it.

Have a good weekend.