A Human Powered July!
First things first, here’s a big congratulations to everyone for keeping on pedaling through the cold mornings and evenings!
With a good set of gloves and jacket the fresh mornings and evenings are great for cycling. With some mudguards and a good set of lights, even a bit of rain can be enjoyable! And even better, the days are getting longer and Spring is approaching fast…
In this edition:
- Join us this Friday evening
- Funky bike gear of the month: Green Oil, Miche, Soma and Park Tool
- Follow us on Twitter
- News from the shop: looking forward to Spring and Summer
- Latest and coolest bikes
- Fantastic bike rides we’re supporting
- Bike maintenance training
- Bike events around town
Join us this Friday evening 23rd July
You are invited to join the Human Powered crew for drinks and pizza at our favourite Bar Fred in Carlton North this Friday evening. We’ll be departing from headquarters (562 High Street Thornbury) at around 6.15pm to arrive at Bar Fred (797 Nicholson St Carlton North) at around 6.30pm.
Please join us. RSVPs are useful for the booking but not essential (please come whether you’ve confirmed or not).
Funky bike gear of the month
Well. Where to start? We’ll start with the eco-friendly gear.
Eco-lube We’ve picked up the Green Oil line of lube, grease and chain cleaner. No petro-chemicals, no teflon, and fully recyclable packaging. Bill’s been running it for a few weeks with a really good result – check it at
http://www.humanpowered.com.au/wp/featured/bio-degradable-chain-lube/
ISO gear After months of angst, we now have a source for quality, affordable ISO taper bottom brackets. These are the Miche Primato and Evolight range. These bottom brackets allow you to run ISO taper cranksets (eg Campag or Suntour Superbe Pro) on your English threaded frame. Up till now we had to recommend higher grade Phil Wood or similar units for these cases. While we’re talking Campagnolo, more Phil Wood track lockrings also arrived recently – these are Campy compatible. More photos of the Miche gear will go be uploaded soon to
http://www.humanpowered.com.au/wp/featured/iso-taper-bottom-brackets/
Soma 1″ threaded track forks. The last available in Australia. In stock now!
http://www.somafab.com/
Park Tool We will be putting in our first order for Park Tool gear this week! A while back we had some problems with a Park TM-1 spoke tension meter and contacted Park in the States. They were SUPER helpful and we’ve been trying to get their gear into the shop ever since. It’s happening! Contact us to put orders in for gear you need otherwise stay tuned as tools hit the shelves.
Follow us on Twitter
The sheer quantity of bike news and info we’ve been getting is massive. We can’t post it all to our web site so we’ve joined Twitter to easily tweet out interesting and fun bike news. We are @humanpcycles and you can follow us by going to http://twitter.com/humanpcycles
Over the past week we’ve been tweeting about cargo bikes, dutch bike culture, the Tour and general gossip from the workshop.
News from the shop: looking forward to Spring and Summer
There’s big news to report from all areas of the shop. The upgrade of the shop for more and better product display in the traditional Human Powered style is in the planning stage and will be releaved over the coming month.
The big news from the workshop is the new workshop management software will go live over the next few weeks. The new system will allow us to better track the service life of your bikes and allow handy features like automatic servicing reminders via email or SMS. We’ll be able to do real time status reporting to you by SMS of your bike repairs as special order parts arrive, work is completed and the bike becomes ready for collection. We’ll be able to offer a loyalty program with savings and rewards for regular bike servicing. Keep tuned!
No promises on exact dates for any of these upgrades of course. There’s a LOT of work behind the scenes to do but hopefully these tasks help explain why we’ve been so busy!
Oh, and the big news from the workshop is “we have more bolts”. Paul got excited when a good selection of M5 bolts arrived today. Hoorah!
Latest and coolest bikes
In the past few weeks some new models have hit the floor including the Electra Ticino and the new Allegro W range (W1, W3 and W8).
1. We’ll blog about the Electra Ticino soon but for now check it http://www.humanpowered.com.au/wp/bikes/electra/
2. The Allegros are exciting because there’s now a full range of step throughs: the W1 24 speed derailler gear bike; the W3 3 speed hub gear bike; and the W8 with Nexus 8 speed hub gears, mudguards, front and rear packracks and front basket… sweet!
3. We’ve also done some hard bargaining for the remaining ’09 Kona Dew stock (52cm and 56cm models). Check the Dew Review for a more in depth approach http://www.humanpowered.com.au/wp/featured/the-dew-review/
4. We’re also looking forward to replenishing our Gazelle range this week. Call or drop in quickly if you’re interested in test riding any of the limited availability Gazelles.
Fantastic bike rides we’re supporting
If you’re already following up on Twitter you’ve probably seen some mentions of Bike the Earth. Bike the Earth is a group cycle touring around the World with a message of sustainability. We’re supporting them as much as we can including discounting a Vivente Randonneur touring bike, full Ortlieb kit, mechanical work and more. Check the trip’s progress online at
http://www.biketheearth.org.uk/ or catch them on Facebook for regular updates
And we’re right behind Tali, who’s headed to the Bike Polo World Championships in Berlin. We’ve brought his polo workhorse up to scratch and upgraded the brakes with a dual cable pull lever for properly balanced single handed braking. Ron D Swan in Castlemaine and Velocity Wheels in Queensland have generously supported the team too. See
http://www.bikepolo.com.au/berlin-2010/
Bike Maintenance training
As always! Training is the name of the game…
This week’s session on Intermediate Maintenance is booked out. But do not despair. Next month’s Introductory Maintenance session still has places and is a great place to start. We cover tyres, pressure, punctures and wheels which includes a practical component and we also spend a bit of time on safety,
riding style and ergonomics (including: seat height and angle, stem length and angle, handlebars and other adjustments).
The upcoming sessions are:
August: Introductory training Wednesday 18th 6.30-8.30pm
September: Intermediate training Wednesday 15th 6.30-8.30pm
Call us on 9029 6504 or email training@humanpowered.com.au to book your place.
Bike events around town
State of Design: Four Goals for Promoting Urban Cycling
The Edge, Federation Square
24th July 2-4pm $22
“In his presentation ‘Four Goals for Promoting Urban Cycling’, Colville-Andersen explains Copenhagen’s journey – then, now and into the future – towards establishing the bicycle as a feasible, acceptable form of transport. Colville-Andersen shows how other cities can be inspired by the Copenhagen experience.”
The Melbourne Cycling Forum will follow Mikael’s talk.
http://www.stateofdesign.com.au/Public-Events/talks/melbourne-cycling-forum
Melbourne Bike Fest
24-28th November 2010
Stay tuned as the Melbourne Bike Fest approaches!
http://www.melbournebikefest.com.au/
Check the Bike Fun Melbourne calendar for a diverse range of bike events around town at http://www.bikefun.org/
Darebin Bicycle Users Group (DBUG) is our local BUG. They are always looking for new members and offer a huge range of bike rides and events. Check their web site for how to join up and their latest rides calendar at http://www.darebinbug.org.au/
Other BUGS in the wider area are Banyule BUG (http://home.vicnet.net.au/~banylbug/), Moreland BUG (http://www.morelandbug.org/), Yarra BUG (http://www.yarrabug.org/)… join your local BUG and get involved!
Happy cycling!
Bill and the crew
