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SRAM Awards $200,000 to IMBA
CHICAGO, IL (BRAIN)—The SRAM Cycling Fund has issued a grant award of $200,000 to the International Mountain Bicycling Association (IMBA).
This is the second award made by SRAM’s Cycling Fund, which was created on September 30, 2008. During the next five years, the Fund plans to award $10 million in grants to support cycling advocacy programs around the world that focus on improving bicycling.
SRAM president and chief executive officer Stan Day acknowledged the outstanding achievements of IMBA. “It is hard to imagine where mountain biking would be today without IMBA’s trail building and restoration efforts over the last 20 years. Mike Van Abel, his staff and hundreds of IMBA grassroots volunteers have a proven track record. We are confident that SRAM’s contribution to IMBA will be a powerful investment in the future of mountain biking.”
Mike Van Abel, executive director of IMBA, talked about how the funds will be put to use. “We are extremely excited about SRAM’s $200,000 contribution to IMBA. These new funds will allow IMBA to build more new trails and build them quicker. We will invest $150,000 to add professional staff on a regional basis to bolster local clubs capacity to build and maintain trails, and $50,000 in our new grassroots fundraising program, Team IMBA, which also funds new trails”.
SRAM expects to announce several more grants during the next few weeks. The SRAM Cycling Fund Web site will go live this January. It will provide information about the fund and track progress of grants.
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CPSC Issues RockShox Fork Recall
WASHINGTON D.C. (BRAIN)—The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, in cooperation with SRAM, has announced a voluntary recall of about 175 RockShox Domain 302 and 318 forks.
SRAM issued its own voluntary recall on these forks last November.
The recall involves RockShox Domain 302 and 318 forks with steel steerer sold for installation on new bicycles. Only those forks manufactured between March 2008 and October 2008 with dates codes 09T8 through 42T8 are included in this recall. The date code is located on the back of the fork crown and on the lower leg. The RockShox Domain fork was installed on Transition Bottle Rocket bicycles, and may have been installed on Rocky Mountain Flatline 1, Rocky Mountain Slayer SS350 and Rocky Mountain Slayer SS396 bicycles.
The steel steerer on the forks can crack, causing the fork to detach from the bicycle frame. This can cause the rider to lose control and crash.
One incident with a minor injury has been reported. Two other incidents without injury have been reported outside of the United States.
These forks were sold at specialty bicycle retailers nationwide from March 2008 through November 2008 for between $1,600 and $3,100. They were manufactured in Taiwan
Consumers should stop using bicycles equipped with these forks immediately and contact their bicycle retailer for a free replacement fork.
For additional information, contact SRAM at (800) 346-2928 Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. CST, or visit the firm's Web site at www.sram.com.
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Trek Concept Store in Brooklyn Closes
BROOKLYN, NY (BRAIN)—The Trek Bicycle Store of Brooklyn, New York shut its doors on December 31, according to owner Joe Dweck.
"The economy tanked us," said Dweck, adding that people weren't buying bikes. The store had been open for a year.
The Brooklyn store was Trek's first concept store in the state of New York. The store carried more than 300 bikes from Trek, Gary Fisher, Lemond and Mirraco, featuring 6,000 square feet of retail space.
Trek's official statement is that the company doesn't comment on store closings.
—Jason Norman
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BRAIN Web Site Sees Positive Numbers
LAGUNA HILLS, CA (BRAIN)—Bicycle Retailer and Industry News' Web site saw positive growth in 2008.
The Web site featured 30,189 average unique browsers per month, which is up 50 percent over 2007. Average visits per month saw 55 percent growth, while average pages viewed per month and average hits per month were up 72 percent and 43 percent respectively.
"We saw considerable growth, both on the overall traffic of our site, and on the advertising front," said Robert Torrico, associate publisher and Southern California sales for BRAIN. "We live in a now society and the daily news updates that our editorial team provides definitely serves that purpose for our readers and advertisers. I think a lot of companies have recognized our reach and are taking advantage of the tremendous potential return on their Web advertising investment. While the web has grown for us, our print side remains very strong."
BRAIN hopes to grow these numbers even further in 2009 with the upcoming launch of its very own blog. Keep it tuned to BRAIN for more details.
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Veltec Launching its Own Magazine
BOULDER, CO (BRAIN)—Veltec Sports, a distributor and marketer of cycling brands including Colnago, Sidi, Descente, Shebeest, Prologo, Enervit and Vredestein is launching the first of many 2009 retail support initiatives with a new issue of Veltec Magazine, arriving at Independent Bike Dealer (IBD) partners in upcoming weeks.
Veltec Magazine is a full-color print publication that showcases the legendary performance of its family of brands through a compelling mix of lifestyle content and new product for 2009. The magazine will be current through the summer, season, and is distributed only through Veltec dealers.
Top-notch cycling journalists and photographers contributed to the publication, including award-winning author Jason Sumner and photography by Cor Vos. Veltec has published a similar magazine for dealers in Europe for the past 10 years, and the results of that effort encouraged chief executive officer and publisher Manfred Krikke to launch the new title. “Given that our roots are planted firmly on both sides of the ocean, we decided it was time to introduce Veltec Magazine to North America,” Krikke said.
Veltec also hired Verde PR & Consulting as its agency of record, effective immediately. Verde will offer strategic media and public relations, as well as social Web communication services for Veltec Sports in the cycling, outdoor, lifestyle and health and wellness markets.
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BH/Pivot Launches 2009 Demo Tour
TEMPE, AZ (BRAIN)⎯The BH/Pivot Demo truck is hitting the road with its expanded fleet of bikes. The 35-foot trailer will carry all the 2009 road bikes from Spain’s BH Bikes and all the 2009 mountain bikes from Pivot.
The demo tour kicked off on January 4 in Plano, Texas. The rest of the year it will travel to festivals, races, dealer demos and tech clinics across the nation.
“The demo tour is a huge for both brands and our dealers. Consumers want to ride before they buy and this gets thousands of people on our bikes,” said Adam Vincent, BH/Pivot sales and marketing specialist. “Dealers love it because the results are immediate.”
The 2009 demo program is again led by BH/Pivot technical representative Jason Mead. Mead drove the demo trailer some 38,000 miles last year, set up thousands of people on test bikes and gave hundreds of tech clinics.
This weekend the BH/Pivot Tour hits Cycle Progression in Austin, Texas and on to Chainwheel in Little Rock, Arkansas. BH/Pivot will continue to update the schedule as the season progresses. For updates, check out www.bhbikes-us.com or www.pivotcycles.com.
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The 5th Spot
Chuck Smith (left) and Ray Keener (right) were in San Diego recently shooting three videos for their Ready to Pedal DVD.
There's a full-page ad in the January BRAIN that introduces the program to retailers. These three clips will appear on a Demo CD-ROM that will be poly-bagged with the February BRAIN. The high-resolution product ships March 1.
Check out the first three of the 50 videos that will make up the Ready to Pedal DVD program. Click on link.
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BRAIN Sales and Training Guide Online
LAGUNA HILLS, CA (BRAIN)—Be sure to check out BRAIN's Sales and Training Guide 2008 with tips on selling products from bikes and apparel to wheels and saddles.
Retailers can download it, print pages for distribution, send staff to go online, read the various sections and more.
Click on link to check it out.
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NiteRider Lays Off Three Including Gresmer
SAN DIEGO, CA (BRAIN)—NiteRider has released three full time employees including president Jack Gresmer, who served in that capacity since March 2005.
NiteRider's director of engineering Ed Allen and mechanical engineer Tim Martinson were also let go, according to founder and chief executive officer Tom Carroll.
After a four year absence NiteRider founder Tom Carroll decided to come back as chief executive officer last September, moving Ed Andrew to chief operating officer.
Then on December 17, Carroll fired Gresmer along with two out of three of the company's engineering team. NiteRider employs 30-35 at its San Diego office.
"He told us the reason was a 'bad economy,'" Gresmer said. "During Tom’s absence NiteRider had four years of record growth and profits. It doesn’t make a lot of sense but it’s done."
Carroll didn't dispute that sales were up overall for 2008, 15 percent to be exact. However, Carroll said that the last three months of 2008 sales were down.
Carroll founded NiteRider in the mid-1980s, when he owned a construction company. An avid surfer, Carroll devised a lighting system he could wear on a white water helmet. The "ride" in NiteRider comes from riding waves, though it translates to cycling. Carroll also owns NiteRider Dive Lights International.
Carroll said the lay offs had to do with not only a souring economy, but the fact that Carroll is now focusing his efforts on bike lights, not dive lights.
"My strengths are engineering," Carroll said. "I'm a very creative person."
With Gresmer's departure, NiteRider sales manager Mike Ely will become the company's figurehead at tradeshows and events, Carroll said. Ely has been with NiteRider for nine years.
Gresmer said that he's still looking for another job in the bicycle industry. He said all the industry experience he has "speaks for itself."
Gresmer can be reached at jgresmer@aol.com.
—Jason Norman
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The 5th Spot
"Perfect amount of golf ... Tiger doesn't need to worry."
—Lance Armstrong in a recent Twitter about playing six holes of golf on the Big Isle. Armstrong is in Hawaii training for his first comeback race—the six-stage Tour Down Under that starts Jan. 20 in Australia.
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