Wednesday, April 18, 2007

We do know Jack........and many of the other Dahon Models

It must be Spring because we have received our long awaited supply of Dahon folding bikes. Yesterday a shipment of Jacks arrived and we started the assembly process.

So we now have 06 and 07 Dahon models in the store. We have the 06 models discounted by 10% which should make them appealing because costs have risen on the 07 models, but I have learned that color choices are important and the 07s have a number of attractive colors and many models feature the innovative seatpost pump. Yes, you pull the seatpost out of the seat tube and in a blink of the eye you have a pump to inflate your tires. It functions like a conventional floor pump. It does not have a built in guage, but maybe next year for that improvement.

Please come visit us and test ride a folding bike.

Friday, April 13, 2007

Bike Friday Tikit, Bruce Wright, and Spring


BruceTikit
Originally uploaded by bikes@vienna.
This is a threebee.

We received our first Bike Friday Tikit this week. The bike lives up to its promotional buzz. The folding is amazingly fast and the end product is compact. This bike will give Brompton competition in the folding bike marketplace. The Bike Friday promotional campaign positions this bike to appeal to people interested in responsible and convenient transportation. It should be successful in that appeal.

Holding the Tikit is Bruce Wright who helps at bikes@vienna during the week. Bruce is an exceptional person in my view. I appreciate his help in the store. I admire his work as an advocate for cycling with Fairfax Advocates for Better Bicycling. His service to the public with his participation on several county advisory commissions benefits us all. So this is a little thick, but Bruce Wright deserves it.

Look just behind Bruce in the big green planter......pea vines and spinach. Spring keeps teasing us with cooler weather than what we want, but it is coming. Have you planted anything yet?

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Coming to bikes@vienna --- Longbikes!

Underseat steering has been a weakness for bikes@vienna for the past several years. We sold Visions for five years and when Vision went out of business we didn't come up with a replacement. We are pleased to announce that in May we will have the Slipstream and Eliminator from Longbikes in the store for test rides and for sale.

There is happiness in Arlington these days. Geoff Steele has lobbied for bikes@vienna to carry Longbikes for years. Someone would come in to test recumbents and if Geoff was at the store he'd have them on his Vanguard which was daddy of the Slipstream. I'd point out to Geoff that I did not have a comparable underseat steering recumbent to sell the customer. Geoff would point out that I should.

Soooooo Geoff.........coming to bikes@vienna --- Longbikes!

Monday, April 02, 2007

The State of Repairs

Phone calls this time of year many times skip over the traditional "Hello" to "I've got a question for you". The question oft times is about service or repairs. Yes, we do service on bikes. Yes, we repair bikes. No, an appointment is not necessary to bring your bike to us. On a weekend you need to plan a little wait for your bike to be looked over and checked in.

After an exchange of information about our services then comes the question......how long will it take? Yesterday we were promising bikes to be returned a week from today. Just over a week is the answer now and that answer probably will get longer. Saturday, our day was primarily taking in bikes for service and repair. This is Fairfax County Public School's Spring Vacation so I expect us to have a steady stream of bikes coming in.

This is part of the rites of Spring. Beautiful days motivate people to act to have their bike repaired. Yes, it would be wonderful if people acted to have the repair work done during the winter so their bikes are ready for the Spring, but that does not happen enough. So we appreciate the good weather, the enthusiastic cusomters, and the business that keeps our doors open.

Yes, we do servicing and repairs. Our "promise date" is just over a week (today).