The next time you notice the fresh air on a morning ride, the clear water on an afternoon swim or the impressive sight of an Osprey or a Bald Eagle, recognize that the activism of Earth Day is a big reason why you are enjoying those experiences.
The Florida State Time Trial Championship is a 40km out and back course held this year outside of St.Cloud, Florida. The course is utterly flat and mostly straight, windswept and fast. It is one of the few, regularly scheduled full length time trials that also offers Eddy Merckx and junior categories and a team trial.
My view is that making a small change to how I conduct business and run my life is better than doing nothing, and that if everyone tries to introduce small changes, these changes will take hold and make a difference, hopefully in time to prevent a dystopian future or one that is just not very comfortable. This is how I have arrived at doing what I can to make A-D Bikes a circular and sustainable bike company.
The last time I was around for the double loop in 2022, it was a balmy 40 degrees by the time the ride was underway. The Gatorade flowed freely. My feet and hands were warm. I wore a wind vest and arm warmers. It felt like early spring in Maine. If I had been asked to identify a single, simple, cycling-related and personal measure of how the climate has changed over the past twenty years, this would have been it.
Topview Sports does an excellent job of organizing and executing this event and Cornelia, Georgia, which is in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, is a very nice place to visit and race (it is also the name of our daughter which is really the reason I chose this event....I don't know anyone named Jackson).
John Burke is indeed the first bicycle industry professional that I am aware of to recognize that sustainability is the new gold standard for the industry (not the Tour de France).
The model year convention is the most explicit manifestation of N+1 Thought there is. What better way to sell another bicycle to someone who already has one than to use a date to signal that the latest model year is somehow better than the one the owner already has?
The problem is that when the price point selection is broadened, the consumer is overwhelmed with too much choice. A good example of this is the Specialized Diverge gravel bike.
N + 1 is embarrassingly out of touch. It sounds like the Schafer beer commercial from the 1970s that went “Schafer is the one beer to have when you are having more than one.”
The bicycle industry marketing machinery doesn’t know it yet, but the new gold standard is about sustainability. It is about how we wean ourselves off of N + 1 (unquestionably the most dissonant and wasteful marketing campaign in history).
It is much faster for you to buy just the frameset, the bottom bracket and headset from us and buy the components and wheels you want yourself (or use what you have). Of course, we can provide guidance on what works and we can source group sets and wheels on your behalf if you really want us too, but we are just going to ship everything to you and you are going to have to Build Your Own Damn Bike.