BTI ships new catalog • Wired magazine picks Spot Ajax Belt as fav' urban bike • Stiller Foundation partners with Bicycles for Humanity • Todd Hoffman leaves Spot Brand
SANTA FE, NM (BRAIN) Jan 24, 10:00 MT — Bicycle Technologies International is now shipping its 19th annual parts and accessories catalog. This year's catalog is 1,168 pages long and tips the scales at 7 pounds. It contains more than 22,000 SKUs.
BTI president Andrew Wright said the distributor is making a self-correction of sorts, returning to its roots as a supplier of service and tuning parts and tools.
"While BTI has enjoyed rapid expansion driven by the proliferation of component offerings, our focus on service parts diminished. We've aimed to correct this imbalance throughout 2012 ... The renewed focus is an ongoing initiative; if you need a repair part and we're currently not carrying it - contact us and we'll have our team address it."
BTI also has added some new brands this year, including Sturmey Archer, Zipp, Fyxation, Epic HD cameras, Handsome, DeFeet and more.
Retailers will begin to see their BTI catalogs this week via UPS, with full saturation expected before the end of January in the lower 48 states. Dealers who have not received catalogs by Feb 1st or shops that need additional copies for their service departments can call BTI's customer service department at 800-558-8324.
Wired magazine picks Spot Ajax Belt as fav' urban bike
GOLDEN, CO (BRAIN) Jan 24, 09:53 MT — Wired magazine editors have chosen Spot Brand's Ajax Belt as their "favorite urban velocipede." The bike is part of Wired's Gear of the Year feature. The Ajax is an aluminum-framed city bike with a Gates belt drive and 8-speed Shimano Alfine internal gear hub.
Stiller Foundation partners with Bicycles for Humanity
The Stiller Foundation, founded by actor Ben Stiller, is working with Bicycles for Humanity to send used bikes to developing countries. The foundation has donated funds that will pay for shipping nearly 1,500 bicycles as part of the Karamoja Initiative.
Karamoja is a landlocked region in northeastern Uganda with a harsh, arid climate. The Initiative will fund the purchase and transport of three containers of bicycles, tools, and spare parts to Karamoja. The effort is designed to empower disadvantaged communities with their own transportation and the means of maintaining it.
The foundation also has donated four bike jerseys to be sold online on the charity auction site Charitybuzz. The proceeds of the auction will directly benefit Bicycles for Humanity. Auctions end January 30th at 12pm. The first auction is for a Tour of Utah jersey signed by Levi Leipheimer. The second auction is for a framed 2011 Tour de France jersey autographed and worn by Andy Schleck and personalized to Ben Stiller.
Todd Hoffman leaves Spot Brand
GOLDEN, CO (BRAIN) Jan 24, 11:27 MT —After four years with the company, Todd Hoffman has resigned as engineering manager at Spot Brand bikes. While at Spot, Hoffman worked on the company's belt-drive bikes and other products.
Prior to Spot, Hoffman spent 12 years at Profile Design. Hoffman has designed products for FSA, Reynolds, Salsa, Felt, Serfas, Vision Tech, Arundel, Titec and PRO (Shimano Europe).
