Opinion/Analysis

Streets are narrow in Amsterdam. Minds are not.  An atmosphere of tolerance prevails. That most basic freedom, personal mobility, is joyfully expressed in the ceaseless stream of cyclists gliding about the city.

This post by Brett Lindstrom, national/international sales manager of Speedplay, was in response to this recent story.

Lance’s impact on the bike industry is as controversial as his alleged drug use. With all the recent chatter and analysis, let’s correct some of the revisionist history being spun.

Sometimes, in a weak moment,  I imagine getting back into the trade show business. Then I  remember the deaf sound man and come to my senses. 

I slept with Yoshi Shimano. Airline computers, those prankster accomplices of fate, had assigned us adjoining seats in the sold-out business class of an Alitalia red-eye going from L.A. to Milan. It was more togetherness than either one of us would have preferred, but we made the best of it.

Birthdays are dangerous for impulse buyers. My most recent one found me shivering in the alcove entryway at Elliott Bay Bicycles in downtown Seattle, waiting for them to open. A bitter February wind was blowing in off the Sound. An empty sixteen ounce malt liquor can rattled around at my feet. When Bob Freeman rode up on his classic Schwinn Paramount to open the store, he seemed surprised to see me huddled there by the front door. “It’s not mine,” I said when he glanced down at the empty can. “I haven’t had a drink in over a year,” I continued, sounding exactly like the kind of righteous jerk I was afraid of becoming when I quit. “Stumbling around in a hopeless fog of sobriety is no picnic,” I added, hoping to lighten the mood, as he unlocked the door.

In its own independent and disorderly way, Berkeley is a great bike town.

I’ve heard it said that no two snowflakes that land on planet Earth are alike. There’s also a theory that if one atom in the universe were to occupy the same space/time the whole cosmos would implode.  The same goes for your retail store, which is your brand! It’s what the alien nation calls DFD or ‘Death From Duplication’ for those of us that are acronym challenged.

Can You Turn Less Into More?