Steve Frothingham

Steve is in his second stint at BRAIN. He was here at the beginning in 1992 while still working for a bike shop in Santa Fe, N.M. He wrote several articles for BRAIN's first issue and later joined the staff, eventually becoming managing editor and then executive editor.

After leaving BRAIN in 1997 he worked for several news organizations including The Associated Press and VeloNews before rejoining BRAIN as web editor in 2011.

He is based in Longmont, Colorado, and is an enthusiastic (and slow) road, mountain bike and cyclocross rider.

sfrothingham@bicycleretailer.com
/twitter.com/#!/stevefroth

All articles by Steve Frothingham

REI to replace Novara bike brand with new brand, Co-op Cycles

September 20, 2016

LAS VEGAS (BRAIN) — REI is replacing its long-standing house brand for bicycles, Novara, with a new brand called Co-op Cycles. The member owned co-op announced the change and showed a handful of new Co-op bikes at a media preview event Tuesday evening, prior to the opening of Interbike on Wednesday.

Posted in Retail News

Beehive Ride buzzes gravel roads en route to Interbike

September 20, 2016
VeloNews' Kristen Legan tackles a climb on the Beehive Ride. Photo: Meg McMahon

LAS VEGAS (BRAIN) — Clement Cycling, Eddy Merckx and other brands joined forces to host cycling journalists on a three-day, 200-mile gravel ride ahead of this year's show.

Posted in Industry News

NBDA develops 'Buy Where You Ride' program

September 14, 2016
The BWYR logo.

BOULDER, Colo. (BRAIN) — The National Bicycle Dealers Association is hoping to encourage web shoppers to visit their local bike shops with a new program called "Buy Where You Ride."

Posted in Retail News

BSX is crowd-funding a hydration-monitoring wrist band

September 14, 2016

AUSTIN, Texas (BRAIN) — BSX, which launched a cuff that measured blood lactate and oxygenation levels two years ago, is now crowd-funding a product with potentially a much larger market: a fitness wrist band that monitors hydration levels in real time, alerting athletes and others when it's time to drink up.

Posted in Product/Tech

Dealer association buys Barnett mechanics school

September 9, 2016

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.—The National Bicycle Dealers Association has agreed to buy the Barnett Bicycle Institute — the 30-year-old professional mechanics school — from its founder, John Barnett.

Posted in Retail News

PricePoint shuts down e-commerce business as owner moves on

August 1, 2016

RANCHO DOMINGUEZ, Calif. (BRAIN) — PricePoint.com, one of the largest e-commerce sites in the bike world, has shut down. Founder and owner Donovan Ivan told BRAIN on Friday that he has been planning the closure for almost a year after deciding he'd rather pursue other business ventures.

Posted in Retail News

UPDATED: Greg Herbold retires from SRAM, RockShox after 25 years

July 26, 2016

DURANGO, Colo. (BRAIN) — Greg Herbold is retiring from work with SRAM and RockShox after 25 years with the brands as a racer, product developer and ambassador.

Posted in Industry News

Staff Analysis: Recent layoffs reveal shifting priorities as well as cost cutting

June 20, 2016
Soft market and mergers contribute to industry layoffs, but companies continue to invest in e-commerce.

LONGMONT, Colo. (BRAIN) — A recent spate of layoffs across the U.S. bike industry point to a challenging market and an industry reinventing itself.

Posted in Opinion/Analysis

SmartEtailing lays off three following merger

June 20, 2016

BOULDER, Colo. (BRAIN) — SmartEtailing, which recently merged with Harvest Retail Marketing, has laid off three workers at its Boulder headquarters, company president Ryan Atkinson told BRAIN on Monday.

Posted in Industry News

Wholesale bikes sales down 6 percent through May; inventory up 19 percent

June 20, 2016

BOULDER, Colo. (BRAIN) — Wholesale bike sales were down 5.7 percent in 2016 through May, according to the most recent report from the Bicycle Product Suppliers Association. The trend was not promising, either, as sales in May were down 8.4 percent from a year earlier.

Posted in Studies/Reports

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