Fiks:Reflective

Philly Cranksgiving 2012

On Saturday we stuffed the van with bikes and friends and drove 5 hours out to Philadelphia for Cranksgiving, an alleycat to collect food for Philabundance, a local food bank. 

Sunday, we woke up early, dropped off the FiksMobile to Tattoo Mom on South St, and rode down to Penn Treaty Park. 

We made the spoke cards, and just like the ones for the Spring Roll, we had a little fun with the numbers.

Though we planned to ride as a group, Kyle, the intern, and I took off, leaving the three behind, finishing in about 2 hours.

My friend Paul came in a little after us, and the other two took there time, stopped at a bakery for cake, and leisurely strolled in as we were awarded the "Best Out of Town Crew" prize of a Spodee Wine gift bucket.

Oh, and Kyle was hit by a car.  Some lady from New Jersey right hooked him without a signal and then drove off.

Fiks:Reflective goes [went] to Interbike

The Road to Interbike

It was a crazy couple weeks leading up to Interbike, the nations largest bicycle industry trade show, and and even crazier week of the show, so I never got the chance to share the fun with everyone.

The night before we left, we threw a little party at OTB Bicycle Cafe, a great bike themed bar in Pittsburgh, PA.  With a Gold Sprints setup borrowed from the Iron City Bikes Race Team,

What about reflective tires

 We often have people ask, "Why would I need reflective wheel stripes?  They have been making reflective tires for years."

It's true--tire manufacturers have been adding retroreflective striping to tires for quite a while and I don't really have much bad to say about them.  

The issue is, if you want to rely to reflective bicycle tires, your tire selection is extremely limited. At least in the states, there are only one or two performance road tires available with reflective striping, and they are almost always heavy and not what one would consider race tires.  Even if you aren't a road racer, narrowing your tire selection down to only the ones with reflective stripes is just that--narrowing your selection (not to mention that reflective tires often cost $10-$15 more than their none-reflective counterparts).

Fiks:Reflective wheel stripes weigh almost nothing and don't affect aerodynamics--exactly what roadies want--and since they come in 8 different colors, they can be as inconspicuous or striking as your want.   Plus, no one can steal them.