Friday location: Seven | Studio || 7:15 am – 9:50 pm
- Consult: I worked with D.D. today on a new cycling industry product that I’ll see prototypes of within the next few weeks. It’s an interesting project in the battery charger space. It’s a relatively new way of approaching this challenge. I shared thoughts on design, market, distribution, and some design parameters. The majority of our conversation centered on distribution options. There are only three distinct distribution systems. All have their benefits and challenges. I feel strongly about which will work best for his product. More on this later.
- Project: Shop layout and organization at Ride Studio Cafe. This is a big project that’s been going on for a few months. We’ve started the second phase of the layout but I’ve been moving slowly on it. It’ll be speeding up soon. Looking forward to getting it going.
This is a speed project in design.
- Project: Team Gift for the 2012 Ride Studio Cafe Racers road team
- Item: Double-walled stainless steel mug with the team and Studio logos.
- Collaborators: Rob V., Chantal, Stef A., Lily R., and Staci
Ride Studio Cafe is having a season end private party for the Ride Studio Cafe Racers’ team. It’s been an amazing year for the team. Somehow we ended up with 31 team members!
Lily R. rocked out and helped get all the cups we needed done with about a minute to spare. Everyone loved them.
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Thursday location: Seven | Studio || 7:25 am – 9:10 pm
- Design: Seven Cycles brochure: working on final edits to the text. Starting to eliminate orphans and widows; what a terrible set of editing terms. We’re still working on a couple more photos. About 80% of the layout is complete. Looks like we’re going to print next Friday. I’m going to start posting real images soon.
- Graphic Design: Membership packet for Ride Studio Cafe. This is an ever evolving item. We’re doing our bi-weekly reprint and assembly. Assembling the kits is a lot of work – and worth it.
Wednesday location: Seven | Studio || 6:50 am – 8:40 pm
- Mentoring: I’ve been asked to mentor a group of young entrepreneurs that are working on a sports product company. It sounds like a really interesting project. Bob M. invited me to be part of this project. It looks really interesting and the product on which these new entrepreneurs are working could be revolutionary in the human motion arena. I look forward to meeting the group and seeing how I can be helpful. First meeting is a couple weeks.
- Product Correctness: I’ve been spending a lot of time on product attribute accuracy. That’s a fancy way of saying “quality.” Although the word quality doesn’t mean anything; attribute accuracy does. It’s a fascinating world to me. Entropy is always present – and future. Standards migrate. Nothing is fixed in space. No standard remains standard. At least, all of this is true if you’re always working on improving what was acceptable yesterday. I feel reconnected to this challenge in a way I haven’t felt in a while. More to come.
I’ve been working a bit with a group of MIT grads on a really interesting project. I’ve been invited to offer some manufacturing and start-up advice to the team. I think it’s a stretch to use the word ‘mentor’ here, although that’s what I was called; they don’t need my help and there’s not really anything on which I can mentor them.
I believe I was approached, in part, because Seven Cycles does manufacturing, was a start-up – and still feels like a start-up, and works in the outdoor active sports market.
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Update | December 10, 2012 | Urban Hero Sports is ready for production of their first product. We’re meeting in a couple weeks to talk about manufacturing, logistics, and the possibility of me getting more involved in their work.
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Tagged as:
Mentoring
The brochure is almost complete
Tuesday location: Seven || 6:55 am – 9:40 pm
- New Hire: Lily Richeson started today! She’s my manager; good luck on that front. She’s already done some great work and I’m excited to be working with her.
- Definition: Sometimes people get confused, and maybe a bit frustrated, that Seven Cycles won’t make a recumbent, or a bike with some crazy geometry, or special one-off lugs. I explain the reasons we don’t do this kind of “job shop work” this way: we are not a prototyping house; we are a custom builder. When Seven talks about customization we are talking about the way the bike rides, fits, performs, and the bike’s graphics. We don’t customize aspects of the bike that alter the fundamental design elements that make it a Seven. And we don’t sell prototypes under the guise of custom; this would be dangerous. We don’t sell our prototypes. And we’re not a job shop.
George Howell Roastery | Photo: Rob Vandermark
Monday location: Seven | Offsite || 7:10 am – 7:10 pm – home work
- Field Trip: Went to George Howell Coffee roastery today with the Ride Studio Cafe crew. It was enlightening.
- Time Marker: Joe and John are back from Interbike today. They had a great trip. Lots of positive conversations with Seven Cycles’ retailers. Good response to the new rebate program we’re implementing; good response to our demo bike
- Design: Working on a gift for the Cafe Racers – the Ride Studio Cafe road team. We’re having our season end party soon. I think we’ve come up with a great idea.
Today I was fortunate to take a brief excursion to visit George Howell Coffee. I tagged along with the Ride Studio Cafe crew: Patria, Ariela, and Drew.
George imparting his knowledge and wisdom | Photo: Rob Vandermark
It was a great visit. Learned a lot. Met a lot of GH’s great employees. Met with George Howell and did some coffee tasting with him. Such a gracious person. And he has too much knowledge; I could have listened to his ideas all day.
We got to try nearly a dozen coffees, each one very unique. We tried a couple brew methods, too. George described subtleties I wouldn’t have tasted on my own. He was very frank about what he liked and didn’t like. It was a great learning experience. We’ll have to go back a bunch of times so we can better understand all the work the George Howell Coffee is doing to offer the best coffee.
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Sunday location: Studio || 7:45 am – 7:10 pm
The sunset on innocence:
Saturday location: Studio || 5:05 am – 8:10 pm
- Ride: Great Studio mountain bike ride today. With Neil D. this time. We kept it tight and constant. I was wiped after the ride. Best ride in a while.
Post title: Signals and Sounds. “And now the sounds of foresters and their chainsaws working nearby.” The bird mimics its destoyer. He sings of not what he knows. Jump to 2:29 in the video for the heartbreak.
