Friday Location: Seven || 8:20 am – 12:40 am the next morning
Honey Color Tests
Project: Honey Bike colors. We’ve finally confirmed the 2013 new colors: Black Cherry and Twilight Blue. I’ve got a bunch of other work going on Honey, too: new colors, new kits, and a few new models. A couple private label projects, too. And Ride Studio Cafe has a special edition in the works. Get ready.
Project: Seven’s lead-times are getting a bit long; we’re at 5-weeks for titanium bikes right now. We’re super busy so it’s been challenging to keep up. We’re working on a few ideas to help keep up without working a ton of overtime. I’m hopeful we’ll be back to 3-4 weeks very quickly.
Thursday Location: Seven | Studio | Homework || 7:50 am – 8:10 – ride – 11:40 pm
Project: Framebuilder: We’ve been working on an integration process for the idea of every production person being, what would classically be considered, a “framebuilder.” I’m 100% in but that doesn’t mean everyone else it. And I understand some of the challenges with this approach. I’m mapping out some of the framebuilding dicotomies above. I’m confident that the upsides far outweigh the downsides.
Project: Edge of Reason: Too much to do – too soon. Not clear how we’re going to hit the December deadline. In the midnight hours working on a Kickstarter plan, website, covering the costs of everything, and a distribution plan. All new and all a lot of work that can’t get in the way of my day job. Thankful for Chantal’s help. Decided that December deadline might be too close. We’re formulating backup plans.
Project: ZDI: had a great meeting this morning at Seven Cycles regarding some arcane processes on which we’ve been focusing. It’ll be enlightening and heartening to track a few metrics over the next couple months; I know we’ll see some dramatic changes for the positive. More to come. Cryptic for now. One focuses on what one measures.
Quote: “Poor teachers want sheepish students.” This is from an NPR interview regarding the state of schools in America. Not ellquesnt but the point is true, I believe. Bad leaders want everyone to obey without questioning. It may be simpler to work with sheep, but dissent is where the good work happens. I love dissent. My problem with dissent is in discerning dissent for dissent’s sake. I think that sometimes, because dissent is more than tolerated where I work, it encourages dissent when maybe it’s not really necessary. Is it a contemporary oddly inverse Emperor’s New Clothes?
Project: Seven Cycles brochure 2013: Worked on a content outline. We’ve already got about 50 pages worth of content planned; unfortunately the brochure is likely to be less than 40-pages. John L. is pushing this project forward. I also looked at some ways that the 2013 website will overlap – and more often – be divergent from the brochure. Both projects are intertwined and separate. Cleaved is the word I’m looking for.
Graphic Design: Team Helmets for Ride Studio Cafe. I think this project is pretty much done for 2012. A few more to wrap up and then on to 2013.
Graphic Design: The Ride Studio Cafe sign got installed today! It looks fantastic. Batten Brothers Sign did an amazing job – and ahead of schedule; they tweaked the design a bit – and made it better than what I originally put together. And they were a pleasure with which to work. Thank you Rich Batten!!!
Interview: Was asked to talk about Seven Cycles and the way in which we leverage local manufacturing into global sales. Seven international sales make up about 35% of our total work. I’ve always enjoyed working around the world. I’m curious to see how the interview goes.
Project: Fatigue testing is plugging along. Bryan H. is pulling everything together for this latest round. We’ve moved the testing machine – Tessa – to a new spot. We’re setting up a computer that isn’t from the naughts. It’s getting to be high-tech. I think we’ll be fatigue testing the latest frame project tomorrow!
Thinking: Had a conversation today with someone that asked, essentially, why I start projects when nothing is permanent. That wasn’t a statement about projects failing – at least I hope it wasn’t. The statement was asking why I work hard on projects that, purely by the odds, won’t be around much after I’m gone. I’ve thought a lot about this over the years. Ironically, maybe, it’s one of the reasons I work so much. Everything comes to an end. No business lasts forever; this is so true in the bike industry. I remember looking through a Bicycle Guide Magazine from the mid 80s and counting that well over half the companies that had ads in that issue are no longer in existence. Anyway, that everything is impermanent is no reason to not do the work. This issue makes it more pressing for me. More engaging. If things just stayed steady once you got the flywheel going, that wouldn’t be very interesting, would it? It’s a lot more interesting to know that everything is very fragile. I take that very seriously: employing people, paying wages. People rely and expect security. Do all you can to make your thing permanent. And know that it won’t be.
Melinda Lyon – Paris Brest Paris phenom – is thinking about having a post-season New England Randonneurs ride and party at Ride Studio Cafe. I’m excited about this because we did a rando ride event – The Long Ride – this spring and she participated. Melinda gave a presentation about her experiences at PBP. It was amazing. It’s difficult to put that ride in any kind of perspective that I can really understand.
Anyway, I’m hopeful that we can make it happen. It’s definitely on!
What: A ride and a party
When: Saturday, August 25
Ride: Noon from the Studio
Private Party: Private
Why: A season wrap up for the New England Randonneurs
Sunday Location: Studio | Homework || 7:55 am to 8:20 pm
Rando bike: post-Rapha g-Race with a good cleaning by Matt Roy | Photo: Rob Vandermark
Project: Met with Matt Roy about the Super-Rando bike project. He just finished up the g-Race on my rando bike and we talked about a few tweaks to the 622 bike idea. I can’t wait to get my bike back, although it’s been great to have Matt riding it so we can make a better SR for him. And, he’s building up my bike for me so I’m sure it’ll ride better than new.
