End of Year Year Ender on a Bender SALE

You may have noticed that other than the – SALES & SPECIALS / USED BIKES / Yard Sale – pages not much changes here on the old blog anymore. Well that’s because of the never slowing march of progress, more info gets out quicker and easier on – the tweeter / facebook / instagram – and occasionally shouting at people in the street. But every once or twice a year, like our anniversary #earthdayisourbirthday or the always pleasing end of year SALE there is just too much excitement or information to share so we have to dust off the keyboard, crack our knuckles and type out more than 140 characters.

We are again offering bonus 30¢ gift certificates – now until the end of the year buy one for $25 and we will give you another for $5. Buy one for $50 and we will give you one for $10. $100 will get ya another for $25. We’ll go higher, just ask and dare us!

And we have lots of stuff to spend them extra dollars on! Balance bikes.

Fat bikes -including this carbon Heller on sale at $1,710

Bianchi Cortinas stretching from red all the way down to that classic celeste.

We have expanded our clothing selection for a while to include a bunch of jerseys, shorts, vests, thermal layers, and even a pair of gloves from the many pro teams that local great guy and multiple time Olympian Jason McCartney had hanging in his closet. Come check them out, as memorabilia, gifts, or for to help yourself look extra PRO.

Winter finally showed up yesterday and we have studded tires, Yak Trax, lights, fenders, advice and know how to help you ride through the winter safely and with confidence and comfort.

There are a few other things to mention like all in-stock Arkel bags are 15% off, and all in-stock bikes are at least 10% off until the end of the year, and we like you.

Ride on everybuddy, through the end of this year, and – always – right into #nextyear

 

 

 

New Jerseys: password verde

We are excited to share the newest coolest jersey available in the whole world!

Cobra Verde is a green coffee energy drink made right here in Iowa City. It is all part of the continuation of the coffee cart that was outside the shop for our first few years. The jersey is being manufactured by Podiumwear in Minneapolis and the jerseys are manufactured there, that’s right, not just made in the USA – made in the midwest! The jerseys feature other awesome local businesses like White Rabbit, Flat Black Studios, and even little old 30th Century Bicycle. The center pocket is custom artwork by 30¢ Wrench and all around good guy Donnie! Jerseys are $60 and you can order HERE through Monday. We will have some in stock here in the shop as well, but the best way to be sure you get one is to order from the website. And what’s the password you ask? verde of course

 

Works On Progress

One of our favorite sayings here in the shop is Ever Forward! Also, the Future Does Not Exist, which is enough to give you a headache if you think on it too long. With that in mind here is a saddle Brooks introduced earlier this year that the 30¢ Squad has been doing extensive townie testing upon this year. We give it a big thumbs up for your butt! Errr, well it’s a nice saddle that feels broken in right out of the box, and has some serious style futuristic retro style.

Like this 2015 MASI Gran Criterium. Gum wall tires and 11 speed?! Say okay, don’t be a square now. Like us. We switched to Square for our small business (okay – micro business) point of sale cash registering and credit card acceptance needs. No more paper receipts! We can take your Discover card or AmEx even!

Plus we got to clear all this junk off our counter.

And we got to get an iPad which is good for Square. And all kinds of other important bike shop stuff.

 

Upgrades & Orange

Our floor is orange when it is not too dirty.

So is this sweet old Schwinn Voyageur. The owner had us add some shine from Velo Orange and Nitto and a touch of honey from Brooks.

Another orange one, brand new out of a really small box is this Dahon Speed D7 in tangerine. This is the folding bike we sell more than any other because it is simple, strong, and, well – it’s orange!

In other upgrade news we have gotten in a couple more sets of Retroshifters, now called Gevenalle or however it’s pronounced – one set to help this tandem shift more reliably especially up front on it’s wide range crankset. The other set is for a Breadwinner Aufderheide we are building up, pictures to follow but a bike so nice gets it’s own blog post!

Another cool upgrade shifter project. We took off dead Shimano trigger shifters here and replaced them with these nicely machined thumb shifters from Microshift. Strong light cheap – pick all three!

Not orange but sure to make folks green with envy is this decked out Xtracycle Edgerunner with the full family package to haul kids and or cargo – plus a generator wheel powering front and back lights with a USB charger.

Last thing orange and upgraded we made some major changes to our helmet / clothing / shoe corner. Stop in and take a seat – we do! Carpet is also quite comfortable for naps we hear.

 

 

It’s New Stuff

Spring sprang, here is what’s sprouting in the shop lately. We are well stocked with generator wheel hubs and lights, including these 3 awesome Busch & Muller models.

Also just got our spring Arkel order whether you are looking for touring or commuting bags we have a whole bunch in stock.

We also added our first hitch mount car rack if you are into taking bikes for a drive?

Sunglasses from Optic Nerve, we got a couple pairs for you to check out.

And our clothing selection continues to grow, shop jerseys and shorts, now we have some rain wear in, plus a whole lotta socks.

Also lots of new helmets, and of course those Detroit Bikes A-Type, and we have lots of used bikes right now, plus a bunch of winter stuff on sale that won’t be of any use at all once it is summer, but might help once or twice more this spring, so come by and see what’s new!

 

Past Present Future Events

First up – future event! Next Friday, March 7th The NCJC Youth Off Road Riders are having a Spring Benefit and Hand Built Bike Show at the Terry Trueblood pavilion. Silent auction. Live auction. Pretty hand made bikes to look at from the UI frame building class. Hope to see you there.

Presently, just want to mention that our Swing into Spring Sale is still on, and while the stock of hats is gone and gloves are low we still have a limited selection of studded tires in 26″ and 700c. And for good measure our remaining 2013 MASI road bikes are 15% off.

To the past then, this unforgettable winter weather will soon be forgotten as the cycling season proper is coming at us. Last night Bicyclists of Iowa City held their annual Bike Expo out at the North Ridge Pavillion in Coralville.

Donnie and I loaded up a couple of cool bikes with cool stuff to show off and made the ride out to do just that.

Xtracycle Edgerunner, Detroit Bikes A-Type, Ironweed BP bags, Selle Anatomica demo saddles, a full carbon MASI road frameset, some Arkel stuff, Retroshifters, Giro shoes and more.

The Ironweed Dolliver trunk bag fits a 12 pack perfectly! We had a good time drinking a couple of those and chatting with folks, and the ride back was all tailwinds and smiles, like the Spring season just ahead.

 

Keep Your Warm

Riding a bike through the winter is about more than just about the riding you know. Winter cyclists navigate more than just icy streets, bike racks and locks get plenty chilly, too. Wearing a liner glove with an outer glove that is big enough to fit over it keeps your fingers toasty while riding, and pulling off the outer glove and leaving the liner on gives dexterity and takes the bite out of the air while you secure your ride.

After years of fighting to unwind stiff coiled cable locks we find that a U Lock is faster and easier and more secure to boot. But don’t forget your wheels, bolt ons or “locking” skewers let you rest easy that your bike will be just as you left it for that ride home.

 

Let Me Explain. There Is Too Much, Let Me Sum Up

Beautiful weather we are enjoying right now, which means a busy bike shop. Not to bore you with the details, but we have been repairing buying selling repairing upgrading and even downgrading bikes as fast as we can and trying to get out and enjoy the season on our two wheelers as well. The 30¢ Squad has been out on the roads and trails with appearances at the Gran Gable, Colesburg 40, Sugar Bottom Scramble, Chequamegon 40 and Culinary Ride just this month – whew!

We could explain to you the boring details of how we marked ALL our in stock MASI 2013 road bikes down 10% or even tell you about the exciting preseason helmet orders we are working on but there is simply too much so allow us to sum up instead. Here we go then –

The good, the bad, and the beautiful

Good:

This Schwinn Voyager was made in Japan and left for dead in a garage in Illinois but it is getting back on the road with some new tires a chain and freewheel. Lots of miles still ahead for that lugged 4130 cromo frame.

Bad:

An unfortunate encounter with a long leashed dog took this Bianchi Cortina for a tumble. Dog and rider are okay, handlebar not so much.

Beautiful:

We finished the Soulcraft build! A great mix of parts for a super smooth solid superlative cycle.

And last, Steve added a BreadWinner 29er frame to his family of bicycles built in Portland. His current mtb will be for sale as soon as the mud of north Wisco is cleaned off so if you are interested come take a peek!

Well there you have it, up to date! Upcoming excitement includes a probable cyclocross race start on Sunday, tech and trailer support for the Soilmates mobile garden that will be rolling through the UI homecoming parade next Friday, the barely known Gritty Brevet, and an All City Space Horse frame up build. Actually that comes first and need to get back to it!

 

How Do We Look?

The construction is wrapping up, let’s move on shall we?

Here is what we look like now. If a parked car is ever blocking our front door again, we are having it towed.

We built up this SOMA San Marcos. No need to go into the details when your bike looks this good but it’s Campy, Brooks and awesome all over!

Here it is again, and a bit of our new landscaping out front also. Just a beautiful bike! We also got new shop clothing in. It’s a big old box full so if you are looking for some new duds come try us on for size.

30¢ Squad, Oasis, Constellation Coffee (Wake Up Iowa City going national) Trumpet Blossom Cafe, Brown Wing Studio and CMC Construction. So local, so orange and green!

 

New Stuff

First up, our great BIG Stupid Construction SALE will continue through closing time this Saturday! 10% off all new bikes, take another 10% off bikes already on sale! So yes, the construction is almost done, the building is looking great and things are returning to normal. Much thanks to all of you who braved the noise dust mud and such to wade in here and see us!

So what have we been up to behind the scenes? Well, we have brought in a couple of new bikes from Marin that are sure to please most bike commuting needs. The Muirwoods 29’er is basically a steel frame mountain bike built for the streets. 3×8 drivetrain, disc brakes, locking skewers for the wheels and saddle and reflective decals galore. The Hamilton 29’er is the same chassis but with rim brakes and a 1×7 drivetrain for simplicity and easy cheap maintenance.

When we build the bikes we recycle the boxes by bike, always! Speaking of bikes, again, we are now Selle Anatomica dealers and have we the demo saddles to prove it!

There is kind of a line already to try a demo, but if you want to get on one give us a call and we can get you on the list. These made in the USA saddles have quite the comfortable reputation and so far have gotten good reviews from the few people we have sent them out under. Sadly demand has been so high we have not yet gotten to demo ourselves!

We also built another really nice generator system that was picked up so fast by the new owner we did not even have time to snap a picture of the finished project, so here are a couple of the parts.

Last new thing, our updated shop clothing is shipping to us this week! Jerseys and shorts this time, might see them by the weekend, early next week for sure! And just so you don’t think we are going all NEW on you, we got some used bikes ready and they are up on the USED BIKES page now.