SRAM Tour of the Gila Stage 2
Posted on 30. Apr, 2010 by Jordan in Jordan, Pro Wrenching, The Gear Movers
Mara Abbott atop the podium at the SRAM Tour of the Gila Stage 1
A few weeks ago Jordan got a chance to shoot on down to the SRAM Tour of the Gila with SRAM Neutral Service Crew to help work the race, hang in the amazing New Mexico sunshine and get away from the office for a few minutes. Jose Alcala – the head of the crew down here, placed Jordan in the women’s pro race caravan. Directely from the source below:
Stage 1, had the women’s race climbing up and finishing ontop of Mount Mogollon, a nasty switched back climb with super narrow roads and racers from other categories riding down! A video of the men’s finish can be be found on The Gear Movement’s Facebook Page.
Working with SRAM crew was tons of fun over the last two days so here a few pics below to prove it!
The beautiful SRAM NRS Volvo's ready for a days work!
Great scenery outside Silver City, NM for the SRAM Tour of the Gila
Number 1 mechanic Todd Downs with the SRAM NRS crew!
Stage 2 brought a late start to the women’s pro race and saw 70mph wind gusts throughout the day. Unfortunately I was not able to grab any pics of this full on insanity, but girls in the race were walking up through the feedzone with their bikes in the hands flying over their heads! Here are some great videos below…
Fast Tube by Casper
Fast Tube by Casper
Fast Tube by Casper
Fast Tube by Casper
Fast Tube by Casper
Stage 2 saw some carnarge with some crashes and bad bad winds. Kelly took a spill just before the finish, which looked pretty bad, but the soldier that she is, she rode her bike back to the finish and finished the race! One of the more impressive things I have ever seen on a bike, go Kelly!
Reigning US Champ Meredith Miller before Stage 1 of the SRAM Tour of the Gila
Tonight we are building some of the new SRAM NRS Specialized Tarmac bikes for the TT tomorrow and going to an amazing restaurant here in Silver City, NM for dinner.
Online Communities and Marketing Power!
Posted on 27. Apr, 2010 by Jordan in Jordan, The Gear Movers
As The Gear Movement grows and flows we have tried to continue our quest to remain a part of the cycling and skiing community in every aspect possible. If it is attending a bike race, event, stopping by local shops, doing community or charity work or partnering with other like minded cycling or skiing businesses, TGM is all about it
Fast Tube by Casper
Starting a small company and figuring out creative and intuitive ways to grow your business through social media avenues is always an interesting challenge. The fun thing about it is that it grows on a daily basis and constantly changes. One day you focus on some fun Twitter games and posts, the next day you are plugging away with something on your blog or sending some cool emails to friends and family. The advertising avenues on Facebook have opened a few doors for us. To those that don’t already know, much like Google Adwords, Facbook Ads are the perfect way to focus in our your targeted demographic. With millions of users worldwide and the ability to choose which demographic to focus on, locally, nationally or worldwide, you can promote the heck out of your company in a heartbeat!
Another great way we use the internet to our benefit is by collaborating with online communities who provide different types of services to their members. One such online community like this is www.raceplan.com.
The RacePlan community was started in 2005 as a community for cyclists to stay connected, organize rides, race, share photos, stories and videos. This site has grown and grown over the last few years with more than a 100 members. The site not only provides users with the ability to stay in touch with each other but they also get great discounts on Gear and other benefits through the community’s partnerships. RacePlan has partnered with The Gear Movement to offer its members great deals on listing fees and the ability to unload their old Gear and Inventory’s.
Communities like this one show us the importance of having an online presence in this day and age. The days of local small clubs run out of bike shops are not gone but the internet and the online marketplace has definitely developed the need for something else; an online based community all over the world!
In closing, thanks a ton to our friend Kam over at RacePlan for helping us get this partnership off the ground and for the cool video plug above. If you are interested in joining the RacePlan community please check out their website and contact Kam: www.raceplan.com
Check out these ridiculously large icons Jordan found below and follow us!
A Visit to Arrow Bicycles
Posted on 29. Dec, 2009 by Jordan in Jordan
Jordan visits Arrow Bicycles from left Jordan, Chris Militello, GiGi, Chris Davidson
Just a few days after Christmas I stopped into my favorite bike shop on the East Coast; Arrow Bicycles! Owned by the two Chris’, Davidson and Militello, this shop is the brain trust of two highly experienced veteran’s of bike shop culture. Have you ever had that one boss that drove you crazy in the shop you used to work in? Well these two did, they managed as best they could but finally looked at each other and said, “Hey we can do this better on our own.” You put a drive to create a top notch bike shop, the friendly attitude of these two men and the need for a bike shop in the up and coming neighborhood of Hyattsville, MD and you have a recipe for success!
A visit to Arrow Bicycles, we are able to catch a sneak peak of the limited edition Arrow Bicycles Custom Hockey Jerseys, modeled by Chris Militello
Chris and Chris have been in business for a little over a year and a half and while their shop is not busting at the seams, they seam to be doing just fine in a terrible economy where bike shops are dropping like flies. Their reason for success? “Its got to be their experience and bicycle savvy,” say most people. Knowing these guys for the better part of the last decade I know that is a possibility but the real reason is that the Chris’ are just fun people! In a competitive market, everyone needs to be at the top of their game, but the Chris’ go beyond that. They will help you out with whatever you need, no matter who you are, and they will do it with a smile and some love. Its the love that keeps these kinds of bike shops going in hard times. Hats off to you boys!!
Never a dull moment at Arrow Bicycles, always joking around, but here to serve your every bicycle need, no matter what the situation!
My business partner Ben Duke and myself started this business about 6 months after they started theirs and no matter what the hardships where that they encountered he still told me to follow my dream. Militello happens to be one of the few people in this world that I can trust more than anything, and he has proved himself. With a little heart and a big smile, Ben and I have created a great business that is steadily growing and growing!
Chris Davidson, Chris Militello, Gigi and that great bottle of Scotch, here is to you, you guys rock! (A glass is raised)
PS Folks, if you happen to be in the greater Washington, DC area please look these guys up, they will take care of you for all your cycling related needs!
Boulder Cup Cyclocross Weekend
Posted on 04. Nov, 2009 by Jordan in Jordan, Pro Wrenching
Jesse Anthony From Team Jamis. Photo by Dave Wright
Just got done working for the Giant Factory Racing team with my buddy Steve Kiusalas this last weekend in Boulder, CO. We had a few athletes to wrench for in the pits at the Boulder Cup weekend races – Carl Decker, Adam Craig, and Kelli Emmett. The info came in kind of last minute to Giant’s right hand man Steve. I think he got word on Thursday that he would need to do some work for the team on the weekend and he asked me for some help! On Friday we had the team over to what we call the “Pimp Pad” – our N. Boulder house complete with 5 bedrooms, huge yard, 2 car garage, hot tub, and 12 point elk head positioned above the front door! The “Pimp Pad” was perfect for getting all of the bikes out of boxes, tuned and ready for a weekend of mud. With the recent change in weather from 30 degrees and 2 feet of snow to 60 degrees and sunny, it was bound to be an epic weekend of epic mud!
We drove The Gear Movement official car over to the race around 11pm at the Xilinx Business Park near Longmont on Saturday for the days activities. Parked next to the Mafia Racing/PBR crew we had tons of entertainment and great beer!! Kelli smashed it in the Women’s Pro Race taking a 4th place in a star studded field on a super muddy course. The bad ass that she is, she only came into the pit twice to switch onto her spare bike, while her competitors were swapping bikes every two laps.
Steve Kiusalas and Jordan in the Pits. Photo by Rich Straub
The men’s race turned out to be quite a spectacle with Tim Johnson (a good friend of our’s) taking the win about 1:30 ahead of the rest of the field. Adam Craig managed to limp the last half of the last lap with a leaky rear tire to hold onto 4th place! Two fourths in one day of racing is not bad considering the competitive field.
Later that night Jordan and Steve carted the filthy bikes back to the “Pimp Pad” and cleaned them over and over with PBR’s in hand!
Sunday’s race saw dry and dusty conditions out at the Boulder Res for the final day of the Boulder Cup. Kelli Emmett came through again with an impressive 5th place and no mechanicals or crashes on the day!! Adam didn’t do as well as the day before in the Men’s Pro Race finishing somewhere around 12th or 13th but Carl Decker came home to take 7th in a super fast paced sandy race. The best viewing spots were the massively long sand pit and the cool barrier section on the front side of the course. Sunday night saw some more bike cleaning and packing for Steve and Jordan as well as the team and a nice dinner downtown. Monday morning came all to earlier and it was back to the daily grind at The Gear Movement!!
Steve Kiusalas and Jordan in the Pits. Photo by Rich Straub
Tour of Missouri Recap From Stage 1
Posted on 07. Sep, 2009 by admin in Jordan, Pro Wrenching, The Gear Movers
Super cool Custom SRAM Red 54t Chainring for Nat Champ John Murphy
Today’s a wrap at the Tour of Missouri. We placed 9th in the field sprint (John Murphy – OUCH Maxxis). The win went to Mark Cavendish from the ever powerful Columbia HTC team. A Little side note fans, the Columbia HTC team is one of The Gear Movement’s biggest clients, yes we work with the best! First place price today was a Buell 1125R moto! How will they split that between 8 riders and 12 staff? Any ideas? I’ll tell Cavendish your ideas tomorrow at dinner!
Dan The Bicycle Man - Check out the sweet off center front wheel!
Jordan spent the day in the feedzone and hanging on the massive team bus watching the race on TV! Only one caravan was allowed in the race today and the duty of mechanic goes to the rad Eric Greene (OUCH Maxxis’ head wrench). After the race the fun consisted of getting the team bikes washed super fast! I can now say I am one of the fastest bike washers when I am in my element, no jokes here please! This evening consisted of dinner with the OUCH boys in the great dinning hall. Tomorrows Stage 2 begins in Ste. Genevieve about an hour and a half transfer from the hotel here in St. Louis. Our start time is 11am which means us staff need to get up around and out at the trailer by about 5 or 6am to make sure we get everything dialed in. Stage 2 finishes in Cape Girardeau!
Super Mechanic John Sessa from the Jelly Belly Pro Cycling Team
Nice thing about this race is that it is super well organized! The organizers did a great job placing the finishes within 1-3 miles of the hotels we stay in that night, making for short nights and long morning transfers. No sarcasm here but this is a mechanics dream!!
Another Super Mechanic - Vince Gee of the BMC Pro Cycling Team
Looks as though my responsibility for this race will be transfer boy! We have a new staff member named Adrian who is as Irish as they come. He is so Irish that I can barely understand what he says when he talks!! Its gonna be an interesting week of fighting for parking spots, water hookups, rooms, and electrical hookups in the parking lots at hotels all over the state of Missouri. Anyways I’m off to bed, its early to rise tomorrow for a fun day of the Tour of Missouri.
The new location
Posted on 10. Jun, 2009 by Jordan in Ben, Jordan, The Gear Movers
The new space at - roll up warehouse door - pre tuneup
We don’t want to jinx anything before it has happened but we wanted to let all of our fans and current clientele know that we might be moving out of the cramped basement soon!
Duke and myself just did our first tour of commercial and industrial retail locations around Boulder. For any of you who have never done this, even if you don’t have a business that needs a new location, I would recommend setting out on one of these trips with a realtor. Try not to tell them off the bat that you are not really looking for a space!
Hanging bike racks from the rafters - Ben, and Mike Dunn
We met with Kimberly Baldwin on Lee Hill Dr. looking at a place in the Holiday part of town. There are some pretty cool buildings over there, but the floor plans are quite limited. We next traveled down to a spot over on Old Pearl Pkwy between 47th and 49th. This location was super cool with huge ceilings, a bathroom and tons of space, but the location is just a little off. Any of you who have ridden the bike path around this area can attest to that…
Painting with Ryder Duke - he was awesome!
Next was off to a location on Walnut at 4745. The building is a three-unit space with the back unit being the old shipping dept of some former business. This place seemed to be a perfect fit for our biz! The property comes chalk full of bonuses – the old Boulder rail sign on the railroad behind the back of the property, a loading dock, basketball hoop, ample area for a grill, table and chairs, and premium location just off the bike path!
Our final stop on the day was a building adjacent to Graham Watson’s studio on Central Pkwy just off of 55th. Great location but the building just wasn’t right for our purposes, too many sectioned off offices and too little warehousing space. Hopefully we will be able to have some negotiations with the owners at 4745 Walnut and sooner than later we can sign a lease and move into the spot, wish us luck!
Nearing the end - painting the floor, phew bad, bad fumes!
Starting a new Business in an “upside down” economy.
Posted on 17. May, 2009 by Jordan in Ben, Jordan, The Gear Movers
The beginning of it all. The motherload from a great shop in CO
So when Ben and myself started to devise a plan to do an upstart new business in the early months of ’09, we obviously decided to put our knowledge of current affairs, the economy and our business degree to great use, hint the sarcasm.
Believe it or not, this is almost the perfect economic climate to create a new venture devoted to helping people “Move Their Gear.” We created a company where individuals, pro teams, pro athletes, independent reps, industry insiders, and independent retailers can sell their unused, used and even abused gear to the masses through eBay. With a slow economy and the lack of time everyone now has on their hands having to fill in spare small jobs on their calendars to make ends meet – enter The Gear Movement.
Pack it all in! A 22ft box truck full to the brim, ohhh yeahh!!
What we didn’t anticipate was the steady and increasing amount of growth we have seen in just a few months of business. Although the business is still run out of my increasingly cramped house in NoBoCo we are feeling the effects of the growth pretty steadily. Numbers are jumping and new clients are coming though the doors, a few days ago this meant a new phone plan (new iphones) for Duke and myself. Apparently Duke had been using the “free with plan” phone for about 3 years, finally we hooked him up!
The one and only - Mr. Ben Duke, uhh hows the mocha?
Another cool thing about owning our own business is that Duke and myself have been able to make our own hours and be responsible only to our selves, well actually Ben has a few other mouths to feed, but for the most part…
Heres to more bike rides and working towards what we call, “something cool!”
Long time no Talk!
Posted on 18. Jul, 2008 by Jordan in Jordan, Pro Wrenching
Yo Yo! I haven’t written anything here in more than a few months. Since the last, I have been traveling like a mad man as usual. We have raced in CA, GA, NC, SC, MD, DE, VA, NJ, PA, MN, IL and im sure there are some other states that im missing!
I got to spend some time in the DC area with the fam during May which was a huge highlight. Then we had a super tough week of racing in the Minneapolis area at the end of June, and crammed in between that were tons of small East Coast crits. Ohh I forgot, somewhere in there I dropped into my pseudo home – Boulder, CO for a little fun with the homies!
Currently we are in the Milwaukee area for the 2nd week of Superweek! This 18 day series begins the Chicago area and finishes up in Milwaukee. I am the only staff member here for about 6 guys we are racing around 6pm every night around 100km crit courses. Super easy racing and no hype so life is good!
The next few weeks are super busy with lots of Midweastern travel and a few vacation days in Boulder. Lata Yall!
PS: check out these links for some sweet footage of me working. These are some of our sponsor sites:
Our Team website, my bio:
http://www.kbsmedifast.com/team/staff_bios.php?id=17
Our Sponsor Park Tools did a little photo shoot, check out the pic at the bottom of me in action:
http://www.parktool.com/whatsnew/index.asp
Our Sponsor SRAM has started a new behind the scenes blog, super cool, tons of cool footage. Check out the videos titled: The bikes of Kelly Benefits, and the Kelly Candy Throwing…good stuff
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