Boulder – The Town of Contradictions
Posted on 14. Feb, 2010 by Diesel in The Gear Movers
The Prius and the Bike, Ask Nick Ranno which "Green" path he travels by most
Boulder – the town of contradictions. Don’t get me wrong, this place rocks – there is a reason I haven’t moved back to Georgia. This blog is not aimed at anyone, just everyone in Boulder that inspired these thoughts. So I have to come up with a blog for work? The latest body art is out due to today’s Facebook – iPhone – hey lets email Ranno’s mom this photo – type of connections I tend to find myself at the loosing end of more times than I can care to remember. So what to blog about? Good question when I am not a blogger to begin with, but let’s see… I do ride my bike to work everyday = a commuter? Whatever the name, I am constantly getting passed by cars and staring at their bumpers – rain or shine. Lately, the oddest image continues to make its way through the brown snow-covered bumpers of countless Toyota Prius’s and alternative fuel vehicles alike that determine I am at fault for their mid-text near misses. But first, lets get back to the beacon of these bumpers. “Save the rainforest,” “Go Green,” “My other car is a bicycle,” “My other car is an airplane,” “My other car is a helicopter” – really?
What does it take to build a Prius, I think we are looking at it!
Anyway, when I am fortunate enough to get a visual of my verbal-assault target of such a vehicle with such a bumper tag, and they are rocking a tie die and dreads and blaming my presence in the intersection, which at this point has been granted by a green light, for their failure to notice that the light they are sitting under is now red – well they are getting the best I have to offer in 4 letter cocktails at happy hour. First off hommie, I know your vitamin cottage hourly wage didn’t pay for that Prius, and second, I’m practicing what YOUR CAR preaches – simply because I enjoy a good bike ride and saving some money, not because I care to tell the world about my beliefs on my seat post. I’m just doing my thing, going from point A to B, minding my own business, but you, well, by now you know what I think of you. Next time you pass the buck to a bike, take a look at your set up first.
I don't think many words are needed to describe this party with a Tesla, Prius, and Touareg
Editors Note: Nick Ranno is one of our longest standing employees at The Gear Movement. He has been working on a full body tattoo from our friends over at Bolder Ink, hence his references at the begining of this blog. Nick rides his one of the bikes in his wealthy stable to work everyday no matter what. We have seen him ride to and from work in blizzard conditions, are you as amazing as he is? Check out the World Commute website by CatEye to log your commuting miles!
New Additions to our Shop
Posted on 28. Jan, 2010 by Jordan in For Sale, The Gear Movers
Jack Bissell shows off his new Crosskate Neck Breaking All Mountain Skates, yikes!
Not only have we been having tons of fun at the shop posting our clients cool Gear but we have added some new employees and some new features in our rad warehouse. Isnt it every grown persons dream where they can work in a cool environment that pushes them to have fun on the job? Well we try to do that here although we do have a custom pool table that has remained unused in the last few months, what a shame. We actually need to have the table re-leveled, does anyone know of someone in Boulder, CO who could do that for us?
New additions to the shop include our employee Mr. Jack Bissell. He hails to us from the great Full Cycle bike shop in town and has so far stated “That he fits into our little operation here just perfectly.” When asked what his favorite part of working at TGM, while posting cool things like the Crosskate Inline All Mountain Neck Breaking Skate (we are still trying to understand these things, check the video below) he states: “The great level of respect everyone has for each other here and the chance to check out cool ‘Foot Hummers’ at TGM.”
Fast Tube by Casper
Well these skates are truly cool, check out the auction and win them for yourself in our eBay store: Crosskate Inline Backcountry All Mountain Ski Skates
Our groovy unused custom pool table and new frame and wheel racks - full!
Along with the addition of Jack, we have added new storage in our “Pool Table” room for the overwhelming inventory of frames and wheels we have been recieving from our consignors recently. As we travel into the new year we are starting to sell through our once large Ski, Skate and Snowboard inventory and start to focus more on the bicycle aspect of the business. A note to summer – “You can’t come soon enough!”
A new addition - more wheels and wheel racks!
Peace out from The Gear Movement, we are going to go try these neck breaking crosskates, but only after we update our health insurance plans!
The First Day of Flying
Posted on 15. Jan, 2010 by Elizabeth in The Gear Movers
It’s the first of the new year, and the first day of flying.
Elizabeth Speedgliding Southside
Awhile back I decided that it would be a good idea to start speedflying. Of the many ways I’ve been exposed to flight and free-fall – B.A.S.E., skydiving, hang-gliding, paragliding, speedflying, wingsuiting, you name it – I’ve thought that paragliding seemed, well, the most achievable and intriguing for me. And, for the lack of a better word, fun. So, after many months of saving, my idea of paragliding evolved into the decision to buy my own Ozone XT 16 meter Speedglider.
Northside Launch, Elizabeth is about to take off!
(By the way, a speedglider is different than a paraglider. The wing is designed differently, and it has a much smaller glide ratio. As opposed to a paraglider, I will sink out faster, and as the name would imply, be flying at a higher speed, but the idea is somewhat the same.)
Point of the Mountain Southside, Glider Time!
For the New Year’s weekend, I headed to Utah’ s Point of the Mountain, with expectations of more forgiving terrain than here in Boulder and high hopes of steady wind. Not so early on the first of the year, I confronted the South Side gradually working my way up and down the hill.. The soft, gentle wind wasn’t exactly ideal, so I spent the morning skipping down the hillside with 20 or 30 foot gaps in steps. This turns out to be not as much fun as you’d think, and ultimately left me frustrated. As the day progressed, the wind died down, and it ended up being less about flying and more about getting vehicles out of the snow drifts, as one care after another piled into snow drifts.
Arms back, run hard, don’t hesitate, and commit. Those are the rules as I discover flight.
Gliding the Southside of Point of The Mountain
Despite the poor conditions on the first day, I’m back again for more. I plan my course, looking from the top wind sock to the bottom, aiming into the wind. My glider inflates above me, and I run as hard as I can towards the edge of the hill. Instead of tumbling down through weeds and snow, I’m lifted away from the earth and nearly weightless in the air. Sitting back, flying steady and relaxed, before I hit the ground running, bringing my brakes into my side, slowing me to a complete stop.
Acro-Gliding the Southside line up
On just my fourth flight, the winds switch direction and after a quick lunch, I find myself hiking up a seemingly vertical mountain to a 750-1000 foot launch. At exit, I’m quickly popped off the ground and sent soaring, higher than any of us expected! My lessons hadn’t taken me as far as soaring yet, but this gives me a lot of time to get comfortable and fly it out, overlooking Salt Lake City, making several passes at the mountain before I finally lost altitude. Awesome!
The Line up, all of us on the Southside, pretty sweet!!
In three days, I completed 14 flights, which left me ready for more and excited to take on more challenging sites. Needless to say, it’s a great way to start a new year with a new adventure!
Jesse and Matt about to push me off without the Glider, not quite ready!
My First Blog Ever…
Posted on 18. Dec, 2009 by Ben in Ben, Nicole
Now Presenting, the one, the only, Mr. Duke!
So, I’ve never blogged nor do I Facebook often, but my business partner Jordan insisted I join the 21st century…
What does one blog about? I’ll just keep it short and sweet.
2009 has been a fast paced, crazy year. My wife Nicole and I received a new addition to the Duke family, Canin. She is the cutest girl in Boulder. She just turned 1 in October. Our son, Ryder, just turned 4. So you can only imagine how busy that part of my life has been.
Our newest addition to the Duke Family, Canin, just look at those cheeks!
My other part of life? New business… The Gear Movement. An exciting and stressful time it has been. Jordan and I started our eBay business selling new and used sporting goods back in March.. We have grown beyond our greatest expectations, which is simply awesome! Needless to say, we’ve been busy – and we want to thank all of you who support us – you all rock!
What does Spiderman, aka Ryder Duke do during his downtime?
So what now? 2010! Should be another fun packed, work filled, kid screaming year – and I hope to find some time to ride my bike along the way.
Happy Holidays!
The Employees of The Gear Movement
Posted on 03. Dec, 2009 by Jordan in The Gear Movers
Part of the TGM crew showing their fun side!! Photo by Ben Duke
Did a small photo shoot with some of the employees at our shop yesterday! Part of owning a small business and trying to keep things interesting around here is doing fun stuff! Don’t get us wrong, we don’t take the entire shop to the amusement park on a regular basis but sitting behind a computer and posting Gear on eBay can get a little old sometimes.
Matt showing his best "Blue Steel" impression! Photo by Ben Duke
With an impending snow storm coming in today that dropped a good 5 -6 inches of the powdery white stuff we thought it would be a great time to get out and do a little photo shoot. Pictures are courtesy here by Ben Duke – our fearless leader who takes some amazing shots. Ben has a great understanding of light and how to get the right angles; Jordan typically takes Ben’s great shots and distorts them or ruins the lighting!
Elizabeth - obvously from the "wesstsidde" Photo by Ben Duke
After Ben took these rad photos it was back to work and business as usual, but ay know – we have fun here! That is the most important part of our business. We are here to post your Gear on eBay, so let us know if we can help you move your old inventory – we have fun doing it, and you will definitely have fun getting the checks in the mail! Cheers to all from the crew at TGM!
The paparrazzo is looking for Mr. Ranno! Photo by Ben Duke/Papparrizzi
Elizabeth and Matt showing their "Gangstah" side!
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!
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