Pocket Knives

Today I was packing up a decade old daily companion for a trip back to its makers for a refresh.

9.19 Knives WP-1140536This had me thinking about my pocket knives, and other tools that I carry every day.  There has been a knife in my pocket since I was about 12 years old.  They are one of those things that you will use throughout the day every day if you have one with you.  Having carried a huge variety, vintage, new, folding, fixed, cheap and expensive I have formed my own set of biases.  There is a place for cheap knives, in general though you get what you pay for, and if you are going to use it every day why not have something well made that will last you decades or more?  Really with a budget of a nickel a day and planning for a decade you end up with about $180 to spend.  I have thought about bringing knives into the online shop, but held off.  There has been a trend towards all manner of “camping” gear entering the bikeosphere, us included.  I try to bring things that a different and better in some way than what most people in the cycling or fashion community may be familiar with.  As cool as French pocket knives and Swedish axes can be, there are plenty of other fantastic options out there.

So, is there any interest out there in knives that I believe offer a better solution for the cyclotourist?  Tools that bring everyday function to the occasional camper maximizing versatility for the weight?  The term curator is overused these days, but I could help you cut to the chase and pick tools that I have personally used and put to the test over the years.

So what is in my pocket while the William Henry is out?  This is the knife that is usually riding in my Docena, Bark River Pro Scalpel (first production for the collector nerds)

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Local Advocacy

Our town is really lucky to have some passionate bicycle advocates.  Aside from making a huge push for great, and ever improving, infrastructure, they have also formed the Ventura Bike HUB.  The HUB is a pure community organization, mechanics and advocates that come together to help the community fix and learn to fix their bikes.  The mission has been growing and their work is the fuel for our local transporational cycling scene.  One of their bigger challenges has been finding a steady storage and working location.  In the past few months they were able to secure a space with the City Housing Authority that will serve them and the community well.  This past Sunday I was lucky to help them with their move from the temporary location to the new space.

9.8 advocacy wp-1020842A fully bike powered and volunteer driven event.  There new space is awesome and will get them the exposure they need to grow.

9.8 HUB Move-1020857The next steps in local advocacy have been a move up to organizing at a County level.  The City of Ventura has been doing pretty darn good, as have some of the other 10 cities in our county.  The trick will be learning from each other and developing tools that can be used to improve not just all 10 cities but the unincorporated portions of the county as well.  There is no reason why Ventura County as a whole should not be setting the standard for human-powered transport.  We have tight-knit communities, industry and year round awesome weather.

As a Coalition there has been one official meeting.  We all came away inspired, and with a few questions to answer as we define our path.  The first is if we should be Bicycle only or “Active Transportation”?  After that comes the volunteer based efforts of setting up Web Pages, Mission statements, by-laws, organizational structures, and pushing on to things like County wide maps and governmental activism.  All of this would never have made it this far if not for that hard work of Rachel at VCCool, Thank You.

I am reaching out to all of you that have ridden this path before.  Any advice or experiences you would like to share are welcome.  We will need lots of help, everything from the above mentioned web designers to fundraising, shops and people who work within the city and county infrastructure.  The next meeting will be Thursday September 26 6:30 P.M. at the Fillmore High school.  I hope to see some of you there.

C-Line For Reals

We did the poll, the response was good, the cool folks at Soma saw value and the C-Line tires are going to happen, better, they are happening this year

9.3 Cline WP-1140428The tire is loosely a 700c version of the fantastic and popular B-Line series of tires.  These take the well loved Panaracer Pasela and kick it up a notch.  The basic guidelines are 38mm wide with the slightly narrower and thinner tread from a 35 pasela, folding bead, Supple casing, no puncture strip (not really needed) and colors.  This first run will have both the Tera cotta and Black with Tan sidewalls.  This tire is getting a new mold since the existing 37mm pasela is no more and the 35 was not up to the job.  Current status is “in production”.  Once these are on a container and heading this way I will have the green light to start a pre-sale.

Without the awesome team at Merry Sales / Soma Fabrications this tire would have never happened.  My persistence and their willingness and capital are making it real.  Things like tire molds and importing are what they do best.  They see the upcoming swing  in growth of out niche and are putting the money into it on the front end.  The best we we can all say thank you will be to buy, sell and ride the hell out of these once they get here.

I will keep you all posted as things progress.

Updated Here:

Sunday Standard

Worked in the semi regularly scheduled Farmer’s market ride this Sunday.  Bonus points for being able to start the “testing” on some new kerchief material you will likely be seeing in our online store in the near future.  The weather is about as close to perfect as one could hope for.  Enjoy Summer weather while it lasts.

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