While I am keeping all the plates spinning, working on what I can while waiting for the big brown truck to show up tomorrow. I stop to check my inbox, and find this:
Thanks David, I love the pics, but now the clock seems to be going even slower while I keep clicking on refresh for the tracking number 
I put together a page under “Shop” -> “Soft Goods” -> “T-Shirts” HERE at the top of the page. Checkout is through a basic PayPal cart at the moment, the e-commerce site is still in development.
As always, Thank you for your continued support
As always things have been busy around here. The work of getting the business fully legit has been more work and taken more time than I had planned. Things are 90% there. I have still been making a bit of time to ride. Saturday we were able to squeeze in a quick ride on the coast with another couple.
The weather has been pretty nice since the last round of storms. It is hard not to get out an play a bit when the weather is this nice. Getting out there with your wife and friends sweetens the deal. The cherry on top was spotting some whales a couple hundred yards off shore near Emma Wood State beach.
The first round of t-shirts made it in Friday night. I am really happy with how they turned out. The job was turned around in four days by a local Santa Barbara contractor who was fantastic to work with.
The shirts are 100% cotton sewn in the US by Anvil with Us cotton that they have knit overseas. I liked the fact that Anvil was doing their best to be transparent about the process. The could have just called it made in the USA and left it at that.
The OAC logo is printed with a water based (non-PVC) ink using a discharge method, resulting in a very nice feel and solid color. I have run a few through the wash, they came out fine, as you would hope.
This morning I made my usual ride to the Farmer’s Market in a red XL. The fit is spot on and I liked the high vis, yet tasteful aspect of the red. I thought the red may not be that popular, but while on the ride I would have needed 5 hands and my toes to could all of the riders I saw wearing red.
I am in the process of setting up my E-commerce site and should have the shirts up for sale no later than Wednesday. I may put something up here earlier with a paypal cart, but we will see on that one. There will definitely be a dedicated post to announce when they are available.
The ride to market was great, the weather has been fantastic. Tons of cyclists out on the road, all sorts of charity events and such passing through town this weekend. The highlight of todays ride had to be this:
This is something you would likely have missed if traveling at the speed of a car, locked in the metal and glass box. Tillamook was tearing it up, cutting turns, re-starting after wipe-outs, the whole deal, and I had to stop and grab a shot. One of those fantastic sinppits in your day that you will remember for a long time.
One last business note, the production sample frame sets shipped last week, and should be here on the second, or sooner. I am so damn excited. This week as always is going to be crazy busy, and that is a good thing.
Thanks for reading and I hope you made time to play outside, there is still some time left!
I am working through an order for my first run of t-shirts and the options are a bit overwhelming for something that should be so simple. I know what I want to do for the art, first round of shirts will be a simple 5″ square logo on the chest. The Dark blue area will be replaced with the color of the shirt and the text or line art will be in a contrasting color.
The next step is where things get to be a bit much. I know what I like, but that is not always what others do. Then there are all the social, environmental and stylistic issues that play into the mix; i.e. organic, made in the U.S.A., fit color etc. It seems you can get one of the three, sometimes two, but never the whole thing.
I am leaning towards the US made Royal and Navy options or the non US made version in Gold this one gets some of the high viability gains for actual riding without being, ….. well kind of gross the way some yellows can be if you know what I mean. There is more in the works, but some thoughts and feedback would be appreciated.
I want to give you what you want!
Last night I got a call from a buddy who was looking to ride this morning. It only took a second to confirm that the schedule was open to go. The target was a local fire road, part fun, part scouting mission for an up coming longer ride.
Things at the coast were cool and foggy, but a few miles inland the thick fog was just a memory. The dirt starts about 8 miles from my door, and you can keep going up for another 9 miles or so. With the recent rains I was worried it might be a bit muddy, but things were just green, with the road dry. Conditions were pretty good on the first 4 miles or so that we went up, before enjoying the ride back down.
I have a small group getting together for a no-host ride on the morning of May 5th to ride a bit bigger loop that includes this section. The group started as the Southern California Rivendell Appreciation Society, But is open to anybody really who is like-minded and not afraid to ride “road” bikes on the dirt. Here is a map of the proposed route:
This is a fun mixed terrain ride through the hills of Ventura and Ojai. The ride is a paved mixed use (mostly Bike) trail to sulphur mtn., then dirt fire road climb. Note, the fire road is the climb. This is the lions share of the climbing, it is beautiful, but I am thankful at times for the gears, usually 32:28 is enough, but it keeps me honest, and I have been known to use the granny if the bike of choice for the day has one.
The road quality is mixed at the top of the mtn for a bit, then there is a very nice paved/long/fast as you want decent. I was able to get the vents on a helmet to hum here once. A few flatish miles to another fun decent into Lower Ojai. Mixed gentle hills over to lake Casitas, a decent but short climb up from the lake, and then gentle downhills home.
I have been asked in the past if this would be a good single speed ride, personally I am thankful for the gears in this area of California. I have ridden everything from Exiwolf to 32mm passellas here, and 32-42 mm anything seems to make for a really fun day.
As always this is a comfortably quick ride, with the no man left behind group ride ethos. There will be plenty of time to stop for breaks. Bring plenty of water for the climb, at least three bottles, and I would recommend a snack of sorts. There are a couple of good places to stop for a lunch in Ojai that will not weigh you down too bad for the last leg home. It would be good to get things going by 9:30, earlier would be better if we can swing it, last time I think the tail end of the group made it back by 2:30 or so. Saturday traffic will be easier on those of you making the trek up from down south. Also, Ventura and our surrounding cities like Ojai and Santa Barbara can make for good times if you have the rest of the family in tow for the weekend, just saying, it may help sweeten the pot to get up here for the ride.
I know quite a few of my readers are local, and I may have even seen you once or more out on the road. Consider this an open invitation, if you think you have the legs for the climb and can keep up with a 10-15 mile an hour average pace, drop me a line and let me know if you want to come along.
Today I made my now usual mid day escape from work to ride to a meeting and some errands. The blue skies earlier in the week had given way to the coastal fog for just a couple of days now.
Blue skies prevailed a mile inland from the coast, but the cool temperatures and lack of sun were the bulk of the ride. Looks like the Bi-Polar swings from winter storms to summer fog continue, it has been a crazy year for weather.
I quick sprint across town to get some more permits in place, perfect weather to be outside, with the fog holding back off shore, and just a little snow still on the mountains. The paper work is falling into place like dominoes, and literally is in the bag.
I have to admit, it feels a bit subversive to be starting a business in shorts, getting the paperwork and other formalities taken care of by bike, and I like it.
It feels right!
I received my LLC paperwork back from the state today, HOORAY. While confident that I could clear that hurdle, 1 page application, it is fantastic to get it back officially from the state. It was done in a record 6 weeks, fringe benefit of walking it in before heading over to NAHBS I guess.
Time to charge ahead with the rest of the paperwork now. While not too superstitious, a good portion of the paperwork for this venture has hit on the 13th of any given month, kind of makes you wonder. I may hold off until Monday for things like the reseller permit, not wanting to push my luck too far.
For now I will enjoy the fact that we are officially “Ocean Air Cycles, LLC”
I have been combing through the last two years of photos for an upcoming project, and ran across a few old favorites of mine, sharing just one for now:
I do not usually fall back on the archives for a post, but this one was calling out. The bike now belongs to a friend, and was a key step in learning how to make little bikes that handle well, even with a 12 pound wiggling dog in the basket.
Heading off for powder tomorrow…
Thank you all at Zen for making my ideas into a reality, looking forward to a good year.
