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Today I shipped off the last Rambler for 2013, a huge thank you to all of you that have bought into the program so far.  This red 55cm will be the first Rambler on the front range of CO as well as east of the continental divide.  Pictures:

And the Stoke comment of the year goes to the new owner who saw yesterday’s pic on instagram:

“The like button has become grossly inadequate. Where’s the 9 year old me “I just got an AT-AT walker, run screaming through the house” button?”

Most of my customers are men, about 35-40, and we all know just how much an AT-AT walker really meant to us as a kids.  Brad is going to be stoked in a few days, and we are stoked for him.

If any of you out there think the red is as awesome as I do, and would love to, I mean need to, have a Rambler in red, hit me up and I will check inventory.  There were a few of these made in the last round and I still need to add then to the storefront.

This may also be the last post of the year, with two munchikins and a bit of travel on the immediate horizon things are going to slow down around OAC.  I will do my best to keep up with email, and most orders from here on out will ship the first week of 2014.  Thank you all for helping to keep 2013 awesome around here, safe travels ad Merry Christmas

Today munchikin No.1 and I took the scenic route to school, breakfast picnics will skew their perception of being grown up for ever.

With about 400 feet of climbing in half a mile I was glad for the low gears on the family xtracycle.  About half way up we took a break for the photo op.

Once at the top she confirmed that it had been quite the climb up, much more work than in the car, and she too was feeling it in her legs

I think she was mostly feeling the lack of breakfast.  We found the bench she wanted and set up fast.

With all the hard work behind us it was time to make time for some real playing, a bit of exploring.

Fully recharged it was time to get back down the hill and make sure her sister was ok before heading off to school and work.  These are some of the best times, I hope she never forgets.

Since the coffee outside thing began we have bounced around the idea of a house branded blend of coffee.  A few things have held us back a bit, making the time to develop a relationship with the right local roaster, projected volume to make it worth the venture and the basic fact that many of you doing the coffee outside in far away places have great local roasters of your own.  Today I stopped in to visit Centri Coffee, and Dillon and I hit it off right away.  He has a good thing going doing a fair volume of organic beans at some of the local farmer’s markets.

We chatted a bit about coffee and all sorts of other things.  He was prepping for the holiday sales as well as tomorrow’s market in Ojai.  There happened to be a large amount of organic Sumatran beans running through the roaster.  One of my favorite varieties, and what I had been stopping by for.

They also had all manner of other single source beans, and I can see that my coffee problem is about to step up a notch.

With some samples in the bag, literally, it was time to get back to work.  I do know that I will be heading over to their space again once the chaos of the holidays settles down a bit. Dillon wants to boil some water outside, and the possibility of a collaboration in the coming year will work itself in time.

Thank you Dillon of your time today, it was definitely time well spent for me.

It has been a wild ride over the last eight weeks, things have been busy, both work and life.  At the moment it seems things are almost back on track, I made it out for a ride this morning, brewed a cup in the 40’ish degree weather and then back to work.

Hats will be here soon, kerchiefs are in stock, wallets are being cat and on the sewing table and there is no better time to plonk down the $$ on the Rambler frame set you have been dreaming about.

I will be breathing a bit of life back into the Blog over the coming weeks – Rob

Order your hats HERE in time for Holiday delivery

We have wanted to do a hat project, or two, for well over a year now.  The search for vendors, sample sourcing and all the fun that goes with is started a few months before last spring’s Seattle bike expo.  In fact the embroidered patch project was, in part, a baby step towards trucker hats.  The reality is, that I am really picky about hats, let alone ones that will represent out company.  More samples than I can count came out of the box, went on for a few minutes, and were on their way to Good Will.

Then this package came in the mail a couple of months ago, THANK YOU Randi Jo Fabrication:

Right out of the box I knew this was the direction we were heading.  These instantly became my first choice every day.  We washed them, beat them up, crushed them, and soaked them in sweat.

They never let me down, the only catch, I liked the material on the orange and the cut of the blue.  That was the only trouble picking a hat each day.  The Blue hat, and final choice on cut, is slightly different from a traditional “cycling cap”.  it is cut a bit full run the crown and the brim is slightly wider and deeper to give  bit more protection from the elements, but not so big that it requires a stiffener.  In plain english, a perfect cap.

The next step was working up the mock-up for custom embroidery

With final art resolved, it was time for material selection.  I wanted to go with organic cotton for ease of care, long-term durability, environmental impact and sustainability of the material.  I liked the hand (feel) of the material and how it was holding up to the abuse of repeated trips through the washer and dryer.  Working with a relatively LEAN supply chain model we are able to offer color options with a decent lead time.  The final choices:

The fifth choice while not organic, makes up for the footprint in terms of durability and fun.  The NYCO ripstop multi cam fabric is produced in the USA and commonly used in Military uniforms. It has proven to be the most durable option for soldiers in the field while retaining the hand and feel of cotton….  And camo is fun.

All of the hats will have our logo embroidered on the front to the left of center in dark Yellow, similar to the mockup I made with a hacked patch above.

The third and final option for winterizing your hat is the option of a stretchy merino wool, flip up, flip down ear cover.  Even as spoiled as we are here in SoCal with weather it still gets cold enough that I will be adding one of these to my rotation.

All of this adds of to what I consider to be a perfect hat.  Priced at $32 ($35 with ear flaps) it is a screaming deal for a truly cottage industry, HandMade in the USA product produced with organic materials.

The initial order is going in this week.  Projections for the quantities and size distributions are going to be strongly influenced by pre orders HERE.  All hats in this order will be made and shipped in time for the holidays.   If you want a hat or three in time for Christmas order now, really.

Order your hats HERE in time for Holiday delivery

Update: I have been asked where these fall relative to Randi’s standard sizing.  Her medium is snug on my 23″ head with winter afro filling in.  Our L fits me perfectly and stays on in a 20mph headwind, the small is similarly offset from the medium in the opposite direction.

If you have interest in a Child’s or New Born version, hit me with an email, there will be one of each heading towards our expanding team, and more can be added to the upcoming order