rambler | Ocean Air Cycles - Click to Shop

Low Tide

Yesterday was starting off pretty normal, the task list was more than a day could hold, but the plan as always was to bite off as much as possible. One thing I was not giving up was my regularly scheduled errands ride around own. With all the short stops I can usually get it all done in the same amount of time as the car, and the bike is just a hell of a lot more fun.

The skies went gray for the first time in few days and the fog was rolling in on the coast. With temps in the 50’s it was crisp, but still pretty perfect to ride and barely break a sweat. Everything was going pretty close to routine, and I decided to swing by the beach on my way home.

The tide was super low and dropping fast. I knew this was going to happen, but not so early in the day. This was a perfect chance to seize the moment, do something not on the schedule and grab back 30 minutes of pure fun, and yes you can almost see the idea forming in my mind above.

And so the diversion started, I figured it would just be a quick toodle on the sand. It turned out I had over a mile of beach for an out and back. Even with 20lbs in the panniers the 38mm tires did just fine on the hard packed sand. I found a few small pieces of green beach glass, crossed paths with dogs and their owners reveling in the extra playground space, and had a fantastic time

As always, getting there by bike is highly recommended, and always make a little time for the detours, you will never regret it!

Round 2 for the Web Store

The kickstarter project has been history for a few weeks now. While it did not fund I learned quite a bit through the process, one thing being that there is demand for the Ramblers, but not the door busting volume that I hoped for early on. That said, the program is still creeping forward, and we are planning for another run early next year. The web store is back up and functional with the Rambler pre-sales for this round. Starting price is $1600 + sales tax and $50 shipping for the Frame, Fork and Paul Racer Brakes. There is also a coupon deal for email subscribers. This pricing is good through the end of the year, after that the price moves to $1650 + tax and shipping for 2013. The goal is to get at least 10 confirmed orders by mid January so that we can place the order for projected late April delivery. I am looking forward to getting more Ramblers between riders and the road. Clicking on the picture will take you to the Rambler pre-sale page.

Thank you for you support and readership this year, have a merry Christmas, get out and ride. We will be here through the end of the year, but family is moving to the front of the priority list, and posting will be a little less frequent until after the holidays.

Have Fun, play outside, and enjoy the time!

Decals and Colorway

We are still in recovery mode from the SF Expo, it was a great time, and now we need to get back up to speed. The day before we left for San Francisco the decals made it here, nothing like everything coming together at once. Her is the slide show of the decals and colorways for the three primary combinations:

They are top mounted mylar printed by the last professional bicycle decal shop here in the US, at least as far as I could find, that could work in full color as well as variations for different types of application. I am beyond happy with how they came out. The bikes feel much more like the real deal. Not that they ride any differently, but the branding definitely kicks it up a notch.

You probably noticed the “FOUNDER” sticker on the left chain stay, these will only be on the first run of bikes in production as well as the round coming out of Kickstarter. Which if you missed it, our Rambler project is live:

We are getting tons of interest, likes etc. and while that is great, we need backers to make it happen. We will take the support in any way you can give it, but without enough pledges to reach our goal, the project will not fund. Thus, I am asking directly for your help, your pledges and to spread the word to everyone you know who rides a bike, has been thinking about riding, and wants to be able to get around on a true sport bike, that can still be comfortable and carry home the groceries.

Rambler Kickstarter is Live

The project went live last night, and we already have one backer for a frame set in the first few hours, Thank you!

Please help spread the news about the project. The word of mouth distribution is the most powerful, blog, link, Facebook, throw it out there on the forums every little bit help to get the Ramblers out into the world. I can not do this without your help.

The SF Expo is going great, I met some awesome people on the first day: vendors, promoters and bloggers. Between the show and the KS project I could barely sleep, from all the energy building up, although I am sure that problem will start to ease off after today, first full open to the public day. I am so grateful to the support of my family, friends offering us a place to stay, cousins coming up to help and all of you who have come out and been so stoked to see the Ramblers. It is all of you that give me the energy to keep this going – Thank you!

Shirt and Bag Art Draft 1.0

I am so lucky to have friends and friends through my wife that are gifted artists and designers. I have a heavy tilt towards the analytical side and while I can conceptualize what I want an art project to be, it is awesome to throw out a range of ideas and to get something like this back on the first try. Gigantic thank you to all of you who have helped me.

This is very close to what will be the shirt and bag art for the Kickstarter rewards. There will be options of this or the porteur build, as well as a couple of color options. Now to get the Kickstarter part launched, stuck in a holding pattern waiting for approval.