Friday News And Views

Geoff Kabush's Tweet concerning Sea Otter pricing.

Sea Otter Pricing Balloons:

I saw the Tweet alongside this text last Tuesday evening. You can read it yourself, so I won't bother repeating it. You can see for yourself what is being pointed out here. 

It should only be noted as an addendum here that Life Time Fitness purchased Sea Otter in 2021. Is the new price a result of that purchase, or is it something else that is at work here?

Comments: Okay, on the one hand you've had a couple of years where Sea Otter has been affected negatively by the pandemic. Prices may reflect this due to an effort to recoup "lost revenues" and one could perhaps easily see that shipping and supply issues may have caused a rise in prices to some degree. But on the other hand, the price has doubled? 

Okay, commenters were pointing a very sarcastic finger at the popularity gravel cycling for the cause of this, but I don't think that is really what is going on here. I've seen this model for price increases at work before. Here's the deal...

The operating principle here is, what will the market bear? You do not know the answer until you "hit the ceiling" in regard to pricing. So, you raise the price every year by default until, well.....it doesn't work anymore.  Many events do this, not just Sea Otter. 

Also, 2022 saw mass participation at many events max out, possibly due to the fact that most people felt safe to go "do all the things" again. More demand = higher prices. Certainly, economic forces are at work as well, since inflation and higher prices for goods and services are going to put upward pressure on prices. Life Time cannot ignore this as well. 

So, you can say Life Time is "The Bad Guy", but there probably is some credence to seeing this as an economically driven decision to boost pricing as well with an eye to keeping profit margins intact. 

And c'mon! What'd you really expect after Life Time's takeover? Lower pricing? I don't think so....

From Bike Hugger's twitter feed.

And When I Die.....

I saw this on Twitter as well on Wednesday. A cargo bike conversion to a hearse. Electrified, natch! This was seen in France, apparently. I did not research the article. 

Comments: So, this makes sense in that Europe was developed well before automobiles and the streets are narrower, the cities more compact, and the rural byways are often wagon-wide if that. Modern highways exist, for sure, but the majority of Europe is not like America, which is car-centric as it gets. 

So, a hearse on a cargo bike, well that wouldn't fly around here. The church is often not on a cemetery site anymore, or never was, so a funeral procession can be miles, and miles, in length. Also considering the changeable weather, which can sometimes be pretty brutal, and the wild swings seasonally that we have here, well it comes as no surprise to me that I probably will never see anything like this in my lifetime. 

But if I were to die tomorrow....... 

Did you hate the 4 wheeled Hummer?

GMC Partners With Recon To Sell Hummer eBike:

 According to a recent "Bicycle Retailer and Industry News" article, Recon Bikes, an eBike manufacturer, is partnering with GMC's Hummer brand to sell their rebranded two-wheeled Hummer to consumers via Hummer/GMC dealerships. While the bike will be available direct to consumer, GMC has approximately 1000 dealerships where the possibility exists that this bike might be sold. Exact numbers were not released at this time for the amount of dealerships that will actually sell this bike alongside the behemoth Hummer EV Supertruck. 

The eBike has twin hub motors and can be modified by the consumer to go above the 20mph factory assist level up to 28mph. The bike also has a thumb operated "throttle".

Comments: A few things stand out to me about this. First, the "Supertruck" has a 3 second zero to 60mph performance. THAT should raise some alarms right there if you ride a bicycle in urban areas where this, and other high-horsepower EV vehicles are about to be unleashed. Second: The bike has TWO hub motors? Yep! It's advertised as an all-wheel drive vehicle. THAT should also be a bit of a scare. If you've ever ridden a throttle equipped HPC - essentially riding an electrified bicycle in "motorcycle mode", you understand why having two torque-monsters on a bicycle has the possibility of causing major mayhem. Third: The comments on the BRAIN article reveal the disconnect that US based bicycle purveyors have with these motorized rigs. One commenter bemoans the "modification" factor and another exclaims that it is "our right" to do what we please with vehicles on our own property. 

That's a lot to unpack, but it is a perfect microcosm of an example for why I believe that we are all looking at "mopeds" with electric motors, why this race to "more power" will end up making these into motorcycles, and why the whole lateral move to electrified transportation is not going to "fix" anything about car-culture. 

Kae Takashita won the C.O.G. 100 in 2019

A Nice Throwback On International Single Speed Day:

Thursday I was tagged in a post on Facebook by Kae Takashita where she posted about riding in the 2019 C.O.G. 100. She was prompted by the Paul Components initiated "International Single Speed Day" which was observed on Wednesday. 

I enjoyed the fact that Kae said, "I believe it was the slowest century I had done...."which is saying something since she is an elite level athlete. To have provided such a challenge is a reward and confirmation of N.Y. Roll and my efforts to do exactly that- provide a tough challenge to overcome. 

So, while I am NOT going to revive this idea, I am proud and satisfied that I was involved in putting on a single speed only gravel event. To my knowledge this is the only time anyone has done such a thing. I am really glad that I did this with N.Y. Roll, who was a huge motivator and assisted me in every way to put on that event. 

Too bad that we were thwarted by COVID and that the 2019 version was the only one we were able to pull off. I regret that deeply and I apologize to anyone reading this for our inability to pull off the second C.O.G. 100 due to the circumstances of the times. 

The whole thing with the C.O.G. 100 is bittersweet, to be honest. It was my swansong of sorts, when it comes to events promotions, and I wasn't aware of that at the time. COVID precipitated my decision to get out of that mindset of putting on events for others, which is a good thing - for myself. My mental health and physical health has been rejuvenated as a result. But had I known that the 2019 C.O.G. 100 was going to be "it", I maybe would have done a few things differently. Maybe it's better I didn't know....  

Anyway, thanks to Kae! I appreciated the shout-out and the memory very much.

 That's a wrap for this week! Don't forget to set your clocks back this weekend (if that affects you) and charge up those lights!