Reader's Choice

Thanks to readers who choo-choo-choosed us as the Washington City Paper Best Bike Shop. April is a very busy, and sometimes rather inordinately stressful, month. This gave us all a reason to smile, and again, thank you.

The editors chose Phoenix Bikes, a community nonprofit shop in Arlington, which nobody can quibble with, a huge congrats to them. I've never visited, but I intend to.

Anyway, both the honor and the City Paper's tagline for this feature ("This week we shun mediocrity") are pretty timely. We've been doing a lot of work in the past couple of years to figure out what we do well, and fix the things we don't do well. The partial result is our Vision and Mission statements (stop rolling your eyes, it's not total BS). Hopefully, you've also noticed a tangible improvement in the stores lately, and hopefully that helped lead to the honor.

There's always more to be done, though, and we have some plans to use the website and this blog to open our figurative windows to the sunlight. Shun that mediocrity. I'll hit on some of that in a subsequent post, because I'm starting to ramble. But in the meantime, the comment field is open for you to register either your congrats or complaints.

Diesel is $4.20 a gallon in DC

Why? This guy, in part. According to the City Paper story, it belongs to the campaign manager for Ward 7 councilwoman Yvette Alexander. Anyway, I loved the blurb for this particular 'pickup'.

The International^® CXT™

It doesn't just command attention; it demands it.

Crowds gather and camera's flash. Children look up in awe at the 9-foot high cab. With your logo plastered across the cab, the International® CXT™ becomes a self-promoting billboard everywhere you park it. Using vehicles to advertise your brand is nothing new, but towering over everything else on the street is. When your message demands to be shouted, it needs to be on a CXT™.

Well, I suppose Councilwoman Alexander's message (squint hard at the magnetic placemat -- "Yvette Alexander -- Making Ward 7 One") needed to be shouted. Last year, her message was that we need better security at gas stations. When your 'self-promoting billboard' weighs 14,500 lbs., that's a primary concern.

So anyway, we are in the process of decommissioning our beastly 1979 Chevy panel van...
...in part because of fuel prices, but mostly because it's an unreliable wreck. We'll be moving most stuff between stores in a used Nissan Quest minivan. I suppose if we had $120K+ to spend on a truck, like a local political advisor, we might be tempted to splurge on such a shouting towering attention-demanding billboard to advertise our brand. Or not.

Slow news day, we're talking signage.

Long planned and long delayed, we finally got in some new in-store signs. And I might the only one who likes them. Squint at that nice S-works Tricross frame 'module' in the background if you're really bored.

Moots and Demo Fleet Complete!

After rolling through our last few Moots bikes, we brought in some freshies. 2008 MootoX-YBB and YBB plus a 56cm Compact VaMoots. The VaMoots is still just a frame. We have a SRAM Force group sitting around waiting to tacked on.

Here's Philly-Boy holding the 29r MootoX-YBB. Smart build with pink headset, Juicys, Reba 80-100, Thomson, WTB... Pretty bike with SUPERHOT test-ride pedals! That Devo saddle is sexy. The 26r has one, too! I should have weighed the bike but I didn't.

We also have the 26r YBB. This is our best-seller. Such a fun bike. Even though 1/2 of Moots mountain bike business is 29rs, we still sell plenty of 26rs. See? Look how happy Phil is, just TOUCHING the Moots. Imagine what it feels like when you sit on it! How's that for graphic!?

We have some Easton EA90sl wheels coming in for the Compact VaMoots road bike. I think it's getting a Ouzo Pro fork, carbon bar and the new Cinch post from Moots when it comes out next month.

When Jon from Moots was here, he promised me a demo of the 4" travel 29r, the MootoXZ. Also on the way will be a Cinco. I'll let you know.

All of our bikes are available for test-rides. Ya gotta ride it to love it! There's no other way around it!

In other news, we got the Dakar XCR Pro bikes in for the demo fleet. 4" travel of carbon xc love. We are waiting on the 21" (so is Welp!) but our demo fleet is almost complete! We are picking up the trailer for the vinyl decal application on it and the van next week. It should be sweet. We'll be driving that sucker around to the local races (and some not-so-local) so just let us know if you need a ride!

Coming soon....

...some actual new content in this blog. In the meantime, sign up for our monthly newsletter, if you're really anxious to hear from us.

"Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens"

Jimi Hendrix probably didn't have bikes and the retail sale of them in mind, but that's about all we know. And while we'd never suggest that you'll exit this blog any wiser, we do hope you'll drop in every once in awhile and get a small taste of the DC metro bike community, and the day-to-day in our two shops.

Coming soon, we'll get some info up on some new stuff we're bringing in for the season, post some pics from Bike to Work Day (sign up, please), and whatever else strums our Strat.