Goedemorgen! I hope you had a good weekend!
Mine kicked off with a nice dinner with friends & fellow tenants at Workspace Six. I then spent the weekend catching up from my first week back to work after the break but did brave the rainy weather to get two bikes to a French production crew for a shoot in Utrecht today.
If you can't tell already, I'm super hyped on sprucing up the Twotone newsletter (blog) in 2023! Remember blogs? I think they're making a comeback and I've gone whole hog with Ghost & just added a custom theme from Birron to enable the handy table of contents feature that you seen when viewing on the web. (Thank you Ryan at Outpost.pub for the tip & help too!)
This week is going to be another exciting one with several proposals to make, some big news for current clients and a fun trip to Belgium on Thursday for...
...The 15th Velofollies bike show in Kortrijk, where you can catch the Twotone team at:
- Pro Bike Gear's Booth (Booth 401C) Swing by at 14:00 on Friday for an unveiling!
- Classified's Booth (Booth 133) Swing by all weekend to test Powershift for yourself & Saturday at 17:00 for drinks!
I'm looking forward to seeing lots of people that I haven't seen since Eurobike, so please do gimme a shout, and let's get a coffee or a beer!
as always, thank you for reading & sharing this newsletter,
Jon
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📷 Featured image courtesy: Ricky Feather
Cycling
How Bulgaria is becoming crucial to Europe’s supply of bike goods
Great to see Econic One featured in Mark Sutton's recent English language feature of research that Werner Müller-Schell conducted:
"[...]an industrial cluster has formed in Bulgaria in recent years that could even compete with Europe’s number one, Portugal, in the near future. According to an analysis by the Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce, eBike exports from the Balkans increased eight-fold between 2017 and 2020."
Today, the Econic One is sold in 22 countries worldwide. Their founder, Galin Bonev, shares in the article that
“All our bikes are designed and assembled in Bulgaria. We have our own factory on the Black Sea and also work with other local factories to cope with the high demand. In addition, we have offices in Varna, Sofia, in Germany and the USA."
Feather & Quirk for PRO at Velofollies 2023
At this year's Velofollies, Twotone is proud to announce the availability of the all-new PRO Bikegear Vibe Superlight Handlebar and Stem— the lightest road handlebar PRO has ever made.
In addition, Twotone, on behalf of PRO, commissioned bikes from Feather Cycles and Quirk Cycles to make four bespoke bikes that showcase "Make It Yours" PRO Bike Gear options available for customization for road and gravel riders.
The four bikes will be unveiled in the PRO booth (133) at 14:00 on Friday, 20th January.
Amsterdamse Fietslichtjesparade
On January 19, 2023, the municipality of Amsterdam is organizing the Amsterdam Bicycle Lights Parade. A colorful bike ride to draw attention to cycling in the dark.
• Starting point: 6:45 pm Weesperplein 5, Amsterdam
• End point: 8:30 pm Westerpark, Pacific, Poloceaukade 23 , Amsterdam
• Ride length: 5.5 kilometers
More info here.
Ideas
Why I'm tired of goals – Laëtitia Vitaud
One of my favorite newsletters is back with an attention grabber: "When goals are inflexible, they can kill you". Laëtitia goes on to say that:
The binary nature of pass-fail goals is dangerous. It can prevent you from ever getting started. Running 20 kilometers counts for nothing if your goal is to run a marathon. And yet 20 kilometers is so much more than running five or zero! For fear of not reaching a pass-fail goal, you may choose to do nothing instead.
I did spend quite a bit of my weekend setting business goals but my 250km / week riding goal meant I didn't get on the bike. Or was it the rain? 🙃
Electric Vehicles Are Bringing Out the Worst in Us
A largely USA focused article but a reminder that electric cars are hear to save the car industry, not the planet. In fact electric cars are heavier & faster; making them more dangerous.
Worse yet, enormous EVs are compounding the global shortage of essential battery minerals such as cobalt, lithium, and nickel. That Hummer EV’s battery weighs as much as a Honda Civic, consuming precious material that could otherwise be used to build several electric-sedan batteries—or a few hundred e-bike batteries.
That's why I agree that cities should not just build green transport but actively dismantle car infrastructure.
What a dash of laziness can do for you
For Dr. Devon Price, a social psychologist and the author of Laziness Does Not Exist, attributing success to non-laziness and failure to laziness is a harmful ideology designed to push us into working ourselves to death. We've all convinced ourselves that we are living in a meritocracy. But are we?
This is the 2nd Laëtitia link this week too! She certainly hasn't been lazy. ; )
Friends
Yorick Leusink Cinematography
Yorick stopped by Workspace Six last week to talk shop. And I thought his work was so great that it would be cool to share here too. See you soon, Yorick!
5 Lessons Learned About Blogging After Biking From Canada to Mexico
Ok, ok, Clint Fontanella isn't a friend of mine (yet), but what a useful & wholesome story about riding The Great Divide for a good cause!
Onwards and upwards!
Over the holidays, Caley Fretz and Wade Wallace took stock of the cycling media landscape and decided to build a new cycling media business.
"Cycling deserves better than the media that currently serves it, and I believe that now is the time to act before it’s too late." - Wade Wallace
Read more about his plans here & check out job openings here. Cool!
Radness
The High Life | The Final Season of Chamonix's Oldest Refuge
"In the final season of the original 119-year-old Le Refuge de la Charpoua, hutkeeper of eight years, Sarah Cartier, and her two children, embrace the high life and all its history in the mountains near Chamonix, France. The timeworn little building, set to be rebuilt in the same place in 2023, is surrounded by towering granite walls and alpine light providing them with a mystical setting to do all the dailies of cooking, cleaning and climbing; a place to breathe in the freedom of the high life while the sights and sounds of the busy world below fall away."
So rad! Hat tip to Bas for sharing this. : )