✺◟(>‿<)◞✺ Nº267 PSYCHED FOR EUROBIKE! 🇪🇺 🚲

Hello!

Holy Moly! Dusting this thing off!

Hope you're happy to hear from me because I'm certainly happy to be saying hello!

The last edition was shipped end way back in the end of April. The first half of May was a trip to visit my kids in Florida and then the inaugural Hellenic Mountain Race in Greece. (More about my experience there below!). I've been trying to ship an issue since then! 😅

I penned this issue from a German ICE train cruising at 200km/hr back to Amsterdam after a weekend in Basel with Michel from OBST&GEMÜSE & his family with my son & daughter. We had a wonderful weekend of riding, skating & relaxing. Even backflips into the Rhein River: )

Some updates since the last issue:

📻 Sherry Cardona, aka @sherry.cycling, joined us for the Mechanics of Joy! You can listen here. The next show will be broadcast live from Frankfurt on June 22 at 14:00 CET from Old Man Mountain's Eurobike booth.
🚲 Days later Sherry joined us again for an awesome gravel ride with Velocio from our office. What an awesome day!
♫ 🎸 The 3rd edition of Dox Under The Tracks was a smash hit last Friday with food & beer provided by Super 73 & live performances by Dox artists Olivier van Niekerk & Teunis Loot. More images & a recording of this show coming soon!
📢 Also last week was the Micromobility Conference Europe here in Amsterdam, and it was great! I got to moderate a panel on the Rise of Subscription, our client Ampler's CMO Tuuli Jevstignejev joined two panels the bike industry and consumer trends. New Twotone clients Lemmo made their Dutch debut in the Springtime Design booth and future clients, Clip.Bike, won both the bike category & overall Startup Awards prize! The show wrapped up with a Bike Rave ride with UK DJ Dom Whiting.
🥫 Also last week, we supported NOMOQ with their attendance at BRADIS in Paris. We arranged for Galigala Designers to do a live painting in their booth and liaised with French brewing and craft beer press about NOMOQ's presence at the show and in the French market.

And this week is all about Eurobike prep! Because, next week we're heading to Frankfurt with the following clients:

👴⛰️ Old Man Mountain (Hall 12.0 / C05)
🪖🧠 Lazer Sport (Hall 11.0 / B18)
🚲⚡ Lemmo Future (Open Air Ground F11.0 / C17)
🚲⚡ Ampler for meetings with their CMO Tuuli Jevstignejev
🚲⚡ Super 73 at the Comodule booth (Hall 8.0 / J30)
🔧💨 SILCA at the Hartje booth (Hall 12.1 / A23)

To catch me at the show: twotoneams.link/Eurobike-23 & here for Kike.
We've got the 5th edition of our famous tradeshow 'zine going to print this week and we're very excited about this one! (The header image is a teaser of the cover page featuring local punk band, The Asbest Boys, that played our 8-year party!)
Of course, new stickers fresh for the show are being printed as I type! Here is a sneak peek. : )
As mentioned above, the next Mechanics of Joy show will be broadcast live from Eurobike on June 22 at 14:00 CET from Old Man Mountain's booth.
Last but certainly not least! Our Eurobike dinner is back as well! RSVP here if you'd like to join!

Looking forward to seeing everyone there next week!

as always, thank you for reading & sharing this newsletter,

Jon

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Cycling

#MakeItYours: Sweet PRO Custom Builds by Feather Cycles and Quirk Cycles

One of the projects we're most proud of in our work with PRO was this custom-build project to showcase the ultimate in optimization, comfort, and customization. PRO commissioned Ricky Feather (Feather Cycles) and Rob Quirk (Quirk Cycles) to each build two unique Columbus steel bikes. All four bikes were designed, built, and finished to complement a range of PRO components. Read more about them here.

We all know sexual harassment happens, but did you know just how bad it is within the sport and what you can do to help stop it? Check out the article here.

MAYHEM IN AMSTERDAM - BMX STREET JAM

Our intern Jean, my son Otto, my friend Ricky Feather & I attended this jam the weekend before last. The video above captured the vibe perfectly. I think my own edit does a pretty good job too! ; )

Ideas

Workspace Six is on Eventflare

Founded & headquartered in Brussels, Belgium, Eventflare has event locations listed in 23 cities. Stoked to have Workspace Six included!

How to be a writer on a marketing team without sounding like a jerk

It’s a balancing act, but you should be able to write things you enjoy yourself that also help your readers, while simultaneously checking the boxes for getting your marketing message across.

David Hume—Why we change our mind

Some great food for thought in this article! "Our habit to **assume causal connections** when we observe things repeatedly can also explain our **inclination to superstition** or to accept lies if they are repeated often enough."

Friends

A DAY WITH SKATEBOARD ENTREPRENEUR RYAN CLEMENTS

Awesome interview with my Florida-based but frequently on-the-road organizing skate events friend Ryan!

GET FAMILIAR: JOOLS WALKER

Get familiar with Jools Walker—a prominent figure in the cycling community, known for her accomplishments as a bicyclist, TV presenter, and author. I'm honored to call Jools a friend & always stoked on her endeavors! Read this great interview here.

Alexa Cunningham of PRO Bikegear on The Broomwagon Podcast

A great convo between my friends Stefano & Alexa: "Alexa is an all-rounded bicycle enthusiast, a former triathlete, a skilled cyclist, with sparkles of bike nerditude. We talked a few weeks ago at the Shimano HQ in Eindhoven about everything about Pro Bike Gear, from the mission to the technology, the attitude, and the values."

Radness

Three 1.5min clips about my Hellenic Mountain Race attempt.

The @hellenicmountainrace wasn’t what anyone anticipated. At least that’s what I’ve determined from speaking to everyone there.

The weather, the terrain, the temperature & difficulty across the board really forced everyone to dig deep & persevere or pull the plug a lot sooner than they anticipated.

For me, I can pick up where my last reel left off: waking up on Day 2 determined to hit CP2. I managed. It was nearly midnite. I had an amazing meal & began my #hikeabike to the refuge at the summit of #mountymfi. I passed out at the first shelter on the way up.

Day 3 began with the arduous crawl to the peak. Several racers caught me. I caught several of them at CP1 again on the way down. Little did we know about the riverside death march awaiting us below.

Climbing a mountain mostly by foot with your bike and then carrying it on a precarious riverside trail all before lunch is pretty intense, haha!

I loved my rack setup but wished I could wear the panniers as I managed to make my way to the end of the section. From there things picked up & several paved climbs lifted my spirits. At dusk, I caught a group of racers in a village for dinner. @marinstex caught us there too!

I carried on into the night and passed out at the summit before the descent into Paraskevi. I woke to rain on my bivvy at 4am & descended in my longjohn’s & rain gear. At dawn, I changed & continued on to Samarina & caught some riders.

I felt good as I pushed through onto more hike-a-bike sections & rideable climbs. The rain began. And continued.

This was a long section with no resupply before Metsovo. The rain was endless. The forest was endless. Several riders caught me. I just wanted outta this soggy forest of sorrow, haha!

I had changed outta rain gear in a break in the rain when the sun showed it’s face. A mistake. Then my dry kit was soaked too.

Somehow Metsovo was still ~40km away, and CP2 was another 100km beyond that. Making the cutoff seemed unlikely. And then what? Granted, I could self-validate, but that didn’t appeal to me. When I saw pavement, I decided I was done like my brake pads. I descended to Metsovo on my innertube'd wonky wheel missing a spoke since KM 45 on day 1 and was determined to regroup & have some fun.

I met several riders there & half continued, and half stopped. @Chimpbars & I plotted a route for the finish along the coast of ~400km or so. (Which we shortened by 100km with a short boat ride!)

Wendy from Australia joined us. @caughtinthevoid & @bengtstillerphotography Re-entered the fray! Amazing! Both finished as well! Epic!

Ondrej & I had a largely paved path to Nafpaktos with a beach but bivvy oasis, boat ride from Preveza to Aktio & really no issues other than one more puncture for me & sawing off knobs on my rear tire to increase clearance to the frame.

All told it was 7 days of riding & 860km. 17000 meters of climbing or so. lol. A little more than half of what I expected to do as far as climbing but nearly the distance.

Ultimately the cycle touring finale was a great end to a trip that really hit hard out the gate. I needed some R&R. I'm bummed to have scratched but got the adventure I came for and am proud of friends like @kleinerriese, @avoidtheavoid, @erikarnewing, Bengt & Lissa for their efforts to successfully complete this brutal course!

Too soon to say if I'll be back or not but I'm grateful to @nelsontrees & this community for making these adventures so memorable.

Greece is definitely a magical place to me now!

Check out the edits from the trip here:

Here's to being psyched for Eurobike next week!