Hello!
Back in your inbox after a 7-week early fall stall! How were September & October for you?
Twotone has been buzzing since last issue!
Here is a brief recap:
- 🚀 We kicked off with Lekker Bikes. Read more in our newsroom.
- 🇩🇪 Concluded our Cycling Saxony Dresden trip with a Day 2 recap
- 🇨🇿 Attended our FOURTH Bohehiam Border Bash Camp!
- 🇧🇪 We took a train down to Antwerp to kickoff with Classified
- 🇳🇱 Supported Wahoo Benelux's launch of the new Roam
- 📻 Not 1 but 2 episodes of The Mechanics of Joy!
- 📷 Produced a gravel shoot for PRO Bike Gear in the Ardennes
- 🚀 Kicked off with Bulgarian ebike brand Econic One. (read more)
- 🚴 Attended both the classic Pathfinder Giro & new Grinduro DE
- 🎗️🩷 Coordinated a partnership between SILCA and the Tadej Pogačar Foundation to fight Breast Cancer.
- 🇬🇧 Visited Bespoked with the whole team! (portraits & highlights)
- 🎂 Announced our #twotoneturnseight party on Dec 2nd!
- 🎥 Began to promote the Bicycle Film Festival's return to Amsterdam on Dec 2-4th!
- 🤝 And last Friday, our colleague Bob joined the team full-time!
Needless to say, I've struggled to find the time to put pen to paper for all the right reasons, but I'm outta excuses! So this weekend, I told myself that I'd get the newsletter back on track, so here we are!
This weekend, I also aimed to get back on track myself here at the velodrome and kick off my cyclocross season as well. Well, I did race but only on the boards and not in the mud due to forgetting about railway maintenance between Amsterdam & Haarlem. (Yeah, I could rode to the race but I slept in!)
Lastly, believe it or not, this week's subject, Teamwork Makes the Dream Work, hasn't ever been used in over 250 issues. Though I did come close with issue Nº218 in April 21, when I wrote about delegating better.
Well, it sounds like I should re-read so I can keep these issues on schedule. ; )
wishing you a great week ahead,
Jon
―
🤝 Pass this issue on via a tweet, Linkedin post, or a share on FB.
✨ Enjoy this newsletter? You can support it here.
☕ Or simply say thanks for this issue by buying me a coffee.
📷: Header image by a Eurostar employee when Team Twotone arrived in London for Bespoked 2022.
Bikes
ICBF 2022 at World of eMobility 🗓️ Oct 27-29
The International Cargo Bike Festival is this week.
I'm a #carryshitolympics connoisseur so you better believe I'll be there handing out Twotone stickers & Bicycle Film Festival flyers!
Image: @ten07.cc's cargobike, which has a mechanism that allows the cargo platform to be removed in seconds. Come and meet builder @daniel_ghirtoi at the show!
Why people and businesses are swapping cars for bikes
Nice to see an Ampler shout in this great Bike Radar article. Ampler also recently was honoured to have the Former President of Estonia,@kerstikaljulaid , and the Estonian Ambassador to the Netherlands, Lauri @kuusing, visit their Amsterdam showroom.
Old Man Mountain Divide Rack Review: A Carrier For All Occasions
We love this full Old Man Mountain Divide Rack Review after Cass from Bikepacking used it for a year in many iterations--as a front rack, rear rack, direct mounted, etc. So cool!
Ideas
Five Essential Qualities of Kindness and how to Design for them
"With the global mental pandemic in full swing, and political turmoil and war and uncertainty, a lot of grownups are feeling a little lonely, and worried about their place in the world and whether they’ll cope. The world is in need of kindness. And I believe that Product Designers are in a privileged position to play a powerful role." - Carien Moolman
A post for product designers but perfect for anyone, really IMHO.
On cities, commuting, and getting hundreds of kids to school on two wheels safely. This is wholesome content!
How the Bicycle Conquered Amsterdam
To make way for pedal-powered mobility, the Dutch capital embarked on a decades-long campaign to design streets around the needs of cyclists, not drivers.
Friends
The Road to Marrakech
Albion introduced us to Marin around this time last year and we connected him to some brands we worked with for support. After seeing Marin shine during the Transcontinental, it was a real joy to see him win the Atlas Mountain Race this year!
Being Human #45: An outrageously useful email
Possibly one of the most valuable emails that any marketer could ever receive?
Subscribe to James' newsletter here.
BORDER BASH ARAGON 2023
"It has been almost one thousand years since King Sancho Ramirez of Aragon decided to build Montearagón Castle in clear view of the city of Huesca to retake it from Arabs and to redraw the borders yet again and not for the last time. So, in the spirit of "Ignoring Borders," we invite you for a ride in the shadow of Montearagón's walls, the bellow fields, and the hills above."
Stoked to see you there, Ondrej!
The Lunch Ride – The week's best cycling tech, all in one bite.
A little bird asked me to mention The Lunch Ride, a weekly recap of the best new road, gravel, and mountain bikes, tech, and gear. Subscribe get it delivered to your inbox every Friday.
Radness
Foretaste Nº 17 — Jon Woodroof - Together & Newsletter
"We met Jon at few of the most obscure long distance rides, always dragging us through the miles of cold rainy gravel or windy Dutch mountains with his never lacking optimism and humour. Since his arrival in Amsterdam Jon and his Twotone team has helped numerous niche and mainstream cycling and sports brands gaining attention in the Dutch and European market, and if you love cycling you should subscribe his infamous newsletter as it will suck you in that rabbit hole even further. So it is no surprise that this Foretaste is jam-packed with cycling culture, with a very nice series of analogue picture to accompany that. Enjoy!"
Thank you so much for the kind words & the feature, Joachim!