MTB Thursday - No Cyclocross bikes at this years Winter Park Hill Climb

Submitted by Kris Thompson on Thu, 06/06/2013 - 06:32

Winds of change are coming to the Winter Park Hill Climb this year as any bike besides a mountain bike is being strongly discouraged according to their marketing email. As a former winner of the Winter Park Hill Climb myself while using a cross bike I feel this is a good public statement for them to make to clear up any ambiguity of what bike to use however I'd rather prefer to see them alter the course to make cx bikes at a disadvantage then to simply request for no CX bikes - think of it as a more Darwin approach to the solution than a marketing one.

From Marketing Email from Epic Series

"The Epic Hill Climb is in just a few weeks. Please note that this series is a MOUNTAIN BIKE race series, so let's have people racing on mountain bikes: Leave the road, the hybrid, the cross bike, the unicycle at home, and race the hill climb on your mountain bike. We are not the bike police but you guys know the difference. If it's advertised as, sold as, and called a mountain bike, it probably is one. Please bring the mountain bike!"

For me the Winter Park HC starts my season for Cyclocross training and that course is perfect for a cx bike but a lot of negative energy is focused on cross bike riders for that course as this race series is one for Mountain Bike riders. My win didn't matter much in the end for the series as I rarely did all the races and the others I did I got my ass kicked.

But with no course correction than why not let the best bike be used? Kind of saying no TT bikes can be used in a stage race. I imagine you will see some very stripped down hard-tails this year but at least they will be mountain bikes. Either way, hopefully this request from the promoter will clarify and bike issue and even the field for others as cross bike riders have a advantage because it is the perfect bike for the event.

Photo Credit Mountain Moon Photography

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Frank Arroyo Dismisses Bike Share Bluster, Focuses on Running His Business

The other day, we paid a visit to Frank Arroyo of Frank’s Bike Shop to see how the beloved (and now – bizarrely – controversial) Lower East Side businessman is weathering the Citi Bike storm. Frank, operating on Grand Street for 37 years, found himself at the center of a bike share hullabaloo after the New York Post “exclusively” reported that he feared a nearby Citi Bike station could “run him out of business.” A petition demanding that the city move the station has more than 1,000 signatures. A counter petition has only attracted a couple dozen supporters, but commenters on The Lo-Down and elsewhere, longtime friends of Frank among them, have been arguing that Citi Bike is no threat to the local bike shop.

The Citi Bike station at Grand and Henry streets, near Frank Arroyo’s shop.

This week, Frank made it clear to us that the Post took a lot of liberties (shocking!) with their story, which fit nicely into their established narrative that Citi-Bike is evil. There’s no question Frank has concerns about the impact of the bike share program on his rental business, which makes up 20-30% of the store’s revenue. But he’s actually pretty circumspect about the situation. Since the story was published May 27, the phone has been ringing off the hook from opponents of Citi Bike — people anxious to recruit him as the “poster boy” for the anti-bike share cause. He has zero interest in that.

What he is focusing on is figuring out how to compete in a changed environment. Frank said the biggest concern is not the Citi Bike docks near his shop but the ones located near hotels (there are two on Allen Street adjacent the Thompson LES). Frank’s rental business comes almost entirely from referrals from hotels in the neighborhood. He’s never sought out the tourist business — it’s just come to him. Now, Frank is talking about reaching out to the hotels to make sure concierges don’t forget about his shop.

It’s probably a little early to tell whether Citi Bike is impacting Frank’s Bikes. Last weekend, Frank said, rental business was down. That’s not too surprising. On Sunday, we noticed quite a few tourists checking out Citi Bike (it’s the talk of the town, after all). Tourists may very well use bike share for short trips around the city, but they’ll soon find out that the Citi Bike fee structure makes longer excursions prohibitively expensive.

If there’s a bright side from the controversy of the past two weeks, Frank says, it’s this: 37 years in business has earned him intense loyalty on the Lower East Side. Longtime customers are extremely protective of a local businessman who’s established an abundance of good will over nearly four decades selling bikes to generations of families.