Interbike Week

Wednesday I leave for a couple of days of Vegas.

I don’t really like Vegas - but this is Interbike - so I guess I can make an exception.

There will be 1,000 manufacturers travelling from some 60 countries (so says the flyer).

Rob from Chrome Bags is hooking me up with a $25 pass. Thanks dude.

There will be seminars about optimizing your bike website. This is where I hope to make a splash with Trackstand.com

Luis and I are working on something that has garnered a great response from all the riders that I have been speaking with over the last few weeks.

There is a need for centralization. Information is free flowing and google, yahoo, etc have done a poor job at optimizing how we receive this information.

The noise is just too much for me to keep up with. Furthermore, the services that people interested or involved with the track industry are just too hard to figure out.

Not everyone is fortunate enough to have companies like Box Dog Bikes, The Freewheel, etc to give them expert advice about great frames, good deals and necessary information. Living in a metropolis has its perks, but not everyone lives close to a cycling mecca.

East Bay Mice Race Finale and Box Dog Bikes 100K

(thats me in the pista pariah shirt)

Great weekend of racing.

Friday night I was intending on riding with some of the Calif Academy of Art students.

Showing up in a misty haze I was not willing to blow through all the lights and ride like a freak. But I guess when you’re 19 years old you don’t really give a shit. With onslaught of SF Friday night traffic and the hitting of dusk I was not in the mood to dodge cars with suicidal art students. Instead I opted for a relaxed evening.

Joshua texted me Saturday night about an East Bay race taking place in Oakland.

We had a great alleycat held by Eli and Warren. Beginning in Mosswood Park (Oakland) we had five checkpoints - Oakland Cemetary, People’s Park - Berkeley, University Park - Albany, Marina - Emeryville and finally a finish at the ampitheater in Mosswood park.

No one was shot, but there was some younger riders. One of which got hit by a car and was taken by ambulance to the hospital. These younger guys are not wearing helmets. Its one thing to cruise without a helmet, but in a competitive racing environment (when you’re a 14 year old with no prior experience) - I have to shake my head sometimes. There is a question of liability and after the death in Chicago earlier this year its all-the-more important for us to be responsible.

If you’re over 18 you should be able to make your own stupid choices. I just feel bad for the parents having to pick their kid up from the hospital.

Luckily everyone else was fine. No tickets were issued and the afterparty was a great sendoff into the Saturday evening.

Sunday was the Box Dog Bikes 100K race. I sat this one out, but everyone seemed to have a great time. Fort Mason - Sausalito - Mill Valley - Mt. Tam - Alpine Dam - Fairfax - Back to San Francisco.  7 miles of dirt road would have rendered me useless on my track bike, yet there was one guy who did the race on a fixie. Awesome.

World Record

Not sure if this is PC or not, so I am posting this picture of the World’s shortest man - Pingping and the woman with the longest legs - Svetlana from Russia.

What would their kids look like? I would pay to see that.

Market Ruminations

We are not living in tough times. Despite every Doomsayer yelling about the collapse of the world’s financial markets, we need to instead be happy that for the most part we are a healthy world living in the midst of great prosperity.

The average living age is up, literacy levels are up, democracy is more prevalent than ever before and the weather in San Francisco is sunny.

Yes, you are screwed if you worked at Lehman Brothers. So are a bunch of other rich dudes. But if you are part of the other 6 billion people in the world who do not work at a brokerage firm than you are probably not too negatively effected by todays abysmal results.

Looking from the macro on these things its just a string in the cycle of life. Three years ago no evil could occur. Everyone was making buckets of cash with little disregard for the longterm consequences of their ARM, Jumbo or Balloon loans. People were all about no-money down, get rich quick and “flip that house”. Well, idiots buying shit they can’t afford are going to get burned. Hate to say I told you so.

The American Dream has been delicately packaged into a picket white fence surrounded by daisies. What America has not been well at doing is educating the masses about reality. Not everyone is supposed to own a home. We might want to own homes, cars and material possessions but these will not travel with us into the next world. In fact, the fear and anxiety that everyone is experiencing right now is a direct result from society reaching beyond their means.

Now I am not sure who exactly is selling this concept, but it needs to stop. I rent a cheap apartment in San Francisco. Its not nice, its not glamorous, but its affordable and allows me to stay debt free. Do I deserve a loft? Do I need to own a home at 25 years old? No. Thats why I live in a place thats $360 a month. Its not forever, but it works while I piece together a company and attempt to live a “ramen” lifestyle - as Paul Graham would say.

In five years at the age of 30 I hope to be living in dramatically different circumstances. These are the risks I have chosen to take to better my overall self. Struggle benefits my character and breeds worth.

To all the people with a couple of stocks - diversify. Check out some CD’s, mutual funds or wait it out a bit. You need to have skin in the game, but its alright to take a breather and regroup. I took my IRA account offline five months ago. I have not lost anything in this most recent market correction. Right about now is actually a good point to enter in my opine. I think right now I will wait to see what happens with Washington Mutual (WM) and from there decide where to enter the game.

Where did my zen go?

Right now I sit at Squat & Gobble on Fillmore at Haight Street. My nose is runny, my time capsule is sucking balls and I have a slight headache.

Yay, this is really awesome.

Top this all off with a shitty conversation with a respected bag manufacturer and you can see why today sucks.

Its rough to have your ideas crushed by industry insiders. I am not really sure how to respond to these guys at times.

I would like to think that I am smarter, faster and more knowledgeable than the other guy. But I know that there are plenty of guys who have been around the block longer than me - bringing experience and aptitude to the game.

On the other hand. There is a reason why people shit talk a good idea - they wish they would have thought of it first. Now I am not saying that I am the first guy to think about a track bike specific world wide web, but I will state that no one has pulled off a functioning site as of September 8th, 2008.

I do not warm very well to pessimistic people. Keep your negative attitude to yourself. I am just trying to get my zen on.

Two hours at the apple store with no resolve has not helped things out either.

Thankfully, tomorrow is another day. I am grateful that I have this little blog to bitch to myself about things.

New Blogging Software and Lipdubs

I’ve developed this new software in my spare time. Its called a PBR Machine. Basically you drink pabst blue ribbon and as it hits your head - these thoughts - are transformed into instantaneous blog postings.

I mean really. This medium is dead already in so many aspects. Just as so many people have never heard of a blog, the old school bloggers are shifting to better - quicker mediums like twitter.

Watching Youtube videos. Was looking up Magnetic Fields, since I have a minor crush on their music and found Kelli singing. Digging Kelli’s lipdubs. She tumblrs here.

Really cute girl. Wonder if she’s single?

Cool Sprout about bikes

My buddy Joey Mucha made this or at least referred it to me.

Pretty neat and easy to use.

Labor Day Affair

This past weekend was a great time to chill out and spend some time with my family.

We traveled down to San Luis Obispo and saw my younger brother David, who is going into his fourth year of Cal Poly. Lets hope its the last (although my sources are pointing towards a fifth year).

Pismo Beach was visited on Saturday followed by Ahi Burgers at Splash Cafe.

Sunday we hiked a big hill. Not really sure of its name, but it was not until the top that we could drone out the sound of Highway 101. This was followed up by a soccer game of Cal Poly Mustangs vs. Air Force. Wonder what the mascot is for the Air Force - Anyone know off hand?

David is a big believer in the Democratic Party. I support my little brother in all his endeavours, thus I was thrilled to see him spearheading the Cal Poly Dems club at the local park. They made $200 selling sodas for their student club.

Today I start a company…

The idea of having something of my own to call Kristian’s has always been appealing.

There are thousands of companies out there and every single one of them was started by an idea.

Talk is cheap, but its the actions behind the scenes that make dreams a reality.

I have a dream. Its pretty simple. Make track bikes accessible to people.

My whole life I have been passionate about riding bikes.

It must have been my fifth birthday or somewhere around there that I first got the biking bug.

It was a red mongoose bmx bike. My father took me to the College of Marin parking lot - which was behind our house. There was a lot of falling, probably some crying, but soon enough I was stuck to the saddle.

This passion evolved into many forms.

There was Kristian the elementary school commuter. We could officially start riding to school in 3rd grade, I think I sneaked in during 2nd just to be rebel.

Middle school showed a bmx/mountain biker personality manifested in tattered jeans, really big t-shirts and flannel. Too much flannel actually.

High school had more biking. It was my aim to never accept a ride to school. Rain or shine I was riding that damn BMX. It lasted the entire freshman year.

Around my junior year I had the idea of trying one of my dad’s old racing bikes. It was a mid-70’s touring bike made by Peugeot. I crashed that baby a few times, but it still exists in the garage. damn french.

Later on in college I was on the Columbia Lion’s racing team. I pretty much sucked. The spandex warriors were too hardcore about it. Our coach was named Happy. He helped me to focus, while still having fun. I erred on the side of fun. If the team was all about going to sleep early and eating right, than I was about drinking beer and staying out late.

Racing in the east coast in the winter is a bitch. There is no way of getting around the ice, arctic wind chill and cold hands/feet. It was in college that I was first introduced to this “track bike” thing.

It seemed like a really great idea. No brakes and no gears. Yeah, I totally had to have one.

Through numerous iterations I have gone from one frame to the next. Always trying to get better parts, more customized solutions and cool gear.

Every city I have traveled to I seek out the best bike shops. The internet helps, but the locals are the ones who really know whats up.

Hopping around from bike forum to bike forum I have seen a great disconnect between the multiferous biker communities across the US and abroad. There are a couple thousand websites about bikes, bike shops, manufacturers, blogs, user profiles, bike routes, etc. They each respond to the issues of their users.

And most important to these sites are their users. The biking community is the most die-hard, awesome set of human beings that I can imagine. Whether you are a messenger riding to make that dollar, a commuter riding to work or a recreationalist trying to have a good time; we are all bonded to the road.

So, I want to take the passion and knowledge of the masses, my knowledge of the internetz and with the help of this great community make a beneficial company for track bikers everywhere.

Thats it. Much, much more to follow.

Kristian Hansen

San Francisco is heating up, economy slowing down

Despite the recent economic downturn hitting the United States there is a buzz of activity in the internet world. San Francisco is not slowing down, neither is the thirst for innovation or knowledge.

If the last two quarters of funding are indicative of the next wave in internet services than we are in for a big suprise come 2009-2010.

To give some background, I am not describing the era of major ball-busting valuations (like Facebook at $15B) or the Hedge Fund’s turned VC-types.What I am describing as blowing up is the next generation of small, smart and agile startups.

This is the sphere that is making tremendous gains. Its the 2-3 person young company that brings wit, developers and response to market conditions.

They don’t want to raise buttloads of cash, but really seek a sustainable situation. Why not just keep your company and take rent money? Give away only what is necessary?

These are a sign on the times to come. Gone are the days when you need to buy $1M worth servers and infrastructure. We are investing in smart people only at this point.

We are keeping things light and keeping it simple. Stocktwits for instance is a small operation. There are three of us right now. We have over 600 twitter users and we are steadily growing.This will be a fun company to follow as it grows.

Disqus is an awesome, growing service started by Jason and Daniel. They did not go out and raise $5M or buy apartments/ flashy cars with the money they raised from USV and KBC Partners. They have computer monitors, but they are made by Dell and smaller than 24-inches.

Its possible to make a great product and run a valuable company without all the bells and whistles.

Y-Combinator, TechStars and Plug & Play are great examples of this overall idea. Start small, start often. Iterate, iterate and iterate.