Anyways, my role as more of an observer than a participant in the creation of Common Cycles has been an interesting chance to think about the bike industry in general and what I was actually doing in it. Something I realized:

Passion isn’t special. Humility is.

When you tell someone that you’re a cyclist and work in the bicycle industry, the usual response is something like, “It must be amazing to have your work also be your passion.” And, of course, that’s true.

But it’s also true that plenty of people are just as passionate about building websites or simply making big piles of money as I am about cycling. And to be honest, there are times where cycling and I feel less like hot-blooded newlyweds and more like an old married couple. Point being, an alignment of passion and profession isn’t unique to the bike industry.

But there is something that – at least in my experience – seems to be pretty unusual. I can’t recall every meeting anyone in the bike industry who took their good luck for granted. And, to be sure, it is by luck that we’re doing what we’re doing, as opposed to marketing for insurance companies, designing office furniture, etc. I’ve never worked with anyone in the bike industry with an attitude like, “I’m smart and creative, so I deserve this.”

This really clicked for me at SXSW, riding with my former KGSN colleague Ian Dille, on pause from the frenzy of advertising and tech startup egos. And so far, working at COMMON has been a lot like riding with bike industry friends. As successful as they’ve been elsewhere, John, Rob, and Alex have an ingrained attitude of “we’re all lucky to be here.” Maybe it’s only natural that COMMON’s first venture will be a bike company.

Afterword

I know some folks are skeptical about Common Cycles. But there are a couple things to keep in mind. One, it’s not just about starting a bike company. Alabamboo is a broader initiative to create sustainable jobs in one of the poorest parts of the country, and bicycles are one of many things that can be made out of bamboo. Also, this initial venture is intended to be a template for future entrepreneurs to come with their own ideas to launch under the central brand – which doesn’t actually own Common Cycles or any other company bearing the COMMON name.

Welcome to the FearLess Cottage. As alluded to in my last post with the Vimeo-Facebook embed form, I’ve started an internship here where I’ll be helping Alex & Ana Bogusky, Rob Schuham and some other really smart, really nice folks to launch COMMON. The concept, briefly, is to build a socially and environmentally sustainable brand that can launch any number of independent, loosely connected ventures. Here’s more:

My specific project is to map and build a site for COMMON that will encourage community members to share ideas for new ventures, form teams, and move forward through COMMON’s incubator process. The project – and COMMON itself – is constantly evolving, and I’ll keep you posted. If you’re interested in joining the COMMON community, you can (and should) sign up here. Seriously, do it now.

In the midst of getting rolling with all this, I took my maiden voyage to SXSW Interactive as part of Boulder Digital Works’ 20+-member delegation. The scale of the event was a bit overwhelming; the 11am time slot on Tuesday had about forty different offerings. Not surprisingly, the highlights of my trip all happened away from the throngs at the convention center.

• Dropping in on the SoDA Meetup
• Seeing Zombies Vs Hippies in print in PSFK’s Future of Mobile Tagging book
• Some good bike riding, featuring Hill Country gas station tacos

Thanks to my Austin hosts Ian Dille and David Wenger, plus Peter Yesawich Jr for their hospitality!

Complete Specs:

Weight is 16.75 lbs with pedals, old-school saddle, and wire-bead tires. And yes, I carry a frame pump along the left seat stay.

I also had a chance to interview one of the most influential, modernizing figures in pro cycling, Bjarne Riis.

And finally, there’s Joao Correia – the former associate publisher of Bicycling Magazine who’s now racing for Cervelo TestTeam.

Ramada, West Sac. Day 1. (Incase)

MASH rolling out from Davis. Day 2. Before the trip, I’d scheduled this as my one day to say hi to folks and hang out around the finish. I was lucky. (Incase)

Taking pictures for Zipp at the stage start in Sausalito. Day 3. (Zipp photos, videos)

Breakfast before the San Jose-Modesto stage, Day 4. Not counting the prologue, this was my first day of riding. (Incase)

Rolling out from Modesto at the start of Day 5. (Incase)

The finish line, Day 6. Paso Robles. (Incase)

Brett Lancaster warming up for the time trial in Solvang, Day 7. (Incase; Zipp photos, Sastre interview)

I finally caught up with Thor Hushovd after dinner on Day 8. (Zipp photos, Hushovd interview)

Remnants of Walton’s shoe after descending Mt. Palomar, Day 9. (Incase)

As for the site, we opted for WordPress MU in order to maintain some separation between the blogs. For instance, we could give riders admin-level control over their blogs while ensuring that no could can edit anyone else’s content. Down the road, the site would even accommodate completely different looks and features for each rider’s blog. Craziness!

The challenge was that WPMU is really intended for sites like WordPress.com where blogs are completely walled-off from each other. So it required lots of modifications to get the right level of site-wide coordination that we needed for the Crew.

On the social media side of things, the site is designed to integrate riders’ Twitter feeds, photos from Flickr, and videos from YouTube. Hosting content on these sites increases the reach of the campaign and keeps everything under the Stumpjumper Trail Crew banner. Flickr in particular is a little more complicated from the author’s standpoint, but Specialized has picked riders who know their way around a website – like Bikehugger’s David Schloss.

Now that the site is live, it’s time to switch gears from coding to copywriting.

Big Project #1 that recently wrapped up was copywriting for Zipp’s 2010 catalog. I can’t think of any company in the bike industry that offers more subject material for a writer to work with. Seven different models of Zipp wheels were used in the Tour and it’s not a stretch to say that more effort went into designing Zipp’s new brake pad than goes into some high-end frames. Plus, the folks in Speedway, Indiana, have an incredible lineup of sponsored road teams and triathletes. In some cases, the challenge of copywriting is bringing to life inherently uninteresting products. With Zipp, the hard part is figuring out which of the important things are not too important to cut.

Big Project #2 has been taking over online and offline marketing and communications for the North American Handmade Bicycle Show – headquartered just down the street from Zipp. My first order of business for NAHBS was building the show’s new website. Here’s a before-and-after of the page that lists registered exhibitors. On the new site, all exhibitors have profile pages and bike portfolios that they can edit themselves using the WordPress platform. Some new features are in the works as well.

In other news, I’ve just begun work on a new WordPress site for a social media campaign from a major brand. Details forthcoming….

Finally, I got a dog and a frame.