Bikes Do The Talking
by Chris Johnson 08.06.2004
How do you get a city that's in love with their automobiles to concider biking more? Let the bikes do the talking. Charlotte's Department of Transportation launchs a campaign to encourage people to ride.
Tour de Litespeed
by Chris Johnson 08.12.2003
The finest titanium bicycles in the world are meticulously handcrafted in the mountains of Chattanooga, Tennessee. You have too see it to believe it.
Thanks to the hardwork of Joe Silvestri, Team True Wheels had the rare privilege of touring American Bicycle Group’s Litespeed factory. In addition, we all had the opportunity to test drive the 2004 models on beautiful scenic roads.
Litespeed delivered the bicycles to our hotel bright and early. Matt Britz of Bicycles South setup the bikes for us with our own pedals and adjustments. We donned our jerseys and went for a cruise. I rode the 2004 Vortex and was instantly impressed on how comfortable it was to ride. This was a surprise to me as I was very skeptical to begin with. I also found the Vortex to be very responsive, my favorite quality in a racing machine. After some hasty showers it was off to the factory.
The first thing that was readily apparent was all of the employee’s cars had bike racks. In hindsight this should not have been a surprise. The factory employees love their bicycles.
The tour was lead by Herbert Krabel, their national marketing director. You could see from the look in his eyes that he took his bicycles very seriously. German’s are like that. For instance, my father was a German bakers apprentice. Every Christmas he bakes an eight layer cake (A 3 hour process). One year he misplaced his German cookbook and had to resort to the English translation. Two hours into baking the book called for a “Pinch” of something. Since a “Pinch” was not a precise measurement the entire cake went into the garbage can along with the cookbook.
Litespeed is constantly improving their quality control and tightening the tolerances their products are manufactured too. All their titanium parts are manufactured in house instead of being outsourced overseas. This gives them better control over the finished product. In addition, they maintain a history of everyone that worked on a particular frame and what was done to it. This way if something happens they can trace through the process and improve it.
More later….
Click the links below for some other cool tour photos:
MS Breakaway 2003 September 20th and 21st.
by John C. Walters 07.22.2003
Dear True Wheel Riders,
Greetings friends,
For those of you that are newbies I am your team source for fund
raising ideas and encouragement or more easily remembered as
the ¡§Money Guy¡¨. It is my personal goal that True Wheels keeps its
#2 spot in the chapter and hopefully can overtake or match the
mighty Bank America. Keep in mind that Wachovia is right behind us
nipping at our heals. Our contributions as well as membership
increased nicely in 2002. Keep in mind that competition among teams
is fun and the winner will always be the MS Society.
With our success last year the $100,000. goal is reachable. Wouldn¡¦t
that be a blast to do that?
Perhaps there is someone or a company that would like to sponsor a
special reward to the True Wheels team if we were able to reach this
100K goal. If so please contact me.
It is now the time to start your fundraising efforts. The MS Society
has again outlined the rewards for certain threshold levels of fund
raising. As a MS team we encourage every rider to reach for the Top
Banana level of $700.00. You are loved regardless if you raise a
little or a lot. If for example if we have 100 riders that raise on
an average of $1000.00, as a team we would have $100,000 for MS.
That would be cool!
„« Set a fundraising goal for yourself.
„« On the new fantastic web-site [www.truewheels.org] There
will be a new section for letters. Feel free to down load and tweak
to your needs. There will be more to choose from in the future.
„« Lacking inspiration contact me and I will do my best to
help.
„« Get started now and do not wait until September.
I would like some feedback from members that have something to crow
about regarding fund raising. I would like to be able to share with
the rest any personal victories experienced in the area of
fundraising. I know I talked to many of you last year and you shared
with me a lot of successes. Lets put it in writing. Please e-mail
them to me and I will put them together for the next letter.
TEAM GOALS;
„« Commit to ride
„« Sign up now for the 2003
„« Put the 2003 ride on your calendar
„« Set a 2003 fundraising goal!!!
„« Recruit at least 1 new rider
„« Participate in at least 1 off season MS Society Event
I had the honor and privilege of accepting two awards for
you, Team True Wheels, at the Multiple Sclerosis Victory Party. The
first was for most members in the "Friends and Family" category with
68 members. The next one, and the one I am most proud of, was for
first place in fundraising in that same category with $76,515 raised
by our team! Congratulations, gang!!
Overall the 2002 ride raised $1.65 million dollars from our region in
support of the fight against MS making us the 4th largest in the
nation. I remember the first MS 150 we did back in 1985 as about 50
of us rode in the mountains around Asheville and raised a few
thousand dollars. We have come a long way and I hope we can continue
as a team fighting the good fight.
The 2 plaques will be on display at Bicycles South for all to see.
Thanks to everyone who helped make these awards possible!
