Germany Aug 2012, pt. I - Eurobike

Some pix taken during my late August trip to southern Germany. Part I, the Eurobike trade show:

Sweet Ford Modeo Estate diesel rental car. Solid, roomy, torquey and great brakes and tires...

 ...I had it maxed out at 221 km/h (≈137MPH) on an open, downhill, unrestricted stretch of the Autobahn.

Since the Eurobike trade show is in the relatively small city of Friedrichshafen, lodging accommodations can tend to be "creative" at times. This year a group of us stayed at a Catholic academy:

 Dorm style:

 My thoughts exactly:

Weingarten in the morning:

 Weingarten street art:

 ???:

 Covered roadway between Weingarten and Friedrichshafen:

 Snack #1

 Part of Electra's 80 meter long Eurobike stand:

Anodized 3D violet makes a nostalgic appearance. I bought one of these headsets for my friend who owns the wonderful Velo Hangar shop in Solana Beach:

BOO!

Show-going pooch:

Don P and Thor "The God Of Thunder" Hushovd:

Snack #2:

 Interesting wine-carrying rack on a Schwinn:

 German-style marketing, paint-on jerseys:

Sweet lighting:

Snack three, salty-sweet licorice fish from northern Germany (Hamburg): 

 One of many, repeated texts that kept coming through over multiple nights as I tried to sleep:

Sorry, no Don Jose here. Now beat it.

New Garb

Celeste really likes one of the new Electra Interbike trade show shirts. This one features the new Cherie model.
We must have had one handsome (and smart) mailman when we lived in Boulder over ten years ago.

Cycling the Streets of Hamburg

My trip to Germany ended in Hamburg, Germany's second most-populous city (1.8 million residents) and also home to the second-largest port in Europe. On the four and-a-half hour drive up on the Autobahns from Cologne I managed to push the little SEAT up to 209 kp/h while following an elderly man driving a VW Touran mini van. That old guy schooled me. Electra's European HQ is in Hamburg, and I wanted to visit the office, learn about their market along with their wants and needs and visit some cool German bike shops.

I arrived at my groovy hotel (more on that in a future post) late on Monday afternoon and set out on foot to find some dinner. Here are some photos from the journey.

main train station

I found myself in a shopping district, I believe it was along Mönckebergstr. Plenty of outdoor cafés and the like to choose from...

...Danish hot dogs? Nah.

Kartoffelpuffer (potato pancakes)? They sure smelled good...

...but I wanted something a bit more than fried potatoes. Ooh, a bäckeri......but they mainly had sweets and some bland-looking sandwiches. So I found (yet another) small pizza joint and enjoyed another great Germany pizza. After dinner I walked further east to check out Hamburg's Rathaus, or city hall.Built in neo-renaissance style between 1886-1897, it's Hamburg's city hall and occupies an entire city block. Quite stunning at night too. After spending some time at the Rathaus, I wandered past some of the high-end boutiques just to the north before taking a taxi back to my hotel.

The next morning I awoke to perfect late-summer weather and headed off to Electra GmbH for my morning meeting. After that was done I grabbed an Electra Amsterdam Balloon from their fleet (I have the same bike here at home) for my day's ride. Along the way I was able to take in many very cool parts of this historic city.

yet another groovy German communications tower

As part of my journey I passed the Reeperbahn district and St. Pauli.
This is Hamburg's seedier part as well as home to it's red light district...
...which isn't all that hoppin' at 10:30 AM. Note that the sign above states that those entering have to be at least 18 - and that no women are allowed. I doubt I could find any of the kinds of tools that I am interested in at the shop below.

This is also the area of Hamburg where The Beatles regularly performed from 1960-1962.

random doorway graffiti

More pedaling on the Amsterdam and I found myself approaching the harbor.
I should add that the Schwalbe Fat Franks 2.35" wide tires were fantastic on the pavers.
I found the warehouse district the most interesting part of the city. Built in the 1880s to, uh, warehouse the goods offloaded in the ports, the large brick buildings have very interesting canals running between them.

Looking up you can see the apparatus for hoisting crates of cargo long ago:
After sitting virtually-abandoned for decades, these buildings have been rehabbed and now house offices, restaurants and other small businesses.
With my shop visits complete and GPS battery running low, I chose my route carefully so that I'd be less-prone to becoming lost - so I decided to ride around Hamburg's inner-city lakes, Binnenalster and Aussenalster.
Some of Hamburg's grand old office buildings face Binnenalster, the smaller of the two lakes that is also closer to Hamburg's downtown.
Aussenalster has very Madison-esque bike and walking paths surrounding it. Being a beautiful day, the round-the-lake ride or run was a popular late-afternoon diversion for Hamburgers (yes, that's what the residents are called).
Overall I was able to get in a leisurely 25-mile ride over the course of the day. Here's where I went - well, most of where I went, I accidentally forgot to resume the GPS's tracking function a couple of times.
And thanks to Akki and the Electra Hamburg staff for the hospitality and letting me borrow the Amsterdam Balloon.
And finally, I saw this sweet late-model Mini Cooper parked outside the great restaurant we hit for dinner:
If only I could have crammed it in my carry-on luggage.

If It's Hip, It's Here

A fashion blog has a nice photo piece on Electra style. Check it out HERE.

Electra Catalog Photo Shoot

Okay, I know I'm very fortunate career-wise. Fortunate to have a great job in a great industry with great people. Fortunate that I get to travel to interesting places. One of the interesting places I was able to see this summer was a salt flat about an hour east of Barstow, CA.

The site was chosen to give the photos an ethereal, dream-like quality. The beautiful colors of the bikes look fantastic shooting against such a stark background. Plus the surface is like a giant sweep.

We drove up the Sunday night before the shoot, staying at the very old-school Ludlow Motel. Exactly what you'd expect in Ludlow, CA; which is to say not much more than a place to rest your road-worn body down for a little shut-eye.

the rental RV, poaching a spot out behind the Ludlow Motel

first light on the Ludlow Coffee Shop and an old service station

leaving Ludlow

I gotta get back and re-shoot this old building when I have time (and better light)

Our destination was just south of Amboy, CA - off of old Route 66.

nothin' much to see here

Ahh, on the salt...
This is the only time I have ever been able to ride blindfolded. The salt "pad" is a few square miles, hardpack and manicured from time to time. No need to worry about hitting anything larger than some salt heaves - about 2" tall. I went about two minutes riding at a decent clip on one of our cruisers with my eyes shut. Trippy.

The art director really liked this chair so we borrowed it from the motel.

Much to my chagrin, we returned it. I would have happily offered $20 for it.

static profile shots
from an action shot setup (the hipsters rode towards the camera)
my old Indy (also my favorite Electra cruiser)

The main purpose of the location is large evaporative pits for leeching chloride out of the dirt.

Pretty trippy, a coworker and I walked up to check these out in person. Since we had spent all day out in the sun, it looked rather refreshing. However, I've never experienced anything quite as salty as this water. Yep, I tasted it.

dive in?

All-in-all, a nice couple of days at the office. I can't wait to show off our new catalog.