Design Matters

We believe design matters….

PUBLIC’s founder Rob Forbes, who also founded Design Within Reach, shares his thoughts about why design matters and the vision behind PUBLIC. We design and sell urban bikes, along with accessories to make riding more enjoyable, practical, and chic. Our European-inspired bikes ride like butter. They come in single and multi-speeds in all sizes. You can dress in casual or business attire, and wear pumps, tennis shoes, or flip flops – just about anything – while riding our bikes. And we have baskets, bags and other gear to go along with them. These bikes will make you feel like a kid again, and this is every bit as important as anything else.

PUBLIC Bikes: Design Matters from PUBLIC Bikes on Vimeo.

Come on down to Fulton Cycle Works and let us show you why design matters.

Somedays you’re the hammer

Somedays you’re the hammer;
Cantua Creek Road Race report
2/15/14
Elite 4 field
weather cool and cloudy, mild wind
teammates…
Placing; 1st

Cantua Creek is held on an out and back stretch of old hwy 33, ~26 miles each of 3 laps. The race finishes at the top of a short (~7min climb). Going into the races my plan was to attack the final climb but otherwise try to stay off the front and conserve for the finish and for Sundays road race.  things were going great I spent 2 laps ‘tail-gunning’ and staying quite fresh. Attacks on the first and second laps got up the road and built solid gaps on the first couple passes of the ‘finish’ hill but were brought back by the descent and disorganized chases. Once the break was caught on the out port in f the last lap I decided it was time to get to the front, the next break might be the last and I wanted to be in it.

At this point I sensed that an organized group at the front could split the field, and one racer was trying to herd the guys near the front into a rotating pace line/echelon. I was willing to take part and did a few pulls but guys weren’t rotating through.  Workking on the front pulling the pack along was not part of my plan, so after the third time that the next guy refused to take his turn I was furious.  I attacked sharply and really pushed hard for a minute or two. Normally one doesn’t attack this way, I was really just trying to punish the guys behind me, but somehow I got a gap, when the pack didn’t chase and nobody bridged I settled into TT mode; tuck in, gear up, hammer down.

Not much to tell from there out. I passed the next field up the road and a lot of remnants of other fields and stuck the solo break for about 15 miles finishing well ahead of the charging 4s field. And, taking my first road race win

Joe

Week one report

By Darren Johnson

cert

I’ve been here at United Bicycle Institute in Ashland, Oregon for a week now.  Ashland is a cyclist’s dream for several reasons.  Ashland is a very cyclist friendly town, with bountiful bike parking, and bike lanes everywhere!  The mountain biking, I’m told, is superb, and tomorrow I’ll find out for myself.  I’ll be riding some local trails with one of the suppliers that has helped Fulton Cycle Works grow and be prosperous!  I’ll make sure and report on that later.  I don’t think there is a flat road anywhere in this town!  This can be a blessing or a curse, depending on the type of cyclist you are.  The school is really amazing. I’ll admit the first week at school has been rather remedial, but I’ve been picking up many tips and tricks that will make sure the new Fulton Cycle Works has the best service (albeit small) department in town!  I won’t go into specific details, but rest assured, many improvements to how we service and tune bicycles will be realized, bringing you more value and complete bicycle care!

The next two weeks are dedicated to professional shop mechanics, and I’m excited to see just how much they can expand on certain topics.  (in week one, we spent an entire day on derailleurs!)  Wish me luck!  After that, I’ll attend a week of class dedicated to wheel building, and suspension. I’m excited to start offering custom built wheels as part of the new Fulton Cycle Works!

All in all, we are extremely excited to be moving into our brand new and very upscale home at the Iron Bird Lofts!  We will bring more products, more services, and more knowledge with us, so please come check out the new location just as soon as we open!

Fulton Cycle Works
1901 Fulton Street #111
Fresno, Ca. 93721
(559) 917-3678
www.fultoncycleworks.com

Race Report – Leesville Gap Road Race

Leesville Gap Road Race
7/6/13
Cat 4
6th place

That race was amazing.

lv

I went into it feeling great, hunting a win and some upgrade points.

The course is tough, brutal even. A few miles of flat roads until the rough section starts (I rode front 1/3 very conservative through here) once we were bouncing our way through the pave the pace picked up and the road started tilting up. A 2 man break got a bit of a gap ~45 seconds and the group really didn’t respond. I was riding in the dirt to avoid the potholes, when we came around a curve one of th leaders was standing with a wheel off his bike. I thought that since the pack wasn’t chasing the 2 guys, maybe I should join and get to the climb ahead of the pack. I briged to the other leader and held off the group for ~10 minutes but was sucked up on a smooth dirt climb… Once caught I was shot out of the back of the group. Just moments later we reached the real climb. I started it about 30 seconds back from the group, I rode as hard of a pace as I thought I could maintain but didn’t make any progress. Guys had dropped off the lead group but it was still holding or maybe pulling away a bit and I started to despair. I was looking around thinking to get a chase group formed for the descent and flats coming up. A rider coming back from the lead group told me one guy was setting the pace and wasn’t even showing signs of working. I thought BS no one is going to drop me on a climb without working, I refocused on the chase. I was maybe a minute behind and pulled up maybe to my original 30 second gap over the top but the descent was just as rough as the climb and I was on my limit. I caught and passed riders having even more trouble with the descent than me. Finally when back on the rolling flats I linked with 2 riders including the guy who I’d met on the climb. He and I were matched pretty well and ended up dropping the 3rd rider and working together to chase. It felt like I was stronger (I took faster and longer pulls on the flats) but going over the second climb my ‘friend’ dropped me and built a gap on that descent. I rode tempo alone, again beginning to despair, when I grabbed a COLD neutral water bottle and got a handful of ice under my jersey. That was a life saver. I settled into a tuck and rode tempo trying to catch my ‘friend’. I was passed by a Safeway rider way off the front just before a brief descent and watched as he overtook my carrot. After that final descent we were back onto flat central valley roads and winds and I just kept chasing. A four man group with 3 Safeway riders passed here and I saw a few riders chasing slowly… cat 4s I was sure. My ‘carrot’ up ahead was working hard not to get caught which pissed me off a bit, so when I made the catch I sat on his wheel not taking any pulls for a few minutes. Another cat 4 caught us but we didn’t really get together until we were caught by 4 more 4s. My research of the course told me that we were going to cross over a canal with a left right chicane, and that that is just under 10 miles from the finish. As our group came around I was at the back I attacked out of the corner and drilled it at TT pace. I got a gap and gained until I saw 2 riders ahead and focused on catching them rather than staying away. I caught them, one asked me if the chase group was a danger? Yes, there’s 6 of them chasing. We started to rotate when I came off after my second pull the third guy hadn’t pulled yet, I told him to take his turn… he said “no I’m tired” so I attacked telling the other rider “leave him he’s worthless” I kicked into the last corner and again out of it and time trialled to the finish, I caught one more rider on the line but he was from a different field. When the dust settled, I’d finished 6th (worth 2 upgrade points) I didn’t win but I rode hard and executed my race ruthlessly. I’ve never attacked guys like that and been so rewarded, in crits there are always fresh legs willing to chase; at the end of a hard road race though…

-Joe

Way to go Joe!!!

Congratulations to Joe Booth for winning the Northern California and Nevada state TT championship! Joe, riding his FORT TT rig won the masters 30-34 category with an average speed of 27.9mph over a 40k course! Thanks Joe!

joe