Another road frame pre-order done and dusted. Thanks to all fans, friends, customers, family members, and whoever else has helped us to live this rock and roll lifestyle. Without going into it too deeply, our sales growth this year has been rewarding. October and November are the first two months where we can track same store year over year sales, and if November (the month) ended today November (the company) will have done very well. So thank you.
When we launched our first road frame pre-order last year, we did it without any track record. November was brand new, and though we'd shown demo frames at cross events, no one locally had raced on one of the frames. We'd ridden on them a lot, and a lot of you rode on them a little bit, but there was little depth to the story. A year later, with a year of credibility for our company and a year of our road frames proving themselves in races all over the joint, and with our wheels becoming something like a phenomenon (thanks, LL Cool J!), our second order has succeeded our first like you would hope that a successful start up would do.
The cross frames are a bit different. We would have preferred to have them about a month before we got them, but sometimes the slings and arrows cause things to go that way. Had we not gone through the exercise we did with the scandium frames, we wouldn't have been as sure of the choice we made with the carbon bikes. But, when we picked the carbon bikes, we already had a year of experience with the supplier, and the world had a year of experience with us. So asking our team to switch from their bikes to our new frames a few weeks into the season wasn't ideal but everyone was great with it and loved the new bikes almost from the first pedal stroke.
We don't make a general habit of being the douchey guys who brag on all the podiums and everything, but the team has been doing extraordinarily well on the bikes. Since the first race at Winchester, a bike has been ridden to a podium spot in every race they've been to - and you don't even have to count my measly one in there to make the stat. We're working on a three week winning streak spread around among various team members, and the wins are being backed up by 2nds and 3rds (and 7ths - give me a little time I'm getting my feet underneath me). I can personally say that I was nervous as hizzell when Paul started using the bike after he'd pedaled his old one into the MABRA Masters leader's jersey. Fortunately he's gone to plaid in the last couple of weeks and done even better on the new one than his old one. None of which is to place responsibility for any of these great results on the bikes. Far from it. But it's readily apparent that if you want to race and race well in smoking hot fields, the HOT BUNS is more than capable of making that journey with you. Unlike when we asked you to place great faith in us last year without having too much in the way to show you, there's a great deal more filling out the story this year.
But why even believe the results and the pictures and the stories? Come and taste our HOT BUNS for yourself. Over the next few weeks*, we're scheduled to appear* at the following races*:
This coming weekend: Schooley Mill*
Next weekend: Vint Hill* and Rockburn*
The weekend after that: Taneytown*
The weekend after Taneytown: Capital Cross*
*It's flu season, duck season, rabbit season, and every other kind of season you can think of. I might go on a binge the likes of which the world has never known. Or catch a flat tire on the Beltway. Scheduled to appear.
Okay, time to go pluck the mud out of my helmet and count how many crossresults points I'm ahead of someone by.