June 2010

Ready…set… SUMMER.

I apologise for the silence. We’re just as busy as we had hoped: two of our tours are full, we have rentals going out every week and we’re selling Bike Switzerland and BMC gear every day.

I realized in April that it was going to be a big year for Bike Switzerland and so I’ve quit my job and am working in the office and shop full time now. Even with the extra time, the business is growing and I’ve brought a lot of new people on board for this summer. More about them in my mid-june update !

Bike Switzerland: Same Tours, less money  .

If you’re outside Europe, then our trips have become a lot cheaper. The Swiss Franc has lost around 15% of it’s value against the dollar since January. If you’ve been putting that trip to Europe off, think again. We Still have dates open: See Summer 2010 dates here. If those dates don’t work, then consider an independent tour.

Alpen Challenge Electric is here

Maybe you and your spouse are at different levels ? Perhaps you want go further, do more? You can, it’s here: check it out at www.bikeswitzerlandrentals.com .

This is an assist system that takes us 20 minutes to install on any of our Alpen Challenge bikes. You decide how much help you need: 25% , 50 %, 75 % or somewhere in between. The system is hardly noticeable with a small battery on the rear rack. Plug it into the wall of your hotel in the evening and you’ll have a full charge which will last you around 90 KM.

Free BMC Kits !

We’re giving away BMC Team Replica kits for anyone ordering 3 or more BMC clothing items from www.bikeshopswitzerland.com These kits are manufactured by BMC and come with: jersey, bib shorts and carrying case. We’re not selling the kits…they are only available through this offer.

Bike Switzerland in 2011 ? Best buy a Jersey.

If you’re thinking of doing a guided trip with us in Switzerland or the Canary Islands next year, then you should definately invest in our gear. Any time you buy Bike Switzerland Brand gear, we’ll apply 100% of your purchase to a 2011 trip.

Bike Switzerland Kits

So, buy the complete kit: 79 Chf for the jersey, 89 Chf for the bibs, 109 Chf for the jacket, 12 Chf for some socks and you’ve spent 289 Chf. We’ll deduct the entire sum from any 2011 guided trip.

Check out the gear right here.

2011 Tour Dates

We plan to pull back a bit next year and concentrate on our independent tours, rentals and new routes. This means that we’re planning only four guided tours for 2011. Although dates have not yet been set:

2 X Lite Tours: August and September

1X Challenge Tour: August

1 X Jura Climbing Loop: July

We’ll be using BMC road bikes for the Jura Climbing loop. If you’ve done our Challenge Tour and you want to move it up a notch, then you’ll want to sign up for this adventure.

Attention: Only 18 spaces on each trip and fewer dates than in previous years, so start your planning.

Are you on Facebook ?

Click here for Bike Switzerland on Facebook

We are. Check out our Facebook box to the left of this blog entry. Or click here.

In fact, my unofficial analysis of all facebook bicycle tour operators puts Bike Switzerland at position Number TWO !

(Congratulations Backroads !)

(Still, the big boys are in sight, so help our numbers…join our club and ask others to do the same.)

Just click the link and “like” Bike Switzerland. You’ll get updates almost daily about our tours and offers.

And we’re off….

Our first guided tour is taking off June 17th, (get on board !). And I’ll be back to you before then.

All of our guides are using Iphones now and we’re putting together a geo-tracking system so that you can follow us “live”, (definately not as much fun, but something to do between watching stages of the Tour de France stages).

Enjoy the weather wherever you are !

john

March 2010

Our Jersey and Kit are on Sale !

We plan on shipping on May 21st, but we suggest everyone does a pre-order because we are making a very small number (300 jerseys, 200 shirts, 100 bibs, 55 jackets ! Hurry !)

Swiss classic Jersey 79 Chf ! Swiss Classic bibs 89 chf !

PLUS we’re offering free shipping to anyone ordering 200 Swiss Francs or more of anything. So, buy the jersey, bib and a t-shirt and it’ll ship to you for FREE…whether or not you live in Switzerland, Italy, the United States or Australia !

We’re not going to get rich, we’re going to get the word out about biking in Switzerland !

Be an ambassador ! Click here to pre-order.

New Bike Switzerland Blog

We wanted to communicate with everyone more often than through monthly newsletters, so we created a “blog” on our site which we try to update a few times a week. The blog page also gives easy access to all of our other Bike Switzerland family sites and pages. You can go to the blog by clicking here.

Short sleeves in February….our Canary islands tour.

Some of our crew in Gran Canaria

It all went off superbly…thanks Ray ! However, our riders did keep saying, ” I didn’t know it was going to be this hard.” No, it’s not a tour as much as it is a Spring Training Camp and that’s how we we’ll market our 2011 trips. It’s warm, beautiful and Spain…but rides are tough and it’s a wake-up call to legs that haven’t been on the road since late October. Fortunately, this is exactly what the doctor ordered for our crew: they loved it and most of them are planning on coming back for our 2011 tour !

We’re planning to announce a late January or early February tour for 201, and are open to your suggestions, so send them in. A few of our riders mentioned that a November Canary Islands camp would be good since the legs would have had an entire season to train for those climbs. Again, let us know what you think.

See all pictures of the Canary Islands Tour here.

New Items…

We’ve just ordered a new set of Garmin Legend HCX GPS for our summer tours.  

Our BIONX electric bike system will be functioning by June. If you’re renting, you’ll be able to add the BIONX battery to your rental for 25 CHF per day, or if you’re doing one of our rides, you can get the BIONX for a 300 Chf supplement. Again, perfect for couples who want to ride together, but are at different levels.

Our fleet of new Streetfires SSX are coming in tomorrow. Watch our blog for pictures.

Registrations are looking good !

All of our guided tours are healthy and ready and rearing to go. There are still 3 to 6 spaces left on each tour depending on the date, so there is room…but those spaces are definately going to go. Hope you’re on one of them ! Check out dates and prices here.

January/February 2010

Bike Shop Switzerland Opens !

The on-line shop is now open for business. Our goal is to promote cycling in Switzerland and brands related to Swiss cycling. All products are available for international shipping at reasonable rates right here. We’re starting out with two objectives.

1) To get the hard to find BMC clothing line into the hands of riders outside Switzerland.

2) American based Hincapie Sports is The BMC Racing Team’s sponsor and clothing provider and this means that Swiss and  European fans do not have easy access to the team’s new pro kit, and we hope to change this.

The shop also offers cycling maps of all 9 Swiss National Routes, and this Spring we will also be introducing our own Bike Switzerland product line. Visit the shop by clicking here.

BMC Team Kit will ship internationally on March 15th

Last call for the Winter Cycling Paradise !

Wow…I just got off a great weekend in Gran Canaria with Ray and the BMC marketing staff. We were all extremly impressed with the well-maintained roads, the suprisingly green landscape, the hotels, bikes…man, it was all good. And it all required SPF 15 or higher (75 degrees that weekend !). And listen, we’ve tweaked the tour a bit and managed to lower the price 100 Euros (which we’ll reimburse to those who have signed on already).

Above the clouds on Gran Canaria

But get on board quick. You need to be on the island by February 20th and we’ll finish the tour on teh 28th. Just look for airport “LPA” on your favorite ticket search engine and get ready for some hard, warm riding and tall “après-bike” beers on the beach. More information at this link. And you can find pictures of my weekend at this link.

Electric Bike rentals at Bike Switzerland Rentals

The Bionx system is hardly noticeable on a regular bicycle.

We’d like to offer cycling to more ages and abilities by offering an electric assist option to our fleet of BMC Alpen Challenge bicycles . Nothing is perfect, but the new Canadian manufactured “Bionx” system is as close as it gets. We simply swap out your rear wheel, attach the light weight battery pack to either the frame our rack and you’re off ! The battery is rechargeable and good for around 80 km with an adjustable assist level which goes from 25% to 300 %. I think it will be ideal for couples who want to travel further with their children, spouses who would otherwise be at different levels, or for less experienced riders who are looking to do a rider that they could never consider otherwise. We’ll make an announcement when our rentals website has integrated the option. In the meantime, take a look at the Bionx website here.

New video of our “Lite Tour”

We put together video of our new “Lite Tour” . Our van driver and chef, David Cotting, is a band member of Tiger the Lion and we’ve set the video to their music. When we first did the video, we had a lot of text flashing across the screen to explain what you were seeing, but I thought it was too distracting and so removed it all. Just know that all the pictures are in the order that they appear on our itinerary. Come with us this summer and you’ll see it all on the trip…even more. I promise !

December Newsletter

Добро пожаловать русские друзья !

After six weeks of translation our Russian Language site is finally up: www.bikeswitzerland.ru . Again, our goal here is to make our rides truly international. Why Russian ? I love the people (especially my girlfriend, Irina) and Russians love Switzerland ! According to the Swiss Tourism board, the the number of Russians coming to Switzerland has been growing around 9% a year over the last 10 years. Now, while it is true that most of these tourists are the “elite” who come for the exclusive ski resorts and shopping, there is also a more democratic brand of tourist coming out of Russia. Unfortunately, the population knows very little about bicycle tourism and so we feel it’s necessary to introduce our concept to them in their native language.

We’re also going to be working with our friend Vladimir Filippov of the Russian Cycling Touring Club to bring a first group of Russian cyclists on a tour this summer. We also plan to hire a someone on the ground in Russia to promote the tours.

The BMC Streeftfire: Road bikes for Rent !

BMC Streetfire for rent

We’ve now gone beyond our classic BMC Alpen Challenge to offer BMC’s new 2010 Streetfire for rent !

We still believe that the Alpen is the best machine for our tours, but we do get quite a few people coming through every year asking for a good road bike to rent and there are very few places to rent in Switzerland.

So, in order to meet this demand, Bike Switzerland has ordered a smaller fleet of the BMC Streetfire for rent at 50 Chf per day. All Streetfires will come with computer, tools, water bottle and saddle bag. The bike weighs in at 8.6 kilos (around 1 kilo lighter than the Alpen Challenge, comes with a triple chain ring and is outfitted with Shimano 105. You can take a good look at the bike and our new re-designed rental site: www.bikeswitzerlandrentals.com

New Reviews Pages:

We’ve had hundreds of Bike Switzerland riders over the years and the feedback on our Reviews page was getting long and unwieldy. So, we decided to redesign this page so that the reviews are arranged by tour: Challenge, Lite and Independent. Of course, we’ve only been doing the Lite and Independent tours for two years and so we have fewer of those reviews. If you do have something “nice to say”, then send me your quote with your picture…it’s never too late to say something nice. (Right mom ?!)

Bike Shop Switzerland:

Bike Switzerland will be selling BMC clothing and assessories on our upcoming website: www.bikeshopswitzerland.com . Our on-line store will carry more BMC clothing and assessories than any other shop in the world (virtual or otherwise). Some of the items to be on sale are shown below. World-wide shipping from Switzerland at reasonable rates.

Messenger bag $79, Swiss Army Tool $99, Traveller bag $219

For a better look at the new line of BMC bicycle clothing, check out www.bicyclerumor.com

We hope that the website will be up by January 1st.

Canary Islands Update

The tour is about 1/2 full. As I mentioned in the last newsletter, BMC is going to be there in the mountains with us along with a fleet of their 2010 bikes. I’d like to make sure that our riders are dressed appropriately, so anyone signing up for the tour will get a very special BMC incentive. Please contact me directly to know more.

The Dollar and Bike Switzerland:

When we started Bike Switzerland, we were focusing on bringing American riders to Switzerland and so it seemed logical to gain trust and make things easy for our riders by accepting dollars. It’s now been 7 years and we have a wider international audience and the dollar has been volatile, and so to keep things simple in the accounting office, we’re moving entirely to Swiss Francs beginning January 1st. The prices for our 2010 tours will also be going up at this time. So, everyone really does have a huge incentive to get their deposits to us by January 1st. So, get your $500 per person deposit in by January 1st, and you’ll be able to pay your entire tour in dollars at 2009 prices! (January 2nd is too late)

Super Sexy Bike Switzerland

A friend of ours made this video for us. If you watch it through, you’ll see the Bike Switzerland crew.

I think we’re pretty good sports.

See you on Facebook

…I hope to talk to you again before the new year, but for near daily updates become our “FAN” on facebook.

JOHN

November/December Newsletter

Bicicleta Suiza !

Our new Spanish website is finally up and working. Our editors are going to be improving upon the text within the next couple of weeks, but all the pages have now been professionally translated and are accessible at www.bicicletasuiza.es

We’d appreciate it if you could forward this link to your Spanish-speaking biking buddies. Our next project is www.bikeswitzerland.ru which will be our Russian language site. It will be up in running within the next week.

The goal behind these translations is to attract a truly international group of riders for future tours. Of course, English will continue to be the common language of our tours, but we believe that potential riders need to be introduced to the concept of “Bike Switzerland” in their native language.

BMC in Grand Canary with us.

BMC in Grand Canary

BMC liked our Grand Canary idea so much, that they’ve decided to join us. The BMC staff will be coming to the island to launch their 2010 product line and will be sharing our facilities in Las Tirajanas. Ray Leddy (Bike Switzerland’s man on the ground) is taking care of all the logistics. Our Canary Island riders will be able to try out the new BMC 2010 road bikes and have the chance to pick the minds of the best road bike designers in the world . Yet another reason to get on board: 8 spaces left, so hurry !

New Movie Page on Bike Switzerland World:

We’ve added a “movie” page to showcase our Grand Canaria Discovery tour. Follow this link and watch our host Ray Leddy biking our itineraries, see the hotels we’ll be staying at, or simply enjoy the scenery of this far-flung paradise that is Europe’s most southern island.

New Facebook Fan Page:

On the right-hand side of this page, you will see our Facebook “Fan Page Feed”. If you have a Facebook account, then please click on the link to go to our FAN PAGE and then “become a fan”. You’ll be able to see pictures of past tours, get the latest Bike Switzerland information in our status updates and be invited to participate in surveys and contests throughout the year. Please oh please, be our friend !

Bike Switzerland Shop:

We will be opening a Bike Switzerland on-line shop in the next 2 to 3 weeks. The shop will carry BMC gear, Swiss bicycle maps, Bike Switzerland clothing and the Klickfix baggage that we use on our bikes.

New Prices January 1st

Remember to pay your deposit before January 1st to reserve your 2009 tour price for our 2010 tours. Our web-designer has set up everything to switch over to Swiss francs beginning at midnight on December 31st (New York Time) and prices will be going up around 12%, so it definately pays to get your deposit in. Choose a date and sign up today.

Big news ahead…

We’ve got lots of things to announce in the weeks ahead, so be expecting another newsletter in your mailbox in the next ten days or so.

My best,

JOHN

October 2009 Newsletter

Website improvements !!!

We’ve added a number of new features to the website.

• Better pictures ! The images used to showcase each day of the tour have been reformatted and posted using “Java”. Just click on a picture and see it enlarge ! After, click “next” and pass to the next picture !
• Elevation charts for each day of the tour ! Just go to a day page, look under the text and press the button. Be aware, when looking at an elevation chart, you need to keep the scale in mind. For example, you may think that the Lite Route is mountainous, but the elevation is recorded in small increments, so these “mountains” are really just small hills. No worries… the Lite Tour is quite flat…relatively speaking.
• Day schedules for each stage of the tour have been posted next to the elevation charts. We hope that this level of detail will give everyone a flavor for the day, while also showing the extensive planning that has gone into each of our tours.
• Updated tour pictures have been posted. If you did a tour with us this summer, click here and see yourself and friends.

Tour Improvements !!

We’ve decided to change DAY 3 of the Lite Tour, so from now on we will be staying in Yverdon rather than Estavayer. There are numerous reasons for this itinerary change: the town is more vibrant. The hotel is much better and we will be a five-minute walk away from Yverdon’s famous mineral baths and waterpark.

For more information about the new hotel, click here.

For a look at the Yverdon baths, visit their site here.

Bicicleta Suiza !!

We had 10 riders from South America this year and one from Spain. They were all wonderful, positive and excellent cyclists and in an effort to attract more we are translating our site into Spanish. We’ve just hired the translator, but things should go quickly and the Spanish version of the site should be on line by November 1st ! Other languages to follow, the goal being to make give our rides a truly international flavor.

The Franco-Swiss Jura Challenge

This tour is taking shape and will be on line in 2011. We intend to do a loop following the Jura mountains from Geneva to the North of Switzerland and then coming back down to Genva on the French side. The riding is probably 20% more climbing than the Challenge Tour. This part of Switzerland/France is very sparsely populated, little traffic and pristine countryside. We’ll be staying in small villages and country hotels, (no cities on this tour after Geneva). We’re looking for strong and experienced cyclists to do this tour, so if you have what it takes, keep the tour in mind for 2011.

Canary Islands Ahoy !!

Flights from Chicago to Las Palmas at this period (Feb 20-28, 2010) are around $850 (that’s with tax). So a sunny cycling vacation in Winter on a an exotic Spanish island is cheaper than you’d expect.

In order to get accelerate our sign-ups, we’ll be giving away Bikeswitzerland in Canary Island Jerseys to all those who give us their deposit before November 1st. Those who have already sent in a deposit will also receive the free jersey. This offer will end on November 1st.

Be a collaborater !

We want to harness your invaluable charisma ! We’re looking for people to “talk up” our tours through bike clubs, emails, brochure handouts, on the internet and at events. We have a reward program for collaboraters, and if you can direct people our way, we’ll make sure that you get the credit. We’re very generous. Bike Switzerland already has a number of collaborators in different states, but if your area is not represented and you have done one of our trips, then we would like you to come on board.

Questions ?

I’m often here at my desk, so feel free to ring me through the site if I can help you out with any questions.

JOHN

September 2009 Newsletter

2010 Tour Dates Announced

We are planning four tours in 2010: Two Challenge tours and two Lite Tours. 

As before, we’ll be honoring 2009 prices until January 1st. Thereafter, the prices will be going up 10 to 15%. That’s quite a leap, but we increased our tour prices by only 1.5% last year in hopes that the dollar would rebound and it has not.

So, if you’re even thinking about doing a ride next year, it does really pay to get us your deposit in as soon as possible. We’ve had a lot of interest in 2010 and so plan on it being a huge year for us. We’re really hoping that these four tours are actually filled by January 1st. Click here for more information on these dates.

2009 Tour Pictures in the Gallery

Click here to go to 2009 gallery

I did my best to find a flattering picture of everyone, but that wasn’t always easy.

Send us a picture if you think you have a good one and I’ll try to post it in the gallery.

Extra Jackets and Jerseys

We do have some extra jerseys and jackets in the following sizes:

Mens: Medium, Large, X-Large

Womens: Small, Large, X-Large

Jackets: Medium, Large, XXL

The prices are still $65 for the jerseys and $80 for the jackets. We’ll have to ship from Switzerland, so that makes $10 more per item. If you’d like to purchase, let me know and I’ll send you a credit card link or you can write a check to Iowa. As you prefer.

Bike Switzerland Jacket (left) and Jerseys. Click to enlarge

Canary Islands Tour

The site is almost up and I’ll send out an email when it goes live. In the meantime, mark your calendars:

February 20-28

Click to enlarge

Help us out…for chocolate.

Again, Bike Switzerland is all about word-of-mouth advertising. Please let your friends and other riders know about this trip of a lifetime. Also, we realize that ANY and ALL links to our site means that we get higher search engine results. So please, if you have an internet site or blog ( even if you’re a chimney sweep), create a link to our site and I’ll send you a 1/2 kilo of Swiss chocolate. Just give me a heads up !

Enjoy the rest of your season. I hope to talk to you personally very soon.

John

June update

Thanks to the Iphone, we’re going to post “live” photos of our tours beginning June 29th.

You can follow this link to see the most current photos and film:

Link to Photos

May/June Newsletter

Swiss quality and design at a fair price.

Swiss Style

Yes, I’m planning to deck myself out with the full kit ! I’ve spent the last few days circling items with my red pen, choosing colors and wondering if I’m still a size “large”. I was going to post a list of American stores selling the new clothing line, but BMC has told me that their American distributor hasn’t yet put in an order, which means that these items will only be available for the European market… and primarily the Swiss market, at that. Too bad because their line-up is class : simple patterns, dark colors and classic fit. Definately something that a “retro-grouch” like myself can wear. Take a look yourself, I’ve put the catalog on-line here.

I’d be happy to put in an order for any present or past riders.

We’re in our new diggs.

New store front

Our mechanic (Roger) has set up his own workshop and Bike Switzerland is sharing around 1/2 the space to display bicycles, store our accessories and to give ourselves some room to maneuver when riders come in for bike fittings. Indeed, things are much easier now. Gone are the days when we would schlep truckloads of bikes back and forth from Carouge. The store is just a 5-minute walk from the train station. Click here for a map.

Bike Switzerland Bed and Breakfast.

2010

In spite of the economy, our “Budget Tours”  (overnights in youth hostels) have not been doing very well. I understand…as much as we enjoyed our youth, there are certain things we prefer to leave behind. Recently, a client asked me to organize an independent trip using local Bed and Breakfasts, and after doing a bit of research, I was surprised by the large number of BnBs dotting the Lite Route and Challenge Route. So, for 2010 we’re going to axe the “Budget Tours” and create a lower cost “BnB option”. Stay tuned.

Registrations are up.

This is why I wasn’t able to get out a proper May Newsletter. This year we’ve already signed up more riders than any year previously. Last year was a record and we’re ahead of those numbers by 12% at the moment. That said, our guided tours are about the same as last year, but we’ve had a double in the number of independent tours.

We’re at the gates.

Our first guided tour is June 28th. We’ll post pictures as they’re taken.

My best,

JOHN

April Newsletter

New Bike Switzerland Rentals

Although Switzerland is one of Europe’s premier destinations for cyclists, it’s almost impossible to find a decent rental bicycle. We’ve noticed this openning for a few years, but with many other projects going we’ve only recently had time to launch our rental site: www.bikeswitzerlandrentals.com

This site allows riders to reserve their bicycle on-line, add options (panniers, GPS, etc) and to have their bicycle delivered and dropped off at any train station in Switzerland ! For the moment, we are renting out our new fleet of BMC Alpen Challenge 02, but have plans to have a smaller selection of road bikes for the summer of 2010. All rentals come with: handlebar bag, back seatpost bag, rear rack, computer, water bottle, everything you need for a flat and a telephone to keep in contact.

All National Bike Routes on New GPS

We’ve bought new GPS units for the season (Garmin’s Legend HCX) and have loaded them with all 9 Swiss national routes ! Now independent riders or those renting our bikes can use the GPS to do our “Challenge” and “Lite” itineraries, or do any of the 9 National Routes. But that’s not it: all the smaller regional routes are also on the GPS! AND all of the national hiking trails. Click on the map below to see all the possible bicycle routes !

First riders of 2009 leave tomorrow !

Marcos and Julianna arrived in Geneva last night from Rio de Janiero. In spite of the ten hour flight, they plan on doing a full day of sightseeing in Geneva today before heading off on the Lite Route tomorrow morning.

The weather seems to be on their side: low-60s and blue skies all day today !

Bon voyage

Our first riders of 2009 are from Brazil

A few spaces left !

There is still room on all of our trips, but things are changing fast now that everyone is reserving their air tickets. There are only two spaces left on our August 27-September 7th Lite Trip.

We do have a single woman looking for a roommate on our August 12th Challenge Tour and a single man looking for a roommate for that same tour. Hmmm, maybe they can work out a temporary solution for themselves ??

My best.

JOHN