New Clothing for 2011….in the works

We’ve hired a crew of designers to put together even more new offerings for 2011.

We’re still not sure which ones will make the final cut, but here are a few of my favorite at the moment

These are not your ordinary “custom” jerseys. Most clubs, teams and companies simply have their designs printed on a standard jersey offered by the manufacturer.

Our jerseys, however, are designed stitch for stitch this year. This means that we’re able to add lots of cool details:

♦ Ventilated side panels,

♦ Side pockets

♦ Colored piping at the seams

♦ Lasered cut cuffs and waist for perfect fit

I’m going to Italy next month to film some of the manufacturing process so that you see just what we’re doing.

We’re also working with several other manufacturers to introduce a line of Bike Switzerland helmets and gloves.

Oh, and ladies…we’re also going to get you some regular (non-bib) cycling shorts this year

Bike Switzerland Podcast – Episode 1

Top Ten Reasons to join us on a tour this summer

Top Ten Reasons to join us on a tour this summer. [ 12:01 ] Download

Bike Switzerland Gear: The story up until now

We made our first jersey back in 2008. We only made 100 pieces and so we did as most others do and sent an email off to Louis Garneau. They held our hand all the way and made it easy. The jerseys arrived, they were good quality, but very expensive. That wasn’t the only bad part: LG insisted that their own logo be prominently displayed on our jersey and we had to pay a lot extra for each color appearing on the product. It wasn’t long before we decided to look for another manufacturer.

Our next supplier was based in Switzerland ! They had a good little team in a small sleepy town outside of Zurich and their jerseys were of reasonable quality and much less expensive. But all of the manufacturing was taking place in China ! We were paying a Swiss company to manufacture our products in China. Sure, it was easier than going to China ourselves, but that wasn’t the point. We wanted to be involved in the manufacturing. We wanted to get our hands dirty. We didn’t want a middleman anymore.

And so being in Western Europe, we naturally set our sights to Italy. We found GSG (Global Sports Gear) right away. Like most clothing manufacturers, GSG makes their own brand, but most of their business comes from manufacturing for other brands and teams.

It’s an open secret that the same sewing room that is putting out Pearl Izumi on Monday may be producing for Sugoi on Tuesday. But Bike Switzerland is not a Pearl Izumi. We’re not even a blip on the radar. Fortunately, GSG liked the Bike Switzerland story and the idea of getting behind a brand still in its infancy. We also promised that we’d tell the GSG story every chance we got. And so here we are…

Making our jerseys [ 6:10 ] Download

Questions about our Independent Tours?

A few weeks ago, we put out a request asking everyone to send us their questions about our independent bicycle tours. Thanks for those !
And so here they are:

What is the difference between your guided tours and independent tours ? (Why the difference in price ?)

Can I bring my own bike ?

Can I do a shorter tour ?

What if I get a flat ?!

How do the trains work with your tours ?

You’ll find the answers to these questions and others in the podcast below !



Click the icon to subscribe to our podcast in Itunes

Independent tour questions [ 14:42 ] Download

2012 TDS tour

Chris White, our “Bike Switzerland” Tour de Suisse leader has updated the information for our 2012 TDS tour. Above you see that we’ll be doing 4 days of riding with the tour: two loops and the other two times we’ll be getting back with the train. Our home base will be at the Hotel Jakob in the scenic lakeside town of Rapperswil ! Again, the dates are:

Arrival: June 13
Departure: June 18
Price: 2,450 (includes all breakfasts and dinners, lodging, bmc road bike and in-country transportation)

If there is enough interest, we’ll be extending the tour one more day to tour the BMC factory in Grenchen and that would also give us the opportunity to ride into the Jura.

We’ll get the information on the site as soon as possible, but in the meantime: here’s the itinerary.

Day 1.

Welcome to Switzerland! From Zurich airport, it’s just a short train ride into the center of Zurich and then we’ll take a scenic train ride along Lake Zurich to the town we’ll be staying in throughout this trip: Rapperswil.

If you arrive early enough then you can take some time to stop off in Zurich and explore this cosmopolitan city in the heart of Europe before going to Rapperswil (you can store your luggage in the lockers at the train station).

Our hotel is just a couple of minutes walk from the train station. After you’ve got settled into your room then we’ll show you the BMC bikes that you’ll use during the tour and make the adjustments needed to make them fit you well.

After dinner, we’ll take a short walk around the castle grounds next to the hotel and enjoy the views across Lake Zurich to the mountains that will be our playground for the next few days.

Day 2. 90 km with 1200m climbing.

Let’s ride! We’ll start off with a gentle climb over the lower pre-Alpine hills, before tackling our first official mountain pass. We’ll have lunch while looking up at the rocky cliff-faces that lead up to Säntis, the tallest mountain in the region at over 2,500 metres (8,200 ft).

We’ll then head towards Bischofszell, where Stage 6 of the Tour de Suisse will end. There will probably be some circuits around the surrounding area before the finish in the town itself, and if so then we’ll get to see the riders multiple times. The race route should include a lot of rolling hills, so if an early breakaway has not happened then expect the punchier riders to attack on the short climbs in the finishing circuits.

After watching the podium ceremonies, we’ll take a train back to Rapperswil for supper.

Day 3. 60km with 600m climbing.

Time for a Time Trial! Our hotel is very close to Gossau, where the main time trial of the race will take place. We’ll take a very indirect route to get there by riding around some of the lakes in the region and climbing up to the local peaks.

This will be our shortest day of riding because there is so much to see at the time trial – it’s the best day to be a spectator.

The area containing the team buses where the riders warm up and the mechanics get the bikes ready should be open to the public, so we’ll have a good look around. We plan to use our connections with BMC to get to meet some of the staff and maybe some of the riders. We’ll then head out to a place on the race route where we can get some great photos of the riders whizzing past individually.

At the end of the day, it will be an easy 30 minute bike ride back to the hotel.

Day 4. 100 km with 1100m climbing, or 140 km with 1800m.

Off to the mountains! The racers will have their last mountain-top finish of the tour today, and we’re going to be on the final slopes to watch them battle it out.

We’ll have one decent climb part-way through the day, but we’ll save almost all the climbing for the end. Along the way, we’ll ride along some amazingly scenic valleys that are surrounded by towering mountains.

The climb up to the ski town of Arosa will be a long one. Those not feeling up to it can stop on the lower slopes to watch the racers go past on the steepest sections there, while the more ambitious of us will head for the upper section of the climb. Afterwards, we’ll all descend and re-group at the bottom to hop on a train back to the hotel.

Day 5. 120 km with 2300m climbing.

Let’s finish with a Bang! Hopefully we haven’t tired you out in the previous three days, because we’ve saved the toughest ride for last.

The racers will start pretty close to our hotel, and they’ll almost immediately head uphill. After a slightly longer warm-up than them, we’ll ride up that first climb in the morning and have lunch while we wait for the racers to catch us up.

We’ll then have most of the afternoon to ride on the small roads through the mountains. We’ll do some long, tough climbs before finishing with a long descent back to the hotel.

Your home in Geneva: Hotel Cornavin

We used to use the Hotel Mont Brilliant which is located right behind Cornavin station. Sure, the rooms were nice and the staff was friendly, but I really loved that I could wait for my riders downstairs and at the same time burn my nose in the sun on their terrace with a beer. It was a lovely arrangement that could have continued indefinitely, but for some reason they decided to increase their rates and cut off my complimentary beers, and so there was really no reason to stick around.

Travel in Europe and you’ll find lots of hotels near the train station. Of course, you’ll also learn to avoid all hotels near the train station. Fortunately, there are exceptions. The Hotel Cornavin is such a place: sound-proof windows, clean sunny rooms and wonderful views of the lake from the breakfast room on the tippy-top floor.

There is no downstairs bar, however. Never mind that. I’ve solved that problem by putting a long list of (good) nearby restaurants and drinking establishments in the arrivals folder. Problem solved.

Thanks to Mark for doing the video. Afterwards, he told me that puts on a French accent when he goes to New York with family…just to embarrass his kids.
So, not sure what kind of accent you’re hearing in the video. You tell me.

Hotel Cornavin : Our base in Geneva [ 6:47 ] Download

I Wish it Were a Bit Colder Outside

I went to shores of Lake Zurich to show that the Autumn weather had made it too cold do do anymore cycling.
I was hoping that the statue would help to emphasize my point. The weather, however, wasn’t cooperating: it was a beautiful day and people kept walking around and interfering with my camera angles.

The video ends with contest: Tell us who sculpted the statue and receive a Bike Switzerland t-shirt. Amazingly, one of our Facebook fans wrote in within minutes of posting with the correct answer. I’m still not sure how that happened, unless he happens to live across the street

Winter cycling tour in the Canary Islands [ 9:08 ] Download

Bike Switzerland’s Tour de Suisse on track for 2012

We really want to fill our Tour de Suisse tour this year and there is no reason that we shouldn’t.

Afterall, we’re the only in-country company giving access to this tour, and with our collaboration with BMC we hope to get you up close to the action.

We’re in the process of updating our site to include our 2012 Tour de Suisse itinerary.

However, the dates on the site are correct and we can also confirm that you should plan on flying into and out of Zurich.

We’ll be on brand new BMC road bikes, and we can even arrange for you to take one home with you at a special price if you sign up for a tour.

So, leave your bike at home, but bring a bike box !

Tour de Suisse : 2012 [ 5:04 ] Download

Bike Switzerland’s Race Winter Jerseys

Ronny Fracarro, GSG's Director

I sat down with Ronny Fracarro, the director of GSG manufacturing a few weeks ago. Actually, we hadn’t planned on talking about business. Ronny was in Switzerland to see a client and so I invited him to supper.

Before going out to eat, I asked to see the winter products that he was showing his customer. Afterall, I normally have to go to Italy or order samples to get my hands on actual product samples and now there they were sitting in the next room.

The production floor at GSG

Ronny had all of GSG’s samples on a travelling clothing rack and I took the time to get lost in the colors, textures, stitching and one hundred other small details that put GSG above other manufacturers. By the time we left for supper, I knew that we needed to put a few more of these Italian-made products onto our shelves.

So, I just called Ronny this morning and told him that we want their best winter jersey: the same elite cold-weather jersey worn by Acqua-Sapone. The work order will be put in tomorrow which means that we’ll get them delivered to you before Christmas !

Classic Winter Jersey

Tradition Winter Jersey

We’re keeping our same “Classic” and  ”Tradition” designs. Both jerseys incorporate exptremely flexible “Roubaix” material with soft fleece inside for temperatures around zero degrees celcius. They’ve got full-length front zip and three rear compartment pockets and an elastic silicone hem.

Again, these jackets are designed in Switzerland, but everything else is done IN-HOUSE at Giessegi’s headquarters outside of Treviso: research, tests, cutting the materials, printing, stitching and boxing. It’s all done by a small-group of hard-working Italians that I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know.

Everyone making a pre-order by December 10th will get the jersey a special price: 99chf.

And since we’re making only 50 pieces of each design, there is a real possibility that the jerseys will be sold out before they ship.

Again, we won’t be shipping until around December 10th, but best to pre-order now at this link.

Bike Switzerland Top Facebook Fans !

Every time you interact with our Facebook page, you are helping Bike Switzerland to grow.

Everytime you “like”, “comment” and “share”, news is created and is shown to your friends and this is good for us !

So, we’ve introduced a new “Leader Board” on our Facebook page. You can find it by clicking on the tab “Top Fans”.

The list shows our most active Facebook fans. You’ll receive points by interacting with our page, (so start clicking !)
We’re going to be monitoring this list and we’ll be giving out the following prizes:

Number One Fan: 100 chf certificate to our webshop (www.bikeshopswitzerland.com)

Number Two Fan: 50 chf certificate to our webshop

Number Three Fan: 25 chf certificate to our webshop

The contest will end at Midnight on November 30th, so the winners will be those having the most points at that time.

Employees, former-employees and family are not eligible

If participation is good, we’ll keep the contests going !

Our 2012 Bikes

Alpen Challenge 02

We’ve just made our choice regarding the 2012 bikes. Actually, the choice was more or less made when we were at the Eurobike show this summer.

We’ll be using the Alpen Challenge 02 (105 Tiagra) for our Lite Tour and Challenge tours and the Street Racer 105 for our Tour de Suisse ride and the Jura tour.

The Alpen Challenge 02 is an improvement from last year’s fleet: disc brakes and 105 components, but it retails at 1,990, so around 500 chf more expensive than what we had been using.

Street Racer 105

This might make selling our used bikes at the end of the season a bit more difficult, but I just couldn’t help but imagine what a shiny fleet of yellow Alpen Challene 02 would look like in our storage facility.

These bikes will also be available for rentals at www.bikeswitzerlandrentals.com
You can take a look at the podcast below to see why we’ve made our choices.

Our 2012 Bicycles [ 5:46 ] Download

Bike Switzerland intern – Jeremy Kalmus

I had a lot of fun hanging out with our Bike Switzerland intern this summer, and so here’s a pat-on-the-back podcast. Jeremy Kalmus came to us from New Orleans via “The University of the Redlands” to work as our mechanic/intern this summer. He’s now hanging out in Austin, Texas (and may still need a job if you’re interested in hiring him!).

For more videos and podcasts, see our Bike Switzerland Youtube channel.

Jeremy the intern [ 6:49 ] Download

Jeremy rides first half of Lite Tour in two days !

Jeremy

My first bike tour of the summer was the first 6 days of bike switzerland’s lite tour, except that I did them in 2. The lite tour is mostly flat and and I wanted to try to keep up a 20k per hour average. The weather was beautiful so I was able to crank out some serious mileage comfortably and quickly.

Saturday started with a quick grocery store trip to pick up my favorite bike tour essentials. Nutella, peanut butter, strawberry jam, half a loaf of whole wheat bread, apples, snickers bars, and monster energy drink. Then I headed straight to the shop to prep my bike, a process that always takes longer then expected. I got there just in time to see of the McBees, an independent tour group doing the challenge tour over the next 2 weeks. I left about 45 min after them, because like I said, bike prep always takes longer then expected. After a final quick picture in from of the Bike Switzerland sign and a wave goodbye to John I was finally off, around 10:30, an hour later then I wanted to leave, but not a problem because during the summer Switzerland the sun doesn’t go down until 10 at night. So with 12 more hours and 165 kilometers to go I set off. The fist leg of the tour would take me around lac leman northeast to morgues. I set off at a steady pace clipping off 25 – 27 kilometers per hour for a few hours. This is usually the first day of the lite tour but I was trying to get through 4 days worth of tour in 1 so I wanted to get through this section as quickly as possible because I am living on this lake for the summer and wanted to get on to new and exciting areas of Switzerland. After about 2 hours I caught up with the McBees and rode with them for a bit, but quickly passed them and cranked it back up to 25kph. I cruised into morgues about 60k away in about 3 hours. Stopped for a nutella and jam sandwich on the lake and got myself moving again as quick as possible. I felt great and was ready to put lac leman behind me. I turned north and headed towards Estavayer, day two of the lite tour. With a boost of energy  after lunch I felt great even heading into the strong headwind wind that blows in the flat areas between the lakes in southern Switzerland. My pace slowed but I still felt strong and kept moving along at my goal pace of 20kph. Along this section of the Swiss national bike routes, I rode through farms and fields of corn, apples, cabbage, grapes for wine and the biggest fields of gigantic sunflowers.

Sunflower fields

My breath was nearly taken away just from being surrounded by by huge mountains and small Swiss farms and villages, but I needed it to keep on pedaling. And that’s exactly what I did, kept on pedaling. For a while I kept thinking of finding nemo, “just keep swimming, just keep swimming, just keep swimming, swimming, swimming, swimming.” except instead I was saying “just keep pedaling, just keep pedaling, just keep pedaling, pedaling, pedaling, pedaling.” After a snickers bar and a few more hours riding I made it to Estavyer. A small town on the south end of another beautiful Swiss lake. This is the end of day 2 of the light tour so I decided to rest my legs after 120k. I had an apple smeared with nutella and peanut butter for dinner, around 5. I watched a couple of guys get going on windsurfers and in the 20 minutes I stopped to eat they made it nearly across the lake. I hoped back on my bike and started heading east to make it to my final destination in Murten.

I cycled around that lake and then hopped back onto the Swiss bike route through more fields and farms. At one point I looked up and realized that there were 4 parachuters landing in the field just to my left, and following them was a small plane doing barrel rolls just above my head, I didn’t know what to take picture of and missed photos of both sets of aerial acrobatics. At this point my legs were pretty tired and my butt was hurting pretty good from hours of riding, but I knew I only had about another 30k or so and knew I need to tough it out for another hour and a half. My paced dragged slightly below the 20kph goal average, but I knew it was ok because of my fast pace early in the day. As I muscled through the last few miles, I passed through a town that was having some kind of festival, seemed appropriate for a Saturday night, a man yelled, “allez! Allez! Allez!” as I rode up a big hill to the top of the town. “Go, go, go!” must have seemed the most appropriate thing to say, I wanted to yell back that I had already ridden 140k and I was most certainly going up that hill as fast as I could, but figuring he would understand my broken French anyway I powered through.

Schloss Münchenwiler - Murten

A few miles later I realized all the street signs had changed from French to German, and even though a man had yelled at me in French, I knew I was now in the German part of Switzerland. A few more butt chaffing kilometers later I finally arrived at my hotel. I was excited to look down at my gps and see 165k, 102 miles from where I had started in Geneva that morning, the farthest I had ever ridden a bike a one time, and it was 8 pm. Minus a few stops I had completed my first day almost exactly at my goal pace. I pulled up to the midevil castle turned hotel, and was ecstatic to dismount for the last time that day. I checked into my room, took a contrast shower, and headed down to get some dinner. The hostess told me that because there was a wedding at the hotel that night the dinner options were limited, I told her that I had just ridden my bike from Geneva 165k and that if it was food and there was a lot of it I would be very VERY happy. She brought out a heaping plate of mixed salad of green and red lettuce, radishes, pine nuts, almonds, and sprouts drenched in a Italian vinaigrette, a half a loaf of French bread, and a plate of arranged meats and cheeses. If this was their limited option I can’t imagine what their full menu looked like. I washed it down with an organina, and headed up to my room. After about 10 minutes of reading I passed right out, exhausted from a dam fine day of cycling. I woke up Sunday morning to the sounds of good old American muscle engines roaring into the parking lot. The hotel was having a muscle car exhibition for July 4th weekend. I packed up my gear and headed down to check out, winding my way through old fords and Cadillacs. I got my bike out of the storage locker and headed out of the front gate and up the road past a few more mustangs and corvettes lining the roads. As I worked my way back to the cycle path I couldn’t believe how many people were out riding their bikes. It was great everyone was enjoying the warm summer air and sunshine. It was perfect for me two because I my legs were still tired from the day before and I was able to find a few groups of riders who cut the wind for me throughout the day. The ride was day 5 of the lite tour about 65k to the town of Solothurn.

Solothurn

The after being paced for about 25k through more farms of all kinds, I turned onto a gravel path along a river. My BMC alpen challenge hybrid seemed to move faster on the gravel then the road and I truly enjoyed the speeds. The bike only path followed a lazy aquamarine colored river winding through the Swiss-german country side. Every so often I past through a town each with some of the greatest foot bridges I have ever seen, ranging from old covered wooden bridges to ultra modern ones made from steel and cables. With about 20k to Solothurn my left knee started hurting so stopped at the side of the river to have another peanut butter and nutella apple and a snickers. When I got moving again my knee was hurting pretty bad so I dropped down to a comfortable 18kph. Worth slowing to keep my knee from hurting. Eventually the river came up to Solothurn and I found my way to the train station with exactly enough time to buy a ticket and run to the platform, throw my bike in the bike car and find a seat. Then a two hour train ride back to Geneva. Definitely an amazing trip and worth a little knee pain and an extra bike to clean when I get back to work at Bike Switzerland on Monday.

One man’s Cyclotour!

I finished the 180km race around the lake yesterday. It was a tough ride.

My Garmin was giving me incorrect speed readings and I didn’t realize this until 40km into the ride.

Thinking my group was riding too slow (wrong)  I pulled away with 2 other riders and tried to catch a breakaway group.  Both of the riders soon faded and I was soon resigned to pulling them both and waiting for the next group of fast riders to catch us (the ride consisted of 1496 riders released in groups of 50 about every 2-3 minutes) .  I couldn’t understand why this was taking so long and it wasn’t until Montreux that the next group of riders caught us. Soon we were flying and I held on as best I could, despite already tired legs. I looked at my speedometer and saw we were only  doing 20km/hour and had only ridden half the distance I knew we traveled. At this point I realized my Garmin was playing tricks on me and just went by the clock and disregarded all other inputs (other than the incessant click of the now loose magnet on my rear wheel. (Apparently if the Garmin detects a magnet, it stops using the GPS information to track speed).

Anyway, my goal was to complete the ride without stopping and I nursed my two liters of water with the hopes the supply would last the ride. Near Thonons les Bains (about 2/3 of the way) I hit a pot hole and dropped one of my bottles. Fortunately the bottle survived and the only casualty was getting dropped from the small group I was riding with. As  I approached Hermance (close to  Geneva) I caught them again, but they soon stopped to replenish supplies so I continued solo. From there until about Rolle I was pulling a pack of about 15 riders. It was frustrating as only 2 in the group were willing to work. But my luck soon changed.

First I saw Dedi riding along all smiles and looking strong and confident. I surprised her with what was meant to be a gentle carress on her back which actually almost threw her off course. But she was happy to see me and it felt good to share the moment.

As I continued with my pack of mostly parasitic  riders, a fast peloton whizzed by  just as we hit the start of a climb. Pefect.. I was able to accelerate and tuck in, happily dropping the drafters I had been pulling. I held on until Morges where I got dropped while navigating a round-about mixed with some errant car drivers who managed to get in the middle of our group. But I had made up some good time.

Looking at my Garmins clock, I knew I was close to breaking my PR for the loop, so I just pulled as hard as I could, surprised that my legs were holding out.  Three hills to go. Three hills to go. Í kept repeating this and kept pumping away. As I hit the first hill I felt strong and was actually surprised everything still worked despite the mental and physical fatigue. I was out of water but only 7.5km to go and two hills to go. I can do this. And with no water, my bike is light and the next 2 hills will be easy. So I said.

And it worked. The next two hills faded behind me and I pulled hard to the finish. Certainly not in record time, but the best I have done and  I was pleased. 4 hours 58 minutes and 15.9 seconds. Average speed over 180im was 36.209 km/hour.

This was soon followed by a great upper back massage, a cold beer, and a pasta pesto shared with Dedi. Life is good.

Oh, an here is a fun link, courtesy of Garmin (who I am currently not on speaking terms with!):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HH66lSQd3Q4