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

New price for our Freeride Jersey

Free-riding is a type of downhill mountain bike discipline that I don’t know much about. However, I do know that a “free-ride” jersey is a great sports shirt and a happy alternative to a standard cycling jersey.

Our collection just came in and I’ve been wearing it all over town. And why not: it’s cut from the same cloth as most fine jerseys: lite, breathable polyester microfiber. Wouldn’t you like to wear your favorite jersey around town on your city bike in jeans….without lots of snickers ? Now you can because, well…it doesn’t look anything like a jersey. But definitely made with the cyclist in mind….the shirt is long in back so that when you’re stretched over your handlebars, you won’t have to keep tugging at your backside to keep the shirt from trotting up your spine. Nice.

And speaking of the backside, all 9 Swiss National Routes are clearly displayed on the map of Switzerland, and the two separately stitched side-panels feature all of the Swiss Canton heralds. Definitely a shirt that you should be showing off and so starting today, we’re selling it at a new price: 45 Chf instead of the 59 Chf. We’ve only made 100, so best be quick. Follow this link to see the shirt at our shop.

JOHN

BMC Alpen Challenge 2010 for 990 Chf

We’ve just bought an huge fleet of 2010 model BMC Alpen Challenge 02 ! We’re keeping half of them for our tours this season and are selling the other half to our Bike Switzerland friends.

The Perfect Swiss Touring Bike

Last year all of the shops were selling them for 1,490 Chf and so we’re selling them for 990 which includes pedals, lights and it’s first tune-up if you come back within 3 months. We’ve got most sizes for the moment, but we don’t expect to have the bikes for long. If they’re not sold by the end of the month, then we’ll start advertising to the general public.

Finally,  this is a special offer…you’ll need to say the password “BIKE SWITZERLAND” when you come to the store to have this price.  We’re at 27 Rue Grand-Pré… behind the train station in Geneva, a five minute walk.

Bike Switzerland Postcard Contest

We’re going to have 5 “Bike Switzerland” postcards made. Each postcard will feature a photo of cycling in Switzerland.

We’re inviting all of our fans to send us their pictures of cycling in Switzerland. If we chose your photo, we’ll give you 100 copies of the postcard and also photo credits.

Any submissions should contain scenery and bicycles ! You can mail me the submissions (small size) to john@bikeswitzerland.com

We should make our choice by early next week.

JOHN

New BMC Bikes for sale

We did our inventory yesterday and determined that we have a few more bikes than we need for this year.

We’ve got the following for sale.

Description: BMC Alpen Challenge 02, 2010 / Size 15 inch / Price 990 Chf + TVA

Alpen Challenge 02 (2010) 15 inch

The bike is brand new and still in the box. We have two extra 15 inch bikes, so they would be appropriate for anyone under 160 Cm. We’ll assemble for you. You can find more information about this bike on our website www.bikeswitzeralndrentals.com

Price: 990 Chf plus TVA. (Regular price: 1490 Chf)

(other sizes of the Alpen Challenge available for 1,190 Chf from our partner)

Description: BMC Streetfire 2010 / Size XS / Price 1250 Chf + TVA

BMC Streetfire 2010, price: 1250 + TVA

Brand new and still in box. We have one extra “XS” size, so appropriate for anyone under 155 cm.

We’ll assemble for you. You can find more information on this bike on BMC’s website. Click here.

Price: 1250 Chf plus TVA (Regular price 1990 Chf)

Description: BMC Streetracer 2010 / Size XL / Price 1990 chf+ TVA

BMC Street Racer /XL/ Price: 1,990 (Retail: 2,700)

Brand new and still in box. We have one extra “XL” size, so appropriate for anyone 185 cm or above.

We’ll assemble for you. You can find more information on this bike on BMC’s website. Click here.

Price: 1990 Chf plus TVA (Regular price 2,700 Chf)

So, just a few bikes. Again…brand new at great prices, so they won’t be here long !

We’re hiring

Tour de Suisse: Chris White’s recon trip to Ticino

Coming round a bend in the lake’s shoreline to see Lugano and the snow-capped mountains behind reveal themselves across the bay was a stunning sight.

Ticino: A piece of Italy in Switzerland

I spent last weekend checking out the itinerary for the beginning of Bike Switzerland’s new tour that is based around the Tour de Suisse race. The prologue time trial will be in Lugano, which is in the southern, Italian-speaking part of Switzerland. Even in February, the weather down there can be great: it was 15 Celsius (60 F) and sunny skies while riding along the lake.

We’ll be spending two nights in the nearby town of Bellinzona at a brand new hotel, conveniently located right outside the train station. After having a pizza at a local restaurant, one of the best I’ve ever tasted, my wife and I went for a moonlit walk up to the ramparts of one of the three impressive castles overlooking this small town. The town is at a key strategic point in a valley at the entrance to the Alps, so fortifications have been built by successive waves of residents ever since Roman times. From the castle’s walls we could see up and down the valley, with the higher, snow-covered mountains shining in the moonlight and the waters of Lake Maggiore glistening in the distance.

The next morning I got on my bike to check out the route we’ll take when going to watch the time trial in Lugano. We’ll start on some back roads through quaint villages, then tackle the climb up Monte Ceneri. That should take us around half an hour to climb, so it’ll be a good leg stretcher before the much bigger Alpine passes that we’ll do in the following days.

Finding the perfect place for a picture.

Once over the climb, I slowly descended down to Lake Lugano. On the lake road, many more cyclists went past than cars; all of the local riders seemed to be out for a Saturday-morning spin and all knew how fantastic this stretch of lakeshore is for riding – quiet and beautiful. The time trial won’t start until late afternoon, so we’ll have time to stop for a picnic at a great beach that I found. After lunch, we’ll have an easy hour of riding along the lakeshore to make the day’s total about 60 km with 500 meters of climbing. We’ll then send the bikes back to the hotel in the van while we have a busy afternoon and evening in Lugano.

On the outskirts of Lugano, we’ll stop at the Assos concept superstore, called manga.Yio. Assos is a major, high-end cycling clothing brand that is based here. I met with the store manager and employees and we planned an extensive visit for the riders who come with us in June. There’ll be a video presentation, product explanations, and ample time to look around the three floors of their concept store, and they’ve offered a discount for any purchases that we make.

The short time trial takes place around the center of the city and includes a brief but significant climb. I timed myself around the course and although I may not have quite matched Fabian Cancellara’s winning time from last year, I can blame that on riding a touring bike with a pannier, plus the traffic didn’t help. I was also keeping my eyes peeled for the best spots for us to watch the riders fly past and get some good photos.

After taking the train back to where I started in Bellinzona, I headed into the mountains to meet up with my wife and some friends who were staying at a big cross-country ski resort for the weekend. The next day, I pushed on over the mountain pass, where it was -3 Celsius (25 F) and lightly snowing at the top (at almost 2,000 meters / 6,500 ft elevation), before I put on all the clothes I had to do the long descent down the Rhine valley, and finally hopped on a train to head back home at the end of the day. I had gone over a different mountain pass two days before when riding to Bellinzona, so in all I had toured almost 400 km with 6,000 meters of climbing in three days. Not bad for February!

Chris White: The Professor

When can you bike Grosse Scheidegg ?

Dear Bike Switzerland:

I’m renting one of your bikes for pick-up at Interlaken in late May and planning to climb up Grosse Scheidegg.

Can you tell me if the roads will be open ?

Thanks.

Paul

Hi Paul

Grosse Scheidegg is a great climb and it should be cleared of snow by late May. That is around when most of the big 2,000+ meter passes normally open, but I wasn’t sure whether that would also be true for that very minor road. However, I just looked up the schedule for the bus that travels over that pass during the summer, and the bus schedule starts on May 14th, so I assume they’ll try to get it open by then.

Grosse Sheidegg

In a bad winter with a lot of snow, then the opening might be delayed, but so far this year we haven’t had much snow,so I expect that most passes will open on time or possibly even earlier than usual. So, unless we get some massive dumps of snow over the next couple of months then there should be no problem to ride over it in late May. Obviously, come prepared with a range of clothes because the temperature at the top could be anything from 0 to 20 celsius in May.

I don’t know which direction you’re planning to go over it; it’s a great climb from either direction, but the views maybe even better coming up from the Meiringen side, because you have the biggest mountains in front of you instead of behind. Personally, I’ve only done it from the Grindelwald side, and thought it was awesome (but very tough).

Regardless of which direction you come from, be very careful on the descent. It is a super-narrow and twisty road, and alittle bumpy in sections, so I advise you to keep your speed under control much more than I would advise people to do onmost other Swiss passes. The top section is closed to most traffic, but the buses and local farmers can still be on the road. If you hear one coming in one of the narrow sections then it’s best to just stop and pull over until they pass, regardless of whether you’re going uphill or down. It really is a fantastic road, and is generally extremely quiet, but you just need to stay alert.

Chris White: The Professor

Have fun, and let me know if you have any more questions.

Regards, Chris White

Bike Switzerland Tour Guide.

The Dollar is Back !

The dollar is down most places in the world except here at Bike Switzerland.

1$ = 1 Chf until March 1st.

Until March 1st, we’ll be accepting dollars at an even exchange rate with the Swiss franc.

So, if you’re looking at doing our Guided Challenge tour for 3,850 Chf, then you we’ll give you the same trip for 3,850 USD, so long as you’re able to pay by check or bank transfer.

This way, you’ll also save on credit card fees.

There is no need to pay your total balance until the summer, but you must get in your deposit by March 1st to benefit from this promotion.

Go to www.bikeswitzerland.com and click on “Sign in/Sign up” (under Guided Tours or Independent Tours)

Tour de Suisse with BMC !

PRESS RELEASE

Tour de Suisse with BMC: Follow the race, ride their bikes, meet their team, visit the factory, and take a bike back home.

The BMC team up close every day

Bike Switzerland are expanding the number of guided cycling tours they offer by introducing a tour based around the Tour de Suisse cycling race. The tour includes watching an individual time trial, some epic mountain climbs, and a stage finish. When not watching the race, tour participants ride BMC racing bikes on many of the same roads as the professionals. They will also meet some of the racers on the BMC Racing Team, and have a guided tour of BMC’s new Impec factory – “where the vision of a flawless carbon frame becomes reality.” Participants will also have the chance to pre-order any new BMC bicycle of their choice to take home at a special price.

Because of the challenging Alpine terrain and the length (nine stages), the Tour de Suisse is arguably the most important stage race outside the three grand tours, and has previously been won by many of the sport’s legends. Running from June 10^th to June 15^th, 2011, the Bike Switzerland tour starts in the Italian-speaking Swiss canton of Ticino, with castles and palm trees wherever you look. It will then go over some of the highest mountain passes in the Swiss Alps, before eventually descending to lower elevations to ride along stunning mountain lakes and rolling farmlands, interspersed with fantastic medieval towns.

One of our hotels (Solothurn)

The price of 2,450 Swiss Francs includes five nights in 3-star hotels, all meals, the use of brand new and well-equipped BMC road/racing bikes, experienced guides plus GPS navigation devices, a support vehicle, baggage transfers, and airport transfers.

Founded in 2004, Bike Switzerland arranges guided and independent bicycle tours across Switzerland. They offer four different tours, ranging from six to 12 days , each at different levels of difficulty. For more information, visit www.bikeswitzerland.com