QCycle Blog: Exustar USA–The Necessities of Bike

Q Cycle will be a sponsor of the Bicycle Coalition of New Mexico’s Tour of the Rio Grande Valley (TOGRV) this year.  September 18, 2011 is the date and the start is a stone’s throw (if you’re Josh Beckett) from the Q Cycle warehouse in lovely Los Ranchos de Albuquerque.  There are routes of 25, 50, 65 and 100 miles all heading south from the Los Ranchos City Hall.  Not sure yet what Q Cycle will be doing for the ride (riding?, mechanic-ing?, SAG-ing? or pitching our wares in a tent to the barely interested) but we will be there.  Money raised will support the advocacy efforts of the Bicycle Coalition of New Mexico or BCNM.

http://www.candjmarsh.com/TORGV/index.html

It doesn’t have much if anything to do with cycling but if you’re anywhere near northern New Mexico (which we are and watched this blow up from the office parking lot on Sunday), this is a big deal, cyclist or not.

Seems to be the most up to date information is here:

http://livewire.koat.com/Event/Live_Updates_Las_Conchas_Fire_Burns_Near_Los_Alamos

and here:

http://nmfireinfo.wordpress.com/

Continued best wishes for the fire crews and everyone in harms way.

We were in the Jemez yesterday about ten miles from the fire’s start visiting an out of state friend’s property a couple hours before the fire started and blew up.  Best of luck to all the fire crews on the line and in the air.  Be safe.

Twitter #nmfire and #lasconchas and http://nmfireinfo.wordpress.com/ seem to be some of the best places for current information.  We don’t know anyone on the fire yet but it only seems a matter of time.

They really are coming!  All the sizes that we’ve been out of for months will finally be back in stock by the end of the month now that Q Cycle has worked closely with Exustar to put the SRT707 touring shoe back into production.

Welcome back to the Q Cycle Funny Foto Kaption Kontest. I am pleased to report that following last week’s Corporate Mescal Binge, the staff is more less fully recovered and no one seems to have lost fingers and toes in the process, although there are some interesting new tattoos to be seen around Q Cycles Global Headquarters this week.

A Hula Dancer, Frank?

If you’re not familiar with the Kontest rules, they’re available here, but the idea is simple:

Each Friday  (or so) , we show a new Foto  and a sample Kaption. You write a funnier one via the Comments feature (You can also play via Facebook if you prefer).  Funniest Kaption wins that week’s very cool Exustar schwag.

And speaking of schwag, here’s this week’s:

BC60WH CARBON FIBER WATER BOTTLE CAGE WHITE

Durable, lightweight, carbon fiber water bottle cage in white. $49.95. Wait. What? White carbon fiber? Um, yes. It’s become a trade term in recent years, so let’s debunk that particular myth right now:

Carbon is not white, it’s black. (Unless you compress it enough, and then it becomes clear, in which case it’s known as “a diamond”.) So two things:

1. Exustar’s “White Carbon” is actually long-filament thermoset glass fiber. It’s cut from sheets of pre-preg, wrapped around a special mandrel and cured. (It could be done with thermoplastics, too, but there’s no particular advantage.)

2. This is good. High-impact glass (usually E-Glass) is a better material to make things like bottle cages out of because a thin sheet of it has better impact resistance than the same thickness of carbon, and because a bottle cage doesn’t need nearly as much strength as, say, a down tube.

3. Black “carbon” cages aren’t really carbon either. They (and other non-structural “carbon” bits ) are just glass, or even short-fiber (also called flox)-embedded plastic with a printed cover layer that looks like woven carbon.

Our Exustar “white carbon” cage makes a stylish and high-performance addition to your machine. It’s lightweight, lasts forever, doesn’t lose shape, and, now that you know the story, provides you with a nice bit of on-upmanship on the Sunday Morning Ride.

But back to this week’s Kontest:

Our Kaption: Naw, Fridges are for wusses. This here’s a Kegerator!

Your (much funner) Kaption: (Just click the Comment button)

You can also play the Kontest on our Facebook page.

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