Burley Story

The following e-mail was forwarded to me by our Burley Trailer rep.
It sort of speaks for itself:

From: John Smith and Family
Sent: Monday, July 21, 2008 8:35 PM
To: Burley Customer Service
Subject: Our Burley Trailer RIP
To Burley Trailer Company,
Just over a month ago, my wife was riding along on her bike with our
Burley trailer in tow. She was babysitting a 5 year old neighbor that
day whom was in the Burley trailer at the time. They were struck by an
inattentive motorist and drug 4 feet before the driver realized what had
happened. The trailer ended up partially lodged under the front axle of
the Jeep Cherokee that hit them. As you can see the trailer did not fare
so well. HOWEVER, the 5 year old boy walked away without a scratch.
Even before meeting it's premature ending, this Burley trailer served
our family for 7 years trouble free. We used it for raising our 7 year
old, babysitting kids, and many trips to the grocery store. We went
through 2 sets of tires and the Burley just kept on hauling. We are sad
to see the trailer come to such a sad ending but thank God that the most
important cargo walked away safely.
This is a simple email from our family to say THANK YOU BURLEY for
making an amazingly durable product. We plan on buying a new burley
trailer and have our eye on the new D'Lite as my wife still used it for
her daycare business.
Thanks again!
The Smiths

Burley trailers are the "Kleenex" of trailers for a reason. they are exhaustively tested for safety, durability, and comfort.

thanks for stopping by.
peter

Thank You

Working Bikes and Campbell Street Bicycle Shop thank all the nice folks who have been dropping of donations to the cause.

We just had 17 more bikes get picked up this afternoon.

What am I talking about?
We collect bikes for the folks at Working Bikes, who have a flock of volunteers to clean them up, and fix them, then some of them get Sold from their warehouse on Western in Chicago, in order to fund sending other bikes to Africa for aid workers. Check out their link above for more info.

keep the rubber side down.
peter

If the Shoe Fits...

Pedals are one of those parts of the bike that many people rarely ever give much thought to.


Many of us, just sort of mash down on them and that's what makes the Bike go. Simple Right?

Not so much,


Some people like pedals that can hold your foot so they can pull up on the pedals as well as push down on them. And so their feet don't slide around on the pedals and they are maximizing their effort. This can be done a couple of ways.


Old school Toe Clips, little baskets attached to the top of pedals that hold the front end of whatever shoe you happen to be wearing. These are fine and good, but they tend to break when you least want them to, are harder to disengage from when the rider is in distress.


Or New School, Clipless Pedals. These come in a wide variety of shapes, sizes, colors and weights, depending on the riders needs. With Clipless pedals, not only do your feet not slide around, but the shoes themselves are stiffer so the rider doesn't waste energy using muscles that don't need to be used to propell the bike.
This is a very simplified explanation, but you sorta get the idea.

We've always carried pedals, both platform, and clipless. but now we carry Lake Shoes a good brand with loads of variety from right here in Chicago land. We have entry level shoes for Road and Mountain, and we have some indoor / outdoor shoes, which work well for those in spin classes. We can order anything from their catalog, with just a day or two turn around.

Swing by sometime and check out our cool recycled display..

Hammer Time....Nutrition update, not dance

We love Hammer Nutrition, this stuff is more natural and enviro friendly then many of the other nutritional supplements. And they're not owned by some multi national food conglomerate, kinda cool.
We've had some of it around since we opened our doors, but we just increased supply quite a bit.
A big fancy multi-tiered display rack.
Hammer Gel, both individual and bulk bottles to fill your flasks for epic rides,
Hammer Heed, sorta like gatorade but WAY better, individuals and Jumbo jars
Recoverite, drink it when you get back, also in individuals and Jumbo Jars
just to name a few of the products we now stock.
If you would like to try any of the other great products they have, or think we should be stocking them, let us know.
If you find yourself out for a ride and you need to refill your water bottles, drop in, we also have one of those Big Cool Water Dispenser things so you can take advantage of the individual packaging and immediate gratification.

We also just got some more 53X11 coffee in stock, freshly roasted and super yummy. We buy this direct from the Bike Parts Distributor so unless you are getting your caffeine fix direct, our is fresher. Stop by for a cup (we almost always have a pot on) or pick up some beans to bring home and grind & brew

As always, thanks for stopping by our little blog,
and Keep the Rubber Side Down

Fun in The Sun

Who rode Bike The Drive this year?
Tif drew the short straw and had to stay in Arlington and open the shop, while Peter rode with the Boys, for the third year in a row. The weather was probably the best we've seen in the last couple of years, warmish, and sunny. Thanks to the CBF, all their great volunteers, and of course "DaMayor", (oh and some bank)

It looks like summer might actually be arriving to Chicago-land, are you ready?

We just added a few things to our inventory that might help:
Sunglasses by Tifosi Optics, Affordable and Cool, come into the shop and check them out.
Also, some "Ride Ready" Sunscreen: Spray, Lotion, and Lip Balm, which is sure to help on those epic rides when the days start getting longer and warmer.

Are you wearing a good Helmet?

I am a VERY BAD blogger,
Sorry about that but things have been pretty busy around the Shop lately, I will try to get better, I Promise.

That being said, things are developing well at our little Shop, For anyone who hasn't been by lately, Swing on in on your next ride and check us out.

Call it a Skid Lid, Brain Bucket, Melon Protector, or just Helmet. You should be wearing one, for loads of reasons, which I don't need to get into here. Just know that we are now an Authorized Bell Dealer, and we have a whole back wall of Helmets suitable for the whole family, Toddlers, Kids, BMX, Adults, Roadies, and Mountain.
I'd post a picture, but I gotta get back to work tuning up bikes and stuff.
See you at Bike The Drive?

peter

New York Times Article about Muscle Cramps.

This is Kinda wordy but interesting worth the read, I received it from the Arlington Heights Bicycle Club ListServe:
A Long-Running Mystery, the Common Cramp
By GINA KOLATA
From the New York Times
IT can happen for no reason, it seems, taking you completely by surprise. And it can be excruciating. Suddenly, a muscle contracts violently, as if it had been prodded with a jolt of electricity. And it remains balled in a tight knot as painful second after painful second drags on.
A seized calf muscle or a hamstring can be frightening. Swimmers fear they will drown. Cyclists nearly fall off their bikes. Runners drop to the ground, grimacing, gritting their teeth.
The contraction is so strong that you could not will yourself to ball your muscle that tightly. And your muscle is likely to feel sore the next day.
You have had a cramp, an experience so common among endurance athletes, researchers say, that almost everyone who has tried endurance sports has had a muscle cramp or has a friend who has had one.
Cramps afflict 39 percent of marathon runners, 79 percent of triathletes, and 60 percent of cyclists at one time or another, said Dr. Martin P. Schwellnus, a professor of sports medicine at the University of Cape Town.
Cramps can occur during exercise, immediately after, or he said, as long as six hours later.
Yet common as they are and terrible as they can be, no one really understands cramps. They are a medical mystery.
"I would say, bottom line, there is no really convincing biological explanation for muscle cramps," said Dr. Andrew Marks, a muscle researcher and chairman of the department of physiology and cellular biophysics at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.
Medical textbooks skirt the topic, he added, often avoiding any explanation. And few scientists have studied cramps.
But as anyone who has ever complained of cramps will attest, lots of advice is circulating on how to avoid them and lots of people — friends, coaches, doctors — think they have a solution.
Take a multivitamin pill to get zinc and magnesium. Massage the muscles. Drink plenty of water. Be sure to get enough electrolytes like sodium and potassium. Stretch before you start to exercise. No, stretch as soon as you finish. See a nutritionist to correct imbalances in your diet. See a trainer to be sure you are moving correctly.
Of course, Dr. Marks said, medical conditions can lead to cramps, including narrowed blood vessels, usually from atherosclerosis, or compression of a nerve, as happens in spinal stenosis. Cramps also can arise from hypothyroidism. And they can be a side effect of medications like diuretics, used to lower blood pressure, which can lead to a potassium deficiency that can cause cramps.
But, he and others said, those conditions do not explain the vast majority of cramps.
"You are left with the fact that cramping usually occurs in healthy people without any underlying disease," Dr. Marks said.
There are three leading hypotheses about how to treat cramps and how to prevent them.
There's the dehydration proposal: you just need more fluid. But, Dr. Schwellnus said, he studied athletes who cramped and found that they were no more dehydrated before or after a race than those who did not have cramps.
Then there's the electrolyte hypothesis: what you really need is sodium and potassium.
Michael F. Bergeron, who directs the environmental physiology laboratory at the Medical College of Georgia, said the electrolyte hypothesis applies to a specific type of cramp that is related to excessive sweating. It occurs, he said, when the fluid that bathes the connection between muscle and nerve is depleted of sodium and potassium, which was lost through sweat. The nerve then becomes hypersensitive, Dr. Bergeron said.
"Usually you feel little twitches first," he explained. "They last for 20 to 30 minutes and if you don't do anything you can be in full-blown cramps." Those cramps, he continued can move from place to place on your body, from one leg to the next, to your arms, stomach, even your fingers or your face.
The solution, Dr. Bergeron said, is to drink salty fluids like Gatorade (the company sponsors his research). He said he had prevented cramps in tennis players this way.
But asked whether there are any rigorous studies to confirm this hypothesis, he said no. "We haven't done the study yet," he said. "We're at the point of kind of connecting the dots."
The third hypothesis is advanced by Dr. Schwellnus. He questions the electrolyte hypothesis because his studies of Ironman-distance triathletes as well as other studies of endurance athletes found no difference in electrolyte levels between those who suffered cramps and those who did not.
DR. SCHWELLNUS proposes that the real cause of cramping is an imbalance between nerve signals that excite a muscle and those that inhibit its contractions. And that imbalance, he said, occurs when a muscle is growing fatigued.
His solutions for cramps are to exercise less intensely and for shorter times, to be sure you had enough carbohydrates to fuel your muscles, to train sufficiently and to regularly stretch the muscles that give you problems. These recommendations are based on his recent study of Ironman triathletes, Dr. Schwellnus said.
But while he advocates those practices, he said, they have not been proved in a rigorous study.
In the meantime, some doctors have resorted to experimenting on themselves, devising their own explanations and cures.
Dr. Charles van der Horst, an AIDS researcher at the University of North Carolina, said he was stunned when his calf started to cramp without warning when he was running. The pain was almost unbearable, he said, and even when the muscle finally relaxed, it cramped again when he resumed running.
"I started carrying a cellphone with me on long runs," Dr. van der Horst said. When a cramp struck, he called his wife to ask her to drive out and get him.
"I think I was getting calcium deposits or something," Dr. van der Horst said.
His solution was to massage his calves at all hours, pushing deep into the muscle. This seems to work, he said, explaining that it's been a year now since he had a cramp.
Dr. Stephen Liggett, a professor of medicine and physiology at the University of Maryland, has a different solution. He got terrible cramps in his calf during yoga. The culprit, he decided, was the drugs he takes for asthma, which can diminish the body's supply of potassium. He knew that potassium is sold over the counter. But because high levels of potassium can be dangerous, store-bought potassium supplements are not very strong.
Dr. Liggett's solution is not one anyone who is not a doctor should try at home. Before he does yoga, he measures the potassium levels in his blood before and after taking what he describes as a hefty dose of over-the-counter supplement. Then he calculates how much additional potassium he thinks he needs, securing it from concentrated potassium tablets from his research lab — how much he declined to say.
"I didn't want to drink two gallons of Gatorade," Dr. Liggett explained. He hasn't had cramps since he began "preloading," as he calls it, with potassium. But, he said, "I haven't done a controlled trial."
Dr. Marks, for one, is not convinced by the evidence for any of the hypotheses, nor by any of the proposed remedies.
What causes cramps?
"I would say the answer to that question is still open to investigation," he said. And, he added, he hopes someone takes it up.

Free Brake Safety Adjustments for kids.

Tuesday while I was picking my son's up from school one of the bikes in the bike rack caught my eye. Not because it was a particularly fine specimen of cycle. But because it was remarkably unsafe.
The front quick release was not being used properly.
The front brake was completely useless, and the back brake wasn't much better.
And it wasn't locked.
So I asked Son#1 whose bike it was, and gave the owner a card, telling him to bring the bike to the shop and I would Safety Adjust the brakes for free. He was a little sceptical. But he came in anyway. Unfortunatly the brake cable was broken, and needed a part, so I wasn't able to do the work for the "Free" that I advertised, but I didn't charge him for labor. He was safely on his way for $5.00.

What is a Safety Adjustment you ask?

Well, it's simple really, If I can make the brakes work without replacing any parts, it's an adjustment: Tighten Cables, Move pads, adjust spring tension, etc.
It's a service I provide to neighborhood kids free.
Stop by or call for details, or with questions.

Until next time,
keep the rubber side down

Dream Bike

Do you have a dream bike?
Maybe it's a groupo (or component) you want to build a bike around?
Or a frame that you have (or have seen) that you love, but needs to get built up.
This is one of our customers dream bike that he gave us permission (encouragement) to share. It started with a Moots frame which he loves and brought to the shop. And we have slowly cobbled it together with some parts he "Ebayed", some he had in his garage, and a bunch of new stuff that we ordered up special for him.
It's not quite finished, we still have to order shifters, and decide on grips. But it's January, and he's not in a big hurry.

So here's the point:

Do you want to make that dream bike a reality?

Have you been eyeing that frame on Ebay, but want some help building it up?

Do you have something that's been sitting around for a long time, but want to modernize it?

Well let's make your dream bike a reality.

Don't forget we discount Labor Rates 20% when the snow's flying, so get in here soon, and ride your dream bike by spring.

Bike or Breakfast

Hello,
We hope your having a healthy and happy New Year!

We wanted to make a post announcing our first regularly scheduled group event.
We'd call it a ride, but it's so much more then just a ride.
It's a cultural phenomenon that we are calling
Sunday Morning Bike or Breakfast.
It's simple really.
Meet up here at the shop at 7:30 every Sunday morning.
For the first few weeks bring your Mountain Bike if you have one, we will stay on paved roads, but it's nice to have little extra traction.It's not a Week-end Hammer Fest. It's more about community and fun.
If we as a group decide there is to much weather to ride (too much snow, rain, or just plain cold) then we can go to one of the local diners for breakfast, hang out here at the shop drinking coffee and swapping stories, or we can have an impromptu Maintence Seminar, whatever.
It's a little way to get into the habit of dedicating some time to bike related fun and comradierie.

Thanks for your time.
And See you Sunday,
Tiff and Peter.

Happy Tuesday

Every now and then folks ask us about our hours.
"Why are you closed Tuesday?"
So allow me to elaborate:
Sunday and Monday (8:00am -4:00pm) we open early to accommodate anyone who is to busy to get in after 10. And anyone who needs a little something when on their way to a ride. Or the day after a ride.
Wednesday through Saturday (10:00am-8:00pm), we stay open kinda late-ish for those folks hanging around Downtown Arlington Heights. Or people getting off the Metra.
But Tuesday... We are a Mom and Pop shop. You will often find our kids here. And we needed a day that we could be closed to take care of Home Life stuff, and Appointments etc..
And go for a rides. (Today I rode Busse Woods on my Fixed Gear)
So Tuesday seemed like the best day for that.
We are often here on Tuesday's and you can certainly make an appointment if you'd like.

If we find there is a clamoring for us to be open on Tues. maybe we will change our hours. And if someone wants to make an appointment. just let us know.
peter.tif@campbellstreetbikes.com

thanks for stopping by,

Check out our web site!

www.campbellstreetbikes.com
just put it up this morning, so it's under development.

We are Open

The easy part is over, we are officially open, now all we have to do is... be successful.

Opening day was very nice, Pictures are coming soon, our good Friends the Kowalskis came up and took pictures, and brought work.
Tif's mom and Step dad were in, And many other people in the community stopped by to wish us well (and eat Shelly's yummy cookies)

We have had a great amount of interest in our Service and Storage Packages. So I thought I would post those rates here:
Service Package, $100 annually
Store and Service, $200 annually (12 in /outs)
Short Term Store and Service, $20 monthly (Get the bike out of the way of the car, tune up)
and the...
Stable Boy, Unlimited Storage and Service, $30 monthly

Thats All for now, I need to get back to work on this cool old Raleigh folding bike I salvaged.

Fuji is our line

We have come to a decision in the bike line dept.
Fuji.
they have sweet Road Bikes
Mutli -Sporters are covered in style.
rough and tumble Mountain Bikes.
Groovy Cuisers and Comfort bikes.
They also distribute BMX bikes.
Have a fun kids line.
The Fixie and Single Speeds they have are edgy and cool too

Many variable go into choosing a bike line.
Competion (very little localy),
Variety (pretty wide),
Cool Factor,
Distributer requirments and commitments,
and of course romance.
Little story for you, After we met, we sort of eloped to South West Florida and spent 5 years living and working near Sanibel. When we saw the Fuji Cruisers were named after the place where our (very) young marriage developed into the relationship we have today. It really spoke to us.
Thanks for Stopping by.

Directions

Although we aren't technically open yet, stop by if you'd like to check on the progress, we are there a lot.

Our location, and how to get here.


I prefer the Metra:
take the NW line to Arlington Heights, walk (or ride) 1 block south. We are 1/2 way down the block on the south side of the street between Vail and Dunton.


If you drive:
We are not far (3 blocks) from the corner of NW Highway and Arlington Heights Road. Depending on the time of day there is often street parking, but if not, there is plenty of parking a few blocks away (west to Highland, then South) near Runners High n'Tri.
If your bringing a bike that's unrideable, call me from the street in front of the shop, and I will be happy to pop out side and help you unload so you don't have to lug your bike from wherever you find parking.