WATERLOO, WI (BRAIN) — Trek Bicycle is adding the 650b wheel size to its mountain bike lineup in 2014. The company unveiled a revamped Slash and Remedy line, both featuring 650b models, to European retailers and press Wednesday.

Trek brings a redesigned 160-millimeter-travel Slash to the growing enduro mountain bike market. The 650b model features a lower bottom bracket, slacker head tube angle and an alloy frame that weighs 350 grams less than its 26-inch predecessor.

Mid-travel 140-millimter-travel alloy and carbon 650b options will be added to the Remedy line, complementing the recently launched Remedy 29.

“After a decade plus of alternative wheel size development, testing, refining, and debating, it’s become clear that for trail riders wheel size is primarily about riding style. 29 will be fastest for XC racing, but as we get into more trail riding, 650b and 29 can both excel on the same trail,” said Travis Ott, global mountain bike brand manager at Trek. “Then it really comes down to how different riders tackle the same trail in their own way.”

Earlier this week Trek also announced the launch of its redesigned Speed Concept triathlon bike. The 2014 model offers storage solutions for gear and nutrition and weighs nearly a pound lighter less than its predecessor. A deeper fork profile, smaller frontal area and refined tube shaping offer improved aerodynamics and shave 437 grams in weight, Trek claims. All cables and housing are routed internally and the frame includes an internal battery option to accommodate electronic drivetrains.

Trek’s new bike models will be available at retailers worldwide in the fall.

MINNEAPOLIS, MN (BRAIN) — Clothing brand Twin Six is leaving its downtown Minneapolis home for larger digs just outside the city, in St. Louis Park, that should be up and running by the end of August.

“We’ll be paying just as much [in rent] for four times the space just by crossing the freeway,” said Ryan Carlson, co-founder of Twin Six along with partner Brent Gale.

Twin Six currently runs out a 1,500-square-foot space with a detached garage for overstock. The new 6,000-square-foot space will allow the company to better organize its inventory and add much-needed office and meeting space.

“I think this new move will solve a lot of those internal issues. Everyone will be able to spread out a bit more,” Carlson said.

Twin Six is currently upgrading the brick industrial building, which also has a loading dock, with glass garage doors, a kitchenette and showers for commuting employees. Move-in will begin the first week of August.

The new address is 5711 W. 36th Street, St. Louis Park MN 55416. Company phone numbers will remain the same. 

GRAND JUNCTION, CO (BRAIN) — DT Swiss has hired Jim Glose as part of its global OEM sales team.

Glose has previously worked at Titus Cycles, Tifosi Optics and Speedgoat Bicycles.

“I’m thrilled to be on board at DT Swiss,” said Glose. “Being able to leverage my previous sales, operations and service experience in my new role, within such a dynamic company, is exciting to say the least. The wealth of new products, vast manufacturing capabilities and unparalleled account service places DT Swiss in a unique and advantageous position,” he said.  

Glose will be working with Creig Hart from his home-based office in Denver, and serve as a member of the global sales team based throughout Europe and Taiwan.  

TEKONSHA, MI (BRAIN) — Cequent Performance Products, the maker of ROLA auto racks and cargo boxes, is converting its Tekonsha, Michigan, facility to a regional distribution center.

The location currently houses the company's engineering and product development teams. The 75,000-square-foot facility will take the place of the Huntington, Indiana, location and will add more than 13 jobs.

"Tekonsha is an ideal location to serve as our newest distribution center," said Justin Schuhardt, CPP's director of global logistics. "Combined with the opening of our Dallas, Texas, master distribution center, we are in a great position to serve customers throughout the Midwest region."

The Tekonsha facility will continue to be the center of development for automotive and braking research. It will join five other CPP North American distribution centers.

LONDON, United Kingdom (BRAIN) — Future plc, the publisher of Cycling Plus, Cyclingnews.com and BikeRadar.com, saw normalized revenues increase 1 percent to £76.2 million ($116 million) in its third quarter.

Digital advertising revenues was up 24 percent and now accounts for nearly 60 percent of the company's advertising revenue. 

Besides its bike titles, Future publishes several sites and magazines in the games market, which has been weak and contributed to a new forecast for full-year EBITDA that is below previous projections. As a result, the company has instituted a cost-savings program. The company said the program will reduce expenses related to the print magazine side of its business.

"We are disappointed to miss our target for the full year and as a result we are bringing forward plans to reduce legacy print costs and improve operating margins in the period ahead," said Mark Wood, Future plc's chief executive. 

"We see encouraging trends across the business for the final quarter and the year ahead, including in the Games sector in the run up to major new console launches later this year, and anticipate delivering significant revenue and profit growth in the coming year."

Future is traded on the London Stock Exchange (symbol: FUTR). It operates media titles in games, film, music, technology, cycling, automotive and crafts, selling a total of 2.2 million magazines a month and seeing more than 38 million monthly unique visitors across its websites.

CHIUDUNO, Italy (BRAIN) — Kask's new lightweight aero helmet, the Infinity, was developed with Team Sky and ridden by the team in this year's Tour de France.

The helmet combines the aero advantages of Kask's time trial helmets with the lightness and ventilation of its road racing helmets. The Infinity allows the rider to adjust the vents from open — providing maximum ventilation — to closed for maximum aerodynamics. The adjustment can be made while riding without removing the helmet.

The 270-gram helmet will be available in two sizes and three colors in January 2014 in the U.S. It will retail for $360.

MADISON, WI (BRAIN)—Following the closure of its downtown store last year, Williamson Bicycle Works has suspended operations indefinitely at its remaining location at 3729 East Washington Avenue in Madison. 

No information about the closure was posted on the shop’s website, blog or Facebook page, and Bicycle Retailer could not reach owner Del Henning for further clarification or comment. 

Williamson Bicycle Works opened at 601 Williamson Street in 1994. Henning moved the store to E. Washington Avenue in 2002, and opened a downtown location at 640 West Washington Avenue a year later. All inventory was moved to the East Washington store after the closure of the downtown location in November 2012.

Williamson Bicycle Works was a full-service retail shop and sold bikes from Trek, Salsa, Cannondale, Surly, All-City, Moots, Soma and Niner. 

ANN ARBOR, MI (BRAIN) —Long-time retailer Wheels in Motion is wrapping up the final stages of a major expansion project that will more than quadruple its current 2,500 square-foot retail store, and make it Ann Arbor’s largest bike shop.

Owner Dewight Plotner purchased the vacant neighboring space, a former bowling alley, last August and began renovations in early March. The newly expanded section of the store will open for business on July 24.

Family owned and operated since 1933, Wheels in Motion is also Ann Arbor’s oldest bike shop. “I was born into the business,” said Plotner. “So I’m a third generation bike shop owner.” Plotner’s son and daughter, who both work in the store, are carrying on the family tradition.  

Plotner said that the store has long been limited by its size. “We’ve been planning to expand for a few years. There have been a lot of things we’ve wanted to do over the years but couldn’t because we just didn’t have the room,” he said. “We were just waiting for the right time to do it, and that time finally came.”

The 9,740 square-foot addition includes a conference room for hosting community meetings and clinics. Onsite showers and lockers will be available for staff, and there is a studio for spin classes during winter months. 

"This gives us the opportunity to have more of the products we carry actually visible in our showroom and offer space for the cycling public to use,” said Plotner. 

Wheels in Motion is located at 3400 Washtenaw Avenue in Ann Arbor and carries Trek, Kona, Look, Electra, Niner and others. A grand opening celebration is planned for mid-August.

LAGUNA, CA (BRAIN) — To celebrate the 100^th anniversary of the Tour de France, Bicycle Retailer will provide fans of professional cycling a weekly infographic on which cyclist and team are leading the social media race.

The statistics are compiled by sourcing data from the cyclists’ and teams' social media platforms: Facebook and Twitter. Take a look at the attached pdf file to see who is leading after the individual time trial.

After two weeks of racing, race leader Christopher Froome was leading the Twitter battle, as well, picking up the most new followers in the period. The French Ag2R team was leading the team category on Facebook, with the most new followers.

And in the individual Facebook category, charismatic all-rounder Peter Sagan had picked up the most new followers of any rider in the race. Tune in next week for the final standings.

LAGUNA HILLS, CA (BRAIN) — Bicycle Retailer & Industry News is launching a weekly email newsletter that will deliver the top industry headlines published on our website directly to your inbox. 

“While our web traffic continues to grow exponentially, we recognize that our readers sometimes miss important stories and updates as they are pulled in many directions throughout the work week. We know our readers pickup our headlines from a variety of places including social media sites; by creating an email digest of the top news stories each week, we are simply providing another means for our readers to keep current on the latest industry news and ensure they don’t miss information that is vital to their businesses,” said Megan Tompkins, BRAIN’s associate publisher. 

BRAIN’s editorial staff will edit the content, prioritizing top stories and segmenting news by subject. The newsletter will give readers a headline and brief synopsis of the top news stories published online each week, and allow readers to click through to the BRAIN website to read more. Formatted in a dynamic html format, it can easily be viewed on a desktop or mobile device anywhere in the world. 

The first weekly e-newsletter lands in inboxes today and will be delivered every Friday. To subscribe, please click here.

AGOURA HILLS, CA (BRAIN) — With a full-service coffee shop, ample seating and a cozy den, JRA Bikes and Brew is more than just a retail store. Owners Vince and Tamera Gest opened JRA in May with the intention of creating a community hangout.

“I always wanted to own a bike shop,” said Vince Gest. “My wife wanted a coffee shop, so we decided to marry the two.” The coffee shop is staffed separately and opens at 7 a.m., and a bike shop employee is available for early morning purchases and repairs.

JRA is located near a popular trail network northwest of Los Angeles. "This is a great central hub for off-road and mountain biking," said Vincent. "But we’re also located right on a popular road biking route that leads to a couple of the area’s well-known climbs.” 

The Gests designed their 3,300-square-foot store to be a comfortable place for cyclists and non-cyclsits to gather. “We wanted to create a bike shop that is not intimidating for the novice, where anyone can come in and feel comfortable immediately,” said Vince Gest. “Which is why we placed the lounge area and fireplace right at the store entrance. By the time the customer makes it into the bike shop, the ice has been broken.”

JRA Bikes and Brew is the second bike shop to open in northwestern L.A. County’s Conejo Valley in the past three months. The Pedalers Fork, a bike shop, Moots Bicycles boutique and restaurant rolled into one, opened in April. Vince Gest said he has met with Pedalers Fork owner Robbie Shaeffer to discuss the new wave of cycling in the area. “We are excited to work together to grow and strengthen the cycling culture here,” said Vince Gest.

JRA Bikes and Brew carries bicycles from Jamis, Turner, Niner, NeilPryde and Independent Fabrication. Its full-service repair department specializes in suspension service and tuning. No-drop group road and mountain bike rides leave from the store four times a week. 

SNOW BASIN, UT (BRAIN) — QBP’s founder Steve Flagg occupies a unique position within the industry. He oversees two separate businesses — QPB, arguably the industry’s largest distributor, and a flourishing but quirky bicycle manufacturing sector that successfully slices and dices the market for niche sales.

Count the bike brands: Surly, Salsa, Civia, All-City and Foundry and within each brand are bikes that further slice up consumer demand.

No other company in the industry has placed so much faith in the creative introduction of offbeat brands and bikes than QBP. 

And Flagg, who considers himself a steward rather than a boss, places a great deal of faith in the future of independent bicycle dealers and their ability to cope in a rapidly changing marketplace. And it’s his company’s role to offer them products to help differentiate them in a highly competitive market.

Flagg took a few minutes out of his schedule at Saddle Drive, the company’s annual dealer event, to offer his thoughts on a range of topics. 

BRAIN: The success of your company, especially your bicycle division, depends upon retailers who see value in bikes like the Pugsley, the War Bird (a gravel bike), the Spearfish and others. What do you see in dealers that others may not?

Flagg: There are fabulous dealers out there and many of them are not so well known. These are dealers who create value, who are talented and who are creative. I think many suppliers have always underestimated them. That’s why we developed the Buy Local program and that’s why we bought SmartEtailing to help support them. But there’s no question that it’s a challenge right now for brick-and-mortar retailers. Still, there are a ton of small and medium size dealers who are very successful and who are showing us the way.

BRAIN: What led you to develop these brands and to stick with them as they found a market?

Flagg: It started with Surly as the kind of bike we would want to own—steel, durable, last forever but built with quality kind of bike. We actually started with a one-speed mountain bike called the 1X1. It was a shop-rat bike; the feel of steel and all that. People were shocked. I think we were ahead of our time with a single-speed. And then came the Karate Monkey, a 700c mountain bike, sort of an early 29er. We are not the family bike brand. It was a collection of outrageous bikes that I would have liked to have owned back in the 1970s when I was a retailer.

BRAIN: How do you manage this family of independent brands and independent staff?

Flagg: Organizationally we give them a lot of latitude. If I go out and hire really great people, it’s up to me to get out of the way and let them run with it. But we do have a rule: Succeed or fail fast. We tried a unicycle and it was a fast failure. We set up the bike division because I was afraid we would take our eyes off our core mission, distribution. So each brand has its own financials, hires and fires its own staff, and each is set up separately. We (QBP) charge back for backend support. And we charge each brand for distribution as well.  Each is responsible for making it work. Profitability, to me, means that customers believe in the products they are creating. 

BRAIN: As you talk with dealers what are they telling you about the season?

Flagg: First, the economy is stable, housing sales are up, the stock market is up and everyone’s 401(k) is growing again. We had a conservative projection for growth this year, but you could see what was happening with the NOAH weather reports. You could see the cold weather and then the rain all through March, April, May and June. Those reports are really good. The weather was really quite significant, so it’s no surprise to me that sales are down. I can’t remember ever seeing the climate having so pervasive an effect sales nationwide. Usually it’s in pockets, but not this year

BRAIN: Will the industry, and retailers specifically, have a chance to recover lost sales?

Flagg: We’re looking at sales at QBP as being flattish for the year, but we did see a great recovery in July. Essentially, June sales went into July; July sales will go into August; and August sales will go into September. So I don’t think we will recover from those lost sales in the spring. It’s very disappointing. 

NEW YORK, NY (BRAIN) — Less than one month after its flagship store opened in Detroit, bicycle and watch manufacturer Shinola unveiled a second store in Manhattan’s Tribeca neighborhood on July 18. 

The store features all of Shinola’s products, including its line of three-speed city bicycles, watches, paper and leather goods, as well as shoe shine and leather care. Smaller items include Shinola baseballs, pencils and pencil sharpeners. Onsite embossing is available on all leather goods. 

Bike accessories, including locks from Map of Days and bike bags from Detroit Cargo, are also available. A pop-up inside the store showcases jewelry crafted from hardware salvaged from foreclosed Detroit houses by Smith Shop, ceramics from Local Portion and other handcrafted items from Detroit-based artisans. 

Shinola’s line of Detroit-made city bicycles is on display and for sale in the store, which has a double-high ceiling and catwalk that is reached by a spiral staircase, all illuminated by a vaulted skylight. Other design features include a 1930’s era metal world map sculpture that was acquired from a lobby in Rockefeller Center, restored brick façade and a flexible wall display with built-in clothes racks.

Like the Detroit store, the Tribeca store was designed as a multi-use space. A small café, the Smile Newsstand, serves up coffee, pastries and light fare right inside the store’s entrance.  A newsstand will house a variety of magazines, periodicals and books, and the store’s display platforms can double as seating for evening events. 

Shinola bicycles are assembled at the Detroit store, which opened at the end of June. Its watches and other products are all made in Detroit, reflecting the company’s strong commitment to American-made goods. 

“The core of the brand is really about bringing manufacturing back to the U.S., “ said Daniel Caudill, creative director for Shinola. A ‘Made in Detroit’ badge is stamped on many Shinola products, and the Tribeca store will always feature some items that are made in Detroit, including shirts from Gitman Bros. and jeans from Detroit Denim.

Shinola’s Manhattan store is located at 177 Franklin in Tribeca, between Hudson and Greenwich. 

LAGUNA HILLS, CA (BRAIN) — When the tweets, follows and likes were all tallied, Chris Froome was the overall winner in this year's Tour de France social media race, as tracked by Bicycle Retailer.

Froome gained nearly 68,000 new Twitter followers during the Tour, putting him ahead of former teammate and Mark Cavendish, who picked up nearly 45,000 new followers, despite a relatively modest Tour performance this year (Cav' won only two stages this year and a flat tire kept him from contesting for a fifth straight victory on the Champs-Élysées). Former Tour winner Cadel Evans also was a surprise in fifth in the Twitter general classification, despite an undistinguished 39th place finish in the bike race. 

On the Facebook front, Team Movistar's Rui Costa and Nairo Quintana were the surprise winners, picking up the most new followers of any Tour competitor, while Ag2R-La Mondiale picked up the most new Facebook fans of any team.

The statistics are compiled by sourcing data from the cyclists’ and teams' social media platforms. Take a look at the attached pdf file to see all the final results.

DEER VALLEY, UT (BRAIN) — Some 42 dealers plus staff and family members arrive Tuesday to kick off Accell North America’s annual dealer event—the first time dealers will see all of Accell’s line of bikes in one place.

Dealers will get to test ride 2014 models from Lapierre, Raleigh and Diamondback as well as electric bikes from Currie Technologies and the German brand Haibike, which Accell plans to distribute in the North American market.

Larry Pizzi, president of Currie Technologies, said dealers would get a chance to ride Haibike’s Bosch-powered electric dual suspension mountain bike while in Deer Valley. While the Haibike line includes traditional models, its electric bikes have become the best selling models in Europe, Pizzi said.

Dealers will have a fleet of Haibikes, iZip and eFlow electric bikes to test, he added.

Chris Speyer, Accell North America’s chief operating officer, said the company has also invited three dealers from Mexico to its event. “What we want to do is explain how we are unifying our line for retailers. We’ll also discuss the state of the market and the trends we see,” he said.

Among the events scheduled for the event is Raleigh’s Mid-Summer Classic cyclocross race and the company is sponsoring a Ride to Recovery on Saturday to help support America’s injured veterans.

The Raleigh event will spill over into DealerCamp, which officially kicks off Thursday in the heart of Deer Valley with several dozen exhibitors setting up tents for the three-day trade expo.

BOULDER, CO (BRAIN) — Product Architects Inc., the maker of the Polar Bottle insulated sport bottles, has added several new full-time employees and promoted two of its veteran team members.

Caitlin Mallory has joined the company as a sales associate, focusing primarily on working with existing Polar Bottle bike shop customers. Mallory joined the outdoor industry in 2009, first as a sales associate at Sun and Ski Sports in Houston, Texas, and later as a merchandising manager for Hudson Trail Outfitters in Washington, D.C. 

The company has also hired two new full-time production employees and promoted two current production employees to supervisor positions. Rachel Rangel, who started at Polar Bottle in March 2012, and Michael Xiong, who has been with the company since 2007, have each taken on the role of production supervisor.