Well, it’s July and while yesterday commemorated the founding of our country, something else happened yesterday… The Tour de France started. For bike folks, this is just an amazing time of the year. The other Grand Tours (the Giro and the Vuelta) are incredibly big amazing races but le Tour is the biggest. As such bike companies make sure their newest technology is in the race (we decided to skip this year’s Tour de France but we are aiming for Tour de Fat). Nowhere was this more evident than the time trial yesterday. Cancellara crushed the field on this bike. It is incredibly fast but using it to commute would be like driving an F1 car to the office.
I’ve been writing about the different aspects of The One for a little while now and I wanted to write a little more on its purpose. We keep talking about the bike being a commuter bike. At its most simple a commuter bike’s purpose is to get you from point A to point B and often times people refer to this bike as their “Townie.” The most important characteristic of a townie is its reliability. The One is a relatively simple bike which means there is not a lot that can go wrong with it. The coaster brake and internal hub are pretty much maintenance free. The internal hub also enables us to use a very strong chain that will not need to be replaced often if at all. The cyclocross style wheels will allow riders to use relatively burly tires (even metal studded tires for riding in the snow are available) that are less likely to flat than tires on road racing bikes. The One will get you to work and school- but hopefully much more fun places too- with no problems
For any folks on Facebook, check us out at http://www.facebook.com/PandaBikes and see video of The One in action!
In the mean time, Cancellara thinks his team can hold the yellow jersey until the Team Time Trial (an amazing race within the race and very much worth watching) on Tuesday and it’s on right now… Happy Fourth of July and enjoy le Tour.
