The Knog Ride

So I contacted the brand manager from Knog, the company that makes those little silicone lights, for a possible donation for the December ride that we lovingly call Festivus and have Feats of Strength and Decorating contests and give stuff away. He returned my email with an emphatic 'yes' and I then received a package of stuff to give away to Lifetime Members For Life. Awesome.

A few weeks ago we began our correspondence again with what I think may be one of the coolest emails I've ever gotten. Here are some excerpts: (note that he speaks in both a cool and warm burnt umber tone.)

"... I am currently working on the KNOG marketing regime for 2010. The core concept is 'Where ever you find, bikes, people and KNOG - the party is happening'. As part of this I am doing a two week global photo shoot with Tokyo based photographer and cycle rider Motoyan, we are checking out real people and real bikes...

The end result will be a book about cycling around the world - and yeah - sure, partly it is a marketing thing...it ends up on the desk of every bicycle company and bicycle journo in the world..."

So a few questions

what's the set up at the FBC??

Who will come for a ride?

...plenty of KNOG schwag for the people that wanna come for the ride / event ... and if we could hook up at a bar or FBC club . . . then KNOG would also be happy to throw some money on the bar."

Is that cool or what? I quickly responded and told him we would be glad to take on the responsibility of being real people and having real bikes. I was also able to answer the questions with what I assumed was good enough to not make him change his mind. I was also intrigued by the "...throw some money on the bar." line. So the ride is on!

We will be meeting just like always. The Swamp, Friday July 24th at 8:00p.m.

The route is an easy one so I encourage you to bring your art bikes and whatever strange (non-motorized) two wheeled thing you have and enjoy the short ride. You may also notice that there is the mention of it being a marketing campaign of sorts. That means that the photos taken will be plastered all over the world, so if you feel that you don't want that to happen to your face, I suggest that you try not to be there.

If you have the option, please feel free to download and print the flyer above in either color or black and white, and hang it all over the place. If you would like a safe for work poster, email me and I can attach one for you.

See you in a couple of weeks. Excited yet?

Maxwell House is a Douche

I was hoping for a repeat of the first birthday of the Fiasco by going back to the Maxwell House, playing some volleyball and eating cupcakes. I called and got a dude that told me there would be a group that night and we couldn't come. I asked when they would be done and he said 9:30. Perfect, that's when we would come by. He further turned me down by saying that there would not be enough people working to facilitate that volume of people. I asked if they could call some people in and he said that they couldn't do it. That's when I said: "So what you're telling me is that you are turning down the business of 100 customers. On a Tuesday." He again said no.

That's when the owner called me back and said with some uncertainty that they would do it: "I guess we have to." No, you don't and no you didn't. I told them never mind and that we would be going somewhere else, thank you very much. So if you get a chance to go to the Maxwell House, change your mind and go play volleyball at Litz's.

As for our destination, I called my friend Patrick up at The Scoop and he set me up with Andrew at Far West and they were more than happy to have us even on short notice. Amy and Jason(?) served hard and fast on the drinks and were even able to stow a cake that Lisa delivered earlier that evening. Plenty of room with pool tables and real, metal dangerous darts. If you have followed the blog from the very beginning and judging from the turnout on the first five rides, you haven't, you would know that Far West was the destination bar for Fiasco One. Since then we have increased our numbers from two to 125. Not too shabby.

Riders: 125+; 52 degrees and clear.

Tomorrow I will post about the ride coming up on July 24th which includes a printable flyer to spread around town. Thanks for coming out everybody and I will see you on Friday the 24th.

Happy Birthday FBC

Come help us celebrate our birthday with a bike ride under the full moon on Tuesday July 7th at 8:00p.m.. I know it's a Tuesday but you know Monday is going to be bad enough that you want to enjoy your Tuesday, right? Besides, the weather is going to be awesome and the FBC will be two years old! Can you believe it? We will not have a theme this time but don't let me dissuade you from showing up in your birthday suit.

I will also make an announcement regarding a pretty special ride coming up on the 24th. You don't want to miss that.

Get on a bike and come to The Swamp on 1904 W 5th Ave at 8:00p.m.

Prom 2009: Record Attendance

(click card for pictures)
This years Prom Ride was a huge success thanks in large part to the prom committee and their efforts to get all of this put together. Jacque, Nikki, Greg, Stephanie, Beth, Joe, Mike, and whoever else Jacque got to help him decorate. More on that later.

We began like any other Full Moon Fiasco at The Swamp with some quality entertainment by QuarterMonkey and a rockin show for the FBC. We were also treated to the awesome hospitality of Joe Kaler and the crew there where they even had reserved parking for all of our bikes. Too bad we couldn't stick around longer, but we had to get the prom on the road and make room for more paying customers.

We took a short ride through Brownes Addition and east through downtown to regroup at the fountain where I still didn't tell everyone where we were going. Not until we crossed over Hamilton and took a right did everyone realize that we were going to Northern Lights.

I was as surprised as you when they carried out a table covered in cupcakes. Nikki and Greg didn't just make cupcakes, instead it was a carefully designed bike trail of cupcakes complete with little plastic bikes, beer cans, wrecks, bikes going the wrong way, cops and some stuff I'm sure I missed. I ate a policeman.

Our DJ for the night was Mike and he rocked us with an expansive collection of vinyl and mp3's. There were very few requests that he didn't have. Though to be honest, the requests were some random 80's crap that no one should have in the first place.

As far as pictures, you can reach the FBC pictures by clicking on the spoke card above. Michael took some really great pictures and you can get to them HERE. If any of you have pictures you would like to show off to all the other Lifetime Members For Life, you can post a link to them here in the comments section or head over to the FBC Facebook Page and post them there.

And if all that wasn't enough, Hank shot some video of the event. It should show up at the bottom of this post.

As always, keep an eye out for updates about next months ride as it will be the two year birthday of the FBC here in Spokane.

Thanks everybody.

125+ riders, clear and cool Low 51 degrees.

Saturday June 6th at 7:00 p.m.

To make it real clear that we are meeting an hour earlier this time because it is the Prom Ride and you want everyone to see those fancy duds you spent so much time on.

7:00 p.m.
The Swamp
Saturday

So if anyone shows up and says that they thought it was at 8, I will know you are lying and I will set your pants on fire.