Wandertec Blog

Wandertec Growing Strong!

noreply@blogger.com (Josh Lipton) — Sun, 17 May 2009 15:58:00 +0000

Business is continuing on at a strong pace of growth here at Wandertec. We've recently added on two new employees to help us provide the best in Bike Trailers, Bike Panniers and Bike Racks.

Melanie Street brings her strong customer service experience, small business experience and artistic sensibilities to our diverse team as our newest sales associate.

Herman Sims has joined in as our PHP/OSCommerce programmer. We are looking forward to utilizing his wealth of programming, networking and general business experience to move all of our websites forward to the next level.

In our effort to find our great new employees, we reached out to other bike bloggers to help spread the word. I wanted to thank all of our friends out there who posted up links about our available positions. These are the folks that posted and what they had to say: Commute by Bike, Bike Hacks, How To Fix Bikes. Drunk Cyclist, HandleBar Sandwich, Cascade Couriers, Melanie Meyers, Womens Bike Talk, David Hembrow, Cyclelicio.us, Family On Bikes, Bike Blog NYC and Tucson Bike Lawyer.

Along with our new employees, we are continuing to move forward on growing our business. We've recently launched the Bike Shop Hub as a central site for our growing array of niche bicycling sites. The Bike Shop Hub will serve as a portal to the Bike Trailer Shop, Bike Bag Shop and our new site that is coming soon, Bike Kid Shop.

We've also updated website for our representation of Extrawheel Bike Trailers in the US, Extrawheel USA. We've just added in Extrawheel's Advert Trailer. Right now both the Advert Trailer and the Extrawheel Voyager Bike Trailer are on sale.

Bike Racing Season Warming Up

noreply@blogger.com (Josh Lipton) — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 17:25:00 +0000

The Spring Season is starting to warm up and I though I'd give a few shouts of good luck to a few of my favorite racers.

My sister is recovering from knee surgery last fall and hopefully going to be back in full form in the next few months. Have a look at her Missing Saddle Blog and her team Womens Bike Talk blog. Good Luck Melanie!

And on the other side of the pond I wanted to wish many fast returns for Rachel Fenton and Chris Pedder. Check out there blog at Over The Hill Racing.

File Organization

noreply@blogger.com (Josh Lipton) — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 04:12:00 +0000

For the past few weeks we've been organizing all of our files and file names.

Having worked on my own developing this business for the first two years, it was generally hard to justify the time it would take to develop a uniform method for organizing my files. As a new business, it was also difficult to determine what methods of file organization would be most helpful for the business.

Having grown our business quite significantly over the last year with the strong growth in utility cycling, we now have both the need and the impetus for a solid organization of all of our files.

The main goal has been to organize our product naming structure in with our system of accounting and organizing images and information. The naming structure of our websites is the starting point. We name by shop, then brand, then brand subcategory then product name. As closely as possible we duplicate this in our accounting names and our organization of information relating to the products we sell.

Our basic ambition in setting up our files is to setup an easy to use method of cataloging all of the information and images we deal with to create a great database of Utility Cycling information. In the end, we hope to organize and present as much of this information as possible.

Trickle Down Inspiration Flow of a Workaholic

noreply@blogger.com (Josh Lipton) — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 18:18:00 +0000

I'm always thinking about what works best to keep myself and my employees focused, energized and motivated to keep Wandertec moving forward in the right direction.

Often, it is about balancing the right load between the "core level" work of day-to-day and infrastructure and the "fringe level" work of experimental marketing and new projects.

Another way I think about balancing the load is simply working off of what stands out strongest in mind. Each day, I'll start out with core activities like customer relations, shipping and ordering. Once I'm clear of those tasks, I'll start looking around for inspiration. When I'm staring at a long list of possible projects, I try to let ideas that are popping brightly in my mind bubble to the front of my task list. Projects that are standing out in my mind are generally easier to do and are more relevant to the moment.

This process of choosing projects, really helps when I'm tired or lacking motivation on the weekends in the morning or at the end of the day. If nothing pops and the core tasks are done, I then look to the basics. This may mean that work is done and it is time to focus on the basics of life, like eating, cleaning, exercising and maybe even relaxing....

2009 Predicitions for Utility Cycling

noreply@blogger.com (Josh Lipton) — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 16:32:00 +0000

I recently posted a comment in response to a post discussing the current state of utility cycling at Eco Velo. The development of utility cycling in 2009 will have a strong impact on the growth and direction of Wandertec in 2009 so I thought I'd post up my thoughts on these matters.

From Eco Velo:

"After witnessing such heady exuberance within the bike industry during last summer’s “bike boom”, it’s no surprise that few could foresee the current industry downturn, probably brought on by lower gas prices and the deepening recession. Those who were prudent should weather the winter, but it’s going to be a tough road for those dealers who were carried away by the promise of a new golden era of cycling and over-bought for the coming season."
Read the entire post and excellent discussion to follow here: Golden Era or Flash in the Pan

My comment:

"There seems to be a tendency, in the various discussions of the challenges facing utility cycling, to argue that a particular issue is the primary issue, whose resolution would uncork a hurricane force that would shuttle bicycling directly into the mainstream. These issues are, in my general approximation, all of equal importance to the development of utility cycling.

These primary issues could be boiled down as such:
The Development of our Cycling Infrastructure (as discussed in David, Erik & Alan’s comments)
The Bicycle Industry’s Focus (as discussed in Kevin, Thom & Alan’s comments)
The Public Perception of Cycling (as discussed in ubray, Beth, David & Randy’s comments)
(and to somewhat less of a degree) The Media’s Portrayal of Cycling

The roller coaster ride that was 2008, at its height gave our utility cycling movement a great sense of optimism as cyclists took to the streets, bike shops thrived and the media took notice. The natural slowdown of the Fall, slowed further by our new found thriftiness and the drop in gas prices, has since dampered this sense of momentum and we are entering 2009 with a mixed bag.

Despite the current and possible continued slow down for the bicycle industry, there are plenty of reasons for optimism for the utility cycling movement. The momentum of last summer will continue to spill into 2009. Last year many people took those tenuous first steps, getting back on a bicycle. It will be much easier to dust off the bike again this spring (for those who aren’t already riding through the winter). Beyond just those new to cycling, the momentum of last summer has undoubtedly built up throughout our cycling communities. With the spring thaw, this momentum will spring back from our bike advocacy groups, online bike communities, bike shops, etc. etc.

While the motivation of high gas prices has diminished, the motivation of finding ways to save money has grown tenfold. Cyclists who took to the streets last year to save on gas will be joined by many more who are looking for every opportunity to reduce daily living expenses.

The fortunes of the bicycle industry are swaying back and forth with the violent tidal flows of the economy. In the current state of affairs, many cyclists are looking for low-priced solutions to their cycling equipment needs. In the immediate future, this will probably not help to grow the revenue of the bicycle industry.

Beyond the more basic persuasion of the bicycling industry’s current revenue, the utility cycling movement is poised to continue welcoming an influx of new cyclists. To seize the moment, we must develop a flexible, all-inclusive approach to the previously mentioned challenges of infrastructure development, industry focus and public perception. We must develop a keen awareness of the joint-reliance and interconnection of these issues. Where possible we should facilitate communal efforts that join the momentum of projects working towards solutions to these various challenges.

2008’s roller coaster ride has demonstrated that opportunities can quickly rise and fall. The utility cycling movement can and will thrive in the year ahead if we can appreciate the full spectrum of issues, while applying solutions tailored to fit the opportunities that are arising."

Grinding

noreply@blogger.com (Josh Lipton) — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 03:59:00 +0000

Big Snow today. They say global warming is bringing extremes in weather. Well we're seeing it here in Flagstaff.

A new resolution today. I'll blog on one of our 3 blogs, Bike Trailer Wisdon, Extrawheel Single Wheel Trailers or here once a day. Many resolutions like this have fallen flat on their face so don't hold me to it.

The snowed in sensation is good for getting work done though. The Wandertec crew is grinding through the many tasks for setting up our new all powerful website trio of Bike Bag Shop, Bike Trailer Shop and Bike Kid Shop. These 3 sites sharing a shopping cart will be a big step forward for us.

Business Troubleshooting Issue #1

noreply@blogger.com (Josh Lipton) — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 02:01:00 +0000

I've decided to start keeping a journal of all of the various business crisis that we generally have to deal with on a somewhat regular basis here at Wandertec, Inc. My primary objective is to give myself a record to refer back to when a similar problem occurs. But I figure that my trials and tribulations might also provide my legions of readers with a few insights into running a web based bicycle business.

The majority of our business activity is through our websites Bike Trailer Shop.com and Bike Bag Shop.com. Whenever there are problems with the websites, we go into full on crisis mode. These problems revolve around issues such as our servers having problems, our payments not processing, our email not working or the code on our site not working properly.

The most common problems for us have been server problems. Lately our site has been shutting down due to some form of server overload. To troubleshoot it, all we can really due is theorize what the problem is, apply a fix and wait to see if it happens again.

We moved our 2 web shops to a new server last summer. The move overall seemed to be effective in eliminating the slow performance and frequent shut downs that the Bike Trailer Shop had been having on our old servers at APlus.

Our sites are now on a Virtual Private Server (VPS) hosted at Network Solutions. In the last few months, we started experiencing the site shutting down. This was easily fixed by resetting the server, however we knew that this shouldn't be happening. With the frequency of the shutdowns increasing we started looking more deeply to see if our sites file structure could possibly overloading the server. We restructured some of the filing system, however the problem persisted.

The latest diagnosis was made by Jeff here. He had noticed that the name servers for both of our web shops were located on the same server as the site files themselves. Jeff assessed that this would possibly overload the system with self referring loops. Additionally, this goes against common practice of putting name servers and website files on separate servers so they do not tax the same server resources simultaneously.

With this theory, we decide to move the name servers to a separate Network Solutions server. To do this, we have to 1. Move the name servers 2. Point the domain names to the new name servers 3. Setup the records on the new name servers to properly access site files (A records) and email (MX records).

This process is difficult enough to figure out and initiate. It is made even more difficult in that the name servers take awhile to propagate across the internet. While propagation is happening, some people will be seeing what the old name servers want them to see and some will be seeing what the new name servers want them to see. If the reason for changing the location of the name servers is to try to resolve any issues, it is difficult to know when the new name servers have propagated, though there are network tools to see if where you are being pointed.

In our transition to the new name servers, we encountered another issue. Network Solutions, does not allow for the MX records to be easily adjusted unless your domain is hosted with them. With our domain on another domain registrar, we did not understand why we could not adjust our MX records. In the process of attempting to adjust our MX records, we inadvertently disabled our websites from communicating with other servers. Doing this disabled our PayPal payment processing, USPS rate calculation and FTP access. Our email was also disabled because we had not effectively loaded the MX records.

We were under the impression that the PayPal, USPS and FTP issues were related to the MX records not yet propagating. After we waited a day and nothing was working, we contacted Network Solutions. We soon learned that we had not only not edited the MX records but we had additionally disabled our server's outbound communications function. Network Solutions was able to immediately reset the servers and reestablish our PayPal, USPS and FTP access. It turned out that with Gmail as our email client, our email had some default forwarding (to my personal email address) set up. I got a flood of 2 days of our business emails that I thought had been lost.

As far as the properly setting up the MX records, we have 3 options:
1. Have Network Solution manually edit our MX records (we would have to wait until the weekend was over)
2. Move our domain registration to Network Solutions so that we could access there dns tools.
3. Point the domain at a new Name Server (not on Network Solutions) that includes dns tools, so we can easily adjust the MX records in the future.

I ended up choosing the first option. Though it requires us waiting for Network Solutions, it won't necessarily take that long and we don't anticipate any need to adjust the MX records very frequently. The second option, may be something we do in the long run if we need to adjust the MX records more frequently, but we didn't want to have to wait for this time consuming process to go through before we could make update our MX records. The third option would be yet another name server switch. I did not want to go through this again with all the problems that seem to surface every time it is done. However, for our future sites on Network Solutions, we will likely setup the name server at our domain registrant so that we can have access to the dns tools and not be reliant on Network Solutions manually editing changes to MX records.

So in summary, in attempting to solve one problem we unleashed a bunch of others. We are now keeping our fingers crossed that putting the name servers on a different server than the site files was worth while and that the website stops shutting down.

Some of the lessons learned:
1: Do not do major name server or server switches on a Friday
2: Talk to our server host technical support before making these types of switches.
3: When something like this happens write about it so I can refer back next time around. (done)

Happy 2009!

noreply@blogger.com (Josh Lipton) — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 18:03:00 +0000

The roller coaster of 2008 has come to a close. With the rocky last few months I have some trepidations about 2009, however the overall trend was for rapid growth in bike commuting and bike cargo and I am very optimistic for rolling our momentum into a strong year ahead.

To start out the year we've just added the Extrawheel Voyager to our trailer lineup along with Extrawheel's Expert Panniers and Dry Panniers. We are very excited to be the US distributor for Extrawheel and have high hopes for this trailer including beginning to distribute it to US bike shops. With it's compatability with any bike panniers, we will be offering it in combination with a large range of bike panniers at our new store, Bike Bag Shop.

Our main focus for the start of 2009 is to complete our new web store project. We will be moving Bike Trailer Shop into the same format as Bike Bag Shop and adding in a new store, Bike Kid Shop that will feature bike child trailer, training bikes, kids helmets, bike child seats and other kid specific bicycling equipment.

Once we complete this all-important project, we will be diving into marketing it and jumping full force into a variety of social media through the development of new website's Spoke and Word and Utility Cycling.

Other big projects for the year ahead include manufacturing our own trailer under the Wandertec brand and looking into moving the business into a large space.

2008 Fast Forwarded

noreply@blogger.com (Josh Lipton) — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 15:11:00 +0000

So it's been a long time since I've posted to my "business journal" blog. Business at Wandertec has boomed this year not leaving much time to reflect. And much of my blogging energy has gone into the Bike Trailer Blog instead.

But, I do like to write and reflect so now that things have slowed down with the winter months upon us, I'll resume my ramblings.

So 2008 was a great year for the business. It was a boom year for bike commuting, and all things related and with our focus on bike trailer and bags, the sales came flooding in. Along with this growth, we brought on 3 full time employees, along with myself, making us 4 strong.

Now that we're in the slow season, we've been chipping away at a whole range of projects including launching a new website Bike Bag Shop which is also going to be the new platform for Bike Trailer Shop and then Bike Kid Shop in the coming months.

In other areas, we have launched a new concept site called Spoke And Word. This site is for bike-blog writers and enthusiasts to post and vote on bike posts. We're not sure if the bike blogging commuting will pick up on this website as a useful tool to both promote their own blogs and check out a whole variety of other blog posts, however we are finding that our involvement in getting it underway is a very useful way to become much more active in the bike-blogging community.

Finally, we are about to launch new versions of the Wandertec and ExtrawheelUSA sites.

We're keeping it rolling.....

Early Spring

noreply@blogger.com (Josh Lipton) — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 02:49:00 +0000

We're having an early spring here in Flagstaff. And with it we're surging ahead with strong sales.

It's been awhile since I last posted and we've got quite a bit of news to report. First off, Jeff Hankens has joined the Wandertec team. Jeff was a great find for Wandertec, already having experience with bicycle trailers, previously working for Bikes-At-Work in Iowa, manufacturers of industrial-duty trailers. Jeff brings a wealth of cycling experience as well as a solid repertoire of web designing skills.

With Jeff on board, we've been able to manage sales and moving ahead with other projects. We've reformatted the Bike Trailer Blog, moving it to a WordPress installation and updating the look and function of it. We are now currently working on updating both the Wandertec and Bike Trailer Shop websites.

We've begun adding Bike Child Trailers to the mix at the Bike Trailer Shop. And will be adding in more panniers and racks thoughout the spring and summer.

The Burley Nomad has been our top selling bike cargo trailer throughout the spring with the BOB Trailers close behind.

The Wandertec website will feature the full range of Wandertec Products as well as Carry Freedom Trailers and possibly Extrawheel Trailers.

Help Wanted

noreply@blogger.com (Josh Lipton) — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 15:52:00 +0000

EDIT: This position has been filled. Thanks for your interest.

I'm getting settled into the new shop nicely. The sign-cutting, CELLO-carving CNC machine, the shopbot, has been relocated to the new shop. I've been putting up some large pallet racks and I'm now shopping for shelves, bins, and racks for getting all the inventory arranged.

With the new shop space settling in, I'm now ready to try to bring on board an employee to help with the BikeTrailerShop.com. I am looking for someone to help grow the business. Specific duties will include shipping, customer service, accounting & internet product listing. I am looking for someone with a strong knowledge & passion for cycling. Business and computer experience are preferred.

If there's anyone out there interested in relocating to Flagstaff and joining the Wandertec team, email me your resume to josh@wandertec.com

New Shop!

noreply@blogger.com (Josh Lipton) — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 14:54:00 +0000

The shop expansion at Wandertec, Inc. has just been completed. The best part was when they fired up the furnace. I will be getting everything organized in the next few weeks including moving over the CNC machine, setting up inventory shelving, and moving over the sewing equipment. Once that is wrapped up, I will start looking for a Sales Manager.

In other news at Wandertec, Inc. we are starting the process of distributing Carry Freedom Trailers in the US. We are planning on getting several pallets of the Y-Frame Large and Small trailers shipped over, likely arriving in April. Our plan is to sell the trailers through the BikeTrailerShop.com and offer them through other specialty retailers. The Carry Freedom City is still available through another distributor. We will plan on offering this trailer to retailers once these run low in availability as well.

It's been a great year of growth at Wandertec,Inc. and we are looking forward to another exciting year ahead. Thanks to all of our customers, business partners and friends. Happy Christmas, Holidays and New Year!

New Shop on the Verge...

noreply@blogger.com (Josh Lipton) — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 11:43:00 +0000

This week at Wandertec:
1: Dug out from 2ft of snow.
2: Watched as the workshop is getting achingly close to completion.

The shops is in a bit of chaos now as the buildings are being joined together. Once completed, I'll be moving the ShopBot and sewing machines all into the same building. The back of the shop will be for manufacturing and the front will be for the office, inventory storage and sewing. Once its complete I'll be throwing up some pictures. Once were setup and running, I'll post a few more.

At the moment, I've got my operation spread out between the shop, my house, the shed, and a garage across town. But once the shop is complete, it will all come together into one space. Getting the real heating system will be greatly appreciated rather than running propane and electric heaters. Everything will be set to start looking for an employee.

Sales of Bike Cargo Trailers continue on at a decent pace despite the wintry season upon us. I think that the Christmas season is keeping things moving forward at the moment. Once the New Year hits, we can only hope that people start looking forward to the spring ahead.

Progress with the Wandertec mLite continues. We've come up with a source in China for the CR2 battery. We will be receiving in our first large order in the coming months and begin introducing them to a variety of bicycle trailer and recumbent suppliers.

Floats Away

noreply@blogger.com (Josh Lipton) — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 03:43:00 +0000

This week:
1. Sold some Demo CELLOS.
2. Worked on some ideas for updating the CELLO design for its next incarnation, hopefully sometime next year.
3. Picked up some pallet shelves for stacking bike cargo trailers on.
4. Wished I could have done more but time sometimes floats away.

Google Top 10 in the Top 3

noreply@blogger.com (Josh Lipton) — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 15:19:00 +0000

This week at Wandertec:
1. Started the final cap-off to the BikeTrailerShop.com marketing campaign:
My buddy Ben, my web-marketing guru, and I were discussing the success of the marketing campaign for BikeTrailerShop.com. We concluded that things were looking very good. The key components of the campaign are high results in Google Searches, a well constructed Google AdWords campaign, and a smattering of low-cost advertisements in key bike touring and commuting magazines and forums. To cap-off the marketing a little fine tuning to the Google Searches needs to be performed. I will be determining what the top 10 Google keyword searches that lead people to the BikeTrailerShop.com are such as bike trailer, bike cargo trailer and BOB Trailer. I will then begin a campaign to bring all of my Google searches for these terms into the top 3 of their listings. Ben has suggested quite a few clever tips for making this happen. He suggested registering with Yahoo directories focusing the listing on the important key-words and convincing bloggers to write posts about the BikeTrailerShop.com that include contextual keyword links.

2. Ordered a new size and style of the Wandertec Cargo Net:
We are switching the Wandertec Cargo Net over to a larger net that should give a little better capacity for items stowed underneath it. I ordered up 200 of this larger size. Unfortunately the company sent me only 50 of them in the correct size and about 150 more in a size that was twice as large, way to big for a bike cargo trailer.

3. Waited for my webhosting company to fix the problems with their servers:
Tuesday and Wednesday were a couple of very irritating days as I waited for wandertec.com, biketrailershop.com and the biketrailerblog.com all to come back online. I've got a low priced webhost and this has put even more fire under my butt to switch the website over to the web hosting company Zoovy or something like it.

4. Stayed warm running my shop heater burning propane:
The new shop complete with natural gas furnace is achingly close to being completed. In the meanwhile its getting quite cold up here in the mountains of Northern Arizona and I'm burning the propane heater to stay warm.

BikeCastle

noreply@blogger.com (Josh Lipton) — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 01:12:00 +0000

This week at Wandertec:
1. Started sewing the new Wandertec Woven Labels on the CELLO, SAX and Cargo Net.
2. Ordered some Down Low Glow lights from Rock the Bike to sell with the Xtracycle and to figure out how to mount to our other bike trailers. I bought a double tube blue system to use on my tandem and Xtracycle.
3. Saw work resume on the shop and they told me their expected completion date in 12/03-wooHoo!
4. Continued brainstorming the design of the Wandertec SanToor bike.
5. Picked up the new Wandertec work vehicle, a 1986 Toyota Pickup. Its in dire need of TLC with no rear view mirror or turn signals and some serious shakes when putting it in gear. But hey it was free and it's perfect for hauling loads to big for the Xtracycle/Carry Freedom setup around town. Many thanks Tom and Cynthia.
6. Launched a few holiday specials at the BikeTrailerShop.com.

Demo CELLOS

noreply@blogger.com (Josh Lipton) — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 22:19:00 +0000

This Week at Wandertec:
1. Watched the shop not being built(progress is to resume soon)
2. Sold my Honda Element (CELLOmobile)
3. Came up with a name for my new bicycle design, the Wandertec SanToor.
4. Did away with the Wandertec Purchase page and pointed all sales to BikeTrailerShop.com.
5. Listed Demo CELLOS for sale at the BikeTrailerShop.com.
6. Was introduced to a great website that makes it easy to discover other great websites called StumbleUpon.com.

Xtrarecycling

noreply@blogger.com (Josh Lipton) — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 23:21:00 +0000

This past few weeks at Wandertec:
1. Watched my shop being built
2. Attended Interbike
3. Picked up some Wandertec woven labels
4. Rode in the Tour de Fat parade.
5. Unsuccessfully attempted to fight a bicycle traffic ticket

The expansion of the Wandertec shop is starting pick up some steam. The framing and roof are complete. Now the utilities are going in and the painters have just showed up. It's looking great and I'm hoping it will complete perhaps in a month or less.

It was a quick trip to Interbike this year. I spent some time handing out the Wandertec mLite. I was able to get it displayed on BOB Trailers as well as several other bikes and trailers around the show. I was busy gathering information about a variety or bike pannier companies in preparation for expanding into bike rack and pannier sales.

Yesterday, I went to traffic court to try to get out of a traffic ticket for running a red light. The light was turning from yellow to red as I rode through. I didn't really dispute the charge but was hoping to get a different penalty than is applied to motor vehicles. Unfortunately, the law in AZ gives you the same punishment on a bike as if you were in a motor vehicle. Here are a few thoughts on the matter that I put together before going into court:

I strongly agree that bicyclists need to obey traffic laws, however violations of traffic laws should be punished in a manner that takes into consideration the very different nature of bicycle travel vs. motor vehicle travel. Motor vehicles are inherently much more dangerous to others. A bicyclist violating traffic laws is extremely less likely to injure or kill someone else when compared to a motor vehicle doing the same traffic violation. Given this factor, punishments and fines for bicycle traffic violations should be adjusted to fit their relative impact. Punishments and fines for bicycle traffic violations should not be combined in with the fines of the exponentially more dangerous motorized vehicles.

Additionally, the use of motor vehicles also creates pollution and congestion. The use of bicycles poses less risk to others, does not cause pollution and causes comparably far less congestion. The many benefits to our society of using bicycles instead of motor vehicles deserve some consideration in determining how traffic violations are punished.

On a practical level, riding a bicycle is a very different experience than driving a motor vehicle. When riding a bicycle there is a much greater sense of vulnerability. There is also a much greater sense of awareness of surrounding traffic because you have a completely unobstructed view and are in standing position where it is much easier to swivel around in any direction. While traffic laws are very appropriate for motor vehicles, they do not currently take into consideration the very different nature of riding a bicycle. Bicyclists should be supported with laws adjusted to the different nature of the vehicle. Perhaps, bicyclists should be required to get licensed, registered and insured in a manner that is appropriate for bicycle use. This would lead to safer, more knowledgeable, better equipped, and better supported bicyclists.

Breaking Ground

noreply@blogger.com (Josh Lipton) — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 21:12:00 +0000

This week at Wandertec:
1. Watched the new shop construction begin.
2. Shopped for a multi website platform.
3. Listed Ortlieb Pannier Accessories on the Bike Trailer Shop.

After months of making arrangements and waiting around, the Wandertec shop expansion is finally underway. I'm hoping to have it closed in and the heating system operational before the snows begin to swirl.

Sales have begin dropping off as expected this time of year as Fall and Winter approach. Now that I'm not packing boxes and answer calls and emails all day there will be some time to forge ahead on some new projects. I began looking into a variety of shopping cart systems. For the BikeTrailerShop.com I've been using the free Oscommerce. This has worked well for getting started in Ecommerce however as I look to ad other niche bicycling sites, its capabilities are becoming somewhat limiting.

My interest is to find a shopping cart system that supports multiple websites and that is well integrated into my accounting program, Quickbooks. I came across the website Zoovy and spoke to their sales department. It appears to be a very well rounded system that supports everything that I'm interested in. They charge around $3500 to get you setup and then 1.5-2% of your sales.

So far I've read some mixed reviews on them but apparently they've recently had some major revamping which may have lead to improvements. Before diving in, I will be looking for some more opinions from tech based web review sites and really grilling them on what shopping cart features they offer and how they support it.

CELLOing to EuroBike

noreply@blogger.com (Josh Lipton) — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 23:46:00 +0000

This Past Few Weeks at Wandertec:
1. Added loads of info and options into the Bike Cargo Trailers at the BikeTrailerShop.com.
2. Purchased a Toyota Corolla for the business.
3. Sent Joe and John of VooDoo Cycles off with some demo CELLOs on their trip to EuroBike.
4. Ordered a bunch of 20" tires and tubes to expand my offerings of Bike Trailer tires and tubes.

I've been expecting orders to slow down at the BikeTrailerShop.com with the end of summer approaching so I could get to work on some other projects. Rather than that the last few weeks have been busy as ever. I definitely can't complain though. Sales are a good thing. I just might have hired someone sooner if I had knows things would continue on at this pace. I know it has got to slow down a bit more in Sept. & Oct. though.

I took the new Corolla up to Zion canyon for Labor Day Weekend. I was amazed when I first checked the mileage and calculated it at 45 mpg. I've been working on keeping the speed below 70 and slowing my accelerations to improve my mileage. With my Corolla on the highway and bikes and bike cargo trailers around town I'm definitely getting better gas mileage then I would with just using a hybrid. I'm still a fan of the Plug-In-Hybrid concept however and plan on jumping into one as soon as they are available.

Wandertec SAX - BOB Cargo Liner

noreply@blogger.com (Josh Lipton) — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 00:25:00 +0000

This week at Wandertec:
1. Designed & listed a new adapter that makes Ortlieb rear panniers fit much better when used together with a BOB Trailer.
2. Listed the Wandertec SAX on the BikeTrailerShop.com.
3. Worked on sourcing Wandertec woven labels for branding the SAX.
4. Ordered a sizable load of trailers including 10 Carry Freedom Large Y-Frames to stay stocked up for a good while.
5. Discussed a bike cargo trailer design project with a student from the Art Institute of Colorado.

The new Wandertec products are starting to come to fruition. With the SAX now available I'm ready to start taking some nice photos and getting these products visible on the Wandertec website.

Once I get the new products visible on the Wandertec website, I will conduct a (soft) sales launch of the Wandertec mLite by introducing it to online bicycle trailer retailers, Greenspeed retailers and other shops. I've currently got approximately 100 Wandertec mLites and my goal is to determine the level of interest from these dealers before putting in a large order of 500-1000 mLites.

The next step following the larger order of 500-1000 mLites will be the marketing launch which will include press releases and contacts as well as blog/messageboard postings and new Google Ads.

I was brainstorming ideas for new Bicycle Cargo Trailers with a student from the Art Institute of Colorado. The student is taking part in a group project in which they are designing a trailer as part of a final project for there industrial design degree.

My suggestion was to focus on a bike cargo trailer designed for bike commuting. My feeling is that the market is well served in the area of utility style trailer such as the Carry Freedom Y-Frame and the Burley Flatbed as well as for performance touring trailer such as BOB Trailers, the Burley Nomad and Extrawheel. However, there seems to be a void in the area of bike trailers designed for bike commuting. The Carry Freedom City offers a very interesting solution for many commuters. By having the trailer fold up very compactly, this is a great way to stow the trailer while at work. However, there could be interest in a trailer that locked up to the bike and was also lockable. The now defunct BOB Coz had some of these features. It may be a good starting point for such a design.

I've posted a survey given to me by the student from the Art Institute of CO. They are looking for some good feedback on uses of bike cargo trailers if you care to participate.

Business Platforms

noreply@blogger.com (Josh Lipton) — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 20:35:00 +0000

This week at Wandertec:
1. Finalized the design of the Wandertec Sax
2. Got interviewed by a journalist for the Chicago Tribune for a possible story about Bike Cargo Trailers and their use in Chicago.
3. Worked on designing some packaging using Adobe Illustrator for the Wandertec mLite.
4. Listed some the Ultimate5 Plus Handelbar Bags at the BikeTrailerShop.com.
5. Got in 10 Xtracycles after being out of stock for the last few months.

Life is good at Wandertec these days. Sales have been strong at the BikeTrailerShop all spring and summer. The shop expansion should be underway soon. I've been enjoying developing several new products.

However, as an anxious entrepreneur, I'm constantly bitten by the bug to do more. Its good to be where I'm at, having climbed the first hurdle of establishing a profitable business, but the dreams around the corner keep me blazing ahead. Getting to the next level means having a large fully functioning shop and hiring an employee to help with the daily tasks of keeping things running.

I'm very excited about starting to work on expanding the BikeTrailerShop platform into including other websites. The plan is to launch another site focused on selling racks and panniers. I will carry a very complete selection of brands and models of rack and panniers along with other bicycling bags. Really focusing in-depth on the niche of Bike Cargo Trailers has really gone over well with customers. It has also worked well with one of our main advertising mediums, Search Engine Rankings. I'm looking forward to a similar success with Panniers and Racks.

Taking this business model one step further, I would like to continue to launch other niche specific stores within the bicycling industry. This is a growing trend throughout the Internet. I feel it is a great way to serve the bicycling public. I also feel that it is a service that is complimentary to local bike shops. While local bike shops offer a large variety of bicycling necessities, specialty web stores can offer those hard to find items that it doesn't really make sense for local shops to stock.

Using the Trailer

noreply@blogger.com (Josh Lipton) — Sun, 22 Jul 2007 21:22:00 +0000

This week at Wandertec:

1. Finished the Wandertec SAX (BOB liner) design and began testing.
2. Began assembly of the 1st batch of Wandertec mLites.
3. Fitted lights on my Carry Freedom Y-Frame Trailer.
4. Started using my Carry Freedom Y-Frame and Xtracycle to transport a large load of work equipment across town instead of using my Honda Element.
5. Signed off on the plans for the shop expansion.

I decided to start up with using my Carry Freedom to try to avoid one of my trips across town. I bought the Honda Element a few years ago so I'd have a car that got relatively good gas mileage (26mpg) and that could still be used to haul some stuff. But lately I've been hauling almost everything in town by bike.

This got me thinking about changing up my vehicles. I've decided to sell the Element soon and replace it with a Toyota Corolla. My girlfriend is going to sell her Mercury Sable station wagon and replace it with a used Toyota Pickup. The Toyota Pickup will be used for when our loads are just to big for bike trailers around town and the Corolla will be for road trippin. I've used the Element as the Wandertec trade show and event vehicle. But with only a few of these events to attend each year, I figured I'll be better off just renting a van when it was needed.

When considering the choices of fuel efficient cars to replace my overall all-purpose but not optimally fuel efficient Element, I first thought on the Prius. It seems that if I will mostly be using the new car on the highway for road trips. In these conditions the braking energy recapture benefits of the Prius are less applicable. I also considered a VW Golf diesel. My problem with this was I'd spend approximately $5000 more than the Corolla and only get 45mpg vs. 40 mpg. I've decided rather to put that $5000 into updating the heater in my house.

I put in all my data into an energy/carbon use calculator and discovered that the best use of my resources was to replace the 38 year old furnace in my house. This would reduce my energy use by 15% while using a 40 mpg car instead of a 26 mpg car only resulted in an 8% reduction in energy use.

For the long term, I'm very interested in using a Plug-In Hybrid. But saying as they are not yet available, the Toyota Corolla and some other energy saving technologies will have to do as my bridge to a more energy efficient day.

Monsoonal Rains

noreply@blogger.com (Josh Lipton) — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 19:09:00 +0000

This week at Wandertec:

1.Pressed forward on the BOB Liner (Wandertec SAX) design.
2.Set up a new CELL Phone & Land Line for clearer phone time.
3.Cut a large batch of sign blanks for Signarama on the ShopBot.

The long awaited monsoonal rains came yesterday into Northern Arizona. With our on going drought like condition, this change in the weather is very much appreciated. I took a beautiful evening mountain bike ride. The trail was perfect for riding. I was cleaning all the sections that the powdery dust had previously rendered unrideable.

Transitioning back into prototype development has required me to slow down and refocus my brain parts. The day-to-day hustle pace of shipping and receiving does not translate well into design work. It requires a different cadence. I have to relax and allow myself to go back and forth between flurries of inspiration and spiraling meditations. When I find the right balance between time spent on visualizing an idea and physically putting it together, I can move forward at the best pace. To much visualizations leads to getting no where, and not enough leads to loads of frustrating attempts.

Progress has been made and a functioning prototype of the SAX now exists, the next step is to clean up the design and get it fitting nice and snug in the BOB Trailer. At this pace, I expect to have it available in the next few weeks.

Gone Fishing

noreply@blogger.com (Josh Lipton) — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 19:43:00 +0000

How many Blogs begin something like "It's been awhile since I last posted"?

This Month at Wandertec:
1. Set up an ad in the new publication Practical Pedal.
2. Signed a contract for the Wandertec Shop Expansion.
3. Worked on the design for the long awaited BOB Liner.
4. Recieved confirmation that the Wandertec mLites have been completed and are being delivered.
5. Went on vacation up California's PCH and snapped a photo of a BOBBer near Muir Woods.

We were glad to jump on board with the new publication Practical Pedal. This magazine/blog/website is doing its part to support and grow our favorite niche, bicycles used as a means of transportation. We've been including a copy of the printed version in with all of our orders and handing them out around Flagstaff.

Plans are finally underway to launch our workshop expansion. The contract has been signed and we hope to have a much bigger facility running by the end of the year.

The Wandertec mLites have left Germany and should be available soon. With the new Wandertec SAX BOB Liner design almost complete, we are looking forward to introducting all of these new products with a website update and a new printed brochure soon.