Origin Story: MadCat Bicycles



MadCatters (left to right): Ross Stewart, Kris Morin, Eddy Fontes, Hank Mini, Nick Almond, Mike Upchurch,
Phil Montbriand, Tony Troy with Avery Morin on the one purple bike in existance that Mike didn't ride. 



It all began with a purple Stingray bicycle. Purple wasn't even the original color. It was a painted purple Stingray, given to him at the tender age of four, that started Mike Upchurch on the trail to becoming owner of MadCat Bicycles. Once he outgrew that chick-magnet he upgraded to riding a Miyata road bike along the Garden Highway -where he lived as a boy- so he could visit his friends. Mike found that neither Stingrays nor road bikes could fire his blood like the off-road adventures that only a mountain bike could provide so when he got out of the Navy he went straight to the bike shop with a buddy and procured a Rockhopper. A green bike with PURPLE accents (which he further outfitted with purple toe clips). With all the red and black floating about the MadCat logo who would have known of Mike’s secret passion for purple.



Mike Upchurch, Eric Taylor and Dawn
Grove at MadCat. Mike helped organize the
donation drive for Eric Taylor last spring.

I am hoping the fact that we have known Mike for a few years will get us off the hook for the Barney-ish line of teasing. I think we’re safe though, because that is one thing Mike has in spades; a sense of humor.  Which could very well be one of the secrets to Mike’s success; people like Mike and like hanging out with him. In return, he likes hanging out with his fellow cyclists - hence the hideously wonderful gold couch that is the center piece of his modest bike shop in Sacramento. He may not win an award from the Interior Designers Association for good taste but MadCat certainly got the vote for Best Bike Shop 2011 from the KCRA A-List with over 2,300 votes. So maybe owning a great bike shop is more than how many bikes you have but in your attitude.

Interviewing Mike was a challenge in his very busy shop.
Mike is helping customers in the background while
Eddy and Tony field question in the foreground. 

MadCat is all about attitude and a different type of business model: “We are kind of a non-profit” Mike jokes, “we make enough to pay the bills but not too much more.” Mike measures his success by smiling faces and how many people he is helping to get on a bike. He does this by focusing on service and he strives to run a business based on “good, honest service and approachability”.  He admits that, just like everyone, they are not immune to making the occasional mistake, but he prides himself on his commitment to "making it right" claiming; “It’s what you do after a mistake that makes the difference”.

Jax crashes on the famous gold couch.

Mike’s background in marketing and his experience working at Peak Adventures for many years had a lot to do with his current business philosophy. His job was service oriented and it was his number one mission to make the customers happy. When Mike was laid off from his full time job at Peak Adventures in 2004 he worked for a while on an indoor mountain bike facility but when it became clear after nine months that Mike “needed to get a job” he discovered an existing bike shop location and inventory that was for sale. “It was essentially me buying myself a job that I wanted.”

Always something happening.

The transition from the former bike shop to MadCat happened, quite literally, overnight: “On Monday night they closed their shop and Tuesday morning MadCat was open for business.” The first few years were tough as Mike pulled ten to twelve hour days, six or seven days a week. Even through such a gruelling schedule Mike never lost his love of riding and his passion for the adventure and technical challenge of mountain biking has morphed into his current appetite for the intense challenge of cyclocross. He has finally reached the point where he takes weekends off, he explains that he makes less money that way but the peace of mind and being able to enjoy his family and cycling makes it worth it. Of course, even when Mike is “off work” he finds himself fielding questions from fellow cyclists and he is “always on”. When asked if he ever gets tired of it he asserts that he doesn’t mind at all because he is doing what he loves.

So it’s 2011 and the little boy on the purple painted Stingray has grown up into one of the most well-known bicycle shop owners in the region. Mike helps run and/or sponsors many of the most popular cycling events in our area. You see Mad Cat shirts and jerseys all over the place and the MadCat racing crew is kicking ass and taking names (in the nicest possible way). The popularity of MadCat has reached near cult proportions and doesn’t seem to be ready to pause and lick off the road dust any time soon.  

 

Editor's Note: MadCat will be holding their 5th Annual Bike Swap this Sunday at their location from 8 am to 12 noon. Therein you shall find bikes, music, raffles and PANCAKES!

THE END

Next Origin Story: Body Concepts (once we get their group photo...)





Hammerin' Wheels Throws Down!

(Written by Dawn because Chris -above with our toddler- was running after Jax most of the time…)

I have never in my life had as much fun as I did yesterday at the Hammerin’ Wheel 5^th Birthday Bash. I usually try my best to work the camera and cover the entire event for our readers but everyone was having so much fun that I put down the camera and joined in the festivities. I would like to say a big thank you to my husband Chris who missed out on a lot of it because he was taking care of our rambunctious toddler during pretty much the entire event. (Have I mentioned what an AWESOME dad he is?)    Luckily Jax took a nap early on so at least my husband was able to grab a bite to eat because all heck broke loose.

There were mountains of food and the grills were packed with ribs, hamburger and hot dogs. Salads, deviled eggs, fruit and veggies where shared by the prodigious crowd. Our offering to the table was, of course, two varieties of my famous bars: Peanut Butter Cream and Cranberry Cream which were nestled in among other amazing desserts including cakes, cookies and pies.

Picnics always have lots of food but the games where what really helped this event stand out. I was able to enjoy my first volleyball game in well over twenty years while water balloon tosses went on behind us.  A tightrope was stretched between two trees with children and adults taking turns challenging their skill all evening long. A raffle with fun cycling prizes was free to enter (one entry per person at the picnic) but I too busy playing volleyball to see who won what. I knew that I would pay a high price for doing so much at the Bash (and boy is my CFS in high gear today!) but it was so amazingly worth it!

The Hammerin’ Wheels folks are the most good-natured fun-loving group of folks I have ever had the pleasure to hang-out with and both my husband and I vow that we will be making as many of their rides as we possibly can this year (anyone know a good babysitter for a tireless toddler???).  That is, if they will still have us after yesterday….

Yep, that's me in the black shirt. Egads, I pray no video hits the net!

Which brings me to a public apology for my behavior during the “Junk In The Trunk” challenge. I had no idea when I stepped forward and allowed a tissue box filled with ping-pong balls to be strapped to my behind that any and all propriety I may have ever had would fly out the window.  Little did I know that once I strapped that bungee cord around my hips that I would be thrown back to “College Years Dawn”. however I did come out as victorious and won two movie tickets with candy. Was it worth the public humiliation to win the Hammerin’ Wheels Booty Poppin’ Queen crown? Not sure but I have received calls from Lil’ John’s people asking me if I want to be an extra in his next video….

Bad-Ass Graphics & Bike Fitting Classes

Now that things are heating up on the gear front we figured we need to get some new designs in with which to tempt folks. We introduced a Roadie theme in our last graphic so for our latest offering we wanted to appeal more to the mountain bike warrior with this bad-ass design; "Soul Treader". We'll keep this short and let the pics do the talkin' so you have more time to visit the shop and find a little something for yourself or your favorite cyclist...

JOIN US TOMORROW!
Clear your calendar for tomorrow night (Thursday June 15th, 7 pm) and be sure to join us at the next Body Concepts Presentation class on BIKE FITTING!!!!  (We never knew how important this was until we each got fitted ourselves.) See you there...

A Ride for All of Us



At the Ride 4 Matt mountain bikes and road bikes mingled in the shade while we enjoyed the event.



I am but a single moment away from being Matthew Wietrick. In just a split second, it could have been me swiped from the bike lane by a van and plunged into a nightmare of near-fatal injury and the long struggle for recovery. I know this, as do hundreds of my cyclist brethren, as we all gathered at Royer Park on Sunday. We feasted our eyes on Matt and his family and the wonder of the cycling community coming together to help a man just like each one of us get back on his feet after almost losing everything.

A sea of bikes gathers at the event testifying to the hundreds
of cyclists that showed to give their support to the Wietricks.

Matt was doing everything right as a cyclist early one morning in February: he had a bright vest on, he had lights, and he was riding in the bike lane when a van struck him and very nearly ended his life. In life we eventually learn that doing everything right does not always protect you from becoming the victim of malice, neglect or horrible accidents. Nor does it protect our loved ones.

As Matt lay in the hospital, his family struggled with the emotional aftermath of the accident and his inability to work which put their family under considerable financial strain. That was when hundreds of those who are but a second away from being Matthew Wietrick took him and his family under their wing and pledged to help. Fellow cyclists like Scott Taggart, Jeff Sanford, and Brian Acord –among dozens of others- worked for weeks to organize, fund-raise, contact sponsors and get the word out about Matt and his story. Together that community of people created -and pulled off with flying colors- the Ride 4 Matt event to help raise money to take some of the burden from the Wietricks while they try to regain their footing.

I can only imagine that these people thought what I thought when I first heard about Matt’s story: it could have so easily been me. I registered for the ride, donated one of our shirts for the raffle and showed up to show my support for a man whose heroic accomplishments (nine double centuries completed in 2010!) showed the heart of a lion and the soul of a true cyclist. Little did I realize that by doing something for a fellow cyclist that I would get such a great return on that bit of altruism.

Everyone lining up for good grub! Just looking at this picture makes me hungry for BBQ all over again.

At the event I was in awe of the number of people that came together to put on and participate in the ride.  While Matthew is known by fellow cyclists in the area, he isn’t what you might consider “famous”, he is a local cyclist just like the rest of us (maybe with a healthy dose more endurance then most of us…).  Yet there were hundreds of us gathered under the cool shade at Royer Park to ride, eat, and vie for cool raffle prizes. 

Carlos and I, first riders in.

The ride itself was one of the most enjoyable I think I have ever had: the weather was perfect, the scenery beautiful, the roads quiet and the company cheerful. A few teammates and I decided to do the ride at a training ride pace so we could get the ride done and have some time to socialize at the end.  So needless to say, the pace was grueling, but at least we had beautiful countryside to help ease the pain and we were able to claim the honor of being the first cyclist to complete the ride that morning. Kudos to Brian Acord for putting together such an awesome route!  (The only hiccup was one arrow that decided to play games with us by pointing in the wrong direction.  The damage was minimal as it was easy to figure out how to get back on track.)

BC teammate Todd wins big.

We grabbed some of the tasty BBQ lunch that was provided and perused the raffle and silent auctions items and I was struck by the enormity of the effort put forth to organize this event. Beyond all the generous sponsors many people had to put in long hours to pull of this ride by setting up the website, creating a registration and fee collection process, getting the word out on the internet and local bike clubs, setting up the route (someone has to drive each route and put markers on the road), maintaining the route during the day of the ride (markers are known to wander), collecting donations, and running a BBQ for hundreds of cyclist to name a few. Yet again, I am witness to our local cycling community coming together to support one of their own in a time of need.



Matt wipes tears of emotion away as he stands with  his
wife and daughter while Scott Taggart speaks to the crowd



As Scott Taggart (the driving force behind getting this benefit ride together) talked to the crowd and prepared to introduce Matthew and his family I couldn’t help to notice Matthew and his family standing offset from Scott.  Their body language oozed of such appreciation and gratefulness for all of the support.  At times they appeared overwhelmed by the support with Matthew occasionally wiping away tears with a tissue. We were all here for Matt but it wasn’t just a ride for Matt; it was a ride for all of us.

This isn't the end! You can visit the Ride4Matt website and make a donation!

Ride 4 Matt... On My Way!

Just a quick blog to let you know that I will be out doing the 70 mile Ride 4 Matt today and I hope to see a lot of fellow cyclists out there. Hopefully I will be able to snap some pictures (my head photographer/wife is home sick today) and share them in a blog about the event tomorrow. There will be a BBQ and raffle too!!!A lot of fun and a ton of cyclists are expected to show up! We would love to see a lot of folks out there to support Matt and his family.

If you can't ride the event you can also donate through the Ride4Matt.org website.  For more information about this event please visit http://www.ride4matt.org/. 

100!

Well folks, we survived the first 100 blogs! We wanted to thank all the folks who visit our site and read our blog. We have grown so much since starting this venture last year and have been shocked at how many folks now walk up to us at events like local races, Amgen or Diva Night saying things like, “Hey, are you the people that do the GroveTribe blog?”  It is kind of odd having folks walking up to us and knowing who we are when we don’t know them. To make is a little less weird we invite you to “like” us on FB so we know who you are!  (Not to mention you get the latest updates and head’s up on sales and discounts for our fans!)

We wanted to do something special for our 100^th blog so Dawn secluded herself in the “Tower” and spent hours upon hours creating a brand new design. We are pleased to introduce “Roadie” the bike hoarding dragon. (Dawn has hinted that she based the idea on me. Honestly I have no idea what she is talking about.) 

Truth be told; Dawn has been locked away in Tower for several days revamping our website with more of her awesome graphics work. We have a new look and a host of cool new designs for our shop! Here are some samples of our latest gear designs and the “birth story” of Roadie. We hope you like the new designs and the new look. (Dawn asks that if you find any goofs on the website to let us know and we will send you a bumper sticker with our thanks.)

HOT OFF THE GROVETRIBE PRESS! Some of the new designs just created by Dawn and uploaded to our shop!



THE ROAD TO "ROADIE" (by Dawn Grove)

I like to combine things that you don't often think of combining to see what you can get. At 3:30 in the morning my husband and I are awake and in the kitchen. He's washing dishes and I am talking about getting some new designs for our online shop. I wanted to pair bicycling with fantasy and came up with the design for "Roadie". For the next nine hours, from initial idea sketch to finished graphic, I only took a break long enough to get the kids and myself breakfast. This is the fastest I have ever worked and also the most complex graphic with over 70 layers.

The initial idea sketch done while I watched Chris do the dishes. (Great arrangement for me!)



I redrew roadie to make the image larger (but still small enough to fit in our little scanner. I then inked over the pencil and erased to clean up the lines. This prepped the image for a clean tracing.



Using tracing paper and technical pens to create a clean, more scannable, image.



Roadie is ready for scanning.



Roadie scanned in. The image did turn out a little big to fit on our scanner plate.
I had to scan twice and merge the images to get the top of the wing.

I repeated the drawing process with a bicycle (saving the bicycle as a template for use in other graphics someday).
I scanned the bike in and merged it with the dragon image. By now my fingers feel like they are on fire!

The coloring process begins. I fill in and tweak over 70 layers to get the variations in coloring.

If you know Photoshop you can look to the right and see the Layers Menu.
You can see how many layers are visible and that there are many more on the scroll bar!
For someone who has never taken a class or read a book on Photoshop, this feels like a huge project!



Inititally I wanted Roadie to be a black dragon but the graphic did not show up as well on
items like shirts as it did on screen. My husband suggested the crimson and gold coloring.

So there you have it! I have some more ideas I will be working on this week but Sunday is reserved for Ride 4 Matt! We hope everyone will come out to support one of our own. http://ride4matt.org/

Speaking of support! Please take a moment to visit our online shop and order a little something to give to your favorite cyclist! (You can count yourself as your favorite cyclist! We won't tell!)

Origin Story: Bicycle Planet

Bicycle Planet Crew: Jordan Machloft, Ryan Oakes, Matt Colonius, Susie Packer & Keith Purser (owner)
Bicycle Planet folks not present for the photo are Lynda Purser and Jim Thompson

Prologue: Everyone loves a good origin story. Stan Lee (Marvel Comics) knows this and we here at GroveTribe  thought so too. As we got to know our local cycling community -and the many bike shops in the area started calling us by name as we walk in- we became curious about how our local cycling establishments got their start and thought you may like to know their stories as well. This is the first installment of our Origin Stories series.

BICYCLE PLANET

When you first walk in the front door of Bicycle Planet you are immediately greeted by the repair shop, an area that is almost as big as the store area itself, and in that first glance, you know where the heart of the operation lies. Every time we go into the Planet there is always activity in the repair shop with wrenches buzzing about the many bicycles. One of those wrenches invariably always ends up being Keith Purser, the owner himself. If you watch him for a moment or two, you can see that he is happiest and most comfortable in the repair shop, working on the myriad of bicycles awaiting care.



Mounted in the shop, a jersey from
Keith's racing days in Italy.



Keith is a quietly friendly and sincere man who has been fascinated with bicycles from as early on as he can recall. As a young teenager living in the mountains of Santa Cruz, Keith began caring for bicycles in a barn which he used to house his first cycling repair business simply named “Keith’s Bikes”.  It was during these early years when Keith was first turned on to road racing by a middle school teacher who was an avid cyclist. Keith remembers those days with a wicked, boyish gleam in his eyes, “Speed was fun.”

Keith is a Cat 2 racer who still enjoys getting out and mixing it up whether it be road races, heading out to the Wednesday Prairie City mountain bike races or taking on some cyclocross action. Keith is a man who lives and breathes bike without prejudice for road or trail; he seems to love them all and even supports and sponsors many races throughout the year. Keith is the beating heart of Bicycle Planet but he readily acknowledges that he wouldn’t be where he is now without his team.

Keith started out as a working stiff like most of us, holding down a full-time job and being a family man but when life brought him to the crossroads of a divorce he found himself a single-father with money from the sale of the family home and a big decision to make: buy another home and remain one of the working masses “in a job I hated” or try to parlay that money into realizing his dream of opening a bike shop.  Keith opened his tiny bicycle shop nine years ago next to a Starbucks (on Prairie City Rd). With feeling Keith admits, “the first two years were brutal. Until people can get to know you and trust you they are reluctant to spend a lot of money on a bike at your shop”.

Keith at work in the shop while Matt mans the office.

With him from the beginning was Matt Colonius, whom Keith admits he is eternally grateful to for being willing to sit in the office at the computer for hours allowing Keith to enjoy the fun of working on bikes. Even with Matt’s help it was tough on Keith, trying to care for his kids while working 60 to 70 hours a week to get the bike shop on the right track.  Within those first two years the shop had outgrown its modest location but had to wait for the end of a 5 year lease before they could move into a larger location right across the street (where the shop currently resides).

The biggest relief for Keith was when he remarried. His wife Lynda, a local school teacher, was able to take some of the pressure of caring for the family and began baking what are now highly anticipated treats for the shop’s customers. (We have Bicycle Planet “liked” on our FaceBook accounts so we get the fresh cookie alerts.) When asked how the business affects his family life, Keith says his kids claim he is “always working” and he has had to make some tough sacrifices, especially working on Saturdays when his children often would have performances or sports events. He would sneak out of the shop for an hour to make it to as many events as he could but would have to rush back to the shop and get right back to work.  He found himself waking up early and getting to the shop around 4 am to try and balance his time constraints and he could work uninterrupted. Although his hours have tapered back somewhat and he finds that he is able to leave the shop more often and longer than in the early years, he still often works 60 hour weeks. Most of that in the repair shop itself.

Keith explains that he knows he doesn’t have the biggest selection of bikes or the fanciest shop in the area but he does hold great pride in his customer service and Bicycle Planet’s reputation for great repair and maintenance service. When advertising with newspapers and fliers didn’t bring in the numbers of customers he found that word of mouth was his greatest ally. His customers loved the service and would send him several more customers to build the loyal Bicycle Planet fan base.  When asked if there was anything more in store for Bicycle Planet Keith smiled and explained that he was happy with what he has built and summed up our interview with a heartfelt “This is my home.”



Susie helping customers with all their bicycle needs.



Out Of The Mouths Of Babes

Some folks wonder why we spends hours a week on our bikes. Some wonder why we endure riding in the rain and wind and extreme heat. They wonder why we endure road rash and injuries and get right back on the bike. Next time someone asks you "Why?" just send them to this kid and let him explain:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaIvk1cSyG8

And then they will know how I feel every time I come back from a ride.

J'm'appelle "crayon"! (and the May 2011 BP Crit)

That is a big pack breathing down my neck at 30+ MPH.

Before we get to the REAL blog post.... I have gone over 20 years without a major bicycle crash and now I have had two in less than a month. I think my wife is getting tired of bandaging me up, she has started to twitch every time she opens a tube of Neosporin. So yesterday conditions were very wet (heck, doesn't everybody go out and ride despite tornado warnings?) and I failed to hold a good line around a curve, hit a painted line and my front wheel went out from under me. Let's just say that I'll never be wearing those bike shorts ever again. So here I am, back to icing, bandaging and riding a trainer indoors. At least last weekend was fun....

This past weekend I signed up for two races at the BP Crit.  As I have mentioned before, Crits aren't really my thing.  The big crowds with the massive group sprint finishes isn't what comes naturally to me.  However, this race was local and is the type of race that the whole family can see as I am not disappearing for long periods of time between laps (possibly hours if the race is an out-and-back).  The pack was indeed massive with about 80 racers per race.  You can read about the races in the link to the race report below.

Beyond the race report are two things that stand out about the crits this past weekend:

At one point I heard the announcer say that Jeremy Barnes was off the front of the peloton.  I have memories of Jeremy riding away from the group in races earlier in the year (before I knew who he was) and they all screamed that if I wanted to finish in the top few spots, I needed to get on his wheel. I was in about the top ¼ of the peloton at the time and thought if I don't act now, he might get away.  I instantly shifted to a faster gear, got to the front of the peloton, and chased him down. Turns out he wasn't really going anywhere he was using the crit more for training and was just going for a late prime at the time. I should have realized that the race was running too fast to let anyone get away like that, but at least I had fun with chase and leading a lap.

Coach Rob's pre-race counsel.

In the second race I was in an ideal position with three laps to go but wasn't able to keep up the effort. I got boxed in and couldn't make up the ground once I was finally able to spring free.  You can read in my report how I was following Rob's advice on accelerating with the group to avoid being swarmed.  I did a good job all race-long of not getting swarmed except for that one critical time.  I was about 5 riders back with two laps to go when the paceline went to the far right side of the road; practically in the gutter.  I should have offset a little to the left of the paceline to leave myself room to get around them once racers from behind started to pass (or the other option would have been to start passing them slowly myself while getting ready to pounce on the new pace line coming from behind).  Instead I was slightly inside.  This caused me to get boxed in and swarmed becauase I had no room to maneauver to the right (gutter) or to the left (other racers brushing by at a much higher speed then we were going).  I probably wouldn't have had enough left in the tank to be a contender in the final sprint, but if I didn't get boxed in I may have been able to hold my position well enough to get me in the top 15.

Despite my slightly below mid-pack finishes, I think I am starting to get the hang of crits and can do much better next time.  I don't know if I will ever have the power-sprinting required to finish first (and even if I did I am not sure I would want to develop that if it meant sacrificing my ability to do well in road races), but I should be able to start landing in the top 15.

BC Race Team Report:
http://bcraceteam.blogspot.com/2011/06/bp-may-crit-elite-4-and-35-34.html