Product Profile – 2011 Scattante Americano

June 28, 2011 1 Comment

We Want YOU to Win an Americano!

It doesn’t matter whether you roll retro, metro or somewhere in between; you’ll love how the Scattante Americano single-speed road bike lets you declare your independence from fossil fuel-powered transportation.

The Americano comes in 5 classically cool versions, each as American as hot dogs, baseball and constitutional democracy. Speaking of which, in honor of that celebrated day in 1776 when our forefathers declared their intention to create our beloved USofA, we’re going to give five lucky people the Americano bike of their choice (a $599.99 value). Like us on Facebook & enter the Performance Bicycle Americano the Beautiful Independence Day Sweepstakes now for your chance to win!

2011 Scattante Americano 1The Americano 1 is covered from crank arms to dropouts in a blanket of white and subtly accented with polished chrome. Add the practicality of full-wrap fenders and the convenience of running fixed or free with a flip-flop hub, and you have all you need to run one-speed on the one-way.

2011 Scattante Americano 2Get ready to roll. From its classically-styled chromoly frame and fork to the graceful forward sweep of the bullhorn-style handlebars, the Americano 2 is the perfect synthesis of urban cool and no-frills functionality.

2011 Scattante Americano 3The backswept, chrome polished handlebars of the Americano 3 help you maintain a stress-free upright position, Velo saddle and BMX grips add comfort and control and the full-wrap fenders work to keep you dry when the streets are anything but.

2011 Scattante Americano 4If the Americano 4 were candy it would be a mix of licorice accented with some of those spicy hot cinnamon thingies. With its sleek black chromoly frame, anodized chromoly fork and alloy crankarms, and alloy track bars with grips, the Americano 4 is elegantly simple, fun to ride, easy to maintain and contains no artificial ingredients.

2011 Scattante Americano 5Who says red means “Stop?” When you’re cruising on the Americano 5 single-speed road bike, all you’ll want to do is go, go, go. But when do do need to stop, it’s nice to know that you can count on the Tektro dual-pivot caliper brakes with top-mount levers for efficient deceleration.

We the People of Performance Want YOU to Win an Americano. Like us and enter now!

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Product Profile – Allen Sports MT1 Bike Rack

June 20, 2011 8 Comments

Since the summer travel season is in full swing, it seemed like the perfect time to do a product profile on that cycling travel necessity, the trunk-mounted car rack. We know what you’re thinking – what could be interesting about a car rack? They do the job, but they can be so big and heavy that you end up leaving them mounted to your trunk all the time so you don’t have to deal with taking them off and storing them (come on, you know you’ve done this)!

That’s where the Allen Sports MT1 Bike Rack comes to the rescue (along with it’s higher capacity brother the MT2 Bike Rack).  The MT1 Bike Rack is so compact and easy to use that you can literally bring it along in it’s included carrying bag, just for when you need it, even when you’re travelling! Take a look at this video of the MT-2 Bike Rack in action (the only difference from the MT1 Bike Rack is its extendable arms, to carry 2 bikes instead of one):

We’ve tested the MT1 Bike Rack on our own cars, and it really is as easy as the video makes it look.  Here’s a shot of what the MT1 Bike Rack looks like in it’s fully-folded state:

In case you forget how to unfold and install the rack, the folks at Allen Sports conveniently print all of their instructions right on the back of the rack, with clear diagrams that you can refer to when you get started with the installation process:

 As you can see from the instructions, it is just a matter of unfolding the arms in the correct order to get the rack ready to install on the trunk of your car. Unfold the lower foot first, and then open up the upper support arms (which snap into place with those little silver buttons):

Here’s a better view of the little buttons that snap the arms in place – when you are ready to fold up the MT1 Bike Rack, you just reverse the steps of unfolding the arms, and you start the process by pushing in the silver buttons to release the arms:

Once the MT1 Bike Rack is fully unfolded, you are ready to mount it to the trunk of your car. After you have the rack situated correctly, it’s just a matter of tightening down the 2 upper straps and one lower strap to secure the rack in place. The feet that contact your car are covered in a durable but soft rubber compound, so as not to mar your paint job (even if your car is a vintage Volvo 240, like the test model seen here). The adjustable feet of the MT1 Bike Rack allow it to fit a wide range of vehicles, but you can refer to the Allen Sports website to see if your car is compatible:

Once the rack is secure, you just pop your bike into the padded support trays, tighten down the securing straps, and you’re ready to hit the road:

Another nice feature of the MT-1 Bike Rack is the padded lower frame, which keeps your bike out and away from your car, so that your car’s or (more importantly) your bike’s paint is left scratch-free:

If you are looking for a trunk-mounted bike rack that is easy to install (and un-install), is stable and secure while in use, yet is compact enough to bring along when you are travelling, then the Allen Sports MT1 Bike Rack or MT2 Bike Rack could be just what you are looking for.  Give either one a try, and you’ll be surprised at how often you’ll reach for this unassuming little bike rack when you need to hit the road with your bike.

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Product Profile – Burley Travoy Urban Bike Trailer

May 20, 2011 1 Comment

Since today is National Bike to Work Day, the culmination of Bike to Work Week, we thought it was the perfect opportunity for a product profile of the new Burley Travoy Urban Bike Trailer.  If you’ve been commuting by bike this month, you have probably already tried hauling your gear with a set of panniers, or in a backpack or a classic messenger bag. While those are all good commuting options, the Travoy bike trailer is a great alternative to transport just about anything – from a week’s worth of groceries, to a change of clothes for the office, or up to 60lbs of cargo!

Here David demonstrates how the Travoy Trailer hitches effortlessly to your seatpost and travels at a 45° angle, redistributing the load’s weight for easier riding and offering better stability than standard panniers or backpacks.

Setup is quick and easy, as all you need to do to get up and running is to clamp the trailer quick release bracket to your seatpost, and then mount or remove the trailer itself by pulling a little spring-loaded arm out of the way of the hitch pin.

And did we mention that the Travoy trailer can carry up to 60lbs! You can carry some serious loads in the included tote bag:

The tote bag has a nice wide opening and sturdy construction, but you can also upgrade to a waterproof Burley Dry Bag if the forecast calls for heavy downpours.

And when you’re done with your commute, just twist the 2 grips and fold the Travoy down into a convenient size for storage (you can even store the folded Travoy in its own tote bag). The whole setup weighs less than 10lbs, so you can easily just bring it inside with you when you get where you’re going.

Check out the Travoy in action in this video by Burley:

If you’re serious about commuting by bike, take a look at the Burley Travoy Urban Bike Trailer - it’s a great option to haul your gear in comfort and style.

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Future Performance Products

April 1, 2011 2 Comments

It’s that time of year again, when we here at Performance get to share some of the exciting new cycling gear that our product development team has been working on for months behind closed doors.  We’ve got some innovative designers and developers working here in our office, and they can’t wait to show you just a few of the amazing new products that you may see on our shelves in the coming months (we’re still working out the details on many of these products, so please let us know your comments or suggestions below) .

Banana Holder Cage

The simple banana, one of nature’s finest energy sources on-the-go.  Packed with protein, carbohydrates, sugar and Potassium, bananas are a perfect 100 calorie snack for that on-the-bike energy burst.

But who hasn’t tried to bring this yellow marvel on a ride, only to reach into your back pocket or hydration pack mid-ride to discover that this tasty treat is now a mushy mess!

Well fret no more, as we introduce our Banana Holder Cage.  Mounted to standard water bottle cage holes, our Banana Holder Cage will be the safest and easiest way to bring nature’s energy food on your ride!

Helium Tire Inflator

Looking for that extra edge on race day, or even the local club ride?  Then our brand new Helium Tire Inflator is just the thing for you.  Why use regular old air, or even CO2 inflators, to inflate your tires when you could be using the lightest gas around (well, that isn’t highly flammable).  Packaged in the same handy cartridges that you’ve become familiar with in CO2 inflators, our Helium Tire Inflator is literally lighter than air (but don’t worry, it ships with a specially made lead sleeve to keep it from floating away)!

You won’t just feel like you’re flying up that next climb, you really will be!

Fixie Adjustable Handlebar

This next development was thought up by one of our in-house fixed-gear aficionados, who wanted that extra-special touch for his personal whip.

Mounting directly to the top of the fork steerer tube, in place of a conventional stem, our compact Fixie Adjustable Handlebar is just the product for the urban rider who wants the convenience of an adjustable stem with the style of an ultra-narrow fixed-gear handlebar.

Your regular commute will definitely become a whole new experience with this setup!

Frictionless Magnetic Bottom Bracket

The concept behind this innovative component design was simple but profound; how could we improve the pedaling experience and exceed the performance of even the smoothest ceramic bearings.  Our answer was to do away with bearings all together and instead use a carefully aligned array of rare earth magnets in the wall of the bottom bracket.

Since the crank spindle is suspended perfectly and never touches any part of the bottom bracket shell, you won’t lose any of your hard-earned power to friction (of course now we’ll have to deal with the new UCI friction regulations, but we’re sure our engineers will find a way to comply)!

Of course these are just a few of the great ideas that our team is working on here at Performance, because we’re always hard at work on products for every cyclist.  Let us know what you think and vote for your favorite new product in the poll below.

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Bicycling Magazine Buyer’s Guide – Scattante Americano

March 11, 2011 Leave a comment

Ah spring, a time when the weather’s getting warmer, the day’s are getting longer (especially this Sunday–don’t forget about Daylight Savings), and thoughts turn to more riding and, inevitably, new bikes!  Cycling magazines are only too happy to feed our spring bike fever, and the folks over at Bicycling Magazine have turned up the heat with their latest thorough Buyer’s Guide (available now at our retail stores):

But as you’re flipping through the pages, checking out all the new gear, be sure to stop and take a look at page 28. You’ll find this striking photo of our very own 2011 Scattante Americano Three singlespeed bike, available soon exclusively at Performance. As you can imagine, we’re really excited about how the new Americano series turned out (we’ve got a sneak preview picture of our entire Americano line back on our 2011 bikes post).

Bicycling’s review of the Americano Three starts on page 29 and continues on page 33 of the April Buyer’s Guide, and it gives you a good feel for what the Americano series is all about.  The Americano bikes merge solid geometry and understated urban style with a single-speed drivetrain, all at a fantastic value (leaving you the opportunity to customize your bike to make it as individual as you want, like this Americano that you may recognize from the blogosphere).

If you’re interested in even more eye-candy from our Scattante lineup, then you definitely don’t want to miss out on page 67 of the Bicycling Buyer’s Guide, where we’ve got a shot of our brand new 2011 Scattante CFR Pro road bike (alongside our Scattante Spyder helmet, sunglasses and shoes)!  We’ll have this Shimano Dura-Ace Di2-equipped steed available soon, and don’t worry, it rides as good as it looks!

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Product Profile: Louis Garneau Mondo Bib Short & Jersey

February 23, 2011 Leave a comment

For this week’s Product Profile, Ali, from our Clothing division, is here to talk about the brand new 2011 Louis Garneau Mondo bib short & jersey.  The new 2011 clothing lineup from Louis Garneau is packed with advanced technology to enhance fit and performance, plus look great while you ride (as you can see in the cover shot above, from the April 2011 issue of Road Bike Action magazine).

The Louis Garneau Mondo bib short is a really neat piece of equipment. The power band at the leg openings is the most comfortable leg opening you’ll find on any short! There’s no hair pulling or bad “sausage-leg” from a tight silicone gripper, only an aerodynamic fit with a second-skin feel.

Besides the fact that the Ceratek fabric on the hips looks really cool, it has a great purpose; the abrasion resistance it offers is huge. No picks or snags.

Detail of Ceratek material

The bib uppers are Louis Garneau‘s Carbon-X Mesh fabric; it has a high spandex content so if you’re tall, medium or average height for your size, it will fit like it was made for you. And as a bonus, all of the fabrics in the Mondo bib short are UPF/SPF 50 so you don’t have to worry about getting a funny tan on your thigh from a panel here and there that aren’t the same UPF/SPF as the others!

Detail of Carbon X Mesh

Of course all of this high-tech design and fit would be no good without an excellent chamois.  But Louis Garneau has done their homework with the Mondo bib short, as their 4 Motion chamois is great. It has 4-way stretch so it moves with you; preshaped wings so there is no bunching, pinching or weird folding of the pad; high density foam in all of the right places and strategically placed mesh vents to keep you comfortable.

With all of the comforts of a high performance bib, plus a great chamois and technical fabrics, the Louis Garneau Mondo bib short is a piece I believe you’ll find to be worth its weight in gold when you get out on the saddle in a pair.  And to complete this high performance kit, Louis Garneau offers the matching Mondo jersey, featuring the same performance fabrics and fit found in the Mondo bib short.

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Product Profile: 2011 Diamondback Podium 6

February 18, 2011 10 Comments

EDIT:  Since the value of the Diamondback Podium 6 we talked about below was recognized by so many of you out there, we don’t have any more in stock online.  But that doesn’t mean that you have to miss out on the great 880 gram frame of the Podium 6, as we still have the Diamondback Podium 5 road bike in stock and ready to ship.  Featuring the Podium carbon frame but with Shimano 105 components, the Podium 5 road bike is another great value from the folks at Diamondback!

Diamondback Podium 5 Item #30-4903

For today’s product profile, we’re bringing you a new ride from an unexpected source.  Our friends at Diamondback have been busy lately, not only refining their lineup of mountain bikes and BMX bikes, but also developing a brand new line of full carbon road bikes.  That’s right, we said full carbon road bikes!  Of course we were intrigued, so our bike product manager, Devlin, took the cross-country flight out to Washington to meet the folks at Diamondback and try out their new bike, the 2011 Podium 6 road bike, on its home turf:

Mercer Island, located on the expansive waters of Lake Washington and only minutes from the greater Seattle area, is host to fast, rolling road rides with steep banked turns and exhilarating descents. When I heard that the crew at Diamondback were going to unveil their 2011 Podium 6 road bike here I was skeptical. After all, a brand steeped in BMX and mountain bike heritage was suddenly going to break in to road biking right at the top with a Shimano Ultegra equipped full carbon frame and fork.

At first glance, the Podium 6 is right on target. The 880 gram frame has all of the characteristics of today’s best carbon road bikes: an oversized tapered head tube fitted with a full carbon fork, massive BB30 bottom bracket for superior stiffness, curved seat and chain stays for added comfort, and an arrestingly minimal top tube. Diamondback product manager Michael Brown appropriately chose an eye-catching FSA SL-K component package and Shimano R530 wheels.

We rolled out of the parking lot at warm up speed. I noticed immediately how stable and comfortable the bike felt. It took little effort to turn over the carbon SLK cranks and the surprisingly spritely wheels accelerated well as the pace picked up. The first hill proved the Podium 6 to be a great climber. The frame was stiff, yet refreshingly compliant. The bike cornered confidently and efficiently on the following descent. The Shimano Ultegra components are well proven to be both lightweight and precise and were well matched to the Podium 6. Overall, the 2011 Diamondback Podium 6 is a fantastic choice for any rider looking for the elusive balance between great all-around road performance at a great price. We look forward to introducing this terrific value to our stores and web site this March.

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Getting ready for a photo shoot

February 11, 2011 Leave a comment

Here at Performance, we put a lot of thought, effort and creativity into creating our catalogs and emails.  Our creative team works hard to create graphics and imagery that resonate with and inspire you as a cyclist, like with the cover of our latest catalog:A big part of this process are our photo shoots, where we hit the road (and the trails) to show great new gear and bikes in action.  Back in our early days, the locations for our photo shoots were usually only as exotic as you could find in a radius of about 15 minutes from our headquarters, like this sweet raingear shot taken on the campus of UNC-Chapel Hill!  Our models were usually employees (like Chuck Lewis there on the left) or whatever college coed could be convinced to wear a not-so-flattering rain poncho!

Nowadays we travel a little farther afield to get the great images that you’ll find throughout our catalogs and on our website, and our photo shoots can find us anywhere from the mountains of Colorado to the rugged coastline of California.  But in the end the process is the same as it’s always been; planning a photo shoot is first and foremost a story of logistics.  You’ve got to make sure that you’ve got all the right clothing, gear, bikes and people in place before the first frame is shot by the photographer (and we still do use our employees as models for some shoots, because it’s no good if our models don’t look like they know how to ride)!

This is just a sample of the gear that we packed up for our latest photo shoot, and this doesn’t even include the bikes!  As you can see, our creative team has quite the job ahead of them to keep everything and everyone organized over a very busy week of shooting.

And this time we’re going to give you a little behind-the-scenes access to what goes on at one of our photo shoots.  We’ll be there on the shoot, taking pictures and video that we’ll post right from our sunny locale in southern California.  Look for updates next week on our Twitter and Facebook pages, along with right here on the blog!

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2011 Bikes

January 9, 2011 8 Comments

Since we’re talking about what we’re looking forward to in 2011, what list would be complete without a little talk about new bike gear!  Here at Peformance Bicycle we are always working hard to give you the best possible value and performance from our exclusive brands, like our fantastic USB-rechargable Spark lights or our award-winning Performance Elite bib shorts.   For 2011, we’re really proud to bring you a brand new lineup of exclusive bike brands.  we’ve got new bikes coming soon that will meet any riders’ needs–from the hardcore mountain bike racer to the urban commuter, from the first-time rider to the elite racer, .  We’re just going to give you a sneak peek of the new lineup right now, but don’t worry, we’ll have more in-depth specs and videos in the next few weeks.

The biggest update to our exclusive bikes is with our Access brand of mountain bikes.  As you can see below (from photos we shot during our employee-exclusive bike preview), we’ve really expanded our Access lineup.

Front and center in the new lineup are the race-ready Access Stealth carbon 29er hardtail mountain bikes.  Yes, we said carbon 29er.  We’ve been testing and refining this new bike for some time now, and we can’t wait to show off its performance (and hot graphics).

But we haven’t neglected our aluminum-framed 29er options, as you can see with the Access Prowler series, with solid component specs and sharp-looking color schemes.

Also new is the Access Raptor series of 26″-wheeled hardtails, available, like all of our bikes, with a range of components to meet everyone’s needs and budget.

Of course we didn’t forget to upgrade our road bike lineup either, with new graphics and components throughout our Scattante brand bikes.

And our popular Scattante Americano single-speed lineup is back with more component style:

And cool custom graphic details:

Plus we don’t want you to miss our updated Transit line of commuter bikes, with their practical specs and understated style.

So, like we said earlier, we’re really looking forward to 2011!  We’ve worked hard to bring you exclusive bike brands that have something for everyone and every need, and we can’t wait to show them off!

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Biketober Bike Deal Blowout

October 29, 2010 Leave a comment

We hope you’ve had a chance to check out our daily Biketober Bike Deal on our Twitter feed every day this month, because we’ve had some pretty sweet deals.  But don’t worry if you haven’t, as we’ve got you covered!  We want to send Biketober out with a bang, so we’re offering all 31 Biketober Bike Deals this Friday, Saturday and Sunday!

So how do you find out what the Biketober Bike Deals are?  You can either check search our Twitter feed, or just head on over to the handy Biketober Bike Deals page on performancebike.com.  There you’ll find all 31 Biketober Bike Deals, along with the special coupon code you’ll need to get the amazing deal price (sorry, no other discounts apply with these blowout prices).  These bikes may not be available in every size, but you may just find exactly what you’re looking for, at a price that can’t be beat!

Just to show you a small sample of the array of options available, check out the last 3 Biketober Bike Deals:

2010 Breezer Greenway 3.0 Comfort Bike

MSRP: $869.99  Deal Price: $499.99

use code BIKETOBERDEAL29

2010 Diamondback Response Mountain Bike

MSRP: $409.99  Deal Price: $279.99

use code BIKETOBERDEAL30

2010 Kestrel Talon SL Road Bike

MSRP: $3349.99  Deal Price: $1999.99

use code BIKETOBERDEAL31

We hope you find the Biketober Bike Deal that’s right for you (but remember to use the special coupon code that’s specific to each bike)!

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