We have the best customers EVER

So a few months ago Bicycling Magazine made this video about us.We were overwhelmed with nice responses, from all over the world. The other day we got this email:

HI Steve Bilenky!

i saw online axcidently your excellent video this weekend. It inspire me and i draw some still frame, so i will send to you and hope you enjoy it. I'm artist in Rome and i think that some beautiful images have value. I appreciate your work and your video so much! I'm sorry about my english but i speak italian, german and tzech and not fluently english.

I send to you and your staff a hugs.

Clara De Paoli

Here are the pictures. We are speechless, senza parole, verklempt, and němý:

 Looking good, Steve!

We also got some great photos of one of our frequent customers doing RAAM (which, for the uninitiated, stands for Race Across America. The riders go across the continental US, in sometimes as little as eight days. Some do it in teams, which is reasonable, and some go solo which is NOT.)

Dan's team here had the oldest average age of any RAAM contestants ever: 

 

At the starting line....

 Made it!

 And here's Dan on his RAAM Litespeed, which we retrofitted this winter.

For the record, this guy has a Cessna airplane and a Burley tandem with just one set of couplers in it so it fits in the back.

And finally, here's an email we got today:

Steve,

I thought I'd toss you an update: The Lygie you saved and renovated is still in fine shape and passed on to my son Nathaniel who rode it across 5500 miles across country and went on to a career in promoting bicycling for transportation, lifestyle, health and urban design. I will always remember the time on the phone time, trust, sensitive of art and esthetics and personal care invested in a rejuvenating a beat up bike that still means so much.

Thank you,

John Higley

Sherborn, MA 01770

 Aww! Thanks John! We love hearing about the lives of bikes that have been through our shop.

Bilenky Cycle Works-- serving criminally cool cyclists since 1983.

On an unrelated note, can it be spring now? I mean, COME ON!

-Isis
BCW

Spring Cleaning!

As some of you may have noticed, our website looks different. As some more of you may have noticed, it works! No more re-directing to pages from 2003 (although they may still be floating around in cyberspace somewhere, no one can remember the necessary passwords). One of the biggest changes is a readable, functional store that functions. 20th Century, here we come! Steve even has an iPhone.

Our Official Awkward NAHBS Family Portraits are out!

 

THE EPIC FRONT

 

THE EPIC BACK

I should have made a vest for the 'chuck. I am a rotten rodent wrangler.

SPEAKING OF RODENTS....

HOW did no one bring us a live woodchuck? Not one? Woodchucks are so eminently smuggleable, all you have to do is give them a few shots of bourbon and they sack out for hours in the nearest box. 

Like this!

Well it's your loss, next time you have to smuggle in a woodchuck that looks exactly like Jacques Anquetil if you want your free Bilenky! 

Also, Tom and Kasy don't want their vests. I'm gonna put em on Ebay, but I figured I'd give our faithful fans a chance to make us a first offer. They're both medium-ish. Tom's says 'love' on the back in glittery sequins and has hearts on the front. Kasy's is more conservative. Both have giant BCW patches on the back. HOW CAN YOU RESIST?

Meanwhile, we have rearranged the office, tried to tidy up the shop (ha. ha.) and made a significant dent in our bike queue. Ferdinand is having none of it: 

You can have these files when I'm good and ready.

 But check out this tandem! 

 

29er Ti Crazybike

And I leave you with a lovely video from one of our customers. These bikes are currently in for retrofits. We love facilitating globetrotting! 

 Ok, wanderlust ignited...

Also? Spring Classic season? Who's stoked?

--Isis

BCW