What an exciting month April was. I temporarily moved to the States, we had SeaOtter with the launch of the ONE+, we keep struggling with the growth in demand for the U.P. (there are worse struggles right now in the bike industry, where many brands are down 10-30% in sales).  Seems to me it's a good time to be a bit different. Too many companies with too many products wrapped in too much marketing blurb, that's not really a good place to be. I can't begin to explain how nice it feels to know that side of the industry exists, and to know we're not in it.

Of course when we were "on the other side", that side wasn't nearly as bad as it was today. It's gotten pretty cut-throat the last few years as some of the players got bigger and bigger and needed to get more aggressive to keep that growth going. And some others are trying to carve out their own space and there just isn't enough room for everybody. The nice thing about our OPEN approach is that it sort of self-selects the retailers and consumers that think the same way. If you don't do the advertising, you don't attract the type of consumer who relies on those. And if you want to stay small, you find the retailers who focus on service and customer satisfaction over volume.

Not that they would turn away business. But they are organised and funded in a way that they are not strung out (or up) on 365 day payment terms from one supplier who represents 80% of their sales volume and is pushing to make that 90%. So they can make independent decisions the way an independent bicycle shop should, based on the product needs of their customers, not based on who will give them the longest time until the bills come due because money is so tight.

But I digress. 

April also saw yet another award for the U.P. with Outside Magazine awarding us the road bike honors for their Gear of the Year (which I found pretty funny as they agree the U.P. is not a road bike). It just shows how strong the gravel category is getting. And now you get to vote on another award, the Bikeradar Most Wanted list. That would be a tough one for the U.P. to win, just because our name recognition and follower base is rather small compared to the other ones, but you know, just to be nominated is ... NONSENSE, we would love to win this one too, so get your family and friends to vote for us and heck, even your enemies. The link is here.
May is scheduled to be an exciting month; I've been sick for most of the past few months and have hardly ridden, but yesterday was my first real ride since February. Not a moment too soon, as I am scheduled to ride the Almanzo in less than two weeks. So hopefully I'll get a few more rides in or that's going to be a tough day in the saddle. But I am looking forward to taking my Special Edition Steve Hed U.P. to Minnesota and return to the roads where it all started for the U.P. And good news for the U.P. fans, that personal bike of mine is the May Bike of the Month, and it's got some pretty cool stuff on it.

So stay tuned for that and in the meantime, keep riding along.