For the second episode of the Rodeo Labs Podcast we had a little huddle and talked about what’s been going on lately here at The Lab. One of our goals with this podcast is to give a bit of an unscripted peek behind the curtain and show more of the behind the scenes of what we do.
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Curtis Hall is the Co-Founder and Head Coach at BAREfit Adventure Training in Louisville, Ky. He works with adventure athletes and enthusiasts to help them not only perform higher but also more sustainably. Www.barefitlife.com @barefit.life @capt.curtis
With the roads more open and my gym closed, I’ve been riding more, lifting less and finding all the kinks in my armor. My lower back”s a little achy, my hip flexors are tight, that spot right behind my knee is wanting to lock up and some old shoulder injuries are starting to talk to me again. These kinks usually stay below the surface thanks to my normal coaching/training schedule, but thanks to activities shifting, I’ve had to get creative in my daily movements to keep these issues at bay and have worked the following exercises into my daily regime to stay strong for my outdoor cycling adventures.
It’s Friday so it’s time for a Flaanimal 5.0 update. You’re looking at the first complete customer build bike which for us is a monumental milestone. Chris was the FIRST build order on Feb 15th and we’re so happy to get him his bike in that order. Thanks for hanging in Chris, we know you’ve been excited and you’ve been absurdly patient. Chris actually moved a lot of parts from his 3.0 Flaanimal to this 5.0 platform. It’s quite a bit more capable and a lot lighter as well!
GENERAL PRODUCTION UPDATE:
Not many frames have arrived yet. We’re in FedEx and shipping broker hell. We have tracking numbers but also tracking “exceptions” which means “WTF” in Fedex speak. We’re working on it with intensity + finesse (which means you can only nag so much then you have to just wait for people to do their jobs).
Final finishing on the frames has proven to be quite labor intensive. Twice this week we’ve said “make it more perfect” and knowingly caused delays. We hate to do it but there is no option. QC is QC.
20 frames will arrive when FedEx sorts their stuff out
70 frames will ship to us around the 7th.
More frames will ship to us around the 14th.
More frames will ship on the 21st. The rhythm is basically one air shipment per week.
ANY FRAMES NOT PRE-ORDERED prior to Tuesday the 28th will be shipped via ocean which has a 4 week transit time. We expect to see those frames mid to late September. Do we love that? No! But we’d rather deliver the facts now than apologize that things are late in September.
We are very aware that we are well past our estimated dates on Flaanimal 5.0. We’re really sorry about that and we know that some people feel really let down by that. The offer always stands: If you can’t or won’t wait for your bike we get it and can refund you. Rodeo is super solid financially and we don’t spend pre-order proceeds before we deliver the order to the customer.
Our big ask is this: if you are not canceling your order please don’t call or email asking for an update on your bike. Everyone here is 100% busy working on builds and logistics and we’ve spent quite a lot of time in the last few weeks answering phone calls and emails from people who understandably want an update. But we’re to the point where we are simply a small company and have finite hours in a day and we need to spend those hours on the production / fulfillment side more than the email / phone call side. We realize that we’re making a huge ask here. We’re asking people who made that first big deposit of trust when they ordered to almost write us a more or less blank check or trust. We realize that’s a big ask, but we’re asking anyway. If you ask around about Rodeo you will find that our customer service and follow through track record is absolutely excellent. We’re committed, we care a ton, and we’re going to get these bikes out to their owners.
Thank you!
-Stephen Fitzgerald / Founder
On episode 1 of our Rodeo Labs podcast we invite our guest Natalie Starr to share the story of how she got into both cycling and photography.
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Hi Y’all. How’s everybody doing? That’s an absurd question of course. The world is crazy right now. But that is also a question we also get a lot from all of you:
“Hey guys! How’s it going at Rodeo? You hanging in there?”
I definitely appreciate people asking and checking in. For the record Rodeo is doing well. We’re here, or more accurately we’re not here, we’re mostly working remotely whenever possible but we are “here” in the abstract sense of the word. And yes, we are actually doing well. Not so much in the breaking sales records and taking over the bike industry sense of the phrase. Rather We’re doing well because we seem to be weathering the circumstances better than most, and it seems that the community of owners and customers that we’ve built in the last six years is in fact still ordering bikes and generally supporting what we do. For that, and on behalf of all of us at Rodeo, I say a very heartfelt Thank You! We are so grateful to still even now be able to do what we love to do for a living and we couldn’t do it without your trust and support.
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Where do Donkeys come from? Where does Rodeo Labs come from? How do we know if our bikes are good? Why are there so few reviews of our bikes out there? What types of customers do we try to collaborate with? What makes Rodeo successful? @_bicyclemedia_ just posted a podcast with Rodeo’s founder Stephen Fitzgerald where we talked through these sorts of questions and other topics from our history. Look up the podcast on your favorite podcast client like iTunes or Spotify or it is embedded here below for easy access.
Let’s talk product status. Communication with our customers is a top level priority as we navigate present circumstances. Read on to see where we are at as of 3/20 on various projects:
1. We’re still working. This week the office has been either completely remote or visited one by one per necessary tasks like mechanical work and shipping. We haven’t been ordered to do this by law, we’re just being careful. We are only accepting visitors by appointment.
2. We are small so we are agile. Customer service is easy to manage remotely if need be. Builds are already done by a single person and he can take his operation mobile if need be.
Rodeo labs frameset production is done in Taiwan which has handled the current challenges arguably better than any other country so here’s an update on our main products.
1. Flaanimal 5.0: on schedule still for late April / early May as stated on the pre order page. Scaling from prototypes to production had some unique challenges but we stepped up our game to meet them. We had planned on CNC machined sleeved head tubes for instance but we changed to multi axis laser cutting for volume production. Have you ever seen a multi axis laser precision cut a steel tube? It’s awesome. #humblebrag
3. TD3.1 is about 2 – 3 weeks delayed from initial mid march estimates and this is due to forks, not bigger issues. Once forks are ready frames and forks go to paint together and then 3.1 is done.
3. Spork 3.0. We are getting more emails and questions about this lately from retail customers, bike shops, and builders. We had planned to do small batches of forks so that we could prioritize and ship forks and bikes quicker but had to pivot and produce in one large batch at scale for the sake of production partner efficiency. Scale saves production costs and we had to cooperate with our partner on that. Making bikes is a business but it’s also about relationships. Spork 3.0 was due mid month but we think it will be end of month / first week of April before we receive the first batch of retail forks. All things considered that isn’t far off!
Could any of this change? Yes. The world is so unpredictable right now. Outside factors could affect us. But even if that happens we will troubleshoot and push forward in any way that we responsibility can. We’re committed to our customer and we are excited about what we are contributing to the world of bikes. We’ve added our global Covid 19 information to our Policies page for easy access. We will keep that page updated as necessary.
Questions? Fire away!
For those unfamiliar with me, my name is Drew. I recently came back full time to Rodeo after a couple year hiatus working elsewhere in the industry. When I originally worked at Rodeo in 2016 and 2017, I had enjoyed working here and contributing to the products and culture. But until recently I never noticed how important this brand and community actually are to me.
Craig Dalton of The Gravel Ride podcast invited Rodeo founder Stephen Fitzgerald to the show to talk about Rodeo’s origins and the evolution of the Traildonkey from 1.0 to 3.0. We’ve embedded it here after the break. If you don’t know where Rodeo came from this covers most of it.
Header photo by Greg Besaw.
The Merriam Webster dictionary defines absurd (ab·surd \ əb-ˈsərd) as, ridiculously unreasonable, unsound, or incongruous. The summiting of Mount Antero on June 8th of this year, was absurd. That is why looking back on it I am happy to have done it.
