Tag: John Burke

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Show #119 – December 1, 2012

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GUESTS: JOHN BURKE, WADE BAROSCI

Sometimes it’s not about the bike, but it is about the bike company. This week, we welcome to the show two gentlemen who have ties to iconic bike companies, as well as being interesting in other ways.

Four years ago, John Burke‘s father Dave Burke (founder of Trek Bicycles) died after complications from heart surgery. What started out as a private memoir intended for John’s two children has become a book called One Last Great Thing. John Burke joins us today to talk about the book, his dad, and their shared history in the bike business.

While the Burkes were building Treks in Wisconsin, a company up in Connecticut by the name of Cannondale was also innovating with aluminum tubing in bicycle frames. Production of Cannondales has moved offshore, and the tubing equipment was purchased by our second guest this week, Wade Barocsi of Acel Tubing and Joining Products. Wade is also owner of Cycle Design USA, and a framebuilder and instructor. If you want to know about shaping and joining metal, Wade’s your guy.

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Interbike – Day #1 – September 19, 2012

Throngs of people filed into Ballroom G at the Sand’s Convention Center to partake of a breakfast of eggs, sausage, bacon, fruit, juices, potatoes, coffee, tea, and an outrageous number of great lookong pastries!   Free food always attracts cyclists! But, this was about getting people to listen.

The presentations by Fred Clements of the NBDA , Tim Blumenthal  of Bikes Belong, and John Burke CEO of Trek Bicycles, were filled with stats, ideas, and encouragement to grow the industry,grow the sport, and get involved with bicycling on the local level.

I think there was some cyniccism (really?) on a lot of levels:

1. Trek just wants to sell more bikes – which of course would be true, but is that bad?

2. The industry is on the wrong track about how to go about getting more people on bikes – and of course there are always several sides of that questin.

3. Why cna’t we all get along? – wow, solving that problem would be earth shaking!

I will say that I found all the statistics very interesting; changing them for the better?  Daunting!

The presentation ended right on time and the show opened.  It’s BIG!  And, confusing; the numbering system seems so strange this year. The media center has been moved to a good place though.

I’m about to write a short “”story”  about the radio show – there’s a chance to win a prize!  Wish me luck and I’ll update you soon.

Stay tuned!