Sunday, September 24, 2006

AHRENS BICYCLES

Our friend Mike Ahrens has been designing custom mountain bike frames for over 10 years. His frames manage to handle amazingly with a ride quality that is unmatched! We thought it was time to bring these bitchin' frames to masses and get some women who ride to take notice!


ENTER THE APEX W. I am not actually sure what this thing's called, but I know it starts out as a lightened version of the venerable Apex Hardtail. If you want to geek out, instead of the normal frame construction, Mike designs and makes "yokes" for the rear of the bike to control stiffness, ride quality and give his frame a unique look!


ENTER VANDERKITTEN. We decided Ahrens needed some more feminine appeal, so in a pseudo self-serving move we offered to come up with a special graphics kit for his women's frames! His frames are not "smaller guys frames" ladies, these take into account our need for more stand-over clearance, our lower center of gravity and for many of us a shorter reach to the bars. Make no mistake, these kitties are no slouch, these are fully competiton-ready handbuilt framsets.

We have a few frames being produced now that we'll have at the SurfCity CX series. One will be a complete bike you can come and ride! (Gotta warn you: it's Jennie's frame, she's 5'9"). Emma Worldpeace (that's her name, don't wear it out!) will be riding a steel is real rendition with the VK graphics. Emma is an expert woman on the Cal Cycling team. She is the VP of the team and does A TON of work getting cycling to the people! (See picture of her biting seat below).

If your intersted in a frame, check out http://www.ahrensbicycles.com or send us an email and we'll get you lined up!



Fall is an exciting time for Vanderkitten! We are busy planning products for 2007, getting ready for the Surf City Cyclocross series with Velo Bella Kona cycling team, and trying toget everything done!

We recently moved to Berkeley, and everything is still in a small state of flux. We'll have more room, and 2 new people helping out, Emma and Tsering. Mark Zefeldt, who came aboard mid-summer will continue to work the business angles, and Jennie is always testing new products!

We have an ever-growing list of retailers in the Bay Area, sacto and as far North as Bend Oregon! It's awesome to expand and get the message out!!