Brodie Blog

Brodie Bikes Hits the Vancouver Seawall Video

ryan — Wed, 16 May 2012 16:04:32 +0000

A beautiful Sunday afternoon, we decided to hit the Vancouver Seawall for a cruise and tan. Taking to the streets/wall with our Brodie Romulus & new GoPro Hero2, we set our camera for a 30 sec picture interval & captured the ride from Vancouver>Seawall>Chinatown.

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Health and Fitness: Running on Empty

ryan — Tue, 15 May 2012 06:59:45 +0000

Whether you’re riding your bicycle or working out, make sure you’re not running on empty. Have a small snack before you hit the weights or the pavement! You cannot expect your body to perform when you have not given it some fuel. There is no point in doing a workout on an empty stomach. You will not be able to push yourself to get the results you want if you don’t start with some fuel in the tank. Eat a light snack, and give your body 30 minutes or so to absorb it. A good snacks combines carbohydrate and protein, such as fruit and cheese, or a piece of toast with peanut butter.

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Follow along weekly for your tips on health and fitness, brought to you by Innovative Fitness Langley: Guy Demong and Sasha Myers are strength and conditioning specialists at Innovative Fitness. Email them at langley@innovativefitness.com for a free consultation!

@IFLangley

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Want to WIN a Brodie Bike?

ryan — Thu, 10 May 2012 17:38:31 +0000

The Vancity Buzz has joined the Brodie family to give you the Brodie Bicycle Bolt contest! Vancity Buzz came to inception in the Vancouver blogosphere in Summer 2008. Since then, VcB has grown exponentially with increased content, solid business relationships, strong social media presence, and expanded readership. We have achieved success by highlighting the greatness in Vancouver: local events, entertainment, news, and talented Vancouverites.

Check out the contest here via/ Vancity Buzz!

May 10, 2012

Posted by Crystal Kwon | Speak Up

There are a few things I love more then a good bike ride around Vancouver’s scenic seawall. Brodie Bikes is a locally owned bike company that make those rides happen as they offer an array of original, quality bikes to Vancouverites. Named after the artist and motorcycle fanatic Paul Brodie, Brodie Bikes really captures the essence of a local small business. Paul Brodie began by painting and brass-welding frames for mountain bikes in 1985, and the rest is history. He soon invited and trademarked the Vancouver sloping top tube, earning him induction into the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame at Interbike in Las Vegas. Run on a small team of full time employees, the staff are passionate, educated and helpful as they build real bikes for real people.

For more information, visit their website which you can find here or on their Facebook page here.

MODEL Bolt COLOUR Satin Blue FRAME 4130 Brodie Cromo 700c FRONT FORK Brodie Cromo Classic Road HANDLE BAR Brodie 6061 25.4 STEM Brodie Road 2 Bolt BRAKES Alhonga V-Brake CRANKS Shimano M361 28/38/48T PEDALS Wellgo Flats HUBS KT / Shimano RM30 CASSETTE HG-20 12-32t RIMS Shining A-M3 TIRES Kenda Eurotrek 32C FRONT DERAILLEUR Shimano FD-M191 REAR DERAILLEUR Shimano Altus SHIFTERS Shimano EF-51 7 Spd SADDLE Brodie Road S/POST Brodie 26.4

Contest: The good folk at Brodie Bikes have given us a Bolt to offer our great readers. Meet the Bolt; Shimano hub, replaceable chain rings and double wall rims to ensure your bicycle will remain reliable and serviceable. Retail Value: $499 MSRP

To enter:

1. RT the following:

I entered to win a bike from @brodiebikes from @VancityBuzz and @cwistal http://ow.ly/aPpIh RT to enter!

2. Comment below on your favorite bike trail in the Lower Mainland

Contest will run until May 17th. One winner will be chosen at random.

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Framebuilding 101

ryan — Wed, 09 May 2012 07:22:34 +0000

This is Paul Brodie. Framebuilding 101 course #012 finished recently, and it was unique in the diversity of frames built. We had a 29er, a cyclocross bike, an electric cruiser, and a variable speed unicycle! The class was also unique in that 3 out of 4 students owned electric bicycles, with one student, Justin, owning Grin Technologies. This company, with eleven employees, (surprised me!) sells everything to do with electric bicycles. Check out ebike.ca. Whether you like electric bikes or not, the future is going there. My next project is a (racy) electric bike. I want it to be able to do 60k to keep up with cars. Suspension, disc brakes, slicks, steel and carbon fibre…

We will be having another Open House for Framebuilding 101 sometime in early June, so stay tuned.. We’re in a huge airplane hanger, so there’s lots of space. Last Open House was a huge success with about 60 people attending. The University said they had never seen so many people at an Open House! The 1888 Whippet (winner of NAHBS Peoples’ Choice..) will be there, so come check it out.

Here’s Richard checking out the mitre of the top tube for his cyclocross frame >

Justin fillet brazing his custom unicycle. The Nuvinci variable speed hub mounts behind the seat, and a chain runs up and down each side of the unicycle. He’s put a lot of thought into his design. When finished he plans to ride it from Vancouver, down the coast, to Mexico. Quite an adventure! (happy guy..)

Mike Tig welding the chainstays for his electric cruiser. Because the seat tube didn’t join the bottom bracket (unlike almost every other frame), the build sequence was completely different. For example, the chain stays became part of the frame before even the seat tube and top tube!

Thomas fillet brazing the chainstays onto his 29er. First student to use the newly acquired bent down tubes > (see next photo..

As you can see, a great deal of diversity in types of frames. I have to work a little harder, but it sure is interesting!

class #012

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Health and Fitness: Grab and Go

ryan — Mon, 07 May 2012 23:34:59 +0000

One thing on my to-do list before going to sleep is to get ready for the next day’s work out. It’s such a relief to avoid the stress of running around trying to find my workout gear in the morning, and once it’s all planned out the night before, the workout is more likely to happen. Take a few minutes the night before to gather everything you’ll need – clothing, sneakers, iPod, car keys, etc. Stash everything in a bag by the door, ready to grab and go.

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@IFLangley

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Nat and Drew Ad Agency – Sound Clip

ryan — Thu, 03 May 2012 23:24:05 +0000

When you’re a small business like us, you don’t always have the budget to do everything you want. This is why we relied on the Nat and Drew’s Ad Agency… To give us some insight and advertisements for spreading the good word of Brodie Bikes.

Listen to it here!

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Health and Fitness: Up and at ‘Em

ryan — Tue, 01 May 2012 17:44:20 +0000

Did you know that exercising in the morning helps you sleep better, revs up your metabolism and boosts brain function? It’s also a great way to make fitness a priority since you start off your day with a sweat session – and don’t have to worry about work/kids/family derailing your workout plans. If you aren’t a morning person, try this trick: For a set period – say, 4 weeks – force yourself to get up 15 minutes earlier than normal and do any type of physical activity. Make it so easy that you don’t even have to change into your workout clothes. As you near the end of the 4 weeks, you’ll have a new habit and will then be able to progress to greater amounts of exercise.

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@IFLangley

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Featured on VancouverIsAwesome!

ryan — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 21:59:02 +0000

Huge thanks to fellow Vancouverites- VancouverIsAwesome which featured us on their home grown profiles! Read it here:

V.I.A.’s Home Grown features only the most awesome companies in Vancouver. From tiny, single-person operations to the big players, we profile our favourite businesses and interview their owners and operators.

Brodie
Established 1986
brodiebikes.com

Brodie Bicycles is a Vancouver-based bike company who are all about making their customers smile and seeing them enjoy the bikes they’ve created. What makes them particularly awesome is something which many people don’t realize: they’re a small business which does everything with only 5 full-time staff and a few part-time sales reps. Much smaller than other local Canadian brands they work as a small team, all pitching in. Whether at the bottom of the totem pole or the top, they’re all equal and they are certainly pumping out some great product.

We asked Brodie’s president, Roger Yip, a few questions about his business in Vancouver.

If Brodie is known for one things amongst its customers, what would it be?
Our dealers would know us for our relationships we’ve built with them over the years. In a normal situation you would have an account rep, but as a small tight-knit group our dealers are comfortable dealing with anyone that picks up the phone or services them: We all usually know what’s going on with each others work. Having these close relationships, going beyond our call of duty isn’t usually out of the ordinary whether it’s for our dealers or end-consumers.Producing different styles of bicycles, we’re not really known for “one certain” thing with the people riding our bikes. That being said, we’re known for certain iconic items we’ve produced over the years including the sloping top-tube mountain bike, hand-built cross country frames, box tube mountain bikes and lifestyle bicycles…

*sloping top tube: Paul Brodie was one of the first innovators of the classic “sloping top tube” allowing for more clearance on aggressive style riding.
*hand-built frames: The original hand-built steel XC frames (Expresso/Sovereign) are still lusted over by many riders
*box tube: We were one of the first ones to come out with an aggressive aluminum hard-tail with box tubing, the Holeshot
*lifestyle bikes: Today, our best selling bicycles include commuters, cruisers and touring bikes as well as niche products which include things like the Shimano internal gear systems: Nexus and Alfine

What’s your favourite place to ride your bike in the city?
Vancouver offers such a variety of riding that it’s impossible to pick a favorite place or type of riding. On an any given day depending on your mood, you can ride the North Shore Mountains, take a Stanely Park seawall cruise or stretch your legs out for a long ride around UBC: None better than the other.

Aside from Brodie, what’s your favourite Vancouver business and why?
We’ve always loved 1-800-GOT-JUNK not just because we have some friends over there, but because of their story. Starting out as a one-man operation, Brian Scudamore was able to build an empire out of nothing. Home grown out of Vancouver as well, they’re success and practices are something we truly admire.

What keeps you here? Like what’s the best thing about Vancouver?
Vancouver has a unique community and lifestyle feel to it and on a sunny, beautiful day you understand what’s to love about being here. Where else can you be out on the ocean, hike, bike, and snowboard all in one day?

brodiebikes.com

Written by: Bob Kronbauer |
Category: Home Grown Profiles,Local Business |
Tagged: |
Comments: 0 Comments and 1 Reaction

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Health and Fitness: Water- The Elixir of Life

ryan — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 18:00:07 +0000

According to recent research, more than two thirds of adults go through their day dehydrated. If you want to keep your body operating optimally, you need to become a regular water drinker. Most of us have replaced water with juice, soft drinks, coffee or other sorts of sweet beverages. There is really no substitute for water that can provide you will the same ‘calorie free’ health benefits. One of the common mistakes most people make is that they don’t have a drink until they feel thirsty. By this time, you are already seriously dehydrated and have probably lost around two cups of water. Make it easy for yourself to get into the habit of drinking more water every day and invest in a water bottle. It might take a little time to train yourself up to go for the water but the more hydrated you are, the more energy you will have to exercise.

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@IFLangley

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Getting Back on The Bike

ryan — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 17:42:38 +0000

Getting back into cycling can be a daunting experience and especially when things have changed quite a bit. Not only do you have road and mountain bikes, but now you have different segments of each category: freeride, all mountain, comfort hybrid, cyclocross, sport hybrid…. The list goes on. Our addition to the Brodie family Mike talks about his experiences.

Going into a bike shop when you have not ridden a bike in decades canbe a bit of a nail biter. That is how I felt two winters ago as I looked around at the two wheeled beauties on Broadway in Vancouver.”How do aluminum frames ride?” I asked. I was excited, bicycles had changed quite a bit over the years. After asking a few more questions trying not to look like a complete fish out of water I finally decidedon a Brodie Dynamo with an aluminum frame and disk brakes. This wasgoing to be my get acquainted with biking again bike. I wanted apositive experience. Sizing was important and I wanted the frameslightly smaller so I could have comfort and control. For the weatherI asked for fenders and for utility a rear rack. A week later and it was ready.

Getting reacquainted with my new two wheels was a joy. I loved the smooth ride of the aluminum frame and the stopping power of the mechanical disk brakes. My street machine was almost perfect. But I had some ideas of my own. I had a few goals: make it more comfortable and a better performer. In situations like this it is great we live inthe age of Ebay. After a bit of research I decided to see if I could move the bars closer to me so I didn’t have to reach forward so much. Maybe I have short arms? After some helpful emails from Brodie I decided on a Truvativ stem that was shorter by a few inches so thebars were that much closer to reach. I ran into a few snags on the wayI ordered the wrong part that was for larger size head tubes. I also needed to get new spacers to fit exactly the new stem. Finally the black Truvativ stem looked beefy and awesome and did the trick helping my riding position. The next new piece of modding was a Truvativ compact crankset. Referencing the Brodie site was very helpful in looking up parts and specs for my bike so I could find parts that would be compatible. As you can tell I was starting to like Truvativ. The crankset looked great and was much lighter while still holding up in the strength department. By now I was feeling like I was almost at perfection but I still had a few ideas. The riding position still wasn’t perfect so to match the Truvativ stem I went for some Truvative bars with a slightly greater rise. That brought the bars that much closer. Some more research and I found that you could move your riding position forward with something called a “zero offset seatpost” I found one at a nice price by you guessed it Truvativ and when I finally had it installed I knew I had found the great combination. Now the riding comfort was truly better than on any bike I had ever ridden.

Fast forward now two years and pretty much everything is the same. A new set of Vittoria Randonneur 28c narrow tires and a new chain helped to keep things flowing. Right now what excites me is getting rid of the heavy greasy waterproof lube on my chain for the lighter oil in preparation for summer riding.

Mike A

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