Saturday, October 25, 2008

Fall in New England

This past week, Masi was participating in Interbike's Outdoor Demo East. The weather on Monday for set up and Tuesday's first day was simply incredible! Fall in New England is very spectacular- especially compared to nearly seasonless Southern California.




Scenes from Roger Williams Park- site of the demo.

Wednesday brought light rains and much, much colder temperatures. Being from SoCal, all of us from Masi/ Haro bundled ourselves as well as we could against the cold. At least we could take comfort in seeing many of the New Englanders doing the same! Retailers were riding the Masi demo bikes and coming back with big grins- which always makes a Brand Manager's day! Look for more Masi bikes to show up in New England area bike shops.

Hangin' with the bikes... you know... getting ready for the big day of test rides.

Local retailers heading out for test rides; this group from one shop took out 4 bikes!

A nearly empty rack of demo bikes... AWESOME!

We stayed in Providence, in the area of de Pasquale Square- the "little Italy" of Providence. I am sure I will be burning off the calories from Providence for the next few months! The food we ate there was outrageously good. I have been called "a stomach with legs" many times in my life and this was one of those times. To top it all off, the service we received during our stay was also incredible. The people of Providence were amazing and we were all a little "bummed" to be leaving.
The small cafe next to the hotel served Masi wines! No relation to us, but a great wine just the same.

The beautiful de Pasquale Square where our little hotel was located.

The "little Italy" area of Providence RI.

The square at night... truly beautiful!
After the demo was done on Wednesday, we drove north to New Hampshire to our base for the next two days of visiting with retailers... and some more incredible food! We stayed in Portsmouth NH and once again ate our way through the city. If ever in Portsmouth, you have to eat at The Friendly Toast, Pesce Blue and Jumpin' Jay's Fish Cafe... trust me on this one.

On Thursday, we drove into Boston to visit with a few of our fantastic retailers. The two main ones we saw in the city were Belmont Wheelworks and Ski Market. Wheelworks is an incredible shop! Such an amazing place. Belmont also is home to Peter Mooney and his wonderful custom creations. Peter makes some incredible frames himself, so we're pleased to be in the saame shop as him and his bikes. Wheelworks is a pro shop, for sure, so we're just honored to be in the same shop as many of the other brands there. Ski Market, as the name implies, sells lots of skis. BUT... they sell a lot of Masi Bicycles as well! With all the locations of Ski Market and the two Wheelworks locations, you're in pretty good hands in the Boston area!

Heading into Belmont Wheelworks.

Hanging high with pride inside the main showroom area- with a Seven on the other side... not too shabby company to share.

A gorgeous custom Peter Mooney... really nice to know they are crafted right there at the shop. NICE!

Right inside the downtown Boston location of Ski Market- a nicely decked out SoulVille.

A nice little display of Masi bikes inside the store.

Our Eastern Regional Sales Manager- James Ayres- being a kid in a candy store in the bottom of Ski Market, in their skate ramp/ bike ramp. He was nearly crying...

On Friday, since we were flying out of Maine mid-day, we only got to visit one shop... but it is one of the biggest supporters of Masi (and Haro) in New England- Back Bay Bicycles in Portland ME. Cheryl and her staff are big proponents of Masi bicycles and through their small shop sell and support Masi in a big way. We are very proud to work with such a shop and I sincerely hope that you'll pay them a visit if you are in the Portland ME area.

A masi banner proudly displayed inside Back Bay Bicycles!

Look at all that Masi sweetness!

Beautiful Eddy Merckx painting on display in the shop... it was really a great painting.

A customer's fully decked out CXR- ready for winter life in Maine.

Lunch was eaten right on the warf area- the Porthole was incredibly good!

Overall, it was a great trip to New England. Demo went very well, even with the rain on day two, and the retailer visits were all fantastic. We're very proud of how well the bikes were received by the retailers during demo and are looking forward to seeing more bikes available to the public there. So never fear- if you can't find the Masi you are looking for in New England right now, you likely will be able to find it in the very near future!

Tim

Thursday, October 16, 2008

We're in business again!

After a little "glitch" last night into this early afternoon, the new Masi website is back again.

Even though we're here and prettier than ever, this new site is still something of a work in progress. We're functional, but we're gonna be getting better each day.

Under Construction

Your feedback is critical to us, since this site is here to serve you- not just for us to talk about how great we think the bikes are... we're hoping to hear you talk about how great the bikes are! With that in mind, please email your comments or suggestions (or corrections) directly to me- Tim Jackson; tjackson (at) MasiBikes (dot) com.

We're just getting started here and the continued evolution is going to be an exciting one. So join us in creating the next chapter in the Masi legend.

Tim

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Welcome to the New and Improved Masi Website!

Thank you for coming to check out the new and completely overhauled Masi Bicycles website. The last few years have been very transforming for the Masi brand- in a very positive way. It is no stretch to say that the brand has evolved dramatically over the past few years to become what it is today... and that's a very good thing.


As you'll notice, if you've been to the Masi website before, this feels and looks a lot different from what we've done in the past. There's a reason for that; Masi itself looks and feels a lot different. You've hopefully noticed the much more dynamic and interactive blog inspired home page. You'll see new navigation and a sleeker overall feel to things. If you're at all like us- you like what you're seeing right now.

The scrolling bike images in the top right showcase our incredibly beautiful bikes quite nicely. The history of Masi, our "about us", in the middle of the right sidebar has been updated to play a more prominent role as well. And, if you look down low on the right, you'll also see a link to the Masiguy blog... yep, that's me. For the past 3 years, I've been a blogging fool as I've tried to reconnect the Masi brand with all who care to know. You can scroll through the bikes here on the site, or if you want a little more quality time with our bikes, you can download a pdf of the 2009 catalog- just up in the right hand corner below our beautiful head badge.

This new site is guaranteed to be more dynamic and will offer more information as we continue to build and develop things here. You'll see updates on the Kenda Pro Cycling team, proudly sponsored by Masi Bicycles, as well as other news. We'll be bringing you inside information on new bikes, special offers, videos on products, team updates from the riders themselves and all sorts of things we haven't even figured out yet. It's a bright new dawn for us.

You might've also noticed a tab up above titled "Riders". This is where we'll be posting news and updates about the team, but it's also a new gallery of Masi owners and their bikes that we hope to build with YOUR help. Why? Because this website is as much about you as it is about us and the bikes we make. This is your Masi too, after all. We are happy to share your love of your bike with the rest of the world, so send us your Masi story and a photo or two. We look forward to building this community WITH you.

So thank you for stopping by and for taking the time to read all of this. From all of us here at Masi Bicycles- thank you for your support.

Tim Jackson- aka Masiguy
Brand Manager
Masi Bicycles