The very cool Sea Otter Classic is just about two weeks away! Jeremy and Eric finshed packing all the bikes and stuff into the pod last night, and the truck came this morning to whisk everything away to fabulous Laguna Seca, CA at speeds of up to 55mph.

In addition to being the World's Largest Bike Festival (yes, even bigger than Europe's storied Lago Di Garda) Sea Otter will be your first chance to see and test ride the new 2011 Airborne bikes. Plus the entire new 12-person Airborne Flight Crew will be on hand to meet and greet.

We're bringing a total of 22 test-ride-able demos to Sea Otter for your use, misuse, and abuse.  Included will be Goblin XC, Wingman jump bike, Delta CX and Taka DH models, and we're even throwing in a Marauder and Zeppelin Elite for you to check out. Best of all, you'll be able to actually purchase Airborne bikes direct from us in the Sea Otter Exhibitors area, and have it delivered to you right after the festival.

And, as if that weren't enough, we're even giving away free schwag with every test ride and waiving our normal $50-100 freight charge when you order on-site.

So if you want to see the cool new stuff, go for a test ride, just hang out and talk bikes, or even consider making a purchase, we'll be around all day Thursday through Sunday, April 14-17th. Come on by and say hi.

See you there!

We're not much on basketball, but this whole March Madness thing does sound like of fun. So here's what we're doing through the weekend: we're offering a $50 bonus in the form of free freight (good in the continental US only) when you buy any Airborne bike from our inventory before midnight Sunday, April 3rd.

Monday morning, prices go back up. But it's not March anymore then, is it? Didn't think so.

Flight Crew member Greg Heil keeps a nice blog about his adventures called, appropriately, Greg Rides Trails. 

Here's a video he added last week of him tackling a heapin' helpin' of mixed terrain in North Carolina's Dupont State Forest last fall. Greg says, "This may be my new favorite trail of all time!"...and looking at the results, we can see why.

See what you think and let us know!

Got a favorite trail or section? Strap on your GoPro (or other helmet cam) and tell us about it!

An Idea Whose Time Has Come: Bike Cafés

Kudos to MSNBC.com for their feature article last week, Growing Numbers of Bike Cafés Gear Up To Serve Cyclists. And it's great that they started out in Seattle-quite possibly the World's Most Caffeinated City.

But what would have been truly cool is if they'd mentioned our absolute favorite: the 2nd Street Bike Stop Café in St Charles, MO...owned and operated by Airborne Flight Crew member Tony Caruso.

Not only are Tony & Company serving up coffee, pastries and other good chow, they've created a bike culture magnet that draws from the whole St Louis area.

Do you have a "bike culture magnet" in your town-a place where cyclists (and just regular foloks who ride bicycles too) go to hang out? It might be a bike shop, a coffee place, a street corner, you name it. But whatever it is, use the Comments section to tell us about it!

Welcome to the New Airborne Website

It sure feels good to be able to say that at last. We've been working on this beast since December, and after all too many late nights, missed sleep, strong coffee and stale energy bars, we're proud to have it ready for you.

Of course, even here in Dayton. Ohio, there's still time to ride...if you're willing enough. Or crazy enough. That's Lynette and Jeremy on your right, trail-testing prototypes of the Goblin 29er back in January. It was about 15° that morning and for some reason we had the whole trail to ourselves.

But back to the site. C'mon in, explore, kick the tires, and heck, if you want, we can even sell you something now.

Here are some of the other goodies you'll find inside:

• New Models (Well, duh!) including pre-orders for the new Goblin 29er and Wingman dirt jump bikes.
• New Features. The site's pretty young and we'll be switching on new features and adding new content as it's available. Like this blog, for instance, or our Competitive Features comparison matrix
• Now it's easy to move back and forth between this site and our Facebook page.  
  • From here, just click on the little  logo to go there.
  • From there (that is, the Facebook page), just go to the Bikes section and it'll take you over to the site. Neat, huh? Our friends Meg, Heather, and Kramer developed that. They call it Seamless Ubiquity. Whatever that means.
• New Fun. We've sprinkled snapshots from Airborne riders and Flight Crew members on our Home and Prodcut pages, and they'll start appearing elsewhere on the site soon. You might even see yourself, although we'll always ask first. Just a little something to remind you (and maybe ourselves, sometimes) that we're not some big company stamping out high-end supercycles or cut-rate bargain bikes. Just a bunch of regular people who love having fun on bikes. Just like you.