This year we have had wonderful conversations and rides with clients, made a lot of friends, and we even received some farm fresh eggs for making a long drive to pick up a bike.  It’s hard not to like the people we meet. Everyone has been absolutely great to deal with.

I guess we technically started the business last November, but we really had no clients until just before the end of the year so we’re calling this close enough. Our first order of business was choosing our first set of bikes. After a few calls and emails, we got a very positive response from Michael Moore at Calfee Design. We wanted to have bikes that were high-end and would be immediately recognized as such, and Calfee was perfect for our first addition to the fleet.

One nice thing about Calfee is that it is a US company that builds their bikes by hand right here in California. Their bikes are amazing and our clients have loved having the opportunity to ride them. Unfortunately, most regret it afterward since they can’t afford a new bike, and now they want one. We are happy to inform them that we are a Calfee dealer and we can help them in a purchase if they choose to do so in the future. We are nothing, if not enablers. To all the spouses of our clients, we apologize.

We were able to start paying all our bills without loans from the stockholders (me) by March. Not too shabby. We had a paper profit for most of the year! Not enough to pay the employess (once again, me), but showing a bit of profit was a good thing.

We built up our fleet of bikes to 5 Calfees and 2 Cervelos to make a nice size run of bikes from 51cm up to 62cm. We even had a few duplicates in the middle just in case.

As April rolled around, we were contacted about putting together a bunch of bikes to be made available for conference attendees at the Ritz Carlton in Dana Point. We had luxurious accomodations on top of the parking garage, where we sent out bikes for 2 days while working on our sunburns, despite sitting under a canopy. Still, it was good fun and we learned a lot about pulling together such an event.

Continuing our work doing some corporate style events, we were hired to lead some short tours for executives and sales people from Adecco. We led short 10 mile tours of the back bay of Newport Beach. These rides included a short rest stop and on one ride, we helped set up the end point near the Balboa Pier where our riders went to a restaurant and enjoyed their cocktails and dinner while overlooking the water. Unfortunately, we weren’t invited to that part of the trip!

The rest of the year sped up dramatically as summer rolled on, keeping us driving all over delivering and picking up bikes. We were even setting up rentals on our way to and from a family camping trip to Sequoia. Thankfully, one of our friends was able to do some delivery duty for us while we were away!

As the year began to draw to a close, we had a feature done in the blog called The Washing Machine Post. The feature was called “Where did you get that bike?” and gave us some much needed attention. Brian at TWMP has been great and did a great job with the write up, if we do say so ourselves (we may be a tad biased). Hopefully, we can use that to build on for the upcoming year.

We continued our search for wonderful bikes to put our customers on. We don’t want to put people on a bike that they can easily find. We want to give them an opportunity to ride something different and intriguing. Calfee was a good start, but we wanted to have some other options. Our search brought us to Volagi. Volagi has the distinction of being the only production bike maker that exclusively uses disc brakes on all their bikes. The also have a patented LongBow FlexStay that provides some compliance in the rear end of the bike.

The stays on the Volagi are completely separated from the seat tube, connecting instead to the top tube. This gives the bike a nice compliant ride and really takes the edge off the road, while still retaining stiffness at the bottom bracket. The design works and makes the bike a great ride for the long haul! The disc brakes work well and are a great new trend in road bikes! We have a 55cm in stock now and are awaiting a 53cm bike in a few weeks.

One of the great things about being in this business is having the ability to get involved in events for the benefit of others. Throughout the year, we were involved in a fundraiser for purchasing bikes for kids at the Boys and Girls Club of Santa Ana. We were involved in purchasing 100 bikes, building them up, and distributing them to kids for Christmas at the Club.

Along the way, the people involved in this drive were able to get 100 helmets donated by the Children’s Hospital of Orange County, socks donated by The SockGuy, and a donation of locks to go with all those brand new bikes. The funds raised were enough to cover all costs of the bikes with ~$5000 left over to support the club’s other services. This was a great success and we were proud to be associated with the effort.

2011 ended on a sad note as our graphics guru, Jon Grant, lost his son to leukemia. As his son was diagnosed and then passed away, we were overwhelmed by the support for Jon and his family. We started selling his prints in our online store in an effort to raise money to help his family during their time of need. The cycling community and the cycling industry are just incredible and responded by helping us get out the word. Through online sales of Jon’s prints and orders placed directly with Jon, we managed to raise close to $3000 for Jon’s family, while simultaneously giving Jon a bit of press for his incredible work. The way the greater cycling community comes to the aid of people is one of the many reasons that we love being in this business.

Look for some t-shirts featuring Jon’s designs very soon, as well as new jerseys that will come about with his help. We hope to continue to support Jon’s work as we move forward this year!

Well, that pretty much covers the year. I’m sure we missed some things. We have so many people to thank for making this past year so great! It’s been busy and highly rewarding! We look forward to the year ahead and growing our business, and of course, meeting more wonderful people along the way. Have a great 2012!

This organization funds and supports children’s cancer research and provides information and resources to those affected by children’s cancer.

We are incredibly thankful for the outpouring of support for Jon and his family. It is incredible to be part of an industry and a group of people who are so giving! We are continuing to sell Jon’s prints in our online store in an effort to help his family with expenses during this time. Please, take a look at Jon’s beautiful work and if it appeals to you, purchase a piece or two.

Update: Jon Grant’s son Auggie passed away early this morning. Here is the post from the Caring Bridge website for Auggie:

Latest Update (12/5/11, Morning)-Auggie had a procedure to reposition the tube for the ECMO, an instrument that oxygenates his blood outside his body. As of last night, he seems to be responding well to that and is more stable. He is still undergoing chemo treatments to slow down the cancer. The Grant family is surrounded by an incredible group of people that are helping with their daughter and keeping the house clean and making sure the family is fed. Please, continue to keep Auggie in your thoughts and prayers.

Latest Update (12/4/11, Morning)-Auggie, Jon’s son, has been put on ECMO, an instrument that oxygenates his blood outside his body. Right now, his lungs need some help and time to recover. He is stabilizing a bit and has begun chemotherapy for his leukemia. Jon and Cheryl would like you to continue keeping Auggie in your thoughts and prayers.

Jon Grant is someone that I met through his work as a graphic illustrator. Someone who I have never met personally, but who I count as a friend nonetheless. He’s one of those rare people that makes you feel like a lifelong friend after a few short conversations. Since I started this business, I have spoken to Jon many times, seeking his input on certain matters and bouncing ideas off him, and he has always taken the time to think about what I’m saying and give me well thought-out answers with a no nonsense attitude. He’s one of the few people that I do business with that I truly care about and I often ask about his family and his kids and how they are all doing, which is why I feel the need to be posting here.

I was working with Jon, trying to get some prints of his original ink drawings onto my online store when I learned that Jon’s young son has been diagnosed with leukemia and is hospitalized. He called me asking me for help to get some sold and to make it happen quick. Jon is a freelance illustrator, and as such, he doesn’t make money unless he’s working. And it’s going to be difficult to attend to work when his son is sick and hospitalized. It’s for this reason that I have decided to sell his prints and give all the proceeds directly back to him rather than take a share of the profits. I don’t think Jon would want a handout. This allows him to make some cash quickly using his own work.

Jon has worked as an illustrator, designer, and printer all of his professional life. You can see some of his work on this site. He designed my logo and he designed the graphics for the jerseys and windshells that we sell. If you’re familiar with the bikes from Rivendell Bicycle Works, you can find his fine work on a number of their models, as well. He is fascinated with riding and the mechanical aspects of classic bicycles, so naturally, he can’t resist drawing them. We offer prints of his original ink drawings here, a few of which are shown on this page. These prints are offset printed in dense, black ink on white, acid-free, Bristol cover. Printed in USA. These are beautiful drawings and the prints are suitable for framing.

Most of the prints are seven inches square and when archival-matted, they are eight inches square. For the crankset prints, the unmounted prints are nine inches square with archival-matted prints twelve inches square. Costs vary from $25-40, depending on the print size and mounting. We are offering free shipping on all of these orders.

As I mentioned, all proceeds from the sales of these prints goes directly to Jon to help his family while they deal with the illness of their child. If these prints appeal to you, please buy some. The money will go directly to the artist and give him some much needed cash at a time when his family needs it most.

You can view more of Jon’s drawings and purchase prints in our online store.

 These are the new wool ones (without earflaps). They feature the new stubbier bill and embroidered logo on one side only. They come in 2 sizes-S/M and L/XL.

These are the the new cotton/poly caps. They feature the same color scheme, embroidered logo and stubby bill as the new wool caps. They come in 2 sizes-S/M and L/XL.

Shown here is the wool caps with earflaps. The are identical to the new wool caps with the exception of the added earflaps. They come in 2 sizes-S/M and L/XL.

Shown here is a limited edition, custom, moisture-wicking cap. We have tow of these available-one with a stubby bill and one with a standard bill. Both come in S/M only but the material is much more stretchy than the cotton or wool fabric found in the other caps, and should fit somewhat larger noggins.

Here is another limited edition, moisture-wicking cap. This one features graphics from our jerseys and we only have one of these in a size S/M with a standard bill. Like the other moisture wicking caps, the material is quite stretchy and should fit somewhat larger noggins.

If you’d like to purchase one of the wool or cotton caps, please visit our website at: http://shop.synapticcycles.com

For the limited edition caps, please give us a call at 949-374-6079 to order.

On the clothing side, we still offer our jerseys and wind vests and our caps. Take a look at our shop. We have also been working on some new caps with Walz Caps. We’ll be reprising our wool caps from last year, with a few changes. The biggest change is to the visor. We’ve asked Walz to cut down the size of the visor. This allows those of us who hunker down to not have our vision impeded by the visor. I’ve been riding with a trial cap and the visor still shields light from above your sunglasses but there’s no need to fuss with the bill so it doesn’t get in your field of vision. Don’t worry, these caps retain that Walz Caps style that we’ve all come to love. In addition to the standard caps, we’ll be offering a limited number of woolies with ear flaps. I’m sure our northern customers will love these!

As for non-wool caps, we’re also expecting some cotton and moisture wicking caps. Because we had such a good response to our wool caps in the navy color with the rust/orange and white stripes, we are also doing a run of cotton ones in the same combination. These will also have the shorter bill. We’ve also asked Walz to take our fabric samples from our run of jerseys and produce some unique caps. They, of course, will have the same moisture wicking material as in our jerseys, but these caps will be limited editions so stay tuned. We can’t wait to see what Walz comes up with!

Also, be on the lookout for changes to our website! We are in the process of updating it and hope to get it up soon with a new shop and some great new pictures.

You can see our current list of bikes and their prices here. In an ideal world, you would get to ride a bike for a while before committing your hard earned cash to such a big purchase. Higher end road bikes are expensive and you should know what you’re getting.

That’s the reason we offer to subtract the costs of any rental fees (up to a maximum of $500) from the cost of a bike that you purchase through us. This is true whether you buy one from our current stock or you want to order a brand new one through us. Our current offerings are all Calfee Tetra Pros with full Ultegra components. All are in excellent condition. Once a bike is purchased from our current stock, it is completely cleaned and tuned. The bike will arrive in excellent condition, ready to ride. And you will get a great bike at a bit of a discount.

We highly recommend our current stock of bikes, but we also understand wanting that brand new bike, spec’d like you’ve always dreamed. We can certainly work with you to get the bike of your dreams. Give us a call and we’ll get that process started!