Some of the feedback has been of a different color.  A famous blogger (the irony of that title isn’t lost on us) called us “hipster Ron Popiels,” I suppose in reference to the fact that our tool has a story behind it.  Maybe I’m mistaken, but I thought that all the commotion with the “local” movement had something to do with the idea that enlightened urban consumers were tired of purely transactional lives- they wanted to know the people that grew their chard and made their furniture and brazed their bike frames.

When we had moved through the prototyping process and started looking at manufacturing, we sat down and discussed the notion of overseas production.  Taiwan could have made the tool (with nameless underage laborer and cartel-run mill factories) for a fraction of the price our one-man operation in Cambridge did.  We could have used cheaper steel and large-scale finishing for a poorer-quality and less attractive product.  There were easy pathways to anyone being able to buy the tool from Nashbar for thirty bucks.

That shit’s been done, though.  We wanted this project to be an experiment in local production, from concept to completion.  The $80 pricetag relects the real costs of making something with people you know by name, in the city you live in.  Yeah, it’s expensive.  So are those awesome $5 lattes made by the endearing barrista at your favorite locally-owned coffeshop,  the $400 CSA share that brings healthy and beautiful heirloom veggies to your door, and the $2000 custom touring frame that you had built to fit you for life by the eccentric mustachioed framebuilder.  We could have made this tool in China and we probably would have made some money that way, as well.  But, as I was told long ago when I was still a young mechanic with a glimmer in my eye, if you’re in the bike world to make money, you’re doing it wrong.

The first run of the Rotafixer was 40 pieces, largely due to being cash-strapped young entrepreneurs.  There’s a few left-we’re considering a second run but there’s a million other projects to work on so this may be it.  Big thanks to all who helped and contributed.

PS If you’re looking for a less expensive bike tool, consider the BSNYC Wisecracker.  If there is anything the bike world needs, it’s another bottle opener.

photo via Takuya/New York Bike Dreams

As the Boston producers of the BFF, we wanted to make sure we caught all the meetings and got a sense of how Brendt Barbur and the NYC team put on a show.  We headed down Thursday eve to catch the end of the Producer’s Dinner AKA vegan Chinese food fight at the 88 Palace in Chinatown.  Somewhere around 4am, we  settled into our luxurious accommodations at the BFF’s Chelsea office floor after a late-night snack.

Friday saw us scrambling to get all the pieces  in order for Goldsprints at Clemente Solo Vélez on the Lower East Side.  Jamie, Mando, Jon, Jeremy, Vic and the boys at Affinity helped a ton as we worked to get all the bugs in the new Sprints software worked out- the races started a bit late and ran into the wee hours with Prolly MC’ing and the NYC kids tearing up the rollers on the custom Quiros Frames sprint bikes.

A beautiful Manhattan afternoon was in store for us at the BFF Street Fair on Saturday.  We passed the day hanging out with the crowd, seeing old and new friends, and watching people rock the ramps and street course.

Finkle from I Love my Bike Book.

Maurice and Abe from Outlier

Victor sez: "Don't take my pic, bro!"

Jeff from Continuum Cycles repping OPEN

Prolly making fun of Marty's moustache.

Following the fair, I caught the new Lucas Brunelle / Benny Zenga helmetcam / documentary mashup, Line of Sight:

It was a miracle that no one was creamed by a taxi after riding away from the screening- Brunelle’s films always get the crowd psyched to mash through the city.

Sunday was the hotly-anticipated premier of Empire.

Empire Premiere at Bicycle Film Festival 2010 NYC from Empire on Vimeo.

Over two years in the making, Empire was 45 minutes of some of the most exciting and well-shot & edited riding I’ve ever seen.  Luke and Crihs claim that the film isn’t at the final edit yet, but in my opinion, the version the sold-out screening saw this last weekend was superlatively done.

After missing the last bus back to Boston, I not-so-resignedly made my way across the Williamsburg Bridge to the East River Bar for the last BFF afterparty.  A relatively quiet evening was followed by an awesome ride back over the bridge and into Harlem to crash at Jeff from Continuum Cycles‘ sweet apartment.  After two nights of sleeping on Willis’ floor, the couch uptown was amazing.

Jeff made coffee in the morning and we rode down into the Village to check in on Fritz and the other boys at CC.

Waiting in line for the bus (finally) later on that day, I ran into Matt from Budd Bike Works.  We absconded to Noho for a couple quick drinks and I finally made my way out of the city and back to Boston.  Big thanks to Mando, Jamie, Jeremy, and Jon-Boy for all the transport and help, Willis for letting me crash on his floor, Victor for everything, and Jeff for the awesome accommodations and tour-guide service.

All is quiet on the OPEN blog as of recent, and for good reason.  The last few months have seen us demo-ing, planning, moving, remodeling, and redesigning the bike shop at our new location of 21A Union Square, right in the heart of the community and next door to our favorite hangout, Sherman Cafe.

Withing a few short weeks, OPEN will re-open with the same friendly and welcoming service, quality local and international frames, components, accessories, and apparel, and some new surprises and developments that we’re quite proud of.  Keep an eye on the blog… I promise to start paying attention to the world of the internets again and resuming the daily updates, photos, and rants as soon as possible.

Sometimes things break.  Something shifts in the grander scheme of universal continuity or the seemingly inexhaustible runs out, and you may find yourself with a object or plan or relationship that doesn’t function as originally designed.  Sometimes your visions outstrip the constraints of our material reality/collective dream/cosmic hologram.  Often times the fix is simple- you can assess the situation, dig up some tools, tangible or otherwise, and sit back in not-too-smug satisfaction as the 2-part epoxy sets and the old becomes new (or new enough) again.  Other times you write and re-write the future, delete and revise dead-end scenarios, obtain unsatisfactory alternatives, or demo it all back to the studs and start over again.  What I’m getting at here, (in a roundabout manner) and hopefully without animating the Pied-Piper zombie of Horatio Alger, is that efforts are enough, provided you have the right visionary vector.  The act of the well-guided attempt will prevail over the acts of the armchair philosophers, economists, and the army of politik-ers gagging on silver spoons.  Just theory + determined praxis = the shining path.

Long-term function involves dirt, wear, repair, replacement, bloody knuckles, surprise, anger, surprise at being angry, bouts of weariness, joy running through you like electric current, disappointment at your self and others, new friends, lost love, lost faith, coffee shakes, sudden returns of steely-eyed determination, over-long conversations, inexplicable happenings, tearing things up only to find something beautiful, fixing things up only to find it looks like shit, forgetting what you are doing, searching for reasons to do what you are doing, and doing what you are doing.

Yes, that’s pretentious French Situationist graffiti on my bike.  It means, loosely, “Stop fucking around.”  OPEN is moving, to a smaller shop with more room for our future.  The trip to the Carib that I promised myself last year is canceled, the beer budget got doubled, and my friends are starting to suspect that I’m a deluded monomaniac.  They’re sorta wrong, if short-sighted: OPEN is about Union Square and Somerville and Boston, clean air, purposeful yet lazy rides with picnic lunches, sexy calves, quadriceps cramps, and the belief that utopian life is possible right here and right now as long as you don’t dwell on the utopian part of the whole thing too much.

I think it’ll work out.  We won’t be launching any “collabos” with international designers or hip hop artists from NYC anytime soon.  I spent the money for the tradeshow booth on dinner for my friends.  It turns out “7 Habits of Highly Effective People” is highly effective as a doorstop.  I’d rather we be big in Lower Allston than big in Los Angeles.  I still believe in revolution, but there aren’t any black bandannas, epic State overthrowings with orchestral soundtracks, or bomb-lit trench-side romances in my dreams.  What will make significant working social change possible is precisely that it becomes an everyday phenomenon.  What makes all of the personal transformations you imagine at night possible is precisely the sum of those half-tubes of adhesives, work-around bits of wire and string, early-morning brainstorming sessions, all the gypsum dust in your hair and the aches in your arms.

Is all this ambiguous and seemingly unrelated?  If so, it’s because it’s not about me, or OPEN.  Its about our community, its about your day at work, it’s about your dreams and friends and the things you’re planning on building.  We’ve got some bike tools and some Quickcrete and a half-bottle of rye and lots of crazy ideas; stop by and we’ll excitedly help out.