Interview in BikeBiz

I usually refrain from posting pictures of myself, but I will make an exception today. Here I am looking very serious while working hard to bring you the absolute best content that I can find on the subject of bicycle design. OK, maybe that is a stretch, but this picture of me staring blankly at my computer screen does accompany an interview that can be found in the June issue of Bike Biz, the UK based magazine for “everyone in the bicycle business”. The pdf version of the June issue does not seem to be available for download yet, but you can read a short version of Carlton Reid’s interview with me on the Bike Biz website.

Update: The original link above is no longer working, but you can see the article in Issuu here.

Carlton also mentioned one question from the interview on a Quickrelease.tv post, so check that one out as well. While you are at Quickrelease.tv, take a look at the pictures he posted from his recent family bike trip to Scotland. My two oldest kids are about the same age as Carlton’s, so I was pretty impressed to read about his family’s daily mileage over rough terrain. Sounds tough, but it also sounds like it was a great trip for all of them; I’d love to do a family bike trip like that once my youngest is a little older.


Posted

in

by

Comments

14 responses to “Interview in BikeBiz”

  1. Ron Avatar
    Ron

    Good post. I see in the picture that you drink from a bike bottle? I know one other personality who does that. He will never take a drink from anything at home other than his bottle.Obviously, a cyclist 🙂

  2. Carlton Avatar
    Carlton

    Hi James. Glad to be of service! I thought it was a really good interview. Odd, but Mike Burrows has yet to call: he’s normally the first to ring me when the issue comes out each month.

    PS
    Show your kids the pix of my kids and see if it gets them interested in cycle touring. No pressure or anything!

  3. James Avatar
    James

    Yeah Ron, I drink out of a waterbottle all day at work. Today I have my new Greenville Bike to Work Week bottle on my desk.

    Carlton, it’s great that you hear from Mr. Burrows so often. I am sure that he is always has something very interesting to say. From what I gathered reading his book, he is a pretty opinionated guy.

    And yeah, I am definitely showing those pictures to my kids. My four year old might not be ready for bike touring, but I think my older kids are ready.

  4. Carlton Reid Avatar
    Carlton Reid

    Me and Mike sort of go back a long way. Before I became a bike journalist I lived in the same city as Mike and used to take part in the same time trials. He was the weird one in full Lycra skinsuit, inc hat. I was the weird one on a touring bike.

    He was riding a pre-Lotus/Boardman machine so you can tell that was long, long ago.

    Mike also welded my touring bike after some mishap.

    Years later our paths crossed again because of my editing the trade mag.

    His is VERY opinionated and that’s one of the things I really admire about him. He’s always a good interviewee.

  5. Rick Freeman Avatar
    Rick Freeman

    Why do you have two computers side by side? Just curious.

  6. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    ponytails are the yuppie equivalent to dreadlocks – cut your hair

  7. Ron Avatar
    Ron

    Rick :

    The pic is very telling of James’ popularity. The traffic to his blog and email accounts are so high that it each needs a dedicated mainframe. 🙂

  8. James Avatar
    James

    Actually Rick, it is just one computer with two monitors. For modeling and rendering programs and even for 2d programs like photoshop, it is nice to have one monitor as a work/drawing space and one for menus and pallets. When I am not using both for one application, I just keep my email up on the right one.

    Anon, I have to admit, that comment made me laugh. I have grown my hair out and cut it a few different times over the last 20 years, so it will go eventually. When I do cut it, I plan to donate the hair to “locks of love” . Is that a yuppie thing too?

    Ron, good one. The traffic is growing but not quite to that point. I wish that were the case.

  9. Fritz Avatar
    Fritz

    I never pictured you as a ponytail guy, but it fits you. You have pretty company, too.

    Two monitors are common in software development, also. And, of course, all of our hardware designers around here have two or three monitors for their CAD work.

  10. James Avatar
    James

    Fritz, I saw an interview with Jonathon Schwartz in Fast Company a couple years ago. At the time, I thought it was interesting to see a ponytail on the CEO of a major company. For his own good though, you should let him know that it is the yuppie equivalent of dreadlocks.

  11. Fritz Avatar
    Fritz

    That should have been “pretty good company.”

    I’ll pass the word, but Jonathan already gets plenty of grief about “my little pony”. See also

  12. Olivier Blanchard Avatar
    Olivier Blanchard

    Your workspace looks way too damn clean, James. What gives?

    (I like the coffee mug posing as a bike bottle though.)

  13. Olivier Blanchard Avatar
    Olivier Blanchard

    Interestingly, your monitor setup looks a lot like mine: Three NEC monitors side-by-side (+ my laptop now = 4 screens in a row.) I could monitor a space shuttle launch from my desk!

  14. bikesgonewild Avatar
    bikesgonewild

    …james…just got around to reading the interview…it was quite interesting to get “you” from a different perspective…good read…

    …& somebody actually called you out for having a ponytail ???…omg…

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *