“It’s The Tubing Damn It!”

One of the fun things about working at Serotta, a company that has been around for forty years, are the stories. Some are more myths and tales, and yet some can reflect the heart of the company.

“It’s the tubing damn it!” is one of my favorites…

In my first week at Serotta Fit Lab I went on a ride with Ben. Looking at his MeiVici SE the way one would look at the Presidential Limo I saw “it’s the tubing damn it!” painted on the inside of the chain stay.

When I asked, Ben explained… He was speaking to a cycling group about the differences in frame materials and what distinguished Serotta frames. Ben discussed the ability to fine tune the ride and performance of a Serotta by double and triple butting tubes. He explained how he developed the Colorado Concept Tubing and how the shaping and modifications to the tubing make his frames the best.

After his presentation there was a Q&A session and he was asked over and over again what made Serotta bicycles so special. The usually calm and collected Ben Serotta exclaimed, “it’s the tubing damn it!” and the somewhat shocked audience had no more questions.

I always laugh when retelling this story but it also demonstrates Ben’s vision for building the best bicycles and how that vision has continued to this day. The Serotta tubing is still shaped and modified to enhance
performance and ride characteristics. Steel has been sourced exclusively from Columbus in Italy for over 25 years, titanium from only US mills and carbon fiber fabricated at Serotta Composites in California. To preserve the company values Serotta has never followed trends or fashions of the day.

My colleagues at Serotta share that vision and the pride of making best bicycles in the world.

Steven LeBoyer is Director of Fit Lab Services at Serotta and a contributor to this blog

Hey, what's happening at Serotta?

Dear Friends of Serotta;

There’s been a lot of chatter across the internet about what’s going on at Serotta and I truly appreciate the level of interest and concern.

Over our thirty-nine year adventure, we, as any forward thinking business will, have gone through numerous changes and over the next several months we’ll be in the process of implementing our new strategies.

The reasons for the changes are simple.  We want Serotta to endure as a profitable, sustainable, true-to-our-roots American made brand of uncompromising quality and dedication to excellence and innovation.  These changes, which are probably a year or so overdue, will allow us to achieve our goal.

• We are pushing through a metamorphosis of sorts, transforming our business model from a wholesale manufacturing business (sales through authorized dealerships) to a consumer direct & dealer hybrid. 

• There will be many fewer authorized dealerships, but those that we keep ‘in the family’ are absolutely the best at delivering a complete Serotta experience and we’re proud of our relationship with these fine companies.
• Consumers will have a variety of purchase-through-the-factory options.
• Pricing is strictly MSRP.
• We will shift our product focus towards the SE custom range where every last detail is a full expression of our design, engineering and manufacturing ethos.  Over the next few months we will be eliminating or reducing availability of our other models.
• We are right-sizing the business.  With our shift in both the distribution and product emphasis, our volume is decreasing and therefore our staffing and space requirements are smaller too.
• Our Saratoga facility is for sale.  We built this wonderful property to be able to support a 5,000 frame/year capacity.  Our new business model requires less capacity, so we’ve decided to take this great asset and put it to better use.  We don’t know if it will take two weeks, two months or two years to sell, so we’re not even looking for our new digs, but rest assured, the next home will be just as perfect in its own way.  What makes a great home is the family inside. But if you are interested in a great property….   http://www.roohanrealty.com/listings/detail_comm.asp?MLS=201129664
• The only planned changes at our California facility are to open the second Factory Fit Lab.
• There has been much speculation about the company being for sale or having been sold.  In a way, any for-profit business is always for sale. It’s about matching timing, vision and value. Contrary to rumors, we have not been sold to a discount on-line sales company or to anyone else.  However, we have always been open to discussing ideas that will add value and opportunity to the company and its staff.
• We are very much in business. Customers, current and future needn’t be worried; we’ll be building your bicycles for a long time to come.
• We are overloaded with email and our response time is not as quick as we would like it to be and we apologize for that.  By estimate there are more than 30,000 Serottas still in circulation.  It’s a big family and we’re a small company, so we ask for and appreciate your patience.

I hope that these points have answered your many questions and concerns.  In closing I’d like to again thank all of our followers for your interest and concern in Serotta.

With kind regards,

Ben

The Serotta Story

Friends, Family and fans….

















Help wanted!

You may have heard that Parker House Publishing, with author John Teaford is producing a book on Serotta…hopefully just in time to launch our 40th anniversary….

And we’d love your help adding to the scrapbook and images to be included.

We are looking for photos and anecdotes related to Ben & the company from the period 1968 (the Bike Shop days)-1978, right up through 2002. Photos can be of bicycles (if you think that it may be unusual), people, places…pretty much anything that you would think might be of interest to someone reading through our 40+ year adventure.

If your contribution is used in the book, you’ll receive a free copy of the book when it comes off the press.

Also.....where are you now? Having been in the bicycle business since 1968, there are many, many wonderful people and extraordinary craftsmen and women who have been a part of our adventure....many of whom I've lost touch with....would love to know where you are now, what you are doing...



Send your images, anecdotes and questions to:

info@serotta.com

In the subject field, please write: book


We look forward to hearing from you & thanks for your help,

Ben, Marcie, John

Out of sight, not out of mind

Marcie and I spent last weekend in Brooklyn expecting to look out the window and see total devastation...but we didn’t.

We expected that on our return to our old Victorian era home in Saratoga we’d find it flattened by the two 150 year old oak trees that otherwise frame it with majestic beauty…but we didn’t. Just some leaves, twigs and ¼ of water in the basement that was gone by Tuesday.

Irene left us alone and it was easy to settle back to our daily rhythm as though nothing had happened to anyone anywhere because we were not witnessing it.

Then reports from friends and family in the area- small, historic enchanting towns that are left behind by the rest of the world for the most part, in New York and Vermont were devastated by wild torrents of water beyond imagination.

These oft forgotten towns represent the ancestral fabric of our country and they need our help now.

There are many paths to help…and here is just one. A close friend of a former staff member is among those who are ‘digging’ out. Here are some links…http://windhamrebuild.org/

Moving beyond the accident

It’s about time to get over the accident…. OK, done…although I will never look at oncoming pick-up trucks in the same way, nothing against pick-ups, even the big ones from Texas.To me, the best part of cycling is how it inspires….
If you ever go to the Serotta Forum, which by the way has everything to do about cyclists and cycling and occasionally something relevant to Serotta, you’ll have noticed a bunch of banner ads that never change. Boring and pretty much purposeless… and certainly not inspirational.
That’s changing.
A couple weeks ago we inserted a link in one of the banner locations to a web site dedicated to help raise money for the fight against the trafficking of children… A wonderful friend of my family’s, Adam Webb was set to go off with the Peace Corps later this year to work for this cause. But before embarking, tragically, Adam lost his life while hiking in Alaska…
Adam was determined to make the world a better place, and he would have…so his friends and family have been inspired to pick up the torch for Adam by raising awareness and donations for fighting this shame on humanity…and when they asked me if I could help raise awareness I immediately thought of those wasted banner spots….and suddenly the Serotta Forum has a new purpose.
In the coming weeks we’ll sort out the back-end technologies so that it will be easier for us to switch these postings out…making space available to help many more great causes in the weeks, months and years ahead….but in the meantime, please go check it out:
http://forums.serotta.com/ and then click on Bike America for Adam http://www.bikeamericaforadam.com/

While on the inspirational subject, I just received my copy of Davis Phinney’s autobiographical book, The Happiness of Pursuit. If you are a cyclist, know a cyclist or have ever needed inspiration to do anything…you will want to read this book. What a man, what a family and what a team of support. http://www.davisphinney.com/buy-now/ Thank you Davis for sharing your story.

Hoping to see you out on the road,
Ben

Thoughts on why I didn’t die (twice) on July 17 and what it all means

By Ben Serotta

Two days after being hit by a pick-up truck my day is so routine it struck me that something is missing in this moment. Maybe it’s all the greetings and positive comments that have come in on Facebook, email and forum threads that give me pause. They are the little reminders that I am about the luckiest man on the planet today, doing my average day routine, just two days later.



Risking the appearance of being a self absorbed narcissist, here’s a quick recap:



I was riding along on a glorious Sunday morning on one of Saratoga County’s fantastic rural roads- great pavement, good shoulder and little to no traffic. Nursing a hyper-extended knee injury I was going at a nice tempo on a relatively flat road, head up, hands on the hoods. I was wearing a white jersey given to me courtesy of Cyclefit and GPM10 and my red/white Catlike helmet. I was very visible and I could see clearly.



Suddenly coming in the opposite direction, a full size dark colored pickup came into view and he turned towards me as if to intentionally hit me (it wasn’t until after I was on the ground looking around that I understood he was turning into a driveway, his driveway).



What happened next is hard to reconstruct. What I remember first and foremost was being angry as hell that somebody was driving this truck at me…and “how dare they fuck me over.” Whether or not I actually let loose an audible tirade or not, I can’t say for sure, but in a millisecond my brain was letting loose a very long expletive. No life flashing before my eyes, no thinking of regrets, just absolute rage that somebody was testing my resolve to live. I remember straight-arming the top of the hood and pushing off hard, you know fullback style. Maybe that’s what saved my life and my body the first time.



I remember the sensation of impact thinking my hip and femur were dashed…then landing on the ground and yelling. I also realized that I could still see and hear and that the truck was still trying to move forward towards me, revving its engine slightly.



I think my bike saved my life the second time. Noticing that something was well wedged under his vehicle the driver finally stopped and put the truck in park.



Two days later, I am getting previously unrevealed glimpses, momentary flashes of the time between recognizing imminent peril and sitting up on the ground, calmly talking to and with the bewildered gentleman who had almost turned me into pizza mista in his driveway. I remember asking for quiet while I checked in with all my body parts, discovering in disbelief that everything was still attached and better yet still moved on demand. No pools of blood either.



I looked up at the driver who was red faced and frightened, either from what had been coming out of my mouth or fear over what he’d done, or might have done or all the above. I realized, that he was as surprised as I …he clearly hadn’t seen me or if he did, it didn’t register, I knew he hadn’t intentionally tried to run me over. But I’m glad that in the moment, that’s what I felt, for the strength it gave me. “Today, we’re both very lucky. You didn’t kill me,” I told him and he readily agreed.



Today I looked more closely at the bike and I am even more convinced that the bike saved me during the truck’s second attempt to produce coque au Ben. Every component on the bike is trashed:

Both wheels are bent, split, spokes snapped, tires blown. Brake levers busted. The aluminum seatpost bent and saddle sheared off as they made contact with my inner leg (probably the nastiest looking bruise I’ve ever had); the right pedal and mooring are ripped out of the crank arm, the front brake is bent, the rear brake bolt snapped.



But the frame and fork? The fork did not snap and is true. The left rear carbon stay has a crack, but it is intact.



Stepping outside of my biased role here at the company….I swear, this is awe inspiring to me and should be to anyone else. Everyone here who has looked at the bike is in awe and they should be. They should be proud too. I am also sure that in this day and age when sales, product and marketing are focused on “stiff and light” that there is probably no other carbon bike in the world that would not have become a thousand pieces of carbon shrapnel while giving way to a 2 ½ ton determined pick-up truck. Surely at minimum I’d have had nasty splinters to deal with in addition to whatever other carnage probably would have happened.



I absolutely believe that I owe my life in part to Mike Lopez, Serotta’s bona fide carbon wizard, and our combined design philosophy, and as well to the people who execute to that with perfection every day, whether in carbon or steel or titanium…the ethos is always there. I owe them all thanks and praise for a job well done and for being there with me in a moment of crisis.



Hermenegildo Acevedo, Bryar Sessleman, Celestino Lopez, Brain Smith, Baltazar Lupercio, Frank Cenchitz, Javier Mora, Anthony Seberger, Ronald Rehkopf, Celestino Williams, Joshua Mock, Caleb Sesselman, Jeffrey Wager, Travis LaPrairie, Shane Haberland, Arron Kopp, Darren Brachetti, Scott Hock, Patrick O’Farrell and Mike Lopez….thank you all for doing it right, every day…you are awesome and I love you.







Closing thoughts (for now).

Continuing my post mortem of the bike. I’m glad that I continue to use Deda aluminum bars and stem….and Thompson aluminum seat post….they didn’t break or shatter either, nor did my Campy Shamal rims (did break, didn’t shatter), probably sparing me nasty wounds and helping to support the truck… there was a good pecking order to strength in this accident…



We didn’t intend to build my MeiVici to withstand the weight of a full sized pick-up and I don’t recommend that anyone else goes out and tries seeing if their bike of any brand fares better. On the other hand my faith in our design integrity is further reinforced…build to last, build for the real world, build every bike as though it’s our last statement. And so is my confidence in carbon fiber construction that’s done right. There are hundreds if not thousands of photos and videos on the internet of failed carbon product…but you can be sure it has nothing to do with choosing the wrong material, it’s in the design and execution where the difference is made. It’s why our carbon BB has more than 70 separate pieces including a titanium sleeve…and a lot of other stuff that elevates Serotta carbon beyond other carbon.



Are our bikes overbuilt? I don’t know for certain…but I do know they are not under-built and with only a small weight penalty over the uber-light stuff I am pretty comfortable with where we are at.



I could easily start on a tangent now, hypothesizing that the increase in pro crashes has a correlation to overly light & stiff bikes (not necessarily harsh, but stiff), but I’ll save that for another time.



Hoping to share the road with you,

Ben

From Outside looking in...a completely impartial view from Outside Magazine

http://www.outsideonline.com/blog/the-cycle-life-serotta-meivici-se-reviewed.html