Rocket Fuel - vintage cycling style

Want to turn your bike into a work horse but can't find something that doesn't make it look ugly?

Try one of our covered bike baskets. With a cotton cover that can be slipped off for washing they are stylish and add some personality to your trusty steed.

Get in quick these are sure to be hot sellers as Christmas presents.

The crew from mtnbike.com.au will take you and your bike on a weekend away with all food and accomodation included. Head from Sydney down to Canberra to take in some time on the the trails.

I got to catch up with Will at the BFF  again this year and he was filled with enthusiasm on how great the rides have been this year and how it doesn't matter if your a beginner or a veteran that the weekend has something for everyone and are a whole lot of fun. I must say after seeing his clip play at the beginning of all the movie sessions it certainly made me want to go grab my bike and ride and not sit still in the cinema.

Dates for the next trips are all right here, for more information head across to their website.

December  5/6 2009
February 6/7 2010
March 6/7 2010
April 3/4 2010
May 1/2 Gear Up Girl Weekend 2010

Well it was our birthday about 2 weeks ago...but we've been so busy working on orders and getting out riding that the date just sailed right on by us.

It's been a fantastic first year with a huge accomplishments, a whole bunch of new friends and many many caps. Here is a quick list of what has happened

- started selling online
- gained wholesale accounts selling into bike and fashion stores
- interviewed by Bike Love
- get mentioned on local and overseas bike blogs and forums
- fashion parade with Bike Sydney at Surry Hills festival
- Prizes at Sydney Polo championships
- Prizes for AWMC's Perth
- First annual Sydney Tweed Ride
- started custom orders with the first order going out to SYDBMA
- custom orders keep on coming with great caps going out to Candy Cranks, Le Pista Resistance, Deus, Bottles and Chains and many many more and even more to come
- selling at winter Finders Keepers markets
- share the Tour De France by continuing our tradition of food of the day, gain interviews with newspapers and radio
- First annual 'we brake for cake' scavenger hunt
- interviewed for Melbourne Newspaper for being a leader in fashionable cycling in Australia
- prizes for the first all girl alley cat in Melbourne
- sponsor the Australian team at CWMC's Tokyo
- appear in Ride magazine

Am so thankful for all that has happened this year and for all that is planned for Rocket Fuel, new products, more events and more cycling. Enormous thanks also goes out to all who have bought, supported, talked about or said hello this year we appreciate all that you have done for us and we hope you enjoy the brand as much as we do.

Thanks

Susan

Oh before you go some things we are working on to make next year bigger and better than this year
- big birthday event in early 2010
- planning the 2nd Annual Sydney Tweed ride, some great ideas already happening
- more products and so much more.

An exhausting long weekend of bike goodness is over for another year Didn't make it to as many events as I would have liked due to be overwhelmingly busy but here's my review.

November 12 - Art show in Darlinghurst. Despite a threatening rainstorm a few people braved the heavy thunder and cracks of lightning to make it out for the art shows. I was volunteering at the Bike Valet Parking so helped Gilbert, Yogi and the others park bikes.

The BVP is a brilliant service, they take care of your bike so you can go see any of the events and then just come back and pick it up when your heading off. The whole time it's been looked after by a dedicated team of volunteers. This team worked super hard all week going from event to event and were cheerful and having fun for the duration.

If you ever want to give back to the bike community volunteer for a session at BVP and help support this great initiative (as an added bonus you also get to look after some super nice bikes!)

November 13 - the start of the films. I was so excited for the films, I always love seeing bikes around the world and how the stories all come together.

Made in Queens - very endearing film about kids from Trinidad and Tobabgo who now live in Queens New York and have attached the biggest sound systems to their bikes. With over 5000 watts and weighing in at over 300 pounds it was not surprising to see them occasionally having to push their bikes! Nice film though felt like you were part of the 'crew' while you were watching it.

Where you go - follows the Tour d'Afrique. Very inspiring the idea of riding through Africa for 4 months seems like such an attractive prospect after seeing this film, as long as you don't think about the bugs. My favourite person in the film was the older gentleman from South Africa. He was so sad when the ride ended as he just wanted to keep going! I hope I'm still riding that hard at his age.

Second Session

Parasol - nicely done animation all drawn onto paper parasols but the story itself was enough to draw you into it and after awhile you forgot it was all on parasols and just watched the film.

Thoughts on my bike - one of the few environmentally slanted films this year, encouraging people to get out and ride before we all have to go live in a bubble on Mars.

Red Hook Criterium - I'd seen this one earlier in the year on you tube but was good to see it on the big screen. Done like an entertainment report it shows the annual red hook criterium which is raced on open city streets. Each lap racers must deal with cars, buses, pedestrians and a nasty cobblestone section. Great watch.

Where do you start, where do you stop - followed the commute of San Francisco riders as they rode to their jobs. Liked how the road rider had a crazy long commute to his job as an investment banker and that the lecturer used the San Francisco 'wiggle' to get past the hills.

28.6 - interviewing a great framebuilder. I liked this but I wanted it to be better. It kind of felt a bit rushed or not quite done as you wanted to know more about how he makes frames and why he does. Good but it had more potential.

Friends we love featuring Ellis G - The street art of using chalk to draw around the shadows that his bike created was nice, is certainly an idea I'll be keeping in mind for some future events I think.

Le Dernier Voyage De Maryse Lucas - the story of a man and his best friend returning his mothers ashes to her hometown. The thing that struck me most about this film is that he was heartbroken about his mother dying and it was lovely to see him healing himself by getting out and riding with his best friend. It was like the ride was helping him heal and the destination was not really that important. Very lovely film.

November 14

Street Party - St Mary's Cathedral place. Despite a low turnout it was nice to catch up some friends who were BVP volunteers, chat to some of the Le Pista Resistance crew and say hello to some new friends as well.

Was a bit of a slow day but things picked up when Lewis and Stefan started organising foot down comps and go slows. Would have loved to have seen competitions like that scheduled for the whole day with a timetable so people could plan what to see and what to enter. Perhaps a scavenger hunt or alley cat that had it's start and end points at the party would have helped bring down some extra people and added excitement to the day.

The first session of films on Saturday night was one of the more attended sessions with lots of the couriers and fixed gear riders turning out to take a look the polo, urban and fixed movies.

Was a good set of movies even if I was flinching a bit to see some of the crazy moves being pulled out in the Lucas Brunelle film. Amazing riding but wow they take some risks.
 
My favourite film was Soul of Steel about the legendary framebuilder Ciocc. He is amazing, still riding to work and dreaming of building new bikes. He is so passionate about what he does and so keen to keep it going and always striving to be better. Craftmanship like that is an awe inspiring sight but combined with his passion and humility just made me want to move to Italy and build bikes. If you can find this film I can't recommend it enough for making you fall in love with bikes all over again.

The second session of the night was BMX time. I was super keen to check these out and the first film didn't disappoint. Great riding, lots of interesting places as they were travelling and filming it all themselves. Made me wish I had ridden the BMX up that night so I could go for a spin after the films.

The second film was the story of FBM bikes. It was interesting from a BMX and business perspective. BMX wise these guys helped change BMX into being a by riders for riders type community and as a business they have set back after set back but continue to want to do better and provide better bikes. It was good but long and it was the session most people walked out on. I enjoyed it because I enjoy both BMX and the stories of business but others I spoke to said they didn't know all the people they were talking about and that it got boring so they left.

November 15
Last night of the films and from the look of the program contained some good stuff. This was the session which had the most audience reaction. More laughs, more buzz and more interaction. This combination of films had people talking more than all the other sessions put together.

First up we started with some downhill mountain biking by candlelight. Beautifully shot this really made you want to try riding in the soft glow of candles. I was sitting next to Will from mtnbike.com.au and we were both saying how it was a really nicely shot film that made you want to get out and ride.

-40c was the story of a commute through ice and snow at -40c. I really liked this because it gave me extra insight into one of my favourite blogs Up in Alaska. In the blog Jill talks about the temperature and how to ride in those conditions so for me it was great to see those conditions in this film and how you possibly get through it all.

7 deserts - beautiful beautiful film. Following the story of Sergi as he crosses deserts on his own was magical. I love how he befriended the camera and his funny personality added such a humaness to the harsh climates he was going through. If you've ever thought about packing it all in jumping on your bike and heading off into the sunset on your bike then this is the film for you.

Second session was a repeat or in the case of Made in Queens a threepeat. It's a good film but as a season ticket holder of the BFF who went to every session I felt that with all the hundreds if not thousands of films they have to choose from why did we have to get this one three times? It just made me feel like I was missing out on something?

Where are you go was just as enjoyable on the second viewing as it was on the first and while I did enjoy the second viewing I think I would have liked to see some different just because it is the Bike Film Festival and if you have access to a multitude of bike films then why not show a multitude of bike films instead of repeats?

 I enjoyed the festival
highlights
- were the hardworking team at BVP they did a great job crossing all over the city and setting up and taking care of peoples bikes.
- the number of events to choose from to attend
- some of the films were truly inspirational
- nice community atmosphere and friendly people

lowlights
- low attendance hopefully next year we see some more people turn out in support
- that I was too busy to make it to all the events, tried to get to as many as I could but would have liked to have made it to all of them.
- would have liked a bit more variety in the films. Maybe some from Australia? or make sure to have fixed, urban, touring, BMX, mountain bike and road bikes all featured at least once. Sydney has a wide range of riders and I feel the more they are represented the more they will turn up.

Can't wait for next year can only hope it is bigger and better with all the bike riders of Sydney turning out to support their community.

For more photos check out the Rocket Fuel events page and let me know what your thoughts were on the films and events.

The Bicycle film festival is in town, for all the details check out the site.

Come by and say hi tomorrow when Rocket Fuel will be at the Street Party - St Mary's Cathedral square in the city. We'll be chilling on our picnic blanket selling caps, coin purses and enjoying the party, see you there.

Sugar Spokes from Melbourne have put in a cap order but are offering it up for a pre order so if anyone wants one be sure to get in touch with the girls before the cut off date.

They’ll be handmade by Rocket Fuel. I like the cap I have made by them, and I think I might buy another… You can never have too many caps. $25 and it can be on your noggin.

I recommend you get one, even if only because every other person has a black cycling cap, and this thing is really going to pop… Especially from underneath your lid.

Owning one of the caps is not restricted to ladies who ride with us, and we’d love to see some guys reppin’ us. Although if you’re a lady in Melbourne who’s reading this and hasn’t joined us yet, well you should!

In order to ensure we get them before Christmas, the close off date for pre-orders will be Thursday 19 November.

If you want one, email us or swing by Sugar Spokes HQ (Fed Square) between 5.45 and 6PM tomorrow or next Thursday.

The lads over at Le Pista Resistance http://lepistaresistance.com/ gave our new coin purses a showing on their site. Thanks guys!

Check out their site for this weekends 3 part 'race' series they are organising as part of the Sydney Bicycle Film Festival.

Discovered something today - it's almost impossible to wrap a toy hippo.

This one on it's way to a very excited niece, only wish I could be there to hear her say "present?" in person.

Something new and fun added to the product mix here at Rocket Fuel over the weekend. Coin Purses! after my trusty coin purse I have had for years finally came to pieces I decided to make a replacement and add some bike love to it.

It turned out so well I made so more so everyone can carry their cash in style.

Head on over to the Rocket Fuel shop page to pick one up yourself. http://www.rocketfuel.net.au/coin-purses.html

With Christmas creeping ever closer and the demand for custom caps skyrocketing we are putting some deadlines into place.

All custom cap orders placed before December 1st will be delivered before Christmas.

Any custom cap order placed after December 1st will be delivered after New Years.

Any cap available on the website will be shipped to you when you order it, For customers not in Australia we are recommending that you purchase at least a week before Christmas to ensure delivery.

If any has any questions please contact us we will do all that we can to help out.

Thanks!