Back to bike stuff (stop the hate mail)

Jeebus. You people are some picky sonsabitches. I talk about my personal life over and over and over and my stats drop down further than a circa 2006 Josh Bender. I guess I can get back on topic (you remember... bike stuff) for a little while. Some of this post covers old ground, but I assure you like an obscure closing statement from Mattlock this is going somewhere... I promise.

Some of you might remember a post I wrote back when I got my first pair of Ergon GX1 Leichtbau grips. I'm not technically sponsored by Ergon (my blood is not green enough), but the powers that be saw fit to put a pair in my hands for my gripping pleasure. I loved the grips (as most people do), but I happen to have an old injury on my pinky knuckle that did not like the lock-on collar when combined with a rigid fork, so I no longer get to enjoy the comfort associated with using one of the most popular grips on the endurance racing scene.

Aside from all that you may remember I had one main complaint with Ergon. I was a little annoyed with the over-packaging.

In today's eco friendly world I found all this refuse a bit disturbing. Although Ergon says that everything seen in the above picture is recyclable it is not entirely made of materials that the City of Charlotte recycles. Since I wasn't comfortable with the idea of all this packaging ending up in a landfill you may also remember that I had an idea for some of this oddly shaped packaging that couldn't easily be recycled in the Queen City.

An idea turned into a project....

And I created a travel case for zip-ties and small parts. Since this just replaced a very easy to use and much smaller to pack in my luggage zip lock bag the project was scuttled shortly after this picture was taken. I had a new idea though...

I made a bike polo mallet for my Oompa Loompa friend Big Worm (standing on the right).

Big Worm has been quite excited about his mallet, but he is still looking for more fellow hipster Oompa Loompas to form a complete team.

Since there aren't a whole lotta hipster Oompa Loompas out there looking to join up with Big Worm in the parking lot behind the Common Market (even when he offered free PBR's for everybody) I felt like my other idea should be seriously considered. I thought a slight redesign in the packaging could create something totally usable... something like this.

Yes, I thought that Ergon coulda made the plastic grip display into a Slovakian rapach, a Ukrainian derkach, or an American circus noise maker. They did not follow through with ingenious idea, and when Irina Kalentieva won the World Championships awhile back I guarantee you that there were absolutely no Ergon green Ukrainian derkaches being twirled around in her honor, and Ergon packaging engineers knew the marketing department was going to be all over them for such an oversight.

Well alas, the people (me) were heard, and Ergon has totally revamped their packaging (but not in the form of a Ukrainian derkach) . Yes, I'm a little disappointed that they are not making them into Ukrainian derkaches, but at least the packaging will be made from 100% recyclable paper under Ergon's new Green Lab Initiative. Yes, the Ukrainian Derkach Initiative has a better ring to it, but this has to be acknowledged as a step in the right direction.

And for all my German readers out there here is a diagram that I think shows you how to put a new roll of toilet paper on your Ergon toilet paper holder.

So kudos to Ergon for this step in the right direction. To read more about this Green Lab Initiative (without my added BS) click over here for more info. And yes, Big Worm will not be thrilled to hear about this as he was already filing paperwork with the IOC to get Oompa Loompa bike polo into the 2016 Olympics (he just wanted to go to Rio to wear his thong in public).