Founded in 2009 during a ride in the Yorkshire Dales by avid cyclists Alex Raistrick and Simon Warren, Shutt Velo Rapide’s mission is simple; to create their own brand of well designed, high quality cycling garments in Sportwool that do not cost a fortune.

Shutt Velo Rapide sources all its materials from British manufacturers to create the very best in British-made cycling clothing.

Using traditional cycling jerseys as its inspiration, Shutt Velo Rapide has created a mixture of cycling wear from sporty to casual, feature rich and designed in complimentary colours. We source almost all of our materials from British manufacturers, truly enabling us to create the best in British made cycling clothes. We are extremely proud that each of our garments has been designed and manufactured by hand in the UK.

Sold – That was merely the first three paragraphs from their ‘About Shutt’ page.  They go on to tell you more about their target market and the general strategy that is behind their product set.  What is not obvious is the people that are behind the brand the pride that is obviously deeply rooted in this small Yorkshire company.  It became apparent when I moved a couple items into my cart and then neglected to check out.  Only a few hours later, to my surprise, I received an email from Shutt VR’s Sales & Marketing Director – Peter Bragg.  He was inquiring if any help was needed and to ensure that the site was working properly.  I am sure to Peter’s relief it was merely a user interface error. If there is one thing that we know in the eCommerce space – Customer Service is king.  His simple gesture to reach out and ensure things were okay led to a series of emails that helped us electronically introduce ourselves.  This included his wife helping with decisions on items to order based on my Pacific Northwest local before finally retiring for the evening.  It should be pointed out that Yorkshire Dales is 8 hours ahead of PST.

Needless to say, my first buying experience is one to remember and as part of our conversation Peter mentioned the latest summer jerseys that were officially being introduced the following Monday (today).  This line includes full zip and summer weight material for the dog days of summer.  I am excited for my shipment to arrive and to put my new Shutt VR kit through the paces.

Here are a few other tidbits that Peter passed onto me that helped confirm what a great little company Shutt VR is.

• Involvement with Orbea-For Goodness Shakes! Pro Team came from a chance meeting at their launch this year when the day before their clothing sponsor pulled out and we stepped in to provide the team with kit for their training camp and races within 2 weeks of signing the deal.
• Orbea asked for a race gilet and the development and subsequent manufacturing saved a UK factory from closing down, we outsource our synthetic garment manufacturing.
• Since we have relaunched the website we have also taken on 3 new machinist in our own factory in Bradford.
• We have always provided real kit for Women and Juniors to the same quality as the mens since we formed the company.
• We manufacture all our products in the UK.

A small company that has worked hard for their core values that includes local jobs, women in cycling, and the junior programs – great stuff.  Please take some time and review the growing line up from Shutt Velo Rapide Limited.

All I need now is to ride that gorgeous Yorkshire Dales country side.

]]> http://rivuletindustries.com/cycling/shutt-velo-rapide-limited/feed 1 http://rivuletindustries.com/cycling/safety-first http://rivuletindustries.com/cycling/safety-first#comments Mon, 28 Sep 2009 04:54:35 +0000 jl.clark http://rivuletindustries.com/?p=709

An aspect of the day Carey leaves out was how hot it was.  Yes, One Hundred Fifty miles.  Yes, 3 mountain passes with thousands of feet of climbing but it was “warm” that day in SW Idaho and that was as hard for me as anything to overcome.  I mentioned how gracious these folks were and it was never more apparent than the 110 mile marker when the Seattle contingent, Greg (above), Hahn, and Aaron took turns looking after me as the hurt locker tickled me all the up the last bit of rollers.  We all regrouped while waiting and “supporting” Cole as he limped his rig in with an iffy tire that he had been battle since the 70 mile marker.  All of us were in question of where the support vehicle was or more appropriately realizing where it wasn’t.  Earlier in the day Hahn had coined the term “Vanxiety” (I think I am remembering that correctly).  Vanxiety was the degree of panic that you go through when you were not sure where the support van was.  The various degrees obviously depended on your current condition, miles left, and gradient you are rolling.  Luckily one of the fellas with more cognitive capacity than myself realized we could refill our bottles at the campground we were approaching.  This might have been our savior as the vanxiety meter was pegged in the red.

After a sweeping long decent and ~140 miles of riding in our rears we passed the Horseshoe Damn picnic area and headed into the wind for our last 10 miles.  This was possibly the ten funniest and most painful miles I have ever ridden. Daniel Wakefield Pasley and I headed off in search of Boise with absolute delusions in our heads.  Needless to say, it was ten miles of our “best” comic routines.  Comedy was the one savior from the agony that was incredibly strong head winds and this amazingly bumpy green trail that made our saddles feel like ass hatchets (thanks LPC).

It was a long hard day in the saddle.  We experienced a wrath of flats, an unfortunate crash, and each of us suffered from the heat and effort that the long day doled out.  As we sat at various tables for dinner that evening, catching up on real life, not one of us would have written the script any different than it had played out.

In short, it all makes you want to pull off the road, find a shade tree, close your eyes, and have a good cry.

(Photos: Carey S-H)

I recently “sat down” with Molly Cameron over Twitter to get some updates (tweets) on her training for this upcoming cross season, her recent Veggie Awards Nomination, Brock Lesnar,  and to ask some hard questions about her future with Vanilla Bicycles (above).

I am pretty sure that this type of “journalism” ranks me up there with VeloNews and/or Cycling News (only if we had Ron Kiefel!).  It should be known that this pending announcement is as eagerly anticipated in the PNW as the recent Team RadioShack news.  Let’s hope that Molly reaches out to rivulet industries to break that story.

I would be nothing without you.

For those of you that watched the finale of this years Milano-San Remo you know that today’s Tour de France stage 13 win by Heinrich Haussler was very special. I am a fan of many of the men that ride in the professional peleton but no other rider makes me want to weep – in victory and defeat.

Congratulations Heinrich!

Boise’s BTS will be in Seattle on the 24th and I believe I am heading to Boise on the 29th.

Hopefully, with an earful of these gems to power me.

Rock this tune this weekend, I will.

Lincoln, NE from RAPHA on Vimeo.

Not sure how many of you know but I spent my 3rd grade year in a small town in Nebraska.  Besides leaving my friends in Montana my time in Nebraska was fun, relatively uneventful, but fun.  I thought my teacher, Mrs. Peterson, was pretty, I could see my sister (we had an open classroom school) in her 6th grade class which was incredibly comforting.    I was kicking some serious butt in my AAU midget wrestling weight class, the kid across the alley from us had a new “gaming” system.   Ahhhh, hours of Pong.  I was generally living the dream…

For my Mom and Dad it was not so enjoyable.  To make this long story short; after a night of heavy drinking my father dawned his newly acquired “Happiness is Alliance Nebraska in my rear view mirror” t-shirt and we jumped in the U-Haul and made a B Line “Home”.  Our future was uncertain, what was certain was our happiness was deeply rooted in Montana. I have been back to Nebraska several times and even did a stint in Omaha back in my trading days.  All of which were prior to the now infamous, Manifest Destiny.  I now find myself wanting to return to Nebraska, to do this ride.  AE and I talked about it soon after he finished and then again when he returned to Jet City.  It was hard, windy, and dirty.  Combine that with will and determination, sprinkle in a great group of guys and they may have proven my father and his t-shirt wrong. At least for 150 painful miles.
This Rapha Continental video is hands down my favorite to date.

I am in awe… a beautiful and brave adventure. I need to pull my socks up and follow my dreams to capture something of this nature.

Thanks for forwarding Aaron

I wonder if True will tear into his ‘real’ cake. Better yet, I wonder if his dad will make him bacon for breakfast?