Ivan,

I have conferred about marketing and advertising with John Simpson, president of Trikke Tech. I haven't cleared it with him, so I won't review the details of our talk, but it was intimately substantive, expansive, and in depth. I have a long history in marketing.

Trikke Tech has had a few strong out-the-chute challenges which they're weathering nicely, and I believe this company's afterburners are going to kick in soon. If they had a venture capitalist dump ten million bucks on them, Trikke would be a household word in six months. It takes about five million in the first year to put out a national ad campaign that can kick off brand awareness, and then a steady ad budget needs to be spent over years to saturate the public consciousness regularly. With the financial dynamics of today's economies, venture capitalists are being even more tight these days, and I don't see Trikke Tech getting a wad of cash soonish. God is great and anything can happen, but presently, I think Trikke Tech is going to be depending ON US for much of its near-term brand development.

And we're all doing that. Consider the visibility of the product -- it's always on public display by a person who loves it -- this is such a strong factor. Any other product that doesn't have this factor is rightfully envious. The Trikke is viral -- you catch it from your friends.

Patience. Gildo and John have been! I think its paying off with a gathering momentum. Believe me, everyone at Trikke Tech is straining on their leashes to get the word out. Anyone who has met any of that crew gushes about the spirit they have. If you ever get a taste of their customer service, for instance, you'll see that excellence is a coat worn naturally by them. Dey be lookin fine. Note that their Web site has had a nice makeover. They're moving, but much of it is necessarily "close to the vest," before it's manifested to us.

Setting up a Trikke event in not trivial; it's a significant use of company personnel for an event that might only get a couple dozen people to show up, and with Trikke Tech's limited personnel, time and money, they have to pick their best shots wisely. Trikking happenings are more likely to be organized BY US. Several members of this yahoo group have already done quite a bit, individually, by setting up meet-and-greets, Web sites, message boards, etc.

And to those members, I deeply bow and thank all of you for these fine, eager, sweet good works; your labors of love have benefited me enormously. I want to always have a Trikke Tech around to sell me replacement parts and refine the beast, and you guys are creating/supporting that reality, and I take it personally! Your gifts to our community are powerful blessings upon us all, and at this time of year, I am especially grateful. It's your hearts that you're showin', ya know?

Keep trikking out there. Yeah, like it has to be said.

And, gang, you know we're driving everyone nuts out there, doncha? You know how hard it was to figure out how to get clarity about this wildass contraption, right? Well, feel sorry for the rest of the world...they haven't got a clue. They look at a trikker going by as if it were a jackalope, or maybe a geek on another of those "hurt yourself rube-goldbergy thingamajobbers." Poor babies, how're they gunna know about trikking's thrills until they get on one, eh? So, again, patience and persistence will win the day.

Awhile back, here, I wrote that I had estimated that I had trikked in front of 180,000 people this year, because I do most of my trikking next to a busy, slow moving, street. Two days ago, I had my car in for service, and the mechanic "knew" me. Turns out he's seen me trikking many times.....said it "looked cool." Why hasn't he gotten a Trikke yet? Dunno, never will, but apparently, I've been working on him hard and didn't know it, so I'll just wait until something clicks inside him.

I've talked to several local bike shop owners here....trying to get them to stock the Trikke. Well, I'm hardly able to get on their radar. They've got THOUSANDS of vendors doing the same thing....knock, knock, knock, please give me a few moments of your time. The only way most bike shops are going to stock Trikkes is to have people keep coming in and asking for "that thing I saw this guy on the corner riding." It's a long learning curve. People don't have a name and can't even get the Trikke conceptually grasped enough to Google it. Ain't that easy. Try "three wheels scooter" and you don't get "TRIKKE" in any of the list's offerings. Now, just how hard will that person keep looking to find a Trikke amongst all the other "scooter type things?"

I've had some success here without even doing anything but trikking. A silver haired woman pulled over and asked me about Trikkes, and three months later, the same woman pulls over again, rolls down the window, shoves out her elbow and shows me her bandage. She says, "I bought two Trikkes for me and my husband and just got them, and I wanted you to know. Look, I took my first fall already!" She was proud of her bandage! I felt great! Then she zoomed off, before I had the presence of mind to ask her name etc. so that we three could trikke together. Arrrrgh!

You never know who's going to respond to your modeling. And note that that lady took months before she bought her Trikkes. You trikke because you love it, but the fruits of that action are not yours to determine. And that's the way you want it. You get to just love being alive, and all the work of deciding who is going to respond to your making a public example of yourself is done by God.

Gildo built it, and we came.

Those with ears can hear. We heard, right? So, sing the Trikke song with that love in your heart, and they will listen.

I think it's all going to be okay. Of all the things people can do, trikking stands out in this cacophonous world as singularly fun, healthful, compellingly mysterious, and not-a-little dangerous. Get one, and you start bragging about it almost immediately. And why not? Compared to any other activity, you're doing just about the best fitness per minute on the Trikke -- you're getting buff, being artistic, mastering a transcendental skill, and to boot, YOU'RE BRAVE!

Ain't we lucky? Get on a Trikke and the next thing you know, gratitude is your attitude.

Okay, enough words, writing this has gotten my trikking jones raging.

Mount up!

Carve out!

Edg