No. 54, Vol. 5 - Our 5th Year.

Justilonica in Traverse City, MI

Pedro and a Potts MTB fork.

Pat Maguire's Gaansari Flyer.

Gary & Sal in May 2005.

Our Man Will Meister, head janitor at HubJub.

Stacked to the rafters (apologies to Dave Grohl).

Family night rides.

The new location - 305 S. Main Street in Springboro, OH

The original location - 1106 Brown Street in Dayton, Ohio from January 2003 to December 2004.

Sam preparing for the Springboro Freedom Festival.

Sam and Justin's rear flying down State Street.

Justin and Ryan.

Captain of the Guard - Gromit.

Cycles Gaansari has entered its fifth year in business. We've seen a lot these past few years, and sometimes the days are too short. Sometimes the days are too long, and a few pulls on a deep cup of black coffee usually makes everything better. That and listening to "Live At Stubbs" by Matisyahu.

Last year was interesting from many perspectives. First, we relocated the business to Springboro from downtown Dayton. Our first employee Bryan Bell transferred his employment to another local bike shop, while our first part-time employee Justin Kellermeier came on board full time. We opened our doors to the world on January 17, and introduced our new line of Gaansari bikes at the Seattle Bike Expo in February. Springboro is more of a rural community, so we lost most of the walk-in traffic had at our downtown Dayton location. Our out-of-state sales tripled, as did sales of Gaansari models.

Highlights from 2005:

• Road riding with Steve Smith and Dave Schlabowske on our old stomping grounds in Milwaukee, WI in late June;
• Exhibiting our bikes and stuff while making new friends at the 1st International Fixed Gear Gallery Symposium in August;
• Night riding with S and H;
• Saturday-morning fixie rides with Justin and Allan Bindemann;
• Spending a long weekend in Point Reyes Station, CA with Steve Potts and his sons;
• Competing in the Chequamegon Fat Tire Festival in Hayward, WI in mid September;
• Making the rounds with Justin and Ryan at our annual bike industry trade show in late September;
• Introducing the Fisso brand of bike messenger fixies and accessories to raise money and awareness for the Bicycle Messenger Emergency Fund in late September;
• Crashing to the ground like a ton of bricks in downtown Dayton after Justin's alley cat race in October;
• Racing cyclocross with Scott, Bryan and Justin in November;
• Touring Rwanda by mountain bike with Tom Ritchey in December.
• Working with Will Meister at HubJub to offer Gaansari products to the UK market.
• Getting positive reviews for our Gaansari St. Clair in Dirt Rag magazine and the Gaansari Scorcher in Cycling Plus UK.

January for a bike company can be slow. Our mood ebbs and flows with the weather, and we try our best to snap back to reality and realize how fortunate we are to have this business (a bike ride, even a very short one, does wonders for the soul). Our wealth is based on friendships first and foremost, and while negative cashflow can be a challenge, our bank account of relationships is overflowing.

Thank you for an awesome 2005. Let's make it a spectacular 2006! Check us out when you can - we have several new-old-stock bikes for sale, as well as room in production for more Gaansari bikes and custom wheelsets.

~ Gary, Jean, Samantha, Henri, Justin and Gromit.