Wow, our last post was made in the summer months – it has definitely been a while since we’ve kept the world updated on whats going on over here.  We had increasingly more traction all over the world selling SBU’s.  We’ve had a lot of awesome moments this last year but nothing tops meeting and connecting with our customers.  We plan on more tours and more cool stuff for our customers in 2012.  We’ll be a little more specific in following posts.

Until then… stay nerdy!

David Martschinske and Steve Wozniak

I was really excited to meet Woz and yes, his player number is 3.14  If you line up the whole team (STeam) in a row they all spell out pi to the 16th number.  That gives you an idea of the kind of people I was running in to on a reglar basis at the Woz Cup 2011.  Speaking of meeting interesting people, a lot of you may know Smosh. Ian does a lot of YouTube video parodies and made a pretty interesting video of what he thought of the Segway Polo Cup 2011.

And before we start the SBU Polo league, I thought I’d give it a trial run.  I may have looked like a dingus out there but at least I had an awesome time playing polo with the Segs4Vets crew while on the SBU!

Self Balancing Unicycle Polo

If you’d like to see more images of our trip go here

Many of you SBU enthusiasts know who Trevor Blackwell is but you might not be aware of his most-recent endeavor, the Anybot (a personal robotic avatar).  As we traveled through California on our Left Coast Tour we had a chance to meet Trevor along with a few of the Anybot engineers and some people from the Y-Combinator (including Olark).  The whole crew was able to pick up the SBU fairly quickly and before long we were SBUing along the street with them at close to top speed – all while carrying the stedicam to our 5dmk2 for our daily vlog. It was really cool to meet and speak with a bunch of like-minded entrepreneurs and of course to see them lovin’ the SBU!

Watch our vlog for our zany adventures.

Today’s checklist:

Let people try the SBU: Check

Cruise down Laguna Beach: Check

Have a friend take you out for $40 steaks: Check

Experience guest service inside the men’s room: Check

Yeah, today was rockin’ and I think we’re in love with the area here as well as the people.  We met so many cool people and ended the night at Javier’s Cantina & Grill where the food was impeccable and the service was even better. Along the way we ran into a bunch of party-goers, were chased down by people that saw us from their cars, and met a few protesters. Take a look at the video and see for yourself what we did today.

On the business-side of things, Daniel and I also sought out the counsel of a more seasoned entrepreneur and helped confirm our confidence in our current business strategy.

We are continuing to visit specialty bike shops in the area over here and look forward to meeting more awesome shops!

-DMart, Out!

On Thursday, we went to a really cool company in Emeryville, CA and hung out with a ton of their employees. They had a huge indoor atrium and we were able to ride in there and train a lot of their employees. We also met up with one of our past customers and made plans for dinner. Woot Woot. It was awesome to re-connect with him.

Later we visited Segway of Oakland and had a bomb time with the workers and owner there. They were pretty laid back and all of em got on the SBU and gave it a shot. They definitely liked it and will probably also become an SBU dealer shortly. Woot!

For those of you who keep asking, we are finally accepting applications for dealers. Shoot an email to sales@focusdesigns.com to see if you qualify.

-N3rd H3rd OUT!

People picked up the SBU rather quickly and we loved watching them learn it in under 3 minutes.  It was especially awesome, however, to run into people that already knew who we were.

In preparation for the Woz Cup 2011 we met up with a whole other h3rd – a Segway n3rd h3rd. Rob Ross and the great people of the Folsom Breakout Segway Polo Club let Daniel and I rock out on some loaner Segways while playing Segway Polo with them. Rob and a few folks took us out for Mexican and we discussed the possibility of Focus Designs refereeing this year’s Segway Polo Cup 2011 (AKA: The Woz Cup).  Rob also told us that we’re going to actually meet The Woz (Steve Wozniak, Co-Founder of Apple) who sounds like a pretty laid back dude.  I’ve been told he likes pranks so I know I’m gunna try to greet Steve with a great DMart classic.

We knew we were in Eugene when  the fixie to road bike ratio exceeded 13:1 and half of main street was quarantined off for bicycles only.  After sifting through rows of bicycles we parked right outside of American Apparel and started ridin’ nerdy.  We met up with our buddy, Alan who took off on one of the SBU V2 demo units and began chattin’ it up.

Tomorrow we will be in downtown Sacramento (by the capital building) around noon giving demos and spreadin’ nerdiness like it’s goin’ out of style!  If you want to meet up with us go ahead and contact us:

360.3CYCLES (360-329-2537)
info@focusdesigns.com

We’ll also be stopping by some bicycle shops on an impromptu basis.

Feb 22nd – Sacramento, CA (We’ll be at the capital building around noon)
Feb 23rd, 24th – San Francisco, CA (Pixar, Google, Stanford)
Feb 25th – Santa Cruz, CA
Feb 26th – Los Angeles, CA
Feb 27th – Huntington Beach, CA

♫ “From Oakland to Sacktown, The Bay Area and back down, Cali is where they put they mack down, Give me love… California Love!”"♫

No, Focus Designs hasn’t turned gangsta’ (we’re a “n3rd h3rd” not a “gang”). We’re just planning our SBU Left Coast Tour dates. The SBU was born to be wild, and keeping it cooped up at the Focus Design’s HQ just seemed cruel and against everything we stand for. We’re doing the right thing and letting the caged bird loose.  You know what they say, “if you love it let it go”. We’re doing just that, and wer’e letting it “go” to you (for a test drive) – Hence, the SBU Left Coast Tour.

What is the Left Coast Tour?
Our plans include stops throughout Oregon and California to bike shops as well as a few other places to let you guys give the SBU a test spin. Aside from special stops at University of Oregon (go Ducks!), Stanford, Google, and Pixar, here’s where we plan to ride (so far) and hopefully meet a lot of you guys:

8.5″ x 11″ Posters

And a Facebook Fan Video