183: A Few Things

Just going to jump right into this one.

1) Chris Milliman's photos are showing at Bloc 11 Cafe in Sommerville. Go see this, if you are into that sort of thing. Here are a few shots from the show, but it looks to be a doozy. In a good way. I incorrectly guessed some of the style of photographs and was quickly and justly corrected by Mr. Milliman himself.

"No, dude, those are original 4x5 Polaroids, shot with a Speedgraphic press camera and Pola back. One of a kind originals! One-of-one. There's even a selection of 5 CX 4x5 Polaroids I shot in belgium, they're in the back hall...they're f-in dope."


I guess that is more than you can hope for in an artists statment. Intrigue, exclusivity, and even a bit of technology. Head over to check out his photos as they will be up for the remainder of January and the whole month of February. Maybe get a coffee while you are there. If you really want to plan in advance you can follow them on Twitter where they put up their lunch specials daily.

Only, before you go, be aware that I believe (since I haven't actually seen the show yet) that these photos are a selection of Chris' travel photography. While there may be an odd cycling photo or two, the focus of the show is really more about travel.

2) Mo Bruno-Roy Ultimate Super Raffle Extravaganza (January 13 — March 01)


Mo is going to the World Championships. She and Matt are headed over there right now. Here is the only shot that I got of her racing when she was at the USGP here in Portland. Now, the thing is, Matt and Mo (which together make up MM Racing) have to foot the bill for this trip themselves. I know, great deal huh? "You made the Worlds Team, now here's you're bill." To make up some of said bill they have put together a sweet little raffle that includes a custom Seven Cycles frame. Not too shabby. Check it out here in BikeReg.

While you are at it though, do not feel too bad for all that money that USA Cycling could have put towards their worlds selections, because it was instead diverted to their CX Juniors program...hmm. Rad Racing anyone?

3)

4) Washingmachinepost in general.

brian just did a nice little interview with Dan Sharp over on the site. But while you are there you might do well to check out a few of the other things that he has going on. Things like..oh, I don't know A FREAKING CIELO bicycle turned up at his door for him to check out. Not a big deal, just another day at the office. But, speaking of Cielo I was so lucky as to get inside and take a sneak peak at these good looking bikes the other day. Check that out here.

5) The Rapha Continental Rides: Blue Mound

photo: Daniel Wakefield Pasley

The rides that we did this summer are going up in full now. We posted just a little snip earlier this summer (or we tried to) and now the full ride is going up. There is a little write up each week as well as a photo story to accompany. The photos have been pretty damn spectacular, as we didn't get to see them as they happened.

The first photo in the series there kind of cracks me up because it looks like Piers is actually half choking on something. But the truth of the matter is that he is probably doing a pretty good job of cracking everyone else at the table up. Those brits and their sense of humor.

Ok, that is all for now. Now go find something else cool on the internet. Or, help a teen you know unlock the Secrets of The Teen Ninja Mystery.

154: Everything Will Be Ok — Part Three (things)

1) Has everyone seen this already?

Maybe I just missed it. Sir Paul Smith doing a trackstand? Nay, stop the presses. Sir Paul Smith doing a No Handed Trackstand. I would say that is worth noting. Hipsters. Adam Meyerson take f-ing note. If you can be Knighted, as in everyone has to call you Sir, AND can do trackstands you automatically win. Whatever it is, you win. Now, all we have to do is get Paul Smith to do Trackstands for the queen herself (not Cavendish, the other queen) and we should be all set. Has this been passed around by the troops and I just missed it? (found via Daisuke's Twitter)

2) Chris King's Foray into the Future.

I know, I know, it has been a long time coming, but I think now could be the time. Check out what is happening over in Mellow land down in Austin. Here is a photo of the new Ceilo Cross Bike. Blue, blue is good. What about Purple though? Anyone have any idea what happened with Purple? How do we get that one back? Or the one that they did for Vanilla. That blue that was almost a, well it was an annodized Blue. (Cielo Twitter or Flickr, you choose - try both)

Speaking of which. I thought I saw that cross bike somewhere else. At NAHBS last year. Could be a different bike, or maybe it was because I was distracted by the EDGE Carbon wheels this time around. I have to say, I'm kind of digging the low profile carbon. What is everyone's take on that? How far off are we to just riding all carbon all the time? Anyone have any R-Sys I can borrow?

Here is a little more about Cielo from Chris Aguirre (he left Portland for greener pastures, boo.)

3) Cyclocross Nationals in Bend, Oregon.

I wish that I had a twitter account to link you to with this one. Is it going to be a knock down dragout fight here in Oregon? Will the hometown hero (Trebon) be able to bring it home? Or will it rain more than .025 of an inch and then the out of towner (Johnson) will pretty much run away with it? Or, option three (personally the one I'm rooting for) is that D. Timmerman (oh bearded one) walks away with it. Or at the very least sneaks it in to the top ten. It is going to be big, it is going to be awesome. Keep your eyes peeled for some of that action.

131: Oregon Manifest Will Never End (in our hearts.)

Ok, so you've seen the breakdown of Steve Francisco's clothing choices here. But what about the Carbon Trailer in action? Well, here you go. That puppy was pretty light and seemed to cruise "straight out the gate" as they say (hip hop rappers that is). Note that I ask Fran if I can try it out and he blatantly ignores me. Trailer hog.

There was a little bit of chatter about Mr. Francisco over on the Velonews chat board (or should I say bored?). Let us join hands in giving some of these guys a big thumbs down for their complete and utter lack of humor. Except the guy who inserted the image of the Turkey. I like that guy. Some day they will wake up, scrub the beard out of their eyes (and trust me I love beards) and realize just how P-R-O Fran is. And hopefully at the same time they will realize just how serious we all take this little game we call Bike. (Vote number 42 in Word of the year? Hyperbole)

Getting back to the seriousness of this topic. Is this trailer suited for the dogs and children of Portland's fine streets? I think not. One, because I think the thing might shatter under the combined weight of a Golden Retriever (miss you Claire) and a home brewed beer. But then again it did survive the ups and downs that are the gravel-ness of Otto Miller and Dutch Canyon, so who knows? Either way I'm hoping this beauty can be ready for production in the next few months. Keep a close eye on the Parlee website for that. Maybe we will even see a Cross version before the season has passed us?



On the other hand another cool bike that I saw on the day was what the peeps over at Chris King brought to the table with their Cielo line. Great looking bike. Tough rider, and I heard that they almost melted one of their machines heat treating the special one off headset that they put on this bike. Really cool stuff coming out of a really cool company. Am I ok to call them cool? Or does that make me more of a poseur?

All joking aside, this was a really great event. Chris King himself grilled up empanadas for all of the riders at the second checkpoint. I love that he has such an affinity for food, because I definitely have an affinity for eating. Thanks CK.

Also, not quite sure about the hubs on the Cielo bike. Are these new? Old? New Old Stock? Either way the bicycle was polished immaculately and the sign plate on the back was a nice touch. Here is a closer look at the hub, you tell me. I meant to ask CD when I was there but he is too hard to pin down.


Get ready, I am about to toot my own horn, as they say. Did a little bit of work for just about everybody this past month including Ridley Bikes, Readymade Magazine and the Vanilla Workshop. Man am I tired. Now back to my regularly scheduled corndogs. I need about five, ten of these a week to keep me going.

049: N a h b s: Chris King and Cielo

See, I'm guessing you like it better this way. Spread out the content a little bit, that way you don't have to sift through it all at once. I'll just keep working under this guise for a while.



This is Chris Aguirre (Wrath of God) who took the time to walk me through what the fine people over at Chris King have been working on for a while now. Apparently Chris (Aguirre, not King) is a fan of sneakers, just like me. So, we had a lot in common. This guy knows his stuff.

040: N a h b s: The t-shirt collection

Try as I might to limit the number of t-shirts that I picked up this year. I couldn't do it. I came home with no less than ten t-shirts...not good. Or, good, depending on how you look at it.

I looked at almost every booth there to find what I deemed to be the best shirt of the show. Here are some of my favorites.

Big fan of the color scheme on the Signal Cycles shirt. If you remember, and I hope you do. This was the color scheme of their award winning bicycle last year at the show in Portland. Great image of the satellite too. Apparently at the show this year they overheard someone saying that "a signal is something that you receive, not send, so in this case the waves on the satellite would be going the wrong direction." My response to that? "Hey Pal, its art. Art."

This one cracks me up. It is from Inglis Cycles the frame company of Curtis Inglis. He makes really sweet bendy frames. I spent a good amount of time lusting after one of his 29ers last year. He also does a really great job of putting together slick paint jobs to go on his bikes. Ingliss was also the host of the 2008 Mountain Bike Single Speed World Championships in Napa Valley...what else?


Meet Andrew Frasca of October Hand Made Bikes. Great guy. Great bikes. I love the slogan that he is using on his shirt. "Guided by a different set of principles." Yes, my friend. In this industry we all are. Lust, greed...kidding, I'm only kidding.... Another thing that I really like about the shirt is the off-center positioning of his logo. I love when photos bleed off the page of a magazine, and I love when t-shirt graphics wrap around.

Here we have Jon from No Brakes, a shop in Atlanta. I visited his shop last January on a visit to Atlanta. It is a really small shop run by a bunch of really great guys. I'm glad to see that they are still doing it. In fact, I got to spend some time with these guys and it sounds like they're doing pretty well. Here Jon just finished up his heat of the Gold Sprints during the Art Bike Party that was held on Friday night of the show.

I like the No Brakes t-shirt. In fact, I am now a proud owner of the Yellow (not for Livestrong, just happens to be the same color) version. I like how the beard of the man on the shirt bleeds out to say "No Brakes." I like beards too.

Here we have our man Chris Igleheart. I tell people all the time..."no Purple, purple equals crazy." In fact, I had a girlfriend in college who used to love the color purple. Everything that she owned was purple. Purple shirts, purple bike, purple purple purple. And I know everyone says it about their ex girlfriends, but this girl was craaaazy. I'm not even lying.

I like Chris' shirt though. I like it because I have one of his single speed 29ers (pictured in the shirt) and it rides like a dream. The bike has 'Guilt Trip' painted in the top tube. Guilt Trip indeed, for ever time I look at that bike I feel bad that I don't ride it enough. Sigh.

Jordan Hufnagel is from Indianapolis. What a rad guy he is too. He is the founding member of the NAHBS Hot Tub Club. Which boasts a pretty great membership too. Lots of builders and friends of builders. Signal Cycles are a part of it. Midwest Cross Racer Ben Popper made an appearance, and by the end of the weekend it was all I could do to not beg desperately to be let in to the club.

Jordan also did a great job of hosting the weekend. He took Molly and I back to his parents place to cook some vegan food. I'm no where near vegan, but Molly is so she really appreciated the break from middle america slop...I mean stuff.

DeSalvo. 10 Year Aniversary. This one is for you Yash.

Courage Cycles. Another Portland builder here. They really are everywhere. These guys were really great to hang out with though and if I had to choose brought their A game in the Cyclocross Department. Ah, how I love the three color stripe combo. You could say that I'm a sucker for it. Also a sucker for the Griffin. This mythical beast is known for its Lions body coupled with the wings of an eagle...one feather of said wings are known to cure blindness. Which I would think would be a good thing.

Jay Sycip. Hold that Cielo shirt close to you my friend. Jay also designed the packaging that the Cielo bikes ship in. There is a photo in yesterdays post. Jay said that more people looked at the packaging than they did the actual bikes. Dimensions were taken, mouths were drooled from, and Cielo moved on into the future. The future.

Last but certainly not least we have a t-shirt from our Teddy Ruxspin toting friends over at Broakland Bicycles. If you click on that link you'll be taken to their Myspace page. It is interesting to note that the character, or avatar if you will, that is Broakland Bicycles is a green elf that is tearing his own guts out...but the guts are shaped in the form of "Broakland Bicycles."

I wish that I had the sheer tenacity that it would take to tear your own guts out and then form them into some sort of shape, or in this case, words.

These guys were pretty great though. Every time I would see them hoards of people would be standing around their booth. Watching them. Emmulating them. Trying to get their hands on that cute little bear that plays cassette tapes from his backside.

This is my favorite shirt from the show.
There, I said it. Its done. Yes, and...good.

Lex from Villin Cycle Works is pretty much an all around amazing guy and he's got the t-shirt to match. Don't try and fight it, just believe in its power. "What does it mean though?" Does that mean he wants to be taking a nap instead of building bikes? I doubt it, I mean he did just chop this here pile of logs, but I'm sure he's not napping.

Thanks Lex and everyone who knowingly, or unknowingly participated in my sick obsession with the t-shirt.

I also ran into some very classy and interesting t-shirts today that I'll try to get to at some point.

But it does beg the question:
Do T-shirts (especially the ones that say 'Virginia is for Lovers') make the world go round?