Reportage

Prolly is Not Probably’s Top 10 Beautiful Bicycles of 2012

This year, I traveled more than any year before, which allowed me to photograph Beautiful Bicycles from all over the world. When I began compiling this list, I wanted to pull in from my own personal favorites, meaning bikes that I remembered more than others. Ranking based on traffic and comments has been done before, making it too easy, so I started at the first posts this year and went through my favorites, narrowing it down to a sharp top 10 list. While many of these bikes are from the past few months, some of my favorites came in early on. A few are just iconic and others are classic, but they were all a blast to photograph.

See for yourself, in no particular order in the Gallery and notations are below.

Marc’s LOW Track

Hot pink, and having logged lots of street and track time made Marc’s LOW one iconic bike. You can usually tell the general popularity of a bicycle photo based on how many times it popped (and still pops) up on Tumblrs with no photo credit.

Ross’ 3Rensho International Keirin Champion Track

A lot of bicycle builds start off with an eBay buy and a box of parts. That was not the case here. Ross bought this bike from Andy at FYXO and took his time, compiling the perfect parts. There are very few low pro track bikes that I like, but this one was top notch!

Chris’ Blue Nagasawa Track

This bright blue and orange Nagasawa was my favorite true track bike of the year. The fresh Joe Bell paint and pristine parts not only showcased the lovely frame, but Chris’ impeccable taste.

Katie’s Rock Lobster Cross

I fucking love this bike. Everything about it just screams fun. Rock Lobster really does no wrong…

Map Porteur 650b Disk-ville City Bike

Porteurs have been popular for years now. Whether you live and die by the Rivendell doctrine or just love to cruise around town in style, it’s hard to deny their sex appeal. That said, very few come close to the vintage French steez of this Map.

Ross’ Speedvagen Road

Weight weenies around the world fell in love with Ross’ Speedvagen. I got so many link-backs from forums on this thing and the best part is, he rides the living shit out of it!

Jordan Hufnagel’s 650b Dirt Porteur

What I said above about porteur bikes holds true here but I hardly ever see people getting rad on their 650b grocery getters. Hufnagle shredded the gnar in the Cali hills on his city bike converted for some dirt dustin’.

J.P. Weigle Randonneur Bike

It’s safe to say that the randonneur is the double edged sword of frame building. They are absolutely stunning when finished but require the most time to construct. You either live by the file or die by the file and if anyone thrives by the file, it’s JP Weigle.

Peacock Groove Evil Dead Tribute Track

SOMEONE’S IN MY FRUIT CELLAR. Or in this case, the bathroom at 2012 NAHBS. This Evil Dead tribute track bike by Peacock Groove was verrrry groooovy.

Shifter Dan’s Single-Speed Monster Cross

Fuck off, cunts. Your mum would not approve of this meatpie mashing, magpie dodging, wallaby spooking dirt machine from down under. Leave it to the almighty Shifter Bikes to dress up a single speed cross machine, worthy of a frontage road walkabout or cross race.
___________________________________________________________

There ya go! There are many, many more Beautiful Bicycles in the archives, so sift through yourself. Didn’t see your favorite? Link to it in the comments!

I should also note that the only rule I took here was omitting any bike that I purchased and consequently, the builders. It’s nothing personal, I just wanted to give some other bikes love. That and they’re always on the bottom of the site, in the Most Discussed Features anyway.