The Radavist

Last year, at the NAHBS in Richmond, Marty from Geekhouse approached me about doing a custom Woodville touring bike for the NAHBS this year. After kicking around ideas all week, last night we sat down and sized me for a bike and began to work out some details. My freakishly-long inseam and long arms but short torso is usually a problem for me to find a good fit on a production bike which is one of the reasons I am so stoked on getting a custom!

So far, most of our ideas will have to remain a bit of a secret but let’s just say it’s gonna be an interesting bike that screams my personality and Geekhouse’s flair. I cannot wait to see how it turns out. I’ll post future updates as events warrant.

One show-stopper was this Bohemian track bike. Internal cable routing, beautiful lugs and a stellar paint job made this bike stand out from the rest. The whole time I was there, I found myself fixating on the seat tube clusters of various bikes. This one was one of the nicest ones there.

Check out some details and the full-build below.

With all this talk about the Philly Bike Expo, a few of us decided to ride our bikes to Philly. Rather than taking the shitty highways and service roads, we’re going off the beaten trail a bit. Initially I was planning on riding my Merckx but the thought of locking it up and throwing it on the Chinatown bus for the ride home made me cringe. Since I just got the Affinity 212 dialed in, I thought it’d make for a good ride.

Check out some more photos below.

Back in June, I showed you the Brooklyn Machine Works Launchpad Townie. Fender mounts, 8-speed Alfine hub, clearance for bigger tires and hand made in the USA.

Then today, Volume announced their Generator commuter. Same deal, minus the fender mounts and it comes with disk brakes. Volume describes their Generator as:

“We’ve been working on this bad boy for awhile now. Some of you guys might have seen it at our booth at Interbike? Our first post or mention of it was about a year ago with random parts we had in our warehouse. The Generator is a combination of a commuter and BMX. The thing rides like a dream and can still jump off a curb and do a mean wheelie. Features include: Full heat treated CRMO frame, fork and bar, EBB, fixed dropout, Shimano 8-spd. Alfine hub, Tektro Auriga Pro hydraulic brakes, 700X45c Resist tires, and much more. We’ll be offering it as a complete and should be due out around April/ May. What you see in the pic will be very close to what the production model will have. We’ll have more pics and info on the site asap.”

In an age where the fixed freestyle bike is moving further and further away from being an all-around bicycle, is this the answer? I think it is. There are a few things I’d change on the Volume (like who wants a commuter without fender mounts?!) but other than that, it looks good. I’m also not a fan of disk brakes but that’s a matter of opinion. There’s a bigger issue at hand here.

Back when we were rolling 38c at the biggest and still riding our bikes everywhere, something like this wouldn’t have been necessary but now, it seems like the fixed freestyle bikes are becoming more specialized. The guys who wanna do grinds and massive gaps are on 26″ with pegs and the tapper-tech guys are still rolling 700c but with big tires and slightly lower saddles.

People love the aesthetic of these bikes more than anything. A big, burly bike with big tires attracts all kinds of attention. They make the bigger riders feel comfortable and will take a pothole without coughing. You can hop curbs and take them off road. Having an 8-speed hub isn’t bad either. I find all this interesting. from one thing spawned many and as we saw in the Skidface video, it’s come a long way.

Are 700c freestyle-esque commuter (freewheel) bikes the next phase in the evolution of the urban bicycle? Or is this the last attempt to stay close to the fixed aesthetic and resist buying a road bike or cross bike? That’s for the consumers to determine.

I get this question once and a while:

“Hey Prolly, we have a small apartment and there’s no room to store our bikes so I’m forced to lock up outside. Do you do that? What’s the best way to do so?”

I’m lucky and have the luxury of indoor bike storage but I can give some perspective…

I know my neighborhood bikes. Well enough to notice something that’s out of place. A few weeks ago, I noticed this track bike locked up outside. It’s on my walk back from the deli. There it was, brand new, sitting there glistening in the streetlights. The next morning, on my way out for a road ride, I noticed the bike in the above condition. Bars, stem, cranks and pedals were stripped bare. A few days later I snapped this photo with my film camera. Still, to this day, the bike sits there in this condition. I wonder if the initial stripping made the owner lose hope in cycling? I hope not. It goes to show that no matter what, if someone wants your bike or your components, they’ll do anything to get them. Luckily for them, it wasn’t an expensive bike.

Don’t leave your bikes outside bro. But if you do, go with a beater. I know, I know, it sucks, but you don’t want to leave a nice bike outside overnight.

One of the things that Jeremiah from Hold Fast has always told me, even before he made the first Hold Fast FRS is that he wants to design a backpack. This year at Interbike, Hold fast unveiled just that. Unfortunately, this is all I’ll show you right now because, well, you know how the internet rolls. All I’ll say is there are a lot of smart design features in the bag, many of which I’ve never seen before. Once the guys pull the trigger on letting me do a full review, you’ll see it here.

We all remember the Hamabike 2009 edit. This year K@nt! is back with another banger. The 2009 video made my Top 10 Fixed Freestyle Edits last year. Maybe the 2010 will do the same?

Previously:
Fixed Gear Freestyle’s Top 10 Web Edits of 2009
k@nt! 09 HAMAbike BFF Edit

I love it that people expect me to get all heated when companies rip other companies off. Sure, history shows that I do tend to get a little annoyed when I see blatant rip-offs but over the last few months, I think I’ve calmed down a bit. I caught the Redline Urbis Nox on my Google alerts the other day and then the emails started coming. The number of emails I got yesterday about this bike with the subject like “blast them” or “they ripped off Leader” really caught me off gaurd. I have to say, when I saw it, I thought it was the Leader Shadow. In fact, the only thing that made me think it was is the HT gusset. I don’t know if you can even call that thing a gusset but whatever! It looks like a gang-nailer from a joist or something. It’s also a re-appropriation from DH bikes.

Many other bikes use the wishbone stays. Just off the top of my head, the DAMP Butterbean comes to mind, which was out months, if not a full year before the Shadow. It even has the DH / MTB plate gusset at the bottom bracket and a curved seat tube. What I’m trying to say is no one made an original frame. We all looked at other bikes for inspiration and it’s only a matter of time before the fixed freestyle bike becomes the BMX bike. Not in size or style but in general frame design. As for the Redline Urbis Nox, well, whatever. More options for people’s wallets.

In my opinion, the only game-changers are the bikes that make riding fixed freestyle cheaper for everyone. Bigger tires, mid-bottom brackets, etc. The bigger your tires, the less likely your wheels will get smashed and when you drop the Euro-BB, it gets less expensive to replace your pitted bearings. I just wonder what Interbike will have to offer this year? Big changes from two years ago, that’s for sure!

I had a blast and made a grip of cash at the last Brooklyn Bike Jumble. It’s returning this weekend, along with Bike Shorts at the Old Stone House. Check out more information below, along with the bike shorts flier. You don’t wanna miss this!

European Handmade Bicycle Exhibition – Day 3 from e r t z u i ° film on Vimeo.

Here’s day 3 from the Ertzui coverage of the European Handmade Bicycle Exhibition. Again, totally worth the watch if you’re into hand-built beauties! Seeing these bikes makes me want to sell one of my Merckxs to get a custom build!

Previously:
Ertzui Films: European Handmade Bicycle Exhibition Days 1 & 2

European Handmade Bicycle Exhibition Day 1 from e r t z u i ° film on Vimeo.

German website Ertzui has been covering the European Handmade Bicycle Exhibition on their blog. As you can imagine, a lot of the interviews aren’t in English, but the bike porn is there, in full effect. The video above is Day 1 and Day 2, which is also worth the watch, is below!

Photo by Anthony Rebholz

This is why NYC shouldn’t have made it to that top 10 spot in Bicycling Magazine’s list of the top cycling-friendly cities in the US. The good ol’ NYPD was seen confiscating bikes along the Obama administation’s motorcade route this morning. No notices were given, no warnings administered either. They just rolled in and scooped up people’s commuters and work bikes. ThisIsFYF was the first one out with the story but you can also head over to Gothamist and enjoy the shit-show in the comments.

Previously:
Bicycling Magazine: America’s Top 50 Bike-Friendly Cities

Messengers from NFGTV on Vimeo.

A production company called NFGTV made a short edit called “Messengers” featuring a lot of familiar faces in the NYC Bike Messenger scene. It’s a little confusing as to what the intent of this is because most of the traffic cuts are from Empire‘s two trailers.

Anyone have any information on this? Other than Gothamist?

When I was in Richmond at the NAHBS, hanging out in IF‘s booth, someone said “There are no framebuilders in the South. I quickly spoke up and referenced Bishop Bikes out of Baltimore (yes, Bmore is the South). The guy quickly said something along the lines of “track bikes don’t count”. Ouch! Well, this goes to show that Bishop can really craft some beautiful bikes, including Tourers. Here’s a shot from a recently completed Tourer / Commuter for a customer. I love fastback seatclamps. Check out the rest of the detail shots here.

Gotta love the commentary! The Don’t Steal Bikes Bro crew made it to TruTV’s “Most Shocking” series tonight. Check out more information here.

Previously:
NYC Thief Gets His

Andy made an edit for 14 Bike Co. showcasing some of their riders. Oscar, Ted and Tony Fast repping the ESB frames. Nice one!

Believe it or not, I’m still editing photos from the 2010 NAHBS. Last night I came across a photo of Alan’s freakbike locked up to a fence at the Polo courts. Cycling WMD‘s always got something in the works and even though this is a self-proclaimed “rush job”, I think it came out looking pretty sharp.

Check out his post on the bike here.

Downtown Showdown, Long Beach CA from Matt Lingo on Vimeo.

Alright, so maybe I should have just waited and made a mega-post covering the Downtown Showdown. After putting up the two last edits, I’ve gotten like a dozen emails from kids with their photosets and videos attached. Most of them are only from the trick comp and we all know there’s more to fixed gears than freestyle, so for now, we’re going to watch Mr. Matt Lingo’s edit because it features a little bit of everything.

He also captures the Taylor bike gap that I mentioned earlier from a better angle. If you want to check out Matt’s photos, do so here. Really awesome shots Matt!

Previously:
Chula Vista TV: Downtown Showdown
Downtown Showdown Edit
Downtown Showdown Final Final Flier