The Radavist

Brian Vernor told me about this project he filmed for BlackCat and Truvativ at the 2011 NAHBS. It’s an interesting take on the “show bike” and what the intention is of a custom bicycle. Also, it’s a pretty rad insight to how BlackCat operates and it’s well worth the watch!

Ok, ok, stop emailing me now! Here’s the full monty on my Milwaukee Bicycle Orange One frameset. I didn’t think everyone would be so receptive to such a gaudy paint job but after the 10th email, I promised I’d post the frame. But there’s more to me posting this bike. Let me explain my recent rants about rack and fender mounts.

Check out more on this and a few more photos below.

Photo by Dave Trimble

Man, I feel like this year there were more photographers at Monster Track than before. I know Tak and Ed Glazar had to be there (we’ll probably see those later on) and Cycle Angelo‘s are looking good but I’m really into the ones that Red Hook Crit organizer David Trimble took. Look at JT wearing blue sweatpants just so he could match his Legor Cicli track bike.

JT, what happened man? I hear Crihs had a 12-minute spread. Did you stop for a cup of coffee?

Check out all of Dave’s photos here.

Mash has offered up this razor-sharp teaser of their 2011 Cinelli Mash Histogram low-pro and components. That’s a mean-looking lean if I ever saw one. For those who need a refresh as to what the 2011 Mash Histogram looks like complete, see below.

Previously:
2011 NAHBS Recon: Cinelli x MASH Pursuit Bars Teaser
Interbike 2010: Cinelli Accessories
Interbike 2010: Cinelli Mash Track Frameset

Wow. This came out great. CXHairs‘ Zanconato CX NAHBS show bike finally arrived in DC and what better way to worship a bike than with a little studio time.

Previously:
Keith Anderson Cycles: Cross Hairs

Sup Cole? Why are you always picking up dead / old shit off the roads? If it’s not an owl’s wing (I can’t find the photo to save my life!), it’s a hub cap. I think that Rapha designed these gloves for the scavenger roadie, not the Keirin racer. At any rate, I’m pretty sure I saw these at the 2011 NAHBS but the 12-year Jameson may have impaired my memory. Check out more at Rapha!

Photo by Andrew Dobson

For some reason, I thought it would be a good idea to mess around at the Fast Folks fixed freestyle comp during the 2011 NAHBS. I had barely slept in days, was still drunk and the boxes were wet. I went up to try a levitator grind and my front wheel immediately slid off the steel, sending me over the bars. I had a 8″ bruise across my chest for a week after I fell on it. Ouch. Peru caught this and it made me laugh.

As I was finishing up with Sarah’s bike, the Geekhouse crew hit me up. Turns out they were right around the corner and wanted to get one last meal with me from some food trucks. We all met up, ate, chatted bikes, Allston vs. Austin and then Marty tried to get naked with his own Woodville.

This is one slick little city bike. 22-internal gears, achieved by an Alfine in the rear and a Schlumpf on the front. He even managed to score one of the last oval chains from the Shimano rep. Killer huh?

Believe it or not, this concludes all my NAHBS coverage. I might do one or two more posts but not nearly in the frequency I have been. What an overwhelming week it’s been! I’ve upped a few more photos to the NAHBS in 35mm Flickr set from this afternoon so check them out!

The day after the NAHBS, everything seemed to be in a weird state of limbo. What the hell was I going to do with my day now that the parade of Beautiful Bicycles had come and gone? With a few people still in town, I linked up with Sarah Murder from Pushbike. With the daylight dwindling, I caught a few photos of her Freeman Transport track bike in the afternoon sun.

Check out some more photos below!

Chris Bishop in 35mm

One of my favorite framebuilders is Chris Bishop and this weekend, unlike previous events, I actually got to spend some time with Chris. While I really wanted to interview him while we sat at Whole Foods drinking a bottle of Tripel Karmeleit, I figured he was probably enjoying the afternoon and didn’t want to bother him with it. When we did chat, it was mostly about his years as a messenger (he actually still messengers in Bmore every day) and how much he loves to ride a track bike in Manhattan.

Columbus MS in 35mm

Then I came across this interview on Embrocation the other day and I was glad that someone caught Chris’ stories on tape. Here’s an excerpt:

“Chris clearly thinks that a track bike is the best for city riding. “Manhattan is great for a track bike; that’s traffic slalom all day long.” I have to agree that, especially in bad conditions like rain, snow, and ice, a fixed gear is much more communicative than a bike with a freewheel and brakes—“like driving a stick instead of an auto.” But what about the steep angles and incredibly narrow wheelbase? He described a method of changing a line in which he “pops” the entire bike from one course to another—it reminded me somewhat of the kind of thing one might do on a pump track. “

Man. Is he ever right! In fact, I’m going to go tear through Manhattan now on my Merckx Pista. Read the rest of Chris’ interview on Embrocation here. I added a few more photos from my Recent Roll to the NAHBS in 35mm Flickr set.

While we were at the Rapha Continental Movie Premiere at Mellow Johnny’s, Steve Crandall came up to me and re-introduced himself (we met at NAHBS in Richmond last year). I was like “DUDE, I know who you are!”. Shortly after, Darryl Nau popped up. It was like a BMX intervention. Were they going to corner me and tell me to get a BMX? No, they were just on their FBM road trip, aka the Megatour! While I really wanted to get photos of their bus, I didn’t have time but Props did!

Check out more at Props!

Crandall, if you’re reading this, keep doing what you do! I love the shit out of it.

Sure, this was everywhere yesterday but as I promised, I had to finish off my 2011 NAHBS coverage. So if you haven’t seen it, watch it! It’s one crazy downhill run in Valparaiso, Chile!

With the NAHBS approaching, a friend of mine cornered me at a party and told me what I needed to do to really cover the event. He suggested a team of people, all covering different aspects of the weekend. So I sat and thought about who could possibly help me out. That’s when I remembered my buddy Andrew Franciosa ( @Mastodon ) who runs Keep Albany Boring. I had set him up with my friend Ellen Stagg (NSFW) this summer to be her photo intern. We hung out a lot this summer and I got to know him pretty well.

So I hit him up and flew him down to help me cover the 2011 NAHBS. We each had a list of builders to cover and day by day, we documented them all. Without him, it would have been nearly impossible to shoot all these photos myself. It was a lot of work but also a lot of play.

After the NAHBS, we went out on a ride. To show him a little bit of Austin’s hills, I took him and Chris Bishop up this starter hill to my daily ride. When we got to the top, I shot photos of Andrew’s Brooklyn Machine Works Gangsta Track.

Check out more photos below!

When Marty and the Geekhouse crew refused to send me any kind of teaser of my Woodville touring bike during the fabrication process, I knew it’d be good. Sure enough, I showed up at the 2011 NAHBS at their booth while they were prepping everything and was greeted with Marty saying “Your bike took me longer than any other to build”. I replied “For this show?” and he said “No, EVER.”

God is in the details and that holds true here with my Geekhouse Woodville. For a tig-welded frame, there’s a ton going on and you can see more below.

To say that I’m a Bishop Bikes fanboy might be a little extreme. But then again, if you search for Bishop Bikes on this blog, it can be overwhelming. Chris Bishop builds Beautiful Bicycles out of Baltimore, one of the grittiest cities on the east coast. I have never seen a Bishop that didn’t hit a soft spot with me and hanging out with Chris the day after the NAHBS was a blast!

Check out more photos of Chris Bishop’s custom road bike below!

Man, I forgot how many videos I usually post until I looked through all the ones I saved to post throughout last week and this weekend. There’s a healthy mix of track racing, fixed freestyle and other jams below. Trust me, tomorrow is the last day of NAHBS posting, at least at the frequency I’ve been going at. Expect everything to be back to normal on Thursday!

Photo by Chris Gomez

With Tracko‘s “Save the Track Bike!” campaign in full swing at NAHBS, it was pretty rad seeing two guys on track bikes during the Rapha Gentlemen’s Ride. Chris Gomez was there shooting photos from the SRAM car and he sent me this one of Jon from Two Tone ATL crushing it on my KHS Aero Track in a paceline.

Jon’s a beast and he took it to the rest of the guys on road bikes. Very impressive. Check out more from Chris Gomez’s coverage of the 2011 NAHBS at his website! I love this one in particular.

I’ve gotta continue my coverage of the 2011 NAHBS so to make it easier on me, I’ve dumped a few videos in this post. Check them out below.