The Radavist

Yikes! I always love seeing period-correct track bike builds and this Cinelli Supercorsa that made its way to the vintage bike show at the Philly Bike Expo is no exception.

Check out more of this Beautiful Bicycle below!

K-Man’s bike was one of the more unique track bikes at the Philly Bike Expo. Its paint scheme nodded at the classics with a FAEMA-esque red and white coat. But like every bike to come out of Chris Bishop‘s shop, this one packed some lovely details. The K-Man on the top tube was a client request and before you make judgements, there’s a 63 on it as well, for his birth year. Gilco tubing, waves stays and incredible paint detailing made this bike a show stopper.

Check out more from Chris Bishop’s 2011 Philly Bike Expo fixed gear for K-Man below!

So I’m here in Philly, a few days early for the Philly Bike Expo and after I refueled with a cheese steak, I headed over to Bicycle Revolutions to build up my bike. After I took some shop photos, which I’ll post later, I couldn’t help myself but to document Fuzzy’s All-City Mr. Pink road bike. Remember a few years back when there were very few steel track bikes on the market? Well I felt the same way about road bikes just a year ago. Most people want something safe and simple for their first road bike and with plenty of build options, the All-City Mr. Pink is a great choice for a road bike.

As with all of Fuzzy’s builds, he spared no expense in the details and this thing looks great!

Check out more below!

If you can’t make it over to the East Coast for the Philly Bike Expo, you should head over to Bend for the Oregon Handmade Bicycle Show. Check out more details here.

This week I’m doing a little something special for Reader’s Rides. First up is a super straight forward bike check of Honor Forte’s Velo Orange Polyvalent touring bike. I met Honor at the Philly Bike Expo where he was riding a yellow RB-1. Since then, he’s put together a rather unique Polyvalent build:

“I wanted to send you my new build since I haven’t seen many of them built up this way on the web. It’s a Velo Orange Polyvalent touring setup. I’ve spent a few years reading over Rivendell literature and have always been attracted to the way they approach what a bicycle should be used for, so I wanted to build something that would be at home on city streets, fire trails, bike camping trips, long tours, etc. An everything bike. I already had a 650B wheelset and a full touring parts group I was moving around between frames, but they’ve all found their home and best fit on this frame. It truly is a multipurpose bike. Something interesting I decided to try out though was the new VO Integrated Decaleur with the Ostrich handlebar bag.

It’s great. You’ll see in the pictures that the decaleur is bolted through the leather of the bag, and attaches directly to the rack, low to the wheel instead of high up on the bar. Combined with the low-trail fork, the bike handles as if nothing’s on it even with a full heavy load in the bag; I find that I can lean back on a long ride with no hands on the bar and it still glides straight as an arrow with no wobble. Last thing worth noting is my rear fender-line method, just because I havent seen this done elsewhere. I wanted the fender close enough to the tire to maintain consistent fender spacing, but need to move it forward when taking the rear wheel out (horizontal dropouts). My solution was to cut a thin strip of a used intertube, weave it around the fender and chainstay, and tie it off with a knot on the non-drive side chainstay. It’s a small detail but it solved a big problem for me.”

If you’re into this kinda stuff, check out a full parts list below.

The first time I saw Engin Cycles work in person was at the 2010 Philly Bike Expo. When I came across their booth at the 2011 NAHBS, I was stoked to see they brought out all new bikes with new purposes. Sure, they had their mountain bikes but their rando bike was stunning. This bike will be partaking in the Paris Brest Paris ride in 2011.

Check out more photos and a slideshow from my coverage of the 2011 NAHBS Engin Cycles booth below.

I showed you these before via a link to my Flickr from the 2010 Philly Bike Expo post on J.P. Weigle. Peter is a machinist as much as he is a framebuilder and what does a framebuilder do when they that itch to make their bike builds stand apart from the rest? They begin to cut, carve and drill away at components.

Campagnolo’s rarest track pedals are the Con Denti models. Con Denti means “with teeth”. They simply added teeth to each cage on the pedal to give some much-needed traction. Later with cleats on the pedals, the need for teeth became obsolete. This modification became a commonplace amongst builders but no one does it like Weigle!

Last Sunday was the NY Bike Jumble at the Philly Bike Expo. While not as big as the previous few Jumbles, this one had some gems to be had.

Check out nine more photos below.

After riding down to Philly on my road bike, I ate a big dinner, got some drinks and passed out. The next morning, Fuzzy and I rode to the Philly Bike Expo (tired of hearing about this event yet?) and I went to work. When we rolled up at 10am, the place was already packed!

Check out nine more photos below.

All photos by Hudson Zhong

Here’s a few photos I found on Sean’s Flickr, taken by Hudson Zhong yesterday at the Bicycle Revolutions / Sweat Hogs / Philly Bike Expo Fixed Freestyle trick jam. Friday night, the official Sweat Hogs crew built up this nice little hipped ramp; mostly due to Drew Leshko’s amazing carpentry skills and Tony Fast’s doodle.

Fuzzy held it down and everyone had a blast. I took some photos and will be upping them shortly. No, that’s not my Bruiser, it’s Drew’s Leader. No speculation either!

Oh hell yes! REload just made their Flight Pack even better:

“In celebration of the first (hopefully annual) Philly Bike Expo, we decided to make an offshoot limited run of our new Flight Packs. We just got in some amazing charcoal waxed canvas, and we’ve got 15 replicas of our original embroidered logo patch. So we’re set to do a run of up to 15 Flight Packs (in either size), starting with this one right here, which will be on display all weekend at the Expo.”

Stellar job Ro! Don’t forget to read about what I thought of the Flight Pack right here.

This weekend, as part of the Philly Bike Expo, Fuzzy from Bicycle Revolutions is throwing a fixed freestyle contest jam. Stoked! I’ll be there!

All hail the bicycle craftsmen and women who hold it down proper at Bilenky. If you thought the Pacific Northwest was where it’s at, you’re wrong! Come see for yourself at the Philly Bike Expo next month!

Previously:
Philadelphia Bike Expo Update

Ronnie’s Alumalith debuted here in our 2022 Philly Bike Expo coverage and since that virgin voyage, he’s put countless miles on it from the Northeast to the Southwest. Long overdue for an overhaul, his refresh looks very similar to Josh’s build with a Sklar-built Bullmoose. Check it out for some ASMR vibes this afternoon and be sure to visit Ronsbikes.com.

Daniel Yang, designer/engineer at Artefact and Neuhaus Metal Works takes the stage at the 2024 Philly Bike Expo and expands on the notion that the world is cyclical: culture, design, art, and economics are on repeat. 80’s Steel – 90’s Aluminium – 2000’s Carbon fiber… and now… back to steel. It is time for the resurgence of the metal bike, a Metallic Renaissance…