The Radavist

Now, I’m not sure if this is a NAHBS bike or not, but Chris Bishop‘s gonna have one mean stable at his booth. My fillet brazed road frame is done and the paint scheme is designed. The other bikes are all being painted, or being assembled… This time of year is hell for builders but Martin’s singlespeed is looking mighty fine.

I’ve been talking with Chris Bishop just about every day about my NAHBS road bike and the whole time, he’s been going on and on about David’s Columbus Air road bike. Building small frames can be a real pain for builders. Yamaguchi told Chris if he ever were to build a production run of bicycles, to always start with the smallest size. If you can make the smallest size work, the whole line will.

I can’t wait to see what David’s bike will look like in the end. He’s going to have a solid NAHBS line up.

Ralf Holleis is a product design student and for his final, he designed a carbon fiber-tubed track bike that uses laser sintered stainless steel lugs. These lugs are designed, fabricated and finally, assembled to meet any geometry, simply change the model and the machines produce the lugsets. Then, as Ralf describes, you simply glue the frame together.

I’ve seen carbon-lugged bikes being produced before, at various builders and while the process is fairly similar, the final steps are all more complicated than some form of bonding. But I’ll give Ralf some kudos for putting technology to use. You could do some impressive lugwork without having to go the investment cast route.

Check out the final bike, the VRZ 1, below.

This morning, I pulled myself out of bed mid-day and headed out on a road ride with Jonathan. I haven’t been on the road bike in at least two weeks and man, it felt like it. The Texas Hill Country headwinds are no joke this time of year but we made the best of it and that’s what riding is all about. Get out on your bike(s) this year and have fun. I’ll keep doing what I’m doing on this end and let’s roll into 2012 with some momentum.

I want to thank everyone for making this year the best ever for the site. From the advertisers, to the readers, shops, builders, brands and riders, I couldn’t have done it without you. I strongly encourage everyone to keep a positive tone and contribute discourse in the comments. I’ve enjoyed getting to know some of you and I’d like to extend that network even more.

Coming up, I’ve got a new site coming, new features and I’ll be spending all of February Down Under in Sydney and Melbourne, so expect more radness!

Ride / Relax.

I think this goes without saying but I really want to thank everyone for such a rad year. Without the riders, the builders, the companies, the shops and the events, this blog wouldn’t exist. I’m very thankful for everyone and everything about this community.

Have a happy holidays this year!

Last night I celebrated with my friends here in Austin, now go celebrate with yours!

Photos by Andy Rogers

Andy from Fame & Spear took photos of a series of Melbourne frame builders while Biking Brisbane interviewed them for a new video series. There are three sets online now, but I liked the photos from Daryl Perkins the best. Check the other two out here.

It’s that time of year again, where we come together to be thankful for this year’s blessings. I think everyone has asked themselves this question at some point but every year I like to reflect on what I’m thankful for.

I want to take this moment to thank you, the readers, for coming to this site and engaging in (somewhat) positive discourse. Thanks to the builders for supplying us with eyecandy. Thanks to the photographers who have captured this culture, the riders for pushing themselves for our enjoyment, the companies for addressing our needs and finally, my supporters for making my job possible.

Thanks to everyone who’s contributed anything positive to this site. You make all this worth while!

Different builders have different areas of expertise on a frame and while Chris Bishop‘s head tube clusters are always nice, his seat tube clusters are always dialed. This photo of Martin’s singlespeed exhibits just that. Check out more at the Bishop Flickr!

A lot of the builders at the Philly Bike Expo this year shared booths with each other. For example, Bishop and Mooney shared a booth with Fresh Frame, their painter. Circle A shared space with Chapman Cycles, their other in-house company. Brian Chapman and Chris Bull have quite the eye for bicycle design and painting. Both offered up a unique approach to frame design but Chapman really gained a lot of attention with their brightly colored mixties and touring bikes.

Check out more from Circle A and Chapman Cycles below!

Sometimes, it’s not the head tube that’s long, it’s the perspective. Seriously, I am killing myself every time Tyler posts up photos to the Firefly Blog. Framebuilders take note: get a photographer in your studio once a week…

After this year’s NAHBS coverage, let’s just say I was relieved when I went back to the Austin Convention Center to find the 2011 Texas Custom Bike Show in a small, cozy ballroom. The show brought together about twenty framebuilders from all over Texas to show off their latest work. There were mostly mountain bikes and camping bikes but I was really stoked on the work of Cameron and Gallus bikes. Totally classy and original!

Check out more photos below!

When building a frame, I doubt most builders look at the front derailleur hanger as one of the more dubious tasks but it’s still nice to see Signal Cycles revealing little details like this. If you don’t know who Signal Cycles is, follow their Flickr here and their site here.

I don’t know why, but for some reason I expected there to be more framebuilders in Austin. I also don’t know what took me so long to make it over to the Alchemy shop down on South Congress. While the exterior of the shop looks like an industrial park (because it is), there are some Beautiful Bicycles being made inside their doors. Last Monday I visited their facilities with a friend who was picking up her 650B tourer. While she was getting fit using their LED biometrics system, I poked around their facilities and took a few photos.

Check out more below!

Remember that killer Anderson road bike I showed you from NAHBS? Or Aaron from Six-Eleven‘s stainless track bike?

Sweet!

Both are stainless and both were made from KVA Stainless. KVA is unique in that they’re not just rebadging Chinese tubesets. KVA is made in America and before their presence, there weren’t many options for builders who wanted 100% made in the USA materials. They’ve developed patented technologies to produce stainless steel tubing, MS2™ bicycle tubing, stainless steel pipes and other components and this year, they’re giving away two custom framesets to the winners of the 2011 NACCC.

That’s one custom for the men’s winner and one for the women’s.

You think you’re fast? When’s the last time you had a custom bike? Get your ass to Austin now and win that! I hear some talented framebuilders will be making these!

One of the builders from the Oregon Manifest whose work I was looking forward to seeing was Mr. Sizemore. He just uploaded some nice photos to his blog, so head over and check the rest out. I really loved these two, especially the downtube logo!

Photos by Dylan VanWeelden

Year after year, the Oregon Manifest challenges builders to produce their best work but not in the traditional sense of a bicycle show. The end product is a utility bike and this year’s challenge brought students, design firms and frame builders together for the first time. Chris King‘s Dylan VanWeelden sent me some great photos from the event.

Check more out below!

It’s almost time for the 2011 Philly Bike Expo! I had a blast last year and I’ll be returning this year. My Icarus track bike will be on exhibit and if it’s anything like last year’s it’ll be a fun weekend. Check out my coverage from last year here and the press release below!

This little beauty popped up on the Firefly Tumblr and the rest of it’s up at the Firefly Facebook. Framebuilders, here’s how you sucessfully rise to the top of the hand made in the USA frame industry: proper marketing backed by a pristine product. Firefly is on top of their game! Check out more here, here, here and here. Oh, this bike will be at Eurobike this year. Untz, untz baby.

Previously:
Shop Visit: Firefly Bicycles