#track-bike

tag

A Life of Custom Bicycle Fabrication: Fifty Years of Rob Roberson’s Personal Bike Collection

Reportage

A Life of Custom Bicycle Fabrication: Fifty Years of Rob Roberson’s Personal Bike Collection

Yesterday, we shared a profile of Rob Roberson that traces his storied bicycle fabrication career from the 1970s to present day. Today, we’re taking a look at seven bikes Rob built during that impressive 50-year window, from early track bikes to road frames and his most recent personal all-road build. There’s a lot of intricate eye candy here, so let’s get to it!

It’s a Lifestyle, Not a Career: The Legend of Rob Roberson

Reportage

It’s a Lifestyle, Not a Career: The Legend of Rob Roberson

Rob Roberson is an enigma in the handmade bicycle world. Some would consider him “the greatest known unknown bike fabricator” of the American frame building movement. His career, which spans nearly 50 years, puts him among a very small pedigree of builders that have both mass-production experience and have also built custom bikes under their own name without giving up the ghost. Yet, with such a significant trajectory, Rob has remained largely unknown. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be featuring bikes made by Rob and the stories about them. Today, however, Zach Small and Josh Weinberg are honored to introduce you to Rob Roberson. 

Unicorns and Sparkles and Rainbows: Finding Joy through Art, Ecology, and Bikes

Reportage

Unicorns and Sparkles and Rainbows: Finding Joy through Art, Ecology, and Bikes

While earning, or enduring, her Ph.D in Environmental Life Sciences, Courtney Currier began spending more time on the bike as a way to further connect to the places she was studying, and as a way to just spend time outside during the very inside days of the pandemic. In a very real sense, her time on the bike was inspiring and she began making art again. Building up and custom painting a unicorn fixed gear commuter brought everything full circle! Below, as she plans for what comes next in life post-Ph.D, Courtney reflects on bikes and joy, along with Tobias Feltus’ overview of the build process.

Archive Re-Up: Nick’s Moyer Track Bike

Radar

Archive Re-Up: Nick’s Moyer Track Bike

When we lost our 2015 image bucket back in 2018, it was a huge bummer, but over the past few months, I’ve been digging out hard drives and re-editing some photos, in the hopes of filling in the bigger holes. Over the past few weeks, I’ve been taking a deep dive into the archives, and today, I’m sharing one of my favorite track bike builds I shot while living in Austin: Nick’s Moyer Track

Check it out in all its beausage glory: Nick’s Moyer Track

I should also note that my intent here is only to upload lost photos, keeping the text and formatting intact.

Amy Danger’s Custom Gianni Motta Personal 2001r Low-Pro Track Bike

Reportage

Amy Danger’s Custom Gianni Motta Personal 2001r Low-Pro Track Bike

Earlier this year Amy Danger blew us away with the story of her intricately restored and documented dumpster find Cinelli Laser Rivoluzione Prototype. Today she’s back with another stunning historic track bike from her personal collection, a Custom Gianni Motta Personal 2001r low-pro track bike with Mondrian-inspired color scheme and Columbus Air tubing. Let’s check it out in detail below!

Monster Track NYC 2022: Alleycats are Alive and Well

Reportage

Monster Track NYC 2022: Alleycats are Alive and Well

In 2011, a little over a year after I found my passion for cycling through riding fixed gear bikes through the concrete jungle of New York City, I found myself, camera in hand, at Monster Track. The event is one of cycling’s most famous, most dangerous, and most significant alleycats in the world. Fast forward to 2022, and here I am again, camera in hand, at the 23rd edition of the annual brakeless urban street race.

Resurrecting the Revolution: Cinelli’s Historic Laser Rivoluzione Prototype “Dumpster Find”

Reportage

Resurrecting the Revolution: Cinelli’s Historic Laser Rivoluzione Prototype “Dumpster Find”

The 80’s and 90’s were a wild time for track bikes as design teams competed for gains through technological innovation. Cinelli was right there in the melee shaving power loss through aerodynamic design in partnership with Columbus tubing. The resulting Cinelli Laser changed bicycle design forever, winning more track world championships and Olympic gold medals than any other bicycle in the history of the sport. Andrea Pesenti’s hand-hammered steel gussets curved elegantly between tube junctions producing a fluid, edgeless art that slid through the air and whose DNA can be seen in all of today’s curvy carbon racing machines. Antonio Colombo brought vision and fidelity to art in design. Paolo Erzegovesi brought revolutionary engineering through liberation from lugs telling him where tubing should intersect and at what angle. These customizations nudged riders over the finish line first and set off raging bike crushes on Lasers that some of us never recovered from.

2021 Philly Bike Expo: Bishop Bikes Columbus SLX/MAX Track Bike

Reportage

2021 Philly Bike Expo: Bishop Bikes Columbus SLX/MAX Track Bike

It wouldn’t be Philly Bike Expo coverage without a Bishop Bikes gallery and for 2021, photographer Jarrod Bunk selected this beautiful Columbus tubing track bike.

Where do I even begin here? At first, I thought Chris brought back the 2013 NAHBS track bike I photographed, and then I thought it was his personal blue track bike, stripped raw since it has the same Drillium Revival stem. Upon closer examination, this is true-to-form Chris Bishop doing his thing with the simplest form of bicycle. I just got off the phone with Chris Bishop where we spent a good forty-five minutes discussing this bike. There’s a lot going on with this “simple” machine so let’s get to it!

Radar

Bicycle Kingdom Ep.2: Riding in NYC – Monster Track

In this episode of The Pro’s Closet Bicycle Kingdom, we explore the intricacies of Monster Track. Monster track mirrors the chaos of the city it takes place in, New York City. It is the pinnacle of Alleycat racing. It’s part party, part race, but in the end, it’s all about community.

Disclaimer: Riding bikes is inherently dangerous. That said, while we are not encouraging people to ride fixed-gear bikes in a crowded city, we do see value in sharing this story of a longstanding subculture in NYC and cities around the globe. Be careful. Ride respectfully. Spread bike love.

Hope Technologies x Death Spray Custom: The Alternative GB Flag HB.T Track Bike

Radar

Hope Technologies x Death Spray Custom: The Alternative GB Flag HB.T Track Bike

UK-based component and frame manufacturer Hope Tech released its HB.T Olympic track bike last year. The HB.T was developed alongside Lotus Engineering and was put to the test at this summer’s Olympic Games in Tokyo. To up the ante, Hope reached out to David from Death Spray Custom to develop a paint scheme for the HB.T which David has dubbed “the Alternative GB Flag.” That’s all we can say about this project now, so enjoy some more photos by Hope’s Robin Godden below!

Bryan’s Doom Mash Track

Reportage

Bryan’s Doom Mash Track

Since we posted Two Wheel Drive yesterday, we thought it’d be nice to feature one of the shop employee’s personal bikes. Bryan is a mechanic and his Mash track bike is too slick, laced with Albuquerque’s own DOOM bars and some other nice details. Check out our friend Nick’s photos below with words by Bryan himself…

Radar

DUST Video

In case you missed our DUST feature last week and the video embedded within the Reportage from South Africa, we figured we should share the event’s video recap (which has also been updated in higher quality). Enjoy!

Britain’s Fastest Self-Powered Human: Mike Burrows

Reportage

Britain’s Fastest Self-Powered Human: Mike Burrows

In what I hope will be the first of many monthly(ish) articles, of varying lengths, Nikolai and I visited (in)famous bicycle designer Mike Burrows, who has been a constant in terms of support, inspiration and taking me down a peg or two when I need it (always). Nikolai filmed our trip on my Sony A7iii as part of an ongoing project, so I decided it would be especially fitting for Mike to document our trip on celluloid with my Mamiya C330, and a little Olympus rangefinder on Kodak Portra 800 film.

Radar

Leo Rodgers!

Our dude Leo got some love in this new video by cycling’s bad boy Lucas Brunelle. This one is worth the watch. Miss ya, Leo!

Radar

Fixed Gear Everesting

Tory Powers is a filmmaker out of Boulder, CO and they recently just wrapped up a documentary alongside cyclist Charli Mandel.

Charli had the ridiculous idea to do the world’s first track bike Everesting last May. Alongside this, Charli was in the process of transitioning MtF. On their birthday. 200+ miles, 29,029ft of elevation, over 6000 calories, and nearly 19 hours in the saddle.

Wow!