This is the latest creation from Sueshiro Sano. It is made from mahogany and weighs approximately 17 pounds as shown. It is a remarkably beautiful bicycle, and I only wish I could have a ride on it to see what a wood cycle feels like. His website shows each and every bike he’s made to date, as well as the boats he’s made. Very cool stuff.
3-Way Street from ronconcocacola on Vimeo.
This is an interesting look at how pedestrians, cyclists and automobiles interact.
About a month ago I went to visit the Swrve offices in Downtown LA. I got a tour of the premises, and was able to see in person the many different items of clothing they are making, and with what machines they make them. It is a very impressive operation, and I am definitely biased towards liking things made locally. With that in mind, I picked up a pair of the skinny fit jeans. I was planning on going for the regular fit, but was told their skinny fit was sized between a Levis 511 and 514. That made me happy as 514’s are a little too loose, and 511’s are a little too tight. As promised, the jeans fit perfectly. I wore them for quite a few days before I actually rode in them. On a casual basis, they are perfect. As comfortable as can be. These jeans made me not want to wear the other jeans in the closet. But, the real test would be on the bike. On more than one occasion, I needed to ride downtown and up to Hollywood before work. I gave the jeans a try on one of these trips. I found the results a little hard to believe. These jeans are perfect for riding. They bend and stretch perfectly, and don’t inhibit the ride in any way. I couldn’t be more pleased, and I hope to be able to try some of Swrve’s other clothing in the near future.
I had the chance to check out the relatively new Look Mum No Hands! while in London. It is a cafe with really good coffee and snacks, as well as a bicycle workshop. They sell basic commuter supplies, cool magazines and books, and a little bit of clothing. The workshop tries to do same day repairs on all sorts of cycles. While I was there, they were doing a complete rebuild on a road bike, stripping it down to the bare frame. On sunny days, they move the work stands outside to take advantage of the sun. The atmosphere was very comfortable and inviting, and the shop had a healthy mix of cyclists and non cyclists. On leaving, I couldn’t help and marvel at the throngs of cyclists riding by on Old Street. London has a very healthy cycling population, and apparently it also has the shops to support it.
Today I was fortunate enough to be able to check out Tokyo Fixed. In a lot of ways, this is “the” shop to see, if you are a track bike aficionado. I was not let down by the shop at all. Plenty of used track frames mixed in with the new. One cycle I liked very much was a Tokyo Fixed single speed city bike with fenders. A beautifully made frame, and very tastefully built up. The shop also has a very good selection of cycling publications. Rouleur, Boneshaker, and Champfest, to name a few, were lining the shelves. This is a very nice shop that deserves a visit when in London.
Cervo Rosso sent me their casual woolie to review several weeks back. Before speaking about the woolie, let me begin by apologizing for having been the silent blogger as of late. Work has taken my time recently, and then the Tour of California rolled in, which really took all my attention. Now I’m in London, but if the iPad serves as a respectable replacement for my dead MacBook, I’ll start posting once again.
Now, back to the woolie. I had the chance to wear this on a ride to Santa Monica from Hollywood on a fairly chilly LA day. The woolie performed perfectly. It kept me warm, stretched in the right places, and didn’t have any foul odor after a fairly strenuous ride. It also looked good, as I was told by the folks at Helen’s, who asked where they could get one. Well, that’s the easy part. All of their clothing can be purchased online at CervoRosso. Cervo Rosso appear to be off to a good start.
I received issues 1 and 2 of 9W over the weekend. I cracked open issue 1 and could not stop until all the way through. Really beautiful magazine with great photography and interesting reads. I’m partial to articles of riding in Switzerland, so issue 1 really had my undivided attention. This magazine is still not available locally, but it can be had via their website. Following is some text from 9W.
9W is a journal of cycling photography and stories named for route 9W, the well-known cyclist’s escape route from New York City; loved, hated, endured. Training ground, test piece, springboard. Accordingly, we publish local stories, and stories from around the world.
I really want a cyclocross bike. Redlines have always been appealing. In fact, I just got a Redline Conquest 24 for my son. Now I’d like to get one for me. This new Conquest Team frame is made of carbon fiber versus the previous aluminum model, and even has rear disc brake mounts. The disc brake mount fork is still in the works, but hopefully by years end we’ll have a disc brake version of the bike. One day, one day!
Is this really necessary? It is pretty. Available for purchase here.
Kickstarter, an interesting website for budding entrepreneurs, has this interesting project up. It’s a new take on the bicycle lock, called the TiGr. As of now, they have $32,078 pledged, of the $37,500 goal. Might be worth getting involved with.
